"Hello, any one home?" Mark said "How come you aren't talking? Have you gone catatonic?"
Lillith shook her head as if to shake away her thoughts. "What? No, I'm fine." she replied
"OK... It's late we should probabaly been getting to bed."
Lillith started to head for the door when Mark grabbed her arm.
"Where are you going?" he asked
"To my room to sleep. Aren't you the one who said we should?"
"Well, yes, but I didn't mean you go back into that horror house. I'll sleep on the floor and you can sleep on my cot."
Lillith looked at Mark, stunned. She couldn't believe her ears. First he says he has no interest in a little thirteen year old, then he kisses me, now he wants me to stay here?
"I...I can't. I have to go back to my bed." she stammered
"Do you want a replay of what happened before? I guarantee he'll do it again." Mark said
Lillith knew that it would happen again, but she dind't have any choice but to go back.
"What difference does it make if I go back tonight or tomorrow night?" she asked quickly
"I didn't say you were going back tomorrow night did I? Don't believe so. I planned for you to stay here till he figured you weren't coming back and send for a new girl."
"You'd subject a new girl to that horror?!" Lillith asked surprized.
"No, by the time he sends for a new one..."
"Or kidnaps another one." Lillith said
"By that time, he won't want another girl for that. It'll be out of his system and no harm will come to her."
"What makes you think that?" she asked
"Because, all the girls in your family will be too old for him to desire." he replied
Lillith looked at him dumbfounded.
"What do you mean?"
Mark looked at her sadly, wishing she hadn't asked, but knowing that he had to tell her.
"Your grandmother was my father's step-mother. He was always getting in trouble and my grandfather left it to her to punish him. My father came to hate her because she was always coming up with ways to punish him that he saw as cruel. They weren't really, but my father was spoiled. When your grandmother got pregnant with your mother, things got worse. My father became even more irritable and made so much more trouble. I think he was trying to make your grandmother lose the baby. When he saw that his attempts to bother your grandmother were failure he kept to himself. When the your mother was born, my father tried to stage a kidnapping. That got him sent to baording school in London. He came back when your mother turned thirteen. My father had a great advantage when it came to your mother not knowing him or what he was like. The day of her birthday, he led her into to the cellar and tried to rape her. Before he could go through with the rape, but unfortunetly, too late to stop the beating, my grandfather came in and sent my father to live here with his uncle."
"My uncle wrote many times to my grandfather that my father acted odd and always mumbled something about getting every girl in that damned family."
"My father was true to his word. When he was thirty-six he kidnapped your aunt when she was twelve, beat and raped, then sent her back when she turned thirteen. He did this to all her daughters. Then he finally got your mother. I believe she was twenty-two, that would've made him thirrty-five. He told her it was her and the whore mother of hers that his life was ruined. He beat and raped her for weeks. When he was finally ready to kill her, he told her that he was coming for her daughter soon. She yelled a know and he cut her throat. Then, he kidnapped you."
"H..how do you know all this?" Lillith asked.
"I was cleaning the attic one day so Jana could rest and I found a bunch of documents and journels. I swear if I had known you were who your are, I wouldn've stopped this from ever happening. But i rarely saw and only from a distance. I guess that's why I was made to be a stablemen." he replied
Lillith looked at him in awe. She was so scared to find out that the women in her family had been cursed by the tainted desire of a very sick man.
"It's okay, from the way you helped me now, I know you would've helped me sooner, had you known who I was." she said
"I'm so happy you understand."
Just as they were getting ready to settle down into bed. They heard a gruff voice holler across the field. Lillith looked at Mark frightened. They both knew who it was but they didn't know who the Duke knew where she was.
"Mark! Boy! Get yer useless ass out here!" The Duke bellowed, "I need you to help me find something!"
The dooer began to creak open and the Duke's shadow could be seen on the floor.
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Submission Name: Not So Happily Ever After (3)
