Chapter 3: Moon and the Stars
Ann walked up to Mr. Heathfax.
"Father, who was there to see you?" she asked. She knew the answer to the question but tried to hide her joy. William had come to ask her for her hand in marriage. He had mad hints about it lately but she wasn't sure.
"That was William, dear," he replied.
"Oh, that's great news. What did he ask? Where is he now?"
Her father turned away from her. " I don't know how to say this but…"
Ann backed away from her father. Accidentally she walked into a chair behind her. "Is something wrong?" She had been afraid of this. Though she loved her dad, she couldn't help but think that he might object to her engagement to William. She had tried to convince William that she would be the one to ask her dad, but William was a bit old fashioned and insisted that he was the one to lay out their plans. Her father wasn't replying to her question though. Ann was beginning to panic. Maybe this was more than just an objection. "Dad, where are you? I can't hear you. You're scaring me. What's happened?"
Then she heard the footsteps of her father walking in her direction. She felt him grab her hands and pull them close to him. "He is gone, Ann," he whispered in the softest voice she had ever heard him use.
She pulled herself away from him. "What? No, that's not possible. He said that…"
But before she could finish the sentence, her father interrupted her. "He said that we were to poor a family for him. He's engaged to Lady Genaux.
Ann felt dizzy all of a sudden. This couldn't be happening. Only yesterday William had talked about marriage. Had he just been playing with her? Was this all a joke on her? Maybe he had even been laughing in her face but she couldn't see that. Maybe he had been joking about her blindness and how easy she was to get. But this didn't sound like William at all. Not the sweet and sensitive William she had fallen in love with.
"You must have made an error, papa. He said that he would always love me."
"You know that love isn't everything, Ann"
She turned in the direction of her father's voice. "But he said that it was. He said that love was all you need."
"Ann, I'm surprised at you. I would have thought that of all people, you wouldn't be fooled by love. Not after what happened with Henry. He left you the moment my cargo ship sank and we lost our money. Hadn't he talked about love to you.
"Not like William did. William meant what he said. He promised me the moon and the stars."
"A man can not promise what is not his to give. And besides, maybe you should be happy that you found out now. Imagine if he had promised to marry you or something."
Ann couldn't stop the tears now any more. "He did promise me. We were engaged. He promised. He promised." She let her head fall on her father's shoulders. Her father's arms wrapped around her and felt her like he had always done when she was small.
"Oh my poor child. How you must have suffered."
Ann couldn't take it any more. She lifted her head from her father's shoulder and started to walk away in the direction of the door, feeling her way around her careful not to clash against another piece of furniture.
"I have to go. I need to be alone right now."
"Oh Ann," she could just hear her father utter.
Luckily for her, she did not see the smile of satisfaction that spread across her father's face.