Not Another Reincarnation Story!

Chapter 2

Darkness enveloped her. No sound, no thought, no light, but gradually consciousness dawned and she realized that she was not, in fact, dead. Slowly, she opened her eyes, expecting to see the bright lights of a hospital room and to feel sharp pains throughout her body. Instead, she was surprised to find soft, filtered sunlight coming in from gauzy curtains. Upon further inspection, she realized that her body did not hurt at all. In fact, she felt better than she could ever remember feeling.

Sitting up, she looked dazedly around the room. It looked like an image she had once seen of a Victorian mansion. Her four-poster bed was adorned with curtains and the sheets felt like the smooth luxury of silk. Light drifted in from high windows framed by ornate planters filled with live flowers, the pungent scent of roses filling the air. A sharp knock came at the ornate door.

"It's Leah, I'm coming in." said a woman's voice, and a moment later a thin, sharp-looking woman in her forties entered dressed in the uniform of an old-fashioned maid.

"You've slept late." she said, her voice disapproving, "the master has called for you. You must hurry and join him."

Without another word, She was whisked from the bed. Her nightgown was removed and she was instructed to step into layers of voluminous skirts before being cinched into a corset tight enough to make her gasp feel like her last breath. A silken dress of red was lowered over her head before she was unceremoniously lowered onto a stool in front of a trifold mirror. As the maid took up a brush, she looked at herself wonderingly in the mirror. She had never been particularly beautiful, her brown eyes and dark hair had always seemed plain to her, and her pale skin was more sickly looking than the pale porcelain complexion that was touted in magazines. The woman who looked back at her was a vision of beauty. Where once there had been straight, brown hair that barely grew to her chin there were now waves of shining auburn locks. Where before there had only been dull brown eyes, now her eyes were the warm glow of amber and seemed to sparkle in the light. Before her body had been thin, painfully so, with no curves to speak of. Now the pillows of her breasts peaked above the low neckline enough to make her blush. Her reflection showed a perfect hourglass figure, with a slender waist and curving hips. She reached up to touch her face, only to have her hand smacked away by the silver brush the maid was holding. The maid glared at her disapprovingly in the mirror before beginning to apply cosmetics to her flawless skin.

What is going on here?

"Good enough," Leah said as she finished with the cosmetics, "Come, we should not keep the master waiting any longer, Estella."

Estella? Why did that name sound so familiar to her? She stood and a trickle of a memory came to her. Wasn't Estella one of the characters in the web novel I finished reading the other night?

She followed obediently behind the maid as she tried to hang onto this new idea.

That's right. I was reading ''My Brother's Obsession" and one of the characters was named...

"Estella Ridgehoff!" a sharp angry voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She had entered a large, dark study and a sharp-nosed man in the attire of a wealthy aristocrat stood before her.

"Must I remind you what this marriage means for our family?!" he sneered, "Everything must be perfect! You must be perfect! I will not tolerate any mistakes, do you understand?"

For a moment she was taken aback by his threatening tone and the glare of violence in his eyes. Then memories began to flood into her, memories that were not her own, but belonged to the noblewoman Estella. Yes, she was the daughter of a wealthy noble family, but she was no more than their puppet. Years of abuse and neglect raced before her. In public she had been dressed in finery and riches, all the better to laud the wealth of the Ridgehoff family, but in private was another matter entirely. In her own home, she was treated as no more than an animal to be beaten and starved not only by her father and elder brother but by the servants as well. Her maid, Leah, was one of her most heinous abusers and had been in charge of her since she was a small girl. Visions of years of physical and emotional abuse overwhelmed her to the point where she gasped aloud and worried that she might faint.

"Are you even listening to me?!" her father screamed in her face, spittle flying out to land on her cheeks. "Everything must go according to plan or we will never be rid of those wretched Lanceys! Tonight you will request that two maids come with you to the Lancey estate. They can hardly deny a new bride bringing her own maids with her. Tell them that the idea of entering another's house while knowing no one upsets you! Once we have our people inside, we will find the machinations of their downfall."

She thought back to the storyline of "My Brother's Obsession". There hadn't been a lot of backstory on Estella, but the Ridgehoffs had been rivals with the Lanceys for many years. Ever since the Lancey family had been blessed with the title and lands of a Duke after their military contributions to the king made them famous. Meanwhile, the Ridgehoffs had only contributed financially, by supplying ore from the mines they held in the northernmost part of the kingdom and sending men to fight and die for the king, but they had not been equally recognized for these contributions. Seeing this as a great injustice, the Ridgehoffs had vowed to have what they felt was rightfully theirs, and that was all that the Lanceys now possessed. There had been nothing in the story; however, about Estella's abusive upbringing.

How could this have happened? She wondered despairingly, Wasn't the reward for living a difficult life supposed to be reincarnation into the lovely heroine of a romance story? Certainly, I don't deserve the life of an abused puppet. But wait, if the dinner between the two families is tonight, then that means I only have a few days before the wedding itself. I can survive anything for a few days. I just have to hold out until I can get to the main setting of this novel, the Lancey Manor. If I play my cards right, I can have a happy life there. I just have to make sure that I don't make the same mistakes as the villain in this story!

Relief flooded through her as her new plan began to take shape. In the original story, Estella was married to the second son of Duke Lancey, Alain Lancey. Alain and his brother Blaise, the heir to the Lancey estate were both in love with the families' ward, a beautiful girl by the name of Jocelyn Sullivan. Jocelyn was the illegitimate daughter of Count Sullivan and a maid. She was said to be as beautiful as the goddess of spring and was kind, but naive. She was the perfect heroine. Although both brothers loved her and vied for her attention throughout the novel, she eventually married Blaise and became the new duchess.

Conversely, Alain hated Estella Ridgehoff, but Estella fell in love with him the moment she laid eyes on him. The jealousy she felt towards Jocelyn and her family's greed eventually led to Estella's death at the hands of Alain. Reading the story, Amy could never understand Estella's perspective. If she had just been willing to let go of her jealousy, Estella could have led a long and prosperous life, but now knowing the back story to this character, it was beginning to make a bit more sense.

All right, if this is my second chance then I won't mess up! She resolved.

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A Note from the Author:

Hi Readers!  Now that I have three sections posted, I thought I would introduce myself a little.  I'm Lore, I'm a novice writer.  My goal for being on Wattpad is to stop being afraid of putting my writing out there.  For me, writing feels really personal and it scares me to have others read and critique what's been in my head!  However, I'm hoping that if you are reading this then you will do just that!  Thank you for taking the time to read this.  If you do choose to leave feedback I would really appreciate it!  =^-^=

Edited 2/21/2024 for style, continuity, and accuracy