22nd of Xavar, 976
By S. E. Cade
A sighting at last!
Lady Beth Rendon has been seen alive on the road between Houten and Dorn Hall. A source wishing to remain anonymous passed a coach on the road that had pulled over to fix a busted wheel. This person stopped to render aid and saw a young woman swathed in a cloak with a maid waiting in the shelter of some nearby trees. A gust of wind knocked aside the hood of the young woman’s cloak and my source recognized the missing Lady Beth.
For those who have not memorized The Seats of Nobility and Their Descendants by High Master Alaina Jones or the Revised Edition by her cousin, High Master Kathy Jones, Lady Beth’s mother was a Dorn.
Lady Erin nèe Dorn Rendon died when Beth was a baby. Lord Jarrod Rendon died before his daughter’s fifth birthday, leaving her in the care of his brother, High Lord Blake Rendon. While the Dorn family was awarded a limited visitation with Beth, their numerous attempts to seek full custody of the minor child were denied by the courts.
Rumors and theories have run rampant in the last months, most assuming that High Lord Rendon had done something heinous to his niece. This new sighting the young woman waiting patiently for her unmarked coach to be repaired with no more than one armed guard, a driver, a footman, and a maid in tow seems to pain a different picture.
It is clear to me that Lady Beth was not taken, she fled. Where she has been staying and who is aiding her… that is now the mystery.