Oceans Apart

Chapter 2 - Violeta.

11 Years Later - England

"Miss Violet!" My eldest maid yells through the long hallway. "Get back here this instant!"

Why should I? So they can put me in some silly dress? Parade me around for the man's gaze. Why should I have to be the one who dresses up for others? Why can't they dress a man and deliver him to me as they so insist to drop me into society? 

I burst into my mother's tea room. "Mother!"

"Ah there's my beautiful girl! How are the arrangements coming along?"

"Mother, I beg, delay my coming out to society for only another year! I do not wish to be thrown into some man's arms just to bear children to continue a pointless bloodline-"

"Violeta Irene Frye! That is quite enough!" My mother snaps. "You will not speak such foul idiocracies! You are ten and six years now, your coming into society will proceed as planned."

I huff and cross my arms over my chest. My mother smacks my arms. "Stand like a proper lady."

"Why must I be so proper in my own home?" I sit on the sofa.

"Violet! Enough!"

I seal my lips. "Miss we need to finish with your measurements. Your release to society is only days away, and we have not even started on your gown!" The maid, who was previously chasing me, speaks.

I cave in and follow her back to my chambers. I allow the woman to measure every inch of my body. Although I wish to rip that measuring tape out of her hands and throw it out the open window, I do not. The maids speak in the hallway, obviously unaware my door is still open, "Can you believe it? The young miss acting in such a way? The elder miss could never dream of acting in such a manner!"

I roll my eyes. Everything is about my sister. I am constantly compared to her. The perfect Emelia. So pretentious. 

Emelia is 2 years older than me, but she arose in society at an earlier age. She's been in society for 3 years now, has numerous suitors, but has yet to approve of a husband. I do not want a husband. What is so appealing about being sold to a man? Literally! My father has to pay the man to marry me! He's invested a large dowry into Emelia, while I have merely half of what she is given. I've always been the defeat of the Frye family. I've always voiced my opinions, which has caused some dismay towards me and my family's status.

When the maid is finished, she exits, leaving the room silent. 

That silence is soon disturbed.

"Violeta." My father's deep voice fires behind me.

Turning around, I face him, "Yes, father?"

"I've been informed of your impropriety," shit. "so I am giving you an ultimatum."

"An ultimatum?"

"Yes. You will rise into society within a week, and after a month, if your foolish behavior does not change, and you do not have any suitors, I will send you to our vacation home to polish up your lack of properness."

What? What!? Of all the cruel and absurd things-!

"I will not stand for any repercussions. That is the deal." He does not stick around for me to fight back. I never want to return to that house. That man I saw. No one believed me. Who would? I was spouting words only heard as fantasies; that I saw a man with a tail, a man who saved me. A man who is truly not even a man. Nor a human. A man who sent a chill down my spine. 

I walk to my chest at the end of my bed, pulling the key out from beneath the carpet. Unlocking it with a click, I pull out the paintings and drawings I've created of the creature.

I don't like looking at these paintings. I've never been able to get the color of it's eyes correct. I can't achieve the iridescent shine of the scales on his tail. 

I know I seem crazy; but I know what I saw, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about that man since the day he saved me.