Chapter 4
Remembering Estella
The new orphan girl lay propped up in bed with two thick pillows. The Healer had just finished examining her and returned to talk with the Tooks.
Both Ellderbra and Annegrin sat at the table to hear what he was going to tell them.
Clearing his voice he began. "For the most part, this little girl will heal fine. However, she still does not have any recall of her past. I have checked around the villages and no one is missing a daughter. We don't know where she comes from. Her memory should come back on it's own, but it could take sometime. She will need a lot of encouragement and constantly being shown things that could trigger her memory. I'll leave you some powder to help with her headaches or pain that she is experiencing. Just be patient with her and let her memory come back to her in her own time. Trying to push her too soon could cause greater harm for her."
The healer handed Annegrin a few packets of powder and bid them farewell.
Annegrin got Ellderbra to agree not to push the girl's memory and just let it happen on its own.
Annegrin put her hand in her pocket and felt the small little bracelet with the four-leaf clover on it. If anything, that little bracelet could help her memory. However, she was very reluctant to tell her husband about finding that on the little girl. She decided to wait a few days before showing this bracelet to the little girl.
A few days passed by and Annegrin spent a lot of time taking care of the little girl that she called Poppy.
Under the loving care of Annegrin, she began to feel much better with the healing of the bruise to the side of her head. The fogginess of her past was still with her, as she still could not remember who she truly was. Annegrin enjoyed telling her the many stories of her daughter, Poppy and the life that Annegrin had lived in the streets of the North Farthing. Those stories became real to Poppy because she could see them happening in her mind. She accepted them readily and allowed them to become her own memories of her past. When Annegrin realized that that this little girl had begun to believe herself to be Poppy, she did nothing to discourage her. Annegrin placed the small bracelet away in her locked jewelry box, never to be shown to her now adopted daughter, Poppy.
Annegrin loved Poppy and knew in her heart that she could never let her go. It was as if her dead daughter had returned back to her.
Whenever Ellderbra's would question her about his little girl, Annegrin's protective nature would take over.
Ellderbra's commented when he approached his wife when she was making the evening meal. "Once the sick girl has healed, I'll have her climb the apple trees and collect the apples on the top branches. She's small enough to scurry up those trees!"
Annegrin scowled at her husband. "Poppy will not do no such a thing! She'll stay by my side in the kitchen and help me with the cooking!"
Ellderbra's raised his eyebrow at his wife in confusion. "Poppy?"
Annegrin smiled as she looked directly into her husband's eyes. "Yes, Poppy! That is her name!"
"No, Annegrin! That is the name of our daughter who is dead!" stated Ellderbra.
Annegrin snapped at her husband. " Ellderbra! That child is mine and I claim her! You hear me! I'll not lose Poppy again! You have taken my baby away for me the first time, you'll not get another chance with this one!"
Annegrin slammed her hand down on the countertop and the spoons rattled from the force of her determine blow.
Ellderbra turned to his wife and spoken much more gently. "That's not fair, my dear! I never knew our daughter was that sick or I'd not have made her work the orchards picking apples!"
"I'll never let you make that mistake again, Ellderbra! That girl is my child now. She is my Poppy to me!" snapped Annegrin.
"That girl is a street urchin! Our daughter, Poppy died some fifteen years ago!" shouted Ellderbra. He looked at his wife with great concern thinking her hard life had made her weak-minded and he stared at her with widened eyes.
"I've not lost me senses! I know that girl isn't our daughter! She's not recalling who she is, that blow to her head has left her totally nameless! I've given her the name Poppy and Poppy is who she will be!" said Annegrin and she suddenly burst into tears.
His heart broke seeing his dear Annegrin crying. He remembered the day that their daughter had died. His wife's grief had almost caused her own death. He thought what harm could come of her claiming this child as her own. After all she was just a street urchin with no family who loved her. "Okay, Anne! If you wish to claim her as Poppy, I'll not be stopping you! You've had things hard in your life and you be deserving what little happiness this lass can bring you! If you claim her as Poppy, than Poppy is who she'll be!"
Ellderbra hugged his wife to comfort her. He kissed her brow and wiped her tears away. "It'll be okay!" he reassured her.
Annegrin nodded and turned back to her cook stove. "You best be getting those girls in from their labors. The meal will be ready shortly!"
Ellderbra walked out of the kitchen and went to the fields to get the girls.
The girls filed into the yard by the house and dumped their sacks of green beans and shelled peas into the wagon to be taking to the market and to be sold the next morning.
Their backs ached from the hours stooping over the plants and picking their vegetable from the huge field where they planted them earlier in the spring. Two of the older girls put down their shovels next to the wagon and pulled their sacks from their shoulder. Ellderbra opened their sacks and dumped the tatters into a crate in the wagon. "You girls done a fair job this day. The crates are about full and will bring us a good coin in the morning! Will be buying the meat for the canning tomorrow!" said Ellderbra as he looked over their harvest. "Get washed up for evening meal! Annegrin has a hearty meal prepared!"
Primenthia shoulders slumped after hearing they would be canning in the morning. Primenthia hated canning the most. Being the oldest of the group, Primenthia was twenty-years old. It would fall on her to do all the cutting of the meat. Her shoulders already ached from the long day of digging tatters from the ground.
Pansy who had helped Primenthia with the digging offered to draw the water from the well for her so she could wash her hands. Pansy admired Primenthia and being only eighteen years old was her closest friend. They grew up together since they were first brought here after their parents had died from an illness when they were very small children.
The other girls were close in age being anywhere from nine to sixteen. Daisy was eleven-years old with her sister Dotty, who was sixteen who helped pick all the shell peas in the garden. Their parents died in an accident and had no other family to take them in. The two sisters shared almost everything with each other, even a room with two little beds.
Bella and Rosa were fourteen years old when they were brought to Elldergrin from the Shirriff after being caught stealing in the marketplace. The Shirriff found that they lived in the streets for years and had little memory of their parents.
The five girls who picked the green beans came from the group of field workers that traveled around the shire. Their families abandon them when they were babies or younger children, telling the Tooks to watch over them until they returned when they got done with the season's harvest. However, they never returned to claim them. The field-hand girls names were nine- year old, Lilly and a ten-year old, Gem. There was sixteen-year old, Tilly and her seventeen-year old sister, Topez.
One by one the girls filed into the house and began to set the table for the evening meal.
Annegrin opened the bedroom door and escorted Poppy to the table.
"Everyone, this here is Poppy! She has come to live with us!" said Annegrin.
The girls all smiled at Annegrin as she introduced them to her newfound daughter. Annegrin sat Poppy next to her at the table and enjoyed having a younger child to care for.
Nine-year old Lily plopped down beside Poppy and grinned at her. She was so happy to have a younger girl who was now the baby of the family. She welcomed her with a hug.
~*~
By the time the summer came to an end, Rosamunda began to pack up Estella's things. Fredegar helped his mother. She held the pink party dress with its rows of laces and ribbons that Estella loved in her hands to show Fredegar. "Estella's cute little pink dress. Remember Fredegar how she badgered me until I finished making this for her. How she loved the color pink and all these laces and ribbons!"
Fredegar took the little dress after his mother folded it neatly and he stroked the soft fabric and remembered the day of her birthday that she wore it. He smiled to himself seeing her twirl around in it.
Rosamunda placed a white kitchen cap and matching apron into the box. "Estella loved to help me in the kitchen with my jellies. She insisted that she needed an apron and kitchen cap that matched my own. She tried so hard to look like me when we made our jellies. I would giggle every time she would place this cap on her head. It was much too big for such a small child, but she was so proud of this cap. Here are the jelly stains on her apron where she would crush the berries for me."
Rosamunda ran her finger along the stain and held it up to her face and began to cry.
Fredegar put his arm around his mother. "I'm so sorry, Mama. If only I'd have known that cloud was so fierce, I'd have gotten Estella home sooner. It's all my fault! My poor dear sister!"
Fredegar began to cry with his mother. Rosamunda pulled her son from her and looked deeply into his eyes as her tears still dropped down her chubby cheeks. "Fredegar, It's not your fault and you should not be blaming yourself none. Nobody knew that cloud would turn into something that it did. No one has ever seen such a sight before. Even I thought that cloud was magnificent. It's what broken my ankle and all. Walking backwards trying to get another look at it. I love you, Freddy! You' re my dear son and there is no fault on your part. You loved Estella as much as we all loved her. I don't want you to cry any more. We must remember our dear Estella with thoughts of how wonderful she once was and all the memories we hold so dear in our hearts. She would want us to be happy again and not remember her with such sorrow!"
Fredegar wiped his tears from his eyes and hugged his mother again.
~*~
Poppy helped Annegrin in the kitchen cooking and canning. She enjoyed working in the kitchen. It gave her a sense of happiness as she worked side by side with Annegrin. A sudden flash went across her mind of another kitchen and wonderful smells that she could not identify. Poppy dismissed those memories, because growing up in the streets would have no kitchen to remember. She shook her head and returned back to the girls in the kitchen.
Everyone had a job to do. Primenthia chopped the sections of thick chunks of meat and bone into workable sizes, while Pansy and Topez cut the bones from those chunks of meat. Daisy and Tilly cut the chunks of meat into small pieces.
The younger girls Gem. Lilly and Daisy gathered the pieces of meat into a bowl and gave them to Annegrin who worked beside Poppy helping her season the meat, while Annegrin cooked them in her big pot. The kitchen smelt of sweet seasoning and savory scents of roasted meat.
Dotty, Bella and Rosa washed the canning jars until they sparkled and helped fill the jars once the meat was fully cooked.
The girls worked all day long in the kitchen and filled the pantry shelves full for another year.
Everyday the girls worked washing, cleaning or gathering vegetables in the gardens. In the beginning of autumn Ellderbra would pick his apples in his orchard and sell them to the market. The ones he could not sell went into making all sorts of canning fixings. They made applesauce and cider. However when Annegrin would make her apple jelly, Poppy would get fierce headaches and a sick stomach. She could not figure out why.
Then whenever Lilly would climb the trees in the orchard to pick apples Poppy would become very sick and constantly needed powder to help her.
Annegrin would not allow Poppy to go near the orchard. It gave her a queer feeling about Poppy, since her own daughter had died in the orchard. She would take Poppy shopping with her to get her away from the farm and orchard during picking season.
When the apples were finished and the last day of the harvest, Poppy helped the girls in the fields. She worked with Lily picking shell peas and giggled with the girl when she would tell her storied and jokes while they all worked. Annegrin would laugh with delight as she watched Poppy playing and working. Ellderbra had never seen his wife so happy than when she was with Poppy.
Pansy dug in the field of tatters with Ellderbra and Primenthia. She saw something unusual in the dirt and she bent over to pick it up. Knocking the dirt from the thing that she found, Pansy realized it was a small wooden doll. It had small wooden feet and tiny little clothes. Ellderbra turned and looked at Pansy. "What have you found?"
Pansy smiled when she looked over to Ellderbra. "I've found a small little doll! I bet Poppy would love to have it!"
~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N: Thank you all for your reviews! I am glad you are still enjoying this little story. I left you at a terrible place not knowing if Estella who now thinks she is Poppy, if Pansy will give her the doll that could jog her memory or not. I'd love to see some more reviews and your thoughts on this chapter! Click the button and make me smile : - )
Remembering Estella
The new orphan girl lay propped up in bed with two thick pillows. The Healer had just finished examining her and returned to talk with the Tooks.
Both Ellderbra and Annegrin sat at the table to hear what he was going to tell them.
Clearing his voice he began. "For the most part, this little girl will heal fine. However, she still does not have any recall of her past. I have checked around the villages and no one is missing a daughter. We don't know where she comes from. Her memory should come back on it's own, but it could take sometime. She will need a lot of encouragement and constantly being shown things that could trigger her memory. I'll leave you some powder to help with her headaches or pain that she is experiencing. Just be patient with her and let her memory come back to her in her own time. Trying to push her too soon could cause greater harm for her."
The healer handed Annegrin a few packets of powder and bid them farewell.
Annegrin got Ellderbra to agree not to push the girl's memory and just let it happen on its own.
Annegrin put her hand in her pocket and felt the small little bracelet with the four-leaf clover on it. If anything, that little bracelet could help her memory. However, she was very reluctant to tell her husband about finding that on the little girl. She decided to wait a few days before showing this bracelet to the little girl.
A few days passed by and Annegrin spent a lot of time taking care of the little girl that she called Poppy.
Under the loving care of Annegrin, she began to feel much better with the healing of the bruise to the side of her head. The fogginess of her past was still with her, as she still could not remember who she truly was. Annegrin enjoyed telling her the many stories of her daughter, Poppy and the life that Annegrin had lived in the streets of the North Farthing. Those stories became real to Poppy because she could see them happening in her mind. She accepted them readily and allowed them to become her own memories of her past. When Annegrin realized that that this little girl had begun to believe herself to be Poppy, she did nothing to discourage her. Annegrin placed the small bracelet away in her locked jewelry box, never to be shown to her now adopted daughter, Poppy.
Annegrin loved Poppy and knew in her heart that she could never let her go. It was as if her dead daughter had returned back to her.
Whenever Ellderbra's would question her about his little girl, Annegrin's protective nature would take over.
Ellderbra's commented when he approached his wife when she was making the evening meal. "Once the sick girl has healed, I'll have her climb the apple trees and collect the apples on the top branches. She's small enough to scurry up those trees!"
Annegrin scowled at her husband. "Poppy will not do no such a thing! She'll stay by my side in the kitchen and help me with the cooking!"
Ellderbra's raised his eyebrow at his wife in confusion. "Poppy?"
Annegrin smiled as she looked directly into her husband's eyes. "Yes, Poppy! That is her name!"
"No, Annegrin! That is the name of our daughter who is dead!" stated Ellderbra.
Annegrin snapped at her husband. " Ellderbra! That child is mine and I claim her! You hear me! I'll not lose Poppy again! You have taken my baby away for me the first time, you'll not get another chance with this one!"
Annegrin slammed her hand down on the countertop and the spoons rattled from the force of her determine blow.
Ellderbra turned to his wife and spoken much more gently. "That's not fair, my dear! I never knew our daughter was that sick or I'd not have made her work the orchards picking apples!"
"I'll never let you make that mistake again, Ellderbra! That girl is my child now. She is my Poppy to me!" snapped Annegrin.
"That girl is a street urchin! Our daughter, Poppy died some fifteen years ago!" shouted Ellderbra. He looked at his wife with great concern thinking her hard life had made her weak-minded and he stared at her with widened eyes.
"I've not lost me senses! I know that girl isn't our daughter! She's not recalling who she is, that blow to her head has left her totally nameless! I've given her the name Poppy and Poppy is who she will be!" said Annegrin and she suddenly burst into tears.
His heart broke seeing his dear Annegrin crying. He remembered the day that their daughter had died. His wife's grief had almost caused her own death. He thought what harm could come of her claiming this child as her own. After all she was just a street urchin with no family who loved her. "Okay, Anne! If you wish to claim her as Poppy, I'll not be stopping you! You've had things hard in your life and you be deserving what little happiness this lass can bring you! If you claim her as Poppy, than Poppy is who she'll be!"
Ellderbra hugged his wife to comfort her. He kissed her brow and wiped her tears away. "It'll be okay!" he reassured her.
Annegrin nodded and turned back to her cook stove. "You best be getting those girls in from their labors. The meal will be ready shortly!"
Ellderbra walked out of the kitchen and went to the fields to get the girls.
The girls filed into the yard by the house and dumped their sacks of green beans and shelled peas into the wagon to be taking to the market and to be sold the next morning.
Their backs ached from the hours stooping over the plants and picking their vegetable from the huge field where they planted them earlier in the spring. Two of the older girls put down their shovels next to the wagon and pulled their sacks from their shoulder. Ellderbra opened their sacks and dumped the tatters into a crate in the wagon. "You girls done a fair job this day. The crates are about full and will bring us a good coin in the morning! Will be buying the meat for the canning tomorrow!" said Ellderbra as he looked over their harvest. "Get washed up for evening meal! Annegrin has a hearty meal prepared!"
Primenthia shoulders slumped after hearing they would be canning in the morning. Primenthia hated canning the most. Being the oldest of the group, Primenthia was twenty-years old. It would fall on her to do all the cutting of the meat. Her shoulders already ached from the long day of digging tatters from the ground.
Pansy who had helped Primenthia with the digging offered to draw the water from the well for her so she could wash her hands. Pansy admired Primenthia and being only eighteen years old was her closest friend. They grew up together since they were first brought here after their parents had died from an illness when they were very small children.
The other girls were close in age being anywhere from nine to sixteen. Daisy was eleven-years old with her sister Dotty, who was sixteen who helped pick all the shell peas in the garden. Their parents died in an accident and had no other family to take them in. The two sisters shared almost everything with each other, even a room with two little beds.
Bella and Rosa were fourteen years old when they were brought to Elldergrin from the Shirriff after being caught stealing in the marketplace. The Shirriff found that they lived in the streets for years and had little memory of their parents.
The five girls who picked the green beans came from the group of field workers that traveled around the shire. Their families abandon them when they were babies or younger children, telling the Tooks to watch over them until they returned when they got done with the season's harvest. However, they never returned to claim them. The field-hand girls names were nine- year old, Lilly and a ten-year old, Gem. There was sixteen-year old, Tilly and her seventeen-year old sister, Topez.
One by one the girls filed into the house and began to set the table for the evening meal.
Annegrin opened the bedroom door and escorted Poppy to the table.
"Everyone, this here is Poppy! She has come to live with us!" said Annegrin.
The girls all smiled at Annegrin as she introduced them to her newfound daughter. Annegrin sat Poppy next to her at the table and enjoyed having a younger child to care for.
Nine-year old Lily plopped down beside Poppy and grinned at her. She was so happy to have a younger girl who was now the baby of the family. She welcomed her with a hug.
~*~
By the time the summer came to an end, Rosamunda began to pack up Estella's things. Fredegar helped his mother. She held the pink party dress with its rows of laces and ribbons that Estella loved in her hands to show Fredegar. "Estella's cute little pink dress. Remember Fredegar how she badgered me until I finished making this for her. How she loved the color pink and all these laces and ribbons!"
Fredegar took the little dress after his mother folded it neatly and he stroked the soft fabric and remembered the day of her birthday that she wore it. He smiled to himself seeing her twirl around in it.
Rosamunda placed a white kitchen cap and matching apron into the box. "Estella loved to help me in the kitchen with my jellies. She insisted that she needed an apron and kitchen cap that matched my own. She tried so hard to look like me when we made our jellies. I would giggle every time she would place this cap on her head. It was much too big for such a small child, but she was so proud of this cap. Here are the jelly stains on her apron where she would crush the berries for me."
Rosamunda ran her finger along the stain and held it up to her face and began to cry.
Fredegar put his arm around his mother. "I'm so sorry, Mama. If only I'd have known that cloud was so fierce, I'd have gotten Estella home sooner. It's all my fault! My poor dear sister!"
Fredegar began to cry with his mother. Rosamunda pulled her son from her and looked deeply into his eyes as her tears still dropped down her chubby cheeks. "Fredegar, It's not your fault and you should not be blaming yourself none. Nobody knew that cloud would turn into something that it did. No one has ever seen such a sight before. Even I thought that cloud was magnificent. It's what broken my ankle and all. Walking backwards trying to get another look at it. I love you, Freddy! You' re my dear son and there is no fault on your part. You loved Estella as much as we all loved her. I don't want you to cry any more. We must remember our dear Estella with thoughts of how wonderful she once was and all the memories we hold so dear in our hearts. She would want us to be happy again and not remember her with such sorrow!"
Fredegar wiped his tears from his eyes and hugged his mother again.
~*~
Poppy helped Annegrin in the kitchen cooking and canning. She enjoyed working in the kitchen. It gave her a sense of happiness as she worked side by side with Annegrin. A sudden flash went across her mind of another kitchen and wonderful smells that she could not identify. Poppy dismissed those memories, because growing up in the streets would have no kitchen to remember. She shook her head and returned back to the girls in the kitchen.
Everyone had a job to do. Primenthia chopped the sections of thick chunks of meat and bone into workable sizes, while Pansy and Topez cut the bones from those chunks of meat. Daisy and Tilly cut the chunks of meat into small pieces.
The younger girls Gem. Lilly and Daisy gathered the pieces of meat into a bowl and gave them to Annegrin who worked beside Poppy helping her season the meat, while Annegrin cooked them in her big pot. The kitchen smelt of sweet seasoning and savory scents of roasted meat.
Dotty, Bella and Rosa washed the canning jars until they sparkled and helped fill the jars once the meat was fully cooked.
The girls worked all day long in the kitchen and filled the pantry shelves full for another year.
Everyday the girls worked washing, cleaning or gathering vegetables in the gardens. In the beginning of autumn Ellderbra would pick his apples in his orchard and sell them to the market. The ones he could not sell went into making all sorts of canning fixings. They made applesauce and cider. However when Annegrin would make her apple jelly, Poppy would get fierce headaches and a sick stomach. She could not figure out why.
Then whenever Lilly would climb the trees in the orchard to pick apples Poppy would become very sick and constantly needed powder to help her.
Annegrin would not allow Poppy to go near the orchard. It gave her a queer feeling about Poppy, since her own daughter had died in the orchard. She would take Poppy shopping with her to get her away from the farm and orchard during picking season.
When the apples were finished and the last day of the harvest, Poppy helped the girls in the fields. She worked with Lily picking shell peas and giggled with the girl when she would tell her storied and jokes while they all worked. Annegrin would laugh with delight as she watched Poppy playing and working. Ellderbra had never seen his wife so happy than when she was with Poppy.
Pansy dug in the field of tatters with Ellderbra and Primenthia. She saw something unusual in the dirt and she bent over to pick it up. Knocking the dirt from the thing that she found, Pansy realized it was a small wooden doll. It had small wooden feet and tiny little clothes. Ellderbra turned and looked at Pansy. "What have you found?"
Pansy smiled when she looked over to Ellderbra. "I've found a small little doll! I bet Poppy would love to have it!"
~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N: Thank you all for your reviews! I am glad you are still enjoying this little story. I left you at a terrible place not knowing if Estella who now thinks she is Poppy, if Pansy will give her the doll that could jog her memory or not. I'd love to see some more reviews and your thoughts on this chapter! Click the button and make me smile : - )