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Molly knew that, in his youth, her grandfather had been a medical doctor, so none of this came as a surprise to her. But why was his casket set in the middle of the room? The brass plate affixed to it had his name and the date of his death engraved on it. But why hadn’t it been buried in the family plot? And why were the hinges sprung open and the lid sitting loose on top of the box?
Looking around the room, Molly spotted a great leather-bound book on her grandfather’s desk with the word “necromancy” in gold letters on the cover. Beside it lay his journal, open to the day he died, the page half-filled with his handwriting. Molly reached to open the book but, the moment she touched it, something strange happened. The skeleton in the corner of the room rattled and Molly’s grandmother, in her portrait, turned her head and spoke a single word:
“Forbear!”
Little Molly turned and fled, hitting the hidden lever as she ran past. That was over three years ago and Molly had never returned to visit the secret room.
“Maybe I should go back and read his journal.” read his journal… read his journal…
“There’s that echo again,” thought Molly, clasping her hand over her mouth. Because she spent so much time alone, it was hard for her to remember not to talk to herself.
The next morning a prince arrived from a neighboring kingdom, accompanied by thirty soldiers with crossbows and heavy swords. He left his guard outside the wall and crossed over the drawbridge alone, carrying a heavy rosewood chest.
“Go to your room! Now!” Molly’s mother shoved her towards her room, “I’ll answer the door.”
From her bedroom window Molly craned her neck to observe the proceedings a hundred feet below. The prince was the most handsome man that Molly had ever seen, perhaps three or four years older than herself. He bowed low to Molly’s mother and placed the rosewood chest at her feet. When he lifted the lid Molly saw that it was filled with jewels – diamonds and rubies and sapphires – more jewels than even her mother possessed in her vault.
Then he asked for Molly’s hand in marriage!
But, to Molly’s astonishment, her mother pushed the box of jewels aside contemptuously with her foot.
“Bring me the head of the ogre who lives in the forest,” she said sternly, “and only then can you marry my daughter.”
“It will be done,” said the prince, gravely, though Molly thought that she could see his hands tremble.
As the prince retraced his steps across the drawbridge carrying his spurned chest of jewels, he had every intention of beating a hasty retreat back to his own kingdom. But, just as the gate was about to close behind him, he turned and caught sight of the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in an upstairs window.
Molly waved to him just as the gate closed, blocking his view. But that was all it took. With just that one glance the prince fell madly in love and was prepared to fight, kill and die for Molly.
That afternoon, Molly, still confined to her bedroom, could hear the din of a terrible battle being fought in the forest. Later, using her spyglass, she caught sight of the prince and two of his men running for their lives back towards town. Molly put her head in her hands and sobbed, sure that she would never see the handsome prince again.
“The ogre scared him away,” she said aloud through her tears, “If only there were some way that I could help.” I could help… I could help…
A few days later their monthly supply wagon arrived. Molly’s mother told her to stay in her room as she would supervise the unloading of the wagon herself. But Molly, disobeying a direct order from her mother for the first time in her life, crept silently down the stairs and held a drinking glass to the stone wall so she could hear the conversation on the other side.
Molly’s mother inquired, in a careless manner as if it were of little concern to her, whether the teamsters had seen the visiting prince in the last few days. Yes, they replied, he and his two surviving comrades were holed up in the local hotel, recovering from their wounds. The prince was waiting for reinforcements. So great was his love for Molly that he had beseeched his father, the king of the neighboring land, to send an entire battalion of soldiers to help him fight the ogre. And they would bring a new weapon, recently invented, which they called a “cannon.”
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