Lily Blank’s Mirror Cracked

Out flew the web and floated wide;

The mirror cracked from side to side;       

"The curse is come upon me," cried

    The Lady of Shalott.

                                              Lord Alfred Tennyson (1842)

The turret door banged.

Lily Blank’s large, ornate mirror crashed to the floor, cracked from side to side.

“A curse has come upon you!” cried Charlotte-Elaine, Lady of Shalott, Entrepreneur owner of Charlotte’s Web Weaving, Patron of the Arts and founder of the charitable organization, Scarlet Sleeve Care Provider Services.

Charlotte-Elaine was the former Elaine the Fair, Elaine the Lovely, the Lily maid of Astolat.

“But why?” asked Lily Blank, staring blankly at the damaged mirror.

“Because you defrauded me!” spat Lady Charlotte-Elaine.

“No. I never did!” said Lily. “What do you mean?”

“You stole my role. You stole my identity.”

“No! How could I have done that?”

“You are installed in MY bedroom.”

“Yes. I am your father’s live-in housekeeper.”

“I was his daughter/housekeeper and I did not sleep in the servants’ quarters.

Why do you not sleep in the servants’ quarters?

Why are you in my bedroom?”

“His Lordship said for me to sleep there; so that I could hear him call out in the night.”

“By doing that you are acting in the role of daughter/housekeeper.

I see this all the time in my Scarlet Sleeve Care Provider Services Retirement Villages. People come claiming to be long lost relatives or bastard offspring of the residents, hoping to get a share of their wills.

And some of the claims are possibly valid; but the poor old folk are often too scrambled in their minds to recognize them.

That is what you are doing, isn’t it? You want to be able to go along to the retirement home and say ‘I am the daughter/housekeeper of Sir Bernard, the Lord of Astolat.’

And they will say ‘Prove it.’ And you will say ‘I sleep in the daughter’s bedroom, not the servants’ quarters.’

And they will look at him and ask if that is true and he will nod and say you have done so for years.”

“No, I would never do that! I am just grateful His Lordship gave me the work.”

“And you stole my suitor!”

“Lord Bromwell? No! He said he used to come courting you but you were not interested in him.”

“Yes, Lord Bromwell. Did he put you up to this? His land adjoins ours and I think he only courted me so he could join the two holdings and make it Bromolat or Astowell.”

“No. You and your brothers, Torre and Lavain, will inherit Astolat. When Lord Bromwell marries me, he will take me to live at Bromwell Hall and I will become Lady Bromwell. Just fancy that! It is like in a story tale.

We will have to find a new housekeeper for your father.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Why did you put a curse on me?”

“I did not put a curse on you. I said a curse has come upon you.”

“Why?”

“Because it happened to me. I made the mistake of falling in love with Sir Lancelot du Lac.”

“Who?”

“What do you mean ‘Who’? Are you completely ignorant of the people of Camelot?

He is only the most famous of King Arthur’s knights.”

“Well, we are a bit remote out here. I see the people of Camelot riding by the tower most days; but I never know who they are.”

“That is how it starts. You see surly village-churls, market girls, a troop of damsels, an abbot, sometimes a curly haired shepherd-lad, or a long-haired page clad in crimson. Then the knights come riding two by two and you start wishing for a knight of your own, especially after you see two young lovers newly wed, till you are half sick of shadows.”

“Well, it doesn’t really worry me; because I am very happy with my Lord Bromwell, you see.”

“And then you will see HIM, riding by the river, singing ‘tirra-lirra’. And he is so handsome, with his brazen greaves, and his broad, clear brow, and his coal black curls.”

“I have seen a black-haired knight riding by the river singing ‘tirra-lirra’. But I never paid much attention to him.”

“And then, unless you want to invent a completely new story for yourself, like I did, you have two courses of action open to you.

You can leap up from your weaving…”

“I don’t do weaving.”

“And rush to the window. The weaving will all come off the loom and float around and your hair will float around too. And the mirror will crack from side to side.

Then you go down to the river, find a boat, and write The Lady of Shalott on the prow. You get in, sit up in the boat, loose the boat from its moorings and float down to Camelot, singing. You will be dead by the time you reach the first house by the waterside in Camelot.

There is another option; but you end up dying of unrequited love either way. File that picture of the knight in your memory and dream about it; until one day he actually turns up in Astolat on his way to a jousting tournament. This is the ideal opportunity to claim him as your own by getting him to carry your token in the lists.”

“Why would he do that, if he does not even know me?”

“Because he wants to fight in disguise. He will also give you his shield for safe keeping and take a blank one to the tournament. He will win the large diamond but will be so badly wounded he will nearly die.

Here is where you get your chance to win him for yourself by nursing him for many months and saving his life.

But then, here is where the curse comes in. He will be very grateful to you but he will not want to marry you.”

“That is because he already has a lady he loves.”

“How do you know that, if you don’t even know who Sir Lancelot du Lac is?”

“If it is the same knight that I saw:

A red-cross knight for ever kneel'd

To a lady in his shield”

                  The Lady of Shalott Lord Alfred Tennyson (1842)

“Well, that was not the design on the shield he left with me, which Sir Gawain identified as belonging to Sir Lancelot.

 And when the shield was brought, and Gawain saw

 Sir Lancelot's azure lions, crowned with gold,

 Ramp in the field, he smote his thigh, and mocked:

 'Right was the King! our Lancelot! that true man!'

                      Lancelot and Elaine Lord Alfred Tennyson (1859)

“So maybe you did not see the same knight. But you are still cursed because you saw the knight with coal black hair singing ‘tirra-lirra’ and then your mirror fell and cracked from side to side.”

“The mirror falling had nothing to do with seeing that knight. It happened when YOU banged my turret door!”