This is a story I did for the Creative Summer Writing Club.
This story is set in the time of the French Revolution in 1790
The story is about the son of a wealthy baron and the daughter of a revolutionist leader.
There she stood, he watched as she stared at him in the darkness. Her long golden curls blowing in the breeze that smelled of smoke from the battles that raged on in the city. Every time he embraced Claudia his entire memory of the revolution and danger around him seemed to dissolve into her sweet aroma. There they stood, both of their hands entwined in one another’s. Leon Gascon, had a handsome face and blue eyes that resembled a dark night sky. “Why must this war last forever.” Leon thought. In his arms he held his love but deep within his heart he held something heavier. Knowing that at anytime the revolutionists would storm his home and find him made him hold Claudia even closer. Claudia buried her head in Leon’s chest and said, “Leon, I must go now. Father said he would be back at midnight so I must return home before he finds me missing.” Leon placed his hands on her shoulders and looked deep into her eyes. “How do you manage to stay so strong and face all this danger for me I cannot fathom. But you are right you must go quickly or your father will become suspicious and then we will no longer be able to meet.” Leon replied. With that Claudia turned and walked slowly into the darkness of the alley. Even though she wore a plain cloth dress, in Leon’s eyes she was wearing a gown made of silk that glistened with diamonds. For there strode away his Princess of Love.
Standing in the dark ally now alone, he watched as a thick fog settled over the river that lay in front of him. “That river really tells a story.” He thought, “Its waters are dark and dreadful with undercurrents that threaten to consume anything that stands in its way. That is just like this revolution. Dark, dreadful with danger lurking everywhere.” Leon looked down at his left hand. There on his ring finger he wore a ruby ring. When the ruby was lit up by the moonlight that fought to penetrate the thick clouds, the ruby came to life emitting rays of rich red color. Even though it would seem standard for a man of Leon’s position too wear such a fine piece of jewelry it held a meaning unlike none other. Claudia had given it to him, as a token of her unending love. Suddenly a rough, dirty hand gripped his shoulder. Leon turned too see a mob of about fifty men and women. Every one of them carried a weapon of some kind, most just carried a long rusty piece of broken pipe. The one thing Leon noticed about all the weapons is that they all were covered with thick dried blood. The threadbare clothing wore by the mob confirmed this as well. Leon opened his mouth to speak but no words came. The silence of the mobs quickly erupted into a roar as they swarmed around him. One grabbed him by the wrists and placed a rough, much to tight rope around them. As two men led him through the crowd, the mob spat in his face and jeered as they poked at him with their weapons. When they reached the edge of the mob, one of the men holding Leon removed the handkerchief from his front pocket of his tweed jacket. Leon watched as the man opened the handkerchief and used it to wipe his rusty blade. He then mockingly placed the blood soaked handkerchief back into its proper place and pretended to fuss over the way it sat crumpled in his pocket. The mob burst out in a hideous laugh as they rushed forward dragging Leon away.
* * *
Claudia ran through the dark streets toward her small home. As she rounded the corner her house came into sight and she slowed to a walk. As she entered the small shack of a house she entered to find a gentle fire burning. The fire burned steadily, causing its light to bounce off of the damp wood walls of the skeleton like structure. Claudia sat on a small stool in front of the fire, her thoughts running wild. Some thinking of the safety of her love that she had just left in the street, never knowing if she will see him again and some hoping to find a way to remove her family from this violent revolution of which they took part. Still with all of her worries her head gently fell to her chest as she nodded off to sleep.
Some time later, the door of her home flung open. Claudia quickly awoke and pushed a single blonde curl from her soft face that was flushed red from the warm heat of the fire. In staggered a tall man who wore a dirt and blood covered shirt that was unbuttoned all the way down, and thin brown breeched that did not look any better than the shirt. His arm was around a small sturdy woman, who worn a dress similar to Claudia’s except it like her husbands clothing, it was covered with blood and dirt. They both embraced each other singing an off-key love song. In her fathers free hand he held a bottle of wine, which the couple passed between themselves taking long draughts of its intoxicating contents. Her father then turning to his daughter and staggered toward her reaching into his pocket as he approached her. “Daughter,” he said rather gruffly “I have a little…little present for you.” He held out a trembling hand toward her. Claudia stood on her toes to see what stolen treasure her father had brought her tonight. Peering into his hand she quickly placed her hand over her mouth. Tears ran down her face as she fell to her knees. Her father clumsily dropped to one knee, steadying himself with the flimsy wall that threatened to fall at the touch of the man’s massive hand. “Do you not like it?” he rather innocently asked. Claudia could not answer him; horrid thoughts flowed through her mind, like the dark river that lay a mere few feet from her house. For there in her father hand he held a ruby ring! Her father rotated his head behind him with a puzzled face, looking to his wife for an answer, who was not paying any attention to the situation but was looking at a small shelf deciding which liquid should replace the now empty bottle.
“I wonder what the blade will feel like? How will Claudia take it when she finds out I have been executed?” Leon looked around his dark cell. It was made of roughly cut stone that was wet from the damp fog that flowed in through the small barred window in the cell which was the only light source in the cell, save the dimly burning candle in the passageway outside the cell. Leon sat on a same straw filled bed. Already he could feel the inhabitants of the filthy item on which he sat, crawling through his hair. Like so many innocent people before him, mistaken for people of mistreatment and wealth not wisely spent, there Leon sat in his small cell, awaiting the blade. Thinking back on his life as it all passed before his eyes.
“Claudia, are you trying to tell me you are in love with this man?”
“Yes Father.” Claudia said in a shaky voice. Her parents looked at her in disbelief but their expressions changed to ones of loving and caring parents. With no words needed to be spoken to communicate the message, Claudia’s father rose from his knee. “Be prepared to leave as soon as I return with Leon.” With that her father disappeared out the door of their house. Claudia fell into her mother’s arms and once again began to cry. This time tears of joy and relief yet at the same time a new danger was about to face her.
Unable to sleep from dread and fear and partly because of the inhabitants of the bed, which began to grow in number, Leon stood and looked through the bars down both ends of the passageway. At any moment expecting to see another mob come to retrieve him for the guillotine. Just then Leon heard footsteps approaching from the left passageway. Dread and panic took hold of Leon as he saw the enormous man that had taken his ring, approach with keys that banged against his leg. With each footstep, each clang of the keys that echoed through the damp and foggy passageway. There seemed to grow a feeling of horror as the dim candlelight shone through the din helping to set the mood of the situation. The man approached and opened his cell door. Leon lowered his head and walked in front of his captor to the blade. When they arrived outside the sun was just beginning to rise in the sky. Even though it was having a hard time cutting through the thick fog it still managed to put a golden shower of rays off of the blood caked blade. His captor leaned over his shoulder as he walked and whispered something that made him stop in his tracks. Leon turned to face him “What did you just say?” The man replied with a toothy grin “I am here to rescue you and bring you back to Claudia.” Before they could continue to talk a guard approached them. The guard looked suspiciously at them. “What are you doing with this man, André? The executions are not for another hour.” The massive man approach the small guard. Instead of saying a word he drew a small dagger and attempted to stab the guard but missing. The guard raised his gun and shot André in the neck. The guard dropped to his knee to reload and not wasting the chance Leon sprang and retrieved the dagger from the fallen mans hand and plunged it into the back of the unsuspecting guard who cried out in pain and fell to the ground dead. Leon knelt next to André. The older man took Leon’s hand into his massive one and pulled him close and whispered, “Love…my little…girl.” With that the André exhaled for the last time and slipped into the dark waters of death. Leon rose from his knees and rushed off to Claudia’s home. Out of breath he came running up to Claudia. She and her mother were in a small cart pulled by a horse that was favoring one leg. “Leon where is my father?” Claudia asked. Taking her in his arms he told her. She wept softly as he laid her in the back of the cart and drove the lame horse toward the border and freedom.
