Chapter 6
As soon as you’re home, your father is upon you. “Y/N, what took you so long?” he asks. Ugh, every second has to be accounted for around him. It’s stifling.
“I was helping Isabel get home. She’s seven months along now, so it’s getting hard for her to be on her feet a lot,” you explain, annoyed.
“Oh yeah, the schoolteacher. You know, she’s a whole year younger than you, and she’s already been married two years…” You roll your eyes.
“Dad, you know if I get married, I won’t be able to serve as your unpaid dishwasher anymore, right?” Your father laughs.
“Right. I just worry, you know? I don’t want you to wind up as an old maid…”
“This conversation is over, dad,” you grumble. “I’ll marry who I want, and I’ll marry when I want.” Your father raises his hands in the air, feigning innocence, and you stomp off, even more aggravated than you were this morning. Christ, it’s like the whole town is conspiring to marry you off. You aren’t even that old! Nowhere close to an old maid…
You thunder upstairs to your bedroom to take off your school clothes. As you enter, you notice that the window is open, your curtains blowing in lightly in the breeze. Huh, that’s funny. You were sure you’d closed the window this morning, since it was so chilly…
Then, you spot it. Your handkerchief, neatly folded and pressed, resting unassumingly on your pillowcase. Smiling, you pick it up. As you do, a note flutters out from underneath.
Meet me at the big chestnut tree in the graveyard, at midnight. -Otto
You feel a hot blush come to your cheeks as you look around, but nothing else is out of place. It’s all quiet and still.