The Winter Man

A short story about a loving daughter, a spiteful stepmother, a lord and a old winter man.

In the town of Clepton there lived a lord saddened by the passing of his wife.  Widowed the lord was comforted by a baker woman and with time became married.  The lord had a daughter who wished for nothing except her farther's happiness but the lord's wife hated the daughter, she was jealous and did not want to share her love.  

One day as the long winter arrived the lord's wife told to girl if she wanted to make her farther happy bring him a white rose with exactly fourteen petals.  The girl wandered out into the vast snow covered forests in search of the rose, little did she know the lord's wife had followed her.  Dressed in white the lord's wife hide with the snow until she got close enough to the daughter, gripping a strong log the daughter was made unconscious, the lord's wife left her to freeze and returned to her lord.  

Waking in the snow made red the girl's blurred eyes show a figure approaching.  A old man, beard long and white, wearing pelts of the lands beasts.  The old man covered the girl in his pelts and tended to her wound and told her she was attacked by a woman in white then helped the girl out of the forest where they departed.  

Upon her return the farther coddled his daughter.  The lord's wife surprised at her return  grew more jealous and hateful of the daughter.  The daughter told her farther of the old man and the woman in white that had attacked her, the lord offered a reward to anyone who could find and capture the woman in white.  Fearing to be found out the lord's wife took the white clothing and went deep into the forest and buried it in the snow.  

A month passed and the lord spent all his time with his daughter and brought her beautiful dresses, a dog with a golden coat and fine jewellery.  The daughter wanted to do something in return and asked the wife want her farther would want,  the lord's wife told her if she wanted to make her father happy she should look for the white owl and take it's eggs.  The daughter ventured off into the forest in search of the white owl's eggs.  

The lord's wife ventured in the forest to retrieve the white clothing, digging up where she had left them she was confronted by the old man.  "One so full of spite should not know love" infuriated the lord's wife grabbed a log and swung it at the old man, the old man placed his fore finger to the lord's wife and was instantaneously turned to ice.  

The old man found the lord's daughter wandering the forest and gave her two white owl eggs.  The old man told her the truth about the lord's wife and told her she was safe.  Thanking the old man she offer him to met with her farther who would reward him, refusing the old man disappeared with the icy wind.  

Author's Note

I hope you enjoy this short story.