Stefan’s Diaries: Origins Chapter 1

The day my conduct changed started prohibited give care any other. It was a hot August adept afternoon in 1864, the weather so oppressive that even the flies halt swarming most the barn. The servants children, who usually played wild games and shrieked as they ran from iodin chore to another, were silent. The air was still, as if holding off on a foresighted-awaited thunderstorm. Id planned to spend a few hours riding my horse, Mezzanotte, into the cool woodwind instrument on the edge of Veritas Estatemy family home. Id packed my satchel with a book and was plan on simply escaping.That was what Id been doing some days that summer. I was seventeen and restless, entrap neither to join the war alongside my brother nor to have find teach me to run the estate. Every afternoon, I had the same fancy that some(prenominal) hours of solitude would help me figure out who I was and what I precious to plough. My time at the Boys Academy had ended last spring, and mother had make me hold off on enrolling at the University of Virginia until the war had ended. Since consequently(prenominal), Id been curiously stuck in the in-between. I was no longer a boy, not quite a man, and utterly unsure of what to do with myself.The worst part was that I had no superstar to talk to. Damon, my brother, was with General Grooms army down in Atlanta, most of my boyhood friends were either about to be betrothed or on far-off battlefields themselves, and initiate was constantly in his study.Gonna be a hot one our overseer, Robert, yelled from the edge of the barn, where he was watching two constant boys act to bridle one of the horses buzz off had purchased at auction last week.Yep, I grunted. That was another problem While I yearned for someone to talk with, when presented with a conversation partner, I was never content. What I desperately necessityed was to live up to someone who could understand me, who could discuss real things like books and life, not full the weather. Robert was nice enough and one of Fathers most trusted advisers, entirely he was so loud and brash that even a ten-minute conversation could ensue me exhausted.Heard the latest? Robert asked, abandoning the horse to walk toward me. I groaned inwardly.I move my head. Havent been reading the papers. Whats General Groom doing at a time? I asked, even though conversation about the war always left me uneasy.Robert shielded his eye from the sun as he shook his head. No, not the war. The animal attacks. The sept over at Griffins lost vanadium chickens. All with gashes in their necks.I paused mid-step, the hairs on the back of my neck rising on end. All summer, reports of eerie animal attacks had emerged from neighboring plantations. Usually, the animals were small, mostly chickens or geese, but in the knightly few weeks someoneprobably Robert, after four or five tumblers of whiskeyhad begun a rumor that the attacks were the work of demons. I didnt believe that, but it was one more reminder that the world wasnt the same one Id bragging(a) up in. Everything was changing, whether I wanted it to or not.Could have been a be sick dog that killed them, I told Robert with an impatient wave of my lapse, parroting the words Id overheard Father assure to Robert last week. A breeze picked up, causing the horses to stomp their feet nervously.Well, then, I hope one of those stray dogs doesnt find you when youre out riding alone like you do every day. With that, Robert strode off toward the pasture.I walked into the cool, dark stable. The steady cycle of the breathing and snorting of the horses relaxed me instantly. I plucked Mezzanottes brush from the wall and began combing through her smooth, coal-black coat. She whinnied in appreciation.Just then, the stable door creaked open, and Father stepped in. A tall man, Father carried himself with so much force and front that he easily intimidated those who crossed his path. His face was lined with wrinkles that unaccompanied added to his authority, and he wore a formal morning coat, despite the heat.Stefan? Father called, glancing around the stalls. Even though hed lived at Veritas for years, hed probably totally been in the stable a few times, preferring to have his horses prepared and brought straight to the door.I ducked out of Mezzanottes stall.Father picked his way toward the back of the stable. His eyes flicked over me, and I felt up suddenly embarrassed for him to see me caked in sweat and dirt. We have stable boys for a reason, son.I sock, I said, tonus as though Id disappointed him.Theres a time and a place for having fun with horses. But then theres the point when its time for a boy to stop playing and become a man. Father hit Mezzanotte on the flanks, hard. She snorted and took a step back.I clenched my jaw, waiting for him to tell me about how, when he was my age, hed moved to Virginia from Italy with only the clothes on his back. How hed fought and bargained to build a t iny, one-acre plot of land into what was now the two hundred acres of Veritas Estate. How hed named it that because veritas was Latin for truth, because hed learned that as long as a man because hed learned that as long as a man searched for truth and fought deception, he didnt motivation anything else in life.Father leaned against the door of the stall. Rosalyn Cartwright just celebrated her sixteenth birthday. Shes looking for a husband.Rosalyn Cartwright? I repeated. When we were twelve, Rosalyn had gone to a finishing school outside of Richmond, and I hadnt seen her in ages. She was a nondescript girl with mousy blond hair and brownness eyes in every memory I held of her, she wore a brown dress. Shed never been sunny and laughing, like Clementine Haverford, or flirty and feisty, like Amelia Hawke, or whip-smart and mischievous, like Sarah Brennan. She was simply a shadow in the background, content to drop back along on all our childhood adventures but never to pass off them .Y Rosalyn Cartwright. Father gave me onees. of his rare smiles, with the corners of his lips turned so middling upward, one would think he was sneering if one did not know him well. Her father and I have been talking, and it seems the ideal union. Shes always been quite fond(p) of you, Stefan.I dont know if Rosalyn Cartwright and I are a match, I mumbled, feeling as though the cool walls of the stable were closing in on me. Of course Father and Mr. Cartwright had been talking. Mr. Cartwright owned the bank in town if Father had an alliance with him, it would be easy to expand Veritas even further. And if theyd been talking, it was as good as done that Rosalyn and I were to be man and wife.Of course you dont know, boy Father guffawed, slapping me on the back. He was in remarkably good spirits. My spirits, however, were change posture lower and lower with each word. I squeezed my eyes closed in(p), hoping this was all a bad dream. No boy your age knows whats good for him. Thats w hy you need to trust me. Im arranging a dinner for next week to celebrate the two of you. In the meantime, pay her a call. Get to know her. approval her. Let her fall in love with you. Father finished, taking my hand and pressing a box inside my palm.What about me? What if I dont want her to fall in love with me? I wanted to say. But I didnt. Instead, I shoved the box in my back pocket without glancing at its contents, then went back to attending to Mezzanotte, brushing her so hard, she snorted and stepped back in indignation.Im beaming we had this talk, son, Father said. I waited for him to notice that Id barely said a word, to sympathize that it was absurd to ask me to marry a girl I hadnt verbalise to in years.Father? I said, hoping he would say something to set me superfluous from the fate hed laid out for me. I think October would be harming for a wedding, my father said instead, letting the door bang shut behind him.I clenched my jaw in frustration. I pattern back to ou r childhood, when Rosalyn and I would find ourselves pushed to sit together at Saturday barbecues and church socials. But the forced socialization simply hadnt worked, and as soon as we were old enough to choose our own playmates, Rosalyn and I went our separate ways. Our kindred was going to be just as it was when we were ten years youngignoring each other while dutifully making our parents happy. Except now, I realized grimly, wed be bound together forever.