"Lilianna," Aidan called from behind, "you must learn to ride as a lady rides, which is sidesaddle. Now please! I am only here to give you the desired lessons, which I cannot do if you won't even try to compensate me!"
Lilianna slowed her galloping horse just as Lord Aidan Dudley had caught up to her. Lord Dudley had been trying to teach her the proper sidesaddling techniques for the past week.
"Lord Dudley, may I ask you something?"
He nodded briefly in response.
"Have you ever tried to ride sadesaddle in layers of petticoats, a bonnet, and gloves?"
"I cannot say I have had the pleasure of doing so Lady Lilianna." He said shielding the blazing sun by placing his hand on his forehead.
"Pray you try it and if you can do so gracefully, then I shall attempt the same, but until the day you dawn a bonnet and petticoats I'll ride how I choose." With that remark, Lilianna flipped the reigns and was off yet again.
"Hmph." Lilianna stated loudly. She absolutely hated being placated, coerced, or otherwise. It was about time her aunt Lydia and brother, Mendel, stop worrying about her and her "duties" and "obligations: as a young lady. She had tried that "lady" routine once and the only purpose it had served was to see to it that her parents died. She could live no longer in the past, she kept telling herself so therefore being a lady was to stop.
As Lilianna had come to these thoughts she hadn't realized she'd rode right into a forest - a very dark and eerie forest at that.
"I believe milady, that you are lost," called a proud and noble voice from the depths of the forest itself.
"Aye! That I am. Would ye be kind enough to show me the way out good sir?" Lilianna's voice shook with fear, but she directed the horse forward.
No answer.
Lilianna pushed the horse forward still by digging her hells in a bit further to his hind. She swallowed the lump in her throat and looked from right to left then ahead and behind her. Still, there was no sign of anyone. The horse whinnied and she calmly patted its mane to reduce its anxiety.
Suddenly, ahead of her, between two trees, she saw a figure; it was most definitely the figure of a man.
"I say," Lilianna announced, "might you step forward and tell me how I might get free of this horrible wood?"
The man quietly crept forward until he was next to her horse; he had a cape and a hat and that was all she could really make out until sudden lightening flashed through the sky. Lilianna feared storms and lightening more than death. The man saw the fear in her eyes and held out his hand to her.
"I will take you in; out of the oncoming storm. I have a hunting lodge nearby. You will be safe and warm there."
At that particular moment Lilianna felt almost calm when she was almost in the midst of a storm - one of the scariest thiogns to her and so she softly whispered, "Alright."
Sometimes those most worthy of love are not made happy by it. ~Dangeous Liaisons
It is on the strength of observation that one finds a way; so we must dig and delve unceasingly. ~Claude Monet 1840-1926