Make_My_Day
The Naughtiest of Angels
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2001
- Posts
- 1,635
OOC: Hi there, a little one-on-one between Ariosto and myself. Please enjoy reading!
IC:
I held the paper in both hands, scanned the numbers that were beautifully drafted on the buildings. I was shivering, not only from the cold. Moreover because of the nerves.
The last month my life was in turmoil. Just a few weeks ago I was a carefree girl. Running around in the gardens. Combing the beautiful brown curls of my elder sister for hours. Horse riding alongside my father through the woods as he was checking the traps. I could sit for hours in front of the fireplace, admiring my mothers needlework. Life was easy, without worries.
All of that came to a sudden end when my father called me into the library after dinner one day. My mother was already there. As I entered she looked at me with an utterly concerned expression in her eyes.
With that, and the fact that my mother was in the library; a place unofficially for men only, I knew something was terribly wrong.
I was the youngest of three. I had one brother who had moved to London, pursuing a career in politics and an elder sister who, in a tragic manner had become a 21 year old widow.
Apparently, during the recent dinner my parents had organised in celebration of my eighteenth birth, I had caught the attention of the Duke of Windsor. He had asked for my hand in marriage and my father had approved.
And this is what my father called me in for. My father continued explaining all the benefits of this marriage. I could not even remember the mans face. Judging from my mothers expression it couldn’t be good though. The only thing I remembered afterwards from my fathers speech was that the Duke was about twenty years older than I was.
I never argued with my father. I knew it wouldn’t get me anywhere. But once in my room I cried.. I cried all night long.
I had secretly hoped to fall in love.. marry the man of my dreams.. and know that dream had come to an end. I would be the means by which two families would be connected in a mutually beneficial manner.
Before the wedding, next month, it was customary for the husband to be, to give a portrait to the parents of the bride. After all… the husband to be would take their daughter from them. The least he could do was to provide them with a painting.
He was famous for his portraits. All aristocrats who were, or wanted to be something or someone had their portraits done by him.
Because of his fame he was in the position to make certain demands. One of these was that he would only paint in his own studio. Models would come to him instead of him coming to them.
So there I was. My hair, all carefully modelled by my mother, was all messed up because of the wind. I thoroughly enjoyed this rough weather, so much so that I had insisted on walking the last few streets. I had ordered the carriage to stop and send it back home.
Besides, I needed to be alone, even if it was just for a little while.
He would come and pick me up in exactly four hours.
I finally found the right building. I wiped the strings of blond hair out of my face and softly knocked on the door.
IC:
I held the paper in both hands, scanned the numbers that were beautifully drafted on the buildings. I was shivering, not only from the cold. Moreover because of the nerves.
The last month my life was in turmoil. Just a few weeks ago I was a carefree girl. Running around in the gardens. Combing the beautiful brown curls of my elder sister for hours. Horse riding alongside my father through the woods as he was checking the traps. I could sit for hours in front of the fireplace, admiring my mothers needlework. Life was easy, without worries.
All of that came to a sudden end when my father called me into the library after dinner one day. My mother was already there. As I entered she looked at me with an utterly concerned expression in her eyes.
With that, and the fact that my mother was in the library; a place unofficially for men only, I knew something was terribly wrong.
I was the youngest of three. I had one brother who had moved to London, pursuing a career in politics and an elder sister who, in a tragic manner had become a 21 year old widow.
Apparently, during the recent dinner my parents had organised in celebration of my eighteenth birth, I had caught the attention of the Duke of Windsor. He had asked for my hand in marriage and my father had approved.
And this is what my father called me in for. My father continued explaining all the benefits of this marriage. I could not even remember the mans face. Judging from my mothers expression it couldn’t be good though. The only thing I remembered afterwards from my fathers speech was that the Duke was about twenty years older than I was.
I never argued with my father. I knew it wouldn’t get me anywhere. But once in my room I cried.. I cried all night long.
I had secretly hoped to fall in love.. marry the man of my dreams.. and know that dream had come to an end. I would be the means by which two families would be connected in a mutually beneficial manner.
Before the wedding, next month, it was customary for the husband to be, to give a portrait to the parents of the bride. After all… the husband to be would take their daughter from them. The least he could do was to provide them with a painting.
He was famous for his portraits. All aristocrats who were, or wanted to be something or someone had their portraits done by him.
Because of his fame he was in the position to make certain demands. One of these was that he would only paint in his own studio. Models would come to him instead of him coming to them.
So there I was. My hair, all carefully modelled by my mother, was all messed up because of the wind. I thoroughly enjoyed this rough weather, so much so that I had insisted on walking the last few streets. I had ordered the carriage to stop and send it back home.
Besides, I needed to be alone, even if it was just for a little while.
He would come and pick me up in exactly four hours.
I finally found the right building. I wiped the strings of blond hair out of my face and softly knocked on the door.