The Rose Petal Pond

Prologue

She had met him on a cool spring evening, in the fading light of the setting sun. The shadows flung across his face masked most of his features; she had made out the line of his jaw, the curve of his shoulders, the strength in his hands. Her glances were brief and haste; she wasn't allowed away from the property so late at night. But she had to see him again. The letters he left her weren't enough anymore; she needed to see him, to speak to him, to touch him. She needed to know he was real.

His agreeing to meet her was circumstantial; only after dark, only once, and only at the pond with the rose petals floating across the surface. Once wasn't enough for her, though. Her heart skipped a beat with every thought of him, her fingers shook with tension as she gripped the letter he sent her. If her father found out what they had done...

She had watched his tense figure stay out of her reach, had felt the air turn cold and heavy as he told her they couldn't see one another any longer. She watched his body blur in the distance, getting smaller and smaller, helpless to stop him. Her tears blinded her, her devastation choked her, sitting in her throat against her wind pipe. She felt like she couldn't get enough air in her lungs. Her hands fell to her sides, defeated, the letter fluttering out of her grasp to land gently at the water's edge, a corner dipping into the pond. 

The only man she truly loved, out of her life forever, never to return.