June 1837.
The suit was crisp, perfectly ironed and tailored to suit the woman's body. She decided to wear an embroidered brown waistcoat with black tie, black jacket, and black trousers; she never forgets to wear her black glove on her left hand whilst her right hand that held her walking stick was bare.
She exists the brougham and this was when the nostalgia hit her at full force. She took a deep breathe and sighed, she enjoyed the weather here but she hated the memories she had of this estate.
Her coachman carries the carriage along and she makes her way to the door. Before she could knock, the door flew open and something small yet hard crashed into her waist, hugging her tightly.
"I see there was no lie in your letters." Serena mocked her little sister who pulled away and pouted but her face quickly changed to excitement.
"You're home, You're home!" Her sister jumps against her and hugs her even tighter.
"You've grown so much." Serena explains. "But still so loud."
Her younger sister rolls her eyes, pulls away but grabs her arm forcing her into the extravagant mansion.
Ms. Gregory shakes her head at the excitement of her sister as she was dragged to her mother's quarters where she laid, sick as she had left her but maybe a bit worse.
"Mother, Serena is back!"
Their mother tries her hardest to sit up to greet her daughter but Serena quickly walked to her side and gently made her lie back down. "Don't push yourself." She scolded and her mother only smiled. The woman had black hair just like Serena and brown eyes. Her complexion was pale but more so because of her illness and a bit thinner because she struggled to eat.
She coughed before responding in a soft, hoarse voice due to all the coughing. "Can't I sit up to hug my daughter?"
Serena told her sister to grab their mother a glass of water as she pulled a chair to her mothers' bedside and took of her top hat.
"You don't need to sit up for that mother." She leans forward and pulls her into a loving embrace. Once they break apart, the woman starts to cough again.
"Your fever is back." Serena states sadly but her mother only smiles.
"It will surely pass. How was France?" Her mother asks, always enjoying her daughter's stories.
"It was cold, beautiful. Learning French was the best decision you made for me." She starts. "I managed to make some decent profits over there and bought you some medicine." She explains.
Serena pulls out a small glass container filled with some pills. "It should help with the pain."
Her mother shakes her head. "I am grateful but you should keep them for someone who really needs them. I am too long gone."
That seemed to anger Serena. "What are you talking about?!" Her mother frowns and Serena calms down a bit. "Sorry for shouting but what do you mean?"
"I no longer feel any pain and the doctors say that my time is near." Serena could feel everything spinning around her. She was preparing for this but knowing that it was indeed a reality was too much to take.
"Does Diana know?" Her mother shakes her head. "I don't want to bother her with this. She's too young."
Serena wondered if her mother knew about her father's plan. She changed her mind on telling her about it. She knew now that her sister was going to be her responsibility and the least she could want for her mother now was to pass peacefully, not worried and without pain. She grabbed her mother's hand and squeezed it, usually her mother would squeeze it in return but she was too weak to do such.
"My dying wish is for you to make up with your father and your brother. They're family." Her mother states.
'Family my royal ass.' She thought.
"Mother I would do anything you say, speak it and it will come true but that is purely out of my control. The things they did to me are completely unforgivable, family or not."
Mrs. Gregory nods her head, acknowledging her words. She had hoped something like that would be possible but she should have already known. She could only be optimistic in her death bed. "I-I just wish I had protected you. I'm so sorry." Her mother mumbled softly and Serena quickly brushed away the fresh tear before it could fall down her mother's cheek.
"It's not your fault." Serena kisses the back of her palm. Her mother sniffled and coughed into her other hand before looking up at her wonderful daughter.
"I'm so proud of you. You will achieve greater things and hopefully you will find love as well."
Her mother did not know about her true reason for going to France. To everyone in London and wherever else, she had proposed and was abandoned. Except for Willie and Fally, people did not know she had ran after a woman like a purebred idiot.
She knew love existed. She loved her mother with all her being.
However, that intimate type of love?
It had no boundaries.
It was something she could not control and it made her do impulsive, crazy things. She was known for thinking things through and being thorough. She knew the buttons to push, the words to say and the actions to make anybody intimidated by her and she never was vulnerable.
Love made her vulnerable.
It unlocked a cave of emotions, thoughts, and memories she wanted to forget all about. When she loved someone, all her cards were on the table and she hated how easy that was for her in the past.
After being hurt though, she was never the same. She had given up on love.
"I always saw it." Her mother continues, even though Serena wanted her to hold onto her strength and not to talk. " How much you hated dresses, make up and jewelry alike. How you would rather go down to the river to pitch marbles with the neighbor's son or how much times I would have to scold you for making your evening dresses dirty."
"How you always used to watch the ladies your brother courted and swoon over how beautiful they were." She pulls her hands that was in her daughter's grasp to run her cheek.
"I know you hated that you weren't a boy. I knew you hated that you were not normal. I knew all those things but I still love you my child and as your mother, my love for you will never falter and I will have your back all the way, even when I am not here."
Her mother's hand brought a calm to her and she nodded her head. "I love you too mother."
If it was not for her mother's wisdom and love. She would not have been where she was today. She had crossed paths with death on so many occasions and danced with the grim reaper frequently but her mother was always the light that helped her escape those dark times.
Who or what would be her light now?
Diana had brought the glass of water finally and Serena helped her mother sit up so she could drink it.
She had other business to deal with now as she got up and left Diana to tend to their mother. She walked down the long halls of the mansion, through the garden outside until she was on the long field of grassy land and fields, her father owned.
There he was as she expected with his rifle, a few men, and some pigeons. The men murmured to themselves when they saw her and her father turned to look at her. His face was stoic, not a bit of pleasure in the fact that she was back in England.
"You did not respond to my letters." He states. "Pull." One of the men, lets a pigeon fly and he aims it at the bird flying away. He takes a shot, gun powder flying a bit and the poor bird was seen falling far away.
"I didn't think I needed to." She states as she stands next to him with both of her hands resting on her cane.
"A woman shouldn't be out here." His men helps with putting the gun powder into his rifle.
"I can be wherever I please unless you're going to move me?" She asks, challenging him but he decides to ignore it, the man pulls another pigeon and he shoots it.
After the sound of the gun shot eases up, she begins to speak again. "And why do you think it is in your best interest to marry off my 13-year-old sister to that buffoon?" She knew the type of game her father wanted to play. If she got angry and blew up on him, she lost. Her father got off on making her feel weak and useless.
"As the head of my household and a man." He emphasizes on the word. "I can do whatever I want, especially when she is my daughter." He turns to look at her, hazel eyes meeting her own – something she hated that she got from her father.
Most of his hair was grey but in his younger days, it was once brown. He was clean shaven and wearing a suit similar to her own but it was navy blue and more decorated; he was always the showoff. He was the same height as her, another attribute she got from him but, his aura was not as graceful as her own.
"Diana is a nice and feminine young lady, someone you should take tips from." The men snickered at his best attempt at a jab towards her.
She was unfazed though. She spent most of her life being bashed and laughed at.
"She's 13 and hasn't even finished her education. I did not know you men were interested in children. I guess you spend too much time around my father." They immediately stopped laughing at that.
"I now see why Mr. Gibbs preferred to do business with me rather than you, you're rather off-putting. A walking and breathing toilet."
She did not bite her tongue like women were supposed to. She really enjoyed the tick in her father's jaw when she knew she had managed to get to him.
She had won.
Mr. Gregory got his composure and handed her the rifle.
"Since you are out here, you can at least take a shot." She looked at him and when she saw his smug smile, her pride and anger took control over her as she took the gun.
"Someone, please take her cane." One of the men listened but muttered in displeasure.
She adjusts the rifle in her grip, holding it with her right hand and using her gloved hand to manipulate the trigger. "Pull." She states through gritted teeth and she focus on the bird. She watches it fly away.
"You lost it. Woman just aren't capa-" Before her father could finish his sentence, she shot the gun, cutting his words short as the small figure of the bird far away could be seen falling down. She turns around and shoves the gun back into her father's chest.
"My little sister is not marrying some leech, Luther." She said his name with a voice of pure venom and malice. "I really don't want you to be that bird."
His smug smile had fallen and was replaced with a scowl as she grabbed her cane and walked out.
"Tell your friends that I am here in England and I'm not holding back." She states as she walks off, posture strong and a small new victory on her plate.
Once she was out of sight though, she winces in pain and leans against the brick wall of the mansion. She pulled the glove off of her left hand.
It had no nails, the area of skin on her fingers had been too damage for them to regrow due to the horrific burn. Hypertrophic scar covered the entire hand and made it hardly impossible for her to use it as pain was all that awaited her.
Chronic pain that kept her up at night, making sleep almost impossible for her. She reached into her back pocket to take a pill from the collection she was going to give her mother. It was probably her that her mother had meant. She bites her lips to stop herself from crying out before putting back on her glove.
She forces herself to ignore the pain and stands up. She dusts her suit and walks back into the mansion to spend it with her mother.
It was off to Greenwich, first thing next month.
Ms. Gregory spent as much passing time with her mother as she could. She actually had plans on cancelling her trip to the Robins but her mother refused to let her. It took her mother pleading with her that she would be fine and to head out before she finally decided to take the 2-day trip.
She was met by Mr. Robins not too far off from his estate and he did not seem as bad as the rumors pinned him to be, she could see in his eyes though that he was still a bit apprehensive about taking up business with a woman.
Nonetheless, he was quite reserved and very interested in her ideas as he heard she was the best at what she did. She soon found out that they wanted to expand. It was reasonable inquiry but she still found it suspicious.
Upon their arrival, Mrs. Robins' greeting was stiff. It made her feel rather uncomfortable but she kept a courteous face. Sometimes you are made uncomfortable but you must always remain professional. They offered her some tea which she obliged and they discussed more.
Amongst selling her some goods, they wanted her to stay in Greenwich for a long project they had already started. They had started a factory in London and wanted it to bloom. They knew that her own factory was topping in sales and wanted her advice and marketing plans to aid them. They would pitch her a nice penny for her services.
Ms. Gregory was ahead of her time and was making a long stretch even though the commerce and trading within England had barely even made its peak. Everyone was so focused on the railroads progress.
She said she would think about it and they also added that they would not mind having her stay at their estate whilst she worked with them.
They exited the room and she was off again, this time to her own estate.
For some odd reason, she felt like eyes were on her for the longest so she decided to look around. She scanned the building before her eyes landed on some ocean blue eyes.
'Wow.' She thought as she trailed her eyes quickly and caught her elegantly styled golden hair. She took in all that she could and when she saw how the lady flinched, it only made her smirk.
She winked at her and got into her carriage. 'So that is the beautiful vixen.' She thought.
She couldn't get that face out of her mind as it kept replaying over and over again. 'I wonder if they were hiding her from me?'
A chuckle escapes her lips, she was entirely amused.
Serena would agree to their proposal, not because of the business deal but mainly because she wondered how that mesmerizing young lady would look in her bed.