Murderous Suitor | Rebekah Mikaelson

Chapter One

Two years later

 Lucrezia didn't want to go to the party that night. She sat cross-legged on her bed in her underclothes, refusing to dress for the party. The maids couldn't stand her anymore and they all left, probably to go report her behavior to her brother.

 She didn't care if he wanted to scold her. She didn't care if he thought she was being childish. She wasn't going to play the marriage game the way he was playing it. Surely he had plans to marry them both. She was nineteen, certainly a marriageable age, and he was a widower with no children. Yes, that was surely his plan, and Lucrezia wasn't going to go along with it.

 The was a light rapping on the door. "Sister, dear! It is I. I am coming in, and I doubt you want me to enter when you are not dressed properly."

 Lucrezia sighed and grabbed her dressing gown. "Enter, then, if you must."

 Vittorio, the Duke of Ferrara, walked in with his usual grand atmosphere. There was always something majestic and alluring about him that it made people drawn to him, even Lucrezia herself.

 "What an untidy room," he remarked simply, gazing around his sister's bedroom. "What, my dear, has prompted this?"

 "I do not wish to go to the party," she said, trying to make her voice sound firm. "I am not well."

 "Sister, you are very well. I can see you are not ill at all. You cannot be to put up such a fit. What is this all about, hmm? You are too old to act in such a way. You are the lady of the house. What will our guests think of you?"

 "It does not matter to me what they think of me," she snapped. "I refuse to go."

 She let those words hang in the air to see what he would say next.

 "Dearest Lucrezia," Vittorio stepped over to the bed and took her hand, "This is very important. You are the lady of this household, and you must be seen that way. You are to be the lady of your own household someday, are you not?" He took her other hand. "We are one of the most powerful families in Italy. One day, you will be the wife of a great, important man, and will have your own home, one you made for yourself. Now, my dear, for us to be sure all of that happens, I am afraid you must go to tonight's party with me. And do hurry, or we shall be late."

 He gave her a kiss on the cheek before turning and leaving the room without another word.

 Lucrezia sighed and got up to call the maids back. How did Vittorio have such an effect on her? Perhaps it was that he called her by her name so tenderly; he usually only called her 'sister'. Or perhaps it was the way he spoke so softly, so tenderly to her. He hardly ever spoke to her in such a way. Except... except when he wanted something of her, she realized.

 Too tired to put up any more arguments, she allowed herself to be dressed for the party where there many or not have been a man her brother planned to marry her to.

~~~~~~

 Vittorio and Lucrezia met and spoke with many people that night. Lucrezia stayed at her brother's side, like she knew he wanted her to, as he introduced her all his acquaintances and whatever important people were there. She acted polite and pleasant, but inside she was fuming. It was as if he was carting her around acting like she was some sort of prize.

 "Do you still feel well, sister?" he asked her.

 "Why should I say I am unwell? You know now that it is a lie."

 He smiled. "Ah, sister. That strong spirit of yours will give you difficulty in finding a husband."

 She sighed. If she was going to have a husband, she hoped he would let her make her own choice, but even then she knew it would have to be a choice he approved of. That was how much power he had and how little she herself owned.

 "Ah. Sister, do you see those people there?" Vittorio asked. He stopped walking and nodded in their direction. "Those people. Have you seen them before?"

 Lucrezia looked in that direction. There were four of them, three men and a woman. As soon as she was looking at them, she could not take her eyes off of them. She had never seen anyone quite like them before.

 Attractive as they all were, both the brother and the sister's hearts were stolen when the woman looked in their direction, and they looked into her eyes, the most beautiful woman either of them had ever seen.