4 little words

~ Purpleanais

arwen__s_tears_by_akalilith

Mary is 16, in the bloom of youth – very pretty, with long luscious chestnut hair, a clear smooth complexion and deep blue eyes.

She is a maid at the castle, like her mother before her.

One night, there is a grand feast at the castle – it is a sumptuous occasion with many lords and ladies in attendance.

Mary is walking around with a tray full of drinks, she takes in the ladies’ beautiful dresses, their perfectly coiffed hair – she is particularly fascinated by their pale unblemished hands. Those hands have never known a day’s work in their lives, some are adorned with rings of precious metals and stones Mary doesn’t know the name of.

As she approaches someone beckoning to her, a handsome man stops Mary in her tracks. He leans over, picks up one of the goblets while his eyes linger on her face, and says in a low voice: “you are very pretty”.

The room seems to spin, the colours are fading in and out. By the time Mary recovers, the man is gone. The rest of the evening passes off in a haze. Who was the man? Mary did not know: a lord, a guest at the castle that she never saw again – his name was a mystery but his face was imprinted in her mind. His face……and those 4 words she replayed constantly in her head.

Years passed, hard years of labour, of incessant toiling. Mary’s beauty faded a little more each day. She got many propositions of marriage but refused them all. How could she marry those kind but coarse men……after him? His handsome face had receded a little from her memory but she clung to it stubbornly, bringing it up in her rare moments of leisure and while she was working. He was a presence that never left her: in the scullery, while polishing the silver, the last thing she saw at night – he was always there.

Mary lived and wilted without knowing love – only infatuation born from that fleeting moment when he had bent towards her and murmured those 4 words.

4 little words threw her whole entire life into turmoil.

4 little words he forgot as soon as they left his graceful lips.

Repost from a few months ago because I have had no time to write at all… and I remember thinking when I wrote it that it was such a tragic story. It still is. I could never find an image that illustrated the story to my satisfaction, hence the choice of Arwen from Lord of The Rings because…I love her and I’m kind of obsessed with her 🙂

Image credit:esteljf.deviantart.com

23 thoughts on “4 little words”

    1. I agree, she’s very beautiful and not in an obvious or superficial way. I remember reading Peter Jackson saying that he chose Liv Tyler because he wanted the elves to have a type of unworldly beauty and that Liv was a perfect example of it…I couldn’t have put it better myself.

      Liked by 2 people

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  9. Well Nathalie… You have managed to totally confuse all of our emotions with one short story. Beautifully intriguing… Except… I’d like to read the next few pages as well…
    You certainly have a way of making us want to turn the next page…
    Loved it… Thank you…
    Michael

    Liked by 1 person

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