The Anchor of her Sorrow [historic reflection]

[Elizabeth]

(Spring of 1517: Wedding Day)

She hated all the fuss everyone was making over her and the fuss about the day. She knew nothing about the man outside of the fact that he had 'some' money, when they had no money. He was their Savior in a sense she supposed, but he was not her's. No Savior from what she remembered saved anyone by getting something in return, at least that is what Elizabeth remembered hearing from others when she passed them after they went to services held in the heart of the city. She would have loved to go to services, but people of her class weren't allowed to attend such things but it would have better than being stuck sewing garments for people she didn't know. It made her jealous that she would never be able to own some of the beautiful pieces she and her mother worked on for days and nights.

No, he would never be her Savior; in fact Elizabeth was certain that she was going to die and he was going to be the one to kill her. It was true she had never heard a bad word spoken about the man, but she had never heard anyone say anything wonderful about the man outside of 'some' of the money he seemed to have and the very small estate he owned. He would leave her like her father had left their mother and children and eventually he would be the death of her. Elizabeth was certain of it, so much that it worried the young girl as she played with the fabric of her dress and stared out the small window of her bedroom as she saw Geffrey approaching her family home. Elizabeth saw him even though he wasn't easily seen from inside the carriage; but she saw everything about him from the way his horses trampled over everything on her family's grounds to the way the carriage rolled with dire earnest for it's destination.

She had to get married to save them. Elizabeth had to save them and she would. It was expected of her to play the part in which she was given. She would marry and have children with Geffrey. She would be estranged from her family except on holidays and the occasional letter from her mother and she would do everything he wanted her to do because it was what was required to save them and required of women.

Elizabeth turned her back to the window as the carriage slowed in front of the home, refusing to look at the man she had never seen. She could go the rest of her life without seeing him and that would make her happy. But that wouldn't make them happy and she was expected to make them happy. Her mother returned to her room and set something on her head, all of which Elizabeth sighed and went to remove it, earning her fingers a quick slap and a stern set of words from her mother. Elizabeth looked at the woman sullenly and let her fingers slide from the thing upon her head to the dress she wore again.

Her mother spent months working on making her look how she wanted Elizabeth to look. It was important for the girl to look like she had some money and to look pure. Not that Elizabeth was not pure, but everything had to seem like everything it wasn't. Her mother went as far as to make her flesh comparable to snow by allowing her bathe today and had Elizabeth do nothing after her bath. Nothing, but stay in bed until right before the wedding for their Savior and wait for him to come collect her.

As the wedding approached the relationship with her mother grew distant and soon Elizabeth found herself secretly despising the woman. If the woman loved Elizabeth she would not make her do this. While Elizabeth hated mending dresses, she would mend thousands of dresses to marry who it was she wanted to when she wanted to. Elizabeth did not want to marry Geffrey and she was not ready to marry him.

Even though she despised the woman for the situation she placed Elizabeth within, she still loved her mother. So when all the fuss was done, Elizabeth fell to her mother's legs and clung on to them for dear life as tears fell over her bottom lids. All of which caused more fuss from her mother as she was messing up all her hard work by ruining her face. Still, Elizabeth clutched her mother's dress and looked up at her with with half lids opened as she spoke. "Please hold me again, one last time? I may never see you again." Elizabeth's mother took a step back from the girl, in which her fingers grazed the wood flooring of her bedroom in an attempt to keep from falling upon her dress. Elizabeth took a sharp breath in and looked at the aging woman before her, her voice a mere whisper as she spoke to her again. "Did you lie when you said you loved me mother?" Elizabeth's eyes dropped to the ground and at the woman's feet as she waited to hear her answer.

It made the dark haired girl flinch for a moment as the mother took another step away from her daughter. "It is because I love you that you have to do this. You are a wife today and soon to be a mother. One day you will understand when you are faced in front of your daughters. Don't keep your husband waiting any longer." With that her mother left the girl in her bedroom to greet her son in-law, her Savior.

Perhaps it was her very over active imagination that she had been chastised for, or it was the feeling that resided within the pit of her stomach, but Elizabeth understood what love meant now. It meant that it was okay for her mother to help their Savior kill Elizabeth for the greater good of everyone else. Past the point of no return, Elizabeth went down to meet them all, each one of them killing the girl in their own way for the chance to be saved.

[Elizabeth]

(Early Spring of 1519: The Cabbage Patch Blooms)

She supposed most women would have been thrilled to have been not only with child, but to know that their child was healthy and would be born healthy. Elizabeth rubbed at her swollen belly as she tried to look down at her feet from the prick of some plant that caught her attention. She knew better than to go in the garden barefoot, but she had seen the ripened tomatoes from the kitchen window as she started to prepare dinner for herself.

She was always by herself, which was part of the reason Elizabeth was not entirely happy even though she should be happy. Geffrey would leave her alone for weeks or months at a time, which in turn made Elizabeth unhappy and while she never admitted she loved the man or had any romantic notions towards him and he her if she thought about it, Elizabeth was very much alone. So he mended the problem (or so he thought) with giving her a garden since he remembered her family owning one and finally to keep her company he had given her her child. It would keep her company during the duration of his voyages and give him the son he needed.

Daughters could be lovely things Elizabeth supposed, but she had hoped that her child was a son. He could have the world at his tiny fingers unlike any daughter she would bring into the world. His name would be James because her father was named that and while she didn't remember him she knew he loved her before he left, but their son would never a Geffrey. No, there was no room for another Geffrey within her life and she wanted her son to love her. Geffrey's didn't seem to love anything outside of the 'some' money, voyages and keeping her home; repressed.

Elizabeth glared at her feet, or rather her belly as she poked it for being in the way of seeing what had cut into her foot. In return there was a movement within her stomach, which had the glare disappear into a wide smile. It already loved her, so much it tried to make her feel better. No, he was not a Geffrey. Elizabeth hunched over and grabbed a few tomatoes within a hand, her right arm covering her eyes as the sun's glare caught their attention.

It was as if the sun's heat was too much for the woman because suddenly Elizabeth felt nauseous, a little dizzy and then she went to the bathroom on herself right then and there. Only it wasn't like she was going to the bathroom because this was much more painful then going to the bathroom. With a yell out to the nursemaid, Elizabeth was helped back into the house, in their bed and hours later found a little girl; Margaret, within her arms.

She was supposed to be happy for her Margaret, but all she saw for the little girl in the first moment she was within Elizabeth's arms was her own life and the words she would have to tell her daughter on her wedding day.

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She was wearing black when Geffrey returned home from his voyages. It was how everything felt around Elizabeth as she descended the stairs of their home to greet him. There were no need for words, given that Elizabeth no longer had a swollen stomach and the choice of clothing she had been wearing for three days now said everything that could not be said by the woman. It was strange to admit that while she was sad, she was almost relieved that Margaret managed to escape her predestined fate unlike Elizabeth.

There was an eerie silence between the two of them upon his return, neither one moving from their spots; she at the bottom of the stairs and he at the front door. "She passed three nights ago in the night." Elizabeth finally spoke and moved from the steps and into the kitchen. "I'll make you something to eat." Elizabeth walked right past Geffrey and made her way to the kitchen without a word or movement from the man. Now she wished for him to be gone again because she was alone whether he was here or not.

[Elizabeth]

(Winter of 1521: The Prodigal Son)

Elizabeth looked around the darkened room, both hands on the belly that was heavier and bigger than the last time. Geffrey had refused to touch the woman after the loss of her Margaret for almost a year. She wasn't sure if he blamed her for the loss of Margaret, for she had done nothing wrong to the infant. As she laid within their bed under the strict orders of her husband, Elizabeth was certain that she had done nothing wrong to deserve his lack of attention, even if she didn't love the man. She barely knew him even though they had been married for almost four years now. Elizabeth just wanted to feel something from the man she was forced to marry a few years ago.

Her mind wandered about a great many of things since she was on this bed rest order. In the course of a year, Geffrey was home but a few months. He had touched her twice before she was with child again, which meant that he didn't crave or need anything from her when it came to physical contact and their relationship had long lacked any other connection between the two. Their second child was made yet again to keep her appeased with his absence from the home and her mind mocked her for it. There was nothing between them and as the days continued to further with his absence, Elizabeth found herself growing disgusted with herself and with him.

"I hope for a James this time." Elizabeth spoke to the over-sized belly as she rubbed at it. The glint of metal upon her left finger caught her eyes and after some time the ring finally pulled free from her finger, in which she placed it on top of her stomach to look at. It was a lie and she hated it, so much she didn't want to wear the thing. She vowed she would never wear it again that day and she never did because soon she was screaming out in pain and the ring had fallen off her belly and was lost forever. James knew the truth before he even saw it and so did Elizabeth now.

(1521-1526: Cabbage Patch Drought)

She watched him carefully as he played with the wooden toy, her eyes moving from her stitching to James every few seconds. He never knew that she watched him all the time, but Geffrey did whenever he was home. Which was more than he had ever been before because he had promised he would be to help raise the boy, but it still wasn't enough for her or James. James would spend hours in her lap as Elizabeth told him stories from when she was a young girl when Geffrey was not around, which in turn made her husband angry towards the boys unusual affection towards his mother. He found the boy dependent upon his mother and would never become the man he was meant to be. Geffrey scolded her many nights for being too motherly to the boy, in which she would reply that he was just a boy and not a man. Geffrey would then plant the idea within her mind that Elizabeth needed more children so she wouldn't keep the boy from manning up, in which they would try to conceive more children.

Weeks would pass and there would be no sign of her being with child again and when he returned to see she was not with child in which they would try for more. Elizabeth had had two children before and now it seemed as if she would not be able to have any more. She had managed to have two children, so it could not be her fault. No, everything was always his fault or his doing. Geffrey hadn't saved her from anything like her family had hoped; he had condemned her to a life of sorrow, a loveless marriage and a life with just one to ever love her.

And suspicions plagued her mind about his continuous absence from their family home, so much that it was hard for the woman to see anything but negative thoughts. Everything she thought about Geffrey was tainted with a cloud of darkness, the only light within her life was that of James being alive and with her when Geffrey wasn't. Elizabeth never had any tangible proof, but the proof was enough for anyone to know and see by the lack of size of her belly. No matter how many times they tried to conceive, they never did because of him. No one left home for months at a time and only touched their wife to keep her happy and with children when he was gone unless he enjoyed being gone.

The painful truth consumed her mind most of her days and nights; Elizabeth becoming reclusive to almost anyone who dared to visit the woman. All she had was James now and she had to protect that with every fiber of her being. If he left then there would be nothing left within her life but the darkness of the man who was thought to be their Savior but couldn't be further from that.

[Elizabeth]

(Autumn/Winter 1527: The Beacon of Light Fades)

There was an outbreak of disease within the village; the most susceptible were the elderly, infants and children. James was still very much a child and her only one at that. Geffrey had warned her years ago about leaving fires burning when James was a baby. Elizabeth was certain that if the boy was going to die, then he would die like his sister Margaret had, in the late evening from the cold.

Nothing had happened those few times prior to her numerous scoldings by Geffrey and so Elizabeth was certain that nothing would happen now. After checking the fire and James, Elizabeth slipped off to their bed for the evening. Geffrey was out on his voyages again, which was still disheartening to Elizabeth, but became easier every time, as he never had anything interesting to say or anything to say at all, outside of belittling her for her constant mothering of James.

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She was dreaming of Geffrey's death. While most wives would have been distraught at such a dream of their husbands, the dream left her surprisingly content and happy. She would wear black for a year as was custom, but then she would never have to wear or see black again within her life and that made the woman strangely happy. Elizabeth was so happy that everything felt suddenly warm without the man's presence within their lives anymore...

Until she started choking in the middle of her sleep. Gasping for air the woman wretched herself from the bed to see flames licking at the walls of Elizabeth's room. She moved to the doorway, only to find that she was blocked from James and most of the house. Elizabeth did everything she could to try and calm the fiery blaze within their home, but there was nothing that seemed to work. Oh, how she cried out his name to wake the child; cried for his attention in hopes of seeing his little feet making their way outside of the home!

Elizabeth stayed within the home until they came and pulled her out, but how she wanted to die with him! She would rather die then be without the one good thing in her life; the one beacon of light that came from something so dark. They didn't understand her-they couldn't possibly understand her dark desire because they didn't have just one good thing within their life like her.

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The fire had consumed everything in the house that evening and even some of the village. The light was gone even though it was the early hours of the morning; James had not managed to escape from the darkness within the home. The darkness within her life had seeped its way onto his and now there was nothing to help her see anything past the darkness that their Savior brought her into.

Had she caused the darkness to spill into his life by hating it so much and ignoring it? Or was the darkness always going to consume the light within her life that kept her going every day? Wasn't that what darkness did? It destroyed light, covered everything within its path and blocked people from seeing anything good. There was nothing good anymore for Elizabeth and soon all the negative she had seen, thought and felt was the only thing she saw anymore.

She hated them both; he for not being here and she for smothering the light source so much that she had extinguished it. She hated him more because he had helped her smother the light too and he had killed her like she knew he was going to. They had all killed her the night she married Geffrey and they killed her again last night when they helped her kill James.

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He had returned almost a week later to find her being taken care of by one of their neighbors. Elizabeth hadn't moved out of the bed they gave the woman, outside of the occasional bite to eat when they bothered her to eat. Darkness ate at everything and within that week she had dropped weight, her eyes appeared dull and lifeless and anything the woman had held on to for the hopes of a brighter day without him had made her into a shell of a zombie because those hopes wouldn't come true. She would be alone in every way and forever because of them, the darkness and because of herself.

The following days she spent her time in the garden, trying to grow something that would last. Nothing grew in the garden given the time of the year and the ruined earth from the fiery flames, but Elizabeth had loss sense of time. Nothing, in her mind was growing for her because she had lost it all to the darkness, so soon all the weeks seemed the same.

Geffrey said they would try for more children, but there would never be another beacon of light for Elizabeth again. He had made sure of that and she didn't want another, nor did she want the darkness that grew around the man to touch her ever again. Still, he plainly spoke those words daily to her because the pain of the loss was more than he could ever feel. Elizabeth didn't just loose the one small shred of light within her life because of the fire, she had lost her entire path out of the darkness and from him due to the fire.

As the autumn leaves flew by and snow covered the ground, he tried to touch her again in hopes of helping her forget about James. Repulsed for the life she lost to him, for the lives James and Margaret lost, Elizabeth attacked the man in a fury of anger. Geffrey sent her back to her family home that evening, hoping that being with her mother and family would help her find her way past the loss of James and back to being his wife.

He was a ******** in her eyes and when she left she paused in front of him as he moved to kiss her cheek, Elizabeth spoke plainly of her detest for the man. She left their Savior, who was her personal tormentor and killer, returning to her mother's home with the promise of helping Elizabeth find the light again. But it was too late for the woman, there was no light to be found when her life had been shrouded within darkness for most of her existence.

[Elizabeth]

(Early Spring 1528: No more Masquerade)

She was in the wildflower patch within the garden of her mother's home on the abnormally sunny spring day. While the sun was out, nothing within the garden had started to bloom yet; Elizabeth couldn't get a damned thing to grow outside of weeds and wildflowers that grew rampant within. Elizabeth didn't have much to do with anything these days, outside of writing letters to Geffrey, which the woman would have preferred to not do. But she was expected to keep the letters circulating with the man when he wrote her and sometimes when he didn't write her, Elizabeth's mother would make the woman write him regardless.

Elizabeth heard the light sounds of footfalls approaching her as she sat with her arms around her legs, her right cheek pressed to her knees and her eyes fixated on the Daisies that grew sporadically within the garden around her. Her shadow covered the whiteness of the petals that Elizabeth's dark pupils stared at, choosing to ignore her mother's presence. She knew why she was bothering her-it was the only time the older woman bothered her. Elizabeth held out her right hand for the woman and smashed the letter in her hands as it was placed within her palms. Elizabeth had no intention of reading the letter and she never would have read any of them if it were not for her mother or someone else within her family. The shadow remained as seconds passed and soon Elizabeth sighed, pulled her long red hair from around her face and opened the parchment to read it.

"Geffrey hopes that I am doing well and is planning on visiting in a fortnight." Elizabeth reported the contents of the letter to her mother before she shoved it back in the woman's bony fingers and returned her attention to the flowers that had caught her interest beforehand.

"You'll write him back, thanking him for his concern and the items he sent with this letter." Her mother was a foolish woman, or perhaps she too had become lost within the darkness and unable to see that presents did not mean someone loved you; at least not with Geffrey. "And we will not be writing about your dislike of your husband or his blame of the children's deaths." Her mother grabbed at her arm and pulled Elizabeth off the garden grounds. "If you keep talking like that, he'll have you sent away." Elizabeth narrowed her eyes at the aging women in front of her as she pulled her towards the house. "He could do that you know."

"I dear say that I think he prefers my state of mind this way." Elizabeth muttered as she allowed herself to be dragged within the home and placed at the writing desk near the front door. "I'm here with you and he is where he wants to be without me. Whoring around the township's roads. I dear say this was always meant to happen." Elizabeth watched her mother pull out the writing instrument and her own parchment and slapped them down in front of the woman.

"He's a good man and husband Elizabeth. Enough with these blasphemous lies, you sound like a madwoman. Which you will not sound like when he comes to visit, as it is he rarely visits anymore due to your lunatic outbursts." Her mother inhaled loudly, shook her head and walked away from the woman. Elizabeth stared at the writing instruments in front of her for a few minutes and then started to write, playing with the thoughts that ran within her mind and the words to use.

Geffrey-

You must be well enough to write, how fortunate we both are. Mother is thrilled that you will be here in a fortnight as are my brothers I am certain. It is unfortunate you will not have this letter before you arrive.
If you need to be on one of your voyages again, then please go and worry not about me. I know how important those trips are to you. I remember the duration of your prolonged absence from our family home and how much it hurt me to have you gone.

Mother says you sent some presents, none of which I have seen yet. I remember when you used to bring back presents from your extended stays and how they made me feel. I certainly hope you remember as well as I do.

Elizabeth

Her mother would read it of course, Elizabeth knew she would and as she folded the letter in trifolds, her mother snatched it from the desk. Geffrey would understand the meaning behind the letter more than her mother and with a gentle stroke to her long brown hair, her mother let Elizabeth know that she approved of the letters contents. Elizabeth knew how to play the game and be who her mother wanted her to be. She had been what the woman wanted her to be for so many years and so the contents would seem that of a woman who was fond of the things she used to know. Elizabeth was not fond of any of the things she used to know and she would prefer to never know any of those things again; she would prefer to never know Geffrey again.

With a curt nod of her head to her mother, Elizabeth escaped from the inside of the home and found her way back to the garden. She passed through another section that she hadn't earlier in the day and bent down when she saw a tiny bud that had missed her eyes before. A smile spread across her lips, the first one that she could remember having in a long time. Her fingers touched the top of the bud and then scooped it up without breaking the bud off the stem's greenery.

"You're so beautiful and strong." Elizabeth whispered to herself as she tilted her head in different angles to see the beauty that was within the garden. With a delicate touch, she placed it back upon the garden floor where she found it and wrapped her arms around her tiny frame again, staring at it.

It was within the garden that day that Elizabeth saw something truly beautiful other than what was growing inside of it. It was the first thing that had managed to persevere and grow through all the darkness that surrounded her life. If it had managed to escape the darkness and find the light for it to survive, then perhaps she too could. Elizabeth would no longer allow the darkness to consume any part of her life. They would see the truth, she would make them.

[Elizabeth]

(Autumn/Winter 1528: Only From Darkness Is The Light The Brightest)

Geffrey didn’t like the truth Elizabeth had shown him months ago when he had visited her family. He hadn’t returned to her family home and wrote her twice before nothing more was heard from the man. He stopped writing her mother as well and it was thought that perhaps the man had died because of this. Being that Elizabeth had no sons that were alive either, none of his property or possessions would be shared with the woman or her family and would be given to his brother instead. There was no way of knowing if Geffrey had died unless they received word of it from his brother. It made the woman secretly cackle in delight knowing that their Savior hadn’t saved any of them like they had hoped. She marveled in their misfortunes which affected her as well, but she’d rather have nothing than live something that wasn’t the truth. Elizabeth knew better though, she knew darkness never truly died. It just loomed around, snaking its way into your life when it had the chance and saw a crack of opportunity. Geffrey was very much alive and she was as certain about that as she was as certain the sun would rise again tomorrow.

The garden that Elizabeth spent the daytime hours within grew wild with Daisies now, the bud of the flower that she had seen months ago now yellow with white petals. It wasn’t the only one, more had grown over the course of the months next to it, so much that very few vegetables grew within the garden itself. Her mother had tried to destroy the flowers a few months back, which enraged Elizabeth to the point that she had lunged herself at the woman, her brothers being the only way of stopping Elizabeth from killing the old hag. She wanted to destroy the light that tried to help Elizabeth find her way from the darkness and therefore she was a wicked woman. That was the second time her mother spoke of having her sent away; committed to a place of constant darkness. Any place was better than being sent there; for no one came back from that darkness no matter how much light surrounded a person.

So Elizabeth behaved as best as she could for as long as she could, which had them thinking she was well enough to be a wife again and soon. Elizabeth was beyond mortified at the suggestion of her eldest brother when the thought slipped off the tongue of their mother. She was a woman just shy of her twenty-fifth birthday, still 'fairly attractive regardless of her weight loss' and still thought to be able to have children. But she couldn’t behave any longer and she wasn’t going to be a tool of their selfish wants and desires, so she sliced her brother's arm wide open in an attempt to stab the man in the heart. The next morning someone had come to take her away, but the family didn’t have the funds to keep her institutionalized for any long length of time, so Elizabeth remained at home. Rumors circulated around the village of her attack upon her brother, the reasons behind the attack and earned the title of being a lunatic. No one would offer anything for the woman to be their wife within the city and Elizabeth cackled in sheer delight that she had won the life she wanted for herself. Or so she had thought.

A few more months had passed with no words of marriage spoken around the woman again until it was Christmas Eve. She had been betrothed to a man almost double her age in a village that was further away from her family then when she was with Geffrey. Visions of her future that were unprofound and dark swirled within her mind, pushing Elizabeth to the point of no return. Amber eyes narrowed at her brother as she saw her life being a repeat of that with the one spent as the wife of Geffrey. Tears of panic clouded her vision, but she didn’t need to see physically to know what Elizabeth had to do. She had to kill them or leave and never return to attain the life she wanted and not what they wanted her to have. With an outburst about how she wasn’t going to marry some man who was on his death bed and a push to the Christmas tree, Elizabeth escaped into her room as she devised which of the two plans would better suit her purposes. Elizabeth would not die for them, even though she would love to extinguish the darkness that had plagued her life for over a quarter of a century. Everyone in the village would know that she had killed them and she in return would be killed herself for such a heinous crime. She had to leave and never return.

Elizabeth waited until the cover of darkness and the still of the household before she made her escape. The woman had virtually nothing on her outside of the garment she wore, a few coins and biscuits she had made earlier in the evening. It was peculiar that she chose the veil of night to make her escape to most perhaps, but it made perfect sense to her. She was doing something wrong, something dark and therefore the veil of night would protect her with its inky sky. Elizabeth was not going to stop until she made her way to a bigger city and she knew which one she was going to. She had only ventured there once when she was first married to Geffrey and for some reason she had the strong desire to return to it. There was no sense of the desire being a sense of longing for Geffrey, for he had been long dead in Elizabeth’s mind for months if not years now. Instead, Elizabeth had the feeling within the pit of her stomach that if she made it to the city then everything would be fine. Elizabeth would find what it was she had lost many years ago and what it was she direly wanted for herself.

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She had only been in Paris a few days before she saw the placement within the large window pane. A seamstress was needed, which was just what Elizabeth was good at and was the only thing she knew how to do. She had spent the last of her coins on renting a room within the bustling city and soon they would come asking for more from the woman. So when she saw the employment sign, Elizabeth decided that even though she despised the life she had known for so long, she had to do what she had to until she found her predestined path in life; which would be soon. She was certain of it because she could feel a change within the air.

Elizabeth had been working for almost a month when she was ready to close up shop for the evening. Many of days she spent hours into the night perfecting the skill she hadn't done in some time and this night was like many of the others before, with the exception of a peculiar man just an inch taller than she made his way in within the business. He walked with an excited mannerism as his eyes searched the entire length of the inside of the building and the way in which he was dressed was peculiar within itself. He wore a blue flat hat that matched all of his clothing, which let Elizabeth know that the man had some money.

Elizabeth's first inkling was that something was wrong with the entirety of the situation as her job only catered to those of her status; the lower class. The higher stationed people had their own personal menders and when she told him she was closing up shop he insisted that he would only need a few minutes of her time and he would pay her double for the time she used that evening. He had to get his hat mended because he had some where important to be; someone to meet he told her.

Double the coins would pay for almost a months worth of rooming and so a blue hat was placed within her hands and soon she was stitching away for him. As she repaired the stitching to his flat hat, Elizabeth noticed other mannerisms about the man that were hard to miss. He was cautious from the way he looked out the large panes of glass every few seconds, watched her carefully as she worked and paced the length of the room far faster than what was normal.

Once she offered him his hat back, he examined it carefully with his blue gloved hand, nodded his head in an approving manner and gave her more than doubled the amount promised to her. When she offered him some of the coins back, he simply stated that he was paying for services rendered and for services he'd need later from her. With a bow of his head, he bid her a good evening and promised that they would meet up again soon as he still needed her services.

Weeks went by and Elizabeth had forgotten about the strange man with the eccentric personality as she closed up shop yet again late one evening. The room she had rented was across the way and down a few buildings and as she made her way there with hurried steps Elizabeth saw a man with a flat blue cap disappear within an alley. With a wrinkle of her nose, she realized why a man with any money was within the slums of the city and was content with disregarding the man or the evening and any other for that matter. "Putes." The word slipped through her lips as the dark haired woman continued to her set location.

As she made her way past the alley, Elizabeth was tugged within it by the material of her dress, which had a scream emitting from her lips. Elizabeth was certain that her family had found her and this scared her to the point that nothing else mattered except escaping from her brothers. She would not go back with them; she would kill them or herself to to be free of them. Elizabeth kicked and continued to scream in her French tongue until her attacker no longer was upon her. Moments later darkness encompassed her vision as her body felt weighted and not even the bright orb within the sky above her head could be seen by her eyes.

Death was a strange sensation for the woman, it was the first time she felt truly at rest and comfortable. Now she would be no tool for any man to use how they wanted to and while she would have loved to have killed one of them with her, death freed her from the life she hated.