“All dressed my dear?” asked Mrs. Collinsworth. “Your father has a surprise for you; he brought a young man from the factory. Your father has been preparing him to take over the factory along with Timothy.”
“Finally, I’ll get to see the ‘fine young lad’ father is always talking about.” She giggled. “Let us go down and greet my guests, mother. You only turn sixteen once.”
“Welcome everyone!” Shuliet greeted the crowd of people as she descended the stairs.
“Who are those two boys?” A friend asked Shuliet
“I don’t know” She replied barely glancing at Benjamin. “I told people they could bring whoever they wanted with them. So it is probably someone else’s friends.”
Then she decided to take a better look and caught Dameo’s eyes. The two stared and each other. It almost seemed like time stopped and everything froze to the two. Dameo not even realizing started walking up to her. Though naïve, he still was a good ladies man.
“Hello there, beautiful young Maiden.” He bowed to her.
“I do not believe we have met.” She smiled.
“Let us keep it that way. Can I have this dance? Or if not it would be because you are to perfect to touch. I am not worthy to stand in your presence.”
“Do not bring yourself down so, for I have never seen a man more handsome than you. I would love to dance, thank you.”
The two danced and danced until they danced onto the patio outside. He then stopped and held her hands in his.
“Would it be too much if I asked you for your beautiful cherry lips to touch mine?”
“My head tells me not too, but who can control a yearning heart? You may kiss me fine gentle man.”She replied.
The two kissed and kissed again. Then Timothy notice Benjamin chatting with some people. He pointed him out to his uncle and told his uncle he would give that guy the beating of his life. His uncle told him stop reminding him of what the sheriff told them and besides he did not want to ruin the party.
Soon the evening ended and everyone started heading home. Dameo asked Shuliet if he could walk her home, but she said she lived here. Then he left trying to hold in his terrified feeling. She was the Shuliet that he was not allowed to talk to let alone fall in love with her.
“Oh I found out who the two guys were. Someone told me that they were Benjamin and Dameo from the mill. Guess they tried to crash your party. Good thing they failed” Shuliet’s friend told her as she walked out the door.
A pit instantly developed in her stomach. She kissed the guy that she had been forbidden to talk to. She ran to her room and opened the window to get some air.
“Oh, cruel world! I have not hardly been allowed to engage with boys and now I have to fall in love with the one which I am forbidden from. Father always told me ‘My dear girl, promise me that you will never go after those low class miller people like the Mullers’.” She cried.
Benjamin so tired reached home and realized Dameo had disappeared. He asked Markus if he had seen him.
“Ha, me see that fool of a brother, why would I have seen him?”Markus replied.
“I don’t know, maybe he ran ahead of me.”
“I just got home myself. I had some work to finish up. Where have the two of you been looking so fancy?”
“I was trying to get the boy’s mind of his loss of love. She was there and he probably saw her and ran home cryin’.”
“That boy is such a pansy. If I had lost a girl I would just move right to the next one.”
“I know that and so would I, but he has this thing for Rosy. . .”
“Rosy? Hahahaha. She is way out of his league. Hahaha that boy has to move on.”
Dameo over hearing thought to himself “They don’t know the pains of love, for neither of them can get a girl.” He left them laughing and hopped the fence hoping to see the love of his life again.
“Oh, why did your name have to be Dameo? Why couldn’t it have been Prescott or Charles? Oh, who care what your name is? I do not, but my family does. I love you Dameo and the world can know for all I care. I love you, yes it is true, but I hate your name for it means we cannot be together.” She cried out her window.
Dameo listening started thinking “Her voice is like a song that is sweeter than a fruit. I wish I was Timothy so I could be close to her every day. Am I a crazy fool? Yes indeed, but her beauty cannot compare to Rosy or even a flower. For her Beauty is more beautiful than anything on this earth.” Then he stepped on some branches.
“Who goes there?” She said terrified.
“A familiar stranger” he responded hoping to keep his name a secret, but yet not frighten her.
“That voice. I know that voice. Oh it couldn’t be Dameo, could it?” She asked into the darkness. If it is Dameo climb the ladder next to my window.”
He climbed the ladder quietly hoping not to get caught. “Hello fair maiden.” He smiled.
“Come in for I do not want you to fall.”
“I could not do anything until I saw you again.”
“Did you hear what I said?” She asked a little scared.
“Yes, but not to worry for I feel the same. I fell in love the moment I laid eyes on you.”
“Oh I know I should play hard to get like all the other girls. I will if you desire it, but I have never been good at that game. If it means I get you though, I will do it for you.”
“Why play such silly games when we are in a love deeper than that?"
“Shuliet! Your Mother wants you” called the nanny.
“Oh, Dameo I must go, but if I leave we will probably never see each other again.”She started to cry.
“Don’t cry dear one, do you trust me?"