A Victorian Tale: A Puppet Masters' of Time Novel

11. Fiancé?

It was a week later, as Calliope was coming down the main stairway in order to go into the estate's gardens for some fresh air, that she saw a disturbingly familiar face in the foyer.

He turned toward her with a smirk upon his stupidly thin lips. Lord Frederick wore his finest suit and Calliope's hands gripped her skirt as she feared the reason he was there.

"Lady Calliope." He bowed. Everything he does is so...revolting. Slyly handsome, like a snake.

"What are you doing here?"

He walked to the foot of the stairs. "I would be more polite and courteous, my dear. For you will be seeing a lot more of me." He offered his hand with a smirk on his lips, but she brushed past him.

Lord Fredrick liked games, but he was growing tired of the one always played with the maiden before him. He knew she disliked him, but that only heightened his pleasure as he grabbed her arm and swung her back to him.

"You will show me respect."

As Calliope struggled to free herself from his grasp, she raised her other hand to slap him but instead, it was caught by her mother who seemed to appear behind her.

"That is no way to treat a gentleman, Calliope."

"But he..."

"That is enough, Calliope."

Calliope continued to glare at the discourteous 'gentleman'.

"Your father wishes to speak to you."

Calliope was only too happy to move away from the man in their foyer, but she did not leave soon enough before hearing her mother turn back to the Lord.

"You will keep your hands off her."

"I have every right..."

"You will soon have every right, but not quite yet."

No! It can't be! As her thoughts raged on in her mind, she ran down the halls towards her father's office, not caring to knock before bursting in, "I will not marry that man!"

Her finger shook as she pointed back in the direction of the foyer. Her father barely glanced up from the paperwork on his desk.

"You lost the chance to choose when you decided to be deceptive and keep things from your family."

"Papa!" She gasped for air, her cheeks were flushed. Stupid corset! She had a new maid that her mother had assigned her that had tightened it far too much. "That's not fair. No matter if I told you or not, you know Mother would have pushed for the same outcome!"

"Do not speak about your mother that way! She wishes only the best for you."

"If she wished the best for me, she would not have me marrying Lord Fredrick!"

"Enough!" He slammed his palms flat on the mahogany of his heavy desk. "I am tired of your childish actions. We have tried to protect you from what society pushes upon you, but now I see it was wrong of us to do so. I have spoiled you and now you must face your responsibilities to this family. You will marry Lord Fredrick unless you wish to be marked from our family register!"

This time Calliope did slam the door. She was so furious. She had done everything she had ever been told to do. All she wanted was one thing for herself, and that one thing was going to force her into an awful life with someone who, no doubt, would be one of the most horrid of husbands. Proof by the way he had treated her, like a possession, something he believed he could control. It aggravated her to no end. She left the house via the back entrance so she wouldn't have to endure another unwanted meeting with her supposed fiancé.

Disobeying her father's orders, she ran towards the forests at the far corner of the estate. She ran until she could run no more. Out of breath, she reached the spot where she and Tetros first met and where the caravan had parked a week past. She missed it. It had placed a warm glow against the usually shadowless gray trees that were never-ending in the wood.

A warmth she missed now when she felt as if the darkest time of her life was beginning to creep its way upon her. Her future threatened to dig its claws into her so she could not escape from it.