Macabre love

It was a normal morning at home, I was woken up by one of the house maids who told me that breakfast would be served in a few minutes and that I should hurry to be presentable as soon as possible. I must admit that it wasn't exactly the easiest thing in the world to dress myself with the huge number of layers of dress, but I preferred to have at least a little privacy in these moments. 

As soon as I was ready, I walked down the stairs to the huge dining room, the table was set and my family was sitting waiting for me as they always did, I walked to my usual place that was always next to Maya at the huge dining table, it really seemed to be a normal morning in our house and with all this calmness I couldn't wait for what was coming.

It was a quiet Wednesday morning, after eating my breakfast I was in one of my etiquette classes with my mother, she always made it clear that my daily teachings were something I couldn't escape no matter how hard I tried, "It's your duty as a noble woman and you must always be perfect. In my opinion this was all a big bummer, I never intended to get married in the end, but I was absolutely sure that if I tried to discuss this with my mother, she would tell my father and he would disown me from my own family, he really believed that a woman who could not marry and raise a beautiful family had no value in society and this made me deeply angry.

After my classes I decided to take a walk in the garden of the mansion, it was my favorite area of the house whenever I could try to find a way to escape to this place whenever possible, no matter how angry I got or how sad the people in this house made me feel, the smell of the roses always made me feel better about everything. One of the people in this house who also loved our garden was my brother Oliver, he always made sure that the employees were taking the best care of the garden, always making sure that the soil was fertilized and watered enough so that the roses could always grow healthy and beautiful. When I arrived at the garden Oliver was there, he had a concerned look on his face, the kind of affection I was not used to seeing on his face.

Oliver was a very cheerful man, we had always been very close as children so I always knew when he was sad, which was almost never the case, when he was worried or upset, so as soon as I saw the clear concern stamped on his face, I was afraid of whatever it was.

"Hello!"

"For heaven's sake Grace, don't come in so suddenly, it almost killed my heart!"

"You looked a little worried. So worried that you didn't even notice me coming."

"Perspicacious as always. What are you doing here? Running away from your classes again?"

"This time I was able to put up with all the hassle until the end, so I could come to the garden without carrying any guilt."

"We'll be free of our mother's scolding this time, then."

"Exactly. So, will you tell me why you are so worried?"

"I'm already 23, Dad wants me to marry a woman I don't know."

"An arranged marriage is just like our father. So, what do you intend to do?"

"I don't want to enter into a loveless marriage like this with a woman I don't even know the name of."

"I honestly don't think I have much choice."

"I know that, but what if I'm not able to love her?"

"I know that our father's speech always ends with "Come on, you might end up loving this woman like you did with me and your mother," but I don't think you believe that."

"The truth is that I know I can't love this woman because there is already someone I love."