Sunshine slowly swam over the Windsor Estate in the late hours of the morning. Though, you could hardly tell in the young Lady Howard's room, whose long scarlet drapes hid the sun that desperately tried to sneak into the room and wake her from her slumber. The young Lady Howard, whose raven hair had spilled over the side of her bed, slept soundly. She did not notice her maids walking in and out of the room, getting prepared for the day. Most mornings went as so, the young Lady Howard could never bear to close her eyes and fall into deep slumber until the wee hours of the morning when she would finally give into exhaustion, this led her to always awake later than most young girls of her age and status. If it had been a new routine, her parents and tutors would have attempted to beat it out of her, but the young Lady Howard had been following this pattern since she had been born, much to the dismay of her governess, Lady Fiona Bryan, a stern woman who posed as the young Lady Howard's second mother.

After several attempts at waking her charge up gently, Lady Fiona decided the best course of action would be to shake the young Lady Howard awake. And yet again, with no success.

"Sometimes, my dear, I think you must be dead to the world." Lady Fiona muttered to her sleeping charge.

"Must I awaken?" the young Lady Howard asked in sleepy words and a yawns, speaking into her pillow. Lady Fiona gasped in surprise; she had not been expecting the young girl to speak.

"Yes, dear Violet. You must be getting up." Lady Fiona said, sitting down beside her charge and stroking her hair gently like a mother would.

"Well, I suppose I should." Violet groaned jumping up from her bed most energetically, like only a young person can. She walked over to her vanity and began to wash her face, and waited for her maids to begin brushing out her long hair. Her eyes stung as Lady Fiona snapped open the long scarlet drapes, allowing the sunshine burst into the room and shock Violet's eyes.

The governess walked over to her charge and assisted in tightening the corset on the young girls dress, though she was only thirteen, she had begun to look like a woman in all of the right places. Many of the noble men at court were noticing, and even the king had made comments about the young Violet's beauty. The governess had been instructed by the girl's stepfather to make her look more mature and sophisticated, it was just like him to attempt to get the girl married off as fast as he could, especially to a man of noble status, so that he could increase his own power and influence at court.

Violet's stepfather, Lord Windsor, would have had her as one of the Lady's in waiting already, but the Queen Anne had refused the girl. It seemed that the Queen was only choosing ladies that she deemed less attractive and witty than herself, in order to keep the straying King's attention. Windsor only took this as a good sign, and brought his young stepdaughter to court every chance he had.

Lady Fiona powdered Violet's slightly freckles face. "The darned things just keep popping up!" Fiona scolded, reminding herself to gather some lemon juice to bleach the young girls face. It was unbecoming to have freckles or dark skin.

"I quite them, they have character." Violet said dreamingly.

"You can like them in private." Lady Fiona laughed. "You won't find a suitable husband with these."

"Who said I want one?" Violet spoke, whilst her eyes narrowed. She had overheard talk of marriage propositions for her, and she despised the idea. What if she did not want to get married?

"Since when does it matter what you want? You are a girl." Lady Fiona spoke in a dignified tone, as though she had accepted this fate herself. "You are but a pawn in a man's game."

Violet frowned and her governess pinched her cheeks painfully. "Stop frowning, you don't want to look like an old hag."

After a spending the usually long amount of time preparing the girl for the day ahead of her and a cordial breakfast with her stepfather, who spoke of nothing but politics and his dogs, the young Lady Howard was left to roam her stepfather's estate. She had lived here since her mother had married him three years ago. Her father had been an Irishman, her mother had married out of love rather than status had died in war when the young Lady Howard was but four years old. After that, her mother had taken what little gold that her husband had left her, and came back to England where she was married again for status rather than love. In fact, the Lady Windsor seemed to despise her husband. Violet sometimes thought that perhaps if her stepfather was younger, her mother would warm up to him, seeing as her mother was not yet thirty.

The Lady Windsor, she had not been seen around the estate much. Though, to her daughter's knowledge she had not even left the grounds. The only time the girl saw her mother was at dinner, when hardly anything was spoken. When the thought of her mother came into Violet's mind, she decided that she would go to look for her around the estate.

When she reached her mother's apartments, Violet slowly opened the large door attempting to keep it from making noise. She saw her mother lying in the bed the same way Violet's governess would have said she had lay that morning. Her mother's curly red hair looking as though she had a wig on, Violet could not help but notice how shiny and new it looked. It looked like her horse's mane! Curiosity overcame her and she just had to pet her mother's hair. Sitting on her mother's bed, she slowly put her hand onto her hair and began to stroke. It felt like her horse's mane!

Violet felt something tighten over her wrist quickly and, startled, jumped up. Her mother had grabbed her wrist and was holding onto it tightly. Lady Windsor looked up from her pillow fiercely, frightening her daughter who tried to pull away franticly.

"Mother! You're hurting me!" the girl cried. At these words, Lady Windsor let go and looked down at her hand in shock. Her daughter was standing in front of her, nursing her sore wrist in tears.

"My darling…" Lady Windsor spoke apologetically. "I am sorry. Mother did not mean to do it." She said as she reached out to her daughter, who came close reluctantly. Lady Windsor gathered her daughter on the bed and hugged her close, kissing her wrist as though it would make it better.

"Why were you petting my hair, Violet?" The mother asked her daughter.

"It looks… different." The young Lady Howard noted awkwardly, enjoying this time with her mother. The Lady Windsor just nodded her head knowingly, not pressing on to the topic further.

"Would you like to help me get ready?" Lady Windsor asked her daughter. Violet did not really want to; she did not understand why her mother wanted her help, when there were maids and ladies to help her mother get dressed. But, she did so anyways. After doing the essentials and getting on her mother's dress after what seemed like ages, Violet proposed that she do her mother's hair as it was the one thing that she'd like to help with. Whilst pinning her mother's hair up, Violet noticed some peculiar marks surrounding her mother's neck. It almost seemed like the snakes Violet had seen at court had bitten her mother.

"Mother?"

Lady Windsor made a murmuring noise in response to her daughter.

"What are these marks on your neck?" Violet asked curiously.

The Lady Windsor grabbed at her own neck and pulled the few pins out of her hair and pulling it around to hide her neck. "On second thought, I'll wear my hair down today." She smiled at her daughter who was backing away slowly with a suspicious look in her eye.

"What is the ailment, mother? You can tell me. I am not a child." Violet pleaded desperately, assuming the worst.

"What?" Lady Windsor looked confused, but then laughed. "Dear child, I am not ill."

"Mother! You don't have to lie to me!" Violet cried aloud, tears were not streaming down her face, but it had scrunched up in a way that was very unbecoming. The girl reached out and grabbed her mother's hand, and saw that her mother's wrist also had the same marks that she hid on her neck. When Violet attempted to hold her mother's hand in place to look at the marks, Lady Windsor started to pull away violently, accidentally slapping her daughter.

Violet held her cheek in her palm, she was in shock. Her mother stood in front of her, hands hiding her mouth. Violet did not understand what was happening with her mother, but at that particular moment all she wanted to do was get away from her. As she walked out of her mother's apartments in a hurry, Violet could hear her mother calling her name.

After spending a day in her room sulking and coming up with outrageous explanations as to why her mother had bite marks, was sleeping in later than herself, and had become violent… Violet could not ignore the hunger that was eating away at her stomach. Luckily enough, Lady Fiona came to tell her that her mother and stepfather were waiting to dine with the girl.

As the young girl sat down at the large dining table, and food was served to her she noticed a certain hostility between her mother and stepfather. The two, who were usually cordial to each other, were not speaking and kept exchanging vulgar glances between each other.

There was no attempt at polite conversation before Lord Windsor opened his great mouth and spoke, "We've found you a husband, Lady Howard." He smiled viciously.

"She's too young!" Lady Windsor yelled; which was out of a woman's place and earned her a trying look from Lord Windsor.

"How dare you! I should divorce you for that!" A great growl came out of his throat. "I'm doing you a favour by finding your daughter a husband! And you will be grateful for it!"

Violet knew better than to speak, she knew better than to cry or disagree with him. After all, he was the man of the house and she was, after all, just a pawn in a man's game. She picked at her food and drank her ale in silence, only looking at her mother once to catch a glimpse of her pale complexion looking rather red with rage.

When dinner was done and Violet was stripped of her day clothes, she lay in her night gown and sobbed into Lady Fiona's soothing arms until Lady Fiona finally fell asleep, leaving Violet to cry by her in the dark until she herself finally succumbed to sleep.

"Violet!" a voice whispered harshly in the young Lady Howard's ear as she was shaken awake. She saw her mother standing above her in the dark looking as frantic as ever. When Lady Windsor noticed that her daughter was awake, finally, she spoke again in a whisper: "I've gotten a trunk packed for you. We must leave now."

"Where are we going?" Violet asked as she rushed out of her bed, in her nightdress and put on a velvet overcoat that her mother had handed her.

"Away from here." Lady Windsor spoke gravely, her mass of red hair atop of her head.

Well, thanks for getting through this chapter for me. If you were looking for some vampire action right away, this was so not the chapter. No worries though. Chapter 2, we'll be seeing some familiar vampires. I hope you liked it, please review!