Chronicles of love

Chapter 1

Mist covered the gardens of the mansion. Everything was peaceful, still dark but soon dawn would break the darkness and a bit afterwards the bustle preceding the celebration would fill up the place. The gardens would be full of people coming and going. The grand parlor was almost ready, and the scent of flowers flooded the mansion which she had thought of as her home until last night.

The beautiful blonde was walking through the paths, inhaling deeply, remembering with nostalgia all the moments she had lived there. Those gardens had witnessed so many things. They had seen her when she was just a little orphan girl who had confused Anthony Brown Ardlay with her Prince on the Hill. They had seen her in love with Anthony Brown; it had been an adolescent love, a childhood love, pure and innocent, and it had remained that way.

But they had also witnessed her true love. The roses had seen her walking by the side of the man with whom she had promised to share everything, the man who had given her a home, a family, a future very different from that which a little orphan girl could aspire to.

Now she was a charming young woman of twenty-one, with refined manners and the bearing of a queen. She was aware that her fashion sense, as well as her beauty, charisma and demeanor, attracted attention anywhere. And she knew perfectly well she had to thank the Ardlays for that. The time Aunt Elroy had invested in her, plus what she had unconsciously learned in her daily coexistence with Annie, Patty, Anthony, Archie, Stear and Albert, had ended up making her the dream of many men. Not even Aunt Elroy could make any complaints about her manners those days.

She was in her last year at university, as were her cousins and friends. Coincidentally everyone studied at Yale. Although she had a year left to graduate in business administration, she was going to suspend her studies. At the least expected moment a crazy opportunity had come up, and even though she had doubted it, the events that were going to develop that day had urged her to accept it.

Candy would work for a year with a non-governmental organization dedicated to helping children in risky situations. Her first destination was India, a country consumed by poverty and inequality, a place where girls are still aborted just for being girls, a dangerous country for a young woman like her. However, she was twenty-one and didn't need anyone's permission, and most importantly, her heart was broken. She believed that since she had everything, she couldn't let pain overcome her, and working with people less fortunate than herself would give her the right dose of reality, after having lived a comfortable life, full of luxuries.

As she was walking, she barely noticed the humidity and cold of the atmosphere. Her grief was too great to bear...Selfishly she had waited until the last moment. She hadn't dared to face it before, but now she couldn't postpone it anymore. That day she would meet the deadline, and the love of her life would become an impossible for her.

(In the study of Lakewood)

The handsome blond man, whose blue eyes showed his sleeplessness, was sitting behind the desk. A mountain of papers was in front of him, but he had hardly paid any attention to them. That day should be the happiest day of his life. However, there was a shadow in his heart. Something weighed him down; maybe it was responsibility, honor, duty...too many things.

But the greatest weight was to know that from that day on he would close the door to his little girl. How had he come to this? When had he allowed an engagement which had been arranged since his childhood to weigh more?

Of course! The moment when he had been afraid that she would only see him as a brother; the moment when he had let the doubt of whether she still loved Terry grow in his heart. However, they were just children; she was twenty-one and Terry was twenty-three...But Terry had got married and disappeared from the map...and now Albert was eaten away by uncertainty.

Candy walked inside the mansion, trying not to make any noise. She was wearing dark blue denim jeans, glued to her body like a second skin, long caramel-colored flat boots, a huge black sweater of fine cashmere, owned by Albert, and she held a thin leather raincoat in her arm along with her handbag.

Her luggage was already in her car; now she just had to leave. She was holding a note which she would leave in his office. She opened the door stealthily, without noticing that there was someone inside, and entered. It was completely dark. He had given up, stopped reading the documents and turned off the light, trying not to think, but without much success. He had closed his eyes and heard the door screeching. For a moment he thought he'd better pretend to be asleep, but then the scent of her perfume overwhelmed him.

"Candy?"

"Albert!" She almost shouted his name.

Turning on the light, he saw her in front of him. She was beautiful;

her long golden hair was pulled back in a messy chignon from which some rebellious curls were escaping. He noticed with curiosity that she was wearing the sweater he had lent her the night before, and he shuddered at the thought of the soft cashmere of the thin sweater brushing her skin which was surely naked underneath.

"What's going on, little girl?" he asked her, surprised to see she was fully dressed at that hour.

His tender and deep voice made her shudder, but she hated the fact that he called her a little girl; it was the everlasting reminder that he saw her only as his little sister.

"Albert...I have to go..."

"Go? Have you forgotten the rings in Chicago?" he asked her with a touch of humor in his eyes, as he recalled how scatterbrained she often was.

"No; for your information, Archie has got the rings," she said in a tone of superiority, offended at the implication he had just made.

"So?"

"Albert...I need to get out of here," she said softly, still standing in the middle of the room.

Albert carefully weighed her words. Maybe she was stressed. It was the end of the semester and his aunt had driven her crazy with all the preparations for the wedding.

"Very well; you can use the jet. Just tell me what residence you want to use or which hotel you want to get to," he said, taking out his IPad in order to take notes and send the due e-mails. "The ceremony is at five. I figure that by nine we can be in the hangar."

"Albert...Can we?" A ray of light illuminated her darkness. "What about your wedding? What about your honeymoon?"

"That's why I'm telling you that the ceremony is at five; it must be over by six. From six to eight I'll do the necessary rounds and at eight o'clock you and I will leave for the hangar so you can start your trip."

Candy tried to process what he was saying to her.

"Albert, the jet is supposed to be in the hangar because it will be the one you'll use for your honeymoon...Besides, you can't leave in the middle of the party."

"I don't know yet if we're going on a honeymoon. There is some pending business...Annelisse will understand."

Annelisse McGregor would understand. Candy knew that very well. The beautiful red-haired woman with the turquoise eyes had understood again and again during the last two years.

She had understood when two years ago, on that trip in which she was supposed to meet Albert, he had left her three days later in the villa of the Ardlays in Scotland because Candy was at the American embassy in Paris due to the loss of her passport and he had to go to her rescue. Of course, the procedure had taken them longer and they had ended up flying to New York to get a new passport for her.

She had also understood when he had to leave her in the middle of their engagement party because Candy had crashed Albert's car and was in the hospital, and of course she had understood the night before when Albert had left the rehearsal dinner of his own wedding because Candy had stayed too long in the garden...Annelisse would certainly understand.

Candy wondered, not for the first time, whether the beautiful Scottish woman felt anything for Albert, or even whether she had blood in her veins. Living more than a decade with the Ardlays had made her believe that the Scottish men and women were people with strong passions. She had seen it very clearly in each one of her cousins, in Albert, and even in Aunt Elroy, but the beautiful woman who would be William Ardlay's wife seemed to be made of ice.

Candy saw the dark circles under his eyes in the light of the lamp on his desk and approached him. Her common sense told her that she shouldn't continue that conversation, that she should give him the letter and run away, but his gaze attracted her like a magnet.

She walked to his desk and leaned on the side of his huge leather chair.

"You haven't had any sleep," she said, putting her soft hand on his cheek which was scratchy because of his stubble.

"Neither have you..." he answered, observing carefully her face. "Will you tell me who is to blame for your sleeplessness so I can make them pay dearly for such an audacity?"

Candy smiled rather sadly.

"You are to blame," she said, almost in a whisper.

"What's the matter, little girl?"

"I can't lose you...That's why I'm leaving..."

"What are you talking about, Candy? You'll never lose me. Besides, I've already told you that if you need to leave and take a rest, I'll arrange everything, but you haven't told me yet where you want to go."

"I have to leave right now..."

"Candy, you are the maid of honor. Stop playing with me...You have to be by my side on my wedding day."

She sighed deeply, feeling as if her lungs couldn't get enough oxygen, and then she knew that if she didn't tell everything now, she would regret it forever.

"I can't stay..."

His smile told her that he thought all was a joke; one of those crazy ideas of hers. Probably she had found some helpless puppy and she

was about to take it with her to her apartment in Chicago.

"Little girl, stop joking and go and get some sleep so that in a few hours you can look beautiful."

"Albert, the only one who has to look beautiful in a few hours is Annelisse," she told him frustrated.

"Please, talk clearly to me," he replied in a serious tone.

"I can't stay and see you getting married...If I do my heart will break into pieces and will never heal...Right now there is still hope, but if I stay and see you join your life to hers...I'm sure I'll die...I know she's the perfect choice; she has everything...beauty, power, a family name. It's the perfect alliance for two of the most powerful clans, and I hope with all my heart that she'll make you happy..." she said, while the tears she had managed to contain till then began to stream down her face.

"Candy..."

"No, wait; let me finish. If I stay I'll want to scream that there actually is an impediment to the marriage...I'll want to tell everyone that in the twenty-first century this absurd wedding is nothing more than a contract, a convenient business alliance; that this polite but icy cold woman doesn't deserve your passion, and she surely doesn't have any herself, otherwise how could she remain indifferent to you? Or else I'll keep silent, and in the end I'll look like a Magdalen, and I'll make you feel bad, and instead of going to your party, you'll come after me and climbing on our tree you'll ask me what's the matter with me...But it's indecent to tell a married man that I love him, and that's why I won't do it, that's why I have to go, while I still have some hope to save my dignity, my life, my heart...I know that people don't die of love, so I'll come back when I am a strong woman; when the pain of other people has washed my own pain away and has made me understand that I'm a complete fool for having noticed a man I don't deserve, because I'm just a little orphan with no family who can't aspire to be the matriarch of the Ardlays."

"Candy..."

"Shhh...Don't say anything..."

She took his face between her two hands and leaning towards him she kissed him. At first, he didn't react, astonished at what was happening, but his hands instinctively embraced her waist and pulled her to him. Her strawberry flavor flooded his senses; her exquisite scent of roses intoxicated him. William Albert Ardlay knew he was lost. But before he could say anything, she broke their embrace and dropping an envelope in his lap she ran away.

Albert remained still for a few moments, trying to process what had happened, trying to think whether he should go after her, kiss her and ask her to be his wife...But first he had to undo the mess he had gotten himself into...all because of damned honor.

She ran to her car that was parked at the door. Like everything else, it was a gift from him; a beautiful black Mercedes SUV, the best car, the most luxurious one. Even Stear and Archie had told her that; they drove nice cars, but hers was a dream.

She looked back at the door of the mansion for a few moments, waiting to see him appear and run after her, because his lips and his hands had told her that she was reciprocated, but apparently that didn't matter.

William Albert Ardlay would marry Annelisse McGregor and she, Candice White Ardlay, would disappear from their lives. At least until her heart had healed and she was again her own mistress.

She got into the powerful German car and started the engine. The noise rumbled in the silence of the dawn. She went around the central fountain and drove down the long avenue flanked by oaks, which led to the main gate of Lakewood, and without looking back she left the only home she had ever known.