30 Day Image Prompt Contest - CLOSED

The Bird and the Bride

She sat alone in the dark room with her head leaned against the window ledge as she tried not to cry. Everything about her big day had gone wrong before it had really started. It was the wrong man, the wrong dress, the wrong day, the wrong reason. She hadn’t been given an option. She had been locked in the attic to wait for her groom to arrange things and then send for her to be married. 

Somewhere in the dark house below her, she could hear movement. It was a light sound, as if someone were moving about delicately, but was unfamiliar with their surroundings. She couldn’t picture her uncle making that much noise in his own house, nor the servants who had lived there even longer. Her groom had yet to arrive, so she was frightened that the house was being burglarized. Of course she was in the safest position at that moment, but she still feared for the people of the house, her little sister especially. Cautiously she stood up from her chair and made her way to the door of the attic and opened it a crack.  Slowly, slowly, she opened the door and wedged herself in it, not bothering to turn on a light. She knew the house well enough that she could possibly take an intruder by surprise and maybe live to tell the tale—for her sister’s sake. 
He knew that the pendant was in the house somewhere, but where would the old man hide it? There were so many rooms in the house and so many people who might catch him snooping, but he didn’t hardly care, as long as he could get what was rightfully his mother’s and get away unscathed. As he rifled through a desk, the candle light flickering weakly among the items, he heard a sound that froze him in place—someone had just cocked a shotgun at him. 

“We have little of value left, sir. I wish that you would go before I have to shoot you.” That was all he needed. An over frightened female with a gun pointed at his back. Even if she couldn’t fire it properly one or both of them could still get hurt. 

“I find that hard to believe, miss, but I am merely here for what is mine. A small golden sparrow pendant. Your uncle took it as an IOU and I have come to retrieve and replace it with the cash.”
She didn’t really know whether she should believe him or not. He didn’t seem dangerous, but she kept the gun pointed at him nonetheless. If her uncle was receiving money, then maybe he would call of the wedding. The logical part of her brain scorned her for such foolishness but she was desperate to escape her fate. 

“How much money is there?”

“Five-thousand dollars paid in full. Normally, we pay off our debts, but I don’t like your uncle. If you give me the pendant, I will see to it that you are free as well as safe.”

“And my sister.”

It wasn’t a request. She would only help him if he could save her sister from the same fate that she was in. He had heard that the eldest was marrying some older gentleman from out of town. He had also heard that she had been locked away so that she wouldn’t run away, but most people said that it was a lie. 

“Five thousand dollars could easily buy both of you your freedom. But you must get me the pendant.”

“I will. Just give me some time.”

I think that this might have been edging towards fan fiction this evening.