I'm decided to post the prologue and the first two chapters at the same time so as to keep things interesting for any possible readers. Just in case you are wondering. :)

Alice let out a long, annoyed sigh before setting down her teacup to glare at her three daughters. They were arranged in front of her, from youngest to oldest, considering she was convinced the trouble that had been caused was mostly due to her two youngest daughters. Still, she planned to stare them down until they confessed.

Therefore, she started with Dinah. She was the last child Alice bore in a desperate attempt to produce a male and a mere fourteen years of age. Still not married, like her other siblings. She knew from the start that Dinah wouldn't be getting a husband. Not that her smallest daughter was ugly, because she wasn't.

She was a pretty youth, one could say. Her face was slender but without curves, like that of a child. Pouting lips and large, lively green eyes adorn her face, partly covered by the curtain of bangs that swooped over her forehead. The cornsilk-colored hair was pulled up into two high ponytails whose ends still brushed against the back of her shoulders.

Not many good and trustworthy gentlemen wanted such a girlish bride, but this wasn't the main problem. It was that Dinah inherited Alice's own trait of curiosity and creating mischief. Even now, instead of looking down in shame as her parent squinted harshly at her, Dinah replied with a half smile and the batting on her blond lashes.

Giving up hope on making little Dinah remorseful, Alice moved her burning gaze to Payton. Many suitors had expressed interest in Payton. However, almost all usually retracted their invitations. Payton had a look to her that some saw as lovely and, to others, scary even though she was only 18-years-old.

Long, black hair that curled up at the end with equally as dark eyes. She was lanky but looked more feminine than her younger sister. Her skin was pale to a point of almost being white, except for the mahogany blush on her cheeks, and the gray gowns she constantly insisted on wearing did nothing to compliment her complexion. Then there was that sick sense of humor…

Payton kept on a straight face similar to the one her father wore when playing poker with his social friends. However, her bottomless eyes twinkled with such amusement that, in the end, Alice was stared down. It was then when she decided to look to her oldest daughter.

Marianne. She was no doubt the girl with the best head on her shoulders. The one that, since Alice failed at producing a male heir, would get married as soon as possible and have a son to follow in her father's footsteps when he passed away.

Her eldest child was neither childish nor frightening. In Alice's eyes, she was everything a lady should be. Well educated, but with enough sense to keep her mouth shut. Mature, not one to make rash decisions. Deceivingly ordinary, with a little something extra hidden away to attract the eyes of men.

With luscious chocolate-brow hair, gold-tinted skin, a supple figure, and caramel-brown eyes, Marianne had been quick to hook herself a rich and handsome bachelor at the ripe age of 21. The key word is "had been," Alice thought grumpily as she turned back to her younger daughters again.

"Do you know why you are here, my darlings?" Their mother hissed unhappily, crossing her arms over the front of her Victorian dress as she stood up to her full height.

"Did someone put glue on the bird feeder again?" asked Payton, innocently. Birds were her cat's favorite treat and she had been known for making the flying prey easier to catch for her lovely pet.

"Is something wrong with the vases in the storage room?" asked Dinah, tilting her head to the side curiously. Alice knew this was one of her youngest's most cherished places. More than a few times, servants informed her of all sorts of odd chatter that came from the storage room. It was where Dinah went to play make-believe.

"I was told by the messenger that my fiancée sent me a letter. May I see it?" Marianna requested politely, seeing the open letter with her future husband's seal tucked neatly under Alice's saucer. Alice nodded and handed the letter over to the oldest. "Please read it aloud. I would like your younger siblings to here the news as well," she said sharply, giving Payton and Dinah the evil eye again.

Marianne raised one slender and arched brow before reading aloud,

"My beloved Marianne,

I regret to inform you that I can simply not go through with our engagement. You're lovely of face and, on the outside, you appear as calm as a babbling brook. However, these irritating little "love pranks" you keep on pulling are simply too much for one man to handle. Bathrooms full of frogs? Cooking ingredients full of worms? Don't even get me started on the creatures you slipped into my bed. I'm truly sorry that I misread you. You're not fit to be my bride, I'm afraid.

Deepest apologies,

Samuel Grant."

Silence filled the room for a while. That was, until both Payton and Dinah burst out in laughter. They clutched their sides and even fell to the floor in their fits of giggling. "The frogs, Payton! There were so many frogs. Piled up in the tub, hopping out of the sink, littering the floor… And the toilet was overflowing!" Dinah managed to pant.

"Remember all the creeper and crawlers I stuffed in his goose-feather mattress? He'll be picking off ticks and fleas for years!" Payton replied between chuckles.

"I can't believe you two! Not only are you refusing to find spouses yourselves, but driving off your elder sister's?" Alice raged, raising her hand to deliver a well-deserved slap on Dinah's rosy cheek. The young girl squealed and shrunk away into the arms of Payton, who defensively held her little sister away from their mother. However, that hand never came down.

Instead, Marianne held Alice's wrist in a bruising grip. "You can't punish them, mother." She said in a calm, smooth voice that was usually used when she enforced something with all of the will in her.

"Grant isn't going to keep this to himself. He'll tell every eligible man about these "love pranks." Your younger siblings just basically ruined your chances of ever marrying to a suitable gentleman and creating an heir for the family. I think they deserve more than one little slap," Alice said through clenched teeth.

"No, mother. You still can't punish them. I asked them to do it," Marianne sighed, honestly.