"I'm hoping that hawk returns, and instead of snatching up poor helpless animals and children, it grabs you." Jennifer L. Armentrout, A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire

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I.

June 1825

"Peregrine Beresford is the farthest thing from a properly accomplished young lady, and she will make a terrible wife. I will pray for the poor gentleman, whomever he may be, who will inevitably be stuck with her."

Seventeen-year-old Perrie knitted her fingers together awkwardly as she sat opposite her parents in the upstairs drawing room. She was trying to look anywhere but their disapproving faces after she had just had to endure them reading her report from Mrs Liscombe's Finishing School for Young Ladies.

Of course, it only read so poorly because Lily's report had come first. Lily's read like a dream. She glanced sideways at her fifteen-year-old younger sister, who appeared just as sheepish. Perrie envied Lily's tact. Lily was just as determined as Perrie, and she certainly had her own ambitions. But she was better at holding her tongue and being discreet, and for that, Mrs Liscombe's report glorified the younger Cecily Beresford.

"Perrie," prompted her mother, Grace. "What do you have to say to this?"

"Mama, she writes as though using a fish fork for oysters is a capital offence!" Perrie complained dismissively.

"Do you know, something tells me that the reason behind this report is not centred on your dining etiquette," her father, Adam, mused in a facetious tone.

"In Perrie's defence, Papa, she did have a point," Lily interjected in an attempt to help.

"What was her point exactly?" Grace inquired.

Perrie huffed, which caused some of the dark tufts of hair around her face to blow up and settle over her forehead, tickling the skin there. "I might have told her that her entire institution is designed for creating glorified milk cows."

Lily stifled a laugh as both of their parents' jaws hung open. Perrie resisted asking them why they were so surprised. Did they really have such high expectations for her? Mrs Liscombe, as nasty and as grouchy as she was in demeanour and temperament, was right. Perrie would make a terrible wife.

One need only to look upon the stark differences between Perrie and her mother. Grace was elegance and patience personified, and her father worshiped the ground she walked on. Perrie was often told that she was much like her grandmother Cecily, and from what she had heard, her grandmamma and her grandpapa, Perrie's namesake, had a rather unhappy marriage.

Perrie was to turn eighteen in September, and she knew that her family's expectations were for her to be launched upon society the following April for her first Season as an eligible debutante.

And then she would become a glorified milk cow.

But suddenly the mood in the room changed as a snort of laughter ripped itself from her father's chest. Perrie's eyes flashed to her father's face as he abandoned Perrie's report onto the settee cushion beside him as he rose to his feet in an attempt to compose himself.

"Adam!" Grace cried. "We ought to be very angry about this!"

Adam held his hand over his mouth briefly to stifle his laugh, and when he had spluttered a little, he turned back around to face his wife and his two eldest children. "I will be the first to admit that when Perrie tried to destroy her report, I thought the worst. She has a reputation. I imagined that she'd tried to set first to one of her classmates."

Perrie frowned. "I never set fire to anyone!" she retorted.

"I can hear the excuses now. 'It was only a small fire, Papa. Meant only to cook him a little. I didn't mean to burn down half the school!'" Adam chuckled.

Just as Perrie was about to challenge her father as to the ridiculousness of his invented scenario, she realised that Adam had said the word 'him'. She and Lily had just spent the year at a school for young spoiled brats ... or young ladies.

But Adam had said 'him', and Perrie knew exactly who Adam was thinking about. Perrie immediately shivered. It seemed as though even the mere thought of her childhood nemesis could result in some sort of rash.

Perrie and Joe (oh, even his name made her itch) had spent the best part of the last decade trying to find new ways to make the other miserable. But neither one of them had tried fire. Perrie doubted that she would ever see him again, but if she did, she had a new idea.

"Adam!" Grace emphasised again. "You are not meant to find this funny. I highly doubt this incident was isolated. I know our daughter, too. She ought to be setting an example for her younger siblings."

Perrie's face fell. She was not immune from feeling guilty, and she was well aware that her mother's example of what an eldest daughter ought to be was almost perfection. Perrie knew that the differences in their privileges meant that living up to the sort of sister that her mother was to Perrie's aunts and uncles was fairly unattainable.

Perrie knew that her mother would never cease to love her, but she was certain that her mother was disappointed in her sometimes. Regardless of how flippant she could be, Perrie never wanted to disappoint her parents.

"I'm sorry, Mama," Perrie said sincerely.

Grace's blue eyes settled on Perrie, and her brows furrowed sympathetically. People often commented on the similarities in Grace and Perrie's appearances. Were her mother's age not betrayed by the fine lines that had begun to settle in her skin, they could have been twins.

But twins in looks only. They shared very little when it came to personality.

"I know you are, Perrie," Grace replied. "I just wish that you would think before you act sometimes. Your first instinct is often the one that you choose to go with, and I do worry that it will get you into greater trouble than this one day." She nodded to the abandoned report beside her.

Perrie nodded, but she did not know how easy it would be to heed her mother's words. Grace was right. Perrie often acted and reacted instinctively. That was why Mrs Liscombe reported that Perrie did not have a ladylike bone in her body somewhere in her assessment. She could never stop and think.

"Perrie," her father said seriously. "Look at me."

Perrie obeyed her father and looked up into his hazel eyes.

"I couldn't care a whit what that woman has to say about your ability to balance a book on your head, or whatever it is those schools teach."

"There was an awful lot of book balancing," Perrie confirmed.

"Perrie was better at it than me, Papa," Lily interjected in an attempt at support.

Perrie reached to squeeze her sister's hand.

"Unless she lights someone on fire, then I don't want you worrying about Perrie's first instincts." Adam directed his statement towards Grace, and he returned to the settee to sit down beside his wife. "I know you worry. How you worry about us all, I know. But I find Perrie to be rather extraordinary, and she is exactly the type of young lady we brought her up to be."

Perrie's heart softened at hearing her father's words. Extraordinary?

"She still might light someone on fire," Grace stressed quietly.

Perrie supposed that she did have that sort of reputation, but she had little desire to set anyone alight. Unless Mrs Liscombe appeared at Ashwood to lecture Perrie about her posture.

"In which case we'd have a genuine reason to be angry with her. That report tells me only that Perrie is determined to please herself, and you and I both know what it is to have the pressure of one's family upon you."

Perrie wondered if she and Lily ought to leave. This appeared to be the sort of conversation that parents had about their children in private. Nevertheless, it warmed Perrie greatly to hear it.

Grace nodded, and she finally looked back upon Perrie. "I do only want you to be happy, Perrie. I would prefer it if you resisted from setting anyone on fire."

"Mama, I am not going to set anyone on fire, I promise." Perrie frowned with confusion. "I might use a fish fork for oysters in protest, however."

Grace chuckled. "Do not make promises you cannot keep."

***

"What is Kent like?" Perrie's eleven-year-old sister, Alice, asked her as she sat on Perrie's bed. "Is it far away from Ashwood?"

Perrie was up to her elbows in her possessions from her trunk. There were bits strewn all across the room and she was regretting not ringing for a maid to assist her in putting everything away. She was still tired from the journey, as well as from sitting through her report as read by her parents.

Perrie huffed, before she smiled wickedly. She slammed the lid of the trunk shut so that it made a startling noise, and then she growled, "Yes, and it's very scary!"

Alice screamed, though her smile read of delight. Perrie laughed. Her youngest sibling had been quite attached to her from the minute she and Lily had arrived home that morning.

Despite being one of four children, Alice had spent the best part of this year alone. Perrie and Lily had been off at Mrs Liscombe's Prison for Indulged Prima Donnas, while their thirteen-year-old brother, Charlie, had been away for his first full year at Eton College. Charlie was due home for the summer holidays tomorrow.

Perrie tip-toed towards her sister while putting on her spookiest voice. "They tie you to tables so that your back is straightened, and then ... and then ..."

"And then what?" Alice cried, her hazel eyes widened with anticipation.

"And then they teach you to eat soup!" Perrie exclaimed dramatically as she jumped on Alice, tickling her mercilessly as they both got tangled in the bed linens.

Alice screamed with laughter as she tried to wriggle away from Perrie, but Perrie would not relent. As Alice laughed, Perrie was suddenly struck with a rather warm feeling. While she might not have been the type of eldest daughter that her mother was, Perrie still fearlessly loved her siblings, and she knew that she would never let anyone trouble them.

Only she was allowed to do that.

"Not soup!" Alice hiccoughed through her laughter.

"Are we torturing Alice?" came a cry from the direction of the door. Not a moment later, a third dark-haired Beresford sister jumped onto the bed, and Lily held back Alice's arms as Perrie tickled underneath them.

When Alice was finally out of breath, and Perrie and Lily were both suffering from stiches from laughing so much, all three girls laid back on the bed, panting and staring at the canopied ceiling.

Perrie felt Alice grab onto her hand, and she imagined that Alice reached for Lily as well. "Please don't go away again," she whispered.

Perrie squeezed Alice's hand as Lily replied, "Don't worry, Alice. Perrie's made is so we may never be welcomed back."

"It was all part of the plan, of course," joked Perrie.

Lily propped herself up on her elbow so that she could see Perrie, so Perrie quickly followed suit. Alice shuffled herself back so that she was leaning up against the bed head. Perrie and Lily were the most alike, having inherited their mother's dark hair and blue eyes, but despite being nearly three years Perrie's junior, Lily was already taller than her. It wasn't hard to be taller than Perrie, unfortunately.

And at only age eleven, Alice already reached Perrie's chin. Perrie was destined to be the smallest of them all.

"Papa is right, though, Perrie. You really are extraordinary." Lily smiled sincerely.

Perrie could feel a blush coming to her cheeks as she didn't know how to accept such a sentiment from her sister. So, she followed her first instinct, as she always did, and she threw a pillow directly at Lily's face.

Alice let out a screech of laughter as the pillow fell away from Lily's dumfounded face. A wide smile quickly upturned her lips and she nudged Alice. "Sit on Perrie for me, would you, Alice?"

Alice gleefully scrambled to sit on top of Perrie's legs before she flattered herself across Perrie's torso to stop her from moving. Lily then launched upon her, bestowing the same level of torture that Alice had endured only minutes ago.

Only terrific sisters would allow this, Perrie managed to decide as she writhed underneath Alice's weight and Lily vicious fingers. Perrie had to scream that her sisters were the victors before they would free her, and when they finally did, Perrie had to wipe away her tears. She laughed as she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her hair was in total disarray with half of it having fallen out of her braided bun, and her cheeks were flushed bright red.

"What's an imp?"

Alice's question came entirely at random, though the word caused a sort of visceral reaction within Perrie that was completely out of her control. That word haunted her.

"What on earth made you ask that?" Perrie demanded to know.

Alice frowned, her brows knitting together. "I only wanted to know what an imp was as one is coming to our house."

Perrie wanted to shake Alice. "What do you mean?" she stressed.

"Papa's friend said so," Alice replied, confusion etched across her face. "Papa said that Perrie and Lily are coming home, and then he whispered to me that the little imp was coming. What's an imp?"

A wave of nausea washed over Perrie as all manner of dreadful scenarios flashed through her mind. But that word rang in her brain like a church bell. She hadn't heard it out loud, not for nearly two years. "Alice," Perrie said through clenched teeth. "Who is Papa's friend?"

"I don't want to say." Alice watched Perrie suspiciously.

"Alice!" cried Perrie impatiently.

"Why are you angry? Papa's friend is nice!"

Lily sniggered. "Why are you even asking, Perrie? Alice, I can tell you what an imp is. You are looking at her."

Perrie screamed with frustration as she struggled out of the bed. Her foot, however, had gotten tangled in one of the blankets, and so she nearly tripped and fell onto the floor. Perrie yanked her foot free and stormed out of her bedroom. Papa's friend? In what world! In what world could that nasty, evil, wicked, stupid boy be anyone's friend? Alice had to be wrong. Alice had to be mightily wrong, because he left! He left Ashwood nearly two years ago and Perrie finally knew peace.

She knew that she probably looked half mad storming about the way she was. She had even lost one of her shoes while wrestling with her sisters. But she was on a mission to prove Alice wrong. She was going to see her father, and all would be right in the world, and she would never hear the words 'little imp' ever again.

Papa's study was at the farthest end of the house, and Perrie understood that her grandfather had made it this way so that her grandmamma could not bother him while he worked. When Perrie finally reached the door, she did not bother to knock. She never had done. When she was little, she often sat on her father's knee while he worked.

"Papa!" Perrie cried, pushing the door open so violently that it swung into the bookcase behind it, inevitably knocking some things over. "Alice just told me that you had befriended the antichrist and I need you tell me it's not true!"

Adam was seated behind his desk, as he always was, but it took Perrie a moment to comprehend that her father was not the only person in the room. In one of the chairs before Adam's desk was a boy, a young man rather, who, from behind, appeared relatively normal.

But Perrie was the wiser. She had spent the better part of her youth staring at that head and wishing she'd had a dart handy to throw it towards his blond head of hair. She knew it was him before he even turned around.

But he did turn around, and he looked back at her over his right shoulder. The moment his brown eyes settled upon her, he smiled. But it wasn't a kind smile. He was incapable.

"You," seethed Perrie.

"Hello," he greeted, before he mouthed, 'Little Imp.'

---

Hope you enjoyed it! So we begin! Where has Joe been for two years? Why did he leave? Why did he come back? Will Perrie light him in fire? Questions ... questions ... hahaha (to which I have the answers, of course :P)

But I'd like to give a shout out to oldest daughters everywhere. We really are the backbone of society hahaha, and our families would not function without us! Whether it be holding your family together like Grace, or fiercely being there for your siblings like Perrie, or just being all around amazing like me .... hehehe. No but seriously, oldest daughters everywhere, it's a hard slog, especially around Christmastime - I. FEEL. THAT! 

I did not leave my house yesterday on Christmas and I walked 12,000 steps and 9km (5.5 miles) lol. I did not stop!! But I cooked for everybody. Everybody was fed. They told me it was delicious and it was hehe. My boyfriend survived my crazy family, and he got me the nicest present. 

I'm a total theatre nerd and he's taking me to Mary Poppins which I'm so excited about. I hope you were all spoiled as you deserve.

And if you weren't, or yesterday was a hard day for whatever reason. Maybe someone criticised you, gave you anxiety, commented on your body, or how much food you ate, or asked about your love life, or made light of something you're struggling with, know that there are people you can reach out to, and you can always come and visit me here. I care, and I sincerely mean that.

But from the bottom of my heart, I hope it was a merry Christmas. I love you all! 

Vote and comment xxx