Unbroken

Chapter 23

I got up from the bed determined to go after him. I didn't know where he was at or where he was going. But I trusted that I would find him. If it was meant to be then it would happen. 

After getting ready for the day I made my way down to breakfast. The whole time I was preparing my speech. It went something like 'Phillip I can not marry you because I am in love with someone else.' I was so embarrassed for proposing to him just to get cold feet the next day and jump out of the engagement. I was grateful that my mother couldn't have heard the news yet. She would have been insistent that I marry Phillip. Just as my hand came off of the banister there was a loud squeal.

"Roslyn!!! It's you it's really you!" I was attacked in an utterly embarrassing display of affection by my mother. The whole thing was an act but it was a good act. She wrapped her bony arms around me and crushed me to her chest. Her cold lips pressed against my cheek. "Oh darling! I can't believe it's really you." She held me at arms length taking in my appearance them crushed me again against her chest.

"Mother!" I gasped. I was stunned. Shocked. How could she be here? Why was she here? "What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I'm here for the wedding of course."

"The wedding?" It had only been agreed upon last night! How could she have received word already! I wondered what Phillip had told her and if she knew that I had been the one who proposed marriage to him. 

"We were searching for you Roslyn. Searching for days and days. I can't believe you were kidnapped!" She wiped a tear from her eye. "I didn't know what to do." 

I was at a loss for words. How could she know about my being captured by the slave drivers? She didn't mention Grant at all and it seemed to me that he would have been a major part of her conversation with Phillip. 

"That awful man took you from your home on the night of your party! Oh it was awful. Luther was in such a state of panic when we found your dress discarded in the gardens." She patted my shoulder as if she was offering me strength. "My dear. My dear beautiful daughter. You were so brave." She sniffed.

"How did you find me?"

"Luther told us where you were. He said that he was attacked in the forest and barely made it away with his life. He said that he saved you and sent you to this castle for refuge."

"Luther said all that?"

"Yes. And he also said for you to not worry. That he will be along shortly and your union can be made permanent."

"Marry Luther?!" I choked.

"Yes of course. The wedding is still going on. Don't fret about it dear. Your dreams will come true."

"Mother I am not going to marry Luther!" I told her watching her expression change from concern to anger to fury. She immediately covered up her emotions. 

"But now that you're here and everything is finally worked out the two of you can be together. The two of you will be married." 

"No she won't." Said a much deeper voice and I felt my cheeks flush from embarrassment when Phillip walked in. "What is the reason for this?" He asked looking at my mother.

"Who are you to think that you tell me what to do with my daughter?" She hissed with a hand on her hip and the other in the air with a long finger pointed directly at Phillip.

"I am her fiancé." Phillip replied. I felt my plans crumble. She wasn't supposed to know that we were planning on getting married. If she knew that she had the opportunity to marry me off to Phillip she wouldn't be very happy when I left to find Grant. 

"Her fiancé?" My mother laughed. "No, no. You see my daughter is betrothed already. You are mistaken there is no way that she can be engaged to you." She spat.

"I assure you. She is going to marry me." Phillip insisted taking a step forward. He was a good man. A good man to agree to the marriage. A good man to defend me from my own mother after being engaged for only a few hours. I felt awful for dragging Phillip into this mess. I felt awful because I was going to turn around and leave him. Would he still defend me when I was no longer going to be his?

"Who are you?" My mother said as she wrinkled up her nose in disgust looking him up and down. If she had known that his father was Lord Johnathan she wouldn't have treated him that way. 

"Your daughter came here and I asked her to marry me." Phillip looked at me and gave a smile. "And she agreed." He altered the story so I could look better in my mother's eyes. She was angry that I had been taken away but she would have been even angrier if she had known that I had been the one to approach him. 

"She's not available, she is promised to another." My mother spat as she inched forward towards Phillip. To his credit he didn't move. Her sneer widened as she advanced on him. She wasn't used to people standing up to her. She had always been the one who got her own way. 

"Mother, stop!" I yelled and she stopped. A shocked expression on her face.

"You dare raise your voice at me?!" She yelled back with just as much force. I had disrespected her in front of Phillip and she wouldn't easily forgive me for that. 

"I am not going to marry Luther!"

She gasped a hand flying to her throat with her eyes wide. "Roslyn you dare raise your voice at me!" She asked in a deadly whisper.

"Luther is disgusting. He was going to buy me from the slave drivers. He doesn't love me I was going to be a piece of his property. You want me to be with a man like that? A man that wants to own me like a piece of cattle? I would be no different to him than his horse." She was silent as my words sunk in so I continued. "I came to this castle to speak to Phillip because I thought he would be acceptable in your eyes. But then I realized that your opinion didn't matter to me anymore."

Her mouth moved open and closed. Her eyes were huge in their sockets. She resembled a fish as she stared at me. She stayed quiet.

"And Phillip." I turned to look at him. "I'm sorry but I've made up my mind and I can't marry you." I said. "You are an incredible man and I thank you for taking care of me. Thank you for agreeing to marry me but I'm sorry but I can't go through with it. There is somebody else that I'm in love with and I have to go." With that final statement I turned on my heel and walked out of the room.

My mother's scream of rage was the last sound I heard as I slammed the front door behind me and took off at a run with my large skirts trailing behind me.