Bloom

The Unannounced Engagement

"I beg your pardon, Miss Adeline. I am quite clumsy!" Lewis stepped further away from her as he went to go stand by his future fiancée. Adeline could barely keep the look of shock, nor the utter hurt she felt, off her face as she saw Lewis reach for Camilla's hand. If he is going to marry her, then why did he just kiss me? She turned her back to the couple, getting off the stool to walk down the opposite side of the gazebo.

"Are you not going to congratulate us?" Her sister's voice cut her like glass, slicing through her wall of strength as Adeline's eyes began to fill with tears.

"Congratulations," she murmured under her breath as she ran off the gazebo, deeper into the blossoming trees and budding underbrush.

"Addie!" She heard Camilla call her name but she did not turn around.

She ran until nothing looked familiar, all the trees seemed to be green and she could not decipher which direction the sun was at in the sky. I am lost. Well, not a single person would mind as of yet. Certainly he does not. Her breath came out in gasps at the thought of him.

How could he do such a thing? How could he kiss her then announce his surprise engagement to her younger sister?! Older sisters are meant to marry before their younger sisters. Jealousy blossomed in her heart, constricting it like a vine of thorns. He was my fiancé, we were meant to be married.

Adeline's eyes blurred with tears as she remembered that horrid day, a day that would always and forevermore live in infamy in her mind. It was the day that Lewis had revoked their engagement.

Tears had been running down her face, as they did now, mimicking pinprick waterfalls that were only big enough for her cheeks. "Why Lewis? Darling, what did I do to you? What unspeakable wrong did I commit for you to do such a drastic thing?" He had cleared his throat, not able to look her in the eye.

"Addie," her heart ached when he said her nickname as though everything was the exact same it was now as it had once been.

"Lewis," she leaned into his chest, breathing in his scent as she tried to memorize all of his features. Much to her displeasure and shattered heart, he lightly pushed her away so that she could not lean into him.

"At least please reply to me, I deserve an answer for this sudden behavior."

"You do not deserve anything," he had snapped, snapping her hope in two as she turned away from him, furious with him and the entire world.

"I do! I am your fiancée, someone that you are meant to love and cherish for the rest of your life-"

"I never loved you." A sob had escaped her lips as it did now at the memory of the utter betrayal.

"Then what enticed you to propose to me?" Her voice shook, the words barely audible.

"My father, your dowry was a very large number and at the time our family needed the money."

"The entire engagement was not real, you never loved me? If you were going to marry me and accept my dowry, then why just now are you telling me this?"

"Because marriage is meant to be true, not a lie." She had whirled around and slapped him, running out of her family's garden and slamming the estate's back door behind her in rage.

"Addie," someone whispered behind her, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. She jumped in surprise, looking up to see who had derailed her train of thought.

Gardenia stared at Adeline, her forehead creased in worry as her piercing eyes dulled their sharpness for a moment, replaced with tears. "You must have heard." Adeline only nodded in reply, knowing that even if she tried she would not have been able to find her voice.

"Father is furious, raging mad that Mr. Lewis did not ask his permission before he proposed. The two lovers," Gardenia cast a scowl to the horizon, "were meant to elope tonight but," she smiled briefly at Adeline, "you ruined their plans."

"How?" She croaked, sitting at the base of a maple tree, not caring if her dress was stained green by the grass.

"Mr. Lewis-"

"You may just call him Lewis. There is no reason to be so proper, Miss Gardenia," she gave her sister a joking smile; "you are in the presence of your sister, not Mother."

"Lewis," Gardenia glared at her as she sat down beside Adeline, "felt very remorseful after you discovered their plot in such an abrupt fashion that he made the decision to tell everyone. Of course now Father will not let Camilla out of his sight for fear she will elope with him."

"He kissed me," Adeline murmured, brushing her sister's hair out of Gardenia's face absentmindedly, acting as though her sister had not just spoken.

"He kissed you? Addie, you act as if nothing had occurred! How can you act so relaxed about such an event?!" Gardenia stared at her with wide eyes.

"For that was when Camilla appeared and asked me why I was standing so close to her fiancé. The eruption of feelings," Adeline blushed at the admittance of such a thing, "was drained from the atmosphere when Camilla entered the gazebo."

Gardenia stared at Adeline, her eyes suddenly regaining their frozen quality when she asked, "Does Camilla realize you kissed M-Lewis?" Adeline sat straight up against the trunk, the thought not having even occurred to her.

"No, she does not. Otherwise she would have told me that she had seen us," She turned a bright pink at having to admit the event a second time.

A silence descended on the two sisters as a breeze shook the tree branches overhead, a wafting smell of blooming flowers fluttering on the breeze. "How did you find me?" Adeline turned to look at her twelve year old sister, leaning back against the tree's trunk once more.

"I followed you." Gardenia glanced at her older sister nervously.

"You did not! And if you had done so then why did you not come to my aid sooner, why did you nearly let me drown in tears?!" She exclaimed, her voice rising an octave. Gardenia flinched at the words, pulling her knees up to her chest. "I am most sorry, Gardenia. Please, please tell me what occurred." The twelve year old looked at her older sister cautiously before she spoke.

"I have always been envious of your beautiful paintings so I decided to watch you paint, that way I could possibly harness your talent. Then whatever you painted, I was going to mimic you. So in a sense, you were my unknown tutor. I stationed myself on the right side of the opposite side of the gazebo, there I could see you but you could not see me. However then Lewis appeared and spoiled everything! You ran off the gazebo in such a fury after you and Lewis..." Gardenia cast Adeline a sly look before continuing, "And Camilla called after you but of course you ignored her. I then saw Father come over and get into a rather intense argument with Camilla and Lewis. After that I followed you but you were running at such a break neck speed that I could barely keep up. Soon I could not see you and the only thing that guided me to you was the sound of your sobs." She broke off; biting her lip as the wind suddenly picked up and big, round raindrops began dropping from the sky.

"Quick, to the gazebo!" Adeline exclaimed, so engaged by her sister's story that neither had seen the darkening sky overhead.

The two girls took off, racing through the low hanging branches and rain dripping leaves. Thunder rumbled in the distance as the clouds burst open, the rain streaming down the girls' faces as their dresses clung to their legs. Somewhere along the way, trying to get to a shelter as fast as possible had changed into a game of who can get to the gazebo the fastest. Both girls were extremely good runners, even in the rain, they whipped through the damp forest with their hair streaming behind them.

At last when the gazebo came into sight, Adeline slowed her pace ever so slightly so that Gardenia won by an inch. "I cannot believe I won! That has got to the most improper thing I have ever done in my entire life!" She giggled, taking her hair in her hands and wringing it out over the railing of the gazebo.

Adeline smiled. "You ran brilliantly!" She hid her knowing smirk at her little sister's "win." Lightning flashed overhead, followed almost immediately by a clap of thunder, making both sisters turn their heads to the sky in surprise as their hair stood on end. Adeline tried to smile as the adrenaline from the surprise of the thunder coursed through her veins, but she could not keep a disturbing thought from her mind.

Cannons.