I am entering for Buck 2!
Guardian name: Caspian
Chosen name: Ariel
Entry:
“Ariella Winchester!”
The shrill voice of Miss Hendrie startled her out of her thoughts, and Ariel’s gaze snapped back to the tea table, her cheeks flushed at having been caught with her mind wandering yet again. Across the table, her mother, Lady Abigail Winchester, took a long sip of her tea in icy disapproval, and Ariel’s eyes fell to her folded hands. Her governess Miss Hendrie, on the other hand, wasn’t nearly as reserved.
“Goodness child, you’d think you were holding tea with the Wardwood and not your esteemed mother, what with all those long looks you give it. Tell me foolish girl, what do you find so fascinating about those old trees that has completely distracted you from your responsibilities?”
It was a rhetorical question, and Ariel knew better than to answer it. Any attempt to explain her recent fixation with the Wardwood would fall on deaf ears. She had always felt somewhat… constricted by her life. There was a tightness in her chest with every curtsy, an inward grimace at every social event and party, a curiosity for all matters that shouldn’t concern a noblewoman, and a distaste for everything that should. Yet lately, she had grown more and more restless, even dissatisfied with the trivialities of etiquette and reputation and socializing. She wanted nothing more than to abandon her lessons and her teas and run barefoot through the grounds of Windermere in the shade of the Wardwood, like she’d done as a child, no things such as propriety or respectability to hold her back.
“Ariella, are you listening to me?” And yet again her attention was dragged back to the table, her eyes having once again wandered to the woods. Miss Hendrie was looking extremely put as she ranted about Ariel’s disgraceful behavior, and as for her mother, well, Lady Winchester patted her mouth delicately with her napkin and, to Ariel’s shame, excused herself from the table. This sent the governess into another fit of scolding, and suddenly Ariel was on her feet and on the run, bolting from the room with Miss Hendrie screaming (in the most dignified way possible) after her.
She ran until she had crossed the grounds, slowing only when she reached the shade of the Wardwood, panting and clutching a tree for support. She looked back at Windermere, the estate and the Winchester legacy looming beautiful and majestic over its bordering lake, and shuddered at the thought of what awaited her back there, how she would explain her latest stunt, how Miss Hendrie would have her head for this and her mother would continue with her icy disapproval.
The Wardwood was far more welcoming. The leaves rustled around her, the earth breathed beneath her feet, and as she heard Miss Hendrie cry her name across the grounds, Ariel tore her gaze from Windermere and to the woods. She took one step, then another, then another into the embrace of the trees, not sure where she was going, but not looking back.
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