A Flaming Love

WARNING: this chapter contains scenes of child abuse.

Deirdre. "Are you finished with that gown yet? My social season is in less than three days."

Cassandra looked up from her work. "I am almost finished Deirdre, I will send for you when everything is complete."

Deirdre rolled her hazel eyes. "It has taken you three days to get this done!"

Cassandra growled, trying not to burn the delicate cream silk in her hands. "Deirdre, need I remind you that I have a stigmatism? Everything looks much bigger to me than it actually is."

Deirdre flipped her chestnut brown curls over her left shoulder. "I don't bloody care about your stigmatism! I want that gown finished! It needs to be perfect!"

Cassandra took a breath. She wasn't going to argue with her sister anymore. "Very well, I will have it finished and put into your bedroom by this evening."

Deirdre. "Good, because I expect it this evening."

Cassandra watched as Deirdre turned and disappeared out of her bedroom. She exhaled slowly, turning her attention back to her needle work in her hands. She held up one end of the cream silk skirt to her eyes, noticing that the gold butterfly embroidery looked much bigger than it actually was. Of course it did, her stigmatism made everything distorted and quite blurry.

Sighing, Cassandra continued her work. At the age of 16, she had been living with Deirdre Musgrave and her parents, Gregory and Priscilla, for the last 10 years. However, living was not the right word. No, she had been residing in the same house as the family.

There was one thing that made Cassandra stand out from the Musgraves. She was a phoenix shifter. Her first transformation had taken place at the age of six years old, the same day that a deadly fire had broken out in the countryside. The same day that she had been separated from her true parents, Lord Nicholas and Lady Elizabeth Grafton. She had no idea if her parents were alive or dead.

Despite not knowing the whereabouts of her true parents, Cassandra did know one thing for certain. They loved her, and she returned the gesture. They didn't treat her as if she was an imbecile simply because she couldn't see things clearly. She had three more years until her coming out season. And when that day arrived, she was going to get away from the Musgraves and find her real family. Find love and happiness.

Setting down her nearly completed work, Cassandra moved a few strands of platinum blonde curls away from her bright blue eyes just as the sound of her bedroom door opening caught her attention. Raising her head, she noticed Priscilla entering the bedroom, her hands on her hips. She swallowed hard, knowing she was in for quite the tongue lashing.

Priscilla's voice echo through the room. "Deirdre tells me that you are not finished with her gown."

Cassandra winced. Priscilla and Deirdre both had identical sharp voices that made her skin crawl and her headache. She took a breath. "I am almost finished with it. I told her it would be in her bedroom by this evening."

Priscilla moved toward the gown, picking it up and looking at it. She shook her head with disapproval. "You are not finished with it yet! You need to complete embroidering the back!"

Cassandra swallowed hard. "As I told you mother, I am nearly finished."

Priscilla rolled her eyes, throwing the garment at Cassandra. "This should have been finished yesterday. But no, you take much too long. Why, because you are as blind as a bat."

Cassandra picked up her needle and the back of the skirt. "If you did not know, I am not able to see well."

Priscilla. "Yes yes I know. You have a bloody stigmatism or whatever it is. I am not going to waste my time with you another minute. Get Deirdre's gown finished."

Cassandra lowered her head back to the task at hand, not wanting to see Priscilla Musgrave another minute. She despised the entire family. She wasn't a part of their lives, that was a fact. She didn't want to be a part of their lives a moment longer. Her desire was to be free.

Beginning to embroider the same gold butterflies on the back of the skirt, Cassandra knew that her life would change by the time her social season arrived. She would no longer be in the presence of the Musgraves, would no longer have to hear their constant name-calling and criticism. She would be among her own kind. Three years couldn't come soon enough