Undisclosed Desires

Chapter One

Tonight was the night Scarletta would run, run from her mother, the balls and this small town she so desperately wanted out of. She was forced onto the balls by her mother so she could sell Scarletta off. Her mother was good for those kinds of things; all her life she had been selling Scarletta to nobles, wanting nothing but their petty money, and since her father wasn’t there to protect her, Scarletta thought it was proper and so never complained. In her mother’s respects, she was the perfect daughter.

                Scarletta had had enough of this life, and she was going to change that this very night. She had waited until her mother had drunk herself to sleep to slip out of her bed. Scarletta had changed as soon as she had been sent to bed and the servants had left her alone. She had found and stashed her father’s old riding gear and hat for this very night. She pulled the bag she had been packing for several months now, she was afraid of someone finding out she was stealing things from the house, and slid it over her shoulder, then twisted her distinct curly red purple hair under her father’s old hat, pulling it tight to her head to hide her bright green eyes. Scarletta was determined to leave and nothing would stop her.

                Stuffing her father’s riding boots into her bag; she silently slid her bed sheets out her window and tied them to her four poster bed. That should hold. Taking a deep breath, Scarletta climbed out her window in her bare feet until she was part way down and jumped landing in a crouch with her feet in the mud. She looked around careful to see if any of the servants were doing their nightly walk around, then ran as fast as her legs would carry her, right into the barns.

                Quickly cleaning off her feet, Scarletta pulled on her father’s leather riding boots that ended above her knees due to the fact her father was at least a foot taller than her. She pushed the stable door open to her horse. Scarletta was given Blaise by her father when he was a young foul; he was her prize possession, one she would never give up, no matter what happened. She would fight for this horse till the end of her days.

                She grabbed Blaise’s blanket and saddle off its rack and threw it onto his back. She rushed through tightening the straps and putting on his bridal. Scarletta had already stayed too long for her liking; she held onto the horn of the saddle and pushed off the ground to gracefully land in the saddle. With a light kick and a whisper in the horse’s ear, Scarletta and her horse too off at a hard run.

                She was free; Scarletta was finally free from this place. Paris was only hours away, she could make it there by late morning at the latest if she pushed on through the night. No one there would know who she is, or was. Scarletta could be whoever she wished, whoever she could be. Her mother wouldn’t care that she had left, no, she’d use her father’s money to buy some poor girl; her father’s hard earned money.

                The gates were in sights, she was almost there, almost taste the sweetness of her freedom.

                Blaise went from a dead run to a complete stop in two seconds flat, something was blocking the iron gates.

                “Blaise!” Scarletta hissed in her horse’s ear. She stood in her saddle to see what was blocking her way, when she say Camille standing in the middle with her hands on her hips staring both the horse and Scarletta down. Sitting back in the saddle Scarletta cursed herself. How could she have forgotten Camille? To put it frankly, Scarletta was screwed now.

                “Did you forget something, m’lady?” Camille’s soft sweet voice made Scarletta cringe. She had two options now, run, or face her.

                “Not at all, I was just going for my nightly ride, Camille.” Scarletta tried to sound like her proud self when she was around others, but it came out more as a child who had been scolded.