“Kindly remove your hand or I will rip your arm off and beat you with it.” I smiled as I said the words; however, I meant every single one of them. Clive Terrin, the boy who held my wrist in a tight grip, only snorted.

“Lena, you’re going to cause a scene… again,” Clive said. In his mightier-than-thou mind, he probably thought he was being helpful. He was wrong of course. And for more than one reason.

The sounds of laughter, music, and general revelry flowed out of the large brick building we stood on the front step of. The light poured out of the door and illuminated the night darkened street. One girl in fancy blue party dress lingered close to the open door, head tilted as she listened closely to what we were saying. Brenna Read.

“People are already staring,” I told him, raising my free hand to direct Clive’s attention to the Brenna’s now rather intent gaze. She had always been incredibly nosy. One day she’d end up sticking her nose in a place where it wasn’t appreciated and end up losing it. That would definitely damper her flirting with every eligible inner circle boy in Woodhearst. People without noses weren’t typically considered pretty no matter how much money their papas made in a year.

Clive spun back to see her. He grit his teeth, dropped my wrist, and pulled the door shut. The noise from inside immediately dampened. He pressed his hand to his forehead. “Let me rephrase that. You don’t want to cause an even bigger scene than usual.”

“Father and I were invited Clive! By your father… the Mayor!” I snapped, throwing my hands in the air.

Clive snatched them out of the air. “You’re a farmer’s daughter. This is an inner circle party. Look at yourself. You wouldn’t fit in here. You’d have no fun here.”

I stared down at my dress and forced myself to keep from shifting from foot to foot. So what if my dress wasn’t cut from the same satin and silk as the girls like Brenna? Or made by fancy tailors? I’d made my own dress just as expertly, using greens and browns to compliment my tanned skin and brown eyes. Just as any tailor would have. I’d also spent more time than I cared to admit to tame my hair out of it’s usual braid. I didn’t have rouge or other cosmetics but I’d done an impressive job scrubbing the ever present layer of dirt from my face and from under my finger nails.

I looked just as nice and well put together as any of the other girls here and after spending so much time to get ready, I wanted to go! Regardless of whether or not Clive or any of his stupid, fancy inner city friends thought I belonged there.

“Father is in good standing. So much so that Mayor Terrin asked us to join the celebration tonight.”

Clive winced as my voice rose past the respectable level for a girl, common or otherwise. I jerked my hands out of his grip and tried to dart around him. He kept himself between me and the door with impeccable dexterity. “Father’s invitation was a courtesy to Merrik as gratitude for supplying the hog of the festivities. Notice that he didn’t actually come.”

“Of course he didn’t. He’s too busy planning the planting for the next three seasons!”

Clive finally lost his temper and snapped. “That’s enough Lena! Neither farmers nor their daughters attend inner circle parties and mix company with their betters. It’s just not done. Go home!”

He pushed my off the front step and on to the street. So much for the “gentlemanly manner” he prided himself with carrying. The door opened and slammed shut a moment later as Clive disappeared into the mayoral manse. I stood in the darkness by myself with my jaw effectively on the ground.

Without thinking, I darted to the window. Clive apparently anticipated that because there was only a brief glimpse of the dancing people in their striking clothes visible before he pulled the curtains shut. I stumbled backwards then regained myself.

“So much for genteel hospitality!” I yelled. It was definitely loud enough for the people inside to hear. I knew because the muted chattering on the other side of the window went silent for just a moment. “I bet even our ‘gracious lord’ Baron Harwood has better manner than you asses and he’s known to thieve gold from his visitors!”

No response. Unsurprising. After a tense moment, the noise resumed.

I resisted the urge to kick the side of the manse. Bricks always won against feet even if you happened to be wearing thick leather boots. Instead, I stomped away from the building. “A farmer’s daughter,” I snorted under my breath to empty air. “As though that means I don’t deserve as much respect as anyone else in this stupid parochial town.”

Pulling my cloak tighter around me, I started for home. Nothing better to do. I could only imagine what Father would say about this. He always had something to say to me. No matter what the case was.

Home wasn’t terribly far from the inner circle of town. Our town of Woodhearst was one of the smallest in the Harwood barony. It took me only a twenty minute walk to reach the first stretch of farmland. Our family fields weren’t far beyond that. By the time I reached it, the stars hung brightly in the sky over the spans of the Edirk Forest that bordered our land on the North side. The land had been in the Rivers family, our family, for the last five generations. Tended by Father’s father and by his parents before him and so on and so forth. So many years of supplying Woodhearst with grain and meat had lead to a comfortable and prosperous position for our family. A highly respectable position.

An obscenely boring one as well.

Just as I expected, one lone light burned through the window in our modest two storied farmhouse. I paused at the bottom of the walk, heaved a sigh, and steeled my resolve before trudging up the path to the front door. It creaked traitorously as I opened it. “Lena,” Father called from the direction of the kitchen.

I winced. Any chance of sneaking upstairs to my room was gone now. “I’m home Father. I’m going to bed,” I answered.

“Come here.”

I squeezed my hand into a fist. Clearly, I had no luck tonight in any regard.

Father sat at the kitchen table with a steaming mug of of cider at his elbow and a pile of ledgers spread in front of him. He barely glanced up at me when I entered. “Where have you been this evening?” he asked me.

For a moment, I said nothing and just shrugged my shoulders. However, Father raised his eyes just enough to watch me. “In town,” I said, leaving it at that. He didn’t need to know the specifics. If town gossip travelled at the usual pace then he’d hear about it tomorrow.

“What for?” he continued, sipping his cider and sifting through his numbers. I held my tongue. He looked up from the ledger. I dropped my head down when his brow furrowed at my nice dress, clean face, and purposely arranged waves of my brown hair. “What for Lena?” he repeated with more gravity.

Or he’d find out tonight. No luck indeed. I squared my shoulders and met Father’s gaze. “I wanted to go to the party at the mayoral manse tonight. So I did. Or at least tried to.”

The last part I muttered under my breath. Father stared at me for a moment before shaking his head. “Am I to assume that you went to Mayor Terrin’s home and made a fool of yourself again?”

“‘Made a fool’ is a rather strong term for wanting to enjoy myself at a party don’t you think Father? Besides, we were invited weren’t we? Why shouldn’t I have gone?”

He set his papers aside, dropped his head into his hands, and let out a heavy sigh as though the gods themselves were testing him. In his mind they probably were. Why else would they have saddled him with a child like me?

I drew a breath through my nose and waited. Father pulled his head out of his hands and stared me down. “Magdalena, we’ve been over this hundreds of times. How many more must we have this conversation?”

“We were invited,” I muttered.

“We do not go to parties of the Woodhearst elite. The invitation was extended with that understanding.”

“Well that’s ridiculous. We have every right to go to that party. It’s not like they’re better than us.”

“The sooner you realize what your place in this world is the better.”

Oh here we went again.

“My place? My place is where ever I want it to be.” I crossed my arms over my chest and braced myself.

“You are my daughter! A farmer’s daughter and one day you shall be a farmer as well! And your children will be the same.”

“Really Father? What if I want something different? What if I want to be something different?”

Father cast an icy look at me. “You are fifteen now. Too old for these foolish flights of imagination. Ever since you left school last year you have only grown more and more unreasonable.”

I wrinkled my nose. Father didn’t seem to notice. He kept talking, “I’d hoped by now that you would’ve started to look for someone to settle down with. Your mother and I were nearly married by the time she was your age. Not even two years later she ushered you into this world.”

And only another three had gone by when she passed from it trying to birth my sibling. One that you didn’t even see fit to tell me the gender of. I didn’t say that out loud. Instead, I responded with a less inflammatory remark, “There’s more to life than getting married, having babies, and farming Father.”

“Not for us,” he said firmly. “Everyone has their role to play in the world even you as much as you try to ignore it. One day you will be married and you and your family will work this land. That’s how things are. Put any other ridiculous notions out of your head and focus on reality.”

“But…”

“Enough Lena!” Father brought his hand down on the table. The mug of cider sloshed over the table at the force of it. I jumped and pulled back a step, taken off guard. “It’s late and you have many chores early in the morning. Go to bed. Hopefully, you didn’t embarrass us too much tonight at Mayor Terrin’s manse.”

With that he turned his attention back to his ledgers. I opened my mouth to say something. Anything really. One final word to defend myself and my desires.

Nothing came out though.

I closed my mouth and clenched my jaw so tightly that my teeth ached. He never listened so what was the point of trying to argue anyways? I turned on my heel to head for my bedroom upstairs.

“Another thing Lena…” Father’s voice froze my retreat. I waited with my hands curled into fists. “Do not stray into the forest. Don’t even get close to it. Erickson found traces of some kind of… some kind of beast in them not far from his land. Whatever it was, it’s tracks are twice the size of a bear. With something that size lurking in the forest, I don’t want you getting hurt.. Stay clear of them.”

“As you wish Father,” I mumbled before sweeping out of the room.