To Be Us

Chapter One

I wandered through the small mansion that was my home, looking through each of the large, floor-to-ceiling windows as I passed them. The sun was shining brightly in the sky, a couple clouds covering it every now and then. I watched as the children of our reasonably-sized town played in the streets, wishing as I had every day that I could join in their game.

I had asked my father once, if I could play with them. I was about seven. To say he had disapproved is an enormous understatement - he yelled so much about how I needed to uphold the family name, be more like my sister Louisa. I was the older one of the two of us, therefore I would become the Lady of Mikala. Of course, I would be married first, to whoever my father decided would be make our family more powerful.

Louisa loves this life, always calling for the maids to do her nails a different shade of pink or red, to help her put on a prettier dress than the one she was already wearing, or to do her hair up so it was prettier than all the other females in our home.

I was different, and Lord did I know it. Father was always telling me to be more ladylike, yelling at me to change if I wore clothes that I stole from the boys. Honestly, I wish I hadn't been born as the Lord's daughter. I long to join the poorer families down by the river, or in the fields. At least I would get to have more control over my life.

However, I wasn't. I was Bailee Orona, eldest daughter of Lord Orona of Mikala. I was rich, forced to do what was expected of a princess, and I hated every moment of my life in Orona House. It is exactly three weeks and a day from the worst day of my life - the day of my sixteenth birthday. The day when I am given to some rich man that will make Mikala powerful, as if I am an object such as a book, or a collection of silver coins.