A Walk on the Water

The Señora's look was one of amusement and doubt. "Leave? Because of this? And just where would you go? How will you manage?"

"I'll find my way to Port Lira - somehow. I will manage like I did in Germany, hide in hobbles and work for my money," Alannah said in a quivering voice. "and when father leaves, I'll make a run for it … I'll go …. somewhere -"

"You're talking nonsense," the Señora said cutting her off gently. "By all accounts your father is a very wealthy, very resourceful man. He will find you, no matter where you go."

"I will not return home with him," Alannah rejoined. "I will kill myself first. You have no idea ….. "

"Tell me that you're not serious."

"You haven't any idea how serious I am," Alannah told her, sitting once again, closing her eyes as tears rolled down her cheeks. "You must understand, Señora, that he comes for me not as a father but because of his . . . his damned affronted arrogance and pride! He thinks that he is the center of the universe, and that everyone around him must do his bidding. He sent my brothers away, all three of them when they would not follow his rules. I don't even know if they are alive or dead. I was promised to a man the day I was born, this man I do not love, I barely even know him but my father, he insists that I marry him. His only interest in me is proprietary. I will not endure being told what to think and what to feel by him nor anyone else You can have no idea what lengths he will go to where disobedience in his eyes is concerned, or how soul-destroying it is to be trapped within his sphere.

"The man sees me as a threat to his very regiem! I am the embodiment of a free thinking woman and he refuses to view the world as I do. You should hear him rant on the subject!"'

"You exaggerate," the Señora said with a smile.

White-faced, her features wooden, Alannah wordlessly got to her feet, unbuttoned her dress, and let it fall to the floor and turned around so that her back was facing the Señora . "I may have been raised to act like a lady, Señora , but there is consequences for disobeying a tyrant like my father."

After several long moments of shocked silence, the Señora said, "Please, put your dress back on and sit down, Alannah girl. There will be no more talk of your leaving here."

Alannah bent over and pulled her dress up, tunring back to face the Señora as she did so. She then reached around to her back and with trembling hands fumbled with her buttons, and gasped when her fingers came into contact with a pair of warm, strong hands. Alannah's tears flowed even faster now, she couldn't stop them, she never wanted Dominic to see the scars from her fathers beatings.