Forbidden

I just found this on my computer.  It hasn’t really been through a lot of editing, but I thought I’d post it anyway.

I. Foundling

Aslean lay on her stomach, fingers trailing delicately along the surface of the lake. Ripples spread from her gentle caress in an ever growing circle and she watched as they disappeared as they washed against the far end in little waves, gently lapping at the shore.

The day was crystal clear, a warm reminder of the fading summer. It was Sunday morning, her one day off to spend any way she wished. Today she wished to be alone, to try and enjoy her 18th birthday in peace and quiet. The calmness of the water was disturbed as a black swan settled on its surface, wings spreading to steady itself as it landed. The swan was huge, and it settled not far from where she lay on the bank.

Surprised, Aslean sat up. Black swans were very, very rare in these parts. It seemed to look at her and she felt a shiver of excitement run through her body. She smiled at the majestic creature, one hand fumbling for the remains of the cold breakfast she had enjoyed at the lakeside. She drew a small crust of bread from a napkin and broke off a piece, tossing it to the swan. To her great astonishment, the bird ignored the morsel and continued just staring at her. She slowly climbed to her feet and stared back at the bird, having the strangest feeling it was either waiting for something or trying to give her a message of some sort. For a moment they just stared at each other, then as suddenly as the great black swan had appeared, it gave a great trumpet and launched itself into the air. Aslean stepped back, wide eyed as an ebony wing almost brushed her face and instinctively ducked as the swan flew over her head, pulling up to clear the tree tops of the woods surrounding the estate.

Slightly shaken, she gathered up the remains of her little picnic and turned back to the path heading towards the manor. She shot another glance back towards the lake, catching the reflection of a grey horse limping along the far bank. Freezing, she had a sudden sense of extreme urgency from the animal. Hesitating only for a moment, she plunged into the ice-cold lake and half waded, half swam towards the injured animal. Numbness nipped at her limbs and her entire body was shaking violently as she emerged in the shallows at the far side. She thanked the stars that it was a small lake. The emerging warmth of the day wasn't quite enough to dispel the chill clinging to her soaked form and she wished that she'd had the foresight to remove her sodden cloak and hold it above the surface of the water, but it was too late to worry about that now. The grey gelding moved wearily towards her, stamping its foreleg impatiently. She noted it was favouring its left hind leg and soon discovered why. Imbedded in the rear the horse was a single arrow shaft. Dried blood crusted down the leg and along its side. Aslean swallowed, wondering what had happened to its rider.

"Hey." she said soothingly, caressing the side of the animal's face, "You'll be alright now, but where's your master?" As if to answer her question a wail started up. She realized with a start that it was coming from the geldings' overstuffed saddle bags.

"What?" she thought in amazement as her frozen fingers fumbled with the leather straps. Lifting the hood, she was shocked to see the source of the wail being an infant. Amazed, she gently lifted the crying child out of the saddle bag. "Who would do such a thing?" she asked the horse.

Aslean suddenly realized that whoever had put the child in the saddlebag had probably been trying to save it from whoever had been shooting arrows at the horse. It had most likely been an act of kindness, not cruelty. Still, she had no way of knowing how long the baby had been in there. She pulled a blanket from the bottom of the saddlebag and wrapped it around the child, trying to comfort it. Thankfully, she stopped her screaming when Aslean hugged her close. What was she supposed to do now? she wondered, if she took it back to the manor, she'd have to hide the baby, her supervisor was not fond of children, she'd certainly react negatively to the foundling. Nevertheless, the child needed milk and attention; otherwise she'd die out here.

Taking a deep breath, Aslean grabbed the horses reigns and began leading it along the bank, towards the other side. As she reached the path something made her glance back yet again. There in the middle of the lake, causing not a ripple on its surface was the black swan. She hurried away, horse in tow.

She stood near the head of the path, hidden for the moment by the surrounding overgrowth. The baby had settled down considerably since she'd found it, but the problem of sneaking her inside still remained. Not only that, but even if Aslean could get the child into her room, the problem of her roommate remained.

Gloria was a sweet girl, but not very bright, she'd be sure to give the child away, even if it was unintentionally. For the time being Gloria was at work, probably sewing right now and gossiping with the other maids. That was fine; however she still had to face the dilemma of how to get into the manor without anyone spotting the child in the first place. The horse would be easy, she'd walk it over to the stables and explain that she'd found it wandering in the woods, injured. There'd probably be questions later, but she could stall them until she got the baby to safety. The first thing she did was search the saddlebags for any sign of the baby. She found a package of cotton nappies in one bag, as well as a canteen full of spoiled milk and a small toy the baby could chew on to relieve the pain of her teeth coming in. The other bag contained a bag of coins and personal effects from the rider, whoever it had been. She left them as they were, but couldn't help noting that whoever it was had been a man. The thought struck her as odd and she wondered if perhaps the child had not been stolen? Or maybe the mother had died. But in that case what had happened to the child's father?

Taking a deep breath, Aslean removed her cloak and laid it on the ground. She was chilled to the bone and shivering like crazy. A hot bath would do a world of good, she was sure to get sick. She wrapped the blankets around the infant, covering him so only a small hole around her face allowed her to breathe.

"Please don't cry." she whispered to the child, "I'm doing this to save you, if you're discovered I don't know what will happen." The baby's large brown eyes just stared back at her. She almost thought for a second that the child could actually understand her.

Taking her damp cloak she carefully wrapped it around the blanket clad infant, covering it as much as possible without suffocating the poor child. She turned the air hole towards her, so that it wouldn't be visible to curious eyes and prayed the child wouldn't cry out. Slowly she walked away from the bath, carrying her cloak protectively against her chest. Crossing through the garden gate, she headed quickly towards the stables. As she moved past them, the gardeners looked up at her quizzically, wondering why she was leading an injured horse and soaking wet. She ignored then and approached the stable hand who was raking hay beside the barn. He looked up with surprise written all over his face.

"What have you got here?" he asked, studying her drenched clothes before lingering over the gelding.

"I found him wandering injured in the woods." she stated calmly. "I searched for the owner, but couldn't find him anywhere, so I thought maybe someone here could help him."

The stable hand regarded her suspiciously.

"How do you know the owner is a man? Women ride geldings too you know."

"Yes." she bit her lip, "I just assumed it was a man, I'm sorry. Will you take the horse or not?"

He looked at the animal again, lingering over its lines. He looked impressed.

"Fine." he snorted, "but you'd better have a better story for the master; he'll have to know he's got another horse in his stable. It will screw up the accounting."

"Right." she rolled her eyes, "like he even knew what accounting was." She turned her back in him, not daring to stay a minute longer for fear that the baby might give itself away.

"Just a minute." he said, stepping after her, "What've ye got in that cloak?"

"What?" she said, turning only slightly "It's just my cloak, it's wet and I'm already miserable enough from my fall in the lake, so if you'll excuse me I'm going to go change my clothes before I get sick." she turned her back on the stable hand and stalked away.

The nerve of the man, asking so many questions, who did he think he was anyway?

She caught a few more stares as she headed in through the kitchen entrance; it was warm and filled with the scent of wonderful things baking. She took a deep breath, and then felt the bundle in her hands stirring. The scent was probably making its way to the child! She hurried up the back stairs, fending off the kitchen staff's comments and questions with the simple explanation that she fell in the lake, hurrying up through the dark corridors towards her shared room, praying that Gloria was not inside.

Aslean was in luck, when she opened the door, the small room was empty. She quickly closed and locked the door, then hurried towards the bed where she quickly unwrapped the child from its hiding place and laid it on the bed. Sighing, she changed into fresh clothes of her own, wrapping herself in the warmest winter cloak she had. She considered the canteen of spoiled milk that still lay on her damp cloak. If the milk had turned, that meant the baby probably hadn't eaten in a while. She had to get it some food, and fast. That meant another trip down to the kitchens. She could hardly carry her cloak down there again, that would only cast more suspicion. But she couldn't leave the baby here alone, could she?

The choice was made for her, at the very moment she picked the child up, the door opened.  She whirled, caught completely off-guard, panicking about how to hide the poor thing.

“Aslean?” Came a surprised voice from the doorway.  “I thought you were…”

She let out a sigh of relief, it wasn’t Gloria, it was her best friend Rose.

“Rose.” She said, “I need to ask you a huge favour, are you alone?”

“Yes, and what on earth are you hiding?”

Aslean turned to face her friend.  Rose gasped and a smile of delight lit up her face.

“A baby!  But, oh, where did it come from?”