To Meet One's Fate

Welcome to my little corner of Jenny Matlock's Saturday Centus, where a grand departure from the norm has made this challenge a little more challenging than usual. Today, we get to add 200 words of our own to Mr. Jenny's prompt, but we have to do it Harlequin Romance style. Not my favorite genre, but I'll give it a go! (The prompt is in red.)

A flushed, rosy dawn aroused the sun, a languid lover. My own slumber had broken hours before. Who was he? Why did his unbidden essence haunt my dreams? Foreboding stole over me, replacing the quivers of anticipation that scorched my molten center every time his emerald eyes caught mine. What manner of fantasy appeared and disappeared at his own pleasure? Was he saint or sinner? Did heaven send this moonlight swain whose visits stirred my soul and left me trembling…or was he a creature of the underworld, come to ravish and enslave me? The dreams were mine alone. Why had I no power to control them?

“Pardon, Miss. Will you take breakfast early? You’re riding out with Lord Farthingham this morning.”

Farthingham. The name sickened me. I still felt his loathsome hands on my shoulders, greedy fingers dipping into my bodice as he announced with gloating satisfaction my father’s eagerness to entertain his suit. The chaperone was careless now. Would Farthingham renew his assault by daylight? Would I force myself to allow it?

Both queries were soon answered. As he wrenched me from the saddle, my cringing flesh bade me run into the forest. But I was spent at last. If I could not escape, I’d face him squarely.

When I turned around, I was startled to meet a green-eyed gaze...

And Farthingham was no more.

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