Chapter one
Caroline awoke to the smell of rain, a scent that had always been her favourite since she was a little girl. Her eyes fluttered open and from her bed she could see the doors of her balcony and the sight of rain splattering hard on the tiles outside. She scolded herself for not closing the doors the night before but it had been the hottest summer they had yet to have and it was nearly impossible for her to fall asleep with the sweltering heat in her room. Her father, General Bill Forbes would have had a fit with her if he had known she had left the doors open. He was convinced that there would be another war and if so, that her and her mother would be captured by the so called evil rebel forces that the newspapers had been warning about for the last fortnight. Caroline couldn't help but scoff and think that she would rather be living with these so called rebels than with her tyrant of a father. Bill Forbes was a decelerated war hero who happened to also belong to Mystic Fall's founding families who had settled in the town decades before. In Mystic Fall's if you belonged to the council, which happened to be all the original founding families; then you were considered a very important person. The Forbes were one of the wealthiest family members but compared to the Lockwood's, The Gilberts and The Mikaelson family, the Forbes family was politely considered as upper middle class. This had troubled Bill Forbes immensely. He believed that the three wealthiest members of the council were underserving of their status and wealth. He claimed that they would do very little to protect the town, but Caroline knew better to believe that her father was the freedom fighter of the people. He wanted access to power. Power he liked to inflict on Caroline and her mother, Elizabeth on a regular basis.
Elizabeth had always tried to defend Bill's actions as been something that had resulted from the war. That he had seen terrible things and experienced traumatic events. But that had been ten years ago and Caroline could still remember her father being cruel and calloused before the war had even started. No, Bill Forbes wasn't haunted by his years in service to his country, he missed the war and yearned for it. Caroline always tried her hardest to avoid her father at all costs possible. She knew that he was a deranged man but who could they turn too? No one in Mystic Fall's would believe the story of war hero, General Forbes manhandling his lower class wife Elizabeth or their twenty year old daughter who was set to wed into the wealthiest family.
Caroline had always fancied Klaus Mikaelson from a far but she had never dreamed that he would have ever had anything to do with her. Caroline had been very much aware that her father had been trying to coax her into a relationship with Tyler Lockwood the son of Mayor Richard Lockwood and Carol Lockwood. He had invited Tyler out on numerous outings but Caroline could not stand the man. Tyler was the splitting image of her father; impulsive and angry. Not to mention he had a rather questionable reputation as being a man whore. Caroline had rejected all his advances for courtship and soon he had lost interest with her. Her father had been more than livid with her for rejecting Tyler's courtship. But he didn't stay mad for long because soon after Caroline had rejected Tyler, Klaus Mikaelson, the third oldest son of Mikael and Esther Mikaelson had asked Caroline to be his date for the annual Founders Ball. Caroline had been shocked that the slightly older and more sophisticated man had asked her to the biggest event in Mystic Fall's. What followed was a few weeks courting, stolen midnight kisses, long romantic horse rides on his parents vineyards, elaborate dancing in the newest bars in Mystic Falls and sweet whisperings of the future. Klaus had been her dream come true, her escape from the harshness of her father's tormented behaviour and her mother's shallow cries. In fact her father had been more pleasant than usual and that was something that scared Caroline more. She was used to her father being emotionally abusive and cruel but he hadn't laid a finger on Caroline or her mother since she had started dating Klaus. Perhaps he was scared that Klaus would see the bruises if he ever did raise a hand towards her or maybe just maybe he had decided that Caroline's marriage to the most powerful man's son in the whole of Mystic Fall's had something to do with her father sudden change of heart.
"Caroline?" A voice called out in the distance.
Caroline sighed and rolled out bed.
"I'll be down shortly, mom." Caroline called out towards her mother's voice.
Caroline stretched her muscles out. Her body was sore from all the swimming she had done the day before with her best friend, Bonnie Bennett. Caroline walked towards her bedroom door and reached for her sleeping gown. She slipped the delicate white laced robe on to her shoulders and proceeded downstairs towards the patio that overlooked the Forbes expansive yard. The rain had stopped a while ago and the sun's rays began to penetrate through the soft mallow grey clouds. Caroline smiled when she saw her mom seated at the beautiful dining table that was nestled on the patio, directly in the warm rays of the sun.
"Morning mom." Caroline said as she seated herself next to her mom.
"You slept in this morning." Elizabeth said as she sipped her tea.
Caroline nodded and reached for the buttering knife and began buttering herself some toast.
"YesBonnie and I spend nearly the whole day swimming at her parent's house."
Elizabeth nodded and glanced towards the garden, pensively lost in thought. Caroline glanced up at her mom, when she realised that the older woman hadn't spoken for some time.
"Are you alright mom?" Caroline reached over and gently placed her hand over her mom's.
Elizabeth startled at the touch, briefly smiled before speaking;
"Sorrydear, I was just thinking how beautiful the garden looks after some much needed rain. It look's fresh and rejuvenated again."
Caroline frowned, she was very much aware that her mother wasn't talking about the garden. She knew somehow that her mother was thinking about how trapped she was in a loveless marriage with a cold tyrant. Almost as if he had heard Caroline's thoughts, General Bill Forbes stepped out onto the patio. He was dressed in his standard military clothes, his badges polished and gleaming as they caught the rays of the sunlight. Bill Forbes had been an athletic man growing up but age had slowly taken its toll on his body, his wide shoulders were accompanied with a hint of an almost bulging stomach and his brown hair was thinning more and more each day, but Caroline knew not to mistake this for weakness. His brown eyes were still alive with venom radiating through them.
Elizabeth quickly jumped to her feet on cue. A true submissive. Caroline refused to stand up. Always had and always would.
Her father said nothing at her defiance and seated himself on the other side of his wife. Elizabeth shakily sat as soon as her husband had taken his place. Caroline could see the strain on her mother's face. Elizabeth had always been beautiful but her husband had damaged her greatly over the years, chipping away at her beauty. Unlike her husband, Elizabeth did not belong to a wealthy founding family. Her parents were poor and lived on a small holding,tending to goats. Elizabeth had been invited to an event based on her looks. It was there General Bill Forbes had seen the young and vulnerable girl , he had offered her a marriage proposal that very night and Elizabeth had accepted thinking that she had landed herself someone who would truly love and adore her. But she had learned soon after their marriage what a beast her husband was.
"This breakfast is cold." General Bill Forbes's seethed tossing his toast aside.
Elizabeth shook at her husband's anger and Caroline's stomach dropped. It didn't take much to set her father off.
"I'll get the staff to make you a warm breakfast." Elizabeth shot up, walking quickly back inside the house.
Caroline glared at her father as he reached for his tea.
"Don't give me that look, Caroline." He said gruffly returning a glare towards her.
Caroline didn't say anything and returned to her breakfast, soon enough her mother accompanied by a member of staff placed a warm breakfast in front of him. He didn't say thank you and wolfed down his food as, Caroline and Elizabeth sat seated waiting for him to finish his food. Caroline hoped that he would leave after he ate like he usually did but instead he sat at the table afterwards, tapping the table with his short stubby fingers. Suddenly out of nowhere he barked at her mother;
"You must learn how to run a house. It's a disgrace that I have to wait for food. If you can't do your job properly then I might as well replace you." He snarled at Elizabeth.
"Well why don't you." Caroline spat out, shaking with anger at her father.
"You dear girl will learn to shout your mouth. I hope your husband can beat some sense into you." He snarled, the veins in his neck slowly protruding.
"Hewon't! He's not a foul creature like you." Caroline shot up on her feet.
She didn't usually stand up towards her father but seeing as he hadn't touched them in such a long time, Caroline couldn't help but want to spew her words at him.
"Caroline…" Elizabeth scolded softly.
"What a wonderful child you have raised. If she wasn't marrying into that family I would have her tossed on the streets." Bill Forbes directed to his wife.
Elizabeth said nothing and glanced down toward her hands in her lap.
"Go put some clothes on." He directed towards Caroline, "And that's and order."
Caroline wanted to tell him to go to hell but at that precise moment her mother glanced up at her with pleading eyes. Caroline nodded before she left the table and proceeded up back to her room. She slammed the door shut behind her and breathed deeply in. Her whole body was shaking as she sat on the edge of her bed. Caroline hoped that her father was not taking his anger and frustration out on her mother. She hadn't meant to cause a scene because she knew the consequences of what would happened but her father had caused her to snap and lose her composure. Caroline walked over towards her balcony and gazed out into the distance, she could see the ever expanding city of Mystic Falls and beyond that the forested lands that had been left undisturbed. Caroline wished more than ever she could escape into those forests, and live a life away from Mystic Fall's.
"Miss Forbes." Someone knocked suddenly on Caroline's bedroom door.
Caroline pulled away from the balcony wall and made her way back into her room. She opened the door and was greeted by the familiar smile of, Miss Crooks, the oldest woman that had worked for the Forbes family for nearly twenty years.
"Sorry, Miss Crooks." Caroline smiled.
"No need for apologies, girl. You have a letter for you." Miss Crooks handed a whitewashed envelope towards Caroline.
Caroline took the envelope and thanked Miss Crooks before closing her door. She looked over the envelope and noticed that it had a stamps from all over, Europe. Caroline felt her heart cease. She only knew of one person that was in Europe … and that was Stefan Salvatore. The man she loved.
An: Okay so this is a new idea that I have had. It's been bugging me for sometime begging to be written. It will be based around the jazz age but I wont be following any sort of history guideline, all the events will be completely fictional. I will be working on this story, primarily alongside The Request at this time, Problematic Situation is going through a bit of an edit but hopefully by end of August it will be completed. I will be updating The Request next week, have been putting a lot of time and effort into it because of so many people loving the story. And I really want to produce good quality work for my readers. So let me know what you think. I will just say that The Inclination will be very eventful, I myself have no idea who Caroline will end up or be with. It's the first time I'm writing a love triangle lol so go easy on me. I'm strictly neutral at the moment so I can't say who I am favouring more right now. So please let me know if you want to see more and will see you all next week for The Request.
CCThevampirelover