Taboo Love Story
By Abigail Morris

Chapter 1

The first encounter

The first time I knew I was in love was a cool rainy autumn day. I loved the smell of the fresh rain air as it drifted along the breeze and the soft touch of his hand on my cheek with his lips ever so gently pressed against mine. I could have stayed there for hours frozen in that moment, but sadly all good things must come to an end. He was so kind and had such a soothing voice that I could listen to for hours. Sadly he was only a farm boy, so our love was forbidden seeing as a marriage to him would never benefit the family and I was to be betrothed to a richer man to help the family seeing as I was the oldest daughter in a family with no men, besides my father. He always told me “it’s for the good of the family,” but I never much cared anymore because I’d fallen in love.

When I first met him, it was a warm sunny day in July, I was about seventeen years old. We had just pulled up to a large white mansion, that we now call home. I stepped off the horse drawn carriage, and there he was, standing right by the front door in the line with the other servants. During that time, I never payed much attention to him, he was just another servant boy there to do work, so I walked past him without even a glance.His eyes followed me as I walked past, I never payed much attention to him, but he always seemed to notice me.

It was a lovely home with lovely paintings and decorations, my room was especially nice, with beautiful dresses and gowns and some diamond necklaces, my parents must have had them delivered before we arrived to try and make me feel more at home, but nothing really would , I’d always hated when we had to move. I’d get used to where we were and have friends, then we’d have to move and I’d have start all over again. Though there was one thing nice about this new french town, once every year they had a ball, a beautiful magnificent ball, and all the young ladies and young men were invited to dance and enjoy themselves, though you have to be at least eighteen years of age to attend.

“Mère, will I be able to go the ball?” I asked my mother as I sat beside her working on my needlepoint.

“Adeline, deer, we will worry about the ball when the time comes, for now continue working on your needlepoint.”

That always seemed to be her answer.Around noon I decided to explore our new home, I’d only ever been in the living room and my bedroom, and I’d heard there were many hidden rooms throughout the mansion. I headed up the stairs, all the way up to the top floor to begin my adventure. My younger sister asked to join me, but I was afraid I’d lose her so I told her no.I walked down the long narrow halls, checking each door I came across, most just led to boring rooms with tables and chairs, but there was one door at the end of the south hall that intrigued me.

The door stood alone, with a golden knob and red stain, at the very end of the hall. There were no other doors around it.

When I went to turn the knob, it wouldn’t budge, so I figured it was locked, which intrigued me. Why would the door be locked? There must be something inside that the previous owner wanted to hide and keep safe, or maybe it’s locked to keep us safe from whatever lies behind it. I continued my exploration, though nothing else seemed to peak my interest like that lone red door.

After exploring all of the inside, I decided to head out into the lovely garden that lay behind the house. Mother would never have allowed me to go out on my own, but I went anyway, not caring to tell her.

There was a boy out in the garden, taking care of the roses, they were beautiful roses with a deep crimson red color.I ignored the boy as I walked around, though he didn’t seem to ignore me.

“Mademoiselle,” the boy spoke from behind me, and I’m sure I jumped a little because when I turned around he had just a little bit of a smirk across his face.

“Beg your pardon, I did not mean to frighten you,” he said bowing his head a little in respect, his voice was deep and alluring, he must have been about my age maybe a year older. He was rather attractive, with shaggy black hair and the most beautiful royal blue eyes that were just stunning, like looking at the night sky. He was very well built, you could see the fine detail of his muscles through his clothing, he was also very tall standing maybe a foot above me, though he was still just a boy.

“Mademoiselle, should you really be out here alone? It can be rather dangerous.”

“You sound like my mother...” I muttered, rolling my eyes a little, which seemed to amuse him.

“I’m quite alright, I can handle myself,” I began to walk away from him, and he didn’t stop me. I think he knew I was quite content being on my own, nevertheless he did keep an eye on me while I wandered the grounds.

As I explored the grounds, I came across what appeared to be just a hedge that meant I’d reached the end of our property, but upon further exploration, I found a secret path through the hedge. The path lead to a small little fountain and the most beautiful garden, even prettier than the one outside our house.

It was clear that someone had payed a lot of attention to this garden, as there were no weeds whatsoever. It was magnificent, with so many different types of flowers. The fountain, however, was not in such good shape, as vines had overgrown covering the lovely sculpture on top.

As the weeks passed, I spent most of my time in the secret garden, trying to restore the fountain to its former glory and make it a truly stunning place to be.

I worked very hard every day, spending hours pulling the vines that had grown over it and cleaning out all the weeds and unwanted plants that sprouted through it.

After about a month, I finally finished what I’d set out to do, my mother didn’t particularly like me disappearing everyday, but I never really cared. Though through all this time spent in the secret garden, restoring the fountain, I never did meet the person that had been taking care of the plants, though the only person ever seen out in the garden at all was the farm boy, so my guess would be him, but I wasn’t curious enough to wait and find out.