Authors Note--

Thanks for the great reviews for the first chapter! I made a couple mistakes in the first chapter because I rather distracted that night… BUT, the year is supposed to be in the 1800's, so whenever there was a seven in the last chapter put an eight. And, Amy and Soraya weren't supposed to say 'my dear friend' and 'my dear' the whole time… I forgot to change that.

Anyways, I'm not exactly sure how one would go about announcing an arranged marriage but hopefully this comes up semi accurate. Thanks to Shawna for helping me out with that. Hope the chapter's long enough :)

And, um, yeah. Review!

-Steph

Disclaimer: Lauren Brooke owns everything recognizable.

The Unbreakable Pact

Chapter Two—The Announcement

May 24, 1850

On the day of my seventeenth birthday, mama woke me.

Mama bustled into my room in a flurry of fine skirts with my maid trailing close behind her. Mama waved Clair, my maid, over to the large windows. Clair hauled open the heavy draperies and the bright sunlight streamed into my previously dark and comfortable room. I had it in my mind to groan and go back to sleep but mama's insistent chattering left me no choice but to wake.

"Oh, my dear daughter! You are seventeen today!" I smiled into my pillows as I remembered that the day was my seventeenth birthday! "Rise now, Amy," mama continued as she swept around my room, looking for things that I was not aware of. Poor Clair had to try very hard to keep up with mama as she thrust garments at her from every which way! "There is to be much excitement today, darling!" she trilled.

Excitement! Yes, my party was tonight! And perhaps I would attract the attention of a charming (and handsome) gentleman to be my first suitor! Oh, being seventeen was going to be so much fun!

Clair saw me rising from bed and deposited the clothing in her arms on the lounge and grabbed my dressing gown. She helped me put it on over my nightdress and I tied the lavender ties in the front.

"Happy birthday, miss," Clair whispered to me as she helped me into my dressing gown.

I smiled at her. "Thank you and I am sorry about my mama. I cannot say what has gotten into her this morning!" I said to the girl who was only one year my senior.

"Claire? Oh, Claire?" Mama's voice came from my dressing room and Claire darted off to her.

When mama and Clair finally reentered my room, Clair carried a large box. I knew naught what was in the box for it was an entirely different color then the box that contained my gown for that night.

"Mama," I began, "what—"

"Hush, dear," mama chided me gently, "and come so that Clair may help you dress."

I obliged and Clair ushered me behind my dressing screen where I was stripped of my nightclothes and dressed in fine, new undergarments.

"Make sure my daughter looks utterly beautiful, Clair!" Mama called as Clair tightened my corset. The breath was forced out of me roughly as Clair gave the ties another good, hard yank.

"Yes, Missus Fleming."

Clair helped me into a beautiful gown that I had never seen before. "Mama? Did you buy me another new dress?" I called as Clair did up the fastens on the gown.

"It shall be a special day, dear," mama replied.

"But I have my gown for tonight, why do I need another for now? Can I not wear one of the ones I already have?" I asked, thinking through the other dresses that I could be wearing. This gown was beautiful though, it was a dark blue with light blue lace trim. The neckline was rather low but it was still high enough to be modest.

"Do not be silly, Amy!" mama said. "You are seventeen today and deserve to wear such finery all day!"

"Are you sure there is not another occasion that would require such dress?" I asked her boldly.

"Grandmamma and Grandpapa have come in along with Lou, Scott and the children," mama informed me.

"Oh!" I exclaimed as Clair ushered me from behind the dressing screen to fix up my hair and face. "I did not think that they would arrive until later! Oh, how I long to see Lou again!"

"You look just gorgeous, my darling," mama said as Clair ran the brush through my long hair.

"Has anyone else arrived yet?" I asked greedily.

"No, not just yet. Everyone else shall arrive tonight for dinner."

A sudden thought struck me. Mama must be up to something. "Mama," I began slightly hesitatingly, "may I inquire as to why Grandpapa and Grandmamma and Lou and Scott have arrived already?"

"Why are they are here to enjoy a brunch with their granddaughter and sister!"

I smiled. "You say Lou's brought Emily, Edward and little Janie with her?"

"Yes."

"Oh how I long to see them all!" I gushed, ignoring the tugs on my hair as Clair pinned it up.

Mama rose to take her leave from my chambers. "Do haste in appearing downstairs," she said to Clair as much as she said it to me. "We daren't keep our guests waiting."

"Waiting, mama?" I asked curiously. "Surely Grandpapa and Grandmamma, Lou and Scott shan't care if we are a bit late. They are hardly guests here."

"Oh yes," mama said, "have I not told you?"

"Told me what, mama?"

"The Baldwin's are joining us this fine morning."

I gasped. "Mister and Missus Baldwin you mean?" I confirmed pleasantly.

"Mister Tyler and Mister Lee as well," mama said.

"But why, mama?" I couldn't help the little whine the twisted in my voice.

"Amelia!" mama scolded me. "The Baldwin's are fine people and we should be honored to have them as guests in this house. You would take care to show pleasantries towards them."

"Yes, mama," I replied meekly. "It is not that I do not care for Mister and Missus Baldwin," I tried to explain myself, "for they really are the most pleasant of individuals. It is rather Mister Tyler that I am wary about."

Mama looked aghast. "Mister Tyler? What ever could you find displeasing about his character? He is a most gentlemanly young man."

I looked to my hands that were clasped in my lap. "Yes, mama. I did not mean to say the Mister Tyler is not a gentleman it is just that—"

"Mister Tyler appears to be rather fond of you, Amy," Mama cut me off. "You will do good to show him some manners."

"Yes, mama."

"Very well then, do make haste in your preparations, Claire! We shall be awaiting your presence in the morning room, Amy." And mama swept out of the room in a flurry of fine silks and fabrics, the door closed with a soft click in her wake.

"Aye, cheer up, miss," Clair noticed my sullen expression. "It is not so very terrible of a situation. Mister Baldwin is quite handsome and it is just a breakfast!"

"Yes, you are right, Claire," I said, my spirits lifting. It was just a breakfast.

I entered the morning room with my head held high and a firm resolve to pay no attention to the offending gentleman. I was caught rather off guard when it was not Mister Tyler that immediately drew attention to my appearance with a rather offensive comment (though, they were only offensive to me. Mama and Missus Baldwin just smiled) but Lou!

"Amy!" she exclaimed and jumped from her seat besides Scott and flew at me faster then any woman should be able to move in a corset.

I laughed happily as I threw my arms around her and embraced her. "Oh, Lou, it is so good to see you again!"

"Aye, I have not seen you in ages, Amy, we have much to catch up on," Lou smiled down at me. Lou and I had been as close as sisters ought to be since she had married and I had grown up.

Lou held me at arms length. "Come, let me take a good look at you," her eyes scanned me top to bottom. "You are a beauty, sister, so very pretty and looking quite like a young woman ought to!" Her comment rose several laughs from the other occupants of the morning room and a blush rose on my cheeks.

"I fear I have not properly wished my little sister a happy birthday!" Lou exclaimed. "Happy birthday, Amy, may this be a day filled with welcomed surprises!" she kissed my cheek and I wondered what she had meant with her last comment.

I greeted papa, Scott, Grandmamma and Grandpapa enthusiastically before I turned to Mister and Missus Baldwin.

"Thank you for coming this morning, Mister and Missus Baldwin," I said politely.

"It is our pleasure, dear," Missus Baldwin said with a warm smile. "Happy birthday."

"Aye," the cheery Mister Baldwin seconded. "It seems like just yesterday we were here for your ninth birthday!" he said with a hearty chuckle. "But you are not a young girl anymore but a beautiful young woman!"

I blushed once again at the compliments. "Thank you, Mister Baldwin."

"Tyler," Missus Baldwin's voice reminded me of the only member present that had yet to wish me a happy birthday. Typical, I expected no less from him. "Do you not have something that you would like to say to Miss Fleming?" she shot Tyler a meaningful look.

Tyler rose from the chair he had been sitting quietly in. He stood next to his father. Tyler was a good bit taller then his father and there was no doubt that he looked quite admirable in his rather formal dress but he looked awkward and uncomfortable—two words that I had never dreamed of connecting with Mister Tyler Baldwin.

He did not even meet my eyes as he mumbled, "Happy birthday, Miss Fleming."

"Thank you, Mister Baldwin," I replied politely. Tyler fiddled with his hands behind his back and looked over his shoulder and out the window.

"Surely that cannot be all you wish to say to Miss Fleming," Missus Baldwin chastised her son.

Tyler paused before saying, "You look rather nice this morning, Miss Fleming," without even looking my way.

"Rather nice?" Missus Baldwin exclaimed. "I'd rather say that that is a bit of an insult, Tyler! Miss Fleming looks most admirable today. Have you ever seen such a beautiful lady, Tyler?"

"No, mother, I have not," Tyler replied obediently, his eyes still everywhere but on me.

Missus Baldwin released her son from her gaze and everyone retook their seats in the morning room. I took my seat between mama and papa in slight confusion. I had thought we had been in a rush to eat. Of course I dared not make any mention of it and I sat quietly instead.

"Lou," I spoke up, "where is Emily, Edward and Jane? Have they not come?" I suddenly recognized the absence of my little nieces and nephew.

"Aye, they are here," Lou confirmed. "They have been taken to the nursery along with the young Mister Baldwin. We suspected that they would find our conversations dreadfully boring."

"Oh."

"My dear Amy," papa spoke up after the current conversations dwindled down. "Today you turn seventeen and the day shall be a joyous occasion in more then one way!"

Mama and Missus Baldwin were grinning big. Tyler looked on the verge of excusing himself from the morning room. Lou and Scott watched thoughtfully and Grandpapa, papa and Mister Baldwin looked proud.

"Today an engagement that has waited for seventeen long years shall be announced," papa continued.

My stomach clenched but I had a sudden thought. "Oh! Is it Miss Martin and Mister Trewin, papa?" I inquired with a big smile. "Oh, I always knew that they were just perfect together! I must send my congratulations to Miss Martin at once!"

"Pardon, Amy," Scott spoke up, "but if my brother is engaged then I am not aware of it!"

"Oh," I said in disappointment. "Well then who ever could you be referring to, papa?" I asked in interest, going through all the ladies I knew with suitors.

Papa looked uncertain as to how he wanted to say what he had to and blurted it out in the end. "Why, to yourself and young Mister Baldwin, of course!"

I blinked dazedly and the room was deadly silent. "Begging your pardon, papa, but I mustn't have heard you properly."

"I daresay you heard me the first time, Amy," papa said.

"But then that would mean that…" I trailed off as it finally hit me. Mama and Missus Baldwin beamed. Missus Baldwin laid a hand on Tyler's shoulder and he slowly rose from his chair, his mouth set in a serious and rather grim line.

He stopped in front of the chair that I sat in and knelt down before me—on one knee, no less! He held out his hand and there, clasped between his thumb and his pointer finger, was a ring. A ring with a good sized diamond set in the center with two sapphires on either side.

Tyler finally looked up at me when he spoke. "This was my mothers and my grandmothers and my great-grandmothers and great-great-grandmothers and so on engagement ring. It would do my family… and myself… a great honor if you would accept it and become my… wife." The last part was rather forced out and his emerald eyes shone with anger. I glared right back at him—I couldn't believe that he could find it to be angry with me! Me! As if I had arranged this whole thing!

I had it in my right mind to outright refuse him but I looked around. Mama nodded encouragingly at me. And then I remembered papa's words—"Today and engagement that has waited for seventeen long years shall be announced." It wouldn't matter what I said. They'd arranged a marriage for me! The one thing that I had sworn never to be a part of and they knew it too!

Tears rose to my eyes and I meekly presented my left hand to Tyler. He took my hand and slid the ring onto my fourth finger. He hesitated briefly before quickly kissing my hand. He dropped my hand rather unceremoniously, stood up and returned to his seat.

Tyler had done well to appear emotionless prior to the last five minutes but now he hardly made an effort to conceal the displeased look on his face.

Mama and papa stood up and I did the same. Mister and Missus Baldwin stood up, as did everyone else. There was much chatter and congratulations in the room then and I felt the need to cry stronger then ever.

"Oh, look here, Catherine!" Mama exclaimed, clutching Missus Baldwin's arm gently. They both looked at me with huge smiles. "She's so happy she's about to cry!"

Everyone turned to look at me. I colored in mortification as a few tears slid from under my tightly clenched eyelids. Lou was the only one that noticed that I was not crying tears of happiness and started towards me. A few more tears escaped and rolled down my cheeks.

"Excuse me, I do not feel quite well," I said before I turned and fled from the room. The heavy doors to the morning room closed rather hard behind me but for once I did not care of propriety.

I ran down the halls, hardly knowing and yet knowing fully where I was going. I flew around the turn to the stairs clutching my heavy skirts in one hand and the banister with the other. The noise my shoes made on the marble of the stairs echoed off the walls.

"Amy!" Lou's voice yelled down the corridor. She followed me down the stairs and out to the backyard. I collapsed under one of the large trees and sobbed.

"Amy!" Lou lifted her skirts a bit higher then would be consider acceptable for a lady and ran over to me. She sat down next to me and patted my back soothingly. "Amy, oh, Amy," she said softly. "Why are you crying so, darling?"

I sniffed and brushed the back of my hand across my eyes. "I won't marry him!" I exclaimed through my tears. "I won't! Do you hear me?"

"Hush, my dear," Lou's motherly instincts were coming back now, "for it shan't be so terrible. Mister Tyler is a respectable, and wealthy, gentleman."

"No! He is not respectable and he is most certainly not a gentleman! He is arrogant and cocky and self-confident and quite frankly rude!"

"Yes," Lou agreed thoughtfully. "Perhaps there is something about the way he carries himself but, Amy, I assure you that he is a fine man!"

"No! You are wrong, Lou, so dreadfully wrong!" I sobbed, my tears coming back. "He is the worst sort of man imaginable!"

"I fear you are getting rather carried away, Amy," Lou said gently. "You cannot possibly still be on about the time at your ninth birthday, can you?"

"That is not the only time he has been mean to me," my voice sounded strangely childish even to my own ears. "There has not been one instance where I have been cursed with his presence that he has been kind to me!"

"Mayhaps Mister Tyler does like you, dear, he just cannot show it properly," Lou suggested.

I groaned and slumped back against the tree. "Why does everyone keep saying that?" I wailed. "Mister Baldwin detests me with a passion and I him!"

"You shall grow to adore him, I can assure you that. You may never come to love him but you shall become fond of him."

"You are wrong, so horribly wrong!" there was a brief silence before I spoke in a softer voice. "Mama and papa knew that I would not consent to an arranged marriage. I told them so all the time when I was younger!"

"That may be so, Amy, but this marriage has been planned from the moment you were born and mama and papa found you to be a girl! If I had been only several years younger it would be me with Mister Tyler," the ever wise Lou said.

"Well then I wish I was elder! Oh, Lou! Do you know how lucky you are? You have found true love and true happiness with Scott! I've only ever wanted the same for myself!"

"Aye," Lou agreed with a faraway expression in her eyes. "I am truly happy with my dear Scott and I hope only the same for you in your life to come. But, my dear, you must understand that in this day and age it is perfectly acceptable for a marriage, such as yours, to be arranged. Maybe someday women will have full choice in who they marry but today it is our job to please or parents and to marry well. Because, you certainly will bring much to this family by marrying Mister Tyler!"

"I don't care! I shan't marry him! I will not do it! I could not bear to live with that man and see him everyday!"

"I wish more then anything that I could tell you that you shouldn't have to do anything you don't want to but I can't. Mister Tyler will provide you with a life admired by all and you shall have all the comforts you desire! I daresay that he shall not treat you as some men do their wives."

I was silent. My tears had drained me of energy.

"Today was supposed to be an amazing day," I said softly, scooting closer to Lou. "Mama and papa would finally allow me suitors! But now I find myself tied down already with the one man I detest more then any other! If it had been any other man it would be more bearable. I would still be against the whole arrangement but it would be at least bearable!"

"Aye. I daresay that I don't quite agree with you there, Amy dear. I believe that you shall learn to care for Mister Tyler. You may never love him, but you shall live a content life."

I was again silent. Everything had happened so fast, I didn't quite know what to do! I did know one thing though; I would never ever marry Tyler Baldwin. I couldn't. I chose not to tell Lou of the pact Soraya and I had made only four days ago. Who would have thought that I would be so close to breaking it already? I wouldn't break it though, I just wouldn't. I would never marry Tyler Baldwin.

"Come now, dear," Lou stood up and brushed off her skirts. She reached a hand down and pulled me to my feet. She looped her arm through mine and we walked slowly towards the house. "Let me call Clair to clean you up… no, no, I shall clean you myself!"

If it were not for the terrible numbness that had come over my body then I would have hug Lou in gratitude, for she took me a way that she was sure no one else would be.

She sat me down in front of my dressing table and yet to work fixing my tearstained face.

It was in the middle of Lou's work that mama burst into my bedchamber.

"Amelia Rosalie Fleming! You behavior has been a disgrace to this family and you have shown the Baldwin's nothing short of rudeness after all the kindness and generosity they have offered this family!" she began, her bright blue eyes crinkled from distress. "I had thought that you had been taught better! But, oh! What a time to show something different! I believe Mister Tyler has been right offended by your actions!

"My daughter, you enter this engagement with a splendid dowry. The agreements have been long agreed upon and written down. This is a marriage that you should feel nothing but honor at being allowed to be part of and I expect to hear no more of your silly prejudices against Mister Tyler and his fine character. I shan't have you running from rooms and slamming doors! I daresay that the young Mister Tyler shan't like a wife who acts in such a way!

"Once you are presentable, I expect you and Lou in the dinning room and I expect a spoken apology from you, Amy. There is no excuse to tell for your actions but I expect your apology to be sincere! Am I being understood?"

"Yes, mama," I said meekly. I looked down at my lap only to have Lou lift my head once again.

Once we reached the dinning room, all talk stopped. Lou slipped quietly into her seat next to Scott. Missus Baldwin cleared her throat softly and Tyler heaved himself to his feet with what appeared to be a great effort. He pulled my chair out for me a bit harder then necessary and it bumped the back of my legs as he pushed it back in.

"Thank you, Mister Baldwin," I murmured. Tyler looked at me a moment longer with nothing short of disgust shining in his brilliant eyes.

The table was silent and I caught mama's gaze. I sighed.

"I am terribly sorry for my behavior earlier," I began, looking down and fiddling with the edge of the tablecloth. "I was rather shocked by the events that had transpired this morning and was not thinking clearly. I offer my sincerest of apologies at any disgrace my actions may have caused my family and I can only thank Mister and Missus Baldwin most gratefully for feeling that I should be a suitable daughter for them and… wife for their son," I had to grind the word out.

"Nonsense, my child!" Missus Baldwin spoke. "Your actions were perfectly acceptable under the circumstance and I daresay that there is not a lady living in the state of Virginia that I would rather call my daughter!"

I had to smile at Missus Baldwin's kind words. I glanced at Tyler out of the corner of my eye. He was sitting straight and rigid in his chair, his hair falling across his face so that I was not awarded with a look at his eyes but I could see the grim set of his mouth. He gripped the handle of the butter knife that sat by his plate.

Cheerful chatter resumed at the table and I did my best to contribute. Tyler made naught an effort and the brunch could not have been over soon enough.

We saw the Baldwin's to the door where their carriage was waiting for them. Tyler helped his mother into the carriage before getting in himself.

As I watched the pair of fine horses carry the fine carriage away down the drive, I could not squelch the thought that there was no way I could ever be joined with that despicable man. I had made a pact and I did not intend to break it.

To bad there was a little thing called family honor.

a/n: yeah, okay, so the end slacks off and it's not THAT long but the next chapter is the party and things get a little interestin' between our favorite pair… no, not in that way. Minds out of the gutters! Sorry but it won't come to that for a bit… drama, drama, drama! Hehe. Review! (ten plus reviews for the next chapter!) -Steph