Miss Enchanter - Ophelia's Story by Carol Colbert Page A

bath, or is Luna coming right away?”
    “ Take your
bath, dear, there is no rush.’ Thelma said as Ophelia walked to her
bedroom. She ran a hot bubble bath and soon was enjoying the warmth
of the water and the smell of vanilla and almonds of the bath
salts.
    When she
emerged from her bedroom she was wearing pajamas and a robe
although it was just barely dark outside. She felt very comfortable
and was looking forward to some of that stew Thelma had on the
stove. She was happy to see Luna had already arrived. “Hello, Luna,
doesn’t that stew smell wonderful? I can hardly wait to chow
down!”
    “ Hello,
Ophelia.” Luna said, putting the butter and jam on the table and sitting down while Thelma
dished out big bowls of the beef stew. They ate their meal and made
small talk in-between chews. Ophelia could not believe how good
everything tasted. After they were finished, each took a mug of hot
chocolate and sat by the fireplace in the living room.
    Ophelia tucked
her feet under her and covered up with a big throw blanket and took
a sip of her hot chocolate. “Tell me more about the old country and
about my mother.” She said to her cousins. “I hadn’t seen my mother
in all the years I was stuck with Mrs. Johnson, I can never be able
to thank you enough for finding me and bringing me here, Thelma. I
just wish my mother could have known that I would have gone back to
her if it had been
possible.”
    “I am sure she knows,
dear.” Luna said and then clarified “The way all mothers know what
is happening with their children, you just feel it in your
heart.”
    “Neither you, nor
Thelma had children?” Ophelia asked.
    “That is
correct.”
    “Didn’t you and Hugo
ever want to have children?” Ophelia asked Luna.
    Luna took a
moment to sip on her hot chocolate and appeared to be trying to
choose her words carefully. “It was different with Hugo and me. We
have known each other for a very long time. Do you remember me
mentioning the king’s second cousin who also lived in the Palace?”
Luna asked Ophelia.
    “Yes, you said that
she had powers and she married and had a son and that no one knew
that she wasn’t a mortal. I don’t think you mentioned her name
though.”
    “ Her name
was Julia. She married a man
whom she loved, but this man served the King and did his bidding.
The King ordered this man to head the purification of the forest as
the King called it, to rid it of any entities that were not there
to obey and serve the Crown. When he left with the King on his
travels a specialist was called in, he was the Great Evil we told
you about.”
    “ You are
speaking of him trying to get
rid of our family, right?” Ophelia asked.
    “ Our family and
others. Up until then everyone
coexisted without fear of being harmed or persecuted. With the
arrival of the newly formed huntsmen came great harm and changes to
our world. People were afraid of their neighbors and would do
anything to keep suspicion off of their clan. One woman argued with
a peddler over some sort of fasteners and he later had a stroke and
died. That was enough for some people to say that she killed the
peddler and declare her a witch.”
    Ophelia went into the kitchen and came back
with glasses and the bottle of wine. “I think I am ready for wine,
would you ladies like to join me?” Both Thelma and Luna said yes
and Ophelia poured them all a glass of the grape wine. She then
asked what happened to the lady who argued with the
peddler.
    “She was put to
death,” Thelma said. “She was stoned.”
    “How horrible! I am
so glad that our family was able to leave that awful place.”
Ophelia said.
    Thelma put
another log onto the fire and then turned to her younger cousin.
“It was not an awful place, but there were some powerful and evil people there.”
    “ So what
happened to Julia, the King’s
second cousin?”
    She was happy in her pregnancy and
overlooked a lot of what her husband, his name was Matthew, was
assigned to do. She overlooked