When little Elizabeth Cora Strallan fell into the pond there was no one around. She cried and panicked, trying in vain to get up on the steep bank. She had got water in her mouth three times already, when she heard a calm voice.
"Take it easy, girl!" the old man said. "It's not very deep, I'm sure you can stand on your feet and hold your head above the water."
She tried to do that, holding her hands at some roots by the pond. The water was just below her chin.
"But I can't get up!" she complained. "No one knows I'm here, I told my mother I would go inside and read a book, then I changed my mind. Can't you drag me up?"
There was a lady by the old man's side now.
"No, we can't, I'm afraid", she said.
What kind of people was this? She had never seen them before. Why couldn't they just drag her up?
...
"Hurry, get her mother!" she heard the lady tell the old man.
Then she saw the old man disappear.
"Don't worry, little one, everything is going to be alright", the lady said. "My husband is fetching your mother. Just stay calm and it will all work out well."
"I'm not a little one. I'm seven! And my name is Elizabeth."
"Yes, I know. And your Papa's name is Anthony, isn't it?"
"Yes, how do you know?"
"Well, I have known him since he was a baby, you see." She was quiet for a moment. "Well, actually I knew him before that."
Just then Elizabeth's mother came running with the old man.
"Elizabeth!" Edith cried out. Both the little girl and the woman turned their heads.
Edith took her daughter's hands and dragged her out of the pond. When she held the wet child in her arms she turned around to say thanks, but no one was there.
The last thing she had heard was a very low whisper. It sounded something like: 'Thanks for taking so good care of Anthony'. But maybe it was only the wind.
...
When they were back in the house she told Anthony what had happened.
"Do you know who these people are? I think I recognize them, but I can't remember who they are. I want to thank them for saving Elizabeth's life."
"Well, how did they look?" Anthony asked.
When he had heard Edith's description he turned pale. He went over to the other side of the library, and picked up a framed picture. Then he showed it to Edith.
Edith nodded, she was turning very pale herself.
"Yes, it's them. No wonder I thought I recognized them! But it's impossible of course."
"Yes, of course it is impossible. My parents died more than thirty years ago."
But Edith was sure, and little Elizabeth confirmed it. The two people who had saved their little daughter were the same as those on the photo. Lady Elizabeth and Sir Jonathan Strallan.
...
AN: The first thing I want to say is that I really don't believe in things like this. It is only a story.
The second is that I cried while writing it. It suddenly dawned on me a couple of days ago that I am going to have to kill Sir Jonathan and Lady Elizabeth in The Tangled Web of Life in order to get to some of the Edith and Anthony chapters that I have planned to write later on.
So I wanted to give them a chance to live on, and to meet their grandchild, and also Edith. Hence this little story.
I think this is the worst A/E story I have ever written.
Thank you for reading! I don't know if I dare ask you to review.