Chapter one, Sisters

A/N: Hey there, first of all, thanks for reading my fanfic, it's my very first fanfic (cheesy right?) and I really have no idea on how to make this work so if you have any tips for me I would love to hear them. Second of all, this story is set in the Netherlands (yes I live there and yes, the cursive written words are Dutch) in what we call the golden century, the economy was doing well, there was a lot of trading and women and men were already pretty equal. All the characters are OCs except maybe the occasional mentioning of non-OCs, name's are pretty random and the main character doesn't have a name yet, she might get one later on and I'd love to hear some suggestions. I do not have an update schedule and I do not plan to make one.

April the 12th, 1650,

A light breeze flew past my cheeks as I watched the sun rise on the horizon. Tomorrow would be the big day, my sister Cassandra would turn 18, and she would get married tomorrow. It was all she could talk about. Off course, I was happy for her, I loved her, and I couldn't imagine a more suitable husband for her then John. John Locke, a man of 19, strong, well behaved and handsome. He would soon start working in the royal navy, and was already promised a high function. Cassie's life would be perfect. They would get married an live in a big house with their servants and children, they already had it all planned out.

Unlike me, me, at the age of 16, I've had countless lovers, very much to the dislikes of my parents, but none of it was serious. Except maybe for Mike. I still remember when we were up at the balcony late at night, my mother was having a party and they didn't see us sneaking out. My sister saw it though, she told mom the next day and man, she let all hell loose. She said it wasn't proper for a lady to sneak out with a boy like that and more of that sort of crap. Not that I listened, I was too buzzy daydreaming about how we gazed at the stars, how he told me about the constellations, and then, when we were laying close together, me looking up, how he kissed me, how his lips softly touched mine. When my mother noticed I wasn't paying attention, she forbade me to ever go out with a boy whithought strict permission.

I sneaked out a few days later to visit Mike, when I saw him with another girl, they were softly talking on the porch when I saw het lean in, and kiss him right on the lips. I ran back home crying and I locked myself in my room. When I finally calmed down for a bit Cassandra had found the spare keys and came in. She didn't asked me anything, she just held me tight until I was calm enough to mutter some words. 'He... I, I saw them... Mike and...' I managed to say. Cassandra just held me tight mumbling stuff like it's okay, I'm here now and don't think about it.

At moment like this I was so glad to have a sister like Cassandra, one that didn't ask questions, knowing the answer would be told later anyways. When I finally calmed down entirely and I managed to explain the whole story she promised not to tell mom. She let me sleep in her bed that night and didn't leave my side all day the next day. I'm so lucky with Cassie, I just wish people would stop telling me that. I mean, I love her and all, but she is so perfect, she is better than me in almost everything, and I know my mother likes her better, it's not like they love her more, just that they get along so much better. I try not to let it show, but it hurts, I wish I could get along with her so well, but all we seem to do is fight, fight over my love life, fight over my lessons, fight over my looks.

My mother wants me to have long hair and wear big heavy dresses all the time, I want to keep my hair short, and wear trousers when I can. Another thing in which me and Cassie differ so much, our looks. She has beautiful long brown curls and she is long and thin and the top of grace whereas I am quite short, have short, straight, dark blonde hair and quite wide hips. I miss papa (daddy) a lot, he always did fun stuff with me, like teaching me how to fish. He would get me normal trousers en blouses so that I didn't have to wear dresses when we did stuff like that and we hid them so that mom didn't found out.

She did off course, and then there would be another argument, my mother couldn't take it anymore after a while, so she left him. He wanted me to go with him, but my mother didn't allow it, she said he had no idea how to raise a girl, that there was a whole lot of 'girl stuff' he knew nothing about. She was right though I suppose, he wouldn't have a clue as to how to solve my 'problems'.

Last time we heard from him was when I was about 14, he was drunk, standing in front of the door of our mansion, he called out to mother, said he still loved her, begged her to take him back. When no-one replied he got angry, started to throw anything he could find at the door. Then he threw up and passed out in front of the door, the next morning he was gone.

'Wat schrijf je (What are you writing)?' That scared the hell outta me, I slammed my new diary shut as I turned around. Cassie had been standing right behind me, she now was trying to figure out what the book on my lap was. 'Geez Cas, couldn't you knock or something, how long have you been standing there?' 'Not for very long, I didn't see what's in that book of yours if that's what you're afraid of.' That's what I mean, she directly knew what I wanted to know and she told me withought asking questions, damn, why does she have to be so perfect! 'Mooi zo (Good), that's private.' I snapped. She barely looked hurt by my words, she knew I just freaked out a bit. 'Sorry, I shouldn't snap at you like that.' 'It's okay, I shouldn't pry.' AARGH, why is she so perfect!

She sat down on her bed. 'So, tomorrow is the big day,' I tried to change the subject, 'are you excited?' 'Well of course I am' she said, but I could see that something was bothering her. 'Is something wrong? You seem a bit disturbed.' 'Nee hoor (No), I'm fine.' 'Are you sure you're okay? You seem bothered by something.' 'Oh no, it's nothing.' 'So there is something.' I knew I shouldn't pry but it seemed like there was something really wrong, she just didn't want to tell anybody about it. 'You know you can tell me everything right? 'Well,...' 'What is bothering you Cassie?' 'It's mam (mom), she has been acting strange lately.' I really had no idea what she was talking about, mom always acted strange from my point of view, so I just believed that she was probably right, since she had a much closer connection with mom. 'She is so impatient sometimes and she sometimes just snaps at one of the servants, which is totally not like her.' I thought about this for a little, maybe she had started yelling a bit more lately, and not only at me. 'Maybe she is just stressed, you know, with you about to get married and move out.' She looked at me. 'Maybe... Would you please keep an eye out for her when I'm not around, it's probably just the stress like you said but still, I would be a lot more at ease if there was someone to look over her for a bit.' Geez, when did I become a babysitter? 'Okay, I'll keep an eye out for mam (mom).' 'Thanks, that means a lot to me.' She took hold of my hand and smiled at me.

'Have you already fitted your dress for tomorrow? after all, you are my maid of honor.' Oh no, I just managed to forget that awful thing. It was a silk white dress with small pastel colored flowers on it, and as if that wasn't bad enough already, it came with a million white ribbons and real flowers which somehow, in a very painful way, had to be put in my hair. 'Do I really need to wear that? it makes me look silly.' 'Ja (Yes).' She plainly answered. 'Fine, but wait just wait until you'll see what you have to wear at my wedding.' 'I can't wait already!' She answered. Great, now she is going to keep bugging me about my wedding, I thought, but she didn't, she just walked over to my bed and hugged me. 'You should go to sleep now, I don't want you walking around looking like something that came back from the dead at my wedding.' 'Hmpf, moet dat? (Do I have to) I'm not tired at all.' She looked at me with a stern look. 'Okay, okay, I'm already going.'