The Party
I've always disliked my birthday. Something that I'm often teased about. I realize I may seem young to worry about my age but when every day brings you closer to an unwanted marriage, birthdays are the enemies that are brought into your home that you have to make nice with. They are a milestone in everything you are dreading. This one is the worse. It's the last birthday before the dreaded event. Thankfully all presents were checked before being allowed into the party. Anything that could be meant as a wedding present has been squirreled away until my marriage to avoid a scandal. Even so I know this is meant as a more of an engagement party then a birthday, every congratulations comes with a knowing smile and a double meaning. I stay to the side in the shadows as much as possible. No one really wants to talk to me. It is a party for me but there are much more important people in the room. This makes my task of staying out of the way easier. My chaperone doesn't much approve though. She says that young ladies shouldn't hide in dark corners as if they are waiting for a lover to join them. She says this every time but no one ever joins me. Though as they always say there is a first time for everything.
"Hello my lady, do you mind if I join you in your hiding spot. " I hear my chaperone make a noise of disapproval. I glare at her. She is standing right there it's not like we are unsupervised. She huffs and I turn back to the gentlemen.
"Of course you're more than welcome to join me in my hiding spot though I feel compiled to ask from what are you hiding." To this day I still deny that I was flirting with this stranger that I had just met.
"I'm hiding from everyone. Though to be honest I'm mainly hiding from my fiancé."
"May I ask why?"
"To be honest I think she is too young to be getting married. She's fifteen; she is a child she should be out playing with other children. I do not want to be married to a child. This is actually her birthday party. I wouldn't have come if I thought I could get away with it."
"So you are engaged to Victoria Carrow then. I must say I'm a bit surprised that you think fifteen is too young. There are many who believe that young women are able to handle the task at such an age. What age do you think young women should be married at?" So this was my fiancé.
"You seem to be in agreement with me you are not yet married and you are older than fifteen. I think seventeen would be a proper age."
"Why seventeen? It's not much older than fifteen." So he thinks I'm older then fifteen.
"Two years can make a lot of difference. Besides seven is a magically powerful number and since seven is too young and twenty-seven too old seventeen is the right age."
"And what makes you so sure that I'm older then fifteen?"
"You seem more sure of yourself then a fifteen year old would be. If I had to guess I would say you are about seventeen. Which I must say is a refreshing relief to find someone your age not married and by the way you are hiding and not trying to catch a husband I'm assuming you either want to wait, or are uninterested in marriage."
"Or I'm already betrothed. And you were wrong." I said in amusement.
"I was? About what?" He seemed genuinely confused.
"My age… I am fifteen and just barely too. Today is my birthday." I was trying not to giggle, pure-blood young ladies did not giggle in public.
"If today is your birthday as well why are you not at home celebrate… oh… why did you not say anything?" I've never gotten Salazar to admit that he blushed that day. Standing there realizing he had been talking badly about me behind my back to me was not one of his prouder moments.
"I was curious about the enemy." Was my reply.
"Well surely since we are betrothed we are not enemies."
"I consider someone that steals from me, my enemy." I answered.
"What, my lady, have I stolen from you. And please don't destroy your previous maturity and answer your heart."
"No not my heart, what was left of my childhood. You, yourself, have admitted that I'm nothing more than a child. I can do nothing about our situation but you could have. You could have told them you wanted to wait. You did not, and now it is too late. We will be married in a month and soon after that I will be expected to be with child. So yes sir I do consider you my enemy. Good day."
I felt very pleased with myself, even though I was punished for it later. It was years later that I learned that Salazar started to fall in love with me at that moment. I left him standing in that corner with a gob smacked look on his face, having just been told off by a women who was nearly 25 years younger than him. And his fiancé to make it worse. I think he was mainly relieved that he wouldn't be marrying a scared child who wouldn't be able to handle being a wife and mother. Though he was wrong about that. Though it would be years before any of us, myself included, would realize just how wrong he was.