Offered to the Lord

Chapter 1

Katherine dozed against a great oak tree at the center of Lady Bethany’s garden. It was a nice break listening to the leaves dancing with the light breeze. This was her last week of freedom, so chores or lessons be damned. She wasn’t even guaranteed that she would live past this week. 

 “I wonder if Chef would let me borrow his oven to make some bread”, she wondered as she stretched her arms above her head. How long had it been since she got to enjoy the smell of hot rolls fresh from the oven? It reminded her of home, or at least the closest thing she had ever known to a home.

She had left her brother and two younger sisters to work as a maid in Lady Bethany’s court. Their father had passed by the time she was thirteen and there really was no other choice but to send one of them off at least until Jason was of a working age. It was the hardest thing to leave everyone and everything behind, but she did so with a smile. She didn’t want to worry them, but honestly, she had cried herself to sleep every night for those first few weeks.

Beatrice, her oldest younger sister would write to her every day, but those letters became every other day. To once a week and then once a month. Katherine couldn’t blame her though, she was finally sixteen and the only thing she was really concerned about was a certain village boy. She had been saving for the trip home for her sister’s wedding since she first mentioned that she had made him a scarf for Yule. 

Bea was never one for knitting. Granted, Katherine had been away from home for six years now, but the hatred Bea had for knitting needles didn’t seem like something that could be overcome in this lifetime. The money Katherine had saved would now probably go to funding Bea’s wedding dress or maybe it would go to a nursery for a babe she would never get to know. 

“Miss Kendall, proper young ladies do not skip a prior agreement and they most definitely don’t spend their days outside in the sun!”

“Most kind madame governess, I believe I have asked you to call me by my own name, at least until I have to leave here. I have diligently devoted myself to my studies for the last two months without complaints. When will I get a moment to rest?”

Katherine said with as much lady-like enthusiasm she could muster at the slave driver before her. There was no lost love between her and the old biddy. Governess Lehzin had a strong distaste for servants who seemed to overstep what she deemed as their place. Katherine personally thinks breathing was enough to offend her if you weren’t a member of the upper class. Having to teach her all the manners and etiquette of the peerage must be driving the poor broad batty, but better to send a disposable servant than her precious charge.  

“It’s one thing to risk your own life, Katherine, but Lady Kendall’s is a whole other matter. You only have a week to sink almost fifteen years of tutelage into your ignorant little mind. Do you want them to discover that you are an imposter? Do you know what would happen to the entire Montespan bloodline? ”

“I promise you, that I will take full responsibility for taking My Lady’s place if I am caught. Lady Bethany has already arranged for Lady Kendall to stay at the monastery for the first year. If I’m caught, I’m to tell them that I was supposed to deliver a message that Lady Kendall wasn’t well. Instead, I wanted to live lavishly as her replacement.”

Katherine slowly got off the ground as gracefully as she could, then brushed the dirt off her skirt. She pushed her shoulder’s back and slightly tilted her head up as she headed toward the mansion. After a dozen steps, she realized that Governess Lehzin wasn’t following her. She stopped walking, and turned to face the cranky old woman. 

“Well, don’t you have fifteen years of knowledge to fit into my lowly peasant brain?”

Governess Lehzin glared daggers at the cheeky young woman in front of her, but Katherine just chuckled under her breath. She had finally left the older woman speechless. Too bad, it was when Lady Bethany decided to walk into the gardens or she would have been able to enjoy it more. Involuntarily,Katherine found herself lowering her gaze as she bowed, then quickly caught herself. Yes, certain members of the peerage would take her lowered gaze as shyness, but Lady Bethany was supposed to be her mother.  

“Darling, shouldn’t you be inside preparing everything for your wedding? A week is not a lot of time for something so important. ” Lady Bethany’s tone and appearance didn’t portray anything negative, but Katherine could read between the lines. There was too much riding on this marriage to Valente estate. 

“Yes, mother. Madame Governess was kind enough to suggest some fresh air before we had a fitting for my trousseau. If you would be so very kind as to excuse us, we must be taking our leave. ”

Katherine slowly curtsied and left before Lady Bethany could make any subtle threats. 

Fortunately, it was only one o’clock and the tousseau fitting wasn’t for another hour. Normally, Katherine would be busy scurrying around, bringing afternoon meals to all of the Lady’s handmaids, as well as for the Master’s assistants. Despite the smell of food flooding the household, she hadn’t had any kind of appetite since the letter arrived from the king. She had lost a decent amount of weight, not like the Lady or Lord minded too much, it would just add to her story of being the sickly Lady Kendall. 

Her mother would probably die of shock if she could see her this way, walking around a huge estate in a dress that cost more than a whole year’s salary. She’d give anything just to hug her once more since she wasn’t even sure if she’d ever see her again anyway. If the journey wasn’t so long, she might even risk the discipline that she would take for sneaking out just to say goodbye to her old life. Even if she survived the Villain of Valente’s perverse nature, she’d never be Katherine, simple village daughter again.

"...Katherine is being sent off like a lamb to slaughter," she heard a maid whisper behind her bedroom door. 

"Did you hear how he murdered his first wife? Apparently, he had her carriage ran off the road by his own soldiers."

" I heard a wise woman had said that the babe she was carrying was not his, so he had it ripped from her stomach and left her to bleed out. Then, he used the corpse as a sacrifice to the dark Gods that watch over his house."

"No wonder he has more money than a lot of the neighboring kingdoms. Our poor Katherine, she was always a hard worker. May she find a more peaceful fate than his first wife."

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The necklace was very heavy over her heart. 

Katherine looked into the mirror as the seamstress went on poking and prodding at her for a while. The dress was something that a princess would wear. It was a dress that a lover would be eager to show to her husband to be, everything was perfectly thought out. Even the “something blue” hang around her throat sending a message. The jewels were the same shade as her father’s eyes had been and it caused her to shiver as she had to withhold her grief.

“Are you cold, M’Lady?”

“Yes, I think I may be coming down with a cold. Could you possibly finish the rest of the alterations without me present? I can’t afford to be sick on my wedding day.”

The seamstress’s eyes grew large and somber. She squirmed under Katherine’s pleading gaze, before nodding. She lowered her eyes, and curtsied as she exited the room. Thankfully, the seamstress’s assistants were able to get her out of all the layers of the dress with ease. They came and went as quickly and quietly as they undid the dress. 

Suddenly aware of how quickly everything was happening, she couldn’t hold in her tears and nausea. She grabbed the nearest bin and dry heaved into it. She thought she must be the most pathetic person. All she had to do was endure the attention of a devil for a few nights until he was bored enough to kill her like his first wife or she bore him a child. 

If she was lucky enough to be able to give him a son on the first try, he would just cast her away. Lord Valente was very well known to have strings and strings of affairs, maybe he wouldn’t even touch her until they were in desperate need for an heir? These estates could fit a whole village worth of people, surely, she could hide somewhere he couldn’t find her if she hid well enough?

Katherine’s brain was running on fumes and her anxiety was getting the best of her. Everytime she planned on going to bed at night, or she tried to take a nap to catch up on her sleep, she could still hear the maids whispering rumors about the cruel man that was to be her husband. Crying had just taken what energy she had left. Her body kept begging her for sleep, but she wouldn’t allow herself to rest just yet. 

After all, whether this farce succeeded or not, Katherine would cease to exist in just six more days.