Author's Note:
Aha! She finally writes. Well… it's been quite a while, so I hereby present to you faithful readers: the first of two prequels for "You Need To Find Yourself a Girl Mate".
The first part of this chapter is set in Rebecca Clarke's childhood (when she's ten years of age); therefore it's about twenty-eight years before the events of "You Need to Find Yourself a Girl Mate" (if my math is correct…).
Anyway, I won't have you waiting any longer, so enjoy the story!
"I won't have this kind of –outlandish- behaviour in my facility, Miss Clarke!" A woman barked at a young black-haired girl. The woman was the headmistress of one of the finest academies for young ladies in Treaka. The girl was one of her more challenging students.
The headmistress paced the front of her desk with her lips pursed tightly and her face stiff with severity. Her greying hair was pulled back into a tight up-do further paling her complexion, apart from her angrily flushed cheeks. A pair of piercing bottle-green eyes looked down on the youth with intense fury.
The youth in question, a Miss Rebecca Jane Clarke, sat silently in front of the headmistress. Her school uniform was dirtied and torn in places; she had a fat lip, bruised knuckles, and was sporting a dark shiner on her left eye.
"Brawling like a brute barbarian; will not ever be permitted in this school, nor is it acceptable in society's eyes." The headmistress gave the youth another stern look as she turned on the heel of her boot. "Doing so just degrades you to that of the drunken sailors who so keenly travel from port to port, doing as they please."
The youth narrowed her pale green eyes at the headmistress, challenging her will but uttering no word.
The headmistress's bottom lid twitched instinctively from annoyance. She then leaned over to meet the young woman at eye level. "Miss Clarke, you are not a savage, you are a young lady." She stated crisply. "Your parents have paid for you to attend this academy and have you moulded into a fine woman of society, so I suggest that you get your act together."
Rebecca would have scoffed if she didn't know better, as punishments at this particular academy were thoroughly unpleasant. They were moulding her into a lady? She thought bluntly to herself. She was not a lump of useless material, waiting to be transformed by skilful hands into something amazing; she liked herself perfectly as she was.
But the intense flame that seemed to flicker behind the headmistress's bottle-green eyes made Rebecca squirm. They had said that if anyone could turn a savage into a modest, civilized being, it was this headmistress.
It seemed like this fight may become one of few that she wasn't going to win.
Ten Years Later…
"Rebecca Jane Clarke!" A shrill voice chastised a now twenty-year-old woman. "There is no way in the Etherium that I will allow you to get yourself killed by gallivanting about the galaxy from planet to planet. There are pirates amuck and hardly any respectable sailing crews about."
"But mother, I'm just asking you to let me have some freedom before I shackle myself to this planet and settle down with a suitor." Rebecca begged her mother.
"All of your brothers got engaged without having to go anywhere." Lady Jane Clarke spoke pointedly to her only daughter. "Sebastian's already married and his wife is expecting any month now."
"I know that, but I don't feel that I'm quite ready for that sort of commitment…" The young woman looked dearly into her mother's eyes. "Please... just for a few months, at most a year!"
"Jane." The baritone voice of her father, Lord Douglas Townsend, answered from the foot of the spiral staircase in the front living room, in which the two women where squabbling. Rebecca's father and brothers carried on the Townsend family name because of their genders, whereas Rebecca upheld her mother's family name. "Perhaps we might consider allowing Rebecca a voyage or two…"
"What?" Jane interjected curtly, her pale green eyes widening in shock. "That's out of the question, Douglas. She'd be raped and killed out there all by herself!"
"But what if…" Douglas cut in, easing a hand through his greying dark brown hair. "We were to hire an escort from Los Terrano?"
"The desert planet?" Jane gasped at the mention of the planet's name.
"Yes." The older man nodded quietly. "There are a fair few respectable mercenaries that will be willing to guard our daughter for a nominal charge."
"And I'll fund the voyages and escort with my own money." Rebecca volunteered enthusiastically, happy that one of her parents was supporting her adventurism.
Jane sighed finally and turned away from her two family members. "I… I just don't want to lose you, Rebecca." She said softly, her voice was wavering between complete silence and tears. "You're the only daughter I have, and heir to the Clarke name."
Rebecca gently set a hand on her mother's shoulder, turning her around to face her. "I realize that, mother, and honour it." She smiled weakly. "I won't be gone long, and I promise that I'll be careful."
Jane gently patted Rebecca's hand and smiled tearfully at her youngest child. "I know you will, Rebecca."
"So…" Rebecca looked up at her mother with the same pale green-coloured eyes, eager to start her voyage. "I have your permission?"
Jane chuckled lightly. "And my blessing." She planted a small kiss on her daughter's brow before leaving the front room into the mansion's library.
Douglas followed his wife into the library, giving Rebecca an encouraging wink before he left the front room.
Rebecca smiled warmly and then blinked back into reality. She had so many things to do before she could even leave the planet. She'd have to hire transportation to Los Terrano; and because it was at least a month's worth of voyaging, she'd have to also hire a captain, crew and ship, and fund for provisions. Most prominently the thoughts of what she'd have to pack, not only for the ferry voyage to Los Terrano but also any of her future voyages, was mind-boggling.
The young woman groaned, raking her fingers through her raven-black hair. 'Where do I start?' She thought feeling completely overwhelmed.
Author's Note:
And so ends the first chapter of the long-awaited prequel… What do you think, readers?
Thanks a lot to my fantastic beta: Whisperwings, who has agreed to vastly improve my story once again.
MG#6