Anna remembered the stench in her room and made a disgusted face.
"I'll get someone to look for me. You can't go into that room without a mask. That's if Adam hasn't already arranged for the place to be cleaned. But I don't think he had time. Those days were very difficult."
"Now, for the time being, the days will get better. With Sarah dead, any enchantment she has cast over your life will end with her. I hope so. She killed a mother because of her ambition, and carried a witch's curse for life. Did she regret it at the last moment?"
"No, Jenna. Sarah didn't regret it. And you're wrong. Mom lives on through me, and through my children." Anna said3 reflectively. "And what about you? How can you be sure that Mom didn't say the same about you to Sarah?"
"I'm not sure. But your mother, despite her naivety, was shrewd enough to know who to trust. And she never tried to teach me spells so that I would believe that she did it out of friendship. She was very cheerful when she was with me..."
"So tell me everything you know about her, please?"
"I will. I think you already know that she's not from Ireland, as many people say."
"No? I never knew if she was Irish or Scottish. She loved Scotland, I remember that well."
"No. She didn't like the place where she was born. Have you ever heard of Avallon?"
"Yes..."
So Jenna went there at the beginning of the story, to tell how Anna's mother was born, and under what circumstances.
...
Knowing the origin I
Antony entered the room where his bedridden fiancée was. He approached her and observed her sleeping form. She was pale, and probably too thin for his liking. He took a deep breath and put his hands in his pants pockets. If it hadn't been for her money, he certainly wouldn't have considered marrying her. But he had no other choice. Her family needed the money that her father had promised as a dowry. It was quite a fortune. He couldn't pass up the chance. Maybe he'd get lucky and she wouldn't live long. Then he would be free to find someone he loved. There was also the story of her ancestors, which fascinated his family. They said that girls born into that family were given the gift of foresight. But for him, it seemed more like a curse, as he had also heard that many of them were burned at the stake and considered witches. Her family wanted them to marry, because they lived in search of mysticism and believed that in order for a creature of their kind to appear, they had to follow the girls' visions, and that unfortunate, bedridden girl, lost between life and death, had dreamt of him. These things didn't appeal to him. He walked over to the mirror and looked at himself for a moment. He wasn't the man to marry a dying woman. He had good looks and a lot of virility. His hair was blond and his eyes as blue as the sky. His future wife had red hair, and he didn't know the color of her eyes. That didn't interest him either. He hoped that at least she would wake up for the wedding.
A maid entered the room to look after her and asked him to leave. Anthony didn't like the maid's impudence, but he left, relieved to be able to leave without seeming rude, and returned to the living room, where his parents were planning the wedding details.
...
Three months later, he was waiting for her at the altar, which had been prepared on his father-in-law's property. He hadn't undone everyone's impression, and had placed all the elements around the altar. There was water, fire, earth, all in vessels around a large flowered ark, representing the fauna and flora. It was a starry night, deliberately chosen because it was the night of a blue full moon.
But Antony didn't think or care about that. He considered the things his own people believed to be illusions and fantasies, generated by his elders, who told stories of continents he had never heard of. For Anthony, the only place in the world that existed was Avallon. After all, he had never seen real magic, the way it was told from father to son. He had seen a few magic tricks, but nothing relevant. Nor did he believe that creatures that were half man and half animal existed. Beyond Avallon, there was only water and nothing else. He himself had sailed for seven months and had never found a trace of another habitable place.
He took a deep, impatient breath as he waited. He didn't know how his fiancée would get to him, or whether the ceremony would take place with her father agreeing for her to be his wife. He had never been back to his room to see her, so he didn't even remember what she looked like. Her parents always told him that she was getting better, but she was still in a wheelchair. However, she was making an effort to be able to walk around the ship, which had been built for the occasion. They were at her in-laws' large estate.
Anthony had heard from her parents that she was delighted and excited about the wedding. And he was afraid of her fantasy. He didn't want to hurt her, but he also didn't want to fulfill her expectations, whatever they might be. He didn't know if they would really be able to live a life as husband and wife.
The piano began to play a soft, slow song, and he turned to the guests to find out how his bride would enter the nave, lined with rose petals, and get to him.
She entered with her veil covering her face, holding onto her father's arm.
Anthony couldn't judge whether she was beautiful in body, at least, because she wore those dresses with the wires. He knew that she was wearing the wedding dress that was every woman's dream, and he couldn't help thinking that it was a waste. The girl would soon die and be buried a virgin, probably in her expensive wedding dress.
She reached the altar, and her father handed her over to Anthony, greeting him happily.