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Lady Highchester, widowed shortly after the birth of her daughter, has raised said daughter to take over the family estate one day.
(link: "(text-size: 1.25)[➵]")[==$fade[Chelle, the daughter in question, was 18 when her mother announced a change of plans.]
(link: "(text-size: 1.25)[➵]")[==$fade[Ara, daughter of the late vineyard keeper, was brought to the manor house to be trained as an alternate heir.]
(link: "(text-size: 1.25)[➵]")[==$fade[Eventually the two will be tested, and the estate will go to whoever the Lady thinks is better suited to run it.]
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//Whose story would you like to see?//
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[[Chelle]] | [[Ara]] | [[The Lady->Lady]]
</div>]Lady Highchester knows her daughter won't be pleased when she learns the truth—that the contest was never real, that of course Chelle is still her heir. The girl just needed an extra push, a test to prove she's ready. The estate is Lady Highchester's legacy, and if she had her way she would manage it forever. But her surgeon has told her that the wasting disease she's kept secret so far will take her within the year. It will all be in Chelle's hands then, and she //needs// to know that those hands are as capable as possible.
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(text-size: 1.25)[[[➵->lady2]]]
</div>Ara never wanted to be here. Head of the vineyard since her father's death (gods, she misses him, but she tries not to think about that), she already had a job, a purpose. One she was happy with, and had no desire to change. But she came at Lady Highchester's call—or, more accurately, her order—having left her right-hand man in charge for the indefinite future. In her heart, though, she held a secret thought to sabotage herself so she would be promptly sent back home.
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</div>Chelle has never been good enough for her mother. She's always known that, and thought she'd resigned herself to it; thought it had lost its power to hurt her. But that was before her mother announced that Chelle will very likely be disinherited in favor of the vineyard keeper's daughter. Because, somehow, her mother believes that an inexperienced stranger will do a better job than she would.
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(text-size: 1.25)[[[➵->chelle2]]]
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<div class="title">(text-size: 1.75)[What They Don't Know]</div>
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(text-size: 1.25)+(text-rotate:90)[ [[➵->start]] ]
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(text-size: .5)[//By Tabitha O'Connell
Cover photo by Lance Reis via Unsplash//]
</div>She hasn't been a loving mother—she knows that. But there are things more important than love, than being loved. She wasn't loved as a child, but she's done an impeccable job managing the estate, better than her late husband ever did. Her herds are larger than ever; her tenants are well-fed and happy. Her household staff is comprised partially of orphans who had nowhere else to go before she hired them on. What would they have done without her?
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(text-size: 1.25)[[[➵->lady3]]]
</div>Yes, it was low to put on this charade of intending to replace Chelle with the vineyard keeper's daughter. Ara is skilled, yes, but Lady Highchester would never entrust the whole estate to her. Of course it'll go to her own flesh and blood, especially since she's been training Chelle for this since childhood. When she reveals that Chelle remains her choice, Chelle will feel vindicated. Probably not grateful, not at first, but someday...
After all, Lady Highchester has learned to be grateful to her own harsh parents. In a year, if not less, she'll be gone, and perhaps then Chelle will understand.
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</div>She hasn't actually followed through, however. At first it was because the haughty, spoiled girl she'd been pitted against got her hackles up; suddenly she //wanted// to win this strange contest, to put Her Primness in her place. But that only lasted until she started to see the cracks in Chelle's facade. Hurt bleeds from Chelle's steely demeanor whenever she speaks to, even looks at, her mother; it's armor, not arrogance, that she wears.
Ara also quickly had to recant her assessment that Chelle is spoiled. While her hands are lily-white and uncalloused, she's working her mind every moment, half-managing the estate already in between her studies. Ara isn't sure she even sleeps at night. She's actually begun, of all things, to pity Chelle.
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(text-size: 1.25)[[[➵->ara3]]]
</div>She's also started to imagine taking Chelle away from here. Even just to the vineyard, to show her the simple joys of tending the vines and then tasting the fruit of one's labor. And, well, maybe she's also begun to find Chelle's cold beauty appealing—even moreso the idea of bringing a blush to those pale cheeks, putting a tousle into that perfect blonde hair.
Now, she doesn't know what she's going to do. She won't consent to steal Chelle's inheritance, she's certain of that much—but she also can't bear the thought of leaving her behind.
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</div>It was easy to hate Ara at first, but Chelle soon admitted to herself that that wasn't fair. Her mother's capriciousness is hardly Ara's fault. And, as they've inevitably spent time together during all the quizzing and tutoring sessions her mother has mandated, Chelle has come to grudgingly respect the other woman. Ara has a knack for quick, clever problem-solving that Chelle lacks; maybe she really would make a better head of the estate.
But that aside, what has, shockingly, made Chelle actually //like// Ara is her sharp sense of humor, every witty remark followed by a fierce, wicked grin. She was never afraid of Chelle, never intimidated—unlike every other peer Chelle's ever had. Which is why she's always been friendless... until now.
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(text-size: 1.25)[[[➵->chelle3]]]
</div>Is that true? Is Ara her friend? How can she be that //and// Chelle's rival? How can the person who may very well take everything from Chelle also be someone whose company she enjoys?
It doesn't matter, really; Chelle is going to work as hard as she can, because she doesn't know how to do anything else, but of course her mother is going to cast her aside. And then she'll be left to scrape together some semblance of a life for herself.
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(text-size: 1.25)[[[➵->chelle4]]]
</div>(set: $fade to (t8n: "fade"))Somehow, though, her inevitable fate has seemed less pressing lately in light of a new question: What if she's started having daydreams about entwining her fingers with Ara's; about lying down beside her, close enough to breathe in the smell of her hair? About reaching out to caress Ara's smooth cheek?
What then?
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