FlashNano 27 The Pilgrimage

 Day 27 of writing a flash fiction piece to a prompt.

When Ellen was 11, her aunt gave her a book about Eleanor of Aquitaine. She was fascinated by the 12^th century woman who was married to two kings and mother of three others. But what intrigued her the most was how powerful Eleanor was in her own right. But then she was one of the wealthiest people of her time and the greatest landowner.

When Ellen was 15, a friend's mother knowing her interest in Eleanor, invited her to dinner and watch a DVD of Lion in Winter. They gave her the DVD and she watched Katherine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine over and over. When King Henry threw her on the floor and said he was going to Rome to divorce Eleanor, Hepburn looked at the camera and said, “Every family has its ups and downs,” Ellen played that part over and over. From then on, she thought of Hepburn as Eleanor.

When Ellen studied for her masters in history, she did her thesis on Eleanor.

The year after graduation she taught history in a private school and saved enough money to go to France. She didn’t want to go to Paris, but to follow in Eleanor’s footsteps starting at her birthplace in Poitiers and ending at the Abbey of Fontevraud where Eleanor  spent her later years and was buried.

It took her two days to drive between the two cities, but when she approached the abbey, she imagined Eleanor entering the white building. Eleanor had made the abbey her home in her later years. She was buried

It was too late to enter the abbey when Ellen arrived. She found a tiny room in a hotel, had time to eat in a restaurant that could have been a set for a French movie.

The next morning Ellen put on a sun dress. She felt it would be disrespectful to wear jeans.

When she entered the chapel dust motes danced in the sunlight from the windows. Four coffins were placed at the opposite end.

Slowly she approached the tombs. The effigy of Eleanor did not look like Hepburn. Eleanor was holding a book and was covered in a blue plaster blanket. Next to her was the tomb of King Henry, her second husband, her lover and her enemy.

There were no other tourists. Ellen felt as if she had met Eleanor personally. She wondered how she felt being next to the man she’d tried to overthrow.

If she’d been religious, she would have said a prayer. Before leaving, she lit a candle completing her pilgrimage.