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chapter one: a familiar face
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Things were changing. That much was very clear to Charlotte Wentworth as she made her way to Danbury Manor. This time around it would be another Wentworth sibling undergoing the duty of finding a husband. Amelia was the youngest of three, Charlotte being the middle child and their brother Daniel being the eldest. Charlotte had made it her goal to find the perfect man for Amelia to marry, and she would be very particular indeed. While she had her grandparents and older brother looking out for her during her season, Amelia would only have her two siblings truly looking for her best match.
The Wentworth's were a tight knit family. They genuinely liked each other, they had fun with each other. Most families only resided in places of duty and breeding when necessary. But with Charlotte's family, one thing set them apart from other bloodlines around them. Her parents were a love match. Her parents loved each other. They didn't get together out of pure duty to their respective households. They connected and fell in love. That was all Charlotte wanted for her sister coming into the season, more than ever. Especially because it was all Charlotte ever wanted for herself. She wanted Amelia to feel the love and adoration she never felt in her own marriage.
She could remember her own season like it was yesterday. In reality, it was not that long ago, though it felt like an eternity. Charlotte was courted and proposed to by a young man named William Cuttingham. He was born into a plethora of wealth that any woman, or her family, could ever dream of. It was only after saying I do did Charlotte get to know the true William and what his true intentions were to marrying her, but alas, it was far too late.
Charlotte did not know what to expect when leaping into a marriage not made of love, but she certainly did not expect the sudden change in William's demeanor. His words spitting from his lips that cut into her like knives on a cutting board. The palms of his hand striking her, the floorboards creaking underneath her as she dropped to the ground from every force of a slap or a kick. She did not know much about marriage, but she knew for certain it was not supposed to be like that.
Women were expected to marry and take whatever came with it, the good and the bad. But Charlotte was not strong enough. Her fear consumed her to the point of no return. She could never show her face in Paris again. But it was not just the fear that stopped her from going back, it was the shame that came along well after the fear set in. Every day, Charlotte is forced to carry around the overwhelming sense of shame of not being strong enough to fight back against the man who was supposed to love her. Supposed to take care of her. Paris, even all of France, would never look at or welcome her in their arms ever again if anyone ever found out. She had no choice, she had to leave.
Amelia's season came at the perfect time. Daniel was the only one out of her two siblings to know everything that went down with William and why they had to leave France so suddenly. Though, Amelia was not blind. She could see just how unhappy and drained Charlotte looked every time she saw her siblings, which had become less and less of an occurrence due to William's strict demands of where she could or could not go and who she could and could not talk to. Even when her siblings finally were allowed to move in with them did they barely see their sister without consulting with her husband first. Charlotte needed a way out, and her siblings gave her exactly that.
