Shortly after Hope and Ger left, Grace died. With no hope of Robbie ever returning, and without Hope's vibrant influance on the family, which we all had taken for granted, Grace had little left to live for. It was her depression, I think, that allowed the illness to take such strong a hold. \n\nFather and I have been renting a small space to live, but I am poor company. The work he as taken with a merchant as a carpenter is beggining to take its toll. Father is not a young man, and I worry for him. \n\nGer and Hope write to us often. The offer to join them still stands. However, Ger's buisness as a blacksmith has yet to take off. The forge he was promised was in need of repairs when they arrived. He is not able to supply us with funds and the money Father makes is not enough for both of us to travel. After what happened to poor Grace, I refuse to leave him alone.

I never received a University education. Father's ships were sunk in storms, or captured by pirates; many of his warehouses were destroyed and the clerks disappeared or returned home penniless. I remember only too clearly my Father, who had been young and hearty, and my two beautiful sisters. When and how I shall ever get home to them, I do not know. \n\nI attribute my, and the crew's, survival to Robbie. Without his quick thinking and ever present optomisim we would suely have given up hope of ever returning home long ago. It is my fondest wish that when we return for Grace to have not found another to be her husband. It has been a long time, but Robbie's devotion to her.\n\nFor now, I hope and pray that my family is alright.

an adaptation of Robin McKinley's book by CityOfStone

The day of the auction came all too soon. Gervain was in charge, and at the end of the day knocked on our door to say gently that it was all over. The three of us wandered from room to room silently counting the missing articles. After half an hour alone, Ger came and said, “Come downstairs and see what your friends have left you.”\n\n[[Food]]\n[[Cloth]]

Everything was beautifully clean; there wasn't a cobweb to be found. Ger's aunt's doing, who had sent word saying, "A closed-up house stales overnight, or nearly, and that's no propper welcome."\n\n[[The house was neat and sturdy]] \n\n[[The Shop]]

Our father was a merchant, one of the wealthiest in the city. When I was twelve, and Grace was nineteen, she became engaged to our father's most promising young captain, Robert Tucker. Father suggested that they should be married right away before he set sail, but Robbie wanted to prove himself first. \n\nMy sister [[Grace]]\nMy sister [[Hope]]\nFather's [[Ships]]

Tom Black appeared in the doorway. Tom bred, raised, and trained horses. All our animals had come from him. My sisters had owned, up until the auction, two pretty little mares. For me, there had been a long lean chestnut gelding. \n\n“Your horse, I've left him in the stable for you. Thought I'd best tell you, so you could go down and say hello. He'll get lonesome by himself.” I gaped at him. “Greatheart. He's in the stable, waiting for you. I'm telling you to say good night to him or he won't sleep for worrying.”\n\n"You can't give me [[Greatheart]]," I protested.

The house was neat and sturdy. It had been well built, and had survived two years of vacancy with little worse than a few drafts around the warped window sills. At first the house seemed as tiny as a doll's, till I realized that this was the effect of the great forest behind it.\n\n[[Everything was beautifully clean]]\n\n[[The Shop]]

I was the youngest of three daughters. Our literal-minded mother named us Grace, Hope, and Honour, but few people except perhaps the minister who had baptized all three of us remembered my given name. Father still likes to tell the story of how I acquired my odd nickname: When I was five I had come to him for information when I discovered that our names meant something besides you-come-here. He succeeded in explaining hope and grace, but with an expression of deepening disgust at the explanation of honour I said, “Huh! I'd rather be Beauty.” \n\nBy the time it was evident that I was going to let the family down by being plain, I'd been called Beauty for over six years; and while I came to hate the name, I was too proud to ask that it be discarded. \n\nOur [[Father]]\n

"There't too much to tell it all now. I am tired, and must sleep." We noticed how old and frail he looked, and his eyes were heavy and sunken. \n\n[[The Raven]]\n\n[[The Rose]]

Father made a restless motion, but said nothing. The rest of us looked at one another for a moment, and then there was the tread of heavy boots on the stairs.\n\n[[Tom Black ]]

I shunned company because I preferred books. I studied with passionate dedication, and avoided society and mirrors.\n\nThere was the tread of heavy boots on the stairs.\n\n[[Tom Black ]]

“You should not have let them do this,” said Father.\n“Indeed, I did not know, and I am glad I did not, for I am not sure I would have tried to stop anyone. I only discovered it myself a few minutes ago.”\n\nA few servants had pleaded to stay with us until we left. One of them came downstairs and said, “Excuse me, there's a man here to see Miss Beauty.”\n\n[[I was wondering who it might be]].\n\nFather said, “[[You might as well send him down here]].”\n

Hope confessed to me one night that she felt guilty for feeling so happy; It was very selfish of her to be glad that she was going with Gervain, yet would not be moving away from her family.\n\nOur [[adventure]]

Hope had fallen in love with Gervain Woodhouse, an iron worker in Father's shipyard. \n\n“Ger only stays in the city for love of me. He was born and raised north of here. He misses the forests. He wants to go back and be a blacksmith again.”\n\n“Stop wringing your hands and listen to me. Would you like me to [[talk to Father about it]] first?”\n

Hope also began to neglect many fashionable gatherings. One night she crept into my bedroom, weeping. She had to tell someone, but couldn't be so selfish as to bother Grace when she was preoccupied with Robbie's safety. \n\n"Yes, I understand. [[Tell me what is the matter]]"

"I'm probably being overcautious, but I'd rather it were that than foolhardy. Have you ever wondered why ours is the only house out this end of town-a fool quarter mile from the next house in? And why we take our drinking water from the well on the hill, when a good stream runs by the house?"\n\n“Not really,” I said, “I supposed the first smith liked his privacy; and perhaps the stream water isn't good, though good enough to pour over hot iron.”\n\n“It's not quite so simple,” Ger said.\n\n[[The Stream]]\n\n[[The First Smith]]

I little later I said to Father, ""Father, there is something you can bring me-I'd love to plant some roses here. If you could buy some seeds that are not too dear, we'll have a garden that will be the envy of the village.” He smiled and promised he would try.\n\nFather told us not to look for him [[before the spring]], when traveling would be easier.

I was distracted by my plesant musings by a walled garden off to the right. The wallwas waist high and covered with the most beautiful climbing roses I had ever seen. \n\nThe smell of the flowers was wild and sweet and the ground was carpeted with petals. No one near the village had roses, and I was painfully reminded of my desire to grow some for the house.\n\nSurely, I thought, I could pick a bud– just one– and carry it safely home. I stooped and plucked a bud of a rich red hue. \n\nThere was a roar like that of a wild animal, for certainly nothing human could make a noise like that...

Beauty\n

Ger had the shop going again within a week of our arrival, while the three of us girls were still airing the bedding, mending socks, and figuring out the whimsical nature of the kitchen ovens. In three weeks Father had fixed the stable and was contemplating enlarging the hayloft and building a coop for chickens. We three girls didn't fare quite so well. We realized in those first weeks just how spoiled we were. We went to bed every night numb with exhaustion, but stronger, and then more cheerful. \n\n[[The following summer]]...

Much of what was left was food: smoked ham and bacon and venison, sealed jars of vegetables and preserves.\n\n[[Cloth]]\n\n“[[You should not have let them do this]],” said Father.

The following summer, a little over a year after we arrived, Gervain and Hope were married. In our new life, it was reading I missed the most. Father's hair was now snow white, and he moved more slowly now; but he carried himself tall and straight. When spring came I dug up the garden and planted it, and weeded it, and prayed over it, and figited.\n\n[[The Woods]]\n[[The Garden]]

There were bolts of cloth, leathers, and three heavy fur capes.\n\n[[Food]]\n\n“[[You should not have let them do this]],” said Father.

Gervain said he would be hounoured if we would throw our fortune in with his. The house would be small for five, but could be enlarged. There was a carpenter's shed with the shop, and Father had started his career as a carpenter and ship wright. \n\n"[[... Father?]]"\n[[Father's Pride]]

Hope and Ger were married at a small ceremony. What little money we had left went towards making sure they could travel safely to Ger's home town.\n[[What about us?]]

I grew mostly practical things suchs as lettuce, carrots, and herbs. I hoped to someday obtain rose seeds to plant. Practical things are all well and good, but beauty can heal the soul. \n\n[[The Woods]]

She who had been the toast of the town now went to parties very seldom. She spent most of her time “setting her linen in order” as she put it; she sewed very prettily.\n\nMy sister [[Hope]]

It was a cold night, with the snow nearly a foot thick, when the front door was thrown open and Father stood on the threshold. Ger caught him as he staggered and fell, and carried him to a seat near the fire. As he sank down with a sigh we noticed that in his hand he held a great scarlet rose. “Here, Beauty,” Father said and held the rose out to me. I took it, my hands trembling a little, and stood gazing at it.\n\nGer went outside to tend to Father's horse. The saddle bags were very full and heavy. Ger dumped them in a corner by the door as we took our places by the fire. “What has happened since you left us, Father?” Hope asked.\n\n[[The Trip]]\n\n[[The Raven]]\n\n[[The Rose]]

Father was the son of a shipwright. As a boy he had gone to sea, and by the time he was fourty his ships were known to the major ports of the world.\n\nMy sister [[Grace]]\nMy sister [[Hope]]\nFollowing in [[his footsteps]]

Shortly before Robbie's ship set sail, father approached me with a letter in hand. He wore a mask of pride and remorse, and the contents of the letter told me why.\n\nA friend of his lived near the port Robbie was to sail to. He was an esteemed professor at a highly regarded University. Evidently, Father had written him about the dream I confided to him years ago. The letter explained that should I be able to visit, Father's friend would be willing to introduce me to the university he taught at and pursuade the headmaster to allow me to attend classes.\n\n[[Voyage]]

“He wouldn't like carrying a King.”\n\n“But Tom, He's a tremendously [[valuable horse]]...”

\nPerhaps it was the effect of not immediately being enchanted into a toad or some such, but the next thing I knew I had swung into Greatheart's saddle and, before I could think otherwise, we were riding into the woods.\n\nEventually, I found that I was lost. Feeling guilty, I had attempted to turn back three times already. Finally, I came to what appeared to be a track. The track widened and became what might have been a carriage-road. It ended, at last, and at the end of the road was a gate.\n\nThe heavy silcence that consumed the castle beyond told me that there was no one near. I passed through the gate, hoping to find refuge in the castle for a little while. Dusk was approaching and I was not keen on riding through the woods at night.\n\nI hesitated, then called aloud. Satisfied that there were no occupants, and congragulating myself on not beliving Ger's foolish nonsense, I dismounted and ventured forth.\n\n[[The Walled Garden]]

Father sat silent for a long time. “Gervain, I do not know if I do the right thing in my reply, but indeed I and my daughters are in sore need of help. We will, I think, be most grateful to accept what you offer.”\n\nI don't know what we would have done without Gervain. Gervain's plans gave us something to think about. He was patient with everything but gloomy forebodings; encouraged questions, told us stories about the hilly, forested land we were going to. We had known that we would leave the city and travel following our ruin. [[Now we knew where we were going]]. \n

No one mentioned goblins or dragons or magicians\n\n[[The day of the auction came all too soon]]

Twelve days after the auction I rode Greatheart out of the city we'd lived in all our lives. None of us looked back. We were traveling with a group of wagoners who made this journey regularly twice a year. The journey lasted two long months by the time we parted company with the wagoners. \n\n[[Our new house]]

The only comfort I had in being my sisters' sister was that I was "the clever one". To a certain extent this was damning me with faint priase. Our governess has always remarked on my cleverness in a pitying tone of voice. But at least it was true. My intellectual abilities gave me a release.\n\nYears ago, I confided in my father my dreams of becoming a scholar in earnests and going to University.It was unheard of for a woman to do anything of the sort, but father just said, "We'll see".\n\nMy sister [[Grace]]\nMy sister [[Hope]]\n[[University]]

“There's no giving about it. He won't eat if you go off without him. I know it. So you take him with you. He's a big strong horse. You'll find uses for him.” said Tom\n\n“But Tom, He's a tremendously [[valuable horse]]...”\n\n“He should [[carry a King]].”\n

It was late in September that a peddler from the south came into town asking after an older man who use to live in the city. Ger's aunt brought him along to us and he gave Father a letter with a wax seal. The letter was from a man named Frewen, whom Father had known and trusted. He wrote to say that one of Father's missing ships was returning to port after all. He hoped to hold it until his old friend could send word or dispose of it himself.\n\nFather left a week later. The letter had cast a pall over all of us. The worst of it was watching Grace turn cold and white. Robbie was an almost tangible presence in the room. \n\nOn the eve of his departure Father asked us girls if there was anything he could bring us from the city. No, we said: Our only wish is that you should come home to us and safely. “Oh, come now children. Pretty girls want pretty things.” Father implored. We looked at one another, not sure what to say; then Hope laughed and jested, “Oh, bring us ropes of pearls and rubies, because we haven't a thing to wear the next time we visit the King and Queen.” We all laughed, Father too, but I thought [[his eyes looked hurt]]. \n\nFather told us not to look for him [[before the spring]], when traveling would be easier.

Despire my promise to Ger, I was curious. Without the time to read my curiosity had become insatiable. I hadn't meant to, but Ger's warnings had only serve to pique my curiosity and not dissuade me.\n\nI was awake and sneaking downstairs the next morning. I had done a favor for a man who mended harness, and Greatheart's was in need of repair.\n\nI saddled Greatheart and led him out.I hesitated as we came to the stream; we usually went around.I hesitated. Steeling myself, I knelt to scoop up some water in my hands. The water was so cold it made my teeth ache with the shock; but it was sweet and very good. \n\n[[Into the Woods]]

It was easiest for [[Hope and me]]. I was frightened of the unknown that we faced and of our ignorance; but I had never been afraid of hard work. I was still young enough to see the light of an [[adventure]].

My opportunity to discuss Hope's future with Father never arrived. Father's ships were sunk in storms, or captured by pirates; many of his warehouses were destroyed and the clerks disappeared or returned home penniless. I remember only too clearly that Father, who had been young and hearty, in a few days' time came to look his age. Poor Grace turned as white as cold wax when she heard the news– White Raven, Robbie's ship, was presumed lost. \n\nOur ruin was complete. What little Father had reserved he used to try and cushion the fall for some of his best men. The house and lands were to be auctioned off. It was at this low ebb in our thoughts and plans that [[Gervain]] came to us. \n

Gervain explained the reason for his visit without preamble. He had looked forward, a few weeks ago, to make an offer for Hope's hand. When he first wished to marry Hope she had given him reason to believe she would be willing to leave the city for a humbler life. He had begun looking for an opening suitable to his skills as a blacksmith. He had just heard this afternoon of a house, with a shop and forge with work waiting. \n\n\n[[His suggestion]]

“If this wood is enchanted, it hasn't done anything in over a hundred years. It's said there's a castle in a wild garden at the center of the woods. Inside the castle lives a monster. He was a man once, some tales say, and was turned into a monster as a punishment for his evil deeds.” said Ger.\n\nLater, he made me promise not to repeat this conversation to my Hope or Grace, for fear of frightening them. And I promised to keep out of the forest if Ger did.\n\n[[Father's Journey]]\n[[My journey]]

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Ger had made us all promise never to walk in the woods behind our house without either him or Father. “The story is the wood's haunted. No, not haunted: enchanted. That's how we got this place so cheaply.” I had assumed Ger meant the deep forest. One afternoon I wandered into the fringe picking up dead wood for the fires. Ger saw me from the shop and came after me, angry. He relented, but but [[explained he did not want me walking even this near to the trees]].

The house was located beyond the edge of town and isolated by a few stands of trees. Our house's back was to this great wood that no one passed through. We had all been dreading this final moment of finding out just what we had come to, and we all took heart at the quiet scene before us. \n\n[[The house was neat and sturdy]] \n\n[[Everything was beautifully clean]]

Father sat silent for a long time. “Gervain, I cannot ask you to bear the burden of my entire family. I do not know if I do the right thing in my reply, but I cannot accept your offer.” Father paused and looked to Hope, "However poor my own state of affairs, there is no need for Hope to throw her lot in with me. If you wish to make her your wife then you have my blessing."\n\n[[Hope's Wedding]]\n[[What about us?]]\n

“The stream flows out of the forest, so likely it's enchanted too. The smith-the one that left two years ago-dug the well we've got now to prevent the waters enchanting him,” said Ger.\n\n[[The First Smith]]

Father looked up at Grace, “I am sorry, child, but it was not the Raven,” Robbie's ship, "I've brought back a little money, a few things; not much." Ger and I caught each other giving the full saddle-bags puzzled looks; but we said nothing. \n\n[[The Rose]]

“The first smith-well tales vary. Perhaps he was a wizard. He was a good smith, but he disappeared one day. He's the one who build this house. Said he liked the forest and needed a stream nearby. The next smith-the one that left two years ago-he didn't like the noises the forest made after dark.”\n\n[[The Stream]]\n\n[[The Enchanted Woods]]

“Do you like it, Beauty? Little you know what so simple a thing has cost me.” He said, as if speaking in a trance. As he finished speaking, a petal fell from the rose and struck the floor with an audible clink. \n\nGer bent to pick it up and in his hand was a gold coin.