Chapter 91

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Lillia's Pov 

I waited. I mean that is all I really could do. Wait.

I waited for Phillip when he left for Paris, remembering how Phillip's proposal was imprinted in my mind, filling me with happiness that I would always remember. The way the small silver band glittered under the earl morning sunlight, reminding her of the stars that they had watched the night before. The excitement that she had already felt in less than a few hours and the countless hours that she spent planning their wedding in her head, as they had agreed not to tell anyone about the secret proposal until Phillip returned. 

I waited when they told me that he had finally arrived home, that he wanted to meet with me at the old barn house. The jitters in my stomach as the carriage raced quickly towards the forests edge. He had money, enough of it to buy us everything we needed. To not have to be associated through our parents, make our own name in this town that would cause our children to be proud. 

I waited on the carriage ride home, thinking that I may wake up and this would of all been a horrible dream. That Phillip never left for Paris, that he never ended our engagement. Rather I was woken with a sudden burst of reality. That life was not fair despite what class you were from. 

I waited every day, hoping that I would open the door one day and he would be there, on one knee with that silver ring in his hand. Asking me for my own. Telling me that he loved me.

That never came. 


Instead, I was told that he had run off with the circus and I did everything in my power to change that. I ensured that I was good friends with Miss Lind when she arrived, inviting her to every party in town and suggesting that she bring Barnum and Phillip along. 

Barnum came, but Phillip never did. 

Then I was told that he had fallen in love with the help. That they were to be wed. That he was going to get his happy ever after and that girl  was stealing what was rightfully mine. 

Now I waited in the front garden of the old barn house, waiting for a familiar voice to come along and see me. 

Because something I had learnt from my observations and notes provided, such as Elizabeth's early letters that Hannah had passed on, was that to hurt on of them caused even more pain to the other. 

And I intended to make Phillip hurt just they way I did when he left me. 

He broke my heart? 

Well I plan to do so much more.  


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