"Be still, sad heart, and cease repining;

Behind the clouds the sun is shining;

Thy fate is the common fate of all,

Into each life some rain must fall,

Some days must be dark and dreary."

-Longfellow

Chapter 1: Europe 1114

It was a bright and sunny day in Greenville. The sun seemed to be scintillating every which way as I strolled down the small, winding, dirt road. I was coming back from the market place, which was a whole village away. My idea to sell my mother's and my leftover crops had proven to be a complete and utter failure. It had been my way of trying to keep us afloat, but in reality, it was my attempting to stop my mother from marrying me off to the awful, yet rich, Denis of Starkfield, better known as the highest bidder.

My father had died when I was seven. He left us with nothing but the clothes on our backs and ever since then I had been drowning. Every time I thought that I was almost at surface, something brought me back down and I was forced to start the process all over again. My mother and I may have been beyond poor, but she found hope as I grew. I was always too modest to admit it, but eleven years after my father died in the war, I blossomed into a beautiful, young women. My mother took it upon herself to declare me the prettiest girl in all the land and from there she devised a plan to marry me off to the highest bidder in order to ensure her financial stability. I didn't blame her for trying to keep herself afloat, but at the same time I always resented her for her inability to care for others as I did. If she thought that I was marrying that sleazy, middle aged Denis of Starkfield, then she had another thing coming.

I was almost home when I decided to delay my return, more like delay facing my mother. I wandered off to a secluded stone bench and put down my basket full of vegetables. It was almost sunset as I looked out onto the world far beyond my small ecosystem. I let out a short sigh and a man came over towards me. He appeared to be about six foot one, he had enchanting brown eyes, short but not too short brown hair, and a sort of devilish grin, which wandered over his face.

"Mind if I sit?" he asked. He seemed to pose no serious threat as he looked to be only a year older than me. I nodded my head as an okay and he sat with a smile. There was a certain air about him that I just couldn't describe. I quickly pushed that thought towards the back off my mind and continued to stare back out into the unknow as the sun was setting. "It's beautiful, don't you agree?" the stranger asked.

"What?" I asked the man. He had caught me off guard by his question as I had been lost in my thoughts.

"The sunset in unity with the rest of the world is stunning. Do you agree or disagree?"

"How could anyone disagree?" I questioned as I shot him a curious look.

"Some just do," he told me. It was silent after that and that seemed to bother him. He turned to face me and asked, "Okay, what is the problem?"

"The problem? Why would there be a problem? But, if there were to be a problem it would have to be yours considering you approached me for some reason. My problems will not nor shall they ever concern you, Sir. I do not need another person on this Earth feeling pity towards me."

"So you find me attractive," he oddly stated and left me baffled.

As I felt my cheeks begin to blush and confusion take over me, I quickly and swiftly got up and fled home in a hurry. It didn't make any sense. How could anyone be so improper out in public? How could he seem so deep and intriguing, yet arrogant and rude at the same time? He reminded me of my best friend Romen who was off fighting in the Holy War. We had always been just friends. He was the only person that I was ever able to really talk to at the time.

This stranger had left me so frazzled that it was a miracle I made it home in one piece. I sprinted through the door and tried to gently shut it, but I was upset. The sad excuse I lived in for a home made slaves look like royalty. I was going to attempt to get to my bed before my mother awoke and saw me, but alas she had been waiting up to prove me wrong.

"I see you have no more vegetables, so where is the money?" she asked after popping out of nowhere. I then realized that I had left my basket next to the bench where anyone could and probably did steal it. I quickly made up an excuse in my head of how I dropped all of them down a hill because of some idiot and prepared myself for the dreaded I told you so. I was twiddling my thumbs and just about to get out with my lie when there was a knock on the door. I sprinted to the door to answer it and to avoid any confrontation whatsoever with my mother. To my surprise, who else did I find before me but the deep arrogant stranger from only a short hour before.

"Hello," he said. "You sold me those vegetables earlier today and I completely forgot to pay you. I am so sorry, Miss." He then proceeded to pull out a few gold coins and asked, "Is this enough?"

My mother's eyes immediately lit up as she rush towards him, snatched up the coins, and proceeded to her room to count them. This of course left me alone with the stranger.

"Why did you do that?" I asked him.

My question caused something in him to spark as he flashed a not so innocent smile. "It's the least I can so considering I caused you to get flustered and run off in such a hurry like that. Afterall, I am a gentleman."

"A gentlemen? You, Sir, are the farthest thing from a gentlemen and you know it," I told him right upfront.

"To be honest, it just depends on the day," he replied casually. "But more importantly, I did save you from your mother, which I believe leaves you in my debt."

"Yeah, I think not. Besides, you followed me home and that's just a tad creepy, don't you think?"

"Maybe, maybe not," he said. "Since you are now in my debt, meet me tomorrow night at the bench just before sunset."

"And if I don't?" I decided that it was best to test his patients.

"Trust me, Darling, you don't want to know," he whispered into my ear. It caused a chill to run down my spine and as quickly as he appeared, he left. He left me with no choice but to see him again. He caused curiosity and wonder, things which seemed only to be distant memories, to stir within me. It wasn't that I was worried of what would happen if I didn't go, I was just curious to see what would happen if I did. He was full of himself, but at the same time he was a gentlemen and that seemed to confuse me. How he could be composed of two different personalities was beyond me. I had to know more as he seemed to posses an indescribable hold over me and I him. For if I hadn't possessed one over him, the odds were, I later learned, that I would have been long dead.