I Can't Forget the Melody Chapter One

 Chapter One

We Will Both Be Free

    Three years slipped slowly, drearily, miserably by. Three years of sorrow, of loneliness, of heartache, of pain. Day after day, Cinderella discovered that life is meaningless without the one you love nearby. She was well-treated and the lady with whom she had been sent to live was a kindly, motherly soul. She was given every possible comfort, every attention, but it mattered little. Suitors came and went every so often, longing to win the heart of the sad-eyed little maiden. But to each and every one, she replied sadly, "My heart belongs to another-till the day I die." The days were empty-as empty as the hole in her heart.

    Those days dragged even more slowly by for the newly-married prince. Tortured by the memory of a love so beyond his reach, he lived in as much solitude as he could possibly cling to. His wife, the Princess Selena, proud and fickle though she seemed, knew that he shunned her and it hurt her cruelly. She avoided her husband whenever she could, though that wasn't difficult, since he was never around to avoid. Just the sight of his sorrow-filled eyes, his blank expression when he looked at her was enough to make her wish she'd entered a nunnery. But she, too, had hidden a tragic past in her heart and carried this pain along with the knowledge that her husband could never love her.

    The dismal, quiet existence-for it surely wasn't life-dragged on. Not a single change in the daily routine. Until-the Princess Selena fell dangerously ill. Tossing and turning in fever day and night, she muttered restlessly, her feverish eyes wandering fearfully. For days she lay at death's door. Throughout this time, she had received the best possible of care but still her husband had stayed away. In her lucid moments, she did not wonder at this. She knew why he stayed away. She knew he did not love her. But at last, in her fevered mind, she began to cry out for him. Seeing she was nearly at the end, the doctor sent for the Prince and, at last, he came.

    Slowly, Prince Edward approached the bedside of his dying wife. Her face was snow white, yet the flush of death was on her cheeks. She turned her head toward him, weakly, and the look in her eyes smote him to the heart. He could never love her, that he knew for certain, but he realized then that she had been lonely, that she had been suffering just as much as he. In remorse, he knelt beside her, took her cold hand in his.

    "You still-love her," she whispered with great effort. "You-you always-have. You-never loved me."

    He said nothing, for he was suddenly aware of tears filling his eyes. She continued slowly.

    "I-didn't love you either." she gasped out. "There was-another. But he-he was too-too low-for me. I-resented you."

    "I understand," he murmured, feeling wretched. "I'm sorry." Surely he could have tried harder. Surely they could have been friends! He had never seemed to realize that she had been placed in the same position. That she had the same pain in her heart that he did.

    "I'm sorry too." she whispered, a tear slipping down her cheek. "But now-my suffering-and yours-will end. I-will-die. And you-will be free. We will both be-free." and she smiled weakly. With those words, she breathed her last. Bending over her, Edward kissed her cheek gently, then stood and left the room. Strange that he should feel no relief. He felt only sorrow as before. His thoughts turned to Cinderella and he wondered where she could be. He would find her now. But-the thought of the broken heart his wife had hid those three years they were together and her sad little story of misery made his own heart ache and he wept for her.