Strong As Death
Hello friends! I took a one week hiatus while vacationing in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Georgia, but I am back this week with a stand-alone short story that follows When Two Worlds Unite! :)
Their laughter rang in the air. Joseph and Viola lay side by side on the golden sand staring into one another’s eyes. Joseph reached out and took a wayward strand of her black hair and tucked it in place behind her ear. She studied his face and then suddenly took it in her hands and kissed him. They were lost in each other’s embrace when a dark shadow fell across them. They both turned to see what had caused it. Viola instantly started and scrambled to her feet. Joseph did the same and stood beside her, his brow furrowed as he stood with his arm protectively encircling her.
“What do you think you’re doing, Viola?” said the brown-skinned young man who stood there, an ugly sneer on his face.
“I’m spending time with my husband,” Viola replied. “What are you doing here, Enrique? I thought you were living on the mainland.”
“I’m here for an extended visit. Your husband?” He laughed as if he didn’t believe it. Joseph extended her hand with his own, showing their wedding rings to the newcomer, who looked at the rings in surprise.
“Who are you?” Joseph demanded.
“Viola’s boyfriend, Enrique,” the man replied, still sneering.
“I think you’re looking for a fight!” Joseph said. “Viola doesn’t have a boyfriend.”
“I can’t believe you never told your dear hubby here about your past relationships, love,” Enrique said.
“I am not your ‘love!’” Viola exclaimed, “And I never was. The one month that I was seeing you long ago is a bad memory I prefer not to remember and did not consider necessary to speak of.”
“Ouch,” Enrique said. “I didn’t think I was so offensive to you. We were seeing each other much more recently than that.”
Viola opened her mouth to answer, but Joseph spoke first. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” he said to Enrique. “And stay away from my wife.”
Enrique nodded very curtly and turned to go. “Seems like a keeper,” he said sarcastically, to Viola. He walked back down the boardwalk toward town.
Viola shuddered. “What he calls ‘seeing each other recently’ was him showing up at every public place I came and trying to sit next to me and talk and flirt with me. At first, I put up with him out of politeness, but I finally asked him to stop. He moved away shortly after that. I can’t believe he would disrespect you like this. He’s never been so horrifying.”
“I’m guessing he isn’t too open-minded towards my class,” Joseph said.
Viola shook her head. “No, he isn’t. And he’s dangerous, Joseph.”
“What do you mean?”
“Not afraid to use violence to get what he wants. And he usually finds a way to get away with it. He has a lot of influential friends.”
Joseph scoffed. “I’m not afraid of him.”
But Viola looked up at him with worried eyes. “Don’t underestimate him, Joseph, just because he’s a jerk.”
“What do you think he would do?” Joseph said, kneeling back down on their blanket and picking a blade of grass that had poked up through the sand.
“He could do anything,” Viola said, kneeling down beside him.
“Kidnap you?” Joseph asked.
Viola said nothing. To Joseph, that said it all.
“Lock the door whenever you’re alone,” he said. “You know how to shoot a gun. Keep one with you all the time.” He sighed. “I really hate this. You shouldn’t have to be afraid in your own house. In our house.” He took her in his arms. “I’ll be at home as often as I can. And you know I love it when you come out to the shop while I’m working. Albert is great help, but he can’t compare with you for company.”
Viola smiled. “Then I will be there all the more. And the good thing is, Enrique doesn’t know where we live.”
Joseph nodded, although he silently wondered how long that would be true.
Viola distracted herself from worrying about Enrique by throwing herself whole-heartedly into decorating the house. Joseph had told her on their honeymoon that he wanted her to put her touch to his house and truly make it her own. Viola had only ever dreamed of having the resources to decorate a mansion like his, so she set to work with passion. She added more color with vibrant pillows, throws, rugs, and paintings. She filled the house with the fragrance and blooms of lilacs, roses, and lavender, even festooning climbing roses around the banisters. Joseph liked everything she did, with very few exceptions, but whenever he didn’t like something, he had the final say.
Life went on in undisturbed happiness for some time, but one evening Joseph was returning from a jewel auction when he noticed a shadow following him down the boardwalk. Whenever he turned to see who was there, there was no one. Joseph tightened his belt and hurried on, staying alert, and saw no more. He decided not to go straight home, but took a very long, roundabout path. When at last he let himself through the front door, Viola was there waiting for him.
She ran to wrap her arms around him. “Baby! You’re here at last! Where have you been?”
He held her, but he didn’t immediately answer. Finally he spoke. “I think someone followed me,” he said. “I have to speak to Donatello.” He hurried from the house to the stable, and Viola followed him.
The thin, dark-skinned stable hand was feeding the mares. “Donatello, cut the other chores short tonight. I have a new task for you,” Joseph told him. “I want you to watch the gate and outskirts of my land for any suspicious figures lurking around, especially if you see a swarthy young man with a sneering expression. Or if you see anyone, but especially him. Do not let him enter under any condition, and alert me or Viola once he is gone, or if you see someone.”
“As you wish sir,” the young man agreed, bowing slightly and heading to the gate. Joseph looked around with narrowed eyes and returned to the house, his arm clasped tightly around Viola’s shoulder.
The next morning he asked Donatello for a report.
“I didn’t see anyone except the neighbors, sir.”
“Good. Now go get some sleep!” Joseph said.
Nothing more happened until a week later Joseph had to meet with some of his business associates in town. Viola stayed home. Her maid Ruth had just washed a basketful of towels, so Viola took them outside and was clipping them on the line when she sensed someone standing behind her. She turned slowly and saw Enrique standing three feet away from her. She froze in shock.
“Hello Viola,” he said smoothly. He did not smile.
“Please go,” she said. “I do not want you here.”
“No, well, I don’t want you here either.”
“This is my home!” Viola exclaimed.
“What were you thinking, marrying him?” Enrique said. “So now you’re ruling class?”
“No.”
“Your marriage is not legitimate. The real authorities here don’t accept it.”
“That is not true!” Viola exclaimed. “Our marriage license was signed by representatives of both classes.”
“Yes, but which Native governing officials will accept the marriage of a native to ruling class?”
“All of them, I would hope. Our marriage is legal.”
Enrique shook his head. “They don’t. I have spoken with quite a few who said they will certify that your marriage was invalid.”
“How DARE you!” Viola exclaimed. “What business is that of yours, I should like to know!”
“I have the right to make sure my friend isn’t living in an invalid marriage.”
Viola nodded angrily. “Sure, it would be, if it was the morality or legality that you really cared about. But that’s not what you care about.”
Enrique’s tan face twisted in anger. “I’m about to lose my patience with you, Viola!” He grabbed her wrists and pulled her next to him. “You are coming with me, whether you like it or not.”
She kicked herself free, but he was immediately on her again. She opened her mouth to scream but he quickly gagged her. Where was the gun Joseph had told her to keep on her? She always kept it in her pocket, but this dress had none.
“I will give you a choice, Viola,” Enrique said in a low, biting voice. “You can go with me willingly, or I will tie you up. Your choice.”
He hoisted her to her feet and pushed her in front of him, looking around.
Viola walked ahead a few steps, and then took off running as fast as she could. She made it halfway to the house before Enrique caught her and pinned her to the ground.
Where is Ruth? Or Donatello? Viola couldn’t believe no one had seen them.
Then Enrique fought her, viciously tying her hands and feet. He hoisted her onto his shoulder and ran for the woods. He ran for over an hour, stopping from time to time to listen. Viola’s skin was bleeding from the tightness of the cords and her head was screaming from the pounding jolts. She dared not imagine what Enrique would do to her once they reached wherever they were going. But reach it they did—an abandoned cabin in the forest. He slammed her down onto the ground.
“It will take some time for your precious love to find you here,” Enrique said. “And by that time, he will no longer have a wife.”
He held something to Viola’s neck.
Was he really going to kill her?
“Sign it,” he said, forcing the pen into her hand. He sawed the cords from her wrists. He smacked a document down on the table in front of her.
Shaking, Viola read the words “Absolution of Marriage” in bold, flowing script at the top of the paper.
She tried to speak. Enrique ungagged her. “How did you get onto my lawn without anyone seeing you?” she asked.
“I’ve been watching your house for a week. I saw the man you call your husband leave this morning, and before his servant took up his usual post watching, I climbed the wall and waited in the bushes until you appeared.”
Viola shivered. “I never knew you were so sick.”
“Sign it!” Enrique demanded angrily, slapping the paper.
Viola gripped the pen, wondering how much damage it could do as a weapon.
“You do realize, Viola, that you are completely in my power here?” Enrique said, standing up from where he been crouching in front of her. “I can choose to cause you a great deal of pain if you do not do what I say.”
“I know that very well,” Viola said.
“Then why don’t you do it?!” Enrique hissed, putting his face into hers.
She lurched backwards away from him but made no answer. Because I love my husband and my God is what she thought, but she knew it might prompt him to start scheming up ways to hurt Joseph.
“You can’t escape me, Viola,” Enrique said with a cruel laugh. “Oh no! You are going to sign that paper or you will die!”
He gripped the knife and waved it in front of Viola’s eyes. She flinched. Somehow she kept thinking Enrique would not go all the way. She was wrong. A sob caught in her throat. Not because of the pain. Not because she was going to lose her life. Because in that act, he was going to devastate Joseph’s world. She would be free once she died, but he would go on in anguish. She hesitated for a moment. Would it be better to do as this evil man said and save her love from that pain?
But then again, if she signed it and legally gave up her marriage, would that hurt him any less? No, she realized, that would hurt him even worse. And more than that, it would be wrong.
“Sign it!” Enrique yelled, louder this time.
Viola threw the pen to the floor. Enraged, Enrique thrust the knife at her—and it flew out of his hand against the wall as Joseph tackled him to the ground. He knocked him senseless and rushed to cut the bonds on Viola’s feet.
Then Albert and Donatello were there.
“Bind him securely and take him to the authorities!” Joseph ordered them. He rubbed circulation back into Viola’s feet. He lifted her to a standing position and they clung to each other. Viola was crying.
“Come with me,” Joseph said, lifting her in his arms and running from the cabin.
“How did you find me?” Viola asked, gently bouncing as his feet touched the ground.
“Ruth saw Enrique talking to you in the yard and told Donatello, who tracked you to the cabin. I arrived home just after he took you. Once Donatello knew where you were, he reported back to me and Albert and the three of us came together to the cabin. He had trouble finding it again until we heard Enrique yelling at you.”
“I guess it’s a good thing I made him mad.”
Joseph pursed his lips and squeezed her hand soberly, then held her to his chest. “If I had arrived a second later…” He choked on a sob. “I will praise God forever that I didn’t lose you today!”
“Baby…” Viola pressed her lips to his. “Thank you for saving me!”
Joseph said nothing, but his eyes said it all.
A few minutes later they heard a commotion back at the cabin and looked back to see it swarming with officers.
“Ruth has been busy,” Joseph smiled.
Through the trees, they saw Enrique being led away in handcuffs. Albert and Donatello motioned to them to come back, so with his arm tightly wound around Viola’s, Joseph led her back to the scene.
“These men want to ask you some questions,” Donatello said.
Viola told them in detail everything that had happened to her at Enrique’s hands and how she escaped. Then Joseph told them his part.
“Thank you for your information,” said the man taking notes. “We are very sorry for the terrifying things that happened to you today. Rest assured your captor is going to prison and will undergo trial where you will be asked to testify.”
Joseph and Viola walked home through the forest. She was glad that he kept his arm wrapped around her in a comforting, protective stance. The evening sun filtered warm and mellow through the trees, dappling the ground with sunshine.
“I will never forget that scene as long as I live,” Viola said.
“I know; it’s horrible,” Joseph said.
“No, it’s not,” Viola said. “I mean the scene when you burst into the cabin and flattened Enrique! Your timing and execution were perfect!”
“Thank God I wasn’t a second later!” Joseph shivered, drawing Viola closer.
“That was God for sure,” Viola agreed soberly.
“What did that man do to you?” Joseph asked, not even wanting to say his name.
“He tried to make me absolve our marriage,” Viola said.
“What?!”
“He had gotten some documents from some government officials he’s friends with to certify that our marriage is invalid. He was trying to force me to sign it.”
Joseph’s eyes grew big with rage. “I’m glad I hit him as hard as I did! Did he torture you?”
“No, he didn’t waste time with that. It was sign, or death. I didn’t sign, so he came at me with a knife. That’s when you appeared.”
Joseph stopped walking and stood across from Viola. He looked down and then up into her eyes. “You would have died to preserve our marriage?”
She nodded. “That’s what I promised you when I married you. ‘Till death do us part.’”
He pulled her fiercely to his chest in a bear hug, but not before Viola saw the tears splashing on his cheeks.
“You are priceless,” he cried. “Priceless.”
Viola whispered into his hair. “Now I don’t just know, I’ve experienced the truth of that beautiful ancient verse, ‘Love is as strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave.’”
“I wonder about the second part of the verse, though,” Joseph said. I don’t like the jealousy part as much. That reminds me of Enrique.”
“No,” Viola shook her head. “That’s talking about you. I’m really glad you are jealous for me because if you weren’t, I wouldn’t be alive right now.”
Joseph reflected and then nodded. “You’re right. I will always be jealous for you!”
“And so you should be,” she said, sliding her hand into his and gazing up at him. “Because I’m yours and no one else’s.”
He bent down, put his hands on either side of her face and slowly and passionately kissed her.