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Seline and Will got up and said their goodbyes and went their separate ways. Seline went to the hen house to collect the eggs so she would have an excuse for being outside this early. She had taken a few minutes behind the hen house by the pond looking at her reflection trying to get the hay out of her hair and clothes.

Seline was the middle child. She had two older sisters and two younger sisters. Both were sets of twins, and as such each pair were inseparable. Seline had always been the lone child. She learned to do things mostly by herself. That was the main reason that she and Will got along so well. He was a middle child also. His father took his oldest brother under his tutelage right away and the his youngest brother was the baby and his mother’s favorite so he was always with her. Will was left to find his own way and so he and Seline became best friends.

Now that they were older the friendship remained but it had to be more secretive because the adults all had their own plans for the pair of them, and it did not include the two of them ending up together. Marriages were rarely made for love in the wealthier families of society. They were made for alliances, acquisition, repayment and power. A child was treated like a possession. The more beautiful or handsome, the better academic or business standing that your child had the better chance a family had of making a match that would make them wealthier, or garner more power.

Seline was considered to be quite beautiful and as such her father had been shopping her about to many of the local families that were wealthier than them and that had eligible sons, and in one case to a very wealthy old widower whose wife and only child died in child birth and as such he had no heir. The marriages of her two older sisters had been arraigned 3 months ago and the customary 4 month engagement was almost over. Her parents decided that they would celebrate both girl weddings on the same day since they were both born on the same day, but everyone in town knew that the only reason that Seline’s father was doing that is so that he could save money. Why pay for two weddings when you can have one for both of them. Rose and Heather did not mind, since they had done everything together their whole life, it seemed only natural to them.

As Seline entered the house with the chicken eggs that she collected. Seline did not fear that someone would figure out that she did not sleep in her bed last night, since she was the only who did not have a twin, she was the only one who did not have to share a bed. With the eggs washed and placed on the scrub wood table. Seline headed upstairs to brush her hair and tidy her clothes. No one in the house was up yet which was unusual.

She quietly walked into her room and closed the door. Walking to the looking glass she was thinking about her time with Will. She did not want those times to end. She had been hoping all summer that Will would get the courage to ask his father to make a deal with hers for them to be wed. It would be an advantageous match for both families, as the two farms bordered each other, and as they were adding a match they would be allowed by law to annex in some of the unclaimed farm land to the south of the two farms and making them both that much larger. Unfortunately Will must not feel the same way about her as she did about him, because as far as she knew he had never asked. Now the night of her betrothal announcement was almost here, and she had no idea who her parents had made a deal with. Her younger sisters kept a running commentary at dinner last night as to their guesses who it might be. In the end both girls had decided that the most advantageous match for her father right now would be the old widower Hadley. He was considered old since he had gone prematurely grey at the age of 28 when he lost his wife and son in child birth. Now he was 30. The idea of marrying a man that was almost twice her age made here nauseated, but she would do what her family told her or she would find herself shunned and homeless. Most women deal with the unwanted marriage instead of trying to fend for themselves alone.

In the mirror she slowly brushed out her long golden blonde hair, and pulled it back in a braid. She pinched her cheeks to give them a bit of color before looking in the mirror at her bright golden eyes that matched her shining hair. Seeing that all was in order she went down to have breakfast and then head to the women’s study to meet with the girl’s tutor mr. Glassman.

Seline’s sisters came down shortly after her and Henni their cook and maid was already in the kitchen with breakfast started. Seline’s two younger sisters, Alice and Alene, were begging Henni to tell them about what it was like to be with a man before their parents came down. “No way, no how. You two ask your mother or your older sisters after they are married. That is not my place and your Pa and Mama would fire me on the spot for that..”. Henni’ s face turned red and she began kneading her bread faster and more vigorously.

Seline reached over and grabbed a small broken piece of the bacon that was on the plate for her father. Mother and the girls always had bread and jam and father had his eggs and bacon or eggs and steak on special days. Meat was expensive and considered a luxury so most families only had it for special occasions. If you were wealthy you might be able to have it for one meal a day, but her father decided that he would have meat for every meal, but only him as there was no sense on wasting meat on worthless females as they did not contribute to the family wealth. That way he could brag that at his house meat is served at every meal.

seline and her two younger sisters finished their bread and jam and headed off to meet with Mr. Glassman. He was fairly young for a tutor, only 19. He came from a wealthy family himself, but when his mother, sister and older brother died of influenza last year his father went insane with grief and sold their property and just left. He never even told his only living son he sold it he just left and the new owners came and kicked him out.

Mr. Glassman had rented out the stable hand berth in the barn of the farm a couple of miles up the road. He made his money from tutoring Seline and her sisters in the morning, and Will and his youngest brother in the afternoon, and the farmer’s children at night. He traded the farmer the only thing he could to get lodging, and that was his mind. He was exceptionally smart, but without a home and a family all that was forgotten and he would have to find a way to make money to eat and keep a roof over his head. Tutoring seemed like a good fit, and by bartering with the farmer to teach his children, the money that he makes tutoring in the morning and the afternoon, he can buy his food, clothes and even save a little. He hopes to be able to buy a small piece of land of his own to start his own home. He knows that he is running out of time as he has his eye on making a match with Seline’s sister Alene. She is now 15 and only has another year before her father will be making a match for her. Mr. Glassman hopes to be able to have a home to offer her by then.

Seline wishes with all her heart that her father would allow the match as it is what her sister Alene wants too, but she knows that there are many other matches out there that would make father much more money, and after all father would not like being given his betrothal gift in money that he had paid in the first place.