Another Chance with the Duke

Is this really how I die? The man's broad, toothy grin was repulsive. More repulsive than his long greasy blonde hair dangling around her face, sticking to her cheeks. More repulsive than the sweat dripping off of his forehead onto her face. But nothing was more repulsive than his eyes, glowing golden orbs that had haunted every second of every day. I hate it. "I'll have a carriage waiting for you on the outskirts of town tonight," Kenni had said. "I'll take you away from this place and make sure that bastard gets what he deserves." Evalynn strained her body, squirming and writhing to free herself, ripping the blade of the knife through her insides with each attempt while her fiance Edgar, the man pinning her down cackled. Her body was freezing and burning all at once and she tried to scream, out of pain, out of desperation, out of hope that someone might save her, but it was all muffled by Edgar's blood-caked hands. He's waiting for me… or did he already get caught? All she had ever wanted was to live happily. A simple, happy life with her beloved. But now it was all gone. She was going to die looking at her fiance, wishing that Kenni would save her. He wouldn't come. He couldn't come. Edgar had made sure of that. There was no way she could have predicted what Edgar was planning. She knew that the vile man had been plotting something since the day her parents sold her off to him to be his fiance, but her ignorance had prevented her from being able to do anything. She had been too self-absorbed, first in her own misfortune, and then with falling in love to realize that she was going to be used to ruin her lover's life. Edgar had made sure to explain in detail when he pinned her down and twisted his knife into her stomach. How he was going to frame her murder on Duke Samuel Kennington, hero of the kingdom of Atalia, saying that he became jealous when she refused to break off her engagement. How his broken heart had driven him to kill her. I'm sorry Kenni… A shudder shook Evalynn's body and the pain slowly dulled. Evalynn could feel her head get lighter as if she were floating away with a strange sort of bliss that defied her situation. Her chest had already gone still, her heart and lungs stopping before her mind could catch up. If only I'd been strong enough. Then maybe… *** A beam of warm sunlight hit Evalynn's face, blinding her through her closed eyelids and snapping her awake. Her chest heaved heavily and she could place her hands on her chest. Her heart raced as she sat up in her large canopied bed and felt her body up and down. What was that nightmare? Evalynn grabbed her ivory silk nightgown and pulled it up, checking her stomach where she had been stabbed. Stabbed by her fiance. The pain of the nightmare had been so real and the sensation of having everything taken from her as she lay helplessly only able to wait for… Tears pattered down onto Evalynn's hands and the thick embroidered white blankets covering her lap. There were no wounds and she was safe. It didn't make any sense, but as she calmed herself the tears of fear and confusion changed to those of pure joy. If it had been a nightmare, that meant she wasn't dying and it also meant that Kenni was safe. Across the room, one of the large ornate doors opened and the silence of the room was broken by the clacking of hard shoes rushing across the marbled floor. "Evalynn?" a cool, soft voice questioned through the thin soft pink fabric of the bed's canopy. "It's time to wake up." The curtain of the canopy pulled back and Evalynn's heart jumped in her chest as a young woman with long straight black hair and sharp hickory-colored eyes leaned in with a smile. "Evalynn! Are you crying? What's wrong?" Evalynn shook her head, throwing her covers off and lunging at the woman, pulling her into a tight embrace. "It's nothing, Kirin. I just had a horrible nightmare." "It must have been scary," Kirin whispered, stroking Evalynn's hair with her slender fingers. "Why don't we get you dressed and eat some breakfast to make you feel better?" Evalynn nodded, wiping her tears with her sleeve. Breakfast sounded nice and it would give her a chance to sort out her thoughts. The nightmare had been so vivid and even though she wasn't injured at all, Evalynn could still feel a ripping pain where she had been stabbed. It was clearly in her head, and while she wanted to talk to Kirin about it, it seemed pointless. Kirin would just comfort her and tell her to forget about it. It was the most logical answer, but it didn't sit well with Evalynn for some reason. "On your feet Lady Evalynn. After your breakfast, we need to get you dressed quickly." Evalynn's chest tightened. "Why is that?" "You don't remember? Your parents wanted to discuss your engagement with you." The blood drained from Evalynn's face and she snapped the hand Kirin had been holding to help her get out of the bed away. Her engagement. Her engagement with Earl Taladin. Earl Edgar Taladin, the man who had chased her down and stabbed her. A suffocating knot formed in Evalynn's throat and she could feel her body begin to shake violently. She was getting engaged with Edgar, again. This doesn't make sense. I've already been engaged to Edgar for a year. Why is Kirin talking like this is something new? Wait, this isn't… I'm at my parents' mansion? A painful spinning sensation overtook Evalynn and she grabbed her head with her hands, pressing them against her skull as if to keep it from crumbling apart. She was in the room she'd grown up in. That explained the canopied bed, the small table white table with coiled metal legs in the center of the room where she'd eat her breakfast and lunch, the barely used white velvet-covered sofa by the large white wooden double doors. It was all just as she'd remembered it. "Kirin, have you ever met Ed- I mean, Earl Taladin before?" Kirin shook her head, straightening out the long skirt of her black and white maid uniform. "I haven't, neither of us have. Or did you meet him at some point on your own?" I've never met him before and we're not engaged. Does that mean I've traveled back a year? How is that possible?  "You're positive we've never met him before? He's never come here before? I've never met him at a social event?" Kirin shook her head again, her lips upturned in a worried frown. "I can guarantee he's never entered this mansion, and as far as social gatherings, you've never mentioned him before. Why, do you fancy him?" "No." Evalynn took a deep breath, calming her body before she reached back out to Kirin for help out of her bed. If she was back to the day her parents informed her about her engagement, that meant she wouldn't have to meet the bastard for another couple of months. And if Kirin didn't know who the engagement was with, it meant that there was a chance for Evalynn to dissuade her parents. "What about Ke- I mean Duke Kennington?" "We've never met him, either.," Kirin c****d her head slightly to the side. "Should I call a doctor?" "It's nothing. I'm just still a little shaken from my nightmare," Evalynn said, forcing a smile as genuinely as she could. "You know the idea of marrying a stranger scares me." "Of course. Why don't you go sit at the table? I made the chef make you your favorite breakfast." "Cherry strudel?" Evalynn cried out, surprising even herself. She hadn't had cherry strudel in a year, not since she'd been sent to live with Edgar. He had made sure she only ever ate the foods she hated the most like greasy, fatty meat where the juices congealed into a gel once the plate was cold. Then there was the time he'd made her watch as they'd slaughtered the- Evalynn gagged thinking about the poor creature. She really hated meat. This is so frustrating. I've come back before the engagement but other than that I can't tell what's what. But if I really have gotten a second chance, I have to do everything I can to stop Edgar from destroying Kenni's life. Samuel Kennington. Her beloved Kenni, Duke of Eddleburg and ex-champion of the Royal Knights. Why had he been her first thought instead of herself? A melancholy smile formed on Evalynn's lips as she thought of her beloved Samuel. His soft brown hair between her fingers. His wide violet eyes piercing into her. He had been her everything and she had been his ruin. But not this time. "Here you go Evalynn," Kirin said, setting a large tray of steaming cherry strudels in the center of the round white metal table Evalynn was seated at. "I also have coffee and tea if you'd like." "Tea please," Evalynn replied, scooping up a strudel and taking a large bite. The strudel was a bit too hot, but the sweetness overpowered the slight stinging pain she felt in her mouth. "With five scoops of sugar and lots of milk please." A cold slender finger pressed against Evalynn's forehead, causing Evalynn to almost choke on her food. "What are you doing?" "Checking to make sure you really don't need a doctor. You're acting so strange this morning." "How am I acting weird?" Kirin shrugged, removing her hand and stepping over to the other side of the table to prepare Evalynn's tea. "Not only did you wake up crying, but now you're suddenly asking for so much sugar in your tea when you normally drink it plain." That's right. I had always drank it plain before I moved in with Edgar, but after he had trapped me in his mansion, having sugar in my tea was the only sweet-tasting thing I could get my hands on. Other than the few times Kirin had been able to sneak me treats. Memories of sitting and staring blankly out the window in her bedroom at Edgar's manor down at the manor's rose garden flashed in Evalynn's mind. Through all his mind games and physical abuse, he had always allowed her full freedom around the grounds, but she had never bothered. Instead, she'd wallowed in her own misfortune, with only Kirin's stolen treats and eventually Kenni's visits giving her any desire to live. "I'm fine, Kirin. I'm just thinking of trying new things." Evalynn said while eating her food. "Actually, I want to try a lot of new things." That was the first thing she could do to change her fate. In her previous life, Evalynn had lived a dull life, only doing what her parents asked of her with little interest in anything. More accurately she had only been allowed to be interested in the things her parents allowed her to be interested in, which had essentially amounted to sitting and looking pretty or strolls through the garden. This time I'll learn anything and everything I can. I'll learn how to survive on my own and how to get away from Edgar. And I'll make sure he never goes anywhere near Kenni.