Note: This is a weird time frame in history. It's like science is a big thing, yet society is still backwards. Is that weird? Make it up! :D
Anyways, next chapter of Shotgun Wedding:
"Live around here?"
Samantha nodded and pushed a strand of hair away from her face. "A nearby town, yes. What about you?"
Oh in some palace somewhere. "I live nearby as well. A pretty girl like you isn't walking home alone is she?" He asked, putting on a smiling charm that usually had girls swooning. He just need to get close to her and take his fiancee's place. (At least that was the plan. He usually liked planning things out to every minute and every inch of detail, however meeting her was never in his plans.)
Sam bit her lip and smiled, a small blush tainting her cheeks.
Oh he had her now.
"It's fine. I'm very capable of defending myself", she said with a sly tone, as if she was hiding something. He raised an eyebrow.
"I believe you, but I don't think it's wise of any gentleman to leave a young lady walking home by herself. Please, allow me to accompany you", he said with a soft bow. He hated bowing to others but he knew how this game worked. (Unfortunately his mother seemed to think otherwise. She just didn't know that he hated the female gender because most of them in his generation were a bunch of useless gossiping idiots.)
Sam looked at him with a raised eyebrow and nodded before chuckling, "That's fine."
He was carrying the basket of fruits she had bought from the market. She seemed like a healthy eater. "Your father lets you go shopping on your own?"
An aura of sadness seemed to drift over her but it was gone a second later. He noticed.
"No, um, he doesn't mind... I don't really have much of a choice", she said, laughing nervously to try and cover it up but it was obvious that there was something wrong. Tim glanced at the girl. Her clothing wasn't of bad material and her hair and skin seemed to be in good clean condition. However she had been shopping on her own and it was obvious with the way she was clutching her purse and staying near him, that she was used to walking on the streets alone and was probably thankful that she had someone with her. There was no wedding band on her finger (which was great for him), but typically a girl her age should have been arranged to be married already, if not already married.
"I see." Tim said, nodding but not asking any questions. It was obvious that she was uncomfortable with it; besides he already figured out what happened.
Her parents were already dead. Which meant many parents didn't want her getting married to their sons without a dowry. But she seemed to have money, probably an inheritance, which meant she didn't want to marry herself off and that she was an only child, since the inheritance would usually go to a brother who would have had her get married as soon as possible anyways.
Which meant she had been lonely for a long time.
Which was great for him. Because it was so much easier to trap her if she had no where else to go.
Heh. This would be a piece of cake.
"Tell me about yourself", he said instead, and Sam smiled and started speaking about her studies. She was studying science, and biology and psychology were of great interest to her. (This must be why she wasn't getting married; she was spending her money on school instead.) She went on a tangent about a new study of neurons and Tim realized that this girl was intelligent. Very intelligent. He started speaking about his own studies (he was also a science person as well, but more into the chemistry aspect of it). In minutes they were conversing as if they knew each other their whole lives.
As they continued walking, Tim saw that this girl did not live nearby at all, but he couldn't find it in himself to care. All he could think about was her, this new stranger, and how she looked just like his fiancee and if he did a swap...
No one might notice.
And then he could have her instead. This strange mystery girl who intrigued him and looked exactly like his fiancee. But with a brain and a personality. Someone he could actually relate to.
The gears in his head were already turning even as they continued their conversation. He could have his fiancee kidnapped within seconds and place Sam in her place. No one would ever know. He could say he's moving out and take Sam with him; that way they wouldn't have to keep in contact with anyone who could figure out that Sam and Anna weren't the same person.
It could work, he thought. It could really work.
Sam stopped walking suddenly and Scam realized that they were in front of her home. It was a modest sized cottage house with a nice yard and locked windows, he noticed with an inward smirk. So he was right in his assumptions.
"This is me... Thank you for walking me home", she said with a genuine smile. He gave her a smile before taking her hand and kissing it.
"It was my pleasure... Would I be honored to see you again tomorrow?" he asked, adding an extra dose of charm. Sam blushed and nodded, and he handed her the basket and she went inside.
He went home very satisfied.
The next morning he completely avoided his mother and left the house before Anna could wake up from her precious beauty nap and come visit him. In a good mood for the first time in months, Scam made his way back to the town where Sam's home was. He had already memorized the terrain yesterday and knew every crook and nanny of the area. He continued walking, figuring that taking any other form of transportation would alert his mother.
He reached her home by high noon and knocked on the door. He knocked again and again for five minutes straight until he realized that something was off.
She probably wasn't home, but that was all right. It was a good time to get some information on this mystery girl. Using a pin in his pocket, he picked the lock of the front door easily and walked inside, expecting to see furniture and other girly things.
Except what he saw shocked him.
There was nothing. No furniture, no personal belongings. NOTHING. In fact, it didn't look like anyone lived in there at all.
The anger started burning in his chest. Did that little minx trick him? Was this not her home?
He kept walking around the house, pacing in anger, until he saw it.
An apple. The same shade and size as the one from yesterday, and the coloring was exact as well. (He had good memory. What could he say.)
She was here. She used to live here.
And then she disappeared. As if she didn't even exist.
Tim growled in anger. He would get to the bottom of this. No mystery girl would come into his life and VANISH as if she never existed.
No one got away from him.
I love mysteries. So what do you guys think happened? :D
Okay I'll be honest; I don't know what happened. But I'll give you guys two options and tell me which way you'd prefer the story to go.
A) Stay in the same setting and continue with this storyline.
B) It's all an illusion... o_O Dun dun dun.
Let me know!
Love you all,
Ivy