Broken Soldier ~ Assassin's Creed 4

Chapter Twenty Five

A smile had been fixed on my lips for weeks now. It was April, the true beginning of springtime. I had since grown tired of the leafless trees and the grounds looked utterly dreadful with no flowers. Out of my bedroom window, I had seen one small daffodil bursting through the dirt. Its petals had yet to open, but I looked forward to seeing that moment as well.

It was the little things that made me the happiest. I had no need or want for new things like dresses or jewellery - no matter how many bracelets Martin sent me, I didn't want any of them. I just wanted to hear the trees full of birdsong and see the flowers once again.

The roses at the estate managed to survive through the winter. Martin had a small bouquet of them sent to me. One of the household's staff delivered them, though I would never have known as I hadn't recognised the young boy. He certainly wasn't Holden, which broke my heart slightly. I missed Holden. I missed everyone. I wanted nothing more than to go home.

I still had a few years left at the school. No more visits or meetings. I was to focus completely on my studies. We had final examinations to prepare for, meaning that I would have to take fewer violin lessons to pile on more English and Mathematics. I had never been all that good at mathematics, except with the easier sums I used to be given as a child. Those ones were simple addition or multiplications. However, it was incredibly different in school. I wished that I could go back to the times with my tutor, where I would just stare out of the window and watch my younger sisters playing. I can remember vividly when they found a stray cat at the bottom of the garden and were hurried away by their nursemaids. They couldn't afford for my sisters to become ill while they were watching them.

As for the rest of my family, my aunt Emily had been found. However, with her return, she had some news. She returned from France, declaring that she had been planning a private wedding over there for quite a while. She had been married once before, though no one knew that she had gotten a divorce. Apparently, she simply stated that they had fallen out of love. Her new husband was much more kind and caring and, to Daniel's distaste, not a nobleman. They married on Christmas Eve. She was also, noticeably, pregnant with her first child. Emily is an incredibly organised woman, and had lists of baby names written within her journal. She shared them with my mother and Daniel. One of them included a name inspired by mine - Elise. Mother adored that name as it had been one she was considering for Caroline but Daniel turned it down. Emily saw that and grinned at my mother's love for the name. She had never liked my step-father and, now with a round belly and a new loving husband, she knew that she was slightly better off than Daniel. That was mostly all she ever wanted.

I was simply excited to have a cousin. Of course, I had a couple of cousins, though none of them liked me. I rarely even saw them anymore. In fact, I haven't seen them at all. I am not even certain that they exist. Perhaps I just made them up. In any case, I knew that Emily's child would be in my life quite a lot. She would want to rub it in Daniel's face that she had an amazing life. For whatever reason, she always believed that Daniel was unhappy with his life, and she made a point to bring it up constantly. I don't even think they wanted to speak to one another, but Emily loved to be spiteful. That was one of the reasons I looked up to her, especially when I was younger and watched her annoy my step-father.

She had been sixteen when I first found out that Daniel wasn't my father. After she took me to Paris to cheer me up, she then brought me home and refused to leave until I was alright. Daniel grew frustrated as Emily forced mother to start redecorating each room in the house. She spent a lot of money having things shipped in from all four corners of the Earth. Most of the items were for my room, though I ended up moving them into nicer rooms where guests would actually see them.

~~

I decided on taking a slow walk around the grounds to clear my head. A few new girls were showing up today, and I wanted to avoid them as much as possible. They would most likely be young - around six - and they were the ones who tended to get more emotional about their parents leaving. I hated seeing them like that, because I missed everyone except my step-father. And who did I miss most? Edward. I missed him like hell. It made my head hurt to even think about him. All I wanted was to see him again. As soon as possible.