Chapter 1
“Lillian, come downstairs!"- a woman yelled.
The freckled, red-haired girl hurried down the stairs, in fear of whatever her mother wanted from her.
When she arrived on the first floor of the house, she saw a scene that looked straight out of her worst nightmare. Her mother, her older brother, an unknown woman and a boy her age were sitting in the living room, looking at her with expectant eyes.
”You needed me, Mother?”- Lillian asked, already knowing what was going on, but trying to keep her composure.
”Indeed, sit down, will you?”- her mother said, with piercing eyes and gesturing at a wooden chair.
Lillian sat down, feeling cold beads of sweat gliding over her forehead and starting to fidget with her hands.
”Your brother and I have been talking with Euphemia Potter and her son, James. And we have agreed for you to marry him.”- she said with a cold smile.
Lillian felt her heart drop.
”Of course if you’d like to, honey.”- the woman called Euphemia added with a warm smile on her face. She had brown complexion, kind eyes, and some strands of gray were starting to appear on her jet-black hair.
”Do not worry, Euphemia, we will let her decide.”- her brother replied.
God, Lillian really hated him, he was constantly acting as if he was better because he was a boy due to Mother repeatedly coddling and praising him. And of course it was about marriage. It always was. Her mother had been pestering her about it from the moment she turned twelve. Lillian was sick of being told that she was a piece of property, that she couldn’t earn money so she had to marry a wealthy bloke and settle down, when all she wanted was to be free and be able to read books next to Mary.
“There will be a period of courting, in which you will get to know a bit before actually getting married.”- her mother explained bitterly, as if she was annoyed she couldn’t just ship off her daughter instantly.
”Would you like to take a walk together, Lillian?”- the boy, James, asked her with a soft smile.
Her mother’s eyes glistened. She was enjoying every second of this. Lillian would have done anything to make her mad, but at the moment she needed to be the “perfect daughter”. Even if that meant walking with a foolish boy.
“Uh… sure”- she replied, trying to mask her feelings. Lillian got up from her seat and straightened her dress, thanking God for not having to stand in that room any longer.
The young couple awkwardly walked to the front door, the boy was looking at her curiously and a bit puzzled, Lillian purposely didn’t make any eye contact with him.
“Ladies first.”- the boy said politely, holding the door open.
Lillian tried not to roll her eyes while she walked through the door.
When they were out of the house, they started to walk around the nearby woods. The weather was really pleasant and it actually helped a bit with Lillian’s awful mood. She loved to hear the birds chirping and looking at the leaves of a tree sway with the usual spring breeze.
“So…”- James started uncomfortably - “How old are you?”- he asked her while running a hand through his messy hair.
“I’m seventeen years old”- Lillian replied dryly. She didn’t really want to know anything about this boy who was supposed to be his future husband.
“Oh, great... me too!”- he added and then picked up a
They continued the promenade. It was clear that he wanted to keep the conversation alive, but she didn’t really care.
“What do you do in your free time?”- the annoying boy continued.
“Look, James, you seem like a nice person, but I’m doing this because I simply have to, I’d much rather be with my friend or reading a book.”- she explained in a harsh tone.
The boy crouched to pick up a daisy from the soil and stayed silent for some time.
“That makes sense, shall we sit?”- James asked, practically ignoring what she had said.
He sat down in the wild grass that grew from the woods ground and motioned to her to sit too.
She reluctantly plopped down and glanced sideways at James, he was the type of person that you couldn’t see through, he was open but not obnoxious, careless but not disrespectful.
“Lillian, if I’m being honest I think you are beautiful, but if you don’t want to do this, why don’t you just tell your mother?”- he innocently questioned.
Lillian audibly scoffed.
“It’s easy for you to say that. First of all you are wealthy, your family doesn’t need more money, and secondly you’re a man, you’ll always have more freedom than me even if I was as rich as you are…”- she explained bitterly.
James laid down on the ground and quietly looked at the sky. Lillian did the same as him, at a proper distance, of course.
“Do you like anyone?”- he asked while tracing the daisy’s that he had previously picked up petals
“Wouldn’t you like to know, huh.”- Lillian replied. Honestly, the nerve of that boy…
“I didn’t mean to pry; just wanted to know if you are busy thinking about someone.”- James explained, flashing a grin at her.
A pair of mischievous dark brown eyes and a lock of curly hair flashed through Lillian’s mind. She tried not to think about that, so she ignored the thought.
“I don’t know.”- she said, truthfully. Lillian was so lost, her feelings and thoughts sometimes suffocated her at night. She had nobody to talk about, of course there was Mary but most of them were related to her, so it would probably be too weird.
“If you don’t want to marry me, can we still be with each other? I happen to enjoy your company”- James said.
“We literally met twenty minutes ago.”- Lillian reminded him.
“I know, but you’re nice to me”- he beamed and offered her the daisy that he had picked up before.
Lillian remained quiet. It would be better for her to be with James, then her mother couldn’t scold her for spending so much time with Mary, and she might believe that Lillian was willing to marry James, and being with him wasn’t as awful as being in her house.
“Okay, but I don’t want to get married.”- she clarified.
“Me neither, I was doing this for my mum too, but I don't think she really minds.”- James told her.
“She seems very kind, your mother.”- Lillian said, remembering the previous conversation.
“She is…”- James smiled looking at the sky- “Maybe one day you could visit our house for tea”- he suggested.
“I would like that…”- she replied.
After that the conversation faltered. They spent about an hour laying on the grass, Lillian is nearly sure that she dozed off for some time but James didn’t seem to mind, he was busy looking at the clouds come and go, form and disappear while thinking God knows what.
When the sun started to set on the horizon and the temperature lowered they decided to get up and slowly walk back to Lillian’s house.
As they were reaching her house, Lillian looked at the boy and said: “You seemed to be more annoying than you actually are, you know.”
“I’ll proudly take that as a compliment, shall we go inside?” he asked after laughing for a bit.
The moment they entered the living room, Euphemia got up, she seemed to be quite fed up with Lillian’s mother and brother.
“So, how was it?”- Euphemia looked at James.
“Oh, we certainly had fun, I also offered Lillian to come by for tea some afternoon”- he explained to his mother.
“We would be more than happy for you to join us, what do you feel about coming by tomorrow?”- the older woman suggested.
“I would love to.”- Lillian answered, she was looking forward to explaining to Mary everything that had happened during the afternoon.
Euphemia and her son walked to the door and started to say their goodbyes.
“We will see you later, Lillian.” was the last thing that James said before leaving with his mother.