The Perilous Affair
In an old manor overlooking the sea, there lived a young maiden named Lenora. Lenora had four sisters, all of whom were older than her though none could match her beauty.
In seven days time, Lenora was to be wed to a duke. Although, he was a duke she didn't love. When the duke arrived, Lenora disliked him immediately. He was haughty, proud, boastful and shameless. But he loved Lenora dearly.
Lenora had a secret she never told anyone. She was in love with the boy she met when she was a young girl. They were the best of friends, but she couldn't ignore the feeling any longer.
The night before her wedding day, she snuck out into the garden on the cliff overlooking the sea. She remembered planting roses with him on the utmost edge of the cliff. She reached the spot and to her surprise saw him there. They looked at each other and it was as if they had an unspoken agreement. Lenora ran back to the manor to gather her things and run away with him. She was glad to be rid of the duke and glad to be rid of her inconsiderate family.
Meanwhile, he stood looking after Lenora as she raced to the tall handsome manor to retrieve her things. He, not having any things to retrieve, waited for her patiently.
Behind a gnarled old twisted tree whose branches were petrified and bare, the duke leaped out and struck him on the chest and rolled him into the foaming gray waters beneath.
The duke, having seen them plotting to elope, was enraged and hid once again by the bushes and planned to murder Lenora. Lenora came out of the manor and a few minutes later proceeded to the cliff's edge.
She saw his shoe covered in blood by the roses and looked out on the stormy sea tinted with red. His blood. Lenora quietly sobbed clutching the shoe. The duke couldn't bring himself to kill someone so fair and so grieved by what he had done.
He stabbed his own chest and managed not to cry out as he died among the bushes. Lenora raised her head and saw his body floating among the rocks. She jumped down into the churning gray sea and swam out to embrace his body just in time for a wave to fall upon them and force them down into the deep abyss.