“Oh, my goodness! You’re not dead! Hold on, hold on,” the woman shouted in a panic as she rummaged through her laundry basket. Without delay, she pulled out what appeared to be a sheet and tied it to another blanket that spilled out of her basket.
Once I realized what she was doing, I began to kick again. In the midst of my movement, I recognized she was on the western side of the river. My legs stiffened for a brief moment, but then continued.I’ll figure out a way home later; first, I need to get out of the water.My legs still ached from their overuse, but I managed to make some progress.
“Grab this!” the woman called out as she tossed her newly created lifeline into the water. The sheets flew across the air and landed only a few feet in front of me. The edge of the sheet was just barely out of my reach, so I kicked as hard and fast as I could until it was only a short reach away. With a shaking hand, I released the limb and grabbed for the sheet. My grasp tightened on the fabric, and the current yanked the branch out of my other arm. For a panicked moment, I sank.
Water enveloped me as I fell into its icy grip. My free hand latched onto the fabric, but it was submerged with me. I desperately tried to kick upward, but my clothes felt too heavy and the water was too vicious. My lungs burned for air, and I thrashed in terror. Before I could truly panic, the fabric pulled, tugging me along with it. My fingers laced tightly across the thin sheet, gripping it as hard as I could.
The tugging was slow at first, but then it sped up, and before I knew it, my head was breaching the surface of the water. I took in a massive breath, relieving my lungs of the painful pressure. My eyes were too blurred from the water to see how close to the bank I was, but soon, I could feel my boots sticking in the muddy riverbed.
I stumbled out of the water and collapsed onto the pebbly ground, my breaths still labored and short. After I had fully caught my breath, I cleared the lingering water from my eyes and looked up to my rescuer...or rescuers.
Three women stood above me, each giving me their own confused glares.
“Thank you,” I sputtered, coughing water out of my lungs. “I wasn’t sure if I would ever make it out of that river.”
The first woman, the one who had tossed me the lifeline, cocked her head at me. “Why did you go in the river in the first place? That seems like an awfully foolish thing to do.”
I sat up, steadying myself with my quaking arms. “I was trying to get away from...something,” I said vaguely. It was a little difficult to explain the truth about my situation.
“Well, that was rather short-sighted of you,” the second woman scolded, crossing her arms stiffly. “If you cannot swim, then you shouldn’t go into the water. You’re lucky that Bailey and I were around to help pull you out. Bryanna had to ruin our bed sheets in order to save you.”
I looked down at the sopping wet sheets that lay in a twisted knot. “I’m terribly sorry... I didn’t mean to—”
“Betsy, don’t yell at poor girl! She nearly drowned!” the first woman, Bryanna, snapped back. “You’re only mad because it was your sheets that I grabbed first.”
“This is my blanket, too!” Bailey, the presumed youngest, pouted fiercely. “I only ran over because I saw you toss it into the river! I didn’t realize there was a person attached to it.”
Wearily, I stood to my feet, taking in the strange scene before me. On closer inspection, I noticed the three women looked very similar to each other. “Are you sisters?”
Three pairs of eyes flicked at me. “Of course,” Betsy huffed, as if it was the most obvious fact in all the realms. “We’re the Timoren sisters, and who might you be?” She grazed her eyes over me, then landed her gaze on my flamboyant hair.
Her sisters seemed to notice my locks for the first time as well, and Bryanna gasped. “Wait just a moment! Are you that girl everyone has been talking about? The one with the wild red hair! Oh, what was her name?”
“Estelle?” Bailey questioned, raising her brow.
I flinched at the name.How is it that rumors of the princess have traveled even to the western side of the kingdom?For a moment, I considered denying my correlation with the name, but then a thought trickled through my mind. The rebels weren’t on this side of the river, and if they wanted to deliver me to them, they would have to help me back over to the eastern side, so there wasn’t much of a downside to admitting who I was.
“I’m not Estelle, but I probably am the girl with the red hair they’re referring to.” I opened my mouth to give my speech about how I had nothing to do with the princess, but a chorus of irritated groans and eye rolls made me go quiet.
“Ugh, why couldn’t you just leave her in the river, Bry?” Betsy groaned.
“You’re here to look for a husband, aren’t you?” Bailey snarked. “Well Oliver is mine, so go peddle your little princess story somewhere else. You’re not welcome here!”
The two sisters huffed pompously before turning their backs on me. My mouth fell open with a dumbfounded expression.What are they talking about?I looked over at Bryanna, who didn’t seem quite as offended by my existence.
“Sorry, you’ll have to go. I’m glad you’re alright, though.” She sighed as she collected the ruined sheets from the ground, no longer making eye contact with me.
“I’m sorry. Have I offended you somehow?” Despite no longer floating aimlessly down a river, I wasn’t in a very good situation. If this woman abandoned me now, I would have no place to turn to, and I certainly couldn’t cross the river on my own.
“Not intentionally.” Bryanna shrugged. “Rumors about the missing princess have flooded this village, and now all the men are holding out for a chance to marry her and become king, including my sisters’ suitors. Honestly, all the men in this village have been hoping to meet the red-headed princess, and all the girls are pretty irritated about it. If I were you, I’d steer clear and keep heading west. You don’t want to deal with a village full of jealous women.”
My mouth remained agape as Bryanna hoisted her laundry basket onto her hip. “But I don’t want anything to do with those men. I just want to get home.”
“I believe you, but it’s out of my control,” she said with a tsk. “Good luck! Oh, and you better find shelter soon. I think the rain is coming.”
I looked up to the sky and noticed the clouds had begun to grow overcast. When I shifted my gaze back onto the Timoren sisters, they were gone. Bryanna was still in view but appeared to have no intentions on waiting to give me any more advice.
Well, this is just great...