Trees. That was all Vivian had seen for the past three days.
“Why can’t Prince Benjamin just accept that Rosavina is gone forever,” she thought angrily. “The only reason I even came on this hopeless quest was to show that I am devoted to the prince, not to search aimlessly for a person I know is long gone, even if no one else does.”
“At least I get the prince for myself,” she thought smugly. “You may have gotten in the way Rosavina, but I got rid of you so easy, and now you won’t be the one marrying him, nor will you ever see him again.”
In London, England, it was every girl’s dream to marry the prince. He had eyes like deep vats of rich chocolate, a charming smile that could send even the most attentive listener into la-la land. He had a voice as soft and gentle as a summer breeze. His face seemed so perfect that it looked as beautiful as a diamond pendant. His hair was a mix of brown and blond, which fell slightly over his ears and his muscles bulged under his shirt. He was kind and generous to everybody, let them be poor or rich and always insisted that they refer to him as Ben and not Prince Benjamin. Everybody knew that he had already given his heart to a young girl named Rosavina and wanted to marry her. They also knew, however, that if she should refuse to marry him, or if she should disappear, he would have to marry Vivian, who was the exact opposite of Rosavina. Where Rosavina was good and kind, Vivian was mean and cruel. Now that Rosavina was missing, and had been for the last month and a half, he would have to marry Vivian.
“Rosavina, my sweet, where have you gone? Why have you left me?” he thought sorrowfully.
After two more days, he was going to have to give up searching for her.
“Heaven help me find my love, my light and my joy,” he prayed.
“Turn left at this next fork,” called Benjamin.
“Turn left? Oh no!” thought Vivian. She recognized that left hand turn. They mustn’t go down there or she would be fighting in vain.
“Dear Prince, are you sure that we should go left,” she asked. “Perhaps we’d best go right.
Benjamin looked at her and said with a hint of irony in his voice, “I am absolutely sure that we should go left.”
Vivian felt her hands turn clammy, but all she could say was, “As you wish.”
But she would not let them fall upon her secret. Lovers or not, she was going to do everything possible to make sure that her secret stayed a secret.
“Prince! Come quickly, come quickly,” someone shouted.
Ben whipped his horse into a full gallop. “What is it?” he asked as he came to a stop.
One of the men held up to him a piece of torn cloth. He recognized it instantly.
“That was her favorite dress,” he whispered, holding the pale, pink satin in his hand.
Just then a scout came sprinting toward them. “There is a whole trail of torn cloth like the one you have in your hand Prince,” he gasped, bending over to lean his hands on his knees.
A spark of hope flared inside Ben. Were they about to find her?
“NO!” thought Vivian as her face grew red and hot with anger. “It’s impossible. They can’t have found her.” She began to sprint after the Prince, and the trail.
“When will this trail end?” he thought.
They had been following the trail for the last 45 minutes. He scanned the area, and then whipped his eyes back to his right. He hadn’t been imagining it; there was something lying on the ground a ways off. Heart full of fear, he and his men raced towards it.
Vivian felt something she had never felt before: full-fledged panic.
“NO!” her mind screamed. “He must not find her. He mustn’t!”
With her mind set, she took a side path and slunk into the shadows, creeping stealthily forward.
The figure wasn’t moving.
“No, it mustn’t be,” he thought. “Let it be some bear or something but, please don’t be what I think it is.”
Even as he thought this, he knew in his heart that he was wrong.
“Stay here,” he ordered. He could hear the fear in his voice.
His men stopped but he kept going forward. He could see the figure more clearly now and his heart began to cry out in anguish.
Vivian’s eyes were full of fury as she saw him come closer and closer to the still figure. Her right fist clenched even tighter on the object she had hoped never to use.
He rushed to the figure and was struck dumb as he looked at Rosavina’s seemingly lifeless body. He looked at her battered and torn dress, at her beautiful slim body. He looked at her face, her cheeks, with the rosy glow about them. He looked at her eyes, picturing their vivid blue and the way they would sparkle when she had an idea. He ran his fingers through her hair, noticing how it still glowed golden in the sunlight that filtered through the trees. Then he bent down and gently pressed a kiss on her lips.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” called an angry voice from behind him.
He spun around to see Vivian step into the light, anger boiling over inside of her. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, then opened them again.
“You never should have come here,” she hissed. Her eyes narrowed. “After Rosavina went missing, you are required by law to marry me, yet you never even show me any respect.”
“Just because I am required to marry you a month after Rosavina went missing,” he replied with a hint of anger, “did not mean that I had to give you my heart, for I had already given it to another.”
“She was missing,” Vivian screamed, knowing that the soldiers were too far away to hear. “She was gone, yet you never gave me even one kiss. How did you think I would react to that?” She brought her right hand forward. “I didn’t want to do this, but you gave me no choice.”
In her hand was a short, silver dagger.
“What is she going to do?” Ben thought. Still unsure, he lunged. She dodged and in the same movement grabbed Rosavina’s arm.
“Stay back!” she warned, her dagger hanging over Rosavina’s breast.
He stopped, a prayer in his heart. Then there was a flash of silver, a line of blood and then Vivian was gone. She left her mark, though; a long red line ran down Rosavina’s arm. He rushed to Rosavina’s side and cradled her head in his lap, tears silently running down his cheeks. Rosavina wasn’t breathing. His heart felt as if it would burst. He bowed his head and as he did so, three tears fell directly over Rosavina’s heart. Then he felt Rosavina moving. Her eyelids fluttered open.
“Ben,” she breathed.
“I’m here,” he whispered, his heart overflowing with joy.
She put her arms around his neck.
“Never leave me,” she whispered.
“I won’t,” he replied. “For we are meant to be together.”
They both could feel in their hearts that there was nothing truer than that.