Chapter 6

Laenas’s Cottage, Freymount, the Kingdom of Wuthia, 1125

Solomon Laenas

What have I done?

I ran as far as I could after my mother. But she was too fast, and I lost which direction she had taken. I screamed her name into the wind, hoping to get a response back. Yet, the only sound that I received was the sound of the wind rolling under the purple, hazy sky. Knowing I wouldn’t get anywhere with this, I slowly made my way back home, with the image of my mother in great despair before the house’s altar. She wouldn’t even look at me, only ran when she heard my voice.

Is she ashamed?

Ashamed for what has ... transpired between us?

I know I was.

How could I let my lust overtake me? I should’ve resisted my mother’s advances. How she acted towards me this morning was greatly out of her character. I knew I shouldn’t. But how can any man resist such beauty as my mother? The way the light always catches her smile, the way the winds compliment her lovely hair, how any dress she wore always brought awareness to her perfect figure, that lush figure ... those bountiful breasts...

NO.

I must put away such forbidden thoughts. It is how I have become entangled in such a forbidden act. An act that may have greatly led my mother to leave out shame and regrets. The sexual intercourse between family members is forbidden by the Twelve Holy Scriptures. The impure act could easily label me an outcast by all who know me, especially to my own family; if they should ever find out, I would ruin us all.

I can’t tell them.

I can’t tell anyone.

This must be a secret that I should take to the grave and pray to the gods that they have mercy on my pitiful soul.

When I returned to the cottage, I could see Mabel as she led Willow back into the barn. How should I tell my sister about our mother’s disappearance? My mind raced with my explanations as I grew closer to our farm. One of our chickens clucked as I passed their pen, many of the hens sitting in their nests, while the rooster proudly walked back and forth.

“There you are, Solomon,” Mabel said, coming out of the barn. She looked a little rough, almost as if she had endured some sort of challenge on this day as well. Probably not as bad as mine. “I came home, and no one was here. Where’s mother gone?”

I shook my head in shame. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean, ‘you don’t know’,” she said with a serious tone in her voice. “Where has our mother gone?”

“I don’t know,” I said with despair. “I came downstairs after taking a nap and found her in a state of sorrow and confusion. When I tried to talk to her to find out what was wrong, she yelled and ran off into the fields. I ran after her the best I could, but I lost her in the hay fields and didn’t know which way she went. She’s gone.”

I leaned up against the barn as I watched Mabel trying to take in the information I just gave her. A mixture of confusion and panic washed over her face as she began pacing back and forth and looking over the horizon. Hoping to find a glimmer of our mother.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” she said, “she was fine this morning. Did you say anything or did anything that -”

“I did no such thing!” I quickly said. I need to stay calm and in control. I can’t let her know the truth.

“Alright,” she said, backing off the interruption. “I’m just trying to find the logic in why a woman who is in a perfect state of mind and health to get up and run away, leaving everything behind.”

I nodded in agreement.

“We can create a search party,” she said, heading towards the house. I followed her behind in pace. “And see if anybody in the area saw her running and where she was running to.”

“Pray to the gods that someone saw anything,” I said. But deep down, I was praying the exact opposite. “Where’s father and Richard? Weren’t they with you at the market?”

“They were,” she started as she gathered a few torches from the chest near the hearth. “But Richard left me to tend the stall myself while he goes about doing whatever Richard does best, and father ... Father!”

I turned to see our father coming into the house. He looked confused and a bit puzzled about what was going on.

As he should be.

“What’s going on here?” he said. “And Mabel, why are you taking out the torches? And where is your mother?”

Mabel and I both looked at each other. Our eyes had a conversation between one another on who should start talking first. But Mabel’s eyes gave more of a hint for me to do the talking, being that I was the one who witnessed our mother’s leaving.

“That’s the thing, father,” I started. I kept my hands by my side as I felt my palms becoming sweaty. “We don’t know where she is?”