A Blessing and a Curse

Chapter Two

Hello, and welcome to chapter two of A Blessing and a Curse! I hope you enjoyed chapter one, and if you have any opinions about my story, feel free to comment.

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I am astonished. I can't even imagine marrying him, but if I want to be free...

"Could I... think about it?" I ask.

"Well-" Malcolm starts to say.

"I think it's a splendid idea!" My father says, suddenly appearing in front of Malcolm and I. "For you two to get married, I mean. You two would make a great couple, but, Malcolm, if my daughter gets hurt..."

"Slow down, Father. I didn't even accept!" This is outrageous! I don't even know what to think and my father is already supporting it.

"Well, Darling, you don't have to. It's me who's gets to accept," my father says.

I laugh. "Father, please don't make it sound like you'd be the one marrying him. It sounds weird."

"I'm just saying that it's my choice who my daughter marries, and I think the young Lord Malcolm can take care of you."

"How can you...? I don't even know him!" I say.

"How about I allow you to stay at Lord Buckingham's estate for a trial run. After that, we will decide," my father suggests.

"Sounds fair to me," Malcolm says, and his father agrees.

"Alright," I say, defeated, "When does it start?"

"How about tonight?" my father says a little too eagerly. He really wants me to get married, even though I'm only seventeen. "We will send your things over right away."

"Father, don't you think it's a bit soon?" I ask.

"No, Darling, of course not," he says.

"O-okay," I say.

We are silent for the rest of the party. When it finally ends, Malcolm and his father, who apparently approves of all this, herd me into a limo that looks almost identical to the one my father and I came in. We drive for a few minutes before we get to a thick forest.

"We can only drive about halfway into the forest until the road ends," the limo driver says, "There will be horses waiting for you there to ride the rest of the way."

"That's a bit old fashioned, isn't it?" I ask Malcolm.

"Well, it gets us there faster," he says.

"I guess, but why don't you cut through the forest to make a road?" I ask.

"Don't you ever suggest such a thing again!!!" Malcolm growls before regaining his composure a second later.

"I, uh, I'm sorry," I say, suddenly shaking. What have I gotten myself into? No, what has my father gotten me into? Could this guy even be worth being free?

Malcolm sees that I'm shaking and reaches a hand out towards me, but I shrink back, not wanting to even be near him. I'll just endure this trial run, and hope that my father decides not to have me marry him. If this is how he normally acts, I don't want to see what he looks like when he's actually angry. We arrive to the place where the road stops and we all get out. There are three horses waiting for us. One is a brilliant white, one is solid black, and the other is a plain brown.

Malcolm got on the black one, I got on the brown one, and his father got on the white one. We ride the rest of the way through the forest and enter the grounds of a mansion about the same size as the mansion I live in. We unmount and a servant hurriedly takes the horses to the stables.