The House Of Snakes

Midnight.

Bedroom. Statham estate

Critic Arley, Critic-Ishire.

***************

Lady Georgina Statham of Critic Arley, Critic-Ishire. The wife of the Marquis of Critic Arley went to bed with a deep frown adorning her delicate face.

She had been surprised when she heard that her second daughter who never goes out had been allowed to go to a banquet on the outskirts of the city alone, and she had then been mortified to find out it was Lord Theodore's banquet that no man will send their daughter to that she had attended.

She had wanted to talk to her but Lydia was dismissive as she had always been with her.

What had baffled her was her other daughters' giggles, gleeful eyes, eagerness and expectancy as they rushed down the stairs, making her wonder if they had put Lydia to all of this.

How else would Lydia have known of the banquet and had gotten a dress for it?

The subtle anger and pain she had seen in Lydia's eyes when their gaze had met confirmed that the sisters had something to do with her going out today, but there was nothing Georgina would do.

She would have to ignore this as well. She mused.

She sighed and then her mind drifted to how so beautiful Lydia had looked today this made her feel a pang of guilt engulfing her with its rope.

Lydia looked so much like her like none of her other daughters did. Only she had straight black locks like Georgina and the only other features she had differently were her eyes and her dimpled chin, all the other Stathams had brown eyes and chestnut deep brown hair except Georgina and Lydia who had coal black hair and Lydia had a warm kind heart that no Statham could never muster.

A small gasp left Georgina when a hand slid to her lap from under the blanket.

"What are you pondering about Gina?" Julius Statham, her husband and the marquis of Critic Arley, asked Georgina, his voice a whisper.

Turning towards him, Georgina simply stared at him with confusion in her heart.

She loved this man dearly but she had always had this confusion settling in her heart for years now.

Is she doing the right thing by neglecting her daughter to make him happy and satisfied?

Will her daughter never forgive her for making her an abomination?

Will she ever be a mother to her warmest daughter?

Is Julius happy?

"I'm just tired" she replied giving a part of what she was thinking about to him.

Everything that happened today weighed her heart down.

"Mmm you should let me help" Julius flipped her, and it did not surprise her how her heart still did a little flip at any physical thing he did with her.

His calloused fingers and palm worked her back and shoulders attentively, making her sigh contentedly.

"Don't think too much about Lydia, she shall soon be fine" Julius commented, He sounded as calm and compassionate as Georgina has accustomed herself to.

He lay down and drew her into his arms.

Julius was a hypocrite, he had pretended to be fine with Georgina having another man's child in his house, but he had never been okay with it, because he believed a mere slave had gotten his attractive wife pregnant.

He could never accept that.

The practice of slavery isn't high in Critic-Ishire, but he was sure the bastard was a slave.

Yet he loved his wife too much to let her go.

"I just wish she wouldn't be so careless" Georgina complained, resting her head on his chest, She shut her eyes, feeling lighter.

"We shall talk to her in the morning," Julius promised.

He placed a kiss on her forehead with a frown.

"Thank you, Julius, I would do none of this without you" her voice barely above a gasp and he heard her making him smile a little.

He didn't care what happened to Lydia, he couldn't even stand her.

"I love you". His voice and declaration lulled her to sleep.

 *

* *

 *

Evening.

Bedroom, Statham estate.

Critic Arley, Critic-Ishire.

***************

Lydia did not step out of her room and no one came to see her either, she was grateful for that as she could not stand their scandalous questions at all.

The energy she had exerted to act strong in the presence of lord Theodore was now taking a toll on her.

She lay in bed till late afternoon the next day.

She finally, reluctantly left her bed, took her bath and dressed in one of her ordinary outfits. For a Marquis daughter, she barely had decent dresses for any occurrence.

And as she combed her long black locks a knock pierced through the silence in the room, she stood up, swung the wooden door open and walked back inside.

The only people who knocked before entering her room were the employeds, her sisters wouldn't knock, her mother never comes while Father would call her down.

"Mathilda"

Lydia whispered her voice cranky, she hadn't said a word since after crying her eyes out through the night, last night.

"Dinner is ready, you should join the family downstairs" Mathilda said.

Lydia managed a smile; Mathilda never calls them her family but refers to them adjectively.

"Thank you, I will join them right away, I'm sorry I couldn't join the kitchen work today" Lydia appeased.

She worked in the house like an employed, only she never gets paid.

"I reckon it's okay, Albert gave you the day off," her friend and co-worker said as she stood expectantly.

It's everywhere about how Lydia had gone for a banquet and her friend too would love a good gist but Lydia was exhausted and the fright hadn't warded off yet.

"Mmm," Lydia's reply was mumble.

Maybe next time she can talk with her friend, she thought.

Mathilda knew her friend's head was clouded at the moment and would not want to piss her off with questions yet so she let her be. There was a lot of time left for them to catch up on her misery.

Lydia took her hair in a bun with a pin as she made her way downstairs in a brown dungaree. Father had gotten it for her when he got the other girl's dresses.

She never likes to dress, he would say whenever outsiders ask.

As she went down the stairs she heard her family's chatter, they had already started eating.

She stood at the entrance of the dining area, pain in her orbs.

They looked so happy and complete. Without her here they would be happier, she thought.

She was the stain in the family.

The scorn, she makes all of them evil, her chest released in a sad sigh.

The minute she joined them now, the atmosphere would be tense and unwelcoming, she could simply turn back around and stay in her room instead.

It was also safer there for her but she was thirsty and almost starving now, she needed energy, so she stepped in with hurried steps before she could change her mind.

"You have been in your room all day, how impertinent of you," Liza said, opening the floor of complaints as always making Lydia sigh.

She was so eager to drag Lydia that she couldn't let her sit before forging with her complaints.

Lydia felt dizzy like she was standing in front of the lord's mansion again.

As she settled in her seat, she drew her mother's attention as the chair screeched loudly at the pull.

She sat down and quickly she began to put food on her plate.

She wished to eat without delay.

Liza watched her with disgust plastered all over her face.

Mira scoffed.

"How was last night's banquet Lydia dear"

Her eyes met his cold brown ones at his question and she wondered what happened yesterday.

He had always been good with his caring father's façade and only made her feel like a sin in private.

Did his facade slip yesterday? She thought.

"Nobody came" her reply was short as she drank a complete jar of water making Shi'enz who had been focused on her food grimace.

How does she drink so much water? she shook her head.

Lydia thought she needed to eat enough before the family destroyed her little appetite so she focused on it.

The food appeared finely made.

"Oh lord, Lydia why did you insist on going there, Lydia"

Lydia looked at Georgina after her sudden question.

The atmosphere shifted.

"You know the lord is an enemy of the Emperor, and the enemy of the Emperor is the enemy of the Empire" Her mother's voice was calm and slow as usual but the accusation made her glance at her father quickly.

Stepfather! a brutal part of her mind screamed.

Is that what he told the family? she asked mentally.

Had he lied that she had insisted on going to a banquet?

She gulped, her emotions heavy.

She kept quiet.

"Your hunger for attention is going to put the whole of Statham family in trouble this time," Liza said.

She was acting 'all wise and elegant again just as she was famous for.

"Let's hope word doesn't go out that you were in attendance at the banquet because you shall have to take the fall instead of the estate" Mira scoffed.

She was as brutal as she can get.

Lydia wondered the kind of husband Mira would end up with. She wished him the peace that he would hardly get for the rest of his life.

"You even got a dress with money from lord knows where and took the Statham carriage to indicate the house, how courageous" Mira commented enormously.

Lydia would wish Mira was never born, but she was the abomination and Statham's estate would be perfect without her.

Her appetite had disappeared, she wanted to defend herself but did not know how.

Nothing seemed like a good idea, the family as Mathilda calls them would never believe her.

They are set to see her fall, she glanced at her mother, their eyes met and her mother looked away, she wished it was guilt she saw just now but it was only emptiness as it has always been.

Lydia stood up abruptly too emotional to sit with them.

"I will be going back to my room" she declared. "If I'm allowed" she added with a small bow and without waiting for her parent's reply she left the dining hall with heavy steps.

She heard their nags following right behind her.

House of Snakes it really is.

In the grandeur of their ancestral dining hall, the family of four daughters, sat three daughters accompanied by their father and mother, gathered for dinner. 

An unspoken energy crackled in the air, palpable yet elusive, as they sat around the ornate table. 

Maids moved with silent efficiency, serving each course with practiced precision. 

Amidst the clinking of silverware and soft murmurs of conversation, a complex tapestry of emotions lingered, a blend of love, rivalry, and unspoken expectations. 

Though outwardly composed, each member of the family carried their own burdens and desires, woven into the fabric of their shared existence within the sophisticated confines of their home.

 *

* *

 *

Morning.

Her bedroom.

Critic Arley, Critic-Ishire.

***************

"Miss Lydia?" Mathilda called, peeking into Lydia's room as it was breakfast but she wasn't down and the family was gathering.

"Come in Dorothy," Lydia mumbled, prompting her to step inside.

"Do you wish to come downstairs for breakfast?" the maid and friend asked.

"No please, I am fine" Lydia replied softly, she didn't have energy after such an eventful dinner with the family she didn't want to be in their midst anymore.

Mathilda sighed, she hated when Lydia became sad but the one she had slipped in this time was even worse than she expected. If she was refusing a meal, she decided promptly that she was going to deliver her breakfast to her room.

She leaves and in the quiet solitude of her lavish bedroom, Miss Lydia Statham lay nestled beneath the covers, her slender form cocooned in the embrace of the soft, silken sheets. The muted light of dawn filtered through the lace curtains, casting a gentle glow upon her delicate features as she reclined upon a mound of plush pillows.

With a heavy heart, Lydia had chosen to retreat to the sanctuary of her bed, seeking solace in the comfort of solitude after the cruel betrayals of her family. The elegance and refinement of Critic Arley were starkly juxtaposed with the callousness of her heartless father, the indifference of her nonchalant mother, the venomous tongues of her vicious sisters, and the disrespect of her maids.

Lord Theodore. Her heart clenched thinking about him so she stopped and looked around, the maids had set up the breakfast for and despite how beautifully it surrounded her, Lydia's appetite for the extravagant breakfast laid out upon a silver tray remained untouched. Instead, she picked at her food listlessly, her thoughts consumed by the pain of betrayal and the ache of loneliness that gnawed at her soul.

As she gazed out of the window, the manicured gardens beyond seemed to mock her with their beauty, a cruel reminder of the idyllic facade that concealed the ugliness lurking within her own home. The laughter of her sisters echoed down the corridor, a discordant symphony of cruelty that served as a constant reminder of her isolation.

With a heavy sigh, Lydia pushed aside her breakfast, her appetite soured by bitterness and despair. In this moment of solitude, she found herself adrift in a sea of emotions, her heart battered and bruised by the callousness of those who should have loved and protected her.

'Traditions be damned' he'd growled and amidst the turmoil of her emotions, a spark of defiance flickered in Lydia's eyes, a determination to rise above the cruelty of her family and forge her own path. Though the road ahead may be drowning with challenges, she refused to be broken by the heartlessness that surrounded her, drawing strength from the flickering flame of hope that burned within her weary heart.