Chapter Two (Anna Willowford)

hey, y’all, em said the title of this story was okay but sorta boring or something – it was only meant to be a temporary title – so do y’all have any ideas for a diff. title? please lemme know if u do ty! -Myth

“Father, please,” I said in a wooden voice. “Y-you’ve got to be joking.”
“I’m not joking.”
I stared at him. “Please – I . . . I’m not ready for courting, Father. For marriage. Really.”
“You are perfectly ready. Now stop arguing with me.”
“Father, I’m not arguing – you just don’t understand – ”
“Anna, enough. I don’t want to hear another word from your mouth unless you are agreeing with me. Now, Delmont Chevalier is going to court you, and you are going to let him. You are going to be polite. You are not going to complain and try to get out of it. Am I understood?”
A ball formed in my throat, making it painful to swallow. My vision turned blurry and I struggled not to cry.
“I said, am I understood?”
I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out.
“Anna Katherine Willowford, do not play games with me.”
My mother, softening at my obvious distress, stepped in. “Edward, I think this conversation should be ended until the morning,” she said. “We’re all too exhausted to think straight, and it’s not helping anything.”
No, Mother – you’re wrong. I can think perfectly straight, I thought. And it seems I alone can see what an awful airhead Delmont is!
“Very well,” my father said reluctantly. I knew he wanted to keep pushing me until I agreed with him – but that was just the thing. I was never going to agree with him . . . not ever.

~

I didn’t sleep at all that night – I just sobbed. This could not be happening. All in one short night my life had, in my opinion, ended.
I was going to be forced to court and most likely marry a man that couldn’t even keep his eyes on just one woman. I was being forced to marry a man that thought only of himself.
This. Could. Not. Be. Real.
“Miss, your father requests your presence downstairs immediately,” a maid said. I had been standing and staring out the window, lost in thought, only to be yanked from my thoughts by her voice.
I turned, thinking, You mean he demands my presence. “Thank you, Hazel,” I said. She bobbed in a curtsy and then left just as silently as she had come.
I turned back to the window, whispering, “It can’t be real. It can’t.”
I went downstairs quickly then, knowing better than to keep my father waiting.
My father was sitting at the breakfast table by himself. He doesn’t want Mother here telling him he’s going about this all wrong. He wants to be completely in control, I thought.
“Good morning, Father,” I said softly.
“Good morning, Anna,” he said from his seat at the head of the table. His voice was not kind or warm in any way – it was hard and cold. “Sit down.”
I shakily pulled out a chair at the foot of the table.
“Now, Anna, you know what high regard I hold for Delmont and his parents,” he began.
“But, Father – ”
“Do not interrupt me,” he said sternly. I fell silent once more. “You know, yes?”
“Yes,” I said sadly.
“Then you also must know that I would never ask you to marry a man I did not approve of.”
You mean demand! I thought once more. “Yes, but – ”
“No ‘buts’, Anna Katherine Willowford. Answer the question with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”
“Yes,” I said. This conversation was pointless if I couldn’t speak my mind!
“So, you know that I have high regard for the Chevaliers, and you know I’d never do anything that would harm you, so why don’t you trust me?”
“Because, Father – you’ve not seen the real Delmont like I have! He flirts with every woman he sees – and I witnessed this all last night, Father – and he is stuck on himself.”
“Anna!” my father roared. His face was red with rage. “I cannot believe one of my daughters, who I’ve taught not to lie, would sit there and do just that – spout lies about a perfectly good young man just because she doesn’t want to give up her ‘little girl freedom’. But that’s just it, Anna – you are a young woman now, whether you like it or not.” His voice was softer now, but it did not hold an ounce of sympathy . . . a shred of love or caring.
Unable to hold them back any longer, I gave my tears free rein and began to sob. I stood and fled from the room, my heart breaking in pieces.
“Anna, you get back here this instant!” my father shouted – but I couldn’t stop. My feet and legs moved of their own accord, carrying me back up to my room where I shut and locked the door, afterward collapsing onto my bed and sobbing my eyes out.

~

I awoke later (apparently I had cried myself to sleep and been out for quite some time) and went downstairs to discover my family had gone out (they’d been gone for a few hours now, apparently). My father had left me a message, written on a piece of paper that I discovered on the table, that I hadn’t been brought along firstly because of my disrespectful behavior and secondly so I could stay home and think about how he was really correct on this.
“It’s so unfair,” I said aloud softly.
“What’s so unfair?”
I spun around to find, of all people at a time like this, Delmont Chevalier.
Embarrassed – even though it was just Delmont – about my disheveled appearance, I put a hand to my hair to try to smooth it. “Delmont,” I said.
“Anna,” he replied, giving a small bow. He smiled charmingly. “How are you today, my dear lady?”
My dear lady?! my mind squeaked. “F-fine,” I said. “Just fine.”
“Ah. Well, I came to see if you’d like to go on a carriage ride with me.”
Just then, of course, my father, mother and sister returned. “They’re in the parlor, sir,” I heard Hazel, the maid say. “Mr. Chevalier is here – the young Mr. Chevalier.”
“He is?” I could hear the excitement in my mother’s voice. “Wonderful. Hazel, please bring us some tea.”
My family swept in then. “Delmont – so good to see you!” my father said.
Delmont turned. “It is good to see you too, monsieur.” It was ridiculous to me, really, how they acted as if they hadn’t seen each other just last night.
“Do sit down,” my mother said. “I’ve asked the maid to bring us some tea.”
“Actually, mademoiselle, I came to inquire if young Anna might go on a carriage ride with me. My friends and I are visiting the art gallery this afternoon.”
My father’s and mother’s faces brightened even more so. “Absolutely!” my father said gaily.
“Anna, go get ready so you may leave with him, my dear,” my mother said.
I gave her a pleading look with my eyes. Please don’t make me do this, I let my eyes say to her.
She gave a nearly imperceptible shake of her head. Don’t argue, her eyes said. I knew it was half because she didn’t want me to get in trouble with my father and also because she was starting to like Delmont just as much as he did.
I left the room, clenching my hands into fists as I did so. I resisted the urge to punch the wall (yes, even we ‘young ladies’ want to punch things every now and then).
Ida, one of our other maids, came and did my hair once I was changed. I dilly-dallied as much as I could, but, just as it had been yesterday, soon there was nothing left to keep me upstairs and I was forced to go back down.
To my fate.
To my doom.
“Anna – I was beginning to think you got lost up there!” Lillian said. She smirked at the expression of disgust on my face when I looked at Delmont’s back. Once more her eyes seemed to say, It’s alright, little sister; I know the truth.
“You are back!” Delmont smiled.
I gave him a small, plastic one of my own in return. “Yes,” I replied. “Why don’t we get going?” Why don’t we not? I added in my head. I’m perfectly happy right here.
“Very well,” Delmont said, standing up. He looked pleased as could be.
“Goodbye, Mother,” I said. “Father. Lillian.” I glared slightly so that only my sister would see, and she smirked in return.
Delmont extended his arm to me and I took it reluctantly, thus being led out of the house by him. I glanced back at it as if was my only hope of rescue . . . but I knew my fate was unchangeable now.
“Bye, dear!” Mother called from the porch as Delmont helped me into the carriage. “Have a good time!”
“Oh, I will,” I muttered.
“Excuse me?” Delmont said. “Did you say something to me?”
“No,” I said quickly. “Just talking to myself.”
Delmont sat – amazingly not next to me – and closed the door, and then the carriage was off, Delmont giving the driver directions to one of his friend’s houses.
“So, Anna, how has your day been so far?” Delmont asked genially.
Dreadful, terrible, horrible, wretched, awful – I thought. Then I noticed him waiting for an answer. “Alright,” I replied at last. “And yours?”
“Alright until I got to your house – then it turned wonderful.” He smiled in the charming that he always did.
I smiled back before pretending to happen to look out the window and see something very interesting. I pretended to study it, although that couldn’t keep Delmont from talking to me.
“We’re going to my friend Ralph’s house next,” he said. “He and his younger sister will be joining us for the day. Then we’ll go to my friend James’ house and pick up him and his fiancee.”
“Oh,” I said simply.
“I’m sure you’re going to get along very well with Ralph’s sister, Edith, and James’ fiancee Catherine. Both of them are lovely young women.”
“Yes, I’m sure,” I replied absentmindedly.
I was silent then, interjecting a few ‘ohs’ and ‘reallys’ as Delmont chattered on . . .  until at last we came to Ralph’s house.
Then the “good time” really began.