How I edit my own work - Plus a story to read too - 12

Edited text

Katherine moved up overhead in order to watch the progress of her new little friend and the unfortunate governess.

Katherine visited the child often. She took particular delight in everything she did. Every new experience, every lesson. Watching as the little girl studied or sitting rapt by her side as she learned to play her instruments, Katherine was aware she was growing fond of the little girl who had no mother and whose father all but ignored her very existence.

Katherine also knew she needed to find Dominic’s new self. It was difficult to keep track of him, the spirits moved him on often and when his body died, it could take a number of years before he was reborn. It could never be described as exact science.

One winter morning, Katherine awakened Elizabeth.

“Kat? What is it? It is early yet,” the little girl said rubbing her eyes and trying to focus.

“My Lady Elizabeth, it is not Kat, but Katherine. I have come to tell you I must go away. I will return to you, but it may not be for a long time. Please do not forget me.”

Elizabeth sat up in her large bed, ignoring the chill in the room despite the fire, still in from the previous night. She held her arms out to Katherine and held on tight as they embraced.

“Has my father sent you away Katherine? He always sends people away.”

“No, Elizabeth, your father does not know of me, only you do. I explained that to you.”

Elizabeth nodded; tears sprang to her eyes, but did not fall. “Do you promise to return to me? Not abandon me?”

“I promise. I would not go, I don’t want to leave you, but I must. Be brave little one, you have a great responsibility ahead of you. More than you know. Go back to sleep now.”

Katherine left the little girl and with great sadness in her heart began her search.

After only a short time of searching, Katherine felt a pull on her heart; the sensation was faint and unpleasant. She had not yet found Dominic’s new incarnation and was frustrated. So began thinking of calling for aid from Morgana. In order to distract herself from that notion, she followed the unpleasant sensation.

As Katherine roamed above the earth, searching for the source of the powerful and unpleasant tow, she saw a large house, separated from the small town by a dense forest. As she approached, the house looked more to be a number of separate buildings that happened to be joined together. It did not look as though the building had much planning prior to its construction. To Katherine, it looked as though many of the parts were after-thoughts with some time between their constructions and probably as many different architects as there were additions.

Katherine descended and approached the house from the ground. She had no idea whether she approached the front, rear or side of the building. Towers and chimneys reached upwards from the building. Turret and portico were dotted about with no sense of rhyme or reason, as were window and buttress.

A most confusing array of building styles met Katherine’s awe.

In the window of a gatehouse, she spied the cause of her discomfort. Elizabeth! The girl was a child no more, she had grown into a young woman. Katherine remembered the warning her mother had given about time passing swiftly.

Katherine appeared at Elizabeth’s side, where she leaned on the sill of the window, carving in a diligent and absorbed manner.

“What are you carving, My Lady Elizabeth?” Katherine whispered and was startled when Elizabeth jumped with a violence that spoke of constant isolation. The girl had not expected interruption because she was never interrupted.

Elizabeth dropped the delicate knife she held and turned around. “How did you get in here? There are guards posted all around at all times. Are you come to assassinate me?”

“No, Elizabeth. It is Katherine, your friend from your childhood.”

“Yes, I remember you, Katherine, but you left such a long time ago. You promised you would not desert me, but I needed a friend so many times and you were not here.” Elizabeth didn’t seem tearful. Though she was clearly upset, she had an air about her that told Katherine she was used to being upset and had trained herself to not let it show.

“I cannot explain to you why I was apart from you, I cannot comprehend it myself, but it felt as though I were not gone from you for so long, but it seems I was wrong. Why are you imprisoned?”

“My sister’s followers thought I had been part of a plot to oppose her. A rebellion that included plans for my marriage has been discovered and prevented, I am pleased to say. Although he who raised the rebellion has been sent to his death and he declared most emphatically - so I am told - that I am innocent and a loyal subject of the Queen. That, with the obvious lack of evidence against me has saved me from execution. I am nevertheless, imprisoned here, in this dire place, surrounded by a hundred guards. I carve, therefore:

‘Much suspected by me,

Nothing proved can be.’