55. Kathy’s Training Pays Off

Kathy exhaled long and slow. Quietly she said, “Oh Ken. Ken. Tell me about Shaye.”

He snapped his head up and glared. She gazed evenly back, and his face relaxed. “I told her I had something important to ask. I had to see her. I went to her house. When I walked in she had her back to me. She turned around and saw I was holding the dagger and was wearing the gloves and ... and she laughed. She laughed at me. She said I was a fool and she could never love me. She walked over and sat down on that wretched couch. I should have just left, but I was too excited. I had rehearsed the words, and I was passionate, and I couldn’t stop myself.” He closed his eyes.

Kathy watched his face. He was reliving the moment, his eyes moved behind closed lids.

“I couldn’t stop myself,” he repeated. “I started to say the words, but she was smirking, she stood up and knocked the dagger out of my hand. She laughed at me again.”

He paused, looking off into the distance, taking himself back to the pretty little house.

“She disgraced the dagger,” he said coldly. “She knocked it to the floor. She should have taken it in her hand. I picked it up and I knew she had to die. I stabbed her in the right place,” he said, his eyes on hers, an odd expression on his face, pride mixed with despair. “I did it correctly. But when I withdrew the dagger, I wasn’t holding her properly, she was still moving, damn her. She lunged to the side, she tripped on the coffee table, she fell down and smashed her face.” He sobbed. “Her beautiful face.”

His grip on the dagger’s hilt tightened, Kathy was prepared to spring off the bench if he made a move, but he went on talking.

“I knew then I was cursed. I had failed. Failed! I didn’t hold her properly. I didn’t lay her down as the ceremony demands. Like my unhappy ancestor 300 years ago, I was cursed forever. I panicked and fled.”

He turned to look at her again, and she raised her eyes from the blade to his face.

“The curse started right there,” he said bitterly. “I ran away, down the path, but as I went through that damned hedge the dagger caught on the gatepost. It flew out of my hand. I didn’t see where it landed. I couldn’t see it but I had to get away. I was in a panic, I ran back to my car and drove away. I don’t know how I didn’t crash the car. I, I, was shattered. Shaye was dead. She refused me. But all I could think of was how I had failed in the ritual and now the curse would follow me all of my life.”

He was out of breath. He was very still. Then he raised his head and looked at her. His expression made her blood run cold. “And now there’s you. You are blessed. You are flowing over with good luck, you have the magic, Kathy. You found the dagger that was lost, you held the maiden as she died, you walked right into the legend.”

He got to his feet, she drew back in alarm. He stood looking at her, though he didn’t seem to be focusing. “Now you will be my true love and you will take this curse away.”

Kathy sat perfectly still as Rivers started to say the ritual words. He spoke in a monotone, swaying slightly, holding the dagger out to her. “You are the pure one, the blessed one. Kathy Chatsworth you are my one true love, will you ...” He moved toward her and the weeks of fight training came back in a rush. Her left foot flew out catching his right wrist and knocked the dagger from his hand. She followed up with her right foot, catching him in the back of the knees and knocked him to the ground. She stood over him, her foot raised to strike again, but he stayed down, clutching his knee and moaning.

“Why did you do that?” His voice was a whine. “Ouch, Kathy, ouch. I wasn’t going to stab you. Kathy, you’re the lady in the legend, the one who will save me, who will take the curse off me. I just want to ask you to marry me, and you’re going to say yes.”

Kathy moved over to him and saw his trance was broken. He was in pain. She reached out, he took her hand and she pulled him up. He sat heavily on the bench, rubbing his wirst then his leg. He looked stricken and very old as he turned his face to hers. A tear ran down his cheek.

“Maybe I was already cursed,” he said. “Maybe it all started with Catrina.”

Kathy held her breath. When he didn’t continue, she said softly, “Did you get the ceremony right with Catrina?”