Should I Marry Him? (TomTord)

Chapter 23: Charcoal

Summer 1772

The English side looked pleasant during this time. 

It is also the start of the curse. 

Thomas Ridgewood, a young man in his twenties looks over at the coast as he walks along the pasture close to the beach. His charcoal suit coat hangs loosely in his arms. The sea breeze tickles his nose. 

His long chestnut colored hair is neatly tied into a pony tail as he scratches his well groomed bearded chin. His piercing, ocean blue eyes looks ahead at the grass flecked with various colors. It calmed him for some reason. He looks down at his work boots. 

This scene reminds him of his mother. 

She taught him about summoning familiars. She taught him about how to make poisons, elixirs, and how to treat people when he can. She taught him how to use his abilities when his father wasn't around. She was his rock and he was her star. 

He's going to visit her grave. 

He was young when she died. It was due to an illness she had. His father wanted to give her his life cycle. He wanted to save her but, she refused. She didn't want to infect him with whatever she had. She knew her husband's true nature. 

He is a mythical monster.  

She feared that the illness would kill him. She wanted for him to live and raise their only son right. When she died in his arms, he saw his son by the door. The boy didn't move from his spot, not even to comfort his mother in her last moments.

"I'm sorry father." Thomas looked at his father. 

"Come here." The man said. The boy sits next to his father in silence. They both look at the one who was once their light. The man put an arm around his son, a rarity for the child. 

"Remember your mother alive, for her heart is still here and her knowledge is in you." His father picks up his mother's body and walks out the door with her in his arms. 

The next week, they had the funeral. The boy and his father looks down at the beautifully dressed woman in the casket. Her body is surrounded by her favorite flowers. The boy doesn't cry, he doesn't weep, he doesn't even make a sound. While her family cries, he stands tall next to his father. He already weep for her, it's time to stay strong. 

This was a decade ago. 

He looks at his mother's grave. Next to it is his father's grave. He died before his twenty-first birthday. It wasn't uncommon for him not to weep at his father's funeral. He didn't at his mother's, why should he at his father's? He chose to stand tall at both. 

"Good morning mother, good morning father," he starts, "I know I haven't been around to see you but, I have good news! I'm going to college soon! I'll be able to make you two proud of me. I wish you were here to see it." He sinks down on his knees at their grave. 

"I miss you two so much." He sheds some tears on their graves. 

He notice someone in the graveyard as he got up. A woman around his age looking at a gravestone. He looks at her beauty before looking away in embarrassment. Such lustful thoughts came to his mind. 

'It is time for me to wed soon.' He thought. 

It wasn't uncommon for him to be married at a young age. His parents married each other before their twenties. Why not marry someone now and have a loving wife who could be in college with him. He can pay for her expenses and everything. His inheritance is enough to sustain them for a while.