The Key to Eve
a fantasy
6
Midsummer’s Eve
FOR A WHILE, nothing much seemed to change in Tumwater and in the old mansion. Eve and Lilith did not venture out often, but were well-respected in the village. When it was discovered that Eve, too, could administer healing herbs and potions, she was viewed as almost equal to Lilith—though no one knew her name as other than ‘the Witch’s Girl.’
Fair weather and the summer breezes brought the first wave of men hoping to win the girl as their wife. These were mostly adventurers who were attracted by the promise of a wife who was beautiful and would make it so they would never need to work again. Long life, loving wife, and many children was the rumored promise.
They were soon to find the cost for such a woman was steep.
“And what do you bring to such a marriage?” Eve asked a petitioner.
“Why fun and adventure,” said the young man.
“What do you think of as adventure?”
“Traveling the world and seeking my fortune,” said the man.
“And when you have found your fortune?”
“Traveling the world and seeking another fortune!”
“So, you would not stay with your wife and children?”
“I’d be busy seeking my fortune,” the man said in puzzlement.
“And what do you consider fun?” Eve asked.
“A good woman to come home to and play at making children,” he grinned.
“Since I’m already a good woman and know how to play with myself, and I already have my fortune, it seems you have nothing to offer. Please be gone.”
While that was one typical encounter, it was by no means all. An actual prince on a white horse showed up at the mansion gates.
“I am here to save the damsel known as the witch’s girl,” he declared loudly. “Bring her forth or prepare to meet your doom.”
“My, but you are loud!” Eve said from beyond the gate.
“I shall break down these gates and save you?”
“Whatever for? I can open them whenever I wish. I am not a captive. I’ve heard of a damsel in distress held by a dragon in the mountains. Go try there.”
“But come with me and I will make you my queen!”
“Of what?”
“Of my kingdom!”
“And why would I want to be your queen?”
“You would have servants to do your every bidding.”
“I have nothing to bid them to do.”
“You would in my castle. There is much to do.”
“Sounds like a lot of work.”
“You would have the wealth of my kingdom!”
“For what?”
“To buy whatever you wish!”
“I have all I wish for. I need no other wealth.”
“Well, damn, girl! You’d have me!”
“Hmm. I think you would have better luck with the dragon. Farewell, young prince.”
She turned her back to return to the mansion and the prince leapt from his charger and assaulted the gate, which, of course, prevented his entry. He stayed, pounding at the gate, and loudly declaring his love for over an hour before he decided to go in search of the dragon. The next day, he came to a town, where he found what had once been an inn was now called ‘Alysha’s Brothel.’ He discovered he was most welcome there, and never did find a dragon.
Eve and Lilith often harvested fruit and vegetables from the ever-productive garden and took them into town on market day to trade for other goods, meat, and wine. The townspeople thought the fruits and vegetables from the witches’ garden were the most delectable in the region. Lilith took a basket of grapes to the vintner and sent Eve with her basket to the butcher.
“Got you!” a voice snarled. Strong arms wrapped around Eve from behind, causing her to drop her basket. “Now I will simply take you to my lair where you will be my wife and serve all my needs. Oh, I like these nice full bosoms,” the brigand declared, molesting Eve’s chest and pulling at her dress. “Let’s hurry to our wedding bed.”
He dragged her away from the street and Eve feared he intended the so-called wedding bed to be a dirty rat-infested alley.
“See what kind of bed you can make with your balls on fire!” Eve said, slapping him in the crotch with her hand. “Inflamo!”
The villain jumped away from her, slapping at his privates as he howled in pain.
“Stop! Stop! I repent!”
“Do you? Very well. Leave this town and find a place where you may become a hermit. As long as you live a peaceful life, you will have no pain from the fire I have planted in your balls. But if you ever touch a woman again, you will find the fire has consumed your manhood.”
Eve pulled her dress up to cover her maiden breasts and left the would-be rapist believing she’d given him the clap. He ran from the town howling in agony.
“I can no longer leave our home safely, Auntie,” Eve said on her return to the mansion. “What shall I do?”
“Well, child, we will need to come up with a plan. A way you can safely go to see the town and the various suitors who come. As if you were invisible.”
The two put their heads together and soon came up with a plan.
For some time, the plan worked well. Eve was never seen to leave her house and garden. Yet she observed all the suitors and adventurers who came to Tumwater, some just to get a glimpse of the legendary beauty. Eve did not disappoint them. She walked daily in the garden and helped Lilith tend the plants. In the evening, she was seen sitting in her window, brushing her hair.
But at night, when people had repaired to the taverns and inns that had grown up in the town, she disguised herself and secretly went to observe those who were there and to evaluate whether there was any who interested her enough to hear their suit.
Before dawn, she would return unobserved to the mansion, sorrowful that there was no man who interested her.
“We would have a comfortable life together,” said a suitor one morning. “I’m a simple man. I lack for nothing but a good wife to share my life with. We might not know each other well enough to make such a commitment today, but I will return each day to court you properly. But give me a token to treasure while I am gone.”
It was such a smooth speech, the girl would almost consider the man’s suit. He was pleasant to look at and reasonably well dressed. His speech was articulate and polite.
“Are you not the gambler who lost everything just last night?” she asked, recognizing him from the tavern.
“How would you know that. I’m sure I rose before others so no rumor could reach you.”
“Nothing can be hidden from me,” she answered.
“Well, it’s only a small setback. Happens all the time. When I come to see you tomorrow, I will have won my fortune back,” said the suitor. “If you could see your way to advance me a small stake, say 1,000 ruri, it would cement our relationship.”
“Here is a penny as my token. Go and do not return,” the girl said, leaving the gambler outside the gate. She turned just before entering the house. “If you give that penny to your wife, perhaps she could save it for you.”
Eve had listened to all the conversations in the tavern the previous night without being seen. She’d heard the gambler talk of his wife and children, and watched him lose his money. The gambler stood, flummoxed, in front of the gate, then pocketed the penny and left the town of Tumwater.
Then one evening, those who came to her garden wall saw the window in which she had sat each evening shuttered and dark. The next day, the girl did not leave the house to work in the garden.
“What has happened to the girl?” called one of the men when he saw Lilith.
“She is sick of men and has closed herself in her room,” Lilith said. “She will no longer emerge for your stares and shouts.”
“But how shall a man press his suit, for one of us will have the woman for wife!”
“You can’t imagine how disgusting that sounds,” Lilith said. “Why would she want a man who would simply have her as his wife whether she will or nill?”
“But there must be a way.”
“Perhaps I will give you a way. It is Midsummer’s Eve—the shortest night of the year. If you are better than a cat, you will win my daughter’s heart.”
The men all laughed.
“We are all better than a cat.”
“Really? Here is the key.” She held up a small key on a ribbon. “If you are truly so good, I will tie this key to my cat’s neck. If you can take it from her neck, you will have the key to my daughter’s home and her heart.”
“Here! Here! Where’s the cat? I’ll get it straight-away,” shouted one of the men.
In her arms, a cat appeared. It was difficult for the men to see exactly what the cat looked like, but Lilith slipped the ribbon over the cat’s head.
“Here is the cat with the key,” Lilith said. She set the cat down and it was gone in a streak into the garden.
The men attacked the wall, which never appeared so high, but seemed always to repel anyone who approached it.
“You cannot enter the garden but by the gate,” Lilith declared angrily. “Only the key will open the gate.”
She turned and stalked back to the mansion, disappearing inside.
There was a great deal of drinking in the taverns and inns that night. Plans were made. Fights were fought. Strategies were discussed. More fights were fought. In the morning, half the men who had come to the town left, never to return. But over the days to come, many more arrived.
No one could find and catch the cat, no matter their wiles.
