The Tree of Love

In a meadow filled with wildflowers stood a single tree. The tree itself was nearly two hundred years old. It had seen many people throughout the years. It had seen happiness, sadness, life, and death.

The meadow was a beautiful place. The tree had seen many changes in the meadow, but it had always remained beautiful.

Perhaps that was why people were drawn to it.

When the tree was just a young sapling, it had been marked. Two lovers had carved their mark in its bark, hoping to eternalize their love.

“Marcus, you can’t do that!” the girl said indignantly.

“Shush, Lillie, I need to get this right!” Marcus replied while expertly carving out their initials in the young tree. His young fingers were nimble, and the result was spectacular.

“Look at that,” he said to Lillie, while grabbing her around the waist. “Beautiful, just like you.”

Lillie smiled.

“I love you,” she whispered.

“I love you too,” he replied. Lillie bit her lip as she looked at the sky. The sun was nearly setting.

“I have to go. Father can’t find me here with you.”

Marcus sighed.

“Are you sure we can’t tell him? Maybe he’ll be okay with it?”

“He won’t. My sister Magda fell in love with a boy in the next village. He was the son of a bookkeeper. She thought it would be okay. But the day he came over and introduced himself to father, father told him to get out. Two weeks later she was engaged to a lord on the other side of the country.

You’re the son of a farmer, Marcus. He’ll never approve!”

Marcus sank against the tree.

“I just want to be with you all the time. I don’t want just these few stolen moments. It’s not fair.”

He pulled Lillie back into his arms. She rested her head against his chest, a single tear escaping her eye.

“It’s just not possible,” she replied.

After she left, Marcus kicked the tree before leaving in the opposite direction.

The tree saw the two young lovers often in the next few months. It was present for all their moments of love and tenderness. Until tragedy struck.

Marcus had been waiting half a day. The sun was setting. He was worried. Lillie had never missed a meeting. She was always the first one there. The one time she was sick, she had managed to send him a note through one of her chamber maids, who was loyal to Lillie before her father.

No note had come, so Marcus had suspected nothing. When the sun was halfway on the horizon, Marcus set out towards the direction Lillie always came from.

He never returned to the tree.

A week later, Lillie came back to the tree. She had tears streaming down her face and hugged the tree, sinking to the ground with loud sobs.

“Oh Marcus”, she cried.

She told the tree everything. Marcus had come looking for her, but her father had found out about him. Lillie had gotten sick a couple of times. She was pregnant with Marcus’ child. Upon seeing Marcus, Lillie’s father had threatened him. When Marcus told him he would take care of Lillie and the baby, her father had refused. So, Marcus and Lillie had run away. After two days on the run, her father had tracked them down. Marcus was arrested and put to death. Her father was a lord, and he had strong ties to the sheriff.

Lillie had fought, and yelled, and cursed at her father. But to no avail.

“He’s gone, and I’m left alone!” she cried.

After crying her heart out, Lillie’s finger traced over the carving Marcus had made.

“I will see you again, my love,” she whispered.

She didn’t return to the meadow until 8 months later; in the middle of the night, with a small bundle wrapped in her arms. She sat by the tree and waited. The small bundle of cloth fussed a little, but she put it near her boobs and then it was quiet again.

Another person appeared, apprehensively.

“It’s okay, Jeanie. It’s just me here,” Lillie said.

Jeanie approached. She was Lillie's chamber maid.

“Lillie, what’s going on? Why couldn’t you just tell me at the manor?”

Lillie sighed heavily. She had tears in her eyes.

“I need you to take him.”

“What do you mean ‘take him’?” Jeanie replied.

“My father… because I’m not married, my son is not a good image for the family. But my father couldn’t kill him, because all my sisters only had girls. He’s my father’s only grandson. So he decided that he and mother would raise him. And he wants to send me away to be married off to some stranger.

I can’t do it, Jeanie.” Her voice broke. She was crying again.

“I need you to take my son and raise him as your own. I took some money from my father so you can get a head start. Please, Jeanie. He can’t stay here. I cannot allow my father to ruin his life as well.”

Jeanie sat down next to Lillie. She looked at the baby in her arms.

She understood.

Even this early, it was obvious little Max was the spitting image of Marcus. And Lillie had loved him very much.

“Okay,” she replied. Jeanie had no family. Her only loyalty was to her friend, Lillie. She would do this, for her. And for the love both had for Max. Max’s father had died for him. Lillie gave him up, to spare him the same pain she had endured. To fall in love with someone who high society deemed unworthy.

“Tell him about us, will you?” Lillie asked. Jeanie promised. Then the girls said their goodbyes. Jeanie left with little Max. Lillie left alone.

The tree never saw her again.

Many years later, many people had passed through the meadow again. Yet the tree had always remembered the two young lovers who’d had such a tragic ending.

On a quiet afternoon, a figure appeared at the edge of the meadow.

It was a young man. The tree could barely make out his shape, but it became clearer when he walked towards the tree in the middle of the meadow. The tree could recognize an old companion in the young man’s face.

“Ah, there you are,” the man whispered, putting his hand against the tree. His fingers traced a path like his mother’s had done years earlier. The outlines of the M hearts L were still visible. The tree had grown older, but the grooves Marcus and Lillie had made were still there.

“Max!” someone yelled. The young man’s head whipped around.

“I found it!” he yelled back. A woman in a yellow sundress appeared. She was older, with tufts of grey hair showing. She carefully made her way to the tree, taking in the surroundings.

She approached Max, smiling at him.

“Yes, you did. This is the place where your parents’ love was immortalized.”

Max sighed.

“I wish I’d known them. I feel like I know them, from your stories. But it’s not the same.”

“No, it’s not. And my stories are incomplete. I only know what Lillie told me. And what I experienced myself, bringing messages between the two of them; but I didn’t really know your dad.”

“Do you think they’re together? In the afterlife?”

“I’d like to believe so. When I heard of your mother’s passing, I felt sadness. But then relief. Because she wasn’t happy without him. I found out later that she never had any other children.”

Her fingers started to trace the symbols in the tree. They were still there but had started to fade.

Max followed the movement of her fingers, and then he took out a knife.

Jeanie removed her fingers, and Max retraced the carvings.

“Let’s make sure they stay immortalized,” he said. Jeanie nodded her head.

When he finished, Max tucked the knife away.

“Come on. We’ve got to go find your manor,” Jeanie said.

Max smiled.

“I can’t believe that the bastard left it to a grandson he never knew,” he said.

“You’re his only grandson. He refused to leave it to his granddaughters because he’s a chauvinistic pig. Your mother was right. If you’d stayed here, and he would have had a hand in raising you, you wouldn’t have become the beautiful person that you are today.”

Max smiled.

“Thanks, ma. Let’s go.”

The two of them left. The tree was once again alone in the meadow, but intrigued by how this story had unfolded. It seemed the tale of the two forbidden lovers was not yet finished.

More than a hundred years later, a young girl chanced upon the tree in the meadow. She was barely six, but she had wandered off and was lost. She was scared. The sky was darkening, and across the meadow, dark clouds were rolling in.

She ran to the tree, seeking protection in its large branches.

It was no longer a young sapling. Now, the tree stood strong. It had weathered many storms, and it would weather this one.

There was a space in between the roots of the tree, firmly planted in the ground. The space was just big enough for a little girl. When the first thunder boomed in the sky, the girl squealed and dove away. She hid between the roots, using the tree for protection.

When the heavy rain started, the protection of the tree kept her relatively dry. Big tears were rolling down her face as the girl wailed. But no one could hear her. The bellowing thunder was too loud.

She clung to the tree, finding a small sense of peace with the sturdiness of its roots.

A voice was calling out in the dark, looking for the little girl.

But the girl couldn’t hear the man yelling. The rain had made everything slippery around the meadow. The man who was looking for the girl was running around carelessly. It was dark and wet, and the ground was unstable.

It happened very suddenly. He put down his foot on a patch of mud and slipped. Too caught off guard, he was unable to put out his hands to protect himself. His head landed on a rock, and he died instantly.

The girl hadn’t seen it happen; she was still clinging to the roots of the tree.

When the storm passed, she fell asleep, her small hands still wrapped around the tree, trusting it would keep her safe.

As the girl was sleeping, the tree saw someone else approach. Someone familiar.

It knew that, after Max had returned home, he had settled in the manor near the meadow. And when he had children, and they had children, and their children had children, the story of Lillie and Marcus was always told, to teach them that love was very powerful; and true love was very rare but very beautiful.

And with that story came of course the story of the tree in the meadow. All of Marcus and Lillie’s descendants, and they were many, often came to the meadow. For their family, it was a sanctuary of peace.

So, on that unfortunate day, Lillie’s great-great-grandson, now the lord of the manor, made his daily walk to the meadow. He wanted to make sure the tree was unhurt.

When he came closer to the tree, he noticed the body of the man who had died during the storm.

“Oh no,” he whispered, quickly approaching the man. He checked for a pulse but found none. And then he noticed the little girl, asleep between the roots of the tree.

He put his hand on the tree.

“Thank you for keeping her safe,” he said. He picked up the girl, trying not to wake her.

Before leaving, he turned back to the tree.

“I’ll try and find her mother. If I can’t, I’ll take care of her. I promise. You did your part, now I’ll do mine,” he said.

He disappeared with the girl. A few hours later, he reappeared with some men from the village, who helped him take away the body.

Before leaving the meadow, the man returned to the tree.

As always, talking to the tree gave him solace.

“She was traveling alone with her father. No mother, no other family. So, I’m taking her in. My wife and I will take care of her. She’s the same age as our boy Marcus, around six years old.”

He hesitated. And then smiled.

And then he whispered: “Her name is Lillie.”