The Red Rose

Chapter 13

OMG how long has it been since an update?! I'm embarrassed :X So sorry guys, this new job has taken a lot of my time and dedication - and I'm loving it! But when I get home my head is 3x its size and I cannot look at a screen for another minute! Anywho! Here's a very much anticipated update - and it's an exciting one!!! :D:D:D

Happy Readings!

Sophie xx

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Parties and balls always made me feel uncomfortable. Mostly, because this was just a way for Father to try and get me a husband, and for other people to stare at me and judge me from the tip of their long and curvy noses. I wondered as I sat next to Father on the long dining room table if they knew. I wondered if they could see my belly from beneath the golden and pale pink dress. Could they see nausea in my face, the paleness underneath my rouge and how tired and heartbroken I was? Perhaps not, or maybe yes, in all honesty, I could not care less.

The dishes on the table were full of finesse, a parade of the most expensive food in the entire Empire. Father would always make sure people remembered who was in charge, who was the bigger man. He was an absolute idiot.

"Bonsoir, Mademoiselle et Monsieurs!" Miss Regina Westford, my fiancé's young daughter chirped from across the table.

People around the table clapped their hands and congratulated her perfect French. Miss Westford's grin was wide and annoying – she had never liked me and it was definitely mutual. She was uptight eighteen-year-old-girl thinking she was incredibly accomplished with her singing, her French and her embroidering. I could not believe she would be my stepdaughter in a few days...

"My dearest Regina has been rehearsing a beautiful song for our wedding day." Charles Westford announced to the table "Haven't you, my dear?"

"I have never seen daddy so happy!" The blonde frail girl grinned, batting her pretty lashes and making big green eyes at everyone "Ever since mamma has left us, daddy has never been truly happy. I feel blessed by God that our Lady Sherwood will be his companion for life! Maybe I should start calling her mama!"

People around laughed and smiled sweetly at me. I wanted to pull that dumb girl's eyes out with my cutlery. However, I tossed her a tense smile and went for my wine. I pretended to take a small sip and set it down again. Father eyed me – surely wondering why I was so quiet over my engagement dinner.

Things had been tense ever since I arrived home, and we found out Simon had been freed from prison – again. I was not clueless and innocent Roslynn Sherwood anymore, I had seen and experienced evil and violence, I had fallen in love with another soul that at a first glance I had nothing in common with! I was also expecting that man's baby, and I fought tears and the desire of running away every second of every day.

Now, however, I couldn't. It was not just me anymore, and I never fully realised that until now, now that I would become a mother of a little baby. How would I support this child if I had it out of wedlock, should I dared pray and yell to the winds its father was my Pirate lover? Yes, that child would have had a brilliant future...! I had to be practical, and unfortunately, my feelings and my wishes meant nothing from the moment I realised I was expecting Hunter's baby.

"... horrible time, I'm sure!" Frank Murray's wife, Mrs. Ophelia Murray loudly stated, and I realised she was talking to me "The poor girl still looks battered! My dear, you are amongst friends, rest assured!"

"And the vile scum that took you will pay." Her husband and my father's barrister, one of the most respected men in the island, joined in, from beside her "We have sent word around the empire, and they will surely be caught fast."