Intended

AN: This is the first FanFiction I’ve written in a while, so bear with me . There will probably be grammatical mistakes and the story will most likely start off slow so give me time. I appreciate any and all support and even critiques as long as they are in fact critiques and not Flames. Thank you very much and enjoy my original work =]

Chapter 1
Sold

It wasn’t fair.

Why couldn’t she have a say in the matter? Her life was not her own. No matter how many time she was told, no matter how many said it, it still infuriated her.

Within herself, she could not find a way to subdue the aggressive desire for independence and unfortunate for her it seemed to always escape past her lips. She was a horribly expressive girl, allowing her emotions to be worn upon her face so blatantly that often words were unnecessary.

The amount of times she had gotten herself in trouble were too many to count, not to mention that amount of times she had been lectured on behaving as a collected woman, obedient and subservient to whomever had the ghastly idea to actually marry her.

She thought on more than one occasion that perhaps if she behaved in an unruly fashion, no man in his right mind would dare ask for her hand in marriage. However, even her bold personality had limits, Her family couldn’t suffer such humiliation it was hard enough trying to find her a husband.

Her parents were not inconsiderate, merely they had not allowed themselves to love her too deeply, because her world was only temporary, she was being reared to be someone’s property after all.

The whole concept made her fill ill. Waiting on beck and call for a man she had never met only received gifts from in innumerable amounts, all flashy and overdone in her perspective. She liked very little that she had received from him, but still was forced to always write a letter of appreciation.

“Katherine, the carriage is almost here, make yourself presentable before it arrives,” her mother said. Katherine clenched her fingers tightly and refrained from resisting.

“Yes ma’am,” the words were forced past the barricade of her teeth.

Katherine walked over to the elegant gown hanging on her door. It had been a gift from her intended a symbol of the wedding dress awaiting her at her new home apparently, a beautiful ivory silk with pearl beading inlaid in the design of the dress. The stitching had been done in China she had been told and while the dress was gorgeous it caused a sick stirring in the pit of her stomach.

Putting the dress on, slipping her slender arms through the sleeves that formed “v” shaped cuffs at her hands, and the collar of the dress that felt like noose around the long column of her neck, and the buttoning of the back of the dress that cinched in her waist to point of near suffocation all aided the terribly light-headed feeling of loss she felt pervading her thoughts.

She looked in the mirror, her hair pulled up in to a bun, where even as she had used several pins and still curls managed to fall and frame her face.

She looked so much more delicate that she felt she was, and perhaps that was the big joke, she could be brave and strong, but the reality was she was flower being given away.

Katherine had probably never looked more beautiful in her life and she loathed this acknowledgement.

The dress draped at the skirt giving her the illusion of elegance, a type that was reserved for royalty she supposed or someone with grace, but not her. As a child she would come home covered in dirt, her mass of curls tangled around her heart-shaped face, her mother would scold her, and her father would scoff, but she would smile proudly.

Her eyes closed tightly before reopening and whispering, “It’s just not fair.”

She moved down the stairs entering her living room, her mother and father waiting by the stairwell. The clear look of both surprise and pride seemed to simmer just below the surface of their expressions and for once she felt maybe she had something right, even if the price outweighed the feeling.

“You look like such a lady Katherine,” Her mother said softly, her father nodded his head in agreement.

“Well I feel like a moron,” She said bitterly.

“Behave,” her father ordered sternly. She bowed her head, chin nearly touching the fabric covering her chest.

“Yes sir.”

“They should be here any minute,” her mother fussed, moving about picking up anything she felt was misplaced.

Her mother had the unnatural habit of fidgeting when nervous, which of course she had inherited. Katherine felt an immense need to scratch her back, but she was afraid if she reached back with her arm she might end up scratching off a pearl or worse tearing the fabric.
How bloody brilliant would that be to meet her future intended and he immediately learns she can’t even so much as keep a dress in one piece?

The last five minutes before they arrived was the longest most agonizing last five minutes she might’ve ever endured. Her backed ached, her hands wringing in her lap nervously.

Would he be kind?

What did he look like?

She hoped he had a kind smile, a soft voice, a sweet demeanor. She could be happy, it might be possible, slim as a chance as it was, and there was always room for hope.

She’s not sure where she got such an optimistic belief system, but it hadn’t failed her yet.
The knock came as both a relief to one stress and the beginning of another.

She rose quickly from where she sat to stand next to her father while her mother opened the door quickly. Behind the door stood a young woman, most likely a maid, she curtsied in front of her parents and spoke concisely,

“I’m here escort to Mr. Wittenberg’s intended, Ms. Katherine Penn.”

Katherine tried to put “Wittenberg” after her name, finding it awkward to her dismay. She felt less like herself and quickly decided Wittenberg was a terribly ostentatious type of name.
Her mother nodded and stepped aside for the young woman to enter the house. Katherine stepped forward and curtsied.

“I’m Katherine ma’am,” she said shakily. The young woman nodded and curtsied once more towards her,

“I’m Elizabeth, I’ll be your lady in waiting, please allow me to take your things.” Katherine nodded softly.

“Allow me to help you Elizabeth, I’m afraid all the gifts he sent me outnumber anything I previously owned,” she said.

Elizabeth shook her head, “No ma’am it’s not proper for a noble woman, intended or not, to carry such possessions, I’ll carry them, please head out to the carriage.”

Katherine frowned, her greens eyes setting before speaking, “Nonsense I’ll help you.” With that she was already carrying two of her suitcases before Elizabeth could protest further.

“Is she always so bold sir?” She asked a small smile playing at her lips. Mr. Penn chuckled softly, “She is not been nor will I assume she’ll ever be a delicate flower,” he said.

Elizabeth grabbed what was left and made to the carriage. Katherine was already inside sitting by the window, her eyes looking out at her life in the last stand still she felt she might ever get.

Elizabeth sighed and entered the carriage with her, sitting on the opposite side. The carriage began to move and Katherine waved goodbye at her parents who stood side by side as they always did in her memory, they waved back and in the distance began to retreat, growing small and blurred, till finally they disappeared behind the scenery of tall oak trees and grassy hills.

“What is he like?” She asked. The silence broken and Elizabeth looked up at her. Katherine had asked her parents many times before, but they only replied, “What does it matter? He’ll take care of you, that’s all you should care to know.”

“He’s a very intelligent man, well cultured, educated, and very precise,” she said.

“Is he kind?” Katherine asked looking outside the window. Elizabeth stared at her with soft eyes before looking out as well.

“He is not unkind,” she said. Katherine’s stomach contracted painfully. She sighed placing her hand against her chest to ease the weight hanging above her lungs.

“Do you know his dislikes and likes?” she asked.

“I’m afraid not my lady, I’m merely one of the many ladies in waiting at the Wittenberg Mansion.” There it was again that name, that name that derailed any fantasy she could have about his personality. It sounded arrogant and poised, as elegant as the dress she wore and as uncomfortable as it felt.

“What does he look like?” she asked looking at Elizabeth who turned to gaze back at her.

“He’s a very stout young man I’m afraid, he inherited a disease from his father that limited his ability to grow, he’s a little shorter than you I would say, very round face, still has all his hair though. He’s got very rosy cheeks and a rather strong chin.” Elizabeth said gently.

She felt it necessary not lie to Katherine, the young woman was beautiful, her dark dresses and exotic green eyes pleading, and how could Elizabeth deny her the truth no matter how dissolving of a dream it was.

“Perhaps he is capable of love?” Katherine asked, and then wondered if she was capable of it either. Could she love Mr. Wittenberg? Could she offer her heart in return for his? Surely looks did not compose Love, but just thinking of him made her feel ill.

“I do not know, so I cannot give you an answer, but if I maybe so forward,” Elizabeth started, “I think anyone is capable, it’s whether or not you choose to fall into it.” Katherine smiled gently before looking back out at the passing trees, watching the sun slowly begin to recede.

A couple of hours went by, the landscape drastically changing from hills to dense forests. The moon hung high even as the sun had yet to disappear. It looked as though the sky was bleeding pastel so bright and demanding.

Katherine had always loved sunsets since she was a little girl, finding them fascinating. Elizabeth had fallen asleep her head resting against back.

There was very little that Katherine enjoyed, but the way the sun spilled like liquid gold three the leaves of the tree was one of them. It soothed the part of her that was aching with a certain chill that was inside of her instead of on her skin. She sighed before whipping her head to the side out of alarm.

From the corner of Katherine’s eyes she saw something pass by the carriage, a black figure moving rapidly to the front. It was then that she felt the carriage come to a shocking jolting halt. She gasped as her back slammed against the wall of the carriage.

“Ms. Katherine, stay in the carriage,” Elizabeth said, but Katherine had already moved towards the door opening it quickly.

She held up the skirt of her dress and ran towards the front where more than one figure rested on ebony stallions. They were robed in black, their faces hidden by fabric wrapped threateningly around them.

The only thing she saw was steel grey eyes, sharp, and calculating. Katherine crouched by the wheel of the carriage attempting to remain hidden. She could see that the leader held two swords at either side of his waist, long blades hidden in a shield made of tough leather.

“What…what do you want?” The man leading the carriage asked. From behind she could see Elizabeth motioning for her to get back inside the carriage but she remained where she was.

“You have something of mine,” the leader said. Katherine’s spine tingled with fear. His voice was deceptively soft, but smooth like cold water in a current of a river. She had never heard a sound so powerfully alluring, much less as commanding as his sounded.

“I…I don’t understand ,” the man said.

“The girl,” He said.

“Elizabeth? She’s just a maid sir—“

“No,” the man with blues eyes said before looking straight at Katherine, piercing her gaze with his own, locking in on her shocked face; his eyes flaring devilishly, “her.” He said, nodding his head towards Katherine’s crouched figure.

Katherine shot up, frozen, he made to get off his horse, but Elizabeth’s voice shouted behind her, “Ms. Penn run!”

Immediately she shot off towards the woods, her legs pulling her forward as her arms held the skirt of her dress up. Katherine didn’t dare look back, instead she ran till her lungs burned. Her ears pounded with the pulsing of her heart. Her hair had come undone trailing in the wind behind her like an ink veil. She had snagged the dress multiple times feeling it tear, but still she didn’t pause.

The sun had fallen behind her and she was gripped by the night. The pale glow of the moon her only guide in the forest, her only companion that raced with her towards safety wherever safety could be found.

The adrenaline coursing through her felt like a million needles racing along her skin and her legs ached with exhaustion but she refused to stop feeling as though whoever was chasing her was more relentless than anything human could ever be.

She felt herself thrown forward skidding falling harshly as her cheek pressed into the ground. She gasped and tried to rise quickly unaware of anything.

She felt an arm wrap around her slender waist pulling her up and back into a solid chest. Katherine struggled, scratching, and clawing at the arm. The person behind her hissed and shoved her back harshly against the trunk of a large and tall tree. She yelped as those eyes, damning and cold, pinned her.

Dare she say the burned with amusement and triumph? It seared her with fury as she pushed back at him, only to find she could no more move him than she could move the tree she was being held captive against.

“What—what do you want?” Katherine gasped, her green eyes searching his.
The man used one hand to pull down his mask.

He smirked before slamming his lips against her, she screamed which only gave him reason to dip his tongue past the soft petals of her lips, exploring her cavern.
Her eyes were wide with shock, scream muffled by his lips and the way his tongue ran across her teeth. She tried to snap her teeth down but he had pulled away, eyes glowing in the in dim light of the moon, laughing like the stars.

“You.”

AN: I hope you guys enjoy. The next chapter will be up soon =]]