Dire Consequences || Jeremiah & Caden

“Honestly? You must be joking,” Caden said to her mother with a small grimace as she checked her reflection in the mirror. She was well aware of her mother’s taste and how she loved for Caden to be the centre of attention but this was bordering upon negligent. It was a floor length gown –which was to be expected- with a plunging neckline and no back. In the same green that was her eyes it was finished off with a small line of diamonds along the hem that hugged her chest; if her mother was going for flash then she had certainly chosen herself a winner. 

“You look fine, Caden. Beautiful in fact and I’m sure I won’t be the only one that thinks so,” her mother said in a frustrated sigh as she tried to reach for Caden’s hair to gather it up in a bun. Swatting the hand away she shot her mother a glare before gathering her dress up to reach the wand that was hidden and strapped to her thigh. Pulling it away, she cast a quick spell that made her hair fall down her shoulders in loose curls before putting it back where it had come from. Ignoring the rant that her mother was spouting over insisting upon hiding her wand during a Gala Caden looked at her appearance a final time and had to admit she did look as her mother had described.

“Come now. I’m sure they are all waiting for us,” her mother said in a hurried tone as she ushered Caden out of her room. Walking along the familiar corridors her thoughts were focused upon what was now considered to be the inevitable after the festivities were done with. Caden and Jeremiah both knew that nothing good was going to happen even if their parents were all smiles and warm gestures now; the anticipation was creating a knot in her stomach that she couldn’t push away.

Making her way down the steps her heels rang through the large house, the sound echoing until she found her father and Jeremiah’s engaged in hushed conversation that ended as soon as she arrived. Undoubtedly her mother had gone off to find Mrs. Johnston which left Caden alone with the only two people she had ever grown to be wary of in her entire life. Her father, a tall and slender man with a pronounced jaw and salt and pepper hair, merely nodded at her presence while the other man tried his best at a smile. “Father. Mr. Johnston,” Caden said with a polite nod although she made no effort to smile. “And where is Jeremiah, then?” her father questioned in an irritated tone that she had heard so many times that it hardly affected her. “He’ll be down in a moment,” Caden responded defensively. Although she would never regard herself as weak she silently prayed that Jeremiah would make an appearance soon to put her at ease.