Historical Setting 561 C.E.
Ezra’s story continues. “I had no idea where to search for Enola. I called her in the dark and of course there was no answer. I asked Colleta to call too so that she would know she was welcome to come back inside and she could stay with us. Colleta called into the darkness with her own forced words of acceptance. And of course we heard no answer. Colleta told me to search the cold and damp places that I knew of because trolls and ogres live under bridges and in caves and holes.
“I reminded her Enola is not actually a troll or an ogre. It were only rumor that made her seem so. But when I searched behind our old cottage lot where we had dug a cave for roots — where Eve and I had played as children — I found her. She had been the whole night sobbing alone in that earthen hole. She was curled in a ball with tears and vomit through her hair. I helped her wash her long hair in the cold well water before I took her on to my cottage.
“Colleta had made her a bed by the fire…”
“A kindness.”
“And she had prepared a net to cover her face.”
“Oh.”
“So, turns out I built the new cottage in the place where our house had been but it were Enola who Colleta sent to live in it. My wife said she had already made a home of the old cottage once of our neighbor’s and besides the neighbor’s cottage is larger and better for the children who were soon to start. I made the second room of the new building opened to the back to make a shed for an animal or two, with the loft above for a haymow. And we planted the whole of Enola’s gardens and bees all around that cottage so Colleta can stay a comfortable distance from Enola and my sister can do her work in remedies as she chooses.
“So can you stay on with us Papa? That loft over the donkey’s stall could be a fine roof and room for you.”
“Thank you. I suppose I’ll have to. My cell at Poitiers was sealed for plague so I hear. I’m probably not welcome back there.”
(Come back again Tuesday, December 3 for the next Chapter “Stories in the Dark”)
Lazarus Ink 