Chapter Four:

A "Happy" Engagement

"How was your trip to Yorktown, Ben?" Felicity asked as she stood in the doorway of the barn. Ben was taking care of putting a horse of the Merriman's back in its stall after he had borrowed it to visit his family.

"Well to start with, my father is forcing me into an arranged marriage," Ben replied with irritation.

"With Annabelle Cole?" Felicity promptly asked with shock. She hadn't expected Ben to come right out with his news, and she certainly hadn't expected Ben to come back to Williamsburg engaged to Annabelle. She thought Ben would finally come around to mentioning that the Coles had written the Davidsons a strange letter wanting to arrange a marriage, and that they had been turned down, but this was completely the opposite of what she was prepared to handle.

Ben quickly looked up from his work. "How did you know?" He asked, very surprised.

"Well, to be honest, Elizabeth told me right before you'd gone for Yorktown," Felicity admitted solemnly.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Ben asked disappointedly.

"Well I didn't want to ruin plans for the Coles, or get you all worked up over what could've turned out to be nothing right before your trip, or excite your family before anything was official, or make my father believe that you'd be breaking your contract,...do you see?" Felicity asked.

"Yes," Ben replied.

"I truly am sorry that you're being forced to marry somebody you hardly know. Especially ol' Bananabelle," Felicity said with a smirk.

Ben smiled. It was the best he'd felt in two weeks, before he shortly remembered that "ol' Bananabelle" was about to become his wife. Felicity promptly apologized.

At tea time the following day in Miss Manderly's sunny parlor, Felicity and Elizabeth reluctantly indulged in Annabelle's chosen topic of general interest.

"And of course, only red roses will be included in my bouquet. I find the white to be extremely dull and unromantic. Besides the whole theme of the wedding is 'autumn' as we will be married some time in November, and white is simply a color of winter," once again, Annabelle rattled on and on and on about wedding plans; yet again, driving Felicity and Elizabeth completely crazy.

Elizabeth and Felicity turned to face each other and winked. Felicity then interrupted Annabelle's fantasies of the wedding march. "Are you quite certain, Annabelle, that Ben agrees with you in regards to all of these arrangements?" Felicity asked.

Annabelle was quite taken back. "Ben? Agree with me on wedding arrangements? Why, Ben doesn't care. He's a man! The wedding plans are not his work. Besides, I'm sure that if he were to be involved in the preparations that he would agree with me on every detail. The relationship I have with Ben is so strong, even I can read his thoughts," Annabelle said, completely disgusted with Felicity. She then continued chattering on with no end in sight about her ideal wedding without stopping to draw breath.

Felicity and Elizabeth again looked at each other, and exchanged an "it's going to be one of those couples," look.

Annabelle of course felt better. She felt happier than she had when she was engaged to Harry. All of her dreams were about to come true.

Ben on the other hand was panicking constantly. He called on Annabelle about three times a week so that he could at least get to know her better. The more he got to know, the more horror-struck he was and the more he suffered. But he'd go through with the ceremony for his family. What other choice did he have in the matter?