Inheritance

Part 2. Chapter 31: Fear

She practically begged him with her eyes to save her—to ask him to court her.

He did no such thing.

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"Mother wanted me to marry him. Of course, she had little choice in the matter even if she didn't. Peasant girls are at the mercy of nobles. Besides. if I married him, mother and father would be made into wealthy nobles, too." Pollyanna explained.

Her eyes were dry as dust.

Eory wondered how she could possibly feel so little at recounting such an ugly memory. "If you were considered so unsuitable for marriage, why did he pick you?"

Pollyanna wore a stony expression as she answered, "power. Men like that... They can smell fear on you. He could smell that I was the most frightened little girl at that festival, and therefore he knew that I was the one he wanted. Looks don't matter to men like that; people like that want your tears and your misery at the fact that they know you belong to them and they can do anything they want to you."

Eory's headed pounded and his eyes glistened when he was confronted once again with just how cruel the world would be.

"Mother was all for selling me to that disgusting waste of space, but father wasn't." Pollyanna continued.

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Pollyanna's father, upon hearing the news that his wife was going to force their daughter to wed a man many years her senior, looked dumbfounded as he rubbed the back of his head in frustration.

Pollyanna could tell that he had a headache.

They all three sat on the creaky, wooden floor in their house and he asked his daughter, "do you want to marry him?"

Pollyanna looked down at her hands. She barely bit back tears. She nodded slowly—unable to meet her father's eyes.

What he didn't know was that her mother planned a sound beating for her if she didn't nod and pretend like she wanted to marry Kline.

Her father looked her mother in the eyes, and then looked Pollyanna in the eyes.

He could tell that, deep down, his daughter didn't want this.

"I don't care what she says. This man is so much older than her and he has a reputation of marrying girls as young as possible so he can..." Her father remembered Pollyanna was in the room, and he cleared his throat. "I won't allow it."

"You will; it's already been decided. He wants her for a wife, and one doesn't say no to a noble." Pollyanna's mother stated firmly. "We will all live comfortably after it's done. You won't have to toil as much and..."

"No! I would rather her go to the convent! That man will do nothing but hurt her!" Pollyanna's father interrupted loudly. "I'm sorry Pollyanna. I know what's best for you; we'll give you three more years to find a husband your age, and if you can't, we'll send you to a convent instead."

Pollyanna was silent like a good little girl should be.

Inwardly she was thinking that neither of her options were good, and she was terrified of what might happen to her. Nonetheless, she sat quietly and submissively and let her future be decided for her.

Pollyanna's mother had a stony face as she said lowly. "We'll see."

Pollyanna was fathomlessly relieved that her father had gotten her off the hook.

But disaster struck just a week later.

Her father died of a heart attack and her mother married her to Kline.

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"You two," the door opened and Maruka stepped inside. "Why aren't you in bed? You have an early morning tomorrow."

Pollyanna and Eory glanced at each other, and then at Maruka. Eory whispered to Pollyanna, "I rescind my order; you don't have to tell me the rest if you don't want to. But if you do, you can visit me later tonight and I'll listen if you have anything more to say."

Pollyanna looked shocked at his kindness.

They shared a long gaze.

Pollyanna nodded blankly and left first—shouldering past Maruka and heading out the door.

Eory followed after.

On his way out, he smiled brightly at Maruka, "thank you for the lesson today and catching me up..."

Maruka nodded cheerfully. "If you want to, after our training session tomorrow, we can paint that room I was talking about."

"I'd like that." Eory said—looking at his feet shyly. "I never got to do much with paint in my tower. Kori didn't like the mess it made."