Author Note: This is a first draft and still raw and unedited I hope you enjoy! 

Marxby Manor- August-1918

It was early evening and we were listening to the sea, Sarah and I. We linked arms and let the last brushings of the summer air run over of faces without uttering a word, we didn't need to say anything we both knew what the other were thinking. We were remembering the summer before the war, the summer of Fay's thirteenth birthday when our lives changed forever.

I closed my eyes for a moment and tried to recollect Will and I in the boat under the willow tree but I found the memory wouldn't materialise the music playing from inside the manor seemed to pull me away from the past and back to the present penetrating the inside of my mind with a loud thud.

Sarah seemed to pick up on my sullen mood and squeezed me gently through our linked arms and I squeezed her in return. We had come outside onto one of the manor's top floor balcony areas to escape, escape the night and Mama and Papa and what was going on inside the manor. Papa was having guests over to the estate like back in the old days, before the war when people would eat and dance and laugh at Marxby Manor almost every night.

We wanted to scream at him it wasn't the old days, that no one really came to the Manor any more, not in the same way, but tonight our halls would be full once more. Papa had some old friends coming over for dinner, mostly old army generals some still serving or on leave. To out siders I suppose it really did look like quite a grand affair, but it was no more than Papa and his oldest friends having dinner, discussing old times, discussing the war.

But Papa didn't just have his friends or the war on his mind; he had the match of his youngest daughter. Every child he had married it had been for financial reasons, to increase or secure is own great fortune, despite the promise he made to me Fay was no different. As Papa's friends arrived I knew who he had in mind for Fay when the Count and Countess of Moxem, an old friend of Papa and Mama's walk into the Manor they had a young son of seventeen, still too young to fight and there riches were great and title even greater.

"Have you seen the Count and Countess?" I said.

"Indeed," said Sarah.

"I haven't seen a thing of Fay though, have you?" I said.

Sarah shook her head.

"It reminds me of when Papa was trying to match me to Lord Niall, I did my best to hide for him all morning but Mama found me in the end," I sighed.

Sarah nodded, "Sounds like Mama,"

"So...," Sarah raised her eyebrows at me.

"So we need to find Mama," I smiled.

We ducked through the green embellished drapes that hung in-between Sarah's bedroom and the balcony and snuck downstairs doing our best not to be seen because if we were it would be too late, we would be too late; we would be part of Papa's gathering and would never escape.

The only eyes that were on us as we walked briskly through the manor were those of the servants, all knowing that we were supposed to be inside. The gardens were dark and the only light that was cast over their beauty was that from the manor, we held hands and ran through them quickly willing ourselves to find Fay, Mama or both quickly so we could be out of the darkness and into the light again.

"What is that?" Said Sarah pointing into the darkness.

There were many gardens at Marxby Manor but only one that was never opened, only one that was shrivelled and dead, hidden, tucked away beyond all the rest. You could not see this garden from the manor and I suppose that is why Fay chose to meet him there, the boy who she was locked in such a passionate embrace. Not inside the garden, no one ever went it in that garden, but they stood by the door holding each other, gazing into each other's eyes, we didn't need to see anymore, not really.

"That's Thomas Whitby, the son of General Marcus Whitby, the old General is up at the manor with Papa," whispered Sarah.

"They don't look like they have just met tonight do they?" I said.

"No they do not," said Sarah.

We walked away from them, this was a private moment between Fay and Thomas and it was not for our eyes, we had meant to find our sister, meant to save her even, but it appeared to us quite plainly that Fay had plans of her own. We walked back to the manor quickly "we must join the party," I said.

"Yes, you join them first, distract them, say Fay and I are delayed, then I will come, hopefully, Fay won't be too long," said Sarah

I nodded.

"We cannot let her be discovered," I said.

Sarah took my hand.

"She won't be, we won't allow it," we smiled at each other.

We walked faster and faster away from the gardens and towards the manor ready to put our plan in action when a dark vision was striding towards us. The light from the manor slowly but surely revealed his face Niall my heart sank. My husband wasn't just walking towards us but storming, "what do you think you are doing?" He whispered angrily to me through the darkness.

Sarah clasped my hand gently.

"Nothing, just walking through the gardens, that's all," I said.

"That's not all though is it Dolphina?"

I raised my eyebrows at Niall, wondering if he knew what we were doing, how could he know? Really?

Niall laughed a sickening laugh which sent a shiver down my spine, I wanted to run as far away from him as I could, from him and his handy fists but when I stood with him and Sarah in the darkness I knew that was never going to happen, he would never let me run. He snatched my hand from Sarah's, she tried to hold me with her but he took me, forced my hand into his own and began to drag me towards the manor. His hands getting harder and harder on my skin, all while we were still out of sight, I tried to pull away from him, to kick out but he would not let got, he would never let me go.

"You disgust me," I cried.

"And you disgust me," he laughed.

We stopped.

"You could have stopped Fay and the General's son right then and there but you did not, did you think he might marry her? Save her from a fate like your own, a hate filled loveless marriage... did you, hmm?" Niall cried.

"Fay deserves better than a man like you," I spat at him.

Niall laughed again.

"Maybe she does, but she is not going to get it, right now your father is in talks with my younger cousin and his father and your sister will find that he and I are very similar indeed."

I didn't know what to say, the Count and Countess were one thing but Niall's own cousin, I had never even met this man, I couldn't let that happened the very thought was too horrifying to even think about.

"I like it when your stunned," he said with a wicked grin,

"It's very appealing when I have shocked all the fire out of the devilish eyes," he gleamed.

Niall was right, I didn't know what to say, and as my husband forcefully guided me back to the manor, digging his fingers into the back of my neck just for good measure with Sarah following us behind. I walked, unwillingly back to the party and as I did I came up with a plan, one that might get Fay her freedom but I was going to need some help.

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