Looking for her Lady (Griselda)

She reached out and took Rachel's hand, following Beryl up the hill.

At the top of the hill, there were rocks and old pieces of fence scattered about. There were post holes in the ground that were now being used to by all manner of creatures, including snakes and voles. But there was no other evidence, even in the long grass that anything used to be there. It was just an opened space, with bumps and holes in the ground that looked eroded.

Beryl stood a good football field's length from where the edge dropped down to the beach. She pointed in front of her, a vague thing to do when there was nothing there for reference. "The front door was there, the porch wrapped around the side. We had a swing, too."

She pulled a small pad of paper out of her pocket and started to note down, roughly, the address of where the house once stood.

"All right. I will need to do some research. What did the box mean to you?"

"It was the only possession I was allowed to bring into the marriage. It was mine..."

She blinked at that.

"Wait. What? The only possession you could bring into the marriage?"

"I was allowed one object from home to take with me. It is what I chose."

She nodded.

"All right. And you lived here your entire marriage?"

"Yes, I did. It was only a few years."

She nodded.

"All right. I may have more questions for you soon, but I'm going to go see if I can track down your husband first."

She gave a nod and moved to sit where the porch used to be, humming softly.

She turned to look at the ghost again..

"You wouldn't happen to have something that was his, would you?"

She looked up and gave a little shrug.

"In my tomb... When I woke up, my baby's skeleton was with me."

She seemed a little saddened by that.

"Come with me?"

With a nod she stood, but she was otherwise emotionless as she began to lead Griselda and Rachel back to the cemetery.

She was taking careful, measured steps. Because she didn't want to upset Beryl anymore. Back to the cemetery they went, toward Beryl's tomb.

She led them back through the maze of trees on one end of the cemetery, onto a forgotten path and through a dense mass of foliage. And there was Beryl's broken tomb in bits and pieces. Small bones and dead rats were scattered among the debris. Again, she pointed to the tomb, but she did not near it, herself.

She looked so sad when she saw the broken tomb. Gently, with great care, she approached it. She almost seemed hesitant to touch anything.

"Oh, Beryl. What happened here?"

"I had to get out. So... I got out." It was likely in her disorientation, that all of her strength was focused on the stone and wood that held her. She took out quite a bit of aggression in this spot.

She nodded.

"And your child?"

"The child was not yet born," she replied, making the implication quite clear.

She frowned.

"I thought you died in childbirth, though?"

She nodded. "Technically, I did. What he did spurred labor. I would have died either way. It was more acceptable in polite society to say my death was attributed to childbirth. I was dead before he was out. And he was dead before he was out."

She frowned.

"What spurred your labor?"

"He... he beat me to death... He hit me everywhere he could reach."

She frowned.

"What set him off, Beryl?"