Crescendo of Forbidden Love

Synopsis

In the 18th-century England, a noblewoman falls desperately in love with a commoner despite her family’s opposition. Disregarding the looming threat of social stigma, the couple sneaks away for secret rendezvous. But will she find her happy ending? Or is there something sinister waiting in the shadows?

Chapter:

The light from the ascending sun beautifully shimmered against my bridal white silk and set my rosy cheeks aglow. With great love and tenderness, I caressed my gown and admired the fabric brocaded with heavenly blue and silver. All my life I had dreamed of my wedding day and it was here. My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me, gifting the successive images of my romance that arose in my mind with a vividness far beyond the usual bounds of reverie. My mind wandered back to all the events in my life that had brought me here to this day....

The freshness of my youthful bloom had naturally given me a vast array of choices in suitors. My family’s reputation, prominence, and riches did not hurt either. But I found most of my admirers to be inconsequential social climbers, universal charmers, or arrogant conquerors. I desperately awaited the fairytale romance I had longed for since I was a child. Back then, all I did was form castles in the air, indulge in daydreams, and chase airy flights of fantasy. I did not realize then that those were the happier days when death and grief were but words, which found no true echo in my heart.

Soon after, he came into my life. My soulmate. My destruction. My Criston. He was a man of great courtesy and talent, but all of those qualities were completely overshadowed in my mind by his good looks. Bearing a celestial stamp on all his features, he looked heaven-sent to me. Infinitely indifferent to every other girl, Criston only had eyes for me. When he handed me a rose to court my favour, I felt the first stirrings of love rise up in my chest. Sadly, my family did not approve of my being with him as Criston came from next to nothing. But my romantic soul was far from being deterred from pursuing him. By forbidding me to be with him, my family simply pushed me into Criston’s arms. 

Call it women’s intuition if you will, I had a strong presentiment that I was destined to stand up before a priest with him in a dashing suit and me in a beautiful white dress, holding at least a dozen blooming red roses. But my demeanour never betrayed the true feelings, I remained modest and docile, never speaking more than a few words to him. To give him encouragement, I would allow myself to bestow him with the smallest of smiles. My cunning ways of conveying my ardour would escape the eyes of everyone else and keep my honour intact. Only my true love understood the meaning behind my shy smiles. Even the thought that my secret tryst with my sweetheart Criston could take a tragic turn was absurd. The crescendo of our forbidden love was too finely shaded for any anxieties to cross my mind.

One night when I expected my dreams to be adorned with fantasies of my sweetheart, a nightmare of the strangest kind took over my mind where my darling Criston was smiling at me. A sinister gleam sparkled in his eyes that sent a shiver down my spine. My attention jolted towards his teeth. Sharp, dangerous, and dripping with blood. I opened my eyes in terror. A thrill of fear ran through me. I wished to exchange the ghastly image of my nightmare for the realities around me. I could not easily get rid of my hideous phantom; still, the grim terrors of my dream haunted me. My eyes darted towards the window and I saw a pair of bright gleaming eyes staring at me menacingly....