The Bet

The old woman continued to incant something, all the while swinging the bag, her gaze locked hypnotically on Eva.

Estelle clung to Myles, unsure what was going on but too scared to interrupt.

“He needs your soul as payment. The Divine Master decrees it so. A soul for a soul. A life for a life. That is the way of the afterlife. Eternal ever after is for the righteous only. All murderers will be cast into Hell forever after.” The woman’s chant became louder and louder and swirled around them as it was captured by the winds.

Estelle stared in horror. The sound of the raging waters seemed to increase in volume, and grew steadily louder until they drowned out the old woman’s voice. The old woman stepped forward once more, her bag swinging wildly now. Eva, her eyes locked on that swinging pouch, instinctively stepped backward, away from it – and stepped far too close to the water’s edge. She looked down when the ground beneath her feet began to shake and crumble.

“Wait!” Myles cried. He stepped forward to try to grab a hold of her but was too far away to do anything before the ground fell away from beneath her, and dropped Eva into the raging waters of the river.

“Leave her,” the old woman ordered when Myles rushed to the water’s edge. She nodded once at them as if satisfied that the job had been completed to her satisfaction. She then looked down at the pouch in her hand. She spoke without looking at them again. “She has gone now. It is too late to save her.” With that she lifted her arm up and threw the pouch into the raging water. “May God have mercy on her soul.”

Estelle clung to Myles, and slid both arms around his waist tightly as she watched the old woman turn around and walk toward the trees.

“Who is she?” Myles demanded harshly.

Estelle shrugged. She had no idea. After what she had witnessed she couldn’t be sure of the woman was good or evil herself. Stunned, all she could do was stare after her and hope she never saw her again.

Myles looked down the river but could see no sign of Eva. The waters had long since sucked her under. He suspected that at some point, once waters had receded, her body would be found. If not, then she would truly have been taken never to be return as the woman had prophesised. Until then, as far as he was concerned, her life was over anyway because life behind bars was not truly a life at all. That was the only life Eva faced after the events of the last few days.

“Are you alright?” he murmured, looking down into the eyes of the woman who matter more to him than anything.

Estelle reached up and touched several small cuts on Myles’ face with tentative fingers. She looked deeply into his eyes but was too overcome with emotion to say anything.

Myles looked up into the storm clouds over their heads, and the blue patches of promise already starting to make an appearance. He knew it was a harbinger of good times yet to come, in more ways than one, and sighed with relief that they might, at last, be able to put the troubled times behind them.

“It looks as though this storm is clearing,” he murmured, his voice betraying every ounce of the delight he felt.

“Now that we have a way in and out of the house, I need to go and see my grandma. She will undoubtedly be frantic by now,” Estelle replied.

Myles frowned as he contemplated that. The urge to ask her to stay a while longer was so strong that he didn’t move to follow her when she started to walk back toward the house. When she was near the front door, he began to follow her. While he wanted Estelle to stay, he knew that there was a lot for all of them to come to terms with. Two deaths in as many days, the attempted murder of Isaac, and the duplicity of two people whom the family thought could be trusted, the figures in the woods who had yet to be rounded up and handed over to the magistrate.

Was it right to ask Estelle to stay in the middle of it?

He looked at her. She looked so incredibly beautiful with the wind tugging at her hair in such a way that it flowed out behind her like a silken veil of ribbons. He wanted to touch it but didn’t want to interrupt the display of gold, amber, and brown tresses that flew about in riotous abandon. The wind had already teased some colour back into the gentle curve of her cheeks, but could do little to help the darkened circles beneath her eyes; a testament to just how little peace she had found within the house he called home.

Was it right to ask her to endure more of it? He supposed it wasn’t. She had already been through. It wasn’t right to ask more of her. He suspected that even if he did ask, and she agreed, she wouldn’t settle properly anyway.

Oblivious to his thoughts, Estelle waited for him in the doorway.

“Who do you think she is?” Estelle asked. To her surprise there was no sign of the woman in the gardens. “Where has she gone?”

Myles looked in the direction he had last seen the woman and shook his head. “I don’t know who she is or where she has come from but Eva seemed to know her.”

Estelle shivered and looked at the river and then the spot where the old woman had vanished.

“Do you think-?”

“I don’t know,” Myles replied. It was clear that Estelle didn’t want to put her suspicions into words, and neither did he. “I think it might be best if we don’t know.”

She nodded and suspected he was right.

“Come on, let’s go back inside,” he suggested gently.

Together, they began to make their way into the house.

“So what happens now?” she asked, then winced when she realised he might perceive from her question that she had expectations.

Myles looked at her. Once again, the urge to ask her to stay with them was strong but common sense had to prevail.