Love & Second Chances

Chapter Sixteen - Garrett's POV

Elizabeth was no longer mine. Could I even say that she had ever been mine to begin with? That I could not rightfully say. It all seemed too much like the nightmare I had the night before I went to inquire after Elizabeth. Her mother had not lied after all. She truly was being forced to marry a different man. We had met at the cabin over a week ago and I was still having trouble believing it to be true. Initially, I had been in complete denial, but gradually it dawned on me that this was not a dream. She wore a ring, which was one of the most expensive-looking rings I had ever seen before, symbolizing that she was promised to some ridiculously wealthy nobleman.

She had not told me who exactly her future husband was, aside from the fact that his name was Charles, and quite frankly I was not sure if I wanted to know more. Despite not knowing a single thing about him, I hated him for the simple fact that he had stolen the woman I loved from me. The thing that angered me the most was that he most likely did not even know that I existed. I felt like I had lost my chance because I neglected to make my feelings for her known. The only one who knew of my relationship with her was her mother, and she would chop off her head rather than accept it.

Although I supposed that I was not entirely to blame. Her mother had always been sneaky and conniving. There was no way that anyone could have known what she was planning. She was good at predicting others actions, but her own actions were nearly impossible to predict. If there was anyone that I should have been angry with, it was Mrs. Stanford. She was the one to blame for this. Elizabeth was merely a helpless victim.

After it began to dawn on me that I was losing her, I locked myself in the music room for several days, doing nothing but composing music that would surely scare any young child right away. Eventually, my uncle managed to drag me out. I had not yet told him what had happened, so he probably thought that I had gotten into an argument with Elizabeth or something along those lines. Over the last few days, he had been forcing me to get out of the house, knowing that I would just stay locked up in my music room, torturing my magnificent hand-painted piano if he did not.

I had not been giving music lessons for a few days now, all due to different reasons. One of my pupils had a sore throat and was unable to speak at all. Another had been forced to cancel due to a wedding in her family. And of course, Alice had been banned from stepping foot inside my house ever again. With nothing else to do, I had decided to join my uncle for a day of entertainment in town.

At current, we were strolling through the park, enjoying the sunlight, but did have plans to visit the pub a bit later in the day. Although I think I would have preferred it if we could have skipped the walk and gone straight to the pub. Not that I was necessarily lazy, I just felt more like drowning my sorrows.

"Perhaps I should introduce you to a few lovely young ladies, whose parents I am acquainted with," suggested my uncle.

"I would prefer that you not," I said with a small groan.

"Do not tell me that you are one of those naive youths who believe that love comes only once," he rolled his eyes at me slightly. "Just look at how many wives King Solomon had."

"King Solomon was made to eat grass because of that."

"That is not the point," he persisted. "The point is that it would not do you any harm to keep your eyes open. Elizabeth may not be the one you are meant to marry."

He was probably correct in that statement. As much as I would love to claim otherwise, Elizabeth would never be my wife. I had told her that I would not give her up without a fight, and she did thank me for that, but insisted that this Charles fellow must never learn of me. I had not thought much of that, although. Judging by the fact that she was trembling when she said it, I determined that her mother must have told her the same thing.