Bandit Bride

Elisa was relieved to be home, though she’d barely left her room since she got there. She was a news and gossip sensation in Willsden with her two cancelled weddings and all her wild adventures. Her family had been doting on her since Thurston’s arrest; the first few days she was home her mother insisted on bringing her breakfast in bed. Elisa had finally convinced her it wasn’t necessary to go to all that trouble. She had very little appetite lately anyway.

In the midst of all the commotion her sister Faith came to visit, perching on the edge of Elisa’s bed and giving her the sympathetic wise woman look she was so known for.

“How are you holding up?”

Elisa shrugged. “Okay. I think. At least I’m not married.” She was holding the pink ribbon she’d given to Felix, threading it through her fingers. Faith noticed and she reached out to lay her hand over Elisa’s.

“That man that Mr. Bramfield...You cared about him?”

Elisa’s lip started to tremble and then she burst into tears, falling forward to cry on her sister’s shoulder.

“Oh, Ellie.” Faith stroked her hair. “Shh, it’s okay.”

Elisa managed to choke out a few incoherent words in an attempt to explain. She sounded like a dolphin but Faith was good at deciphering cry-talk and nodded in understanding.

“It’s okay,” she repeated. “You’re going to be okay.”

Elisa cried all over Faith’s dress till she fell asleep and when she woke it was dark out. Someone was sitting beside her, braiding her hair and humming. When Elisa rolled over she was slightly surprised to see her mother there. Judith hadn’t sat with her like this since she was ten and bedridden with the flu.

“How are you doing, darling?” Judith asked.

“Okay,” Elisa mumbled, sitting up.

“I suppose I can’t blame you for holing up in here so much, given all that’s happened. You’ve been through so much.”

“I’m sorry I ran away,” Elisa said. “I didn’t mean to make everyone worry, I just...I couldn’t marry him.”

“You clearly had better judgement than we did,” Judith signed. “To think I was actually happy about that match and nearly handed off my own daughter to that monster.”

“You didn’t know.”

“Well I promise you dear, I’m not pushing any more engagements or weddings on you. You can stay here as long as you like. Your father and I have discussed it and since all your sisters are comfortably moved out and have their own families, we can leave the house to you.”

Elisa nearly fell off the bed. “What? What about everyone else?”

“Your sisters all agreed. You never have to move out of this house if you don’t want to. You can be an eccentric shut-in if you’d like. We’ll get you some pet birds, or perhaps another pig like that one you had as a little girl. And a collection of ostentatious hats.”

Elisa smiled for the first time in days. “Maybe we should ask Ellen Nyxin to design them, just to see her reaction.”

Elisa tried to join her parents for dinner every night, but she still sat in her room most afternoons. She had no motivation to do anything, and she had no interest in going out in public while her life was still the talk of the town. She kept the pink ribbon under her pillow and had the sword Felix had given her hanging above the mantle in her room. Sometimes she took it down and just looked at it.

She was sitting on her window seat doing exactly that when she heard shouting downstairs. At first she thought nothing of it; nosy neighbors, reporters, and new would-be suitors had been shamelessly dropping by the house since her return and her parents always vehemently sent them away.

But then she heard her father shout for his crossbow and decided this must be serious. She left the sword on the bed and began to descend the stairs to see what was going on, in time to see her mother actually bringing the crossbow. She handed it over and then grabbed a parasol from a hook beside the door and brandished it fiercely at whoever was on the doorstep.

“Daddy?” she called tentatively. “Is everything all right?”

“We have it all under control, my darling, you just stay up there.”

“Daddy you’re pointing a crossbow at a stranger.”

“We’re handling it, dear,” Judith assured her.

“Please, just let me see her for a second,” the stranger on the porch pleaded. “And look, please don’t shoot me. These are the only nice clothes I own I would rather they not be ruined by arrows.”

“You have ten seconds to get off my porch or so help me-“

“Wait!” Elisa hurried down the stairs, hardly daring to hope. But the voice at the door sounded familiar. It couldn’t be possible, but she had to know for sure. She stopped short when she reached the bottom of the stairs and could see past her parents and their assorted weaponry.

“Elisa please ask your parents not to kill me,” Felix said.

“Felix,” Elisa said, almost a question. “It’s you.”

“It’s me.” He smiled slightly and her father very slowly lowered his crossbow.

“You actually do know him? Elisa?”

The world went fuzzy, then tilted sideways, and then went dark.

When Elisa came to she was lying on the couch in the parlor and she sat up groggily.

“Are you all right?” Judith asked anxiously.

“I-yes. What happened?”

“You fainted.”

“I thought I saw...I thought Felix was here. But that can’t be possible-“

Someone quietly cleared their throat and Elisa whirled around to find Felix hovering in the entryway. She stood up so fast her head spun.

“You’re really here,” she squeaked. “But, Thurston said-you were dead! He threw you off a cliff!”

“He did,” Felix agreed. “Travis was kind enough to fish me out of the river, after he lured me there in the first place.”

“Travis.” Elisa scowled. “I knew I didn’t like him.” Then it started to really sink in that Felix was here, he was alive. Her eyes started to well with tears and she stumbled across the room.

“I didn’t go with him because I wanted to,” she said quickly. “We all thought you were dead, and then he threatened Jack and the others, and I didn’t want him to hurt them so I agreed to go. I was sure he’d killed you and it was all my fault and I thought I’d get them killed too and I’m so sorry, Felix, I-“

“Hey hey, slow down.” Felix held up his hands. “Why are you apologizing, none of this was your fault.”

“But it was my fault, he came after you because I ran away and if I hadn’t then he-“

“Ellie.” Felix reached for her but then paused, realizing her parents were still there, watching them closely.

“Daddy, you can put the crossbow away,” Elisa sighed.

“Oh. Right, of course.” Sampson set the crossbow down and chuckled. “It sure would’ve been awkward if I’d shot him.”

“We’ll just give you two a moment alone to talk.” Judith ushered her husband out.

“Awkward,” Felix repeated faintly. “Yes. Awkward is what it would’ve been. If your father had shot me in the chest. With a crossbow. While your mother bludgeoned me with a pink parasol.”

“In their defense the last man who came calling threatened to kill me.“

“Well I guess I can’t really blame them for being protective-OOF!”

Elisa threw herself at Felix with enough force that he stumbled back into the wall. She hugged him tightly and he laughed slightly.

“I missed you too,” he said, gently trying to pry her off so he could look at her. He wiped the tears off her cheeks.

“I came to...to tell you that I love you,” he said, looking nervous and then mildly alarmed when her eyes filled with tears again.

“I’m not trying to pressure you,” he said quickly. “You just went through all this stuff with Bramfield and I don’t want you to feel like you have to be with me I just had to tell you how I feel, I needed you to know please don’t cry I didn’t mean to upset you-“

”Felix.”

“-oh god your dad really is going to shoot me now maybe I should’ve waited a while longer to come by-“

“Felix!”

He finally stopped rambling and Elisa shook her head, a smile spreading across her face. She had her pink ribbon tucked in the sleeve of her dress. She pulled it free and tied it back on Felix’s wrist.

“I believe this belongs to you,” she said, before hugging him again, so hard he had to pry her off again. She beamed up at him. “I love you too.”