WARNING: E.D. Trigger
"Mother, I... I feel a quite faint all of a sudden" Wendy heard in her own her tired voice the way her words wavered with an emotional and physical kind of exhaustion that was settling deep into her bone, her eyes met with countess Folly, her cheeks lifting in disgust with a twist of her lips as she stayed in the doorway of her room. Her maid, Sarah, poised behind her at the ready to cinch her corset over her shift, preparing for the ball at Lord and Lady Baxter's "Perhaps it is for the best if I were to stay home tonight than you would not have to worry about me being under foot."
Wendy turned her head towards Bianca just as a scowl marred her features, she moved slowly into the room, her heels clicking loudly in the silence as her cool hazel eyes ran the length of Wendy's body. She pushed Wendy's maid to the side and took ahold of the corset strings, placing her right, heeled foot against Wendy's lower back, she leaned all of her body weight back, leveraging herself with the foot that continued to dig into her back, a pain stabbing up her back and down her leg. Bianca then gave the strings a violent tug.
Bianca gave a yell saturated in hate as she tugged again "Ahh!" Wendy let out a loud sound of pain that sharply gave way into a breathless gasp, pain needled into her ribs and her lungs protested in a heaving gasp against the restriction of their movement.
"I will hear no more of your complaints, foolish girl" Bianca's voice carried a note of disgust that tore at Wendy's rapidly beating heart as she pulled the string down to tug at once again "Your figure is simply too full to attract a suitor " Another tug and Wendy failed to conceal another sound of discomfort as she groaned, the pain in her ribs screaming for her to inhale the stifling air around her too hot body, crying out to release the pressure "Sacrifices must be made for beauty and marriage, you, child, have to make so many more due to your unseemly features" She punctuated her words with tugging at the strings one last time, she stepped back from her. Wendy's maid moved forward to fix the corset as Wendy hands held her stomach with shallow breaths, "Leave it!" Bianca cut in with a harsh command and Sarah stopped in her tracks, head down as her eyes stayed glued to the floor. Bianca sighed heavily as she met Wendy's watering blue eyes in the full-length mirror, they stood in front of "I suppose that's the best that can be done with you. Think not of eating at the dinner tonight, Wendy, there is little time, and few enough balls left this season to be foolish and losing this disgusting bit of weight may finally tempt an offer of marriage from someone. Do not look for a man of too high a title or fortune, they are looking for a young beauty not an embarrassment." Bianca rattled off her list of instructions and insults that Wendy had engraved in her heart, words she had been hearing for as long as she could remember. Bianca looked her over once more, shook her head and muttered her usual words of disappointment, making her way out of the room as Wendy attempted to swallow the tears that she felt choking her as much as her too tight corset did.
"Miss Garren" Sarah whispered gently as she touched her shoulder lightly, leading her to her vanity, seating her in the scarcely cushioned seat, Wendy's hand running along the edge of her seat until finding the tear in the fabrics and twisting the fraying threads around her fingers from habit. Sarah began the difficult task of detangling and styling her mess of curls, they hung to touch her mid back and stuck out in all odd directions from her head, her eyes me her reflection, noticing the tears streaking their way down her cheeks, refusing to give into the sob blocking her throat. "Do a simple style please, Sarah, you know how the countess hates when I leave it too wild for polite society."
A frown overtook the pretty young maids face, biting her lip to not speak out against her mistress's mother and her own employer. "Your hair is something quite pretty, Miss" she pitched her voice cheerfully, uncertain of how to move past the display of hate that still lingered in the room "My own hair falls flat at any attempt that's made to curl it, my sisters once got their hands on some hot irons just to get it to hold some form the day I applied at your house. but it fell as flat as always, I would have liked very much to have your pretty wild curls, Miss Garren."
Wendy admired Sarah's beautiful strawberry blonde hair, romantic and wistful strands slipped from the knot she had it tied in behind her head. She knew she was trying to make her feel better after the harsh truths spoken by Bianca and a small pitiful smile pulled at her trembling lips. "Truly, I think your hair suits you, Sarah, it is just as lovely and sweet as you are." She spoke past the lump in her throat and tried to move on as she's always done. "Do you have many sisters?"
"I do, Miss" Sarah smiled fondly as her quick and efficient hands worked her curls into braids that led to a tamed bun, wisps of curls escaping to frame her face and neck, laying softly against her visible cheeks and collarbone "I have two elder and three younger sisters, also one brother, but he's been away in the royal forces since I was a very young girl."
Wendy pondered what it would have been like to have a brother, would Bianca hate her so much if she had already given birth to the heir her parents desperately prayed for? If she had a brother would there be so much focus on her inability to attract a suitor, on her unfortunate looks? Would he protect her against what she knew the men said about her? "That must be wonderful," Wendy settled upon saying as her mind spun all around her "To have so many siblings, I love my own sisters so dearly, I hardly know what I will do without them once they marry."
Her hair was finished so she stood up as Sarah helped her step into her ballgown, a dark purple of soft satin, Bianca certainly knew what colors Wendy despised, she longed for the soft and gentle colors with fitted bodices and flowing skirts she saw most of the ladies of the Capital wearing this season. This gown hung awkwardly from her curved frame, floating unflatteringly around her too cinched, corseted waist, no necklace or ear baubles were spared to Wendy since her eighth season when she still ended with no marriage offer. The only shine to her attire was the garish sheen from the fabrics of her spinster style dress. Even she had to agree she was far from beautiful.
As soon as she thought it, she turned from her image, a sour taste coating her mouth, no one would ever find her beautiful. She felt faint as she pressed a hand to her forehead, she had not been lying when she told her mother she felt a headache and it pounded against her skull and behind her eyes as her heart now thrummed in her ears.
"Miss?" Sarah's worried voice broke her from her spiraling into panic for her symptoms "Are you well? Might you sit down while I fetch someone?"
"No, no" Wendy dismissed the suggestion "father and mother are already waiting on me. Thank you, Sarah, but it's best if I go now, I will be well."
"If you are quite certain, Miss." Sarah looked completely unsure but also outranked dipping into a curtsy and following behind her mistress to leave the room, as soon as her mistress moved past her Sarah moved to shut the door after them, her eyes lingered on the plain yet untouched plate of food that had been dropped there for luncheon, worry nagging at her as she closed the door and walked silently behind her mistress.
Descending the short, spiraled stairs Wendy looked over her family, The Earl of Folly and countess stood side by side yet could with a chasm of distaste rifted between them, Clarissa and Penelope stood like pleasant visions of all things lovely in shades of soft pink and yellow. Pretty though pinched smiles directed at Wendy as their eyes shifted towards their sour mother and back. It was only once you saw the Earl that you would guess at Wendy blood with them, his stockier build, slightly freckled cheeks, and curly brown hair wasn't in total match with his eldest daughter, yet you could see that she was his child to be sure. Wendy recalled during her first season when she had cried at Bianca with the soft heart of a seventeen-year-old girl, how was it that she thought Wendy so unbecoming when she looked like her father "Your father is not shackled with the need to be pretty, Wendy. He's a Count." She had learned a brutal lesson that year that Bianca was not the only one to think her unsightly, her first ball had her dancing only twice and not even with the same gentlemen. Every season that followed without a marriage was another year she knew she disappointed her family... and herself.
"Well, hurry it up already, we cannot be left waiting on you all evening, Wendy." Her father's voice higher than even her own, his face powdered to hide the freckled complexion and a wig hiding his now grayed curls, they bore no resemblance now, everything that made them alike he desperately hid while she had refused to cover up, her freckles danced darkly in smatters on her face under her pale skin while her untamable hair flared like a flame on her descent.
She knew she was not pretty and had accepted that she might be too heavy and plain for a love connection, or any connection for that matter. But she would not hide who she was just to be trapped in a loveless marriage like her parents, Bianca a famed beauty with no breeding and her father an uncomely but, once, rich Count. They had done nothing but bring the other down through hateful resentment and violent insults her whole life, they played their roles in society playing at a perfect couple, even though everyone heard the whispers she was true, that her mother screamed at her unseemly husband and that her father drunk himself deep into his cups at those clubs.
"I apologize, Father." Wendy whispered as she came to stop in front of them, Bianca graced her with an uninterested look and a small furl of her lips before she turned and huffed her way out of the door into their awaiting carriages. Their father and mother sat in one and as the driver clicked his tongue they rolled away and the daughters collectively breathed a sigh at no longer being under such high scrutiny. Their carriage came into view, and they settled inside together, Wendy nodded in thanks as their door was shut and they too were on their way.
Wendy's head swam while black dots danced in her vision. "Are you well, sister?" Clarissa whispered to Wendy before reaching across the cab and grabbing her pale hand "You look as if you would faint."
"Think nothing of it, dear" Wendy breathlessly got out before she focused on her breathing "nerves." She muttered as she closed her eyes against the pounding of her heart.