Charlotte

The sun had barely risen but already, from the tallest window of the manor house, a figure could be seen putting a beautiful chocolate coloured mare through a series of intricately complicated homemade jumps. The rider sat low on the horse and the level of concentration was obvious even from a great distance. He was proud of her accomplishments of course, she really was an amazing rider but their was pity mixed in his gaze. It was 1891, she was, although educated and as physically able as any of her brothers, a girl. She would not be able to live like this for much longer, soon she would face realities she was trying desperately to avoid.

He let the curtain fall out of his hand and turned from the window, knowing that when her dreams were shattered and her heart broken, he would share in the blame.

********

Charlotte raised her head from the neck of her horse, Star and surveyed the course of homemade jumps with distaste, all were still intact, except for the second to last jump, a tricky manoeuvre coming almost straight of a hairpin. She could never get it perfectly right, the best she could do was scrape over and rattle the bar but that was not good enough for Charlotte, she was determined to perfect this course.

She patted Star on the side of the neck, her expression grim as she eyed up the course for a re-try, "One more time Star?" She knew it was stupid and her brothers would laugh at her for it but when Star tossed her head, Charlotte took it as the horse agreeing with her.

Charlotte was just about to gear herself up for another go at her course when the sound of her name being called interrupted her concentration. Looking up she seen one of the maids standing at the fence surrounding the ring, her hair flying from her cap and an expression of disapproval on her face. Rolling her eyes, Charlotte dismounted Star and led the horse toward the edge of the ring, minding the obstacles.

"Miss, your brother would like you to join him for breakfast." The maid's face was red but she still managed to look fearsome as her cold look passed over Charlotte's riding gear.

"I need to stable Star first, I'm sure my brother will be happy to wait." Charlotte said in her most aimiable tone, all the while giving the maid the same once over the other girl was giving her.

"I'm sure I can get one of the grooms to do that. You don't need to bother yourself, miss." The maid's tone was frosty, though the way she tacked miss on at the end, as if it was an after thought made Charlotte smile.

"I like bothering my self." Charlotte said in the same frosty tone before smiling almost warmly at the maid, "It's Charlotte by the way and you are?"

The maid seemed taken aback by Charlotte's random question and it made the girl smile, "I'm Beth." She answered wearily, as if worried what Charlotte would do with this information.

Evidently Charlotte had no specific plan for the information as she chose that moment to turn and lead Star towards the gate and then on to the stables before shouting back over her shoulder, "Tell my brother, I'm brushing Star down if he needs me and if not I'll be into breakfast soon."

********

When Charlotte entered the room, Jonathan was reading the paper and her parents spots were notoriously lacking cutlery.

"Lottie." Jonathan stood and opened his arms to his sister who came and hugged him, "I can't believe it, you've been at boarding school for months and the first thing you do when you come home is go and ride Star!" Charlotte smiled as she drew away from her eldest brother, she knew Jonathan well enough to know that he would not be offended that she had went to visit her horse before him.

"They left for court early." Charlotte said, guesturing to the empty part of the table, a cold look crossing her face. Her brother's nod made the look even colder and Charlotte quickly sat down, schooling her expression into a cheerful one, something she was particularly good at, when you lived with boys for most of your life, you tended to be an expert at hiding sadness and tears.

"Thomas will be home next week and Daniel will be arriving later today with a friend," Charlotte's fake, half hearted smile turned into a real one at the news of her two brothers. "I don't suppose you would consent to wearing more dresses and minding your manners while Daniel's friend is here, would you Lottie?"

Charlotte grabbed a piece of toast from her brother's plate, "It's nice that you're still naive Jonathan."