This is number twenty-nine in a series of posts where I document the complete process of writing a novella - Day By Day!
INTRODUCTION
I am documenting (via my blog) the complete start to finish experience of writing a novella that I will be releasing for FREE once it is written and edited.
I will be writing approximately 900 words per day and I will post each day's writing the following morning, unedited, on my blog. This means you get to see my draft with all its original spelling mistakes, bad grammar, and clumsy sentences
The timeline for the experiment is as follows:
- Plotting, Characters and Scene Outlines - April 1to April 20 - COMPLETE
- First Draft Manuscript - April 21 to May 18 - IN PROGRESS
- First Manuscript Edits - June 19 to June 23
- Reader Proofs - June 24 to July 14
- Final Manuscript Edits - July 15 to July 19
STATUS
Today's Date: May 17th
Progress: Day 26 complete. Following is the day's writing (Chapter Thirteen continued)...
ONLY ONE CHAPTER TO GO!!
Bramwel ran toward his bedroom door with his whip in his hand. By the time he reached it, Ryann had gone. He half-considered chasing after her, but in the end he just returned to his room. He put the whip down on the table and walked over to the bed to examine his toy horse more closely. A tear ran down his face. There was no doubt it was completely broken.
He pieced the largest of the parts together and laid them down on his bed. This was the last memory he had of his mother. The last thing of her he had clung on to. Now what was he going to do? He wiped his face and walked over to the window. Damn that girl. When she returned, whenever she returned, he was going to beat her close to death. He didn’t even care what his father said. Yes, it was probably best not to mention the horse to him. He would only guess Bramwel’s intent. A sly smile crept onto his face. Yes, a good beating would be appropriate in this case.
Bramwel turned away from the window and stared back at his bed. But maybe there was another way. After all, she had wanted to fight him in a duel. A silly girl, wanting to fight in a duel. Perhaps this was a better opportunity. Of course it was. He walked to the bed, picked up the pieces of the toy horse and hurried out of his room.
“Father,” Bramwel half-shouted, rushing into the large sitting room.
Lord Cala looked up from his book. “Bram?”
“It’s my horse, father. She’s broken it.” He laid the pieces down on his father’s lap and let a tear drop from his eye.
Lord Cala picked up a piece of the horse and examined it. “She?”
“Ryann. She did it. She threw it against the bedroom wall. I saw her.”
“And why did she do that, Bram? What did you do to her?”
“Nothing. She just hates me, that’s all.” He picked up a piece of the horse and held it up. “This is the only memory I had of mother. And now even that is broken. Can it be fixed?”
Lord Cala shook his head. “I don’t think so, Bram. But I can get another made for you if you would like.”
“I don’t want another one. I wanted the one mother gave me. I miss her.” Bramwel took a step backward. “What happened to her, father?”
“You know what happened, Bram. She died. Suddenly.” He looked away from his son.
“Grubb says she just disappeared and she’s not dead.”
Lord Cala turned his head back toward Bramwel. “He said what?”
Bramwel swallowed. “He said she’s not dead. He said she just disappeared one day, but she certainly isn’t dead. What happened to her, father?”
Lord Cala sat in silence for a minute, with Bramwel waiting for him to speak. “It’s true, Bram. She isn’t dead. She ran away. I didn’t want you to know that. It has already broken my heart and I thought it would be easier to tell you she had died.”
“Where did she go?”
“I don’t know. She ran off in the middle of the night with Kenrik.”
“The freed sclava that you fought?” Bramwel’s mind was suddenly working overtime.
“Yes. How do you know about him?”
“One of guards mentioned him to me when I asked about the tapestries.”
Lord Cala’s face reddened. “You have been sneaking around in places that are hidden away? What else haven’t you been telling me, Bramwel?”
Bramwel took another step back in case his father decided to hit him. “Nothing, father. I was only trying to find out about your battles. I found a tapestry that had a picture of you on a white horse. It was just like my toy one. That was all. The guard told me the story of the battle and mentioned Kenrik.”
“Kenrik was my most trusted sclava. I didn’t find out until just before he left that your mother had, had, had affections for him. She had that damn toy horse made for me, but when I found out about the two of them I made her give it to you. I never even realized he would come back for her and take her away from me.” Lord Cala threw the piece of the toy horse down on the ground. “Now it’s all gone. Everything. Now it’s just you and me, Bram.”
Bramwel stared at the piece of wood on the floor. “So can I fight her, father?”
“What?”
“Ryann. Can I fight her in a duel? She challenged me.”
Lord Cala slowly nodded his head. “I suppose so, Bram. Just one more sclava who needs to be taught a lesson.”
Bramwel bent down to pick up the piece of his horse and then retrieved the other one from his father’s lap. He smiled at his father and hurried from the room before his father could change his mind.
At last he was going to get to beat Ryann in a fair fight. Well, fair by name anyway. He still had some of the potion-maker’s poison in his room and that would certainly help tip the scales. He probably didn’t really need it. After all, Ryann was just a skinny little girl. “Skinny?” He stopped dead in his tracks. Didn’t she used to be fat? Well, at least a little dumpy. He shook his head. It was probably the sclava rations. They all look a little skinny. Except cook, but she had always been huge. Either way, a little poison would help.
Bramwel continued walking toward his room. Of course he would try not to kill the girl. He laughed out loud to himself. But for some reason or other he just seemed to keep accidentally killing the sclavas.
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