Klaus

Sigrid was nervous. It wasn't every day that she got married either. She was standing on a stool, looking at herself in a huge mirror, while her mother and sister helped her with her dress. It was simple. But Sigrid had chosen it with care. It was just as she had always dreamed. She still couldn't believe her luck... After so many misunderstandings, she had finally made it this far. She would marry the man she loved. Nothing else mattered. She felt on cloud nine. She looked into the mirror again to examine her dress. It was full of small pearls.

Her mother didn't want her dress to be white because she was no longer a virgin, and Sigrid gave in to her mother's wishes and her dress was all pearl. She also could not wear a garland, which made her feel a bit rejected, because she thought the garland crown was beautiful. She took a deep breath. It was just a detail and she wasn't going to let it get her down about it.

"You look beautiful, my child." Her mother, Mrs. Cleuza, marveled, bringing Sigrid out of her reveries.

"Isn't your belly showing, Mama?" Her younger sister, Astrid, asked mischievously. As she straightened her light pink dress to sit down.

Sigrid and Cleusa lowered their eyes to her prominent belly. Sigrid looked at it with pride, and her mother with disappointment. How could she have been so careless with her little girl and allow this to happen? It was her own fault! Her youth flashed through her mind like a bolt of lightning. Could it be a mere coincidence? It was hard to believe. She remembered the day she learned of Sigrid's pregnancy.

Sigrid was feeling dizzy and vomiting. The doctor was called, Sigrid was taken to the doctor's presence and it was like a slap in the face that he found out his daughter was not sick. She was pregnant! Mrs. Cleusa, dumbfounded, let herself stay in her chair. In her mind, the days of Sigrid's childhood passed, always very shy and very sensitive. If it had been her other daughter she wouldn't have been frightened, she was so rebellious and impulsive... But Sigrid? Always so correct... I wonder what had happened? Suddenly, on the day she found out she was pregnant, she had a shock. Had she been raped?

Asking the doctor's permission to be alone with her daughter for a few minutes, the doctor agreed, because this was the wealthiest family he attended to in that region. Although there was another one richer than them, but he, even when alive, did not use the village doctor. He himself would go to some clinic that nobody there knew about. His fortune was enormous and he could afford to treat with the best and most renowned doctors anywhere in the world.

As soon as the doctor left, Mrs. Cleuza approached her daughter who was lying on her bed and sat on the chair beside her bedside, and held her hands and looked at her with concern and affection.

"My daughter... How did this happen?"

"Mama! I think you know how a girl gets pregnant. And by the way it's not with a simple kiss like you always told me..." Sigrid said ironically.

Mrs. Cleusa was reddened by her daughter's provocation, but she would know what really happened to her daughter.

"Did he force you? Did he ask for a proof of love?"

"Mama! So that's what you think of Flauber? He would never force me.... Accept that it only happened because we love each other so much." Sigrid spoke indignantly and her eyes were no longer watching that room, but rather the wooden roof and the smell of hay in her nose. It had been a night when she had arrived earlier than expected from the house of her Aunt Laura, who lived two towns away. She had no children and was always happy about her visits. But when she arrived home, Flauber was tending to some horses and she went to the stable to see him. By this time she was hopelessly and irretrievably in love with him. As soon as he saw her, he let the other employees finish their work and came to meet her. There he silently took her by the hand and led her to the barn. There, amidst the caresses, the intimacy between them only increased with time, and now it was no longer enough just to kiss and caress him. Their bodies demanded more than that. And it was their only time. Later, he left on a trip to accompany his father to buy some more oxen and cows, and there she was. Cradled up to her neck. Sigrid then went deeper into her memories and recalled the first time she had seen him. He had knocked on the door and she, being close by, opened it. When she saw him for the first time, she thought it was a mirage. He was the tallest man she had ever seen. And his honey-colored eyes stared at her curiously. Politely she asked where her husband was.

"I don't have a husband... Why did you think that?"

"So you're not the owner of the house? Mrs. Cleuza?"

"No. She is my mother. How could you confuse us?" Sigrid asked with a smile.

"I was told in town that she was a young lady of unparalleled beauty."

Sigrid felt her face flush and felt like biting her hand to keep from laughing like a fool around him.

"I appreciate the compliment... But come in. My parents will be home from town soon. It's just me and my sister." Sigrid said quickly when she saw that he was about to decline the invitation. She realized at that moment that he was a boy of honor.

"Well, that being the case, I will accept the invitation."