There is a custom deeply rooted in todays society that dictates that every woman at marrying age, must be presented to society, that way the men that have not yet married can have a look at the new bachelorettes and, maybe, find love or just a beautiful, sensitive and dutiful wife.
We, as women, are required to know many things and posses many skills, from foreign languages to music and from embroidery to administration. The house is run by us, we must give the orders onto how we want and need things to be done, while our husbands must bring stability and safety to us and all family, plus the servants if he has any.
A man's job is not easy and demands a lot of responsibility, that is why we learn how to run everything else and must execute our knowledge with perfection. A man needs a woman just as much as a woman needs a man, be it a governess, be it a father. We need each other to survive and live happily.
Amelia has six sisters and all of them are younger than she; each are at a level of learning that she, herself, has already surpassed and at the age of nineteen, all Amelia requires is the love of a husband. Her mother, being at the age of forty-seven, has long since stopped thinking about luxuries that had anything to do with herself. All she could think about was marrying off her seven daughters, or at the very least, marry Amelia. Amelia being the older daughter had the right to be called Miss Abney and the duty to look after her younger sisters, should luck favor her and God bless her with a husband and a home of her own.
Amelia Abney had just come down to breakfast; at the table were already her mother, father and three younger sisters. She kissed her father and mother before sitting down at her mother's right side.
"Amelia, my dear," said her mother " your father and I are going to town, Henrietta needs a dress for the debuting ball, will you join us?"
"Yes, mama. When is the ball?"
"At the fifteenth, on the Great Hall."
Amelia turned to her sister.
"You must be pretty excited Etta."
Henrietta smiled.
"What is there not to be excited about? It's the biggest ball of the season and it will be my first one."
Mr. Abney called Amelia into attention so she could pass him the marmalade, before turning to his other daughter with a stern, but loving smile.
"Will you accompany us Beth?"
Bethesda was the second child to be born, she was eighteen years old and she and Amelia were inseparable. Both sisters had a similar character, being mild and sweet tempered, but strong spirited. They were both intelligent and Mr. Abney had immense proud on them, but Amelia was more alive than her sister and Bethesda was livelier than Amelia, who had inherited her father's seriousness in temper. Amelia was by no means incapable of having fun, but, just like her father, she had a different view on what could be considered fun and, although she smiled as much as it was required, very few of her smiles reached her eyes. She had been criticized by her mother about it several times, but her father was sympathetic of her, he knew it wasn't her fault and he, more than anyone, understood how hard it was for her to smile without seeing a reason for it.
That kind of character treat was excusable in a man, but not in a woman and Mr. Abney felt sorry for his daughter, but not enough to make him miserable about it, instead he created the habit of spending some hours with her, hours for which she was extremely thankful, because her father was one of the few people who could entertain Amelia and would not criticise her for being who she was.
"I will. Pa, I've been told the Sawyers will also make an appearance."
Mrs. Abney scoffed and, although not so open with his emotions as his wife, Mr. Abney could not avoid the dark cloud that descended upon his features. Amelia could feel herself blushing and rested her eyes on her lap for a few seconds, trying with effort to recompose herself.
