Inspire me, beloved torment

Sorry for the delay, I swear it won’t happen again D: I’ve been terribly busy!

“AND THEN WHAT HAPPENED?!” Raelynn almost rolled all over the room.

“I do not know, I fell asleep…” Katherine looked guilty; Raelynn and Teresa wanted to murder her right there.

“WOMAN, YOU DO NOT FALL ASLEEP WITH A MAN LIKE THAT ONE!” Raelynn was practically climbing on the walls. “You just do not! You should have thrown yourself at him like a wild beast and take advantage of his innocence!”

“But I am the only innocent one here!”

“Rae thinks that we are all the same…” Teresa laughed wholeheartedly, while Raelynn looked like she wanted to make a hole on her face.

“No! But I think Kat should have taken the moment to do things she never does…”

“Whatever, Rae…”

“What do you mean whatever?”

“He will teach you to ride on horse, right?” Teresa looked satisfied. “I think something good will come out of that…”

“And how do you know?” Raelynn looked at Teresa suspiciously.

“I know my thing, Rae, I know my thing…”

“Oh…” Raelynn stood there for a moment, and then seemed to understand. “OH! OH, I GET IT!”

“I do not get it…”

“It is better that way, Kat; it is better that way…” Teresa smiled. “Go and let him teach you to ride.”

“Alright…” Katherine smiled and left the little room, ready to learn as much as she could.

Tomo was outside, he held on to the reins of a horse Katherine had never seen before, and Shannon was on the other side of the animal with a smile on his face, Jared and Mathew were already on their horses, while Katherine stared at that white animal as if she had never seen a horse before.

“Do you like it?” Shannon asked, while she approached the beautiful horse, Tomo held the reins as if they were the most valuable thing in the world.

“Yes, but… Where does it come from?” Katherine looked at the horse in awe; it was the whitest horse she had seen in her whole life.

“I understand that it comes out of a mare’s womb, but if your question is, who bought it and why, the answer is that I bought it and it is a gift for you.”

“I… Really?”

“Of course, you cannot learn to ride if you do not have a horse…” Katherine looked at Shannon for a long while, with watery eyes, and without thinking twice, she hugged him, crying. Shannon looked at Tomo, who still held the reins with a stupid smile on his face.

“Thank you…”

“But do not cry… If you cry you will not be able to see where you are going and will fall off the horse…” Shannon removed the tears from her cheeks with his fingers. “Come, I will help you up.”

The instant Shannon took her by the waist to help her up on the horse’s back, Katherine felt like a million butterflies fluttered in her stomach, she wondered how that was possible with how tight the corset was on her, but she decided to abandon such thought. When she was seated on the animal’s back, she felt like a child with a brand new toy, Shannon told her a bunch of things, but she wasn’t listening. Without noticing, she kicked the sides of the horse with her heel, and the animal ran off, throwing Katherine down immediately.

“Katherine!” Shannon ran to her, and fortunately, he managed to stop her from getting hurt when she fell from the horse, while Tomo tried to calm the horse down, Jared and Matt jumped down from their horses and ran to them. “Are you hurt?”

“Everything spins…” Katherine brought her hand to her forehead, while Shannon helped her to get up. “I see everything double…”

“Come; let us take you inside…” Shannon guided his young wife into the house, praying that she felt better soon so he wouldn’t have to listen to her mother tell them that she had warned them that ladies weren’t made for horses. “Do you feel better?”

“I am a little dizzy… I think this is not for me…”

“You were not paying attention, is all, I told you not to kick the horse until you were sure that you want him to move, and it was exactly what you did… But it is fine; we will try again some other day, alright?”

“Alright… I am sorry…” Katherine looked down, she felt sad that things hadn’t gone the way she wanted.

“You have nothing to be sorry for, you are alright and that is what matters, right? You are not hurt, are you?”

“No, I do not think… Ah!” When Katherine tried to get up from the sofa where they sat her as soon as they entered the house, she discovered her ankle hurt her; she sat again, paralyzed from the pain.

“Are you hurt?”

“My ankle… Hurts…”

“Let me look at it…”

“No! How am I going to let you look at me just like that?” Katherine blushed, Shannon arched a brow.

“Kat… I am your husband, do you forget that? When the time comes, if I do not die before it does, I will see MUCH MORE than your ankle…”

“But…” Katherine blushed even more, she pouted and looked away. “Alright… But just the ankle…”

“It is not the moment to see anything else…” Shannon lifted Katherine’s skirts slightly, her ankle was swollen. “It looks like you sprained it… It is not a grave wound, but you will have to stay in bed for a few days, I think…”

“Alright…” Katherine pouted again, but she had no time to whine more, because Shannon picked her up bridal style and carried her upstairs to the room. He left her in bed and left to look for Concha.

Katherine had to remain in bed for many days. Every afternoon, the very pregnant Vicki, Tomo’s wife, would go to the house and visit her to check on her ankle. One day, when Vicki had left from checking on Katherine’s ankle, the girl’s cousin poked his head into the room.

“May I come in, cousin?”

“Oh, Timmy, dear! Do come in!” Katherine patted the empty space on the bed, and Tim dragged himself to it, slumping on the space and looking miserable. “Is something wrong, Tim?”

“I… Just…” Tim sighed languidly.

“Cousin… Tell me what troubles you!”

“It’s just… Raelynn has not even spoken to me since…” It was then that Tim started fiddling with his necktie and stuttering. “T-the party… D-d-did I do something wrong?”

“Oh, Timmy! Come here, I can’t hug you where you are!” Tim moved forward, and Katherine wrapped him in her arms. “It is alright, dear cousin. Raelynn is like that, give her a little time and she will be all over you before you know it!”

“B-b-but… I spoke to her today… And she d-did not even l-look at me!”

“Timothy, like I said, Raelynn is like that. Give it time! Besides, you are not doing a very good job at trying to court her, let me tell you that…”

“I… I do not know how…”

“Because Aunt Rosa overprotected you so much you have no idea how to react to a lady’s presence, which is a terrible thing!” Katherine petted her cousin’s head gently. “I do not know much about these things because, you see, I was engaged and no one tried to court me, but you should ask my brother in law, he seems to know very much about these things.”

“No!” Tim looked scandalized and blushed furiously. “Have you seen him? He’s a promiscuous man! I do not want to learn how to do THAT!”

“But he must know how to court a lady! Supposing he had courted many…”

“He has! H-he speaks about them all the time! He s-slept with the v-vice-princess…”

“What? Where did you hear that?”

“Everyone knows… They do not say anything concrete but they say it was a foreigner.”

“And there aren’t many of those around here… True…”

“Yes…” Tim checked his pocket watch. “I must go, cousin.”

“Oh…” Katherine pouted. “Do come back to visit me again. And do try and talk to Jared, he might know a thing or two about courting.”

“I might…” Tim blushed and left the room, leaving Katherine alone.

The next day, Raelynn and Teresa went to visit Katherine, and to keep her updated on the social events she had been missing.

 “Remember that man in the costume party?” Teresa said, making Katherine’s interest rise. “He asked about you…”

“Oh? And what did you tell him?”

“I told him you were injured and that YOUR HUSBAND was taking care of you…”

“Teresa! How could you?”

“That man is no good, Katherine… I do not know… When he spoke to me yesterday… There was something off about the way he looks at people… I do not know… I do not trust him…”

“Neither do I…” Raelynn commented. “Erin said that she had no idea who had invited him to her party… No one knows who he is… Maybe he is a visitor and will leave soon… It is not even worth your time to think about it…” Raelynn bounced on the bed next to Katherine, her skirts swooshed when she did so.

“I guess…” Katherine lay back in the bed and sighed. “My ankle has not healed… Vicki brought me some ointment, but it is still swollen and I still cannot move…”

“It is a sign…” Raelynn giggled. “You should stay in bed and wait for your husband to come and ‘take care of you’ so you feel better…”

“Rae!” Katherine blushed again, it seemed to be the only thing she could do lately. “Nothing has happened…”

“I cannot believe that you have been married for a month and you have not even kissed!”

“Well… Because…”

“Because you are a fool…” Raelynn took a pillow. “The man practically worships the floor you stand on and you do not even look at him… Evil woman!”

“That is not true… Do not exaggerate…”

“Exaggerate? Pay attention to your husband one of these days so you know what I talk about! The man adores you! He would do anything for you!”

“That is not true, Rae…”

“I have to agree with Rae…” Teresa said. “Look at you; he has you in this bed as if you were the queen of the universe. If that is not love, then I do not know what it is…”

Katherine lay back in the pillows, thinking about everything Rae and Teresa were telling her. What if they were right? She supposed that only time would tell, but every time something happened that made Shannon come closer to her, a wave of terror overcame her, causing her to push him away, which threatened the fragile relationship that was trying to bloom between them.

I shall post Lady Landowner’s next chapter very soon, worry not, my lovelies!

Shannon waited patiently in the small Starbucks, after arguing heatedly with Agnes and after she finally gave up and left him alone, he decided to send Madeleine a message and ask if they could meet up somewhere. Surprisingly, the place she picked was exactly the same place he had been at all along, so he just had to sit and wait.

But what if Madeleine didn’t show up? What if it was all a joke and she just left him there waiting? He wasn’t sure if he could deal with that, it would be too much, it would be hurtful and he wasn’t sure if he could deal with it. His heart was way too old for this kind of things.

Luckily, Madeleine did show up. She was wearing a blue dress with white merry-go-round ponies and pink laces, ribbons and little pompoms dangling from the hem of the skirt, her hair was teased up in waves and she wore a big blue and pink ribbon on her head. She smiled at Shannon and walked over to where he sat, her skirts swaying from one side to the other as she walked, Shannon looked at her intensely, she looked like a cake and it was beautiful.

Madeleine sat in front of him; her doll-like face only showed small cracks when she smiled brightly at him, her small eyes going even smaller when she did, her wavy hair cascading on her shoulders and her back. It was like looking at a doll, a living, breathing doll, with beautiful facial features.

“So…” Madeleine spoke first, after asking the waiter for some hot chocolate. It was cold outside and Shannon wondered how she could run around Los Angeles with such short dresses.

“So…”

“Would you be so kind as to tell me the reason for your kind invitation?” Madeleine said, in a perfectly correct tone, and then she giggled.

“Well… I…” Shannon coughed a little, his hands were trembling and he wondered why. He felt like a teenager. “I don’t know… I guess I wanted to see you…”

“Really?” Madeleine raised a brow. “Well, that’s something no one has ever told me before. Did you want to see me because you are interested in me, or because you just wanted to see in what other ridiculous thing I would show up?”

“What? No, I didn’t mean it that way, I mean; I don’t wanna make fun of you or anything. What made you think such a thing?”

“Well, most guys that ask me out do it just so they can make fun of me in front of their friends.”

“I see… Well, I don’t intend to do that, just because you dress different and act different doesn’t mean I have the right to make fun of you.”

“I like the way you think.” Madeleine took her hot chocolate and turned forward against the table, looking at Shannon. “What else?”

“Well…” Shannon had to look away. Madeleine’s big eyes were practically reading through him, which had never happened to him, that a girl was able to read him easily, it was new and frightening. “I think you’re smarter than people think you are… Not that I thought you were dumb or anything…”

“Why do you feel the need to put an explanation to everything you tell me? Are you scared that it will offend me?”

“Maybe…”

“Don’t worry… I’m not easily offended. And I know the way I dress leads people to think I’m somewhat of a retard… I’m not, and I know I’m not, so why should I be offended?”

Shannon sat there, staring at Madeleine. She was such a peaceful being, a smart, peaceful being, the kind of person who isn’t affected by anything. That was probably the reason why she wore whatever the fuck she wanted whenever the fuck she wanted and didn’t give a shit about what people thought of her, anything people said or did to attack her did not reach her, she was at peace and comfortable with herself, so no one could hurt her.

Madeleine smiled, took a small sip from her hot chocolate and waited. Somehow, she expected Shannon to have a bigger reason to ask her to meet up, but he didn’t seem to know what he was doing, so she reclined on her chair, took her cup with both hands and raised a brow. The movement made Shannon nervous again, she was expecting something and he wasn’t sure what it was and he didn’t know what to do.

It was menacing to be in front of her, she seemed like she was judging him, like she was judging his level of normality compared to her level of strangeness. He wasn’t sure if she was entirely strange or if she was just a normal girl who dressed different, but so far, he felt like he had been stripped completely and had been put into a small plate under a magnifier for examination, like a guinea pig or a science project.

He gulped repeatedly, while Madeleine just sat there, waiting, she raised her brow a little more and looked at him, expectantly.

“Are you going to sit there and be quiet or are you going to talk about something?”

Shannon raised a brow, leaned forward a little and decided to comply.

The next day, Madeleine’s room was invaded. It was a quite peaceful invasion, but an invasion nonetheless, and Madeleine was quite bothered by it, she expected to stay at home and do nothing all day, not to have two invaders in her room, rummaging through her stuff.

“Erin said you were talking to Shannon…” Molly said, nonchalantly, she looked at the lace on one of Madeleine’s dresses with a huge interest.

“Oh my God, what?” Dottie put a small eyeliner pencil away and half crawled, half jumped over to where Madeleine was sitting. “Why was I not told about this?”

“Don’t you ‘oh my God’ me, Dots, you don’t believe in God…” Madeleine poked Dottie’s nose and tried to look like she was scolding her.

“Fine!” Dottie pouted playfully. “But why was I not told that you know the guy? Do tell me all about it!”

“There’s nothing to tell, really… He just added me on facebook and then asked to hang out and that’s it…”

“He didn’t ask if you were down to fuck or something?” Molly raised a brow. “How boring!”

“I would have said no, anyway, Molly.”

“Oh, right, I forgot who I’m talking to.”

Just when Madeleine was about to say something else, her phone started ringing, she was about to grab it, but Molly was faster.

“Give that back!”

“Oooohhhh, its Shannon Leto!” Molly giggled and Dottie crawled on top of Madeleine, tackling her to the ground.

“Give me my phone back, Molly!”

“Answer, Molly! I wanna talk to him!”

“Now, now, girls, keep it down… Hello?”

“Molly no…”

“Madeleine? No, I don’t think she lives here…”

“Molly!”

“Tell him she’s having sex with a guy!”

“No! Girls, really…”

“Oh, she gave you this number? Well, she ran off with some guy she met last night at a party…”

“Molly, give me that phone!”

“Right, dude, sorry.” Molly handed the phone over to Madeleine. “Say your last words, criminal”

“Shut up…” Madeleine took the phone and went to the other corner of the room, while Molly and Dottie giggled in the background.

“Woah, he’s got some voice over the phone, I’m gonna go and change my panties now, be right back!”

“Molly, quit it!” Dottie giggled and watched her sister leave the room, while she rummaged again through Madeleine’s cosmetics. “Where’d you get this sweet pink eyeliner?”

“Dottie, I’m trying to talk here…”

“Okay…” Dottie pouted and kept rummaging on the cosmetics box.

After a few minutes, Molly came back from the bathroom and sat next to her sister, looking at Madeleine whisper at the phone. She raised a brow again.

“Tell him you’re finally down to fuck, Maddie!” She yelled, and Madeleine glared daggers at her, blushing furiously.

“Shut. Up. Molly!”

“Sorry.” Molly giggled, and so did Dottie, while Erin entered the room.

“Who’s she talking to?”

“Shannon Leto.” Both Dottie and Molly replied.

“What?! Oh my God! I need to hear his phone voice!”

“It’s like having phone sex, Erin, really.” Molly said, nonchalantly, while Erin practically glomped Madeleine.

“Lemme talk to him!”

“Erin, get off me!” The phone fell from Madeleine’s hand and rolled over to where Dottie was sitting; both Erin and Madeleine looked at her while she picked the phone and brought it to her ear.

“Hello? Yeah, I’m sorry, my sister and Madeleine’s flat mate are annoying Madeleine, she’s fine, we’re not killing her.” Dottie giggled. “No. Okay. We’ll take good care of her. Yeah. Thank you for calling!”

Dottie hung up the phone and looked at the two girls, smiling sweetly.

“He’s really nice!”

“Dottie… Do you realize that you just hung up from talking to Shannon Leto?” Molly looked at her sister like she had two heads.

“Unlike the rest of the world, I don’t wanna fuck Shannon Leto. I want to fuck his drums, not him.”

“Oh, that makes sense…” Molly lied back against the bed.

“But I wanted to talk to him…” Erin pouted.

“Maybe next time.” Dottie winked. “So, what’s for dinner?”

Shannon put the phone away; he sighed and then looked at the two giggling German women in front of him.

“What? What did I do?”

“What happened? What did she say?” Alena asked, practically bouncing on her seat, her impossibly big breasts jiggled a little and Shannon wondered if she even knew that bras existed.

“She didn’t say anything, there were some friends of hers in her home and they were actually making a big deal about me calling.”

“Oh, that’s too bad…” Agnes pouted dramatically; she was obviously making fun of Shannon.

“You’ll have another chance, call her later!” Alena’s… Things jiggled again, and Shannon frowned, staring at them as if they were a monster.

“Really, Alena, you do know there is a piece of underwear called brassiere, right? They invented those shits so things like that…” Shannon pointed at her obviously jiggly breasts. “Didn’t bounce all over the place like that… is that even natural? What the fuck, woman?”

“I AM wearing a bra, thank you very much!”

“Then there is obviously a problem with your bra…”

“Can we not talk about Alena’s boobs right now?” Agnes looked distressed. “What importance does it have, anyway?”

“They’re all over the place, Agnes! It’s uncomfortable!”

“Get over it; you’re just jealous because they belong to someone else now…”

“Oh, boo fucking hoo, Alena… I’m not even getting into this argument again. We made a deal.”

“Whatever… I’m going to the ladies room.” Alena stood and walked over to the restroom.

“Fix your bra while you’re there.”

The blond smacked the back of Shannon’s head, almost making him hit the table and left to the bathroom, giggling. Agnes gave Shannon a warning glare.

“Will you EVER leave the poor woman alone about the size of her cleavage?”

“It’s not my fault it’s THAT huge, I swear it should have its own TV show…”

“Shannon…”

“Okay, I’ll shut up now.”

“So what did Madeleine say?”

“Nothing, she just said she’d call me about going out for lunch, maybe tomorrow. I think she doesn’t like me that much…”

“I think she’s into you, she’s just shy. And of course she has reasons to be shy, she’s young, and it’s weird for a young girl to have an older man interested in her.”

“Thank you for reminding me that I’m no teenager, Agnes, really, I love you…”

“I know, I know…” Agnes smiled like the Cheshire cat, while Alena came back from the bathroom.

“So what did she say again?”

“She said you need to seriously go to Victoria’s Secret.” Shannon said, grinning.

“Why did I ever date you again?”

“Because I’m hot and charming.”

“No, you aren’t…”

“She’s right, you aren’t…” Agnes added.

“Oh, you shut up!” Shannon threw a little piece of bread at Agnes, it landed inside her bra. “Oh look! Score!”

“Shannon, quit it!” Agnes took the little piece of bread out of her shirt, while Alena was in tears from laughing.

“Okay, I’ll stop now…” Shannon was trying not to laugh, but the way Alena laughed was too funny.

“Guys, really, stop it.” Agnes huffed, annoyed.

“Okay, okay… Stop now… Lena, stop!” Shannon was trying not to laugh, but every time he looked at Alena, they both started giggling again; Agnes shifted her eyes and smacked the back of Alena’s head discreetly, making her shut up, she grinned at Shannon and he gulped. The girl was small, but he could tell anyone that she had a heavy hand when it came to hitting people, and he was positively scared of her. Somehow he felt sorry for Ryan Reynolds and wondered how badly this bully of a girl treated him.

He still liked Agnes and he liked to talk to her and she made him laugh, so that was a valid reason to still hang out with her despite the fact that she was definitely not the kind of girl he’d date, even though she was very beautiful.

Maybe if she were like Madeleine… He wondered why he kept thinking about Madeleine… He didn’t even really LIKE the girl, she was a girl, a very young one, he didn’t like her…

Right?

I wanted to write something with this song, and it seemed to fit with the whole Alexander/Hephaistion verse, so here it goes :3

The song is ‘Mirando al Mar’ by Amaia Montero.

Tell me, my heart, what do you think is worse? Do you think it is worse to look at the keeper of my love slip from my arms, or is it worse that I am the one who stays behind?

You, without telling me anything, without a warning, you who won my heart slowly, without speaking, you that handed the heavens to me with your love… You were my partner, my friend, my addiction, you were my moon, my morning, the song my heart sang, you were the nonnegotiable part of my love…

Now that I look at the ocean, I remember the day I met you, I wanted your smile for myself, there was so much left to live…

Looking at the vast ocean I can remember very clearly the day I first saw you, I wanted your smile to be just for me to look at, I wanted to keep you and make you only mine…

Loneliness is now the only thing I have, it’s the only thing left in the middle of this beach, where I now cry for your departure and the waves ask me where you are, where my partner, my friend, the song in my mind, my shining moon, my light of every morning…

Come back, show me that everything will be like it used to be, come close to me, hold me again, I do not want to be alone any longer… 

I am nothing without you…

My finals are near (very near) so I am sorry if I haven’t updated as much as I should, don’t worry, I’ll be back before you know it, maybe tonight I will post an update :3

Do not worry, I am still alive ;)

Umi.

Shannon was sitting in the bed, reading a book, when Katherine finally entered the room to sleep, she looked at her husband curiously for a moment, and then she sat on the bed, staring.

“What are you reading?”

“A book…”

“Naturally…” Katherine let out an irritated sigh. “But what kind of book?”

“I do not know, I took it from the library and I did not even look at the title, I do not read because I am interested in reading, I just read because I am waiting for sleep to get me…”

“You read until you get sleepy?”

“Yes… It is hard for me to fall asleep…”

“Disadvantages of old age…”

“Are you making fun of me?” Shannon raised a brow and turned his gaze to Katherine, his face was priceless and Katherine smiled.

“You were the one who said he could not sleep…”

“You make fun of me and smile at my expense!” Shannon laughed, while Katherine looked at him as if he had suddenly sprouted a second head. “I think you forgot our deal…”

“No, you said that if YOU made me smile…”

“You are smiling because you make fun of me, which means that I make you smile… It is the same…”

“But I…”

“Stick to the deal, Katherine…” Shannon used a tone of voice that was not menacing, but came with an unknown warning. “You have smiled and it has been my fault, so I demand my prize…”

“Oh…” Katherine sighed, defeated, arguing with this man was impossible. “Alright… But just one, and if you abuse, I will slap you…”

“I will not abuse…”

“Swear!”

“I give you my word…”

Katherine sighed, turned her face to the side and left her husband kiss her cheek, she closed her eyes thinking that if she did not see what was happening, there would be nothing to worry… When that small kiss was laid on her skin, she noticed that it had not been that terrible and that maybe -keyword, MAYBE- she could get used to it.

“See? It has not been that horrible…”

“Do not get all confident yet…” Katherine buried herself in her pillow, turned around and fell asleep. Shannon looked at her sleeping for a moment, shrugged and kept reading until he got tired and decided to sleep.

Whoever, before blowing off the candle and going to sleep, he kissed Katherine’s cheek again, certain that she slept.

“Sweet dreams, my love…” He said to her ear. “Whoever is in your mind, even if it is not me, I hope he gives you beautiful dreams…”

He turned around and fell asleep; ignoring the proud tear that escaped from Katherine’s closed eyes.

Teresa looked at Katherine as if she had never seen her before, just like Raelynn… Who was this woman and what had she done to the Katherine they both knew?

Before going on, I should explain why both of them were so worried… Katherine was seated in the couch of the little dining hall in the manor, where no one but her and her friends could enter. The fact that she was there was not the worrying fact, what worried them was that she had been there for almost half an hour, crying her little eyes out.

“What is wrong with her?” Raelynn asked, but Teresa was much more preoccupied by the fact that Raelynn was wearing a green dress, apparently new.

“I am not sure, she has been crying for twenty five minutes…” Teresa looked at Raelynn, frowning. “Is that dress new?”

“What importance does that have?” Raelynn looked at her friend as if she were insane and stood from her seat, crouching in front of her friend. “Kat… Kat, what is wrong?”

“Oh, Raelynn!” Katherine threw herself in her friend’s arms, crying harder. “I am a fool! A selfish fool!”

“But why?”

Katherine told them what happened the night before, Teresa melted with romance like a butter cube in a fire, but Raelynn looked like she wanted to slap Katherine until her face swelled.

“This morning, before leaving, he has asked me if I have slept well…” Katherine wiped her nose with a handkerchief. “He has asked me if I had good dreams…”

“Oh, Kat…” Teresa was dying from the sheer amount of cute.

“Kat… You are a fool… No, you have outfooled yourself…” Raelynn stood from her seat and started walking around the room like a caged beast.

“Rae, stop saying that, you will make her feel worse…”

“It does not matter! She already feels bad, why does it matter if I make her feel worse?”

“It is not alright! Friends are supposed to be there to make her feel better!”

“Well… You want me to make her feel better?” Raelynn turned to Katherine. “You are dumb! I told you from the beginning!”

“Rae!”

“Oh, bollocks!” Raelynn sat on the couch again while Katherine sobbed.

“I just… I cannot understand how I could have been so unfair… So selfish…”

“Oh, Kat…” Teresa stood from the couch and sat next to Katherine, hugging her. “It is good that you noticed it now… There is still time to fix things… You can still apologize to him for being unfair and he will understand…”

“I cannot…” Katherine shook her head. “I cannot, Teresa… I do not dare… And that makes me feel worse…”

“Then don’t do it…” Raelynn stood again. “You know what you can do? You can make up for lost time…”

“Eh?”

“Katherine… You know ABSOLUTELY nothing about your husband… Ask him things, men love when they get asked things… It makes them feel they know a lot… Ask about him, about his family… You know NOTHING about him… It is obvious that you would never trust someone you do not know… But it is still good time…”

“I guess so…”

“You will be alright…” Raelynn sat on the floor and took Katherine’s hands in hers.

“May I interrupt?” The three girls turned to the entrance, there, in all his handsome elegance, with his intense blue eyes and the smile of a seducer was Jared.

“Come in…” Katherine wiped her tears, not looking at her brother in law, she did not want to know if he was making fun of her or not.

“Look at me, child…” He said, it seemed like an order more than anything, and Katherine looked at Jared’s shinny turquoise eyes. “I do not know many things…”

“You are much smarter than I am…”

“Let me finish, do not interrupt me… I do not know many things, but there is something I am certain of… And that is, that my brother loves you, he has loved you without even knowing you for a long time now…”

“How can you know that?”

“You want me to tell you how I know?” Jared smiled again. “Because he looks at you the same way father looked at mother until the day he died… Excuse me…”

Jared left the room, the three girls looked at the retreating form in silence, Raelynn’s mouth was hung open.

“He’s so… Handsome… And elegant…” Teresa said, in awe. “But he is right…”

“Why?”

“Have you never noticed the way this man looks at you, right?”

“I’d rather not…”

“Katherine, do you realize that this is your entire fault? You have refused to allow him to get close to you, to care for you… It is logical for him to believe that you are always thinking about someone else…”

“But I do not…”

“Yes, that is something me, and you and Rae know… But does he?”

Katherine thought about it for a while, and when her friends left, she thought about it even more… Shannon did not come back home until very late, Katherine supposed that he had been out, ridding on horse and remembered his proposal of teaching her… Maybe she could start from that…

Maybe something good could come out of that…

That night, Katherine found the same scene from the previous night. Shannon was seated in the bed, reading a completely different book. She sat on the bed and looked at him for a long while, trying to gather the courage to speak.

“You will not finish the other book?”

“No, it bored me… I thought it would be interesting, but it was an essay in a more deficient than mine Spanish, I preferred something different…”

“I see…”

“My brother told me you were unwell…” Shannon turned his hazel gaze from the book and then Katherine noticed that he was really worried. “Why did you not tell me anything?”

“I did not want to alarm anyone…”

“I understand… But you are better now?”

“Yes, it was nonsense… I am well now.”

“Good…” Relieved, Shannon turned back to his book.

Katherine crawled under the covers, close to her husband; she put her head in his arm, never turning her gaze from him, like a small, wounded animal, she sighed and took Shannon’s arm, and got close to him, as if she were scared he would leave. Shannon frowned, closed the book and turned to her.

“Do you feel unwell?”

“No… I am… Just cold…” Katherine trembled slightly.

“Should I bring another blanket?”

“No, it is alright…” Katherine looked away and sighed, Shannon put the book away and looked at her for a long while; he was not convinced that Katherine was just cold.

“All right, what is wrong?”

“Nothing! Can I not want a bit of warmth?”

“I really do not understand you, Kat… First you push me away, now you are stuck to me like a frightened bunny, what is wrong with you?”

“Nothing…”

“Are you sure?”

“It is just that… I thought about what you told me… About teaching me to ride a horse…”

“Do you want me to teach you…?”

“Yes… I really wish to learn…”

“You did not have to make such a big deal of it, when you want something and it is in my power, you just have to ask for it…”

“Alright…”

“Now you will tell me what is wrong…”

“Nothing is wrong…”

“Katherine…” There was that menacing tone again. “If you do not tell me, I will make you tell me…”

“And how do you pretend to do that?”

“Well… There are many creative ways to make a lady confess… But right now I can only think of…” Shannon started poking her sides, he knew if there wasn’t a corset between them, Katherine would definitely feel it, but the only thing he achieved with that was for her to slap his arm.

“It is impossible to have a decent conversation with you! I give up!”

“But we are not even talking about anything! You do not want to tell me what is wrong, and I want to know…”

“There is nothing wrong… I am perfectly fine…” Katherine sat back in her previous position. “I just… I noticed that I know nothing about you…”

“And what do you want to know?”

“Well, I do not know… What do you want to tell me?”

“Well… I don’t know… I could start telling you things you do not want to know about…”

“Well… I am curious… Why has your brother not married yet?”

“Oh… Well… You see, when we were younger, he was engaged to someone…”

“Oh? And why did he not marry her?”

“She was not what you could call a respectable woman…” Shannon sighed. “She had an affair with someone else and decided to marry that other person instead…”

“How sad…” Victoria sighed.

“He does not mind, he’s used to the life he leads now… I guess he likes to ruin ladies for other men, hurt them instead of hurting the one who hurt him…”

“I see…”

“He’s quite known for being a heartbreaker in Louisiana, I’m sure no one over there misses him a lot, though.”

 “You do not miss Louisiana?”

“A bit… But if I took you there, you would miss being here… Maybe not for your family, but for your friends… I have no one to miss back home…”

“And where is the rest of your family?”

“My father died when Jared and I were teenagers, my mother is alone… And then there’s me and Jared, and we are both here…”

“I am sorry… I should have not asked…”

“Do not worry… You had no way of knowing…”

Katherine stifled a yawn; Shannon smiled and kissed her forehead.

“It is late, sleep…”

“No, I want to know more…”

“Tomorrow, yes? Now you are falling asleep…” Shannon kissed her forehead again, while she slid under the covers slowly.

“Alright… Tomorrow…” Katherine curled into a ball in the bed. “I am cold…” She said softly, before falling deeply asleep.

Shannon reflected for a moment… Katherine was cold, she was curled in a ball in the bed and trembled like a leaf, he had the option of getting up to get a blanket, but he moved a little and she gripped his arm harder, so the option of the blanket was completely discarded.

When he finally managed to make Katherine let go of his arm, he lay in the bed, looking at his wife’s soft face while she slept, and she trembled slowly. Careful not to wake her, he wrapped her in his arms and he hugged her tightly against his chest, only then did she stop trembling.

“So let me see if I understand…” Teresa sipped on her jasmine and honey tea. “He offered to teach you how to ride on a horse, something that you never learned when you were a child and that you always wanted to learn, and even so, you are not happy?”

“No… I still think that he only wants to take advantage of me with his false kindness…”

“Woman, you are really stubborn…” Raelynn was lying on a divan, surrounded by pillows; her reddish brown hair teased up a little and tied in a loose ponytail with a blue ribbon. “If I were you, I would not mind that man’s age, he is really good looking and he probably has quite some skills…”

“Rae!” Teresa threw a cushion on Raelynn’s stomach, while Katherine blushed furiously. “Stop saying those things!”

“Changing the subject, ladies, let’s go to the masked ball in the city…” Raelynn sat again, excited. “It will be a nice experience, we all love a good masked ball, and I’m sure your dear cousin will want to go to a decent masked ball, because you know they don’t get parties like these in stuck up America, do you not?”

“Rae, I do not think Tim will…”

“Splendid! You go and find him a nice costume for that night.”

“We cannot go without an invitation…” Teresa left her tea cup in the little center table, Raelynn looked at her like she had never seen her before.

“Well if it is a masked ball… Then nobody has to know it is you… Right?” Raelynn raised a brow, the way she was putting the whole situation before them was very much to Katherine’s liking.

A week later, the masked ball was held, even though lady Carmen did whatever she could to stop Katherine from attending, she said she did not care what her mother thought, she would go to that party because she was still young and she did not intend to rot in her misery in that house now that she was married, if her husband wanted to go with her, fine, but she would go to that party even if the world opposed to it, and after many arguments, in the end Shannon chose her side and lady Carmen had no other choice but to accept that her daughter was going to that famous party, this did not stop Katherine from throwing a monumental tantrum as soon as she was far from her mother, in her room.

“This cannot be!” She yelled, entering the room and closing the door in Shannon’s face -It was an accident, as she would admit later-. “Does my mother want me to stay day and night inside this blessed house doing nothing because I am married? I will die of boredom!”

“Katherine, I understand that you are upset…”

“Upset?” Katherine looked at her husband; she was blushing with ire. “I am not upset, sir… Not upset at all! I AM FURIOUS! Are YOU not who is supposed to be responsible of my life now? Then, obviously, f I want to go to a party, should I not ask YOU for permission, not her?!”

“Of course…”

“Then why does she insist in wanting me to tell her EVERYTHING I do? Good God, I am not six years old anymore!”

“Katherine…”

“She has kept me locked in this bloody manor all my life… I should be free now… She has kept me locked in my tower for so long, and now that I a married… She will still not let me be free…” Katherine sat in the bed and sighed sadly.

“Katherine, little by little…” Shannon sat in the bed, next to her; he knew that touching her right now would not be right, because she could poke his eyes out with her nails if he went too close. “You cannot make her understand so abruptly… Slowly… Let’s go to the party and we will come back at the time she asked us to do so, do not give her reasons to not trust you…”

“Whatever…” Katherine stood from the bed and called Concha so she could help her get dressed.

The carriage that would take Katherine and Shannon, always escorted by Jared and his friend Mathew, and Tim, who had been almost dragged by his cousin, to the party, stopped to pick Teresa and Raelynn. Tim blushed furiously as soon as Raelynn sat next to him, all the while, the girl talked nonchalantly and even crossed her leg, offering Tim an interesting view of her ankles, which made Tim blush some more and cough nervously. When they finally made it to the hall were the masked ball was held, it had already started, but it did not matter. Katherine entered the hall holding on to Shannon’s arm, to stop people from talking, she had accepted to keep appearances and pretend that everything was going great in their marriage.

“Ah, the scent of champagne and sweets, must love it.” Raelynn giggled, noticing that Tim had disappeared from the group.

“You look so indecent… No wonder my mother thinks you are a bad influence, Rae…”

“Is it my dress? I wanted it to look like something I would not normally wear…”

“It looks like you are in your undergarments only, Rae…”

“I do not care, and besides… Oh… Who’s that over there? Be right back, I’m going hunting…” Raelynn disappeared in the crowd, Katherine and Teresa watched her go, and then they decided to mingle in the crowd; it was then that Katherine left go of her husband’s arm, leaving Shannon alone

Jared was not happy with Katherine’s attitude; he took Shannon’s arm and tugged on it insistently.

“I told you that you are being too soft with that girl… She is doing whatever she wants…”

“I do not intend to argue about this with you right now…”

“I do not care; you will listen to me… Stop being so indulgent with her… She is your wife and you are the boss, not she…”

“Stop it, I do not wish to hear anything about this while we are here… Nothing…”

Shannon turned around and left to look for Katherine, leaving his brother in the middle of the hall, thinking it was good to try and take advantage of the situation he was in, he turned to Mathew and grinned.

“Lord Mathew Walter Wachter the third… Do you think you can get any ladies tonight? Or are you going to sit and watch?”

“I shall try my best…”

“I’ll meet you back here in… Two hours, shall we?”

“Challenge accepted…”

The two friends nodded, hid behind their masks and left on opposite directions.

Katherine drank some wine, strolling around the room by Teresa’s arm, in a certain moment, they saw Raelynn with the boy she had seen when they arrived, talking nonchalantly and dancing, and Katherine thought he looked slightly familiar, but with the mask, it was hard to tell. The boy in question blushed furiously and trembled like a leaf, while Raelynn giggled uncontrollably.

Teresa and Katherine were standing close to a pillar when they saw him, a man who as almost their age with a military outfit and a black eye mask, he was sitting in a divan, with a cup of wine in his hand, he had a fake sword tied to his waist, and both girls looked at each other and giggled.

“I would most certainly like to know what he can do with THAT…” Teresa said, sipping on her wine.

“Surely nothing…” Katherine commented, noticing that the stranger’s gray eyes were fixed on her, he rose from the divan and started walking their way, Teresa giggled again.

“Pretend you are having the time of your life.” She said, while the man was closer, when he was in front of them, Teresa excused herself immediately. “Have fun…” She said, leaving her friend alone with that stranger.

“Good evening, miss…”

“Good evening.”

“Excuse me for my boldness, but I do not know anyone… I thought that I could spend a moment with a nice looking lady, like you…”

“Really?” Katherine bit her lip, smiling. “And may I know what made you think I would be interested in spending the evening with you, sir?”

“You seemed interested when your friend was here…”

“I can seem many things…” Katherine walked away slowly, but that stranger grabbed her hand, she was caught in those gray eyes then.

“Can I at least know your name?”

She looked at him for a moment, then shook her head, smiling, and left, leaving the stranger on his own. When she was a few feet away from him, she found herself face to face with her brother in law’s piercing blue eyes, analyzing her.

“What were you doing speaking with that man?”

“Well, that… Speaking… He thought he could spend the evening with me, but I am tired and I wish to go home…

“Excuse me for a moment…” Jared walked to where the stranger was, Katherine did not know what he told him, but when her brother in law turned around, the man looked like he had crossed paths with the devil. “We can go now…”

“What have you told him…?”

“That you are married to my brother, and that if he comes at least an inch close to you, I will kill him with my own hands…”

“How dare you? Who gave you permission to intrude in my affairs?”

“Listen and listen well, child…” Jared stopped and glared at her. “I do not intrude in your affairs because I want to, but if your intention is to go through life disrespecting MY brother’s feelings, then YOUR affairs become mine… Learn to live with it…”

Katherine let out an indignant sigh, she turned to where the man had been, but now he was gone, so she decided to look for Teresa and Raelynn to take them to their homes and get back to hers.

Raelynn was near a table filled with desserts, the tall man she had been chatting and dancing with the whole time was next to her, still blushing furiously, and when she noticed Katherine, she waved frantically to make her come closer. Katherine smiled and walked through the crowd where Raelynn and the boy were.

“Kat, it turns out your dear cousin here…” Raelynn looked at Tim, who fiddled with his sleeves. “Had been hiding behind a mask of mystery and elegance, why did you not tell me your cousin was such an elegant man? And he’s such a good dancer too!”

“I… Thank you…” Tim blushed again and looked away.

“Now, now, you need to stop stuttering and all that, it makes you a little less attractive, and you are very good looking, let me tell you that!”

Tim tried to make a coherent sentence but failed miserably, all the while; Raelynn laughed gently at him and grabbed his arm. Katherine smiled.

“We better get home now, Rae, we have a curfew…”

“Oh, but the party is just starting, it’s not fair!” Raelynn pouted and clung to Tim’s arm, making him fiddle with the hem of his jacket. “I want to dance with dear cousin Tim again!”

“Raelynn, we have a curfew, we better stick to it.”

“Oh Lord…” Raelynn pouted harder and released Tim, soon, Teresa joined them and they were all ready to go.

In another part of the hall, Jared and Mathew met where they had agreed, Jared was grinning, and Mathew looked defeated.

“Any luck, Matt? I got the lovely daughter of Mister Medina to invite me to her private home…”

“Life is so unfair, Jared…”

“Better luck next time, my friend, better luck next time.”

In the carriage, on their way home, Katherine was thinking about that gray eyed stranger… Why did he suddenly seem so interested in her? What intrigued her the most was that she had never seen that man before…

Thank you very much to all of you!

I love each and every one of you and I hope you stick around for longer :3 I hope you really enjoy my stories :3

Two days later, Katherine cried and cried. And cried a little more… This was, without a doubt, the unhappiest day of her life. After many weeks of trying to shove it to the back of her mind, the faithful day had come. Teresa stood in front of her friend and wiped away Katherine’s tears with her fingers, and Raelynn was by her side, looking as disheartened as her friend

“I wish you were crying because you are happy…” Raelynn hugged Katherine; her eyes were glassy, her friend’s sadness was contagious.

“There is nothing we can do now…” Katherine removed the tears with a handkerchief, her wedding dress was beautiful, and she looked like the princess in a fairy tale… A shame, Teresa reasoned that she despised her prince so much. “Well… It is time…” Katherine cleaned her face again and left the room, with Teresa and Raelynn behind her.

The ceremony was painfully slow, during the whole ordeal, while the priest spoke nonstop, Katherine looked at nothing in silence, and the tears, defiant, escaped from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks, from time to time, Shannon’s gaze wandered over to his future wife. It hurt him to see those tears, and it hurt to know it was somehow his fault. During all those long months, he heard Katherine beg God over and over to turn her into a bird so she could fly far away from there, and Shannon would have wanted to give her wings and let her fly far away, if that meant she would be happy. But it was not possible…

The day before, Shannon proposed her a deal that she did not accept, nor refuse: If Shannon managed to make her smile, he could kiss her cheek, but if he managed to make her laugh, he would have access to her lips… Katherine raised a brow at that deal, turned around and left the room, and the matter was forgotten, now, Katherine believed that she would ever smile again anyway…

It was impossible for her to escape at least from THAT one kiss. She could escape from future kisses if she refused to laugh. But there was no escaping from this one, everyone was staring, her mother was there, looking at her with her falcon eyes and waiting… Always waiting… Katherine did not look at Shannon’s eyes, and her mind was far, far away when her now-husband’s lips touched hers ever so slightly, she felt that kiss so distant… The ceremony was over, which meant that now, she was no longer free; Katherine Arango was now Shannon Leto’s property…

The rest of the day was blurry in Katherine’s mind… The day did not matter. It was night that caused her terror… And it came all too fast; it was then that she felt fear… It was not a simple fear, it was pure and utter panic. Night meant a lot of things that Katherine was not prepared to confront.

She undressed and changed clothes in her room, Concha put a nightgown on her, and her mother, Teresa and Raelynn saw her off to her uncertain destiny. Like a rabbit entering the wolf’s lair, Katherine cried in silence, walking behind Concha to the room she would share from now on with her husband… Horror and more horror… Fear… Too much fear…

Shannon was there, sitting in the bed nonchalantly; he looked at her for a moment and noticed that it was not the right time, even if he wanted to make Katherine’s thoughts of him change tonight, it was not the moment… He smiled, trying to calm her and patted the empty side of the bed where she could seat, inviting his now wife to make him company.

“You are frightened…” He said, when Katherine finally overcame her fear and sat by his side “We have a deal, and I will stay loyal to it…”

“What does that mean?”

“Sleep calmly…” Shannon inched close to her, kissed her forehead and got under the covers, preparing to sleep; the girl looked at Shannon’s back for a moment, as if it were a foreign thing.

“What does this mean? Are you playing with me?”

“It is no game…” Shannon sat back up. “There is no use in trying to advance with you in this moment… You tremble like a frightened mouse…”

“This is ridiculous…” Katherine sighed. “Why did you marry me if not to sleep with me?”

“You think that I wanted to marry you because I like to run after young ladies? What is wrong with you?” Shannon looked away and sighed languidly. “Look… Your father and I knew each other for a long time, I was generous with him, and he promised me that when you reached this age, we would marry…”

“You engaged yourself with a baby, sir!”

“No… I engaged myself with a young lady who I pretend to respect and protect, who I pretend to honor… Now, if you want me to take advantage of you…”

“NO!”

“That I thought…”

“What kind of approach is this? You are such a rude man!”

“I was proving a point; I have waited for twenty years. What damage can a few more months do to me?” Shannon kissed her forehead again and caressed her hair gently. “Sleep calmly; things will happen when you wish for them to do so…”

Katherine sat there, while her husband turned around and fell asleep. For a long while, she just sat there, thinking. Was Shannon Leto playing with her? Yes, she would probably wake up in the middle of the night with that man’s hands all over her, trying to take advantage of her… She sat there for a while until tiredness took over her; she slid slowly under the covers and fell asleep.

She woke up the next day and no, Shannon Leto did not even put a finger on her, he slept peacefully facing her, and Katherine thanked every possible saint that this man had enough common sense to not even touch her hair.

However, when Katherine pretended to sleep as soon as he woke up, she did not escape from the gentle kiss Shannon left on her forehead before leaving, and for a moment, things did not seem so terrible…

Katherine opened her eyes again, after Shannon left that morning, she decided to go back to sleep, and woke up at ten in the morning or so. She had no idea why Shannon would want to get up so early (It was eight in the morning when he got up, and he had not been back into the room since then), and it wasn’t like she cared. She just wanted to sleep and not wake up until she died and was reborn in a bird so she could fly far away from there so she could no longer be that man’s wife.

Deciding it was time to get up, she crawled out from under the covers and called Concha, who entered the room as fast as lightning to prepare the bath and then help her get dressed and made up to go downstairs for breakfast. She got into the tub filled with warm water and allowed her body to relax, for a moment she heard Concha removing things in her room, but she paid it no mind. After a while, when the water was starting to get cold, she got out of the tub and entered the room, Concha was nowhere to be found… And neither were her bed covers…

Katherine stood there thinking for a while, if Concha wasn’t there and the covers weren’t there either, the most logic thing was that Concha had taken them to her mother’s room to tell her that nothing had happened that night and her mother would bother her during breakfast… Perfect… Another excuse for her mother to bother her…

Concha came back to the room, looking down and with the bed covers in her hands; Katherine was wrapped in a towel, glaring at Concha.

“What did my mother tell you?”

“Nothing, miss… She’s not happy…”

“Well if you had not taken the covers to her, she would not be mad, would she? Come on; help me get dressed to get breakfast…”

“Yes, miss Katherine…”

Katherine went downstairs for breakfast and her brother in law, his friend, her mother and her little sister were already seated, Shannon was nowhere to be seen, but her mother glared at Katherine, who sat in her chair, ignoring her completely.

“Katherine…” Lady Carmen kept glaring at her daughter. “Why are you so stubborn?”

“I cannot say I know what you speak of, mother…”

“Why did you not consummate your marriage with Shannon Leto?”

“I did nothing, mother, that man just turned his back on me and fell asleep as if nothing were happening…” Katherine picked a slice of bread and proceeded to eat. “Besides, it is much better for me if that man does not touch me… He probably only married me because he likes to go through life running after young ladies…”

“Katherine, please… Try to make a small effort…”

“Mother, it is too early to talk about this, it is ten in the morning…”

“Child…” Jared took Katherine’s wrist violently; Katherine looked up at her brother in law, glaring. “You do not even know my brother enough to judge him like that… So if you have nothing good to say, say nothing at all…”

Katherine glared at Jared and pulled her hand away roughly, she turned her gaze to her food and kept eating nonchalantly. Jared looked at her, furiously; it was unnerving that this child judged Shannon without even knowing him.

After a few hours, Shannon came back home. Katherine was in the room, sitting in the balcony, reading a book. Shannon sat in front of her, looking at her, she raised her eyes for a second and then went back to the book, as if her husband weren’t there.

“Where have you been all day, sir?” She asked casually, not even looking at him.

“I have gone hunting…” Shannon leaned on the wall. “But I have found nothing… There seem to be no prey over here…”

“Sir, you and your nonsense… We are in a manor with a ranch, not in the middle of a forest… It is more than logic that you found nothing…”

“But it was good to go out for a while, get some fresh air… You should try it…”

“I am not interested…” Katherine closed the book and got away from the windowsill. “Even if I wanted to, my mother does not allow me to use the horses…”

“Really? Why so?”

“She says a lady is not fit to ride horses… It is not attractive…”

“Oh, Lady Carmen and her nonsense…”

“It is not ‘her nonsense’… A lady cannot do whatever she wants arbitrarily…”

“Well if it is your wish to ride a horse you should be capable of doing it if you really want to… I permit you to do it if it will make you happy…”

“Really?” Katherine’s eyes were bright, but she went back to being herself after she noticed what she was doing. “Well… I… I still do not believe my mother would accept it… She will be mad at you…”

“I do not think she will… I will talk to her and will make her see her mistake… If you wish to learn, I do not see the problem in that…”

“My mother never allowed it… Father wanted to teach me, but my mother never allowed him to do it…”

“I understand…” Shannon got up from the windowsill. “If it will make you happy to learn, I will teach you myself, it cannot be that hard…”

He kissed Katherine’s forehead and left the room, leaving her alone, looking at the floor; the book fell from her hands, and she wondered if she had been unfair…

“Thank you…” She whispered, words she would have never dared say if her husband were before her.

This is actually a sort of filler, it explains Jared’s personality and introduces Lord Mathew Walter Wachter the third in it ;D

As soon as he found himself surrounded, Jared left the bed he was calmly resting in, gathered his clothes and jumped out the balcony, landing in the roof while trying to pull his pants back on, a group of the Viceroy’s guards running after him. He’d made a big mistake this time; apparently, sleeping with the Viceroy’s daughter was not a good idea, apparently. He’d have a good time escaping from the royal guard, apparently.

He jumped from the rooftop of the royal palace and jumped to a nearby one, it apparently belonged to a house, so Jared didn’t put much thought into what he was doing, since he felt he was closer to the ground now than he was before, and the royal guards were too coward to jump to the other roof, but as soon as he reached the edge of the rooftop, he discovered that this was a two store house. He wasn’t that close to the ground after all.

Jared noticed there was a carriage in a nearby alley, he smirked, probably this was his chance of saving himself, and he looked back only to discover that the royal guards were coming after him -after finally deciding it was safe to jump to the other house. So he went to the other corner of the rooftop and jumped down to the carriage.

Bad idea. The roof of the carriage collapsed under him and he fell on his rear in the seat, finding his friend in front of him, he had an amused grin on his face.

“Lord Jared Joseph Leto…”

“Lord Mathew Walter Wachter the third…” Jared raised a brow, and the carriage broke, leaving them both on the ground. “I do believe it is time to run…”

“Good idea, my friend…” Both men stood and ran as fast as they could, noticing that the royal guard was retreating, probably to find a way to come down from the rooftop and get on the streets to catch them.

“We’ll be lucky if my face does not appear in the ‘Most wanted’ list tomorrow or today!”

“I trust it will… Did you at least get what you wanted?” Mathew asked Jared while they climbed into another carriage, throwing the driver a little bag of coins. “How was the vice-princess?”

“Feisty!” Jared grinned, as the carriage drove off, while the royal guards looked all over the market, trying to find the criminal that had ‘assaulted’ the vice-princess.

Jared and Mathew arrived at the manor, and the first thing they found was Shannon, looking displeased. He glared at Jared and at Mathew and shook his head.

“I do believe I told you both to stay where I could see you…”

“You should have seen us, it was a shame you weren’t there…”

“You raped the vice-princess!”

“It is not rape if she liked it, to be quite honest, and she seemed to enjoy it very much, let me tell you that…” Jared could not say anything else; his brother had smacked the back of his head.

“Do you REALIZE what you just did, you little monster? I am getting married in two days, Jared, two days! Do you think I need a scandal like this one? I do not! I need you to stay where I can see you, after the wedding is over, you may sleep off with whoever you want, but do not expect me to protect you… Mother will kill you when she finds out…”

“What she does not know will not hurt her, I trust you will not tell mother of my filthy ways, will you?”

“I am considering the idea of doing so, just to make her force you to get engaged to someone so you will settle down…”

“You know that will not make me settle down…”

“Whatever, brother, just… Stay here until the wedding is over…”

“I am bored to tears! What am I supposed to do here?”

“Seduce the maids…”

“I already did that…”

“Well then do it again!”

Jared sighed at the unfairness of it all, he sat in one of the couched and gently grabbed Maria’s hand when she passed by.

“Love; can you prepare me a bath? And maybe join me when I’m in it? It gets a little lonely up there on my own, you see…” Jared winked, Maria blushed and left the room, giggling, Shannon looked annoyed, while Jared grinned.

This is probably one of the most changed chapter of them all.

The next weekend there was a party in the Carrera family’s house; Katherine wanted to go, so she WOULD go despite what her mother said… Lady Carmen got upset to such point that she told her if she wanted to go to the blasted party, she had to take her betrothed, his brother and his brother’s friend -who happened to show off out of nowhere- with her, which didn’t set well on the girl… But she wanted to go and meet with her friends… So she had no choice…

When they arrived in the Carrera family’s house, there was already a considerable group of people there. Katherine hopped out of carriage, ignoring Shannon completely, and she walked, haughty, beautiful and proud into the house, the huge frontal yard was full of people and Katherine searched for her friends in the crowd…

She finally identified one of them, Teresa used a turquoise dress with laces and frills here and there, she spoke to a complete stranger and she was next to who seemed to her like Raelynn, her two friends chatting happily along… When Teresa finally noticed Katherine’s presence, she waved at her and walked to her, closely followed by Raelynn who noticed her presence a little later. Katherine smiled, kissed her friends’ cheeks and strolled around the garden with them.

“Oh, Kat, we knew about your engagement yesterday… Everyone talks about it… Did you bring your fiancé?” Raelynn looked around, searching for an unknown face.

“Much obliged… He is over there…” Katherine pointed at Shannon; he was nonchalantly talking to his brother and his brother’s friend.

“Do you expect me to believe that you are being forced to marry HIM?!” Raelynn looked at Katherine as if she had two heads. “Woman, he looks good enough to eat up!”

“Rae!” Teresa hit her with her fan, Raelynn giggled. “Those words are not fit for ladies…”

“I am sorry, Tess, but I just HAVE to chastise Kat… One isn’t forced to marry someone like that… I would accept gladly if I were you! From how he looks, I can imagine how you are going to enjoy the wedding night!”

“Raelynn!” Katherine and Teresa exclaimed at the same time, the later blushed furiously.

“Teresa, you cannot deny that the man is VERY attractive… I do not know why Kat is so angry that she is going to marry him… I mean, look at him!”

“Do you want him, Rae?” Katherine made a derogatory gesture and her voice changed. “Keep him… I do not want him…”

“Kat, I did not mean that…”

“No, really, Rae… I do not want him…”

“Well… At this point of your life, there is not much you can do… It is either this or staying single forever…” Teresa commented, Katherine nodded and let out a sigh, while she and her friends strolled around the garden, oblivious to the other guests.

“My mother threatened to send me to a nunnery if I did not marry him…”

“Does the poor unfortunate have a name?” Raelynn inquired.

“His name is Shannon Leto…”

“Poor thing, I suspect his parents did not love him that much…”

“Rae…” Teresa sounder annoyed.

“Yes, yes…” Raelynn sighed indignantly.

The three friends strolled around the garden in silence for a while, sometimes, without her noticing, Katherine’s eyes searched for Shannon, just to make sure he hadn’t left, and more than once did she see herself in his eyes in the distance. It was like he was calling her from afar with his gaze… She couldn’t hold his gaze, so she looked away and pretended that she did not wish to see him.

At some point, Katherine spotted a familiar figure, someone she’d seen only in portraits, she detached from her friends’ arms and ran to the stranger’s encounter, hugging him as soon as she reached where he was standing, the man, taller than her, with broad shoulders, but who seemed too shy to be noticed, blushed slightly at the touch, but got over it fast enough.

“Welcome, cousin.” Katherine said, smiling, she grabbed the man by the arm and guided him to where her friends stood, Teresa looked puzzled, and Raelynn looked slightly interested. “Ladies! My dear cousin Timothy Kelleher! Cousin, this is Teresa…”

“A pleasure, sir…” Teresa bowed courteously.

“And this is Raelynn…” Katherine said. Raelynn looked at Cousin Timothy and bit her lip, smiling.

“It is always a pleasure to meet a handsome man…” She said, and Katherine’s cousin blushed furiously.

“Oh, stop it, Rae, you make Tim nervous…” Katherine slapped Raelynn’s arm playfully. “My cousin Tim is my Aunt Rosa’s son, we’ve only met twice have we not, dear cousin?”

“I am afraid so, cousin.” He muttered.

“My aunt smothered him too much when he was a boy, so he has trouble engaging in conversation with ladies, the poor thing.”

“Katherine, please…”

“Oh, come off of it, cousin, it is true, my aunt overprotected you! You cannot go anywhere near a lady that is not related to you by family without blushing like a shy virgin girl!”

“You do not need to yell it, you know…” Timothy muttered miserably, Katherine was embarrassing him more than he could embarrass himself.

“Forgive me, Tim, dear cousin. I sometimes do not think about what I am saying.”

“I see you do not…”

Raelynn giggled and looked at Tim, he looked at her slightly, but didn’t hold her gaze, instead, he focused on the grass, blushing, Raelynn let out a soft chuckle, looking away.

Night came, and slowly all the guests left, Raelynn had left a while ago, her brother had sent a carriage for her a while ago and she had delayed her leave for quite some time, now she feared her brother might be concerned, and then, it was only Teresa, Katherine, Tim, Shannon and his brother with his friend outside in the garden.

“Teresa, we should be going now, it is late and you must be tired…” Katherine embraced her friend to say goodbye, Shannon’s brother and his friend were inside the carriage, waiting.

“It was good to see you, Kat… You must come and visit me more often! When you get married, you will not have time for me anymore!”

“Yes…” Katherine looked away. “Good night, Teresa…”

“Good night, Kat.” Teresa stood back, allowing her friend to leave.

The girl proceeded to get inside the carriage, but she stopped and looked to her side, and her eyes met Shannon’s, he was taking her hand to help her up… It was not a rude or rough gesture; instead, it was soft and gentle, with the mere purpose of helping her. She frowned, turned her gaze, left go of Shannon’s hand roughly and entered the carriage, ignoring the severe gaze Jared Leto’s icy eyes sent to her.

Shannon sat next to her on the carriage, but said nothing during the whole trip back to the manor, when they arrived, he jumped out of the carriage and offered his hand to help Katherine down once again, but she refused it, walking on her own into the manor. Jared glared with his icy blue eyes at the girl again, and then looked at his brother, shaking his head.

The girl went to her bedroom and repeated the prayers she had been saying all week, and Shannon heard her behind the wooden door, his mind did not process what he was doing wrong, why, despite his efforts, he did not see any kind of interest from Katherine… There was something he was missing… Something he was not doing that was essential so she would approve of him… He walked away from the room, but returned to the door after listening to Katherine’s soft sobs…

How he wished he could make her smile! Since the day he arrived in the manor he had only seen Katherine smile for her little sister, Leticia, or for her friends, or for that boy a little older than she was that took care of the horses… She called him Tomo, and she talked to him constantly, she asked him how his wife was doing, if her pregnancy was going well, she spoke of how miserable she was for not being as free as he was and being able to marry whoever she wanted…

They would be married soon and Shannon felt that he was not advancing in his attempts to gain Katherine’s acceptance… He supposed that there would be time later; he supposed that things would change as soon as they got married…

He was wrong…

I was wondering, because this tumbleblog is for my fanfiction, would it bother you guys if I decided to post my slash fiction here? I mean, all I’ve done recently is post het fiction, would it bother people who enjoy het if I posted slash here too?

I have a lot of followers, I would like for all of them to leave their opinion on this matter in my ask box or in my other tumblr’s ask box too :3

DO EEEEEET! :D

The young girl with honey eyes and chocolate red hair left the manor, lifting her skirts to walk faster, she wanted to reach the stables and be alone for a while. When she was finally there, she slipped into one of the paddocks and sat on the hay, the horse that was in there stood next to her, nuzzling her neck and making her smile.

“Good morning, Miss Katherine!” Came a soft, cheerful voice, Katherine smiled, lifting her gaze.

“Good morning, Tomislav…” She said, and the man smiled, entering the small paddock.

“The gossip is all over the place, they say you are getting married!” The older man commented, brushing the horse. “It feels like it was yesterday that you were a little baby and I was just a ten year old boy, and look at us now! You are getting married!”

“I wish it were because I want to, Tomislav… But no…”

“Mm… It’s the bad thing about being rich… You can never marry who you want… It must be for the money or the status…”

“My mother wants the manor to stay in the family… If I do not marry that man, the house will become property of the crown…”

“That does not sound good…” Tomislav shrugged. “I suppose if I were in your position, I would marry so my family could keep the house…”

“You are lucky you could choose who you wanted to marry with… How is Vicki?”

“Very pregnant…”

“Again? You two waste no time!” Katherine laughed, and the older man did the same, but the smile in the girl’s face vanished when she heard her mother calling her from inside the manor. “I must go, Tomo… My ‘betrothed’ is probably here already…”

“Look, Miss Katherine, it does not have to be all bad to marry someone… Try and make something out of the situation…”

“I am not sure I can, Tomo… Marrying with a man who doubles my age was not something I had in my plans…”

“But it will happen and you better get used to it and take it optimistically, wouldn’t you say?”

“I am frightened, Tomo…”

“Worry not, little miss… Whenever you need something, if your husband does not treat you well, we are going to be here for you…”

“Thank you, Tomo…” Katherine smiled; she left the stables and ran to the manor, where her mother awaited her.

“Finally… Where have you been?”

“I was in the stables…”

“Katherine that is no place for you!”

“It does not matter anymore, mother… The sooner I marry, the less time I shall spend there, right?”

“Child, stop it…” Lady Carmen took her daughter’s arm, pulling on her violently. “You will marry Shannon Leto whether you like it or not, and you better take something out of that marriage…”

“If only his picture transmitted any kind of emotion to me when I look at it, maybe I would be glad to marry… But his gaze is so empty… I thought I could be like you and marry someone I was in love with…”

“Not all of us can have that kind of happiness… I married against my family’s desire and look what happened, I am completely unprotected… I want you to have your future ensured…”

“No, mother, you want YOUR future to be ensured… I will marry this man for my sister, because Leticia is too young to suffer… Not to make you happy…”

“Do it for whatever reason you wish… But do it… Now go and change, your future husband and his family are here…”

Katherine rolled her eyes and walked upstairs, pouting; Lady Carmen let out a long sigh and went to distract her guests while Victoria changed.

For his age, Shannon Leto still looked like a young man, he had the poise of a man of a high social status and good education, he sat in one of the couches in the living room, admiring the manor with genuine interest and curiosity, his younger brother Jared, however, was nowhere to be seen.

“I have not been here in a while… It is a pleasure to be back in the manor…” Shannon told Lady Carmen, in broken spanish.

“And it is a pleasure to have you here again, Mr. Leto…”

“Shannon is fine, Carmen… We know each other since a very long time, do we not?”

“It is true… When I met you I never thought this day would come…”

“It is a shame that everything has to be so… Rushed… My condolence for Ignacio’s passing… He was a good man…”

“Yes… But there’s no time to keep mourning for that… Life goes on…” Lady Carmen looked at the stairs anxiously, where was her daughter? “CONCHA! Go and get Katherine… I honestly do not know why this girl takes so long…”

“Yes, mistress…” Concha ran as fast as a soul taken by the devil to Katherine’s room.

“It does not matter, Carmen.”

“Oh…” Lady Carmen let out a nervous giggle. “And… Where is your younger brother?”

“Oh?” Shannon looked around, noticing his brother’s disappearance. “He was here just a minute ago and… Wait…”

The younger brother, Jared Leto, was in another room of the manor, he had the youngest of Concha’s sisters, María, pinned to a wall, one of his hands toying absentmindedly with one of her long braids.

“So… I hear that you Mexican girls have fire instead of blood in your veins… Is that true?”

“Well… I…” María giggled, looking away. “I don’t know…”

“Why don’t we find out? Will you show me to your room or do I have to find it…” Jared couldn’t continue, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head, and turned to find the infuriated gaze of his older brother. “Excuse me, brother, can I help you?”

“What in the ever loving Lord are you doing? Leave that poor girl alone!”

“But she likes it, don’t you?” Jared looked back at María, she was giggling and blushing.

“My dear, believe me, you do not want to have anything to do with my brother.” Shannon pulled Jared by the ear and led him back to the living room.

“Ouch, ouch, that hurts, stop it!”

“I will stop when you stop behaving like a child… You are thirty nine and not getting any younger, you should be looking for someone to settle with, now be a good younger brother and stay where I can see you…”

“Yes, yes…”

Jared pouted and sat back on the couch, where Shannon could see him. He was bored already and he had only been there for fifteen minutes.

Upstairs, Concha opened Katherine’s door abruptly, only to find Katherine sitting in front of her vanity mirror.

“Little miss Katherine! What are you doing?”

“Concha, I do not want to go downstairs… I do not want to marry…” Katherine was desperate, she thought the longer she stayed in her room, the sooner that man would leave.

“Miss Katherine, your future husband is downstairs and your mother is very angry because you do not show up!”

“I do not wish to go downstairs… Tell mother that… That my head hurts!”

“But she is going to chastise me!” Concha looked terrified. “She’s really angry and if I tell her you do not want to go downstairs, she is going to come and make you go!”

Katherine was about to curse, but she contained herself. Ladies did not curse. She rose from her bed, fixed her skirts and decided she had no choice. She would have to marry. She looked at herself in the mirror and sighed, because she would not be free ever again. Thinking about that, she left the room, to the future that awaited her.

Lady Carmen was nervous, she was about to go and look for her daughter herself when she heard the soft steps in the second floor and she felt relieved. Just when she left go of her long sigh, Katherine appeared, walking downstairs slowly. Shannon stood from the couch to get close to her, but haughty, Katherine refused to smile or even talk to Shannon Leto, she reluctantly allowed him to kiss her hand, but she refused to speak more than three words with that man, she kept her distance from him as much as she could all day, leaving it very clear for anyone who wanted to know, that she held no desire of marrying him.

Night came and Katherine retired to her room, sighing in relief as soon as she found herself in the safety of those four walls. She was tired and didn’t want to think about the future that awaited her. In a few months she would marry, everything was prepared; it had been prepared since she was a baby, all her life had been prepared for this moment… She was sick of it…

Katherine sat on her bed, put her hands together and prayed aloud.

“Please God, I wish to be a bird and fly far away from here… Where I do not have to marry someone I do not love… God, please, turn me into a bird so I can fly far away from here and be free…”

Behind the door in Katherine’s room, Shannon listened to her prayers.It broke his heart, of all the involved in this betrothal, she was the one who suffered more. He decided then that he would do whatever was in his power to make her happy even if she did not love him, if she was happy, that would be enough.

“What are you thinking, brother?” Shannon turned around, startled, only to find his brother’s huge eyes staring back at him, judging him; he spoke in english, conscious that no one in that house understood. “I have noticed that you show too much interest in your fiance.”

“I have to see for her well being, baby brother.”

“Stop fooling around…” The nonchalant inflection in Jared’s tone changed. “I hate when you call me baby brother… And worrying so much for the girl will do you no good. She is proud and haughty. Before you know it, if you try to please her in everything, she will take you to your ruin.”

“You think too much like father.”

“I am his child too, am I not?”

“You have no reason to think that way. What do you know about marriage anyway? You spend your life ruining ladies for any man who would want to marry them.”

“But I know how girls function. She will want to fill the void in her marriage with jewels, dresses, shoes, expensive things. And for how long will you be able to please her?” Jared attempted to leave, but Shannon took his arm violently.

“Do not think for an instant that everyone is the same in every place because they are not. Katherine lives in a manor in the country…”

“And surely she cannot wait to get out of here, just like me…”

“Well then! I see what is going on here! If what you want is to go, you may do it… No one forces you to stay…”

“And leave you here? In the middle of nowhere? At the mercy of that child who will take advantage of you however she wants? No, brother, I still have interest in keeping our family’s fortune…”

“Jared, I advise you to not make those comments about Katherine or the manor in front of her or her mother… I do not need you to babysit me; do I have to remind you who the older brother is?”

“You may be older…” Jared pulled away from Shannon’s grip with equal violence. “But I have always known better to take care of myself… Be careful with that child, Shannon… Do not try to please her in everything… Good night…”

Then he left, leaving Shannon standing in the middle of the hall.

This is the edited version of Lady Landowner, most of it will be totally changed.

Thank you for your support and understanding :3

“Absolutely not, mother!” Katherine entered her room violently, practically throwing the door on her mother’s face. “I am not going to marry that man! He could be my father, please mother!”

Katherine looked out the window in her room, her hair fell in delicate curls on her shoulders and chest, squeezed by the corset, the curls that rested on her tightened breast went up and down with her agitated breathing, she frowned and looked at the servants herding the horses in the entrance of the ranch without even looking at her mother, who gave her a reproaching gaze.

“Katherine, please understand, this is for your own good! That man has a lot of money, you and I are alone and unprotected and we need a man in this ranch!”

“Then you marry him, since he is old enough to marry you, not me!”

“Katherine that is not the point… I promised this man when you were born that you would be his wife when you turned twenty years old, you have no idea how much we owe this man, he has helped us very much ever since your father passed, if you marry him, you ensure that this house stays in the family instead of becoming property of the viceroy, please Katherine, do not be selfish, think about me and your sister!”

“Well then let Leticia marry that man! I do not wish to marry him!”

“Katherine… Leticia is nine years old…”

“You did not think about that when I was a newborn and you married me off to that man…”

“Because we had agreed that… Oh, forget it… You will never understand and you will never accept it anyways… And you know something? I do not care… I am your mother and I say you will marry him!”

“I said no! And you cannot force me!”

“Look Katherine, if you do not marry, I’ll send you to a nunnery!”

Katherine thought about it for a while… She couldn’t wear fashionable clothes in a nunnery…

“Oh, alright, you old blackmailing woman! I will marry but that does not mean I will enjoy it!”

“I am not asking you to enjoy it, just marry so the manor stays in the family…”

“Yes, yes, whatever you say, old mother… Just because I do not want Leticia to live in the street as a beggar outside the church…”

“You do not care about your mother?”

“My mother is marrying me off to a forty year old man… Of course I do not care! Now leave me alone” I need to think about the martyrdom you are sending me to!”

“As you wish… Here, your betrothed sends you this so you can get to know him…” Katherine’s mother left a small locket in her bed, but her daughter didn’t even move to touch it.

The girl sat on her bed, pouting, and her mother looked at her sadly, and then left the room, her daughter’s future husband would be there today and the house had to look good for when he arrived with his brother and another guest.

“Concha! CONCHA!! Where is this woman?” Old miss Carmen yelled, coming out of her daughter’s rooms and going downstairs to the living room, Concha ran to her, her long black braids bouncing as she ran to her mistress.

“Yes, mistress? What is needed?”

“What is needed, Concha? It is needed for this house to stop looking like a pigpen! Where is Nasaria? Where is Petra? I need this house to be clean and for everything to be impeccable! Lady Katherine’s future husband will be here in the afternoon…”

“Little Miss Katherine is getting married? Oh mistress, wait until her nana hears about this! She’s going to be so happy for Miss Katherine!”

“Yes, Concha, she’s taken care of her ever since she was a baby, she’s going to be very happy for her… But hurry up! Go and find your sisters so they can help you clean up this house!”

“Yes, señora, I’m going to run for them right now so the house looks completely clean! Oh, Miss Katherine is getting married!” Concha left the living room humming the wedding march, making Mistress Carmen smile with her occurrences.

“Oh, if only Katherine was as optimistic as Concha is…” Carmen was a woman in her forties, she had married a man she loved and respected, he was a good husband and a caring, loving father to his two daughters, whom he left alone too soon due to a long and painful illness… ‘If only we had had a boy, we would be safe now…’ Mistress Carmen thought frequently, wondering if her future would be different if she had been able to give a baby boy to her husband before he died, like her sister did before passing away.

But it was pointless to think about that now. Katherine would get married and even though she wasn’t in love with the man she was to be married to, in time, she would learn to respect and love her husband, just like any other good wife.

Katherine looked at her room’s floor, she gazed at the locket in her bed, took it in her hands and opened it, and a pair of hazel eyes seemed to greet her; she had to admit that for his age, her future husband was still a good looking man, but even so, his gaze didn’t transmit her any feeling… It was an empty gaze that did not transmit her any kind of feeling of love… She closed the locket and threw it in her bed, she got up and left the room, she wanted to walk around the farm before her future husband arrived.