Dreaming of Acceptance

I struggled from my parents arms, trying to escape the fact that Nicholas had just walked out the door after finding out that I was - well myself.
"Let. Me. Go!" I yelled loud enough to echo around the room.
"Dahlia! Stop this nonsense. That boy is nothing but a commoner, a nobody." my father said to me.
"I don't care! Let me go, I have to explain what's been happening!" I said angrily.
"First, why don't you tell us." my mother looked at me.

I sighed, "All right, let me tell you that I was just watching the clouds and coming back inside when we met, I gave him a false name and we've been seeing each other everywhere. I don't know why I gave him a false name but I did..." I began telling my tale, leaving out the parts of where I met him in Paul's bakery. I tried desperately to finish in time to find him before he left but my parents would not let me out of their sight.

"Come Dahlia, we have to go home." my father said to me.
I sighed and got up, silently fuming at my parents still. We got into the carriage and I still saw no sign of Nicholas at all or Paul even. My luck had run out tonight and there was nothing I could even do about it. I grabbed the sheet music which I had gotten off the piano and held it close to me, what was I going to do?

~<3~<3~<3~<3~<3~

(Nicholas' POV)

I ran out of the concert room completely forgetting my sheet music and took one last look back at the direction of the door. I turned my head around when I crashed into Paul. "There you are Nicholas. Joseph and I have been looking all around for you." he said, then looked at my face.
I wasn't one to cry, but I was more apt to than my two brothers. "What's wrong?" Joseph asked walking up to myself and Paul.
"You knew didn't you?" I asked them. "About Lia - I mean Dahlia."
They both looked at each other. "Nicholas, she was trying to keep her identity a secret because she didn't want you treating her different. She's not like most nobility. She'd rather be in the same position as us." Paul told me, trying to use reason.

"That doesn't matter, she shouldn't have lied!" I said angrily. "It gave her no reason to do that."
"Well it's not like it matters. I mean, it's not like you were falling for her." Joseph said.
I looked at my boots, unable to utter a word. The truth was I'd always thought Lady Dahlia might choose a guy like me and then everything would be right in the world. No problems. When I finally met her, it all went downhill, I should have known from the way she looked at me, she didn't care. I was in love and she didn't even care.

"You did, you fell for her." Paul said then put a hand on my shoulder. "Nicholas, listen to me. She's not like Bailey or Emily. She lives where you work, the Castello Pierra. Doesn't that seem to mean anything to you? She could never even be with you because of her parents. There's no use. I'm sorry."
I moved his hand off my shoulder and turned around to walk out the door to outside the building. Once outside, more tears ran down my face as I brushed them off and sat down against the cool stone of the building's wall and looked at the stars in the night sky.

~<3~<3~<3~<3~<3~

(Dahlia's POV)

The next few days arrived and went again, with me in my room with guards outside the door.
My parents were forcing me to stay in the castle at all times so that I would not sneak off to see Nicholas, not that he'd even want to see my face anyway. I painted pictures but they all seemed to be horrendous in my eyes. Nothing seemed to go the way I wanted it too considering I was distracted. Every night, I had fallen asleep imagining the sound of the grand piano's notes. Every night, I fell asleep to thoughts of Nicholas. Nothing felt right.

My most recent dream, I was standing outside in the pouring rain again and I felt Nicholas' arms wrapped around my figure. Fire coursed the places he touched making me feel safe and loved. I felt the warm, summer rain on my shoulders and when I looked up to his face, he vanished out of thin air and I was thrust into darkness. I woke up with tears in my eyes and my back burning with longing to be back at that day.

"Dahlia, your parents would like to see you in the dining room." Mia said when she had opened the door to my room.
"I do not wish to speak to them." I said angrily.
"No, they said you need to come and see them. They have important news for you." she replied.
I sighed and stood up from the chair that I had been sitting on near the window, looking out to the field and the acres of land beyond.

I was walked down by Mia to the dining room where Lord Marco sat at the table whereas my parents stood. "What's he doing here?" I asked disgusted.
"Dahlia, we have some important news for you." my mother said, making me look at her.
"I've heard." I replied.
"You have? Well then what is your take on it?" my father asked me.
"To what?" I asked, beginning to get confused.
My mother smiled at me. "To Lord Marco and yourself being betrothed, dear."

"What!" I exclaimed. "You want me to marry that insolent, disgusting man!?"
"Oh, Dahlia, Marco is just the man we were looking for for you." she explained. "He's the only person to make an offer and you must be married by eighteen."
"Yes, I know! But I am seventeen! I still have a few months to find a husband of my own!" I said agrily. "I will never belong to him! That man as you so choose to call him is nothing but an intolerable pig. He has no more class then one as well."
"Dahlia!" my father raised his voice making it echo around the room. "You are going to be married to Marco and that is final, You're only other choice was the-the Prime Minister's son from Spain."

"And I'd rather not marry either of them." I said putting both hands on the table.
"But Dahlia, you must be married in order to take the crown." my mother reminded.
"What happens if I don't. Want. It. Anymore." I said more as a statement than a question.
"Then you don't have to marry him, but we must have someone to take over the Senate and be able to run it without a snag." she replied.
"And you expect him to do that?" I asked pointing a finger at Marco.
"Yes, we think he'll make a very good husband and king." my father said.

"This is rediculous and all your fault!" I looked at the stupid man that had just ruined everything for me.
I stormed out of the room and back up to mine where the guards were finally gone. I went in, grabbed my book that I'd thrown together of drawings and charcoal, and took off down the hall to the stairs and to one side of the field. I leaned against an old tree that's branches stretched to the sky in an attempt to - what looked like - reach the clouds.
I opened up to one of the compressed pages and and began to draw from memory the picture of one man's eyes. Soon his face came into view in a portion of the page.

Everything felt completely and utterly wrong. I had seen Nicholas running across the field back to his home at the bakery and once before that when he looked up to my window and I was sure our eyes had met. I began to draw little figures of a moon and stars surrounding it. Fireworks of black and white exploded onto the page I had created of memories. Flickers of light drifted across the page as the wind blew the trees branches and leaves in front of the sun.

I pulled out the sheet music out of the back of the book and looked at them, then copied some of the notes to my page. I heard footsteps moving through the grass and looked to see Lord Marco coming towards me. I quickly shoved the pages back into the back of the book and flipped the cover over the top of it. As he sat down next to me, I looked away from him.
"Isn't it marvelous?" he asked.
"That I was enjoying my time without seeing your face? Yes." I replied.
"Oh Dahlia, Dahlia, Dahlia, face it, we're going to married and after that happens I'll be running the Senate." he said chuckling some.

"And you find that a good thing?" I asked.
"As a matter of fact, yes, I do. My father will help me with taking over so the Lucreas will never be back in power of the Senate." he said leaning close to my face.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, that when we are married, you'll never be able to regain control of your precious Senate. You'll be forced to live as one of the common people and my father and I will make the decisions and you'll have nothing to do about it." he smiled arrogantly.

"You are one twisted man. What happens if I do not end up marrying you? The throne then goes to my 7-year-old brother, whom you will then be serving food to." I replied.
"Oh Dahlia, we all know you'd rather be with that little commoner of yours. That is why I offered the idea to your parents to keep you guarded until they let you hear the news. Now, there's absolutely nothing you can do about it." he said.
My fist shook as he called Nicholas a commoner. So what if he was? I didn't care, he didn't have the right to call him something like that. I thrust my fist up to come into contact with his jaw.

He was knocked to the ground as I got up and ran. Anger burned my lungs and hatred filled my mind. I now had another problem on my hands, that made a total of three.
1. Get to Nicholas and tell him I was sorry and that I had fallen for him without realizing.
2. Get this betrothal abolished.
and 3. Tell my parents about Marco's plans - or rather his father's as far as I knew. He was a twisted man anyway and his son was just as bad.