Unprepared

They lived in a fort. The fort was made from red sandstone. There
was a moat around the fort. You could enter the fort only if a
drawbridge was lowered. There were no men living in the fort. Only
women. Four ladies lived in the huge place. They rarely ventured
outside. The truth is that they did not need to. The ladies grew their
own food inside and kept some livestock. They also grew cotton from
which they spun their cloth. The mother and her three daughters led a
simple, spartan life. The mother whom everyone called Madam had named
her daughters Simple, Elegant and Soft. She was respected in the town.
No one had ever seen Madam's husband and no one wanted to. All they
knew was that Madam was a strict person who wanted her daughters to
lead a good life. This meant that they moved out of the fort only after
sunset. They never sang, never danced never played catch. All day long
they worked on their land, spun cloth and looked after animals. They
read no books, saw no pictures. Their mother knew how to read and write
but she was not willing to teach them. The girls were all past eighteen
years of age. Young men in the town believed that they were beautiful.
So they were. But not one man had the courage to enter the fort to try
to woo the girls. Once or twice bold young men had tried to scale the
walls of the fort. But they had been fed to the alligators that lived
in the moat. This meant that Madam's daughters had not met any young
men of good birth. They seemed to care little about this as they went
about their chores day in and day out. Then, war broke out in the
city.
As the city became the theatre of war Madam suddenly fell sick. So sick
that for fifteen days she could not leave her room. Then, an old man
with a beard arrived one day. He asked the girls to lower the
drawbridge. As the girls were naturally friendly and trusting they did
so without hesitation. The man directly went to Madam's room. And when
Madam saw him she was happy. She smiled and laughed with him. She heard
his stories, she told him a few tales herself. At dinner she ignored
her daughters. She went out with the man in the evening completely
forgetting to inform the girls. To their great shock the bearded man
slept in the same bed as Madam. In the morning both the man and Madam
left town before the girls woke up. They left a note for the girls-"I
am going with your father, Mummy." The girls were devastated. They
barely imagined that their mother had a life that did not include them.
They were now free to do what they wanted.
That evening a young man arrived at the fort on horseback. He wore a
long black coat and a black cap. He requested the girls to let him in.
The girls did not know what to do. They asked the man a few questions.
He said that he was taking a message to the next town. His horse was
tired and he was hungry. It was dark now and he had no place to go. He
appealed to their kindness to allow him to stay within the fort for
just one night. The girls discussed between themselves. They agreed to
let him rest inside the fort on condition that he would stay only in
the outhouse and not annoy them for anything. The man was more than
happy and thus the drawbridge was lowered. The outhouse was pointed out
to him and he took refuge there. As he whistled to himself while
feeding his horse the girls came to the balcony one by one. They found
that he was tall, well-built and had attractive features. Secretly, all
three of them liked him for it.
The doors of the fort were found ajar next morning. All the money, the
jewellery and anything else that could be robbed had been stolen. The
three girls, Simple, Elegant and Soft were found murdered in their
respective bed-chambers. And yes, the man in black who had stayed in
the fort the night before was nowhere to be found.