The Wood Beyond the World: Let Me Tell You

Walter had helped her escape. Now the woman he loved was afraid to tell him how she had made escape possible.

She had reached him in the night, caught his hand, and led him away from the house where she had been kept. They ran until the darkness thinned.

Behind them, her mistress was dead. So was the king’s son. Ahead lay a country neither could yet call safe.

At the stream, she tried to speak. There were things he needed to know. Then a pursuer found them.

An arrow grazed her. Walter’s own arrow struck armour. The man offered him a bargain: hand over the woman, and go free.

Walter refused. They fought, and the pursuer died. Now Walter too had killed to get them out of that place.

But when she spoke of the mistress, he recoiled. The woman who had led him to safety saw judgement in the face she had trusted.

She had disguised the king’s son to look like Walter. Her jealous mistress killed him, then took her own life. The Maid had planned a way out that left two people dead.

Walter put down his sword and brought water in his hat. He too had killed that morning. He too had wanted to escape. He asked her to go on.

She told him of years when other people ordered her body and her days. Of an old woman who had taught her. Of knowledge that had made her dangerous to her mistress.

The iron ring was still on her ankle. Beyond the trees, the path continued. Freedom had begun, but it had not yet made everything easy.

Walter sat beside her. This time, when she began, he listened. They would have to learn how to leave the house without carrying its rules between them.