Vairi's Revenge - The Secrets of Avelina Chronicles Book 3

Chapter 51: Valerie

Vairi had once been known as Valerie.

Her father, a worker in the local post office, had struggled to secure a financial future for his family. Like any other man at that time, who had debts he couldn't pay, he turned to the wealthy families in Charlesville, hoping for a loan to tide him over, until he could get more work. And like most of the wealthy families in Charlesville, the father, Leonard Steele, was the head of the household. He liked to be parted from his money as much as he liked being parted from his home. Considering he didn't work, he was not very often out of his home.

He and Valerie's father, Ceolman Mandelstam conferred at noon each day, for the whole of Ceolman's lunch hour about how Leonard could help and what Ceolman could afford to repay. After two weeks, no arrangement could be agreed upon. Ceolman was too poor and Leonard too proud to give a loan to a poor man, knowing he would never be repaid. After that last meeting, Ceolman had returned to work, where Valerie had stopped in to say hello, before returning to school.

Bartholomew Steele, being just as proud as his father, had disliked the entire idea of his father lending money to someone as low and poor as Ceolman Mandelstam. That was, until he followed Ceolman back to work, intending to warn him from asking for any more money and caught sight of Valerie.

She was eighteen at the time, with long dark hair and deep dark eyes on a pale complexion. She was, though she didn't know it, one of the prettiest girls of her age, in the whole of Charlesville.

Bart knew it as soon as he laid eyes on her. He watched her speaking with her father before running off with two girls, back to a school she would be leaving in six months time.

The idea formed immediately, the moment he knew that he wanted her for himself. So Bart went to his father, aged nineteen, and explained his plan. He could loan Ceolman Mandelstam whatever he needed and, in payment, Ceolman would hand over Valerie, to marry Bart.

In that day and time, payment in kind was about as common as any payment at all, so Leonard agreed without a thought as to what Valerie would think or want.

Within two days, Ceolman had the money he needed to keep his family afloat and Valerie was promised to be married to Bart before the end of the year. Of course, now that Ceolman had one less mouth to feed, the money he had been loaned from Leonard was more than he needed to keep the family going strong.

He began stashing a little away for a rainy day, having agreed that the Steele's would pay for the wedding. It was only natural, since Bart's station in life would require an extravagant wedding that the Mandelstam's simply couldn't afford.

And though Valerie never felt an ounce of love or attraction for Bart, they were engaged and she didn't fight it. It was her duty to take care of her family and that had never required love.

For a while, everything went smoothly. Valerie lived at home with her parents, during the engagement, and Bart live with his parents for propriety. Now and then, they would be expected to be seen out in public together and played the part well.

Back then, only the Dobrev house stood at the top of the hill. The Steele's worked a small farm, just along the lane from Valerie's house. Leonard had taken it over when his father died and had built a successful business around it, earning the family a fortune.

Two months after the engagement, Bart invited Valerie to watch the summer lambs being born. Having a likeness for animals, she agreed and spent the day with him on the farm, coming to realize that although big headed and convinced that he was a romantic rock star, he could, on occasion, be funny.

That all changed, after dinner with his family. Vowing to walk her back home, passing by the open barn door, Bart suddenly heard a noise and ran inside, insisting that it could be a fox after one of the animals.

Like a fool, Valerie followed him inside and began looking around. A second later, strong hands wrapped around her waist and pulled her off her feet.

Before she knew it, she was lying in the hay with Bart sitting over her, laughing. "Boy, you really are a stunner," he claimed, with a leering grin. "I think I'll enjoy you more than I've ever enjoyed anyone else," he continued.

Instinctively, Valerie fought against him.

Bart's anger responded before his head did.

There in the darkness of the barn, Valerie screamed and shouted, as she was brutally attacked by her fiancé.

"You useless little guttersnipe," he swore, as he fought with her.

His frustration expressed itself not only in taking her innocence, callously and with a mocking laughter, as he goaded and jeered at her, but in the various slaps and punches he showered her with, when she refused to behave.

Once he had finished with her, snapping that she was stubborn and stupid as he left her alone, he grumbled to himself that she had ruined everything.

Valerie managed to get to her feet. Her limbs felt numb, her hands were shaking and she was, though unaware of it, covered in bruises and blood.

Valerie took the long and painful walk home by herself, afraid of every noise and shadow. The tears streamed down her cheeks, but she barely noticed them. She was unable to truly comprehend what had happened, until she reached the gate leading into the garden of her house.

Her mother, Jennifer, was hanging out washing, when she saw her daughter approaching. For a moment, she froze, as if unable to understand what she was seeing.

She shouted on Ceolman and ran to catch Valerie, as she finally dropped to the ground, unable to walk any further.

Jennifer was everything Valerie needed at that moment, cradling her in her arms and crying with her. But as soon as Ceolman caught sight of them, all he did was ask what had happened, in a tone that said he barely cared.

Valerie couldn't face saying the words and instead, as she looked up at her father, she could only say that Bart had taken her innocence. Ceolman, being very much drunk and glad of the money Leonard continued to drop into his lap as payment for his daughter, could only turn away. He complained that he wasn't calling off the engagement, because no one else would take her now.

Over the next few hours, as her mother took her inside and helped clean her up, before sending her off to bed, Valerie was no more than a moving corpse. She didn't speak or show any other signs of life than doing as she was told.

She lay in bed all night, thinking about what she would do. Her first wish was to runaway, but she had nowhere to go and no money to get her there.

She wanted so badly to die; to curl into a ball and make it so that no one could see her. She was ashamed that she hadn't managed to fight Bart off...that he had got exactly what he wanted from her...that her father was so cruel.

She was terrified that she would have to marry Bart and that every night would be as it had been in the barn. Him, demanding what she didn't want to give and being forced to let him have it or be beaten to death; her, always terrified of what he would do to her, always wishing to die. It wasn't a life she was going to live, no matter what she had to do.