A/N:Again, a million 'I'm sorry's!"!!!! I'm still having my exams, but I'm not going to abandon this story. In fact, I've just gotten a brand new overdose of inspiration which should make it better than before. So, no worries! I'm getting a one week break next week, hopefully I can update more then. If I'm lucky, I can write another chapter up today. But only if you will all be my friends and review!:)
I flopped onto my bed and nearly suffocated myself in my powder white sheets. The white of the bedspread turned gray and damp from my teary eyes. I didn't shriek or whine; I just let the tears flow out soundlessly. I'd known all along that it couldn't be put off forever. But, I still didn't want it to have been like this. I didn't want to have to go through it so early. Not now.
Is that the real reason, Suzette? Or are you still holding out some dumb fantasy of him being the one instead? Are you still waiting for him to come along and ask for your hand? After only one insignificant dance? A bitter voice laced my thoughts venomously.
"It was not insignificant!" I cried out without thinking, responding to the imaginary voice in my mind.
"It was beautiful! It was...different," My voice dropped an octave lower, and I crumpled the sheets under my fingers in a very powerful grasp.
I didn't understand any of this at all. How could my mother have been capable of agreeing to this? Of having me sent away to marry some landowner's son in another country at the very peak of my youth? I wasn't ready to leave behind everything I'd ever known, nor abandon the freedom of my youth so easily. And yet, there was nothing I could think of that would make the circumstances alter. I was without any option.
My thoughts flew to the looks on my mother and sisters' faces; Mother had been cold and her eyes unreadable. Rita had ignored the whole situation and stared downwards at her plate. Anneliese had been...relieved. Her reaction had been the strangest. She had almost seemed to be happy, as if this was something good. Which made the tears flow down so much more. No one, no one understood.
Why was I the one to be married off first?It wasn't fair! I shouldn't have to do this. I was the youngest. I was supposed to be childish, and chirpy, enjoying balls and flirting with all the possible suitors. Mother had let me reject Thomas, why not this one? If anyone was to be married anytime soon, it had to be Rita. Not me. This made the tears more furious and pour out even more.
I lay there on the bed face-up, preventing the tears from staining the bedsheets any further. My gown was dampening from them; I couldn't stop crying. This was madness, pure madness. And I was about to be locked up for it. My fate was sealed the day my mother accepted it.
Hours must have passed before I even bothered to stir from where I laid; I glanced at the mirror to see my reflection. My eyes were wet but not red. I'd learned long ago that if I didn't fight the crying, my eyes stayed the same. My cheeks too held no trace of puffiness either. Nobody would no how I felt and I'd let it stay that way, once again.
Meanwhile, in a country manor near Volturi, Italy.
"Father! Why would you do this without me knowing?" A young man in his early twenties said exasperatedly. His hair was a light shade of raven and had dark brown streaks in it. He glared angrily at his father, an older man, whom he resembled considerably. His father shook his head in a final way.
"There will be no objections, Vincent. I will not have you running off and around with one of those hapless Italian peasant girls. You are English, and you will marry an English lady," His eyes were stern. His gaze hardened even more when he saw a look of defiance flicker into his son's eyes; his son whom he knew never obeyed him.
"My name is Vincenzo! Not Vincent, and I don't care what I am! You cannot marry me to some airhead English woman who does nothing more than look pretty!" His voice was full of anger and frustration; this was the last straw. He was leaving tonight...and nothing would stop him from being with Katrinka.