Sea Of Dreams

Chapter Four

East Street, London
1751

My dear Victoria, it is with great misfortune that I must inform you, I shan't be able to join you upon the fortnight of your sixteenth birthday as promised. It would appear that yet another of my ships have been scourged from it's transport and I am left momentarily ill-equipped to finance the repercussions.
Therefore, I shall remain in London henceforward, until further notice.

Sending all my love, Edward H.

Victoria looked down at the letter clasped in her hands, rereading it once more. Her father wasn't coming.
She had already assumed as much, but actually looking down at the physical evidence of his dismissal was enough to make her heart feel as if it was wrenched and twisted in bitter pain.

Two years...two years she had spent in isolation out here in the country. Two years of empty promises and disappointments. She was sixteen today and could not have received a more fitting gift.

A knot formed in her stomach and her eyes rimmed with the threat of onset tears. Tossing the letter in the fireplace, she turned and darted quickly out of the small study. She paid no mind to the pitied looks on the faces of the maids or footmen. She had learned to ignore the opinions of others her entire life, as she was always looked upon as more of a pitiful creature than just a girl; a living, breathing, human being.

She fought back the sinking disappointment within her as she stumbled up the stairs to her room. Although she had always had loving people around her, the lack of parental love and death of her mother left her lonely. So devastatingly lonely, it caused her heart to hurt.

The window slipped past the corner of her vision and she halted on the upper landing. Walking slowly over to the framed glass, she stopped and peered out at the landscaped lawn, the ocean stretching beyond that. It was so empty, so...free. Oh how she longed for the endless expanse the sea had, to be so limitless and wild. Nothing stood against the ocean's tides. Nothing perturbed it's existence.

It had been two years since she had stepped foot into it's salty embrace...

A tear welled up in one eye and trailed down her cheek as she pinched her lips together and scrunched her face up.

Turning away, she fled back down the stairs and out the front door in a flurry of heavy skirts. She didn't bother grabbing her bonnet, she simply needed to be away from everything that was her meaningless life.

The afternoon sun was high in the sky, burning bright upon the white sand when Victoria ran down the shore. Her hair had come free of it's ribbons and flew around her face, cascading down her back.

She collapsed on her knees in front of the receding waves and finally let the tears fall freely. She sat there for what felt like an eternity, sobbing quietly to herself.

She remembered the old book she used to love more than life itself, she remembered perfectly how the ocean stole it from her. She desperately wished she had her sketchpad still so she could gaze at the drawings of her past life at least one more time. Reliving the images of her mother and perceptions of the life she once had, was the only way she could ever find solace and reprieve from what her lonely life had become. Now, those memories seemed like far off dreams, fading with time.

She stopped crying for a moment and looked up at the ocean. The creature that grabbed her...the being that nearly drowned her...that...thing took the only item precious to her.
Try as she might not to think about it, she longed for answers, for her beloved book.

Feeling anger rile up inside of her, Victoria scrunched her fists into balls and glared at the waves.

"I hope you're happy!" She screamed, "you blasted fish, I hope you get eaten by sharks!!!"