It was morning, she felt it.
The first rays of the sun had started beating on her mulatto and beautiful face, on her big eyes, Diane could feel it in the air.
It was already warmer that day, she felt it, she knew, it was March 20th, on that day was the beginning of spring, the equinox.
She opened her eyes slowly, they were somewhat dry.
The night before, out of fear, she had closed them so tightly that it hurt the next morning.
Diane felt the grass, fresh and wet, under her light nightgown, it was wet, all under her bottom and somehow she felt tired, not too much from the flight of the night before, but generally, from everything in the last few years that was happening in her life.
She was immersed in the greenery of the garden, in the rear part of the huge mansion that previously belonged to the dukes of Hannover.
She was quite far from Warwick, yet Isabelle had managed to track her down and for the umpteenth time to attempt her life.
The huge and beautiful mansion where she had lived in those days was gone, burned away in the flames, in a single night and all that remained were ashes and ruins.
Where was Meredith? Where had little Olivia gone? Diane did not want to try to call them, to shout their name, she was afraid after that evening, afraid that someone might find her.
In any case they were gone, both of them, she didn't know if they were dead or if they had had time to escape, she couldn't be sure, as their bodies, if burned, would have been unrecognisable among the many ashes.
She hoped only the best for them, that somehow they had escaped death, even if in a far more realistic reality the first option was the most possible.
Her children had begun to move again to breathe with a regular rhythm, they were safe.
They were crying, they were hungry, she understood them, she too was hungry, but in such a situation there was no resource left for them.
It was horrible to know that if they had not died at the hands of the princess they would have died of starvation and there was not even a home for them, as everything they had known in those times had vanished in a single night.
She just had to take the road, find some sort of home or refuge and be able to ask to stay there for the night.
Diane didn't have a lot of money and she knew that supporting two children was particularly expensive.
First of all she had to pay for the food for them, as so many of her strength and energy were wasted in breastfeeding, she had to pay for water, to be able to wash them, and having running water in the house was quite expensive, if she didn't want to bring her own children to wash in a river.
Diane had to pay for the soap in order to guarantee them hygiene, as well as clothes and underwear, which in children had to be washed several times a day.
The money she had would have immediately invested in renting a quite small apartment and then, like any commoner, she would have taken on a job that would allow her to keep the house and both of her children.
She would have been ready to take on any job, really.
She was a beautiful young woman, so many possibilities would be open to her.
She was strong enough, she could have tried to take part in farm work or even fishing, modest jobs, but which could still afford her a decent wage.
The only thing that she immediately excluded was prostitution, for one of the major reasons was that she did not know with whom and with little use of precautions she would have risked catching some disease.
Even worse, she could have risked giving birth to more children, and she could not afford to guarantee a future for somebody else.
Diane walked silently, she didn't want to make a noise, not too much, when she was in a forest, alone, she was afraid, she could have been attacked by any brigands and despite having a mighty knife as a weapon, those miserables certainly wouldn't have made any problems to harass a poor mother like her.
She walked quickly, being alone without help or a person to rely on there made her insecure.
She walked fast and while she walked she held her two children tightly on her shoulders, inside the basket, created with the help of the sheets.
Green surrounded her, all around the small and narrow dirt road where she was walking.
Diane saw around her the woody, brown shrubs of the trees and the leaves, which in the spring season had begun to form on the long, narrow branches of the forest trees.
In her frightened run one of her feet twisted on the ground, causing her to fall.
She had to stop, she had no choice, she was tired and her children were hungry, she could feel it, from the desperate cry that the two of emitted.
She sat down slowly and calmly under a tree, spread both her legs to the earthy floor, took Logan and Cassidy from the bundle where they lay.
She lowered her nightgown, just enough to leave her chest free from any cover, and placed her two children on her breasts, to be able to satiate themselves with her milk.
She had to eat, or she would no longer be able to produce nourishment for the twins, and being they the only company she had in her sad days, she could never accept to lose them.
She was near the sea, she could smell the calm, reassuring waves in the distance, and even more the salty smell.
But even stronger and closer, she could smell the warm and sweet smell of milk, which was not hers, but must on the contrary be that of a cow or another farm animal.
She raised her eyes to the horizon, beyond the forest, on the hill, there was a cottage, quite small, but with a stable surrounded by fields and vegetables all around, which seemed to be in full swing of its agricultural production.
The stable was the closest place to her and the smell of animals and milk came from there, so her only chance now was to reach that place to be able to satiate herself.
She knew that it was not morally right to steal, but in that situation it was she who needed to eat, she had to think about herself, about her children.
To be able to get by on her own.
She got up, covered both her breasts and placed the two babies back into the bundle, they seemed to be full for the moment, she realised, because her two babies had eaten with so much strength and appetite that her breasts now almost ached.
She had to get food, she was hungry, she would starve if no one gave her food.
However, the stable seemed to have been the simplest and fastest solution.
It was a real paradise for her, as the stable itself was full not only of goats and cows, as well as pigs, but also of a section where different types of cheeses and also dried meat were to be found.
Diane approached the goods, she wanted to take as little as possible, but she was hungry and no other chance, so, taking advantage of the temporary absence of the hosts, she took a piece of cheese from the shelf and took a bite.
It tasted great, slightly salty, but tasted like milk and it was fresh.
There she would have time to recover from her flight, from anxieties, exhaustion and fears and from hunger.
She also took with her some cuts of dried meat and a small bottle of fresh milk it was so nice to be able to fill her stomach with so much good stuff and above all her children would have been happy to receive such a tasty and nutritious milk.
The only thing that the she had not noticed was that a Maremma shepherd was there to guard the various animals, it had long white, dirty coat, sometimes however covered with straw, coming from the sheaves of the stable and whose legs, fast and slender were dirty with dried mud.
The dog had been calm and silent until it had had time to rest in a corner of the stable, among the different animals.
On the other hand, however, it was also true that dogs had a perfectly strong nose and so, smelling the unknown smell of the intruder and her two children, it carried out the task for which it was cared for and fed.
The dog began to bark, loudly and with anger, albeit not attacking the stranger, but immediately warning its owners from the fields where they were at work at that moment.
So before Diane could run away she felt a familiar sensation, unfortunately too uncomfortable.
She felt a gun pointed at her head, she was afraid, afraid that her life would be taken from her at that moment, by the owner, by that plump and elderly man who at that moment was holding that weapon pointed at her.
Diane hugged her children to her chest, tried to protect them and at the same time to show them to the man, trying to justify her actions and maybe arouse compassion in him.
But this compassion did not seem to arise from the landlord, but another voice, much weaker and younger than that of the man, prayed not to hurt her.
-Stop, please...don't you see that she has two children with her...-.