Prejudiced

Klaus rolled off Elena after he had finished, and quickly fell asleep, his soft snores echoing through the large room. She lay there for a few minutes, and then quietly got up, pulled on her dressing gown and went out on the balcony. A week after their wedding, Klaus had purchased a large mansion in the outskirts of their town, to celebrate the marriage, apparently. He had filled it with servants, so she was rarely alone, but she had never felt lonelier. She knew they were probably reporting all her actions directly to Klaus. Though she had been a dutiful wife to him. She did everything he asked of her, she maintained the house, she sent him off every morning with a kiss on the cheek, and was there to receive him in the evening. In return, he hadn't been treating her too badly. Sometimes he would get angry, but as long as she looked down and kept quiet, his anger would fade. The first time she had argued back. He had quickly shown her that was a bad idea.

She breathed in the fresh air, shivering slightly, and looked out into the night. It was quiet, most families probably asleep. From this distance, the divide between the two sides of town was clearer than she had ever noticed. She could see the well-maintained houses, the immaculate gardens, and the posh carriages on her side, which then flowed seamlessly into the small, shabby huts where he lived.

She still couldn't bring herself to say his name, even in her mind, it hurt too much. She had been married for a month, yet she still loved him as much as the day he had walked out of her life. She knew eventually it would get better. The memories would fade, she would stop seeing him everywhere she went, her dreams would have different focuses and her desire to get a single glimpse of him would recede. But for now, the thought of him was as painful as watching him walk out of the church had been.

She pulled her gown tighter around her, and wept silently into the night, as Klaus's snores continued behind her.

(**)

She waved goodbye, as Klaus's carriage pulled away from the house, until she lost sight of it, then she shut the door, closed her eyes and leaned against it, sighing. Klaus had not been in a good mood that morning. He was having some people over for dinner, in the evening, and he had been very stressed. Apparently these people were very important for some deal he was involved in, so it was imperative that this dinner went well. But there had been problems right from the start, the food they had ordered was going to arrive late so the chef would have less time than originally thought which meant the whole dinner menu had to be changed. She had to go sort that out now. She stayed there for a few minutes, before finally walking down to the kitchen.

The kitchen was bustling with people making preparations for the evening, so she couldn't even see Daisy, the head of the kitchen staff.

"My lady?" She heard a soft voice, as someone lightly touched her arm.

She turned to see one of the younger kitchen maids.

"Yes?"

"The lady who brought all the food is outside, she has some questions about the payment." The maid said shyly.

"I'll take care of it. Where is she?" Elena replied.

"Round the back, my lady. I can tell her to come in front if-"

"No no, it's fine. I'll go." Elena cut in, smiling gently at the girl.

"Very good, my lady." The girl bobbed in a clumsy curtsy, and then quickly ran away.

Elena pushed through the crowded kitchen, and exited through the servant's door, to go around the back of the house. There, a tall, blonde woman was waiting for her. Her long, thick hair fell right down her back, and her hazel-green eyes were sparkling with curiosity. Elena was surprised that she was taking care of this kind of thing, it must be a family business, otherwise it was rare for women to take part in the work.

"Family business?" Elena asked, politely, as she walked over to the woman.

The woman nodded. "My uncle's shop."

"I thought my husband had taken care of the payment?" Elena asked, confusedly.

"He has. That's not actually why I wanted to see you, I just needed an excuse to talk to you alone."

Elena frowned, perplexed. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

The woman held out her hand. "My name is Lexi."
Elena looked down at the hand, stunned. Lexi. The name brought back the memory of walking alongside him, as he explained why he had stolen that apple. For the child of his neighbor, Lexi.

Lexi withdrew her hand. "I take it you know who I am? Damon mentioned me?"

The sound of his name after so long made her legs go weak, and she put out a hand to steady herself.

"What are you doing here?" She said, clenching her fists to force herself not to collapse.

Lexi looked around, making sure they were alone. "He's not well."
A sharp feeling of dread shot through Elena. "He's ill?" She asked, shakily.

Lexi shook her head. "Not in that sense. He works, he eats, he sleeps. He's behaving normally, apart from he isn't. He's surviving, but he isn't living."

Elena frowned, again confused. "I don't understand, he - "

Lexi cut in. "He's lost his spark. You know, the thing that makes him Damon? The mischievousness, the twinkle in his eyes, the sharp wit, the cheek. It's gone. He's lifeless."

Elena looked up, into the hazel eyes that were looking at her pleadingly, and saw something there, something more than concern, something very familiar to her.

"You're in love with him." She said, understanding dawning.

To her credit, Lexi didn't look surprised.

"But he's in love with you." She said, without missing a beat.

Elena paused. "How long…?"

Lexi sighed. "For the last two years. After – after my son… He was just so good to me, he's always been there."

Elena was quiet for a few minutes. Two years was a long time. "Why haven't you told him?"

Lexi shrugged. "He never felt the same, I knew it then, I know it now. He always treated me like a younger sister. The way he talks about you…I've never seen him like that before."

Elena looked down, feeling a sudden rush of sympathy for this girl. She had been in love with Damon for two years, and now when he was vulnerable and alone, instead of pursuing him, she was sacrificing her own happiness to try and reunite him with someone else. Lexi obviously saw the sympathy, because she shook her head again.

"Don't pity me. I'll be ok. I've learnt to live with it for two years, I can cope. I just want him to be happy, and his happiness rests with you."

Elena paused again. "But why are you here? What do you want from me? I'm married."

Lexi shrugged. "And you were engaged before, but that didn't stop you."

Elena admired this girl's boldness. She had come here, to her house, and bluntly told her to have an affair, and she was showing no fear.

"Engaged is not the same as married." She said softly.

Lexi closed her eyes for a few seconds, clearly frustrated. "I want to help him so badly. I want the life back in his eyes. I want to see him smile, I want to hear him laugh. I would do anything to get my Damon back, but there's nothing that I can do. Because I'm not the one he needs, however much I want to be. You are. Help him."

With that, she climbed into the carriage and left, leaving Elena with a painful ache in her heart.

(**)

Damon locked up the shop, and slipped the key into his pocket. Lexi's uncle had become more and more trusting with him over the last year, and now he was allowed to open and close the shop on his own. He probably wanted Damon to take over the whole business one day, since he had no sons of his own, and Lexi had no brothers. The rain was starting to come down, and Damon shivered slightly as he started the walk home. October had arrived, and brought with it the cool winds of autumn. The rain got stronger and stronger, and as he entered the street on which he lived, it was pouring. He wished he had brought his coat, but when he had left that morning, there had been no sign of rain. That was the problem with the weather in England, it was completely unpredictable.

As he approached his house, he stopped dead in his tracks. Elena. She was there, sitting on the steps leading to his porch. When she saw him, she rose, gracefully as he assumed she had been taught to when growing up. She was wearing a more modest dress than the dresses she used to wear; the dress of a married woman. It was completely drenched through, the ends of her skirts soaked in mud. Her brunette hair looked even darker in the rain, but her eyes seemed to almost light up when she saw him.

Water was dripping from her hair, from her face, from her clothes. And she had never looked more beautiful to him.

She walked towards him; her eyes full with unshed tears. Though with the amount of rain falling down her face, he wouldn't have known if she was crying or not.

"I take it you and Klaus are joining us for dinner?" He asked her, causing a faint smile to appear on her lips.

Her smile was so stunning, was she even aware of that?

"Just me, I'm afraid." She replied, her eyes sparkling.

He shrugged. "Well that's disappointing, he's the one I really like."

This time she couldn't hold back a laugh, and the sound caused him to grin, for the first time in over a month.

The rain was now coming down so thickly, it was becoming harder and harder to see her.

"Damon, I – I wanted to know how you were doing." She said softly, looking down at the ground.

Now that she was here, standing in front of him, she could see what Lexi had meant. He wasn't the same. The spark was missing.

"I'm fine." He said, shrugging again, and when she looked up, his smile had gone and his face was expressionless.

"Liar." She retorted.

"Well, why do you care?" He asked.

"I – I don't." She replied.

"Now who's lying?" He responded. She didn't say anything.

"Elena, why are you even here? You made it clear you were choosing Klaus." He said, sighing.

She frowned, she thought he would have been happy to see her.

"Lexi came to see me. I was concerned!"

"Well I don't need your concern. And it's none of Lexi's business." He replied, irritated.

"Why are you getting angry?"

"Because you had left my life. So stay out!" He said, anger creeping into his voice.

"You're the one who walked out! Not me."

"Well excuse me for thinking that you getting married, was my sign to leave."

"I had to marry him."

"No, no you didn't! I was offering you a life with me, but that wasn't good enough for you!"

Elena was staring to get really angry. "You don't understand!"

"Right right, you didn't want to cause a scandal. Well Elena, there are some things more important in life than your reputation in society."

"You know nothing about the problems I-"

"I'm sorry, it's just that where I come from, we think dying children, starving families and things like that are actual problems. I guess we've missed social reputation from that list." He cut in, sarcastically.

"Damon, this is our problem. You and me, we're too different. We come from different backgrounds and you can't - "

"No, don't make this about backgrounds. This is about who we are. I care about people, you care about money!"

"That is not true! You have no idea what I care about!" She shouted back, furiously. She was aware the volume of their voices had been slowly increasing throughout the conversation, along with the level of rain.

"You're right, I don't. So tell me, when you chose Klaus, was it because you cared about his possessiveness? His cruelty? How he wouldn't lift a finger to help someone unless it benefitted in some way? Oh wait, of course, it was the money. How stupid of me."

"It was not about the money."

"It sure wasn't about love."

"Don't try and pretend you know about the situation I was in." She snapped, angrily.

"I know I offered you love, and he offered you a comfortable life. Not really much of a choice, is it?"

"He offered safety!" She yelled, her tears mingling with the rain.

"He doesn't care about you, in fact, he's probably the one most likely to hurt you. You think he looks after you better than I could have?!" He yelled back.

"Not safety for me!"

"Then for who? Don't bring up your family again, social reputation is not safety!"

"SAFETY FOR YOU!" She finally screamed, unable to take his accusations any longer.

She wiped the water off her face, unable to tell if it was the rain or her tears. His hair was plastered to his forehead, because of the rain. His eyes had been flashing with anger, but now they only showed shock. He had not expected that. Taking advantage of his silence, she carried on. "He told me he would kill you. Even if we hid, he has connections across the country, he's a Lord! He would have found us, wherever we'd gone. We'd have spent our life running, and a short life it would have been for you. I married him to protect you, and you would have known that if you had stopped being so goddamn judgmental! I know I come from money, I know you don't. But that does not define me. You couldn't see past your own stupid prejudices! I didn't marry you, so you immediately thought the reason must be money. Because that's all you've ever seen in my people. You see us, you think rich, therefore selfish. You judge us without knowing us. And I know, we don't treat you well either, but we don't need to live up to the reputations that come with our backgrounds! If you had for one second, stopped seeing me as this rich, naïve girl, who was only with you because she was bored, if you had for one second stopped being so stupidly blind, you would have known nothing mattered to me less than money!"

She ended her rant, as different emotions flickered across his face, but they were gone so quickly, she couldn't tell what they were. She picked up her skirts, and turned, putting up an arm to shield her face from the rain, and then ran, away from him, back to her husband.

"Elena! Elena, wait!" She heard him shouting, distantly behind her.

She wiped away the tears, which were now flowing even faster, and remembered the last time they had met in the rain. That time it had ended in a kiss, this time a fight. Ignoring the painful memory, she continued to run.

(**)

"Welcome to our house." Elena smiled at the couple who had just entered, as Klaus shook hands with the gentleman. It had been two weeks since her fight with Damon, and Klaus was hosting a ball, the first one in their new home. All the most reputable families in the town had been invited, and so far, everything had been going well. Lady Esther walked over at that moment. "Elena, darling, the Garlands are asking after you."

Elena looked up at Klaus, and he nodded. "Go, I'll do the welcoming." He kissed her lightly on the cheek, and turned back to the door. Esther took Elena's hand, and led her through the ballroom and to the other side.

"Elena! How lovely to see you after so long! Your wedding was beautiful, dear." Elizabeth Garland said, smiling serenely at Elena. "Victoria was asking about you! I don't know where she's disappeared off to now, though…" She added, looking around the room.

"I'll find her." Elena offered, and Elizabeth nodded, and resumed her conversation with Esther.

After a few minutes of wandering around the room, she eventually found Victoria. They had known each other for years, childhood friends in a way.

"Elena! You look so pretty! Your wedding was gorgeous, this house is gorgeous!" Victoria gushed, as beautifully bubbly as ever. She took Elena's arm, walking her over to a corner of the room, so they were further away from her parents. "I met someone." She whispered, excitedly.

"You're engaged?" Elena asked, mildly surprised. Victoria had always been extremely picky, her parents had been struggling to find a match for her.

"No no! My parents haven't even met him! Not yet anyway, I only just met him! But he's perfect, and he's a Lord too!" She whispered, her voice bubbling with happiness. "We could be Ladies together!"

"I thought Klaus was the only Lord in this town?" Elena asked, slightly confused, but happy for Victoria.

"He's from out of town. I can't remember which town…Here, come meet him!"
Victoria led her to a man standing on his own at the far end of the room.

"Gerald, my Lord, meet my childhood friend, Elena!" Victoria called, softly, and the man turned around.

Elena's heart almost stopped. It was Damon. Here. In Klaus's house.
"Pleased to meet you, my lady." Damon, or Gerald, or whatever, said softly.

As he bent to kiss her hand, he winked at her, and though she was terrified, and her heart was pounding, and she planned to get him out of here as soon as possible, she couldn't help but smile.

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