4:9
Hurrying to catch up with Dan the group ran out through the french-doors that opened onto a wide cobblestone porch. There, silhouetted against the high stone rail stood a woman with her foot perched about to flee down the stairs beyond. She was beautiful the way an orchid was, delicate and easily bruised. The expression she turned to them was serene and if you weren’t looking at her eyes you might be fooled into thinking she was happy. But, those eyes. In their depths screamed a hundred races across a cobblestone porch, a hundred stumbles down a broad set of stairs, uneven gait dictated by a lack of one shoe.
“Diana!” Jake came running past the group, grasping the woman’s upper arms.
The woman smiled and raised her hand to his cheek. “My prince. I have found you.”
The hands Jake grasped her with shook. “Diana!”
The hand stilled and the woman blinked. In a soft, hesitant voice she whispered, “Jake? Jake… what?” She pressed a hand to her forehead, swaying as Jake wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into the cradle of his arms.
“Diana.” His voice shook as he pressed his lips to her forehead.
“Sir.” She stiffened in his arms and tried to escape him. “I know you not!”
“Diana?” Gwen looked away, her gaze meeting Kim’s averted one, as Jake’s voice broke.
“My name, Sir, is Cinderella.”
“Your name is Diana.” Jake gave her a shake.
Dan stepped to Jake’s side and in a low voice said, “You need to let her go, Jake.”
“No!”
“Here,” Ivan and Ben ran over to where several wrought-iron chairs were set around a small round table. They grabbed the chairs and placed them on… the carpet of wild growing herbs. Ben’s eyes searched the ground, looking for the cobblestones that had been there a moment before. He jerked his eyes back towards the building, expecting to see a large structure and the decorative french-doors they’d exited through. Instead he saw the facade of the Mystery House.
Motherfucker.
He completed his intended move, placing the chair close to the one Ivan set down, then stepped back so Ivan could direct Jake and Diana to sit. Dan dropped to one knee next to Diana’s chair, looked to Jake for permission, then took her hand between both of his.
“Diana?”
“Cinderella.”
“Okay, Cinderella. What happened here?”
“I went to a ball and met a wonderful prince.” Her gaze shifted to Jake. “I plan to marry him.”
Jake swallowed hard but maintained her gaze. It was clear by the slight whiteness around his pupil that he was panicked, but he breathed slowly and deeply and retained the control that had probably been programmed into him since childhood.
“Jake, don’t look sad.” Diana said with a soft smile and placed her free hand on his thigh, only to stop and start breathing heavily.
“Cinderella?” Dan drew her attention.
“Diana.” She gave him a look that suggested she was questioning Dan’s sense.
“Diana. Okay. Can you tell me what happened?”
“I was waiting for Jake to go to a fundraiser and there was a knock on the door. George was in the kitchen and I didn’t want to bother him. It’s easy enough for me to open a door. And then…”
Confusion clouded her eyes. She darted a glance at Jake and her hand tightened on his thigh. “Somebody kidnapped me.”
“Yes.” Jake nodded and covered her hand with his. “But you’re back now and I’m not letting you out of my sight again.”
“I might need a little me time.”
A laugh burst out of Jake. “Then you’ll have it. But I’m putting in a full security system in the house.”
“Okay.” Diana turned back to Dan who remained kneeling. “Are you an investigator?”
“I am.”
“Will my answers assist with finding who did this?”
“I sure hope so.”
“Okay. What do you need to know? My mind is confused. It keeps telling me I’m Cinderella. Was I drugged? Did I suffer a psychotic break from the drugs?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. We,” he swept his hand back at the group that stood in a loose circle around them, “Think that Magick was involved.”
“I don’t have any Magick. Or… do I?” She blinked rapidly, clouds of confusion chasing across the blue of her eyes. “I did. Or I do. Or… There was something in here.” She pressed her hand to her abdomen. “But they took it.”
Panic rose her voice an octave. She turned to her husband. “Jake, they took something from me. Something like… Did they take my baby?”
“No.” Jake swallowed hard again. “You weren’t pregnant. Remember, we’ve tried.”
“There was something, growing in me. They made me be Cinderella, they made me think I was Cinderella until I didn’t remember me. I didn’t remember Diana. And something grew inside of me with every time I told my story. Until finally they came and they had the slipper and they held it here.” Another press to her abdomen, over where her womb lay. “And I was empty. I was,” harsh, sharp breath, then another, “I was empty!”
“No!” Gwen broke the formation of the group, diving in to kneel in front of Diana and place her hands on the woman’s knees, a midwife’s position. Diana stiffened and Gwen broke her promise to herself to never override someone else’s emotions. She could not take the push of Diana’s pain and terror and the emptiness she felt in a place that had been scraped hollow. So, she overrode her ethics and she leached away the worst of Diana’s emotions. She left some but she added love, pulling softly from Jake through the air and weaving his adoration of his wife into a blanket that would dull her senses for long enough for her to recover from the loss she was feeling. Eventually Diana would process. She would move on. To ensure this Gwen poured hope into her. She couldn’t make her promises in words but she could leave her with the hope of a future where her husband and she would create a living example of their love for each other.
Dan rose to his feet and stepped back, leaving Gwen to her task. Eventually when she felt almost as hollow as the space she sensed in Diana, Gwen fell back to her heels and closed her eyes. That had to be enough. She didn’t have any more to give.
A hand closed on her shoulder. She looked up into Kim’s concerned look and laid her hand over her friend’s. Kim held out her free hand, pulling Gwen up to her feet before she lost the circulation to them.
“Let’s get out of here.”
Jake looked up from where he was holding his wife’s hand and looking in her eyes. “I arranged for several carriages to return you home. Talk to Frank when you get back to the manse.”
Dan had more questions for Diana but now was not the time to ask them. He secured permission to write Jake and Diana at a later date, suggesting perhaps they could meet in Ourton in a few days or a week. Whenever Diana was ready.
Finally he asked Jake. “Do you want us to wait to escort you back?”
“We’ll be fine. This is our hunting lodge. No one will disturb us here and I have guards throughout the woods.”
Dan slanted a glance back at the face of the Mystery House and frowned at this evidence that what he and his friends saw and what the null did were not the same thing. Trickery was afoot here. He narrowed his eyes, even more committed to figuring this out. No woman should suffer what Diana had. Or what she thought she had. What was real and what was not, the details jumbled in his mind. He’d need time to process them, to work his mind around what he’d found in the house, how he’d manipulated the strands of Story into a tapestry. The long ride home by carriage might not be enough time. But at least he’d have good company to test his ideas upon, once he had some to test.
Enter The Woods 