Chapter 1 The Forbidden Love

It was one evening in autumn, 1827, Rose Duville, a young woman who hit her early twenties, with her pale beautiful skin and an unexplainable innocent countenance, was standing beside a brook. The water was streaming and sounded bubbling. 

POV of Rose Duville:

Her hands were holding the stem of a white rose. 

‘How should I tell him about this?’ 

Rose Duville bit her lips and she looked quite anxious. Her pair of blue eyes were staring at a mansion that was elegantly structured, not too far away from the position where she was standing at that time. She inhaled.

‘I still remember that evening!’

‘He had me into that mansion!’ She paused and smelled the flower in her hands.

‘He took me to a lounge and I saw no one in the mansion. There were only some maids and male attendants who seemed to do some work and what he asked them to do for me. He was holding my hand tightly as we were walking from the front door of that mansion to the lounge room.’ 

‘His eyes were hypnotizing at that time he was pouring some wine for both of us! His sparkling eyes made me so shivering feeling of anxiety, throwing me into a rabbit hole that he would create with his charming smiles! I know I was too naïve to know what such a man he is!’

Rose Duville shivered as she could remember the warmth of Knight Richard’s hand when his hand wrapped her tiny fingers that evening.

‘His smile was magnetizing when he offered me that drink. He asked me to take one sip of that wine!’

‘I took it a sip then I stopped as the flavour tasted strange in my tongue. He smiled and put his thumb on my lips, he rubbed my lips gently as he said ‘The wine’, and I could see the streaming ocean of honest affection in his blue eyes.’

Rose Duville stopped remembering what happened that evening. She took a deep breath. 

‘He asked me to take some sips again before he took the glass away from my hand, he smiled at me and asked ‘I love the smell of the wine on your lips!’. He walked to a table at the corner of the room and put the glasses on the table. He approached me again and stared at me as I was standing in front of him. I said to him that my head was dizzy, and asked him whether that wine caused my dizziness?’ He only smiled and said ‘You’ll be fine, Rose’. I was relieved to hear that.’

Rose Duville threw her eyes to the brook that was streaming near where she was standing. 

‘Within a few seconds, he lifted my body and put me on his lap as he was sitting on the lounge. He mesmerized me with his eyes and smile. He caressed my cheek gently and said, ‘You’re beautiful Rose! I am a bit crazy with your pale and tiny figure.’ He touched my lips with his fingers. His thumb rubbed my lips gently. ‘I hope you don’t mind if I kiss you.’ I was dizzy enough to stay conscious of him and every action that he made. He kissed me so passionately. I could not defend it when his lips thrust my lips, explored my mouth with his tongue, and forced me to welcome his tongue inside my mouth. I was so shocked, but my dizziness made me weaker. I let him put my arms around his neck while he was kissing me.’

She inhaled again and touched her stomach.

‘He seemed to want something more than only some kisses. He put me with his two arms to his bedroom. I could see the bedroom unclearly since I almost fainted with my dizziness and his kisses required me to inhale deeply. He put me on his bed gently while he was standing beside the bed and staring at me. I was moaning because my head felt so heavy and made me want to recline for that evening. I assumed if I had a chance to do that, I would run and return home, put myself in my bedroom to take enough rest.’

‘I could see some scattered white roses on the bed as I lay down there. I love the fragrance. It made me quite relaxed and I could see he was still standing, smiling at me. ‘Do you like it, Rose? Those roses?’ he asked me as he put his shirt off. I nodded. He sat beside me with his chest barely naked, uncovered with no single thread. His broad chest seemed like a land with its warmth to lay on. His eyes were as blue as the fresh bluebells with the morning dews. I could smell some musk from his chest as he reclined his body next to me, his head was leaned with one of his arms. Then, he kissed me more passionately and what happened to him made me wonder that I was enjoying everything he did to me!’

Rose Duville wiped her nose.

‘He, then, positioned himself above me and I could see some sparks in his eyes that made me both excited and scared. I strived from his grips on my both wrists, but again, my headache made me too weak to oppose his manly power. Then, my struggle only lasted for some minutes before that sacred activity…I know it should be sacred!’

The autumn breezes blew away some of her hair strands, and covered her forehead and her cheek. Rose Duville tried to uncover her sight from some of her hair strands.

‘He destroyed the purity of my pearl in that evening. It should be destroyed in a sacred manner, more than passion or temptation, it should be pure in the name of love between me and him. I saw that blood on the sheet and he grinned in his victory to find it!’

Rose Duville sniffed harshly. Her hands were clenched tightly and squeezed the rose petals, destroying the petals with her anger. 

‘It happened repeatedly and the fourth time, I successfully escaped from his grip!’

Rose Duville gritted her teeth.

She threw her sight to the mansion and saw a shadow sneaking out from the mansion.

POV of Knight Richard:

Knight Richard stopped walking and turned his head around.

‘I hope nobody found me sneaking out from the mansion!’

He inhaled as he saw the horse carriages weren’t parked in the yard of the mansion.

‘I asked the maids and the male attendants told my family that I was out to get some fresh air!’

‘They must be going out to find something for dinner or attending the party at the Cameron’s’ house. They love party a lot!’

‘Who cares about the party so? Rose Duville is more interesting to spend with than spending time with some unknown ladies with their faking laughter!’

Knight Richard sniffed harshly and tightened his outer mantle.

‘I love her pale and soft skin texture! I almost can’t sleep in a week because my thoughts were flooded by her.’

He turned his head down as he passed through the small gate that separated the mansion from the small house of Rose Duville and her family.

‘I also question myself why I am still obsessed with her. I thought at first, I was challenged by Rose’s ignorant attitude and her independence. I love her challenges whenever she says ‘No’ to go out with me. But unfortunately, she doesn’t know how Knight Richard’s emotional system operates. The more she rejected me, the more I strategized to get closer with her.’

Knight Richard smirked with a devious expression. 

‘I know that her family needs some financial support to enlarge their farming business. So, I came to their house and offered some money as a loan but if they allowed their daughter to go out with me to have vine festival, I would give it freely!’

Knight Richard sniffed.

‘I told them that the rule to attend the festival, is the participants should be in a couple. I told them that I was too busy finding a lady to accompany me since I had to finish and spend my whole time studying business and I am also running my family business, helping my father to run his mining business and farming business.’

‘I felt so victorious that I saw Rose Deville standing in the lounge room and she seemed so naïve and hopeless. She drank the wine that I offered and I loved the expression on her innocent face when she found the taste of the wine on her tongue. She looked so desirable like a red apple was ready to bite and munch.’

Knight Richard smiled and rubbed his lips with his thumb gently.

‘Her lips taste so sweet like the wine that she drank!’

‘And like a wine, she made me drunkard for her, everything that she has makes me so obsessed and wants me to explore her more!’

‘She’s so tiny and delicate that I could squeeze in my grip, I love to see her striving, trying to escape from my grip, firing me up to control her under my power, I love to hear her moaning to whatever my fingers did onto and into her.’

Knight Richard inhaled as he could sense the spark of victory inside his chest.

‘She will always be mine. Who man will willingly marry her after what I’ve done to her? I believe none! She’s been under my control already!’

‘I want to see her begging me over and over to me to marry her, crawling in front of me. I need to see those!’

‘Although I could never give her what she deserves from me. I couldn’t and wouldn’t marry a young woman who has a different gap in our social status!’

‘I just want to taste her and give my control over her…’

Knight Richard rushed as he saw a tiny figure of Rose Duville standing near the brook.

“Rose!” He only had that word to mention and come out from his lips as his heart started pounding faster.

The breeze delivered him a scent of roses from the young woman who was standing in front of him. 

‘She always puts the rose oil on her skin and the trick always makes me lose my mind!’ thought  Knight Richard as he hugged that small-figured woman.

He kissed her passionately and made her panting requiring some time to take a breath.

He released his deep kiss from that young woman but his hands still gripped her waist as he wanted her more.

The wind blew more harshly and rustled.

“No, Richard! Stop that!” Rose Duville tried to release herself from Knight Richard’s grips.

A worry was depicted in her eyes as Knight Richard deeply stared into them.

“What did happen Rose?” Knight Richard unstiffened his voice, he didn’t want to ruin that evening meeting. 

He seemed restless to have a time when his body could release sparks inside him that made him couldn’t sleep well within a week. He desired her kisses and wanted their union in body and soul. 

Rose Duville didn’t answer his question but she kept staring into his eyes before taking a deep inhale.

“I’m carrying your seed, Richard!” She spoke in a tense tone her mouth almost closed and her teeth gritted.

Knight Richard kept no words. He was standing in stillness but his fingers were clenched tightly.

“What you did to me was forbidden, Knight Richard!” Rose Duville increased her pitch as she felt anxious and desperate to see the cold response from that man. “Please, propose me and marry me! Make this child a father!” she paused and begged desperately at Knight Richard who seemed to look at her with a severely arrogant stare.

In a few seconds then, Knight Richard took some deep inhales and talked no words as he turned his back to return to the mansion and he left Rose Duville who was crying desperately alone in her cowering place.