Where is she?” the woman in black demanded from the doorway of the tiny cottage. Her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed tightly together. Her face reddened as she waited for Dorothea to answer. “I know she’s been here. You cannot hide my daughter from me, you fool!”
“I have seen no one, Your Majesty. We are but poor farmers. Only my husband and I live here. There are no children here. We don’t even have any of our own. Please. We have done nothing wrong.” She pleaded with the evil queen, who pushed her way into the house, knocking items to the ground as she passed them.
“Liar! Guards! Search her house, then burn it down! I will not be made a fool of, now or ever!”
“No!” Dorothea cried. “Please!”
One guard used more force than was necessary to pull her outside. She feared for the baby and didn’t put up too much of a fight. When he let her go, she slumped to the ground in tears, arms protectively wrapped around her belly. Two other guards searched the cottage, overturning tables and the bed in their haste. They broke everything in their path before they went outside and touched the flames of their torches to the thatched roof.
Dorothea didn’t know where the girls could have gotten to, but she was glad they were away from there and hopefully safe. She felt helpless, not being able to do anything as the flames flowed over the walls of her house, turning her happy home to ash.
The queen was well out of sight when Wilhelm returned home. At the sight of the smoke, he ran his horse as fast as she could go. He didn’t even let her come to a complete stop before he jumped off and ran over to Dorothea. His first concern was not for the house, but for his wife. He held her close and wiped away her tears.
“I’m sorry, Wilhelm,” she cried. “I couldn’t stop her.”
“Stop who? Who did this?”
“The evil Queen White. She was looking for Snow.”
“Did she get her and the other girls?” he asked in a panic.
“They weren’t here, thank goodness. I don’t know when they disappeared. I was busy cleaning up. I didn’t even notice they had gone.” Her crying got louder. “I’m going to be a lousy mother!”
Wilhelm tried to comfort her. “Shhhh.” He put his hand to her belly in an attempt to comfort the baby, as well. He had only known he was a father for a couple of hours, but already he was as protective as any father could be. “You’ll be a wonderful mother. The girls seem to operate on their own schedule. I’m sure they wandered off again. This time, it was a good thing they did.”
Together, they walked to the creek, but could find no sign of Sam, Val, or Snow.
“I know enough about them to be certain they can take care of themselves. I don’t think they were here when the queen showed up, or they would have tried to help you. They would have been captured in the process, for sure. It is best that they are long gone from here.”
“But will they be all right? Are you sure, Wilhelm?”
“That much I know for sure, my love.” He tried to put her mind at ease and gave her forehead a gentle kiss. “Now, we must get going.”
“Oh, our home. Our lovely home.”
“We’ll be okay. The house is not important to me. It is only you, the baby, and the girls that I am concerned about. We must go see the prince. Surely he can help us. We'll ask him to get a search party together to look for them.”
“I would feel better if I truly knew they were safe.”
“I’m certain they will be fine. Let’s be on our way. We’ll be traveling in the dark. That’s not ideal for the road to Sequoia Kingdom. Are you sure you and the baby are all right? I should not have left you alone.”
“We are both fine, really.”
“Okay then,” he said with another kiss, his hand once again on her belly. He could see his cart in flames by the house. “This old mare should only carry one of us. I insist that you ride. No arguments.”
She nodded. “I won’t argue with you, dear.” He helped her onto his horse and began the long journey on foot, leading them toward help.
The sun was sinking low in the sky. It was going to get dark faster than the girls anticipated.
Samantha stopped walking. “Valerie. We have to stop. This is getting stupid. It’s getting dark, I’m tired, and we didn’t even tell Dorothea we were leaving. I’m sure she’s getting worried about us.”
Snow agreed. “Sam is right.”
“I know. I was thinking the same thing. That stupid possum keeps getting us into more trouble. The moon will help, but I think it’ll be too dark to even try to follow it soon. We should go back. This was a dumb idea. Sorry. I was thinking maybe it was leading us somewhere for a reason. You know, like bringing us here to Snow.”
The girls got themselves turned around and began to head back. At least, they thought they were heading back the right way. After a short while, they came to a creek.
“Sam? You don’t think we’re back already, do you?” asked Val.
“We can’t be. That was too quick. Are we lost now?”
“Maybe it’s the same creek,” Snow said, hopefully. “We should follow it. I bet it’ll take us back to the cottage.”
“Maybe,” answered Valerie. “One of our rivers back home, the Mississippi, winds all over the place. We cross it a dozen times on the way to my grandma’s house. It’s worth a shot to try to follow this one.”
“I hope so,” Snow said. “I don’t want to be lost. The last thing I want to do is worry Wilhelm and Dorothea needlessly.”
Suddenly Samantha let out a cry of delight. “Look in the water. It’s so sparkly! It looks like diamonds.”
“Wow, does it ever! The sand looks like what was on Cinder…I mean Danielle’s shoes.” Valerie beamed with excitement. She loved collecting odd rocks around their farm. These were simply stunning.
The girls wandered through the creek, marveling at the sand and small stones, totally distracted from their journey back to the cottage. They were so intent on their search, they didn’t even notice an old haggard woman standing by the creek until they were right upon her.
“You girls shouldn’t be out here alone.”
She had caught them off guard, and they jumped at the sound of her raspy voice. The sight of her was equally unappealing. Her wrinkles were far worse than merely that of an old woman. Her face had the appearance of a scary Halloween mask made of rubber, rather than skin. All that was missing was a large wart on her much too pointy nose. She stood hunched over and used a walking stick for support. The fingers that clutched it were far too thin. They were like the hands of a skeleton instead of those of a person. Her eyes were an unnatural dark shade, almost completely black. Her gaze sent a chill down Valerie’s spine. Otter started to growl.
“Stop that, Otter!” Valerie scolded. “Bad dog!”
“Don’t be afraid, dearies. I am merely a harmless, old peddler woman. I have wandered off the road for a bit of rest. I didn’t expect to find anyone else out here. You girls shouldn’t be out here alone. There could be dangerous people in the forest.”
“Is the road far away?” Samantha asked. “I guess we are kinda lost.”
“Oh, no. It’s not far at all, my dear. It’s off that way just a bit,” she said as she pointed behind her. “I do, however, have something for one of you before you go.”
Puzzled by the statement, their faces twisted with odd expressions.
“What do you mean have something for one of us?” asked Samantha. “You couldn’t have known we’d be here.”
“You are correct there. It’s just that I have but one item left to sell, and I would rather not take it home. I’d like to give it to one of you. It’s a shame to have to pick one from three such pretty girls. I do wish I had more of my beautiful hair combs.”
“Hair combs?” asked Valerie.
“Yes.” The woman walked over to Snow. “I do believe this silver would look best in your dark black hair.”
As she reached up and put it in Snow’s hair, memories of the story came rushing to Valerie. She let out a l
oud scream, but it was too late.
Chapter 16