C5 The Story of Rose Duville

“Two bouquets of white roses!” Sonya spoke to the woman at the flower shop where she stopped before going home.

She intentionally visited the shop after having breakfast with Frank, as she remembered that Auntie Caroline sent her a message to buy two bouquets of white roses to celebrate the full moon festival.

Sonya inhaled, she didn’t have any idea what the full moon festivals were and why they should celebrate it. All she knew was that every full moon night, she and her parents would stay at home all night, they lit some candles at home and bedroom, and they ate only vegan and fruit menu.

Once Sonya asked about the meaning behind all the festivals, her mother always smiled at her and said, “Making our gratitude for the mother of Earth and taking appreciation on other’s living souls as our company on this earth!”

And, this answer had already shut Sonya’s mouth to ask further as she was busy absorbing it by herself.

Sonya looked at the woman while she chose some stems of white roses and wrapped them with plastic paper.

The woman in her forties was the owner of the flower shop where Auntie Caroline often bought some flowers for special events.

“Are you Sonya Duville?” She asked Sonya when she accepted the money that Sonya handed to her.

Sonya nodded her head.

The woman stared at her and then, she sighed. “Wait. I’ll show you a picture!” The woman smiled at Sonya before she turned her back and walked inside another room behind her.

She returned with her hands holding an old photo album. She put it on the table in front of Sonya and flipped over the pages.

Sonya patiently waited for Miss Clementine, the woman’s name, trying to show her a picture.

“See!” Miss Clementine smiled and her finger pointed at a picture of a woman in an old era.

Sonya put her eyes on the picture that Miss Clementine pointed at.

“She looks like you,” Miss Clementine turned her eyes from the picture to Sonya.

Sonya giggled and lifted her eyebrows. “Who was she?” Sonya started to be curious about the woman in the picture.

“Rose Duville! You don’t recognize her?” Miss Clementine wrinkled her forehead.

Sonya sighed, “I’ve rarely heard her name. She was my ancestor.”

Miss Clementine smirked. “She helped my ancestor get rid of curses spelled by August Cardinal!”

Sonya swallowed the saliva inside her mouth. ‘Was she a witch?’ Sonya asked herself.

“What kind of curses did your ancestor get, Miss Clementine?” Sonya started becoming curious about the woman in the picture, Rose Duville, one of her ancestors that her family rarely talked about.

Miss Clementine took some deep breaths. “That everyone who helped her would be ended in poverty!”

Miss Clementine paused her story and looked at Sonya. “But the curse spells were broken by Rose Duville!”

Miss Clementine smiled at Sonya. “You bought the roses for her, didn’t you?”

Sonya nodded and smiled at Miss Clementine before she decided to leave the shop.

Arriving at home, Sonya was asked by Auntie Caroline to escort her walking through the small path behind the small gate of their family house. It was a time when the sun almost hid its warmth.

“Miss Clementine showed me a picture of Rose Duville. I think from her name, she was our ancestor.” Sonya opened the conversation as she followed Auntie Caroline’s footsteps from behind.

Auntie Caroline paused walking; she turned around to look at Sonya for a while. She sighed. “What did she say to you?”

Sonya turned her eyes to the brook where the streaming water bubbled. “She said that we look similar to each other!”

Auntie Caroline lifted one of her eyebrows as she seemed curious to find it out. “That’s all?”

“Miss Clementine said that Rose Duville had helped her ancestor from a curse spelled by August Cardinal!” Sonya lifted her shoulder as she didn’t know the history of those persons that they were talking about.

Auntie Caroline seemed relieved to hear Sonya’s answer and they continued to walk to Granny’s and Uncle Elbert’s burials they were located a few metres from a cabin. The burials were on the other side of the small brook as they had to jump across the brook from the walking path.

Auntie Caroline put these bouquets on each burial of Granny and Uncle Elbert. They were praying for a while and in the middle of the prayer, Sonya was triggered to direct her sight to the cabin and the abandoned mansion. Those buildings looked so quiet.

Sonya was curious about the new look of the abandoned mansion as if there were people who had cleaned it up. She sighed as her eyes captured that the mansion’s wall was nearly cleaned from any rambling plants.

‘Who did that?’ Sonya sighed.

“It’s almost dark!” Auntie Caroline got up from her kneeling position. She stared at Sonya as she found that Sonya was gazing at the mansion.

“Let’s back to our house, Sonya!” Auntie Caroline yanked Sonya’s wrist and made her follow her footsteps.

Lassie ran after them; his tail was wiggling as he was barking and it seemed that he asked them to go away from that place.

“Wash your hands in the water, Sonya!” Auntie Caroline stopped walking after they crossed the brook. She knelt and washed her hands from the brook’s streaming water.

Sonya saw Auntie Caroline draw Lassie to come closer to her and she dipped each paw of that German shepherd dog into the water.

“What’s for, Auntie?” Sonya knelt next to Auntie Caroline. Her eyes were staring at Auntie Caroline and she thought that Auntie Caroline did a ritual.

“Just do it as I asked, Sonya! It’s for our benefit!” Auntie Caroline looked at her.

Sonya did what Auntie Caroline asked, she washed her hands into the streaming water and she could feel the chilling sensation from the water as the water was coming from a spring in the nearby forest. It only took half an hour of walking to see that spring.

“You want to know that story, don’t you?” Auntie Caroline poured her half-empty cup of camomile tea as they finished the dinner. They ate veggie soup, two big slices of bread, salad fruits as every full moon festival in the Duville’s tradition to celebrate the event without any meats on the plates.

“Rose Duville always taught her descendants to purify their souls, mostly in the full moon period so that’s why, we avoid eating any meats within those days on our menu!” Auntie Caroline continued to tell her story about Rose Duville when they were sitting in the dining room, enjoying themselves having some camomile tea cups and cinnamon cookies on the plate.

“What did happen between her and August Cardinal?” Sonya munched a bite of cinnamon cookies in her mouth.

Auntie Caroline sniffed. “It was a long story. Rose Duville was a powerful and beautiful young woman who became a reason for August Cardinal’s eldest son to fall in love with her!” Auntie Caroline stopped for a moment and took a bite of a piece of cookie.

“Did he seduce her?” Sonya put the other cookies into her mouth. ‘I don’t know why these cookies always taste delicious although I eat them frequently!’ she thought about the cookies at the time she absorbed the story of Rose Duville.

“He raped her while he made her drunk with some wines!” Auntie Caroline emphasized the line with her tone.

Sonya stopped munching. Her throat felt so dry as she heard the story.

“He invited her to have a taste of an expensive wine in one evening. Of course, Rose Duville rejected his invitation as she was a virgin who was obedient for doing the norms and her family’s traditional rules.” Auntie Caroline continued her story. “Otherwise, her rejection triggered him to conquer her!” Auntie Caroline sighed.

Sonya wiped out her lips after sipping some water.

“The Duville used to work on August Cardinal’s land. They rented some parts of August Cardinal’s land to be cultivated with some plants and built a barn or a place for their living stocks to live.” Auntie Caroline took a deep breath and reached for a glass of water after pouring it with the water from the jar. She took some sips. Her eyes looked quite cloudy. “The son of August Cardinal used that condition to pursue Rose Duville’s parents to allow him and take Rose Duville to come to his invitation!”

“And Rose Duville’s parents allowed him to take their daughter to go with that man?” Sonya took the fifth cookie and she sniffed the combination of the aroma of roses and cinnamon. ‘Did Auntie put some pours of Rose oil into the dough?’ Sonya felt curious.

Auntie Caroline nodded. “That man knew everything about Rose Duville. What the young woman liked or disliked. From rumors, he brought her favorite bouquet, the white roses bouquet where he had put his love spells on it to make Rose Duville got hypnotized and become obedient for everything, he commanded the young woman to do to please him!”

“Rose Duville’s favorite flower was the white rose?” Sonya wrinkled her forehead. ‘What a coincidence that we had a similar favorite flower!’ Sonya rubbed her head as she was triggered.

Auntie Caroline paused to take a long breath. “A rose is a woman’s strength and weakness especially if she has the Rose Duville’s bloodline. I put rose oil in these cookies when I made the dough!”

Sonya lifted one of her eyebrows as she dragged a piece of bitten cookie to look. ‘I knew it!’ She smirked.

“So, what happened to Rose Duville? Was she pregnant?” Sonya leaned her chin with one of her wrists.

“Yes. Unfortunately, the baby of their forbidden love got infected with cholera and he couldn’t make it. The son of August Cardinal refused to admit the baby as his seed and refused to put his name on that baby’s name. The death of the baby became the news since his face looked like August Cardinal’s son although the surname of Duville finally was written as the baby’s surname. My mother told me that the name of the baby was Knight Duville, he died a few months later after he was born.”

Sonya took a sip of water. She could feel how broken Rose Duville’s heart was at that time.

“Rose Duville with her disgrace of having a baby without any marriage tried to take an act of justice for all consequences that the son of August Cardinal did to her. She swore that she would make the son of August Cardinal and his big family pay for her disgrace, but on the other side, August Cardinal’s son insisted on his innocence.” Auntie Caroline smirked in a cynical expression.

“What happened then, was August Cardinal got older and his business was managed by his elder son but there was an unlucky thing that happened to their family business. Their business got worse day by day, month by month until they decided to give their half wealth to the Duville, their family land to become the property of Rose Duville, and now, the land is ours.”

“Did finally the son of August Cardinal admit what he did to Rose Duville and the baby as his son?” Sonya inhaled.

“No. He never admitted it and finally, the Cardinals moved from that old mansion to somewhere and they started a new beginning in their business in somewhere that nobody knew about it.”

Sonya unintentionally squeezed the table cloth as to how fierce the son of August Cardinal’s reaction to his baby was. ‘Fortunately, the baby died before he realized how cruel his father was!’ Sonya harshly sniffed.

“After that, what happened to Rose Duville as she knew that the Cardinals moved somewhere?”

“She got married to a noble man and he was a doctor! From his bloodline, my great-grandmother was born. Since then, the Duville never had any sons in their bloodline!” Auntie Caroline finished her story.