The Book

 (I am writing my first book and this is part of what I have so far completed. Constructive feedback is welcomed. It will be under the label "The Book" for references in the future)


  It all started with a scream. Now don’t misunderstand, not the scream of life or fright or surprise. But of complete and utter despair. The kind of scream which comes from the depths of ones soul.

She stood and watched everything unfold in slow motion. Standing fixed on, what in her mind, couldn’t possibility be happening. It just didn’t make sense. Logic was always her way of sorting things out. What was taking place just  
didn’t fit within any web of rational thought.
      
No one is alive one moment laughing, talking, breathing, and then dead the next. It simply does not occur. To even give into the notion that it could or even that it had taken place was completely absurd.
  

After about forty-one seconds and someone saying “He was a good man.” it hit. Even if all the numbers didn’t add together and the moon wasn’t in line with Mars. The cold hard reality had slapped her awake from the illusion she had been holding on to.
        

A month later...
     
 “It doesn’t matter.” She repeated for the millionth time. “Lady Faith...” He tried again “No!” She insisted, to her the matter was closed. No other power on earth could change her mind once it was made up.
  

There was no reason to continue on with the fantasy that things would go back to normal. Even as hard as it was to admit, the death of her father forced her into this position.
  

"Milady, reconsider. This is not something to be taken lightly, if your father were here.." the man persisted. She held her ground, slamming both hands on the desk "No, but I am here. It doesn't matter what the council has suggested. The choice is mine. The council has no say in this matter."
   

 She was partly right. The High Council had no control what she did with her father's estate. Except for the contracts already in place for the horses, but when those expire at the end of the year it would be up to her to decide if she wanted to renew.
   

 The man picked up his cloak that hung near the door. Shaking his head, he thought to himself, even as a child she was always just like her father. She did things as she pleased and be damned the rest.
   

 She stayed standing until she heard his horse ride away and sighed deeply falling heavily into the old leather chair behind her. Trying to run her father's business had been harder then she had thought. Never did she imagine so many would want to persuade her to sell. She expected the Council but some that stepped forward with their offers blew her away.
   

 She had letters from almost every business owner in town. Even the owner of the local pub had stopped her in the street saying he would "Take it off her hands." To which she had politely explained she would remove his hand permanently from his body if he didn't let go of her arm.
  

 "You died on purpose. To try and teach me responsibility." She said out loud to an empty room. "Another life lesson. How ironic." she sighed again and looked at the pile of orders she hadn't managed to put a dent in. Sitting up she began the task to sort through the orders, the endless unmanageable sea of orders.
    

 It was well after dark and the crickets had started their nightly song when she finally crawled into bed. She hadn't wanted to but her body betray her and demanded sleep. Her long auburn hair flooded the feather stuffed pillow as she stared at the ceiling of her room.
     

 Though her body was exhausted her mind kept going over the orders and the discussion she had with the Councilman's assistant. Not that she had been surprised the Council was interested in buying her father's..no HER business but the one whom they chose to send to make the offer.
    

  If it had been anyone else she wouldn't have questioned it. Everyone on the Council she knew and for the most part respected, well almost everyone. The exception had been sent to make her the offer. His assistant, yes but him none the less.
  

 Faith had a feeling that he had volunteered for the task. Couldn't confirm this of course, although finding out wouldn't be too difficult if she asked the right person. However, she wasn’t going to be bothered by it anymore, at least not tonight.
        

 She woke with a start as someone was banging hard on the door to her bedroom. Climbing out of bed “What in the bloody hell is it to wake me up at this hour of the night.?” Faith asked as she openned the door.
        

 “I’m so sorry Mi’Lady, but they insisted they see you.” The maid wearing her bathrobe answered.
        

 “Who?” She replied rather annoyed.
        

 “If this is how you greet me I’ll go” The voice said from the shadows of the hall.
   

 She felt her heart pause and then start again in an eruption of different emotions. Just the sound of their voice sent chills through. Pushing past the sleepy maid, she found herself in their arms holding on for dear life.

 “Hey” He whispered as his powerful arms wrapped around her. She was shaking so hard she wondered vaguely how he could keep a hold of her.
  

 “You’re dead.” She almost couldn’t say the words. “How can you be here? I saw what happened, Daddy.” She sobbed

  He just gripped her harder as she cried. “I need you to be strong for me.” She looked up at him. His eyes were sad as he scanned her face for a long moment before saying. “It was my time, sweetheart.”
   

 “Please, please Daddy don’t leave me. I can’t do this. I need you with me.” She pleaded, gripping his suit jacket with both hands.
     

 “I wish I could.” He whispered as he faded away in her hands. “No!” Faith yelled choking back her tears and trying desperately to hold on to him.
   

 She woke up on the floor of her room with a death grip on her pillow. The morning sun peering through her window. “It was all a dream.” The tears started again and the pain hit her all over again. It felt as if someone had taken her heart and set it on fire. The hurt returned like it had earlier in the day.
        

 It was the last day of the week. She hurriedly went through all the morning chores eagerly awaiting what came that afternoon. As the clock struck three, she raced down the hall and out the kitchen doors towards the barn, but something wasn't right.
  

 Her horse wasn't saddled and waiting for her at the post. The stable doors were closed. It hit her all at once, like someone poured out all her happiness on the ground infront of her.
  

 There wasn't going to be anymore rides out to their favorite fishing spot. All the trips to town just to get peppermint candy from the general store was a thing of the past.
   

 She didn't shed a tear as she slowly walked back to the house. No one spoke a word as she wondered back into her office and shut the door.
   

 The next few days went on as smoothly as she could have hoped. The orders were steady and the business was doing well. She started spending more and more time away from the manor.
  

 Some took it as being dedicated to her work, but it was more than just the work keeping her away. Home, if she could call it that anymore was just a place to sleep to her . There was no home now.
    

  Rain poured out from the sky and made the day seem to drag on longer than it should. The scratching of her pen was the only other sound that echoed off the walls of the small office she kept in town. Interupting the silence was the unexpected knock at her door "Enter" Faith said without looking up from her work.
  

"I had thought I would find you here. " an all too fimilar voice broke through the silence.

 She didn't realize what had happened until after it had already taken place, but there was her paper weight being thrown across the room and a disappointing thud when it connected with the wall missing the intended target.

 Dodging the evil paper weight, he managed to ask with an amused grin 

 "I knew you'd be happy to see me."
  

"Get out!" she said coldly "Go back to the hole you crawled out of.." nearly yelling as she searched for something else to throw.
  

"Look, I understand you have this unatural disliking for me. "

"Dislike? Oh, dear man it runs MUCH deeper than dislike.."
        

 "Now, Faith you don't mean that.." He said taking a brave step towards her, both of his hands up
  

 Sighing deeply, she didn't want to have to deal with him any longer than she had to "Two minutes." sitting down in her chair
        

"Good." Lucas sat down in the leather chair infront of her. " I want to first say that I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your father. He was a good man."
  

That word again, was, she brushed it off and nodded as she had all the times someone meantioned her loss. "Thank you, I hope it isn't all you had to say to me because this whole meeting could have been avoided with a simple card, but please continue. "

"I work for the council now as a messenger. " He said as though she should be impressed, ingnoring her comment "I decided a real job was better than any of my other schemes."

Nodding again, "They are scrapping the barrel if this is the only help they can get." she thought
   

He sat there for a moment, waiting to see if she respond, and when she didn't he continued. "I also came to bring you this message from the coucil." Handing her a note from his bag.

"They wish your presence at the meeting. Since you are the heir to your father's chair, they need to publicly accept the position or decline it. Of course you know if you decline, his chair is up for council vote to the next junior member. The note is a formal invite to present when you arrive. " He said trying to sound official.
  

 It wasn't that she hadn't excepted the invite, she had been dreding it. The coucil was important to her father, she knew this and she knew it had been his dream for her to take over for him. "Wonderful, I suppose I should have to knock three times on the door and give some kind of password." she said scasticly

"Actually, since you've accepted the invite. Another letter will be coming with a password.."
  
"You've got to be kidding."
 
 He shook his head.

 Faith gently rubs her eye lids, "Very well. Let the coucil know I accept their invitation." She looks back up at him. "Now, you've had more than your two minutes. Get out."

"I thought we could catch up on old times." She raised her head sharpy and shot daggers at him with her glaze , but he spoke again more boldly "Have dinner with me, I'm staying at the hotel until tomorrow." He said leaning forward just a bit in his chair.
  
 "Get out, Lucas." she said again, trying to hold the growl in her voice.
 
 "But I ..."
  
"Get out!" she said raising her voice. "I don't want to remember the 'good old days' with someone I wish to stab repeatedly. You've done you're job. I won't ask you again."
  
"Very well. If you change your mind I'm at the hotel up the street. You know the one.."
  
She started to get up.

"Okay, okay, I'm leaving." Nearly leaping out of his chair, with a grin on his face. Lucas hurried out the door.

  Another heavy sigh escaped her, muttering to herself about getting a lock for her door, and sank back into her chair.

  Faith stared at the invitation laying on her desk from her reclined postion in her chair. As many times as she told herself the coucil wasn't important to her, she couldn't deny it had been important to her father. And though she hated to admit it, the horses did sell partly on the fact that they were used by King's Council for their army.