This is the companion story to Cendrilla, where Mother, Candide Perrault, sells Rilla to Lord Bluebeard for her weight in gold. But now that Rilla ran away before marrying, an angry Lord Bluebeard is only the start of Candide’s misfortunes.

Here’s a link to the first chapter of Mother’s Misfortune in case you’re seeing this for the first time.

~TWO~

Candide sat on the gravel driveway, waiting for Lord Bluebeard’s coach to disappear down the road before attempting to board her own. No amount of rubbing could wipe away the pain and shame from where the disgusting brute had grabbed her.

Gabrielle stuck her head out of the window. “What did he mean about paying off your debts?”

“It’s obvious,” said Angelique, “Mother planned this for years with Lord Bluebeard. She probably got her first batch of money around the time of our shopping trip to Clement.

Candide bristled. The girl was correct. “I’ve been assaulted in plain sight of my daughters and neither of you care enough to inquire of my health.”

“So, is it true, then?” asked Gabrielle.

Candide struggled to her feet. One side of her body ached from where she had been thrown. “Never you mind. Let’s get out of here.”

By now, the sun had descended behind the trees, and its light filtered through the clouds, mixing shades of pumpkin and lavender. And though the heat had abated somewhat, the stiflingly humid air and her injuries made her want to retch. She hobbled into the house, pulled her trunk down the stairs, and loaded it into the boot.

Candide drove the carriage out of Moissan, down the Port Highway, ignoring the girls’ protests of going the wrong way. She knew exactly where she needed to be, and it wasn’t anywhere in the United Kingdom of Seven. There was no chance of finding Cendrilla, wherever the wretched oaf had hidden, and she would never again expose herself to Lord Bluebeard’s tyranny.

It was time to go home, and for that, she needed to reach the Port Au Happy Prince.

***

The night was just as stifling as the day, and after galloping several miles through the paved highway, the horses became sluggish. It was a mistake to have travelled so late at night and on a public road where the carriage would be a prime target for highwaymen.

Candide jiggled the reins to revitalize the horses, but the lazy beasts did not increase their pace. She grabbed the whip and cracked it at the nearest horse. The lash curled around the horse’s face, and the skittish creature let out the most disturbing sound and reared. The action spooked the other horses, and they bolted.

“Settle down,” she snapped, but the disobedient creatures would not listen.

They hurtled along the highway, jostling the carriage from side to side. The lantern fell off its perch and smashed on the road. Candide’s heart galloped against her ribcage, and she clung onto the seat irons, desperate not to be thrown off.

“Mother!” screamed one of the girls from within the carriage.

“Hold on, darlings!” Candide shouted back.

They moved at an irrational pace, with Candide clenching her jaws, hoping her precious daughters were unharmed. Wind stung her eyes and blew her hair off her face. The carriage jangled and squeaked.

She didn’t know what to do. She dared not whip the horses again, in case that triggered another frenzy. She could not leap off, and leave her children at the mercy of the runaway carriage, and she would not risk their necks by instructing them to jump.

There was only one choice left to her. The brake lever. She pulled hard on the metal appendage. The wheels screeched, and the carriage shuddered. But the horses galloped on, dragging the carriage along with it. It was a mistake, as the coach teetered on one side, before overturning and throwing her off.

Candide could only watch as the upturned carriage was dragged along the road at high speed. It turned a bend, but the screams of the girls filled the night. She pulled herself to her feet, and a sharp pain shot through her ankle. Whether it was sprained or broken, she did not care. Her daughters needed rescuing.

“I’m coming!” she shouted down the highway, picking up her skirts and running after the carriage. It took her an eternity to reach the bend where the horses had dragged her daughters. When she turned, she found a second vehicle stopped in the middle of the road.

Its lantern illuminated her own fallen carriage and a male figure pulling the girls out of the wreckage. Relief swept over her and tears poured from her eyes. The horses were nowhere to be seen, so Candide assumed they had somehow broken free.

Their savior, a kindly, silver-haired gentleman, stood back and observed the broken carriage. “I’m not sure whether I can fix this right now. Your best option is to leave it on the side of the road, and we can come back in the morning with a coach-maker.”

Gabrielle and Angelique clutched at each other, sobbing. Although their hair was disheveled, it was hard to tell in the lamplight whether they were seriously hurt.

“Thank you so much,” said Candide, wrapping her arm around Gabrielle. “You’ve saved my daughters’ lives.”

The man ducked his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “Anyone would have done the same, Madame. But you’re welcome. Do you have any valuables you’d like to bring with you?”

Between the gentleman who introduced himself as Henri Bacon, and Candide, they loaded the bags of gold into his safe box. The girls boarded his carriage, and she was about to board with them, when Monsieur Bacon cleared his throat.

Candide glanced up at the smiling man. “Madame, it would please me very much if you would ride next to me. I am a widower and I rarely have the pleasure of female company.”

On the inside, she bristled. A scholarly-looking man such as Monsieur Bacon did not deserve to be graced with her company. She gave him a charming smile and allowed him to help her up to the driver’s seat.

The scent of sulphur wafted from his overly warm body, and she cringed away.

“Why is a fine lady and her lovely daughters traveling so late in the night? These roads are dangerous.”

“We’re visiting a sick relative in Port Au Happy Prince.” She would never tell him she was fleeing a criminal investigation and an irate ogre. Salacious gossip had a habit of spreading like a forest fire.

He turned to her and smiled. “How kind of you to risk your safety to tend to a family member in need.”

Candide tilted her head to the side and attempted a demure look, but winced instead, holding her stiff neck.

“Oh, Madame, you are in pain.” He stopped the horses and jumped off the carriage. “Please, allow me.” He opened the boot and rummaged around. After a cry of triumph, he returned holing aloft a glass jar.

Candide took it and nodded her thanks. “What is it?”

“A palliative elixir, designed to dissolve pain, stiffness and swelling.” He puffed out his chest. “I developed it myself.”

Candide raised her eyebrows. “Are you an apothecary?”

He sat up straighter. “An alchemist.”

Nodding, Candide reevaluated her opinion of the man. Scientists were known to have an unkempt appearance, and alchemists spent days toiling over experiments. It was understandable that Monsieur Bacon was not as finely attired as the gentlemen she usually entertained. “Do you know the secret of turning lead into gold?”

He chuckled. “Goodness, no. I’m not nearly talented enough to perform such a miraculous feat. I noticed your carriage is from Moissan. I have a distant relative who lives there. Perhaps you know her?”

Candide’s heart stuttered. She wanted no one from Moissan, especially Sergeant D’Armes, knowing where she had fled. “What is her name?”

“The cheese monger, Faisselle Beaufort.”

Without thinking, Candide whirled and shoved the man off the coach. He landed on his head and lay on the road with his neck bent at an awkward angle. She suppressed the small pang of guilt at having attacked her savior, but continued down the road to the port, never turning back to see if the man had died from the impact. Madam Beaufort was the biggest gossip in Moissan, and Candide could not risk letting anyone know of her location.

She rode through the night, not stopping until she reached the end of the Port Highway and the outskirts of the town of Port Au Happy Prince. The sun was rising from behind the sea, casting an amethyst haze over the horizon, which bled into magenta then crimson up to the cloudless sky. A cool breeze blew the fresh scent of salt water through her hair, and for the first time since waking, Candide felt somewhat refreshed.

To her north lay the residential district of Port Au Happy Prince, comprising tall, flat-roofed buildings set in the hillside. The dawn light reflected an orange hue on their chalk walls, making them glow like persimmons. She headed south, to the seaport where fishermen, dockworkers and other types of longshoremen loaded and unloaded cargo to and from ships.

At the far end of the port stood a white lighthouse.

“You there,” she shouted at a passing sailor. “I need passage to Savannah. With whom should I speak?”

The man scratched his chin and squinted his remaining eye. “No one’s mad enough to sail anywhere near Merman’s Triangle.”

Candide pursed her lips. “Surely there is one captain brave enough for the challenge.”

“If you don’t mind traveling on a Condemned Cargo Craft, I’m sure that captain will take you across the triangle.”

She couldn’t help but snort at the foolish suggestion. Condemned Cargo was a euphemism for people who had contracted contagious and incurable diseases, such as Toadstool syndrome, Wolpertinger cough, and Phoenix plague. To keep the Seven Kingdoms disease-free, the afflicted were rounded up and sent to sea, forever wandering until they died. “I don’t think so.”

The sailor shrugged. “The only other captain who might be able to take you is Saoul Noyer. He sailed all the way from the Pharaoh Islands to the Seven Kingdoms in a wine barrel.”

Candide raised her eyebrows and let the man go. She climbed down and shook the girls awake.

“Mother, where’s the gentleman who rescued us?” asked Gabrielle.

Candide fixed her gaze to the water. “He decided not to continue to the port and disembarked on the road.”

“It was nice of him to let us have his carriage.” Angelique’s sharp tone of voice made Candide glance up. The girl’s stare bore through her like a battering ram. “But I distinctly remember him boarding the carriage after he stopped to get something from the boot.”

Candide ignored the annoying question and tapped her foot, waiting for the captain to arrive.

***

She recognized Saoul Noyer at once. He stood four inches taller than the oaf, Cendrilla, and his mahogany skin shone like panther oil. The man’s hair reached his shoulders, and he wore it in dreadlocks. With his gold, hooped earrings and white, puffed-sleeved bastian shirt, he looked almost dashing. That was until one remembered he was a lowly sailor.

“Captain?” said Candide in her sweetest voice.

The man strode over, casting a wary eye over her and the twins. “Who wants to know?”

Candide’s nostrils flared. His lack of manners rendered him as ugly as a slurry toad. “Never you mind. We want safe passage to Savannah.”

Captain Noyer shook his head. “I’m headed south to the Pharaoh Isles. I can drop you off at Monsoon if you want to leave now.”

“How much will it take for you to make a detour?”

He pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. “I’m not going that way, Madame. Come back in three months and I will gladly take you for a fee.”

“Five hundred gold crowns,” she snapped.

The man’s obsidian eyes widened. “Two thousand.”

“Mother,” said Gabrielle. “Let’s go to Metropole instead.”

Angelique snorted.

Candide ignored the girls and continued negotiating with the captain, until they reached an accord of one thousand, three hundred gold crowns for the passage. When the man grinned and said he would let them have his quarters, she knew she had been ripped off. But what choice did she have?

Captain Noyer climbed on the carriage and took the reins. “What business do you have in Savannah, then?”

“None of your concern,” she snapped, still irritated at getting the short end of the bargain.

He shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

They continued down the dock until it turned a corner where all the lesser ships were moored. The vessels were in varying states of disrepair.

“Which one is yours?”

“It’s at the very end.”

Candide’s eyes widened, and she whirled around to face Captain Noyer. “You did not tell me it was a galley ship.”

He raised a shoulder, “You didn’t ask.”

“Of call the underhanded, despicable—”

The captain stopped the horses and turned his iron gaze on her. “Go back if you want, but no one except me knows how to navigate Merman’s triangle.”

Her shoulders slumped, and she shook her head. “Drive on.”

Candide boarded the ship, ignoring the girls’ protests about the primitive vessel and its lack of sails. The first mate, a swarthy lout who couldn’t keep his eyes off the twins, showed them to the captain’s quarters. It was far more luxurious than she’d imagined.

The floors were made of polished oak, lined with plush, burgundy and gold rugs. Against the far wall stood a huge four-poster bed of ornately carved teak. Matching table, dining chairs and trunks were dotted about the room, with a comfortable sofa that could double up as a bed. There was even a wash station in the corner. The gilded window frames, lanterns, and candlestick holders gave the room an air of sophistication.

“It’s clear why he demanded so much from us,” muttered Gabrielle. “He spends all his money on luxuries.”

Angelique snorted and picked up a tome from the bookshelves.

Several hours later, they were sailing the Cursed Sea. Someone knocked on the door. Candide cracked it open an inch. The first mate peered over her shoulder, presumably for another glimpse of the girls. She snapped, “What do you want?”

“The crew is revolting.”

“I’m inclined to agree,” said Candide, eyeing the odious man.

“No, I mean they’re mutinying. No one wants to go through Merman’s triangle.”

“Surely that’s a matter for the captain to decide.”

He scratched the back of his head. “They want ten gold crowns a piece for the journey.”

“And I repeat, that’s a matter for the captain.”

“You don’t understand, Madame. They’re making him walk the plank.”

She threw her hands up in the air. “Oh for Kingdoms’ sake. How many men are there?”

The first mate rubbed his mouth. “Hundred and twenty.”

“How many?”

“Hundred, Madame.”

She glared at him for several seconds, until his posture slumped, and he said, “Eighty five.”

Candide slammed the door and stalked to the strongbox.

“What’s happening, Mother?” asked Gabrielle.

“Never you mind. Both of you, take two bags each.”

“But—”

“Do it!”

Gabrielle and Angelique picked up two bags, both of them muttering under their breaths about lost dowries. Candide picked up two and opened the door. Two ruffians joined the first mate. She twisted her face into a scowl. Keeping the twins away from his lingering gaze, she handed them six bags of gold. “That is all I have.”

The first mate eyed the bags and grinned. “Very good, Madame.”

The first day of sailing the Cursed sea was rough, and the waves crashed against the windows like an army of trolls battering down doors. At times, the ship sailed over mountain-high waves, which disappeared, leaving them up in the air for a second before gravity plunged them to the water’s surface. Candide’s stomach felt like it had been wrung tight and wrestled to the ground by Lord Bluebeard. At one point, the entire ship tilted to one side, sending Candide and the twins crashing against the wall.

Gabrielle and Angelique could hardly keep down their food. They resorted to eating Myrtle apples as they tasted just as sour going out as they did when going in. Candide would not allow herself the indignity of vomiting, so she ate nothing.

By the time they reached Merman’s Triangle, the girls were catatonic. Candide had to tie them to the bed, so they wouldn’t fall off and hurt themselves. When she saw what was occurring outside her window, she was glad her girls were unconscious.

Mermen wielding wooden spears and whips of seaweed boarded the boat. One even tried to smash the window. Somehow, the sailors managed to fight them off, but watching the battle made her sick and exhausted and faint.

Eventually, they reached Porto Duende, and Captain Noyer helped Candide and the girls off the ship. The first mate held a parasol over their heads, shielding them from the heavy rain. The air was thick and a scent of rotting vegetation and overripe fruit hung in the air. Birdsong competed with the lapping of the waves against the boats.

Although the harbor was paved, only a few yards beyond lay tree-covered mountains. Candide smiled. Only a few leagues further and she would be home.

“We made it, then,” said the captain. “Where are you headed?”

“Palácio Majestoso,” she replied. “To tell them their Queen has returned.”

TO BE CONTINUED…

 

The full, updated version of Cendrilla is now available on Amazon. I hope you enjoy it.