Chapter 1

She truly thinks everyone deserves a happy ending. She just thinks she deserved the one he got.

She never understood the complexities of love and life, ''she'' being Dorothea Fritz, who fell in love with the daughter of a family friend. Dorothea knew she didn't have a chance, not only because she knew that Eleanora Gardens didn't like girls, but also how she'd be sent away to a hospital or just killed. She actually isn't sure which one is worse, being seen as a crazy social outcast or her murder being passed as a tragic accident, she can see the news paper headlines already, ''Youngest child of the Fritz dies with tragic disease, some say it was pneumonia, others suspect worse!'' That is if no maid gets hold of what truly happened and rats her mouth out, Dorothy isn't quite sure she'd mind,she thinks Dorothea would laugh at her family up from hell.

Eleanora Gardens was pretty much perfect, at least in Dorothea's eyes. She had long brunette hair and inviting brown eyes, her cheeks were always a rosy pink, no matter the weather. Dorothea recalls her father mentioning Eleanora was actually quite a sickly child and that made her get direct orders from her father that she wasn't allowed to leave a body of fire in the whole period of winter. I've always wondered how sad of a Christmas they have in those conditions. Eleanora, even with frail health, is beautiful. She has always wondered how her hair would look in two braids instead of one but one evening after a rather tedious lunch affair Eleanora told Dorothea her mother hated the look because it reminded her of her aunt so much, she then told her about how the man her mother was originally marrying had been married off to her aunt instead. Dorothea always liked her melodic voice, she was always upset when she remembered how skinny her body was, she once had her Eleanoras mother yelling at her because of it, all she got out of it was that was something her daughter genuinely couldn't fix and he mother should just try to help her instead.

One of Dorothea's most treasured memories of them is them laying under a big tree in early spring and Eleanora had told her how she wanted to just horseback forever, leave everything and everybody behind and just ride a horse forever, Dorothea laughed and said she could pull it off. She likes that memory, maybe it was the pretty tree or the pond near it, or the birds flying back to the countryside, or the way Eleanoras cold hand felt on hers, the way no one could see them tucked away there, the way Dorothy had made herself think just for a few seconds she was loved back tenfold.

Dorothea thinks if she had to pick a favorite memory of her and Eleanora it would still be the day she truly fell in love with her. It was an early August morning, the Fritz were staying over at the Gardens and Eleanora had just shown up at Dorothea's room, she giggled and put her hand over Dorothea's mouth and dragged her outside, she sat Dorothea down and pointed at the sunflowers. Dorothea knew for a fact Eleanora was obsessed with them, her room was filled with prints and vases with them paired with tulips or roses, they just sat there for hours on end. Dorothea never forgot the way Eleanoras skin shone in the early morning light and how her laugh pierced her heart alongside the flowers.

Dorothea deep down is glad she likes someone of such a high stature, she isn't quite sure of what she'd do if she had fallen for a maid, at the same time, her mother didn't like the idea of Dorothea near the help so she doubts it. Dorothea has many talents according to her mentors and parents, like how Dorothea is a prowess at the piano and flute and can recite wonderful texts, Dorothea doesn't really care enough about those things thought, she doesn't care about her gifts and talents if they can't impress the one she truly cares about, the one who drives her up the walls of her estate relentless, the one that also gets dirty looks from the townspeople for entering her twenties unmarried. They had a plan when they were younger, they'd move in together, just for a while, see how it is to live with someone else, their mothers were thrilled their daughters were so close they wouldn't mind sharing estates, their fathers refused the idea on the spot though, said they needed to be prepared for marriage, and that certainly didn't mean playing house with some friends. Dorothea resents them to this day.

Dorothea's relationship with her parents wasn't bad, her mother and her got along swimmingly, to shopping sprees, to staring at the sun and working help on hot days when she isn't out at the Greens. Dorothea and her father never really got along, she was too outspoken for his liking, he hated her even more for the fact that they couldn't get her engaged much less married, he tried over and over when she was younger but Dorothea always messed it up, at the start she swore it wasn't on purpose but when it finally hit her this was a way to get out of those situations she put on the worst personality she could find and behave like a spoiled ungrateful good for nothing brat. Dorothea actually heard her mother whisper with her personal maid; she found it quite entertaining seeing her father trying to excuse her behavior as part of her charm and personality.

Dorothea Fritz actually somehow managed to convince her parents to spend the whole months of August and September with the Gardens. She walked to her usual room with two butlers hurrying behind her with her luggage. She loves her room at the Gardens, sometimes she feels even more than her own. It's decent sized, it has green wallpaper and wooden floors decorated with a big carpet, the blinds are an inviting brown and the bed has a matching brown and moss green patchwork blanket on it, the pillows are mint-green, matching the mattress and the mattress silk covers. There is a big table, it's white with a matching chair, and then a large oak dresser.

The Gardens had a lot of connection to their local churches so they were currently out, Dorothea entertained herself with a bible she found on top of the bed, she went to the marked page and a stamped sunflower fell out of it, she smiled to herself. ''Eleanora.'' She whispered contently to herself, and in that moment she found herself in the state she felt under the tree, the world frozen, unbothered by her love for the person she holds most dear. Unbothered that she, Dorothea Fritz, a presumed child of god had fallen madly in love with another woman.