Season's Feather

Chapter Twenty-One

"Delilah." Williamson spoke, "I believe I will use the gem I have brought now."

Delilah sighed, she had been pulled aside from afternoon tea with her fiancee to hear Williamson's declaration of an engagement to the now-arrived Miss Edwina Sharma. She couldn't be more unconvinced that he was unhappy.

"So you're quite set on your decision, then, I take it?" Delilah asked.

"I have made my intentions clear." Williamson nodded.

Delilah nodded sullenly, "You must know there is no need to hurry such a momentous occasion. Look at me and Anthony, it took more than a season and a summer for us to become engaged."

"Delilah you have failed time and time again to talk me out of this-"

"The Sharma's have barely unpacked their things. You should take the opportunity to get to know one another." Delilah urged.

Williamson shook his head, "Mm. Unnecessary. Miss Edwina will make the perfect Lady, to be sure."

Delilah frowned, "I hope you are searching with a clear mind."

Williamson scoffed, "You have wanted me to marry so our arrangement was hereby terminated and now you wish me to postpone an engagement?"

"I only wish you to be certain, I want you to at least be happy." Delilah argued.

"Why do you wish me to be happy, you have been so tense since we got here it is as if you want me to reconsider and marry you."

"I never said such a thing. You have no idea what has happened here. I am tense for reasons other then an arrangement we both agreed was over now begone Williamson from my vicinity!" Delilah yelled.

"What has happened here-"

"My father died!"

Williamson took a step back, "Delilah."

"No." Delilah panted, "No. Do not speak to me."

— & —

Delilah sobbed softly into Anthony's arms before suddenly he was gone and wrapped in questions and demands becoming on spot the new Viscount. Delilah watched in agony before she was swept away in the crowds of staff and to the window where her and her father had previously been only hours before.

Then everyone was around her. Her mothers health was declining and there was no other heir. She would have to take over her fathers role, but-

She didn't know anything. How did one run an estate? How did one manage a household? How did a lady perform a man's job?

Everything was happening so fast, everything was happening so quick.

She couldn't breath, the house felt to heavy. She couldn't see, her feet blindly carrying her. It was a weight in her chest that had no boundaries and pushed everything up until she felt the rain beating down her back and her head thrown forward as vomit mutilated her throat and deprived her of her senses.

She sobbed in the rain. Delilah cried in the spot where her father had failed to breath.

That night she did not go to the window. But, she was watched sadly from the one she frequently visited. That was the night before she began to see Anthony regularly. It was the last night she would spend alone and awake in endless grief.