Chapter Nine
Days passed, and upon them weeks and before I knew it, months had gone by. By now it seemed as if I had lived with the dwarves forever. Winter had fallen and bewitched the little cottage into what looked like a figure in a snow globe. Somehow Gareth managed to sweep the walkway without any use of a broom and the windows sparkled intensely with glistening white crystals, though the marigold on the sill never did die. Samsen spun me from the air a winter coat, a pair of wooly mittens, a scarf and a very sweet little red cap. I must say I was very pleased and pleasantly surprised with their taste in women's clothing. Every morning after the dwarves went off to the mines, my duty was to go into the woods to collect firewood. The dwarves told me again and again that they could conjure fires themselves, but I was firmly in earnest that I would not sit inside the whole three months of winter. Though perhaps it might have been better if I did.
One grey afternoon, after a new snow had just fallen and the wind was even more bitterly cold than usual, I set off to fetch firewood. Despite it's dreary sky and biting wind that gnawed at my face and ears, the newly fallen snow left fresh footprints to make and new paths to cover in the silence of the snow and the trees. I wrapped my scarf carefully around my head so it covered my mouth and nose. I had twisted my hair so it fit in my cap, so that all that could be seen were my eyes. I hopped and leaped over snow banks, lifting my wretched skirts as I skated over icy ponds, going farther than usual. The soft silence of the wind in the trees and the boughs rustling was enough to keep me enraptured in the grey and cold atmosphere. Humming through my scarf, I picked up scraps of branches off the ground, fairly skipping through the beauty and whiteness. My humming stopped when I crashed into someone.
"Oh, excuse-" I started, but gasped when I saw who I crashed into. Teddy and some of his men stood before me. A taller, more manly looking Teddy, but Teddy none the less. I dropped my pile of firewood and did not venture to pick them up again. I fixed my hat and securely fastened my scarf around my face, so that still, only my eyes showed. They seemed to have been hunting for some of them had bows and arrows and one of Teddy's guards had a pheasant slung over his shoulder. A couple of horses were being driven behind them. After taking this all in, I kept my eyes to the ground. Teddy, thankfully, did not seem to recognize me.
"Are you lost, lady?" he asked and I almost melted into saying, 'Yes! Yes! Take me away from here!' But I stood my ground.
"Not at all, sir," my knees were trembling, "I was just collecting firewood."
I risked a look up at him. He was looking back at me most earnestly, with kindness and doubt.
"On a day like this? So far from anywhere? Dearest lady, surely not. Shall we escort you home?" his boyish voice had deepened since I last spoke with him. His words made my mind go blank. I looked up at him again and for a second our eyes locked. For a horrible instant, I thought he recognized me.
"Um-I.no, that's quite all right-" I stumbled past him and ran in the opposite direction of the cottage, so if they did follow me, they wouldn't be led to the dwarves. I ran as fast as my legs would allow me and as far as I possibly could before I was positive they weren't behind me or at all close to me.
I collapsed, panting, in a snow bank and began to sob. My tears froze to my numbed cheeks and my breath hung in the air in puffs of cloud. It wasn't fair. I had completely disposed of my past months ago and now it had come to blow up in my face again. Well no, that wasn't exactly true. There was that one terribly real nightmare sometime in December when I saw my stepmother cackling at the mirror and saying, "Who now is the fairest one of all?" The mirror had responded, "Away in the woods, Snow White is still the fairest one of all." I had woken up sweating and screaming, seeing visions of John, the woodcutter, hanged in the town square.
But I had slowly taken that from my mind. Those were nightmares; they couldn't have possibly been real. But this was real. Teddy had been standing there in the flesh no less than a yard away from me. I put my hands to my face, wiping the icy tears away as best I could and slowly made my way back to the cottage empty-handed. I never did see the huntsmen or Teddy that day or that winter, thankfully.
When the dwarves returned that evening and saw me curled up by the empty grate, face tear-streaked and shivering with cold, they hurried to conjure a fire and cover me with blankets from their beds. Daran made some tomato soup, no magic this time, but from the tomatoes we had saved in the pantry from the garden. They never asked why I had come home empty-handed nor why I was so upset. I'm glad they didn't, but I wasn't allowed to venture out into the snow for firewood anymore.
"Come, let us talk of happy things," Alberic, always the leader, gathered all the dwarves around the fire with me in the center.
"Tell us a story Lady Snow," Perry squeaked.
"Oh yes do!" they all agreed. I nodded, giving a small smile of consent.
"Well.let me see," I swallowed some soup as well as some of the events of the day along with it, "once upon a time there lived a girl who had never known her mother. Her father raised her to the age of nine until he remarried. But the girl's stepmother was horrible and mean, and no matter how many times the girl tried to become closer to her, she would push her away. Even after the girl's father died of sickness, the stepmother never wanted anything to with the girl because she was horribly jealous of her."
"Why?" Perry asked.
"Because." the words suddenly became very hard to get out, ".because the girl was prettier than she was. So the girl was all alone in the world. The only friends she had were the servants of the household and one prince whom she had met on several occasions," I stopped briefly in my story to catch my breath, "Everybody loved the girl, except for her stepmother. Her stepmother soon got so angry and jealous of the girl's beauty that she ordered the family woodcutter to take the girl into the forest and kill her."
The dwarves gasped. "Did he do it?" Alberic asked fearfully.
I shook my head slowly, "No. He loved the girl so much that he couldn't do it and told the girl to run off into the forest and never return for her stepmother would surely kill her if she did."
"So what happened to her?" Warryn asked. I smiled.
"The girl came upon a small cottage and went to live with seven dwarves."
Days passed, and upon them weeks and before I knew it, months had gone by. By now it seemed as if I had lived with the dwarves forever. Winter had fallen and bewitched the little cottage into what looked like a figure in a snow globe. Somehow Gareth managed to sweep the walkway without any use of a broom and the windows sparkled intensely with glistening white crystals, though the marigold on the sill never did die. Samsen spun me from the air a winter coat, a pair of wooly mittens, a scarf and a very sweet little red cap. I must say I was very pleased and pleasantly surprised with their taste in women's clothing. Every morning after the dwarves went off to the mines, my duty was to go into the woods to collect firewood. The dwarves told me again and again that they could conjure fires themselves, but I was firmly in earnest that I would not sit inside the whole three months of winter. Though perhaps it might have been better if I did.
One grey afternoon, after a new snow had just fallen and the wind was even more bitterly cold than usual, I set off to fetch firewood. Despite it's dreary sky and biting wind that gnawed at my face and ears, the newly fallen snow left fresh footprints to make and new paths to cover in the silence of the snow and the trees. I wrapped my scarf carefully around my head so it covered my mouth and nose. I had twisted my hair so it fit in my cap, so that all that could be seen were my eyes. I hopped and leaped over snow banks, lifting my wretched skirts as I skated over icy ponds, going farther than usual. The soft silence of the wind in the trees and the boughs rustling was enough to keep me enraptured in the grey and cold atmosphere. Humming through my scarf, I picked up scraps of branches off the ground, fairly skipping through the beauty and whiteness. My humming stopped when I crashed into someone.
"Oh, excuse-" I started, but gasped when I saw who I crashed into. Teddy and some of his men stood before me. A taller, more manly looking Teddy, but Teddy none the less. I dropped my pile of firewood and did not venture to pick them up again. I fixed my hat and securely fastened my scarf around my face, so that still, only my eyes showed. They seemed to have been hunting for some of them had bows and arrows and one of Teddy's guards had a pheasant slung over his shoulder. A couple of horses were being driven behind them. After taking this all in, I kept my eyes to the ground. Teddy, thankfully, did not seem to recognize me.
"Are you lost, lady?" he asked and I almost melted into saying, 'Yes! Yes! Take me away from here!' But I stood my ground.
"Not at all, sir," my knees were trembling, "I was just collecting firewood."
I risked a look up at him. He was looking back at me most earnestly, with kindness and doubt.
"On a day like this? So far from anywhere? Dearest lady, surely not. Shall we escort you home?" his boyish voice had deepened since I last spoke with him. His words made my mind go blank. I looked up at him again and for a second our eyes locked. For a horrible instant, I thought he recognized me.
"Um-I.no, that's quite all right-" I stumbled past him and ran in the opposite direction of the cottage, so if they did follow me, they wouldn't be led to the dwarves. I ran as fast as my legs would allow me and as far as I possibly could before I was positive they weren't behind me or at all close to me.
I collapsed, panting, in a snow bank and began to sob. My tears froze to my numbed cheeks and my breath hung in the air in puffs of cloud. It wasn't fair. I had completely disposed of my past months ago and now it had come to blow up in my face again. Well no, that wasn't exactly true. There was that one terribly real nightmare sometime in December when I saw my stepmother cackling at the mirror and saying, "Who now is the fairest one of all?" The mirror had responded, "Away in the woods, Snow White is still the fairest one of all." I had woken up sweating and screaming, seeing visions of John, the woodcutter, hanged in the town square.
But I had slowly taken that from my mind. Those were nightmares; they couldn't have possibly been real. But this was real. Teddy had been standing there in the flesh no less than a yard away from me. I put my hands to my face, wiping the icy tears away as best I could and slowly made my way back to the cottage empty-handed. I never did see the huntsmen or Teddy that day or that winter, thankfully.
When the dwarves returned that evening and saw me curled up by the empty grate, face tear-streaked and shivering with cold, they hurried to conjure a fire and cover me with blankets from their beds. Daran made some tomato soup, no magic this time, but from the tomatoes we had saved in the pantry from the garden. They never asked why I had come home empty-handed nor why I was so upset. I'm glad they didn't, but I wasn't allowed to venture out into the snow for firewood anymore.
"Come, let us talk of happy things," Alberic, always the leader, gathered all the dwarves around the fire with me in the center.
"Tell us a story Lady Snow," Perry squeaked.
"Oh yes do!" they all agreed. I nodded, giving a small smile of consent.
"Well.let me see," I swallowed some soup as well as some of the events of the day along with it, "once upon a time there lived a girl who had never known her mother. Her father raised her to the age of nine until he remarried. But the girl's stepmother was horrible and mean, and no matter how many times the girl tried to become closer to her, she would push her away. Even after the girl's father died of sickness, the stepmother never wanted anything to with the girl because she was horribly jealous of her."
"Why?" Perry asked.
"Because." the words suddenly became very hard to get out, ".because the girl was prettier than she was. So the girl was all alone in the world. The only friends she had were the servants of the household and one prince whom she had met on several occasions," I stopped briefly in my story to catch my breath, "Everybody loved the girl, except for her stepmother. Her stepmother soon got so angry and jealous of the girl's beauty that she ordered the family woodcutter to take the girl into the forest and kill her."
The dwarves gasped. "Did he do it?" Alberic asked fearfully.
I shook my head slowly, "No. He loved the girl so much that he couldn't do it and told the girl to run off into the forest and never return for her stepmother would surely kill her if she did."
"So what happened to her?" Warryn asked. I smiled.
"The girl came upon a small cottage and went to live with seven dwarves."