Disclaimer: I own not, you sue not.
-----
I kneel on the ground next to the shrine. I'm the only one that comes here anymore, because I'm the only one who remembers. I sort of like it this way. They didn't know her, not really. No one did, no one except for me.
"Hello," I whisper. "It's me." There's no response. Not even the wind stirs the delicate new leaves of spring.
"I know that it's been a while," I say apologetically. "I've been busy. I got married." I choke back a sob. "I understand why you went to those lengths to avoid it. It was horrible."
The doll I had placed in the shrine nearly two years ago seemed to stare up at me in confusion. "He's dead," I admit. "And I'm pregnant."
The doll seems satisfied. Good. I bought it, it should agree with whatever I say.
Oh, bloody hell. I'm talking to a doll in a shrine I made as a schoolgirl. I'm much older now, and much wiser. After all, twenty is a long way from sixteen. I press a delicate looking hand to my belly. At only three months, no one can yet see my condition. It was lucky my husband and the stable boy looked so much alike, and that they both left my life at the same time. The public would have no reason to gossip.
She would have known about the affair, somehow. She knew everything, just by looking at me. I had hated it, back then, but now I missed having someone who could read me so well.
"Gemma asked me, a while ago, why I still believe in you," I whisper. "She doesn't understand that I have to. If I stop believing in you… well, you're the only one who ever believed in me."
Nothing moves. The forest is still, and full of memories best forgotten, tainted memories of what can never be again.
"Maybe I'm mad. I'm speaking with ghosts, after all. Being a widow does that to you. I just wish…" I trail off, unable to voice what I really wish. I wish she had lived, I wish it was different; I wish a lot of things. "I just wish you could have been in the wedding, or here when I give birth, I suppose."
I stand and brush dirt off my black silk mourning gown. "Goodbye, Pippa."
The wind holds no reply.
-----
A/N: So… for once, I like the ending. What about you? Tell me, in a
R
E
V
I
E
W