Senora de Silva: A Dark Gothic Fairytale
Senora de Silva: A Dark Gothic Fairytale
Once upon a long time ago, in a country that is no more, stood a once grand decaying manor. It crouched like a contemplating stone troll surveying the despair of others in wry amusement. Drab weeds clothed the abandoned manor and pitted gray statues adorned it. If one was to open the great banded doors of this manor they would find nought but the echoes of a failed marriage, made of convenience and lived in destructive decadence. Mericless misery howled through the stone walls and sparse chambers within. Deep in it's heart lay two skeletons who are in endless embrace.
The wife of this unfortunate union was a faded rose by the name of Senora Eleanora De Silva and her husband the merchant Senor Marcus De Silva. Senor Marcus was man who was shrewd with money and gold. When people were in great need he would, with a genial wave of his plump hand, extend them a financial life line. Once their time of need had passed he would perch outside their abode and hold out that same plump hand for their hefty repayment of the gold.
Senor Marcus De Silva had heard it all before. "Senor De Silva, if we pay you our children will have nought to eat." or "Senor De Silva, our business shall fail and our employees starve should we pay your exorbitant interest." The Senor's heart was never troubled by the ramblings of the unfortunate beings who were desperate enough to seek his aid. Yes, he was a cunning man in all ways but one, and that was his selection of a wife.
Chapter 1- Senor De Silva's Business
Many years prior, Senor De Silva had been doing business at the palace with young courtier who had borrowed money to fund his entrance into tourney so that he might win the heart of the beautiful Eleanora. The silly young thing had not only failed to win her heart, but he had also been injured in the tourney. The courtier could no longer move around with agility. The lad's once handsome visage had been hideously scarred when his visor had crumpled and slashed his face. Eleanora could not even look at him. To be seen in his company would be an embarrassment. She simply pretended that the broken hearted youth did not exist at all.
When he pleaded with her to consider his suit she smiled and said "You are a brave boy. Unfortunately you are not of independent means. You still rely on your father. You are too poor to marry and too scarred for me to entertain myself with. I am sorry but this means that you are of no use to me and I beg you to pretend that our previous flirtation had never happened. You do understand don't you?" Eleanora understood that marriage was not an emotional matter but a relationship formed by dependence and need. She simply had no need of this courtier.
The wounded and bandage lad nodded sadly. Lady Eleanora had stroked his hand with a gloved finger, pushed an errant blond curl from his eyes and left him in his sick bed. She swept from the room and did not pause to look back. She was a truly lovely creature to observe, her white blond hair had the quality of the finest silk. Her porcelain face glowed unmarred by wind, sun or rain yet a soft blush always rested upon her cheeks. It was her eyes however that drove poets of the time mad for they were of Sapphire with an inner fire, if one stared too long at those lovely blue orbs they would see the hard bitterness contained within. Lady Eleanora wisely held gazes for but a second before she would drop her lids and let her long dark lashes cloak the ice inside her soul.
Despite his depressed state, in time the courtier was up and around. He had not taken but one step from his infirmary door, when who should be there lurking in wait, but Senor De Silva. Due to the large moneylender's low station he had previously been unable to see the courtier. He had spent many an afternoon waiting in the corridor and had witnessed the discourse between the courtier and Lady Eleanora. Senor Marcus De Silva thought that the whole episode was further proof that only money could be trusted. When he finally saw the young scarred man limp from his sick bed the Senor pounced upon him, " My young Sir, you owe me and I demand payment."
The courtier expressed true remorse at his inability to meet his obligations but Senor de Silva's heart, if he had one, was in no way moved. The money lender threatened the young lad. "Should you default you will not be able to purchase clothing, weapons, food or even a cup of wine. I either own every shop in this region or I hold debts on their owners. I am very powerful and I am the invisible chain that connects everything. Do not think that I can not make yours and your family's life impossible."
The Courtier's shoulders slumped and he stared at the ground. In a quite voice he whispered,"I can not pay, I expected to win the tourney, after all I was done in the name of true love." The Courtier lifted his head and sheer sincerity dripped from his pose. Senor Marcus De Silva realised that this stupid fool honestly believed in true love and that somehow it excuses debt. The boy had clearly spent too many hours listening to court poets.
Senor Marcus replied to the courtier's emotive plea,"Humph, true love does not protect you and it certainly does not pay your bills. I have seen true love cause men to have more bills but never have I seen it remove them. Love is an illusion. Money is real. Your debt is real and the threat I have made to you is very real." The money lender started to consider the situation, he was clearly not going to get any money from this fop however for a common man to press the matter with a noble was a dangerous course. Still this courtier may be of use to him yet.
The courtier drew himself to his full height and with his hand on his heart declared,"I am a man of honour, I assure you that you will be paid Senor De Silva." Senor Marcus appeared to consider the matter, then he placed his arm around the youth's shoulders. His face split in to an expression which replicated a smile, soon enough the young man's posture relaxed.
Assuming the tone of a kind uncle, de Silva threw a ray of hope toward the boy."There may be a way out for you after all, I hear that your father owns a rare, full sized, silver swan. I greatly desire it. Obtain it an our business is done." With a heavy heart the scarred courtier agreed thinking perhaps Senor de Silva would allow him to repurchase the swan so he could return it to his father. He hated to be a thief but there was little choice, one way or another, honour would be lost.
That night as Senor De Silva was harassing a local widow for repayment on the some of money he gave her to bury her husband, the courtier donned a dark cloak and prepared to steal from his own father. Sadly, in the attempt to take the silver swan the young courtier awoke his father's soldiers. They, having spied a dark shape in the night, plunged a sword into the back of the unknown thief and thus they ended their Lord's beloved son's life.
The Courtier's family were distraught but this did not stop the money lender from accosting the Lord on the eve of his eldest son's funeral to insist on payment. As the Lord sat crying tears of greif into his wine goblet De Silva showed up with a bunch of burly paid thugs, he threatened the Lord and told him that he would ensure the family was shamed. The Lord refused to pay and Senor De Silva took the matter up with the King.
The monarch would normally not have intervened with a private matter however he was engaged in a costly dispute with the neighbouring kingdom and he too needed the assistance of the money lender. The King had no choice but to insist that the Lord pay his son's debts. Eleanora watched the whole drama play out before her Sapphire eyes, she smiled to herself as she watched the greif stricken Lord hand over his precious silver swan to the awaiting clutches of the money lender.
Chapter 2- Lady Eleanora Does Buisness.
It occurred to Lady Eleanora that the fat Senor De Silva was the wealthiest man in the province even the King was under the thumb of the moneylender. True, the Senor De Silva was outrageously fat. He was most hideously common but, he was feared, despised, and the true seat of power in the kingdom. Perhaps there was little worth in titles or position, it seemed to Eleanora, as though money was the most important element within society. Eleanora thus duly turned her attentions toward the toad like money lender, leaving knights, courtiers and poets hearts broken through out the realm.
Senor Marcus De Silva, though astonished by the noble lady's attention, saw the advantages in the match immediately. He saw how such a divine looking creature of noble birth might secure him entry into the halls of wealth and power within the kingdom. He had seen her nature with the courtier but he understood that she was doing business and her ruthlessness could be an asset, if managed properly. He dreamed of being saved from the penny poor business of villagers as currently his business with the aristocracy was always hampered by his limited position and access. Lady Eleanora may be the ticket he needed to allow him easy and unfettered access to the gold of the nobles.
He spent a great deal of money on trinkets and soon enough he secured a marriage with the greatly desired Lady Eleanora. From that day on she gave up her title of ' Lady' and settled for the name of Senora De Silva, wife of the wealthiest money lender in the land. She considered the sacrifice of a title a worthy trade for great wealth.
She imagined a life of parties and balls. Her body would be clothed in the finest of silks and her personage sparkling in jewels. She was to face grave disappointment however, for it would seem that a stunning woman of noble birth who is unmarried is a powerful aphrodisiac while the attractive wife of a common man was an embarrassment to those who strode the avenues of privilege.
When she was single men had desired her and women wanted to be her and this allowed them to be blinded to the empty hollowing cavern that was her soul. Once married, to a commoner no less, her many faults became magnified in the eyes of the court. Her rumoured indiscretions with the men of the court became the fodder for gossips and soon the rumours and innuendo's grew to the point where her reputation was sullied and filthy. She became known as a harlot and not a woman of substance.
Had her husband been of noble birth he would have been forced to defend her honour, even die for it. Senor de Silva however was not compelled to lay down his life for her and laughed in her face at the suggestion. Soon the great doors of the kingdom became barred to her and dealings with the Senor continued to be done in private and forever guarded as a dirty little secret.
CHAPTER 3- For Better and Worse
Eleanora was not able to secure her husband the access he so desired to fashionable society. Without this power she quickly found that he was unwilling to spend exorbitant amounts of money on clothes and jewels to dress his beautiful but, largely useless, wife. He found her company dull, her mind pedestrian and her tongue sharp. Before long he left her to wile away the days of her life in the fore mentioned isolated manor.
Soon the Senora became discontent with her lot and started to be seen around the village in the company of strong stable and farm hands. It was known in the town that she took them to her chambers until she tired of them. The town was a religious one and they deeply resented the sin Eleanora brought into their midst. In their eyes she was nothing more than a horrible succubus. Still these avaricious adventures were only a temporary amusement and soon she took to playing cards.
Many an evening at the manor would see the candles burning late into the evening as she played hand after hand of cards. She sold all the trinkets her husband had given her when they were courting to fund her habit. She also disposed of all of the valuable assets within the manor. Soon it was nothing more than a threadbare corpse of a dwelling without comfort or a flicker of human warmth. The manor was her prison. Her husband was her obese gaoler.
Senor De Silva looked on amused by her antics. Using other means he always got the money back from those she had lost to. As such her loses cost him nothing. However, it cost the Senora every scrap of comfort that life had afforded her. Senor Marcus did not care about the stable boys either, for he had no use of her physical delights. She had not made room in her bed for him after they married and he had never sought it. He preferred the company of the ladies of the night who resided in his house of ill repute near by.
His heart was ruled by gold and unmoved by the plaintive wailing of Eleanora. The servants had ensured, at his prompting, that it was widely known that she was his wife in name only. His reputation was safe. The only reputation he needed was to be known as wealthy and ruthless. In that manner his wife had built his reputation rather than harmed it. For all knew that he had destroyed her and that if a man's wife had no claim to his better nature than what hope could a defaulting lendee have.
The years wound away in this fashion and the Senora's beauty dimmed. The sourness of her disposition grew. Soon not even stable hands came to visit. She was in the depths of despair when suddenly she saw a possible way out of her situation. The opportunity arose when she heard about a widowed Count from a distant land had come to visit a relative from the House of Paro nearby. She could see herself as a Countess and rubbing her previous friends of the courts face in her new nobility. She had no doubt that if she was to become available then she would be able to entrap this foreign Count with her face as he would have no knowledge of her reputation. All she had to do was find a way to dispense with her husband.
The Senora was desperate to get away from her husband and the existence he had provided her. She often spent hours hatching schemes on how to kill him and she imagined his dead body often. She wanted to murder him but dared not. Senor De Silva let it be known that the church would inherit his wealth and that his wife would be joining a cloister on his death. She knew that the only way to escape this fate was to ensure that another man would be ready, willing and able to provide for her at the moment of her husbands demise.
She needed the protection that only a noble could provide if she was to hope that killing her husband would go unpunished. The Count offered the opportunity she had been longing for. All she needed was access to this Count and her troubles would disappear, she began to search for opportunities. She managed to secure an invite to a dinner that the host family of the Count was putting on in his honour. She secured this invite at the card table in one of her few wins. The invite was not enough. Elanora needed gowns, jewels and transport if she was to make any impact upon the Count.
Her loses had been steep and there was nothing left to sell. She could not go to her husband and ask him for money to leave him. Eleanora was stuck in a conundrum and she was unsure of how next to proceed. Everyday she would look at the gilt edged invitation and would stare at in puzzlement on how she was to achieve the miracle of attending.
CHAPTER 4: Strangers in the Night
Coincidentally a vicious storm arose from the North and it brought a well dressed traveler to her door. "Excuse Senora, could I perhaps secure lodging for an evening with you in this house." The man was handsome enough and normally the Elanora would have invited him in with glee. Sadly, for her, this was one of the rare occasions in that Senor Marcus De Silva was home. It was he who interrupted the exchange on his doorstep, "I am not an innkeeper young man. I suggest you take yourself to the local inn and find lodgings there."
The young man looked back at the forbidding clouds that were closing in on his position and he grew desperate "Senor Marcus De Silva, please, I would be exposed to these winds and rain before I reached the village and I may even die." The massive money lender looked past the young man and saw a fine noble steed which stared at him with barely contained hostility.
"Is that your stallion?" The Senor inquired, his fat bejeweled fingers where rubbing themselves with undisguised greed.
"Yes Senor De Silva. My brother gave him to me shortly before his death." The young stranger was clearly puzzled at the change in course the conversation had taken.
"Alright, I will give you lodging in exchange for the stallion." The young man looked alarmed, he then turned toward the ominous storm and nodded with resignation. The Senor widened the door and the young man, entered and introduced himself as Senor Draco Payetto.
Later in evening Draco sat at the bare unadorned table of the manor and ate thin watery soup. Next to him was Senora De Silva eyeing him speculatively over her spoon. She then spoke, "I am sorry for the poor fare of our table and the absence of my husband but he keeps a stingy house and is not an accommodating host." The young man looked sympathetically at Eleanora and nodded with understanding.
Draco was in obvious discomfort and made his excuses to retire shortly after the small supper. He had no sooner changed into his shift when Eleanora appeared in his room attired in a diaphanous robe. Her blonde white hair was loose and trailing down her back. Her sapphire eyes suggestively looked over the partially young man. Soon enough she was in his bed and the night was spent on sweaty physical bed sport.
When they had finished their nocturnal activity they lay in the bed looking out at the stars that appeared through the open window of the manor. Elanora's eyes moistened and she spoke of her tragic situation whilst lying on Draco's chest, "Marcus is a most cruel husband and I wish I could get away from him. My life is a stone empty hell." Draco patted her soft hair murmuring sympathetically.
"Perhaps my lady you could come with me to my home. Alas, it is a humble abode and it is not worthy of such a lady as you, yet it is an option." Draco offered tentatively.
Senora Eleanora smiled and said "If I were to accept your offer we would be poor together. I love you of course but I can not live with you in such a humble manner. Soon my dear our love would make way to despair for penny pinching does not make for great romance. If only there was a way we could be together. I did have a plan for escape but it would be difficult." Her tears sparkled like diamonds upon her moonlit face.
Draco raised himself upon one elbow and pleaded,"Please Senora, tell me of your plan." She then told him of the visiting Count and she explained that she intended to do away with her husband freeing herself to marry the Count. She continued to explain that once she secured such a marriage it would be possible, for her to find a place for the young man upon the Count's staff and they could live together and not be in poverty. She herself was surprised when Draco readily agreed to her plan. He even assured her that he would be able to secure belladonna a poison that would remove Senor De Silva from the equation.
CHAPTER 5- Draco does Business
The next morning Draco left the manor early and made for the nearby village.Once there he sold his stallion for a pretty penny. He used some of the funds to purchase belladonna from a witch hag who lived in the forest. He then returned to the manor, and gave the funds to the Senora with the belladonna. When she asked where he had obtained the funds he told her that it was from an agreement he secured with her husband.
With great rapidity she ran out and went to the village to buy herself a new ermine fringed blue velvet gown. She was ready for the dinner with the count. She dressed in her new attire and danced by herself in her chamber. She imagined the Count dancing with her and the vision of beauty they would make. She did not think of Draco at all, he had been a pleasant amusement as well as somewhat useful, for the moment. She would dispose of him soon enough but the first male that needed disposal was her toad like spouse.
All that was left to do before she could ascend into polite society was to poison her husband. It was hard for her not to smile with malicious delight as she gave him his lunch time stew particularly when he requested a second helping. Draco knocked on Senor Marcus' study door shortly after the money lender had finished his stew. Draco bowed low and said, "Dearest Senor De Silva, I thank-you for your generosity and for providing lodging to an unknown stranger."
Senor Marcus replied with a mouth full of food,"That is alright, it was not out of generosity- Your stallion is a fine beast and he shall be a magnificent addition to my stable." Senor De Silva did not even look up from his bowl to meet the young intruder's eyes. He just continued with his lunching and waved Draco away.
"Oh no my Lord, I sold the animal. I thought you wanted the worth of the horse." The Senor was annoyed but at least he would secure the worth of the horse. He held out his fat hands for the young man to deposit the gold into it. Draco asked quizzically, "Good sir, why do you extend your hand so?"
The money lender told the man to place the gold into the sweaty fleshy palm. Draco's face became confused, 'But Senor, I have already paid your lovely Wife this very morn. Now I must away.' With a flip of his cloak Draco departed the Manor.
CHAPTER 6: Marriage de Morte
Senor Marcus watched the man leave and his throat constricted with panic for knew that any money in his Wife's hands was at risk. Enraged he raced down the stairs to his Wife's apartments smashing her door open he bellowed, "Wench, I want my money, and I want it now!"
Eleanora dressed in the blue gown was smoothing it with her hands when she looked up to see the enraged visage of her husband bearing down upon her, "What money you lunatic?" Her disgust of her husband was undisguised.
Senor Marcus, face flushed, continued, "The money that young fop paid for his accommodation." Eleanora was confused then realised that the gold she had spent on the dress was the money of which her husband spoke. "I used it for this dress."
Senor De Silva looked at the dress and noticed how fine it was, "Why did you need the dress, where have you got to go?" He was thinking that he would be able to sell the dress and recoup some of his loses. Eleanora's attention returned to her looking glass as she patted her her hair. "I am off to the House of Paro to sup with their guest the widower Count, I think it is time for a new husband. Now that I myself am about to be a widower."
Just then the Senor De Silva doubled over as a sharp cramp in his abdomen struck him in to a near insensible state. His face felt hot and fever raged through out him. His heart was pounding and his head was thumping. Eleanora smiled with malicious glee, "Oh dear, my Husband- you look weakish, was it perhaps something you ate?" She then laughed and her eyes glowed with murderous relish.
Senor de Silva realised that his wife had tainted his food and that his life was soon forfeit. He reached out his large fat hands and placed them around his Eleanora's throat. "Kill you... bitch, Damn you to Hell!" He then proceeded to fall on top of her. He used his mass to pin her to the floor, His great hands squeezed the life out of her. Her arms flailed beneath him. He stared in her bulging eyes. He continued to hold her gaze until all light left her eyes and they filmed over. As his strength departed he collapsed upon the corpse of the once lovely Senora Eleanora De Silva. He then breathed his last breath into her blue tinged lips. They died with their lips pressed together in an eternal kiss.
In the looming dark manor the greedy Senor and his scheming lavisious wife were left to rot on her apartment floor. The villagers came to pick over the house but the left the two of them there, unburied. The people celebrated in drunken merriment for two days to celebrate the demise of the fat money lender and his wife. The villagers lived out their days in prosperity now the De Silva vultures had departed this Earthly plain.
Far away a young man stood before a pauper's grave, the burial site of his beloved big brother. He ripped up the simple marker and watched as the stone smith and his apprentice put a creamy marble grave stone in it's place. The name that carved on the headstone was none other than that of the young courtier who met his end due to the machinations of Senor De Silva and for the love of the pointless Eleanora.
EPILOGUE
Draco kissed his brother's headstone and left the graveyard to sup with his friend the Count. The Count continued to be baffled by Draco's insistence that his friend stay with Paro Family for the Summer. After injuring Draco's brother in a tourney it was the least the Count could do even if he did not understand his friend's reasoning.
After Senor Draco Payetto had laid his brother to a proper rest he sighed with relief as this matter was finally closed. Vengeance had been the dish Draco had served cold, a delightful dessert, in that it was most sweet. Draco never spared Senora De Silva another single thought. Draco did however, have much laughter, true and lasting love and he lived very happily ever after.
BY A.SIMS
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Once upon a long time ago, in a country that is no more, stood a once grand decaying manor. It crouched like a contemplating stone troll surveying the despair of others in wry amusement. Drab weeds clothed the abandoned manor and pitted gray statues adorned it. If one was to open the great banded doors of this manor they would find nought but the echoes of a failed marriage, made of convenience and lived in destructive decadence. Mericless misery howled through the stone walls and sparse chambers within. Deep in it's heart lay two skeletons who are in endless embrace.
The wife of this unfortunate union was a faded rose by the name of Senora Eleanora De Silva and her husband the merchant Senor Marcus De Silva. Senor Marcus was man who was shrewd with money and gold. When people were in great need he would, with a genial wave of his plump hand, extend them a financial life line. Once their time of need had passed he would perch outside their abode and hold out that same plump hand for their hefty repayment of the gold.
Senor Marcus De Silva had heard it all before. "Senor De Silva, if we pay you our children will have nought to eat." or "Senor De Silva, our business shall fail and our employees starve should we pay your exorbitant interest." The Senor's heart was never troubled by the ramblings of the unfortunate beings who were desperate enough to seek his aid. Yes, he was a cunning man in all ways but one, and that was his selection of a wife.
Chapter 1- Senor De Silva's Business
Many years prior, Senor De Silva had been doing business at the palace with young courtier who had borrowed money to fund his entrance into tourney so that he might win the heart of the beautiful Eleanora. The silly young thing had not only failed to win her heart, but he had also been injured in the tourney. The courtier could no longer move around with agility. The lad's once handsome visage had been hideously scarred when his visor had crumpled and slashed his face. Eleanora could not even look at him. To be seen in his company would be an embarrassment. She simply pretended that the broken hearted youth did not exist at all.
When he pleaded with her to consider his suit she smiled and said "You are a brave boy. Unfortunately you are not of independent means. You still rely on your father. You are too poor to marry and too scarred for me to entertain myself with. I am sorry but this means that you are of no use to me and I beg you to pretend that our previous flirtation had never happened. You do understand don't you?" Eleanora understood that marriage was not an emotional matter but a relationship formed by dependence and need. She simply had no need of this courtier.
The wounded and bandage lad nodded sadly. Lady Eleanora had stroked his hand with a gloved finger, pushed an errant blond curl from his eyes and left him in his sick bed. She swept from the room and did not pause to look back. She was a truly lovely creature to observe, her white blond hair had the quality of the finest silk. Her porcelain face glowed unmarred by wind, sun or rain yet a soft blush always rested upon her cheeks. It was her eyes however that drove poets of the time mad for they were of Sapphire with an inner fire, if one stared too long at those lovely blue orbs they would see the hard bitterness contained within. Lady Eleanora wisely held gazes for but a second before she would drop her lids and let her long dark lashes cloak the ice inside her soul.
Despite his depressed state, in time the courtier was up and around. He had not taken but one step from his infirmary door, when who should be there lurking in wait, but Senor De Silva. Due to the large moneylender's low station he had previously been unable to see the courtier. He had spent many an afternoon waiting in the corridor and had witnessed the discourse between the courtier and Lady Eleanora. Senor Marcus De Silva thought that the whole episode was further proof that only money could be trusted. When he finally saw the young scarred man limp from his sick bed the Senor pounced upon him, " My young Sir, you owe me and I demand payment."
The courtier expressed true remorse at his inability to meet his obligations but Senor de Silva's heart, if he had one, was in no way moved. The money lender threatened the young lad. "Should you default you will not be able to purchase clothing, weapons, food or even a cup of wine. I either own every shop in this region or I hold debts on their owners. I am very powerful and I am the invisible chain that connects everything. Do not think that I can not make yours and your family's life impossible."
The Courtier's shoulders slumped and he stared at the ground. In a quite voice he whispered,"I can not pay, I expected to win the tourney, after all I was done in the name of true love." The Courtier lifted his head and sheer sincerity dripped from his pose. Senor Marcus De Silva realised that this stupid fool honestly believed in true love and that somehow it excuses debt. The boy had clearly spent too many hours listening to court poets.
Senor Marcus replied to the courtier's emotive plea,"Humph, true love does not protect you and it certainly does not pay your bills. I have seen true love cause men to have more bills but never have I seen it remove them. Love is an illusion. Money is real. Your debt is real and the threat I have made to you is very real." The money lender started to consider the situation, he was clearly not going to get any money from this fop however for a common man to press the matter with a noble was a dangerous course. Still this courtier may be of use to him yet.
The courtier drew himself to his full height and with his hand on his heart declared,"I am a man of honour, I assure you that you will be paid Senor De Silva." Senor Marcus appeared to consider the matter, then he placed his arm around the youth's shoulders. His face split in to an expression which replicated a smile, soon enough the young man's posture relaxed.
Assuming the tone of a kind uncle, de Silva threw a ray of hope toward the boy."There may be a way out for you after all, I hear that your father owns a rare, full sized, silver swan. I greatly desire it. Obtain it an our business is done." With a heavy heart the scarred courtier agreed thinking perhaps Senor de Silva would allow him to repurchase the swan so he could return it to his father. He hated to be a thief but there was little choice, one way or another, honour would be lost.
That night as Senor De Silva was harassing a local widow for repayment on the some of money he gave her to bury her husband, the courtier donned a dark cloak and prepared to steal from his own father. Sadly, in the attempt to take the silver swan the young courtier awoke his father's soldiers. They, having spied a dark shape in the night, plunged a sword into the back of the unknown thief and thus they ended their Lord's beloved son's life.
The Courtier's family were distraught but this did not stop the money lender from accosting the Lord on the eve of his eldest son's funeral to insist on payment. As the Lord sat crying tears of greif into his wine goblet De Silva showed up with a bunch of burly paid thugs, he threatened the Lord and told him that he would ensure the family was shamed. The Lord refused to pay and Senor De Silva took the matter up with the King.
The monarch would normally not have intervened with a private matter however he was engaged in a costly dispute with the neighbouring kingdom and he too needed the assistance of the money lender. The King had no choice but to insist that the Lord pay his son's debts. Eleanora watched the whole drama play out before her Sapphire eyes, she smiled to herself as she watched the greif stricken Lord hand over his precious silver swan to the awaiting clutches of the money lender.
Chapter 2- Lady Eleanora Does Buisness.
It occurred to Lady Eleanora that the fat Senor De Silva was the wealthiest man in the province even the King was under the thumb of the moneylender. True, the Senor De Silva was outrageously fat. He was most hideously common but, he was feared, despised, and the true seat of power in the kingdom. Perhaps there was little worth in titles or position, it seemed to Eleanora, as though money was the most important element within society. Eleanora thus duly turned her attentions toward the toad like money lender, leaving knights, courtiers and poets hearts broken through out the realm.
Senor Marcus De Silva, though astonished by the noble lady's attention, saw the advantages in the match immediately. He saw how such a divine looking creature of noble birth might secure him entry into the halls of wealth and power within the kingdom. He had seen her nature with the courtier but he understood that she was doing business and her ruthlessness could be an asset, if managed properly. He dreamed of being saved from the penny poor business of villagers as currently his business with the aristocracy was always hampered by his limited position and access. Lady Eleanora may be the ticket he needed to allow him easy and unfettered access to the gold of the nobles.
He spent a great deal of money on trinkets and soon enough he secured a marriage with the greatly desired Lady Eleanora. From that day on she gave up her title of ' Lady' and settled for the name of Senora De Silva, wife of the wealthiest money lender in the land. She considered the sacrifice of a title a worthy trade for great wealth.
She imagined a life of parties and balls. Her body would be clothed in the finest of silks and her personage sparkling in jewels. She was to face grave disappointment however, for it would seem that a stunning woman of noble birth who is unmarried is a powerful aphrodisiac while the attractive wife of a common man was an embarrassment to those who strode the avenues of privilege.
When she was single men had desired her and women wanted to be her and this allowed them to be blinded to the empty hollowing cavern that was her soul. Once married, to a commoner no less, her many faults became magnified in the eyes of the court. Her rumoured indiscretions with the men of the court became the fodder for gossips and soon the rumours and innuendo's grew to the point where her reputation was sullied and filthy. She became known as a harlot and not a woman of substance.
Had her husband been of noble birth he would have been forced to defend her honour, even die for it. Senor de Silva however was not compelled to lay down his life for her and laughed in her face at the suggestion. Soon the great doors of the kingdom became barred to her and dealings with the Senor continued to be done in private and forever guarded as a dirty little secret.
CHAPTER 3- For Better and Worse
Eleanora was not able to secure her husband the access he so desired to fashionable society. Without this power she quickly found that he was unwilling to spend exorbitant amounts of money on clothes and jewels to dress his beautiful but, largely useless, wife. He found her company dull, her mind pedestrian and her tongue sharp. Before long he left her to wile away the days of her life in the fore mentioned isolated manor.
Soon the Senora became discontent with her lot and started to be seen around the village in the company of strong stable and farm hands. It was known in the town that she took them to her chambers until she tired of them. The town was a religious one and they deeply resented the sin Eleanora brought into their midst. In their eyes she was nothing more than a horrible succubus. Still these avaricious adventures were only a temporary amusement and soon she took to playing cards.
Many an evening at the manor would see the candles burning late into the evening as she played hand after hand of cards. She sold all the trinkets her husband had given her when they were courting to fund her habit. She also disposed of all of the valuable assets within the manor. Soon it was nothing more than a threadbare corpse of a dwelling without comfort or a flicker of human warmth. The manor was her prison. Her husband was her obese gaoler.
Senor De Silva looked on amused by her antics. Using other means he always got the money back from those she had lost to. As such her loses cost him nothing. However, it cost the Senora every scrap of comfort that life had afforded her. Senor Marcus did not care about the stable boys either, for he had no use of her physical delights. She had not made room in her bed for him after they married and he had never sought it. He preferred the company of the ladies of the night who resided in his house of ill repute near by.
His heart was ruled by gold and unmoved by the plaintive wailing of Eleanora. The servants had ensured, at his prompting, that it was widely known that she was his wife in name only. His reputation was safe. The only reputation he needed was to be known as wealthy and ruthless. In that manner his wife had built his reputation rather than harmed it. For all knew that he had destroyed her and that if a man's wife had no claim to his better nature than what hope could a defaulting lendee have.
The years wound away in this fashion and the Senora's beauty dimmed. The sourness of her disposition grew. Soon not even stable hands came to visit. She was in the depths of despair when suddenly she saw a possible way out of her situation. The opportunity arose when she heard about a widowed Count from a distant land had come to visit a relative from the House of Paro nearby. She could see herself as a Countess and rubbing her previous friends of the courts face in her new nobility. She had no doubt that if she was to become available then she would be able to entrap this foreign Count with her face as he would have no knowledge of her reputation. All she had to do was find a way to dispense with her husband.
The Senora was desperate to get away from her husband and the existence he had provided her. She often spent hours hatching schemes on how to kill him and she imagined his dead body often. She wanted to murder him but dared not. Senor De Silva let it be known that the church would inherit his wealth and that his wife would be joining a cloister on his death. She knew that the only way to escape this fate was to ensure that another man would be ready, willing and able to provide for her at the moment of her husbands demise.
She needed the protection that only a noble could provide if she was to hope that killing her husband would go unpunished. The Count offered the opportunity she had been longing for. All she needed was access to this Count and her troubles would disappear, she began to search for opportunities. She managed to secure an invite to a dinner that the host family of the Count was putting on in his honour. She secured this invite at the card table in one of her few wins. The invite was not enough. Elanora needed gowns, jewels and transport if she was to make any impact upon the Count.
Her loses had been steep and there was nothing left to sell. She could not go to her husband and ask him for money to leave him. Eleanora was stuck in a conundrum and she was unsure of how next to proceed. Everyday she would look at the gilt edged invitation and would stare at in puzzlement on how she was to achieve the miracle of attending.
CHAPTER 4: Strangers in the Night
Coincidentally a vicious storm arose from the North and it brought a well dressed traveler to her door. "Excuse Senora, could I perhaps secure lodging for an evening with you in this house." The man was handsome enough and normally the Elanora would have invited him in with glee. Sadly, for her, this was one of the rare occasions in that Senor Marcus De Silva was home. It was he who interrupted the exchange on his doorstep, "I am not an innkeeper young man. I suggest you take yourself to the local inn and find lodgings there."
The young man looked back at the forbidding clouds that were closing in on his position and he grew desperate "Senor Marcus De Silva, please, I would be exposed to these winds and rain before I reached the village and I may even die." The massive money lender looked past the young man and saw a fine noble steed which stared at him with barely contained hostility.
"Is that your stallion?" The Senor inquired, his fat bejeweled fingers where rubbing themselves with undisguised greed.
"Yes Senor De Silva. My brother gave him to me shortly before his death." The young stranger was clearly puzzled at the change in course the conversation had taken.
"Alright, I will give you lodging in exchange for the stallion." The young man looked alarmed, he then turned toward the ominous storm and nodded with resignation. The Senor widened the door and the young man, entered and introduced himself as Senor Draco Payetto.
Later in evening Draco sat at the bare unadorned table of the manor and ate thin watery soup. Next to him was Senora De Silva eyeing him speculatively over her spoon. She then spoke, "I am sorry for the poor fare of our table and the absence of my husband but he keeps a stingy house and is not an accommodating host." The young man looked sympathetically at Eleanora and nodded with understanding.
Draco was in obvious discomfort and made his excuses to retire shortly after the small supper. He had no sooner changed into his shift when Eleanora appeared in his room attired in a diaphanous robe. Her blonde white hair was loose and trailing down her back. Her sapphire eyes suggestively looked over the partially young man. Soon enough she was in his bed and the night was spent on sweaty physical bed sport.
When they had finished their nocturnal activity they lay in the bed looking out at the stars that appeared through the open window of the manor. Elanora's eyes moistened and she spoke of her tragic situation whilst lying on Draco's chest, "Marcus is a most cruel husband and I wish I could get away from him. My life is a stone empty hell." Draco patted her soft hair murmuring sympathetically.
"Perhaps my lady you could come with me to my home. Alas, it is a humble abode and it is not worthy of such a lady as you, yet it is an option." Draco offered tentatively.
Senora Eleanora smiled and said "If I were to accept your offer we would be poor together. I love you of course but I can not live with you in such a humble manner. Soon my dear our love would make way to despair for penny pinching does not make for great romance. If only there was a way we could be together. I did have a plan for escape but it would be difficult." Her tears sparkled like diamonds upon her moonlit face.
Draco raised himself upon one elbow and pleaded,"Please Senora, tell me of your plan." She then told him of the visiting Count and she explained that she intended to do away with her husband freeing herself to marry the Count. She continued to explain that once she secured such a marriage it would be possible, for her to find a place for the young man upon the Count's staff and they could live together and not be in poverty. She herself was surprised when Draco readily agreed to her plan. He even assured her that he would be able to secure belladonna a poison that would remove Senor De Silva from the equation.
CHAPTER 5- Draco does Business
The next morning Draco left the manor early and made for the nearby village.Once there he sold his stallion for a pretty penny. He used some of the funds to purchase belladonna from a witch hag who lived in the forest. He then returned to the manor, and gave the funds to the Senora with the belladonna. When she asked where he had obtained the funds he told her that it was from an agreement he secured with her husband.
With great rapidity she ran out and went to the village to buy herself a new ermine fringed blue velvet gown. She was ready for the dinner with the count. She dressed in her new attire and danced by herself in her chamber. She imagined the Count dancing with her and the vision of beauty they would make. She did not think of Draco at all, he had been a pleasant amusement as well as somewhat useful, for the moment. She would dispose of him soon enough but the first male that needed disposal was her toad like spouse.
All that was left to do before she could ascend into polite society was to poison her husband. It was hard for her not to smile with malicious delight as she gave him his lunch time stew particularly when he requested a second helping. Draco knocked on Senor Marcus' study door shortly after the money lender had finished his stew. Draco bowed low and said, "Dearest Senor De Silva, I thank-you for your generosity and for providing lodging to an unknown stranger."
Senor Marcus replied with a mouth full of food,"That is alright, it was not out of generosity- Your stallion is a fine beast and he shall be a magnificent addition to my stable." Senor De Silva did not even look up from his bowl to meet the young intruder's eyes. He just continued with his lunching and waved Draco away.
"Oh no my Lord, I sold the animal. I thought you wanted the worth of the horse." The Senor was annoyed but at least he would secure the worth of the horse. He held out his fat hands for the young man to deposit the gold into it. Draco asked quizzically, "Good sir, why do you extend your hand so?"
The money lender told the man to place the gold into the sweaty fleshy palm. Draco's face became confused, 'But Senor, I have already paid your lovely Wife this very morn. Now I must away.' With a flip of his cloak Draco departed the Manor.
CHAPTER 6: Marriage de Morte
Senor Marcus watched the man leave and his throat constricted with panic for knew that any money in his Wife's hands was at risk. Enraged he raced down the stairs to his Wife's apartments smashing her door open he bellowed, "Wench, I want my money, and I want it now!"
Eleanora dressed in the blue gown was smoothing it with her hands when she looked up to see the enraged visage of her husband bearing down upon her, "What money you lunatic?" Her disgust of her husband was undisguised.
Senor Marcus, face flushed, continued, "The money that young fop paid for his accommodation." Eleanora was confused then realised that the gold she had spent on the dress was the money of which her husband spoke. "I used it for this dress."
Senor De Silva looked at the dress and noticed how fine it was, "Why did you need the dress, where have you got to go?" He was thinking that he would be able to sell the dress and recoup some of his loses. Eleanora's attention returned to her looking glass as she patted her her hair. "I am off to the House of Paro to sup with their guest the widower Count, I think it is time for a new husband. Now that I myself am about to be a widower."
Just then the Senor De Silva doubled over as a sharp cramp in his abdomen struck him in to a near insensible state. His face felt hot and fever raged through out him. His heart was pounding and his head was thumping. Eleanora smiled with malicious glee, "Oh dear, my Husband- you look weakish, was it perhaps something you ate?" She then laughed and her eyes glowed with murderous relish.
Senor de Silva realised that his wife had tainted his food and that his life was soon forfeit. He reached out his large fat hands and placed them around his Eleanora's throat. "Kill you... bitch, Damn you to Hell!" He then proceeded to fall on top of her. He used his mass to pin her to the floor, His great hands squeezed the life out of her. Her arms flailed beneath him. He stared in her bulging eyes. He continued to hold her gaze until all light left her eyes and they filmed over. As his strength departed he collapsed upon the corpse of the once lovely Senora Eleanora De Silva. He then breathed his last breath into her blue tinged lips. They died with their lips pressed together in an eternal kiss.
In the looming dark manor the greedy Senor and his scheming lavisious wife were left to rot on her apartment floor. The villagers came to pick over the house but the left the two of them there, unburied. The people celebrated in drunken merriment for two days to celebrate the demise of the fat money lender and his wife. The villagers lived out their days in prosperity now the De Silva vultures had departed this Earthly plain.
Far away a young man stood before a pauper's grave, the burial site of his beloved big brother. He ripped up the simple marker and watched as the stone smith and his apprentice put a creamy marble grave stone in it's place. The name that carved on the headstone was none other than that of the young courtier who met his end due to the machinations of Senor De Silva and for the love of the pointless Eleanora.
EPILOGUE
Draco kissed his brother's headstone and left the graveyard to sup with his friend the Count. The Count continued to be baffled by Draco's insistence that his friend stay with Paro Family for the Summer. After injuring Draco's brother in a tourney it was the least the Count could do even if he did not understand his friend's reasoning.
After Senor Draco Payetto had laid his brother to a proper rest he sighed with relief as this matter was finally closed. Vengeance had been the dish Draco had served cold, a delightful dessert, in that it was most sweet. Draco never spared Senora De Silva another single thought. Draco did however, have much laughter, true and lasting love and he lived very happily ever after.
BY A.SIMS
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