Marriage of the Will

By Eternity Rose

E-mail: [email protected]

Rated: PG-13

Author's Notes: This is the second part to Marriage of the Will. I want to thank everyone for reading this.

Standard Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon.

~*~

Chapter 2

Serena watched numbly as everyone came up to her and gave their condolences to her. She just nodded politely and thanked them with as much life in her voice as possible but it was very difficult. Her father had just been put into his grave and now they were back at the house receiving people and being the most polite of hostesses as people came with their condolences and respects to the family. It just made it all more final that her father was no longer in her life anymore. It tore her heart as she stood there shaking the hand of a family business partner.

"Thank you for your condolences," Serena said absently as she bid the man good bye.

"Serena, are you okay?" Mina Alyward, Serena's cousin on her father's side, asked. The beautiful young woman was dressed in a short black dress with her golden hair pulled back in a tight braid down her back.

"I'm fine," Serena lied.

"No, your not. I've known you for a very long time, Serena and your not okay. Do you want to talk? I know I haven't been able to talk to you much since me and David arrived but I really do want to talk," Mina said earnestly. Her blue eyes filled with sincerity.

Serena shook her head. "I'm fine. I just need some time to myself."

"All right." Mina looked past Serena and her medium blue eyes suddenly widened. "Wow."

"What's the matter?" Serena asked dully. She turned around and frowned. There was a tall man dressed in a black suit talking to her mother with another, much older man, standing next to him. They looked like they knew her mother very well. Serena wondered who they were. The man looked like a very rich person. His midnight black hair was slicked back professionally and he wore a very expensive suit. She couldn't tell anymore of his looks from her distance but she could see that he was extremely tall. Taller than her five feet four. She wasn't exactly a very tall person.

"Who's that?" Mina wondered.

"Who's who?" Amy asked. She walked up to them, dressed in a long modest black dress with black slippers. Her blue hair was swept back with some glittering clips and she wore little make up.

Mina smiled at Amy. "Hello, Amy. It's nice to see you again."

"Same here," Amy said, nodding. "But you didn't answer my question. Who's who?"

"That extremely handsome man over there." Mina pointed in the direction where the three adults were speaking solemnly.

"Is he really that handsome?" David Alyward asked as he stepped up behind his beautiful blond wife and slipped his arms around her small waist. His blue eyes and golden hair shone in the sun to match his wife's own golden looks.

Mina looked up at him and sighed exasperatedly. "David, be serious."

"I am," David replied innocently as he kissed his wife on the neck. Mina sighed again and rolled her eyes.

Serena looked at the two and then looked away. Mine was lucky. She was 25-years-old and still looking like she was only 22 with long golden blond hair and the purest blue of eyes. Serena and her cousin resembled each other except Serena thought her hair color was paler than her cousin's golden and her blue eyes were much more lighter. She sometimes wished for Mina's model looks but she had gotten her looks from her father so she really didn't mind them.

She was also infuriated that Mina and David could be so happy at a funeral! At their uncle's funeral! Serena tried not to show her rage as she excused herself from their company and walked away to a more secluded part of the garden. She found herself underneath a tree with it's leaves hanging over enough to conceal her form.

She just stood there and watched as people walked around, eating and talking as they all mourned the recently deceased Keith Blackwood. Serena didn't have that many relatives so the garden was mostly filled with friends.

The only relatives Serena had was Aunt Kelly, Mina, and David. Her father had a sister while her mother was an only child and they both didn't have that many family members either so she didn't have that much family.

Serena watched distantly as her mother spoke with the man and older man.

~*~

Darien Knight nodded politely as he spoke with the widow Mrs. Isabelle Blackwood. The woman was in obvious distress over everything as she spoke to his grandfather, Edward Knight, about the business. It was quite obvious that the woman didn't know anything about business and was completely lost. Darien knew that his grandfather owned part of Blackwood and Knight Inc. while Mrs. Blackwood's husband owned the other. But now that the husband was dead they had to figure out who was going to take the place of the late Mr. Blackwood.

From what Darien learned there were only two heirs to the family money and business. The eldest, Lita Blackwood who had ran away at age 23 to learn how to be a chef and survived on her own without family one. Darien was a bit surprised to learn this since most rich girls couldn't live without family money but here Lita had done something perfectly simple without help. A girl to admire. Then there was the second daughter, Serena Blackwood, who was very close with her father and was no where in sight. Darien had tried to spot the girl from the descriptions her mother had given but he just couldn't find that girl. Perhaps she was hiding.

"I just don't know what to do, Edward," Mrs. Blackwood sighed brokenly. "I don't know business. Lita is devoted to her cooking and Serena is far too upset to take on any business during this time. And she's only 23! She's far too young to take on such a thing without guidance and I just can't give that to her!" Mrs. Blackwood's eyes watered again but she quickly dabbed them away with her already soaking handkerchief.

"It's all right, Belle," Edward Knight said comfortingly. "I bet either of your daughters will take it on without trouble. They do have your husband's blood."

Mrs. Blackwood nodded and bit her lip. "I wish I knew something about this so I could take care of the business till the girls are ready to take it on but I just can't! Oh...how I wish Keith never had to leave us. He was always so strong and confident while I'm just a total mess."

"Mrs. Blackwood, I'm sure everything will work out for the best. You have me and my grandfather to help you and your daughters along. You needn't worry too much," Darien said kindly.

Mrs. Blackwood smiled up at the tall young man. "Your such a nice boy." She sighed softly.

Darien smiled gently at the distressed woman and looked up briefly. In that brief moment he spotted someone hiding in the tree with the hanging leaves. The figure was only a shadow but Darien caught a glimmer of golden hair.

"Excuse me, I believe I see someone I wish to speak to," Darien excused himself politely. Then he nodded and walked towards the tree which was sheltering a certain girl that Darien had a suspicion to be Serena Blackwood. He pushed back the leaves and saw a very sad girl leaning against the trunk of the old tree. She didn't notice his presence as she stared off to nothingness.

The girl was dressed in a simple black dress that went down to her ankles and swished around them as the wind blew in. The dress gave men no imagination at all. The neckline was cut so modest it might as well have been a nun's smock. The sleeves went down all the way, concealing whatever looking arms there maybe. The dress didn't hug her body at all but just hung loosely on her skeletal looking figure. Her long golden hair was put up in the most strangest of hair styles. It was twisted into two buns on each side of the head, leaving the rest of the golden hair to flow down to her knees. A very strange sight. The girl was very, very pale, not even her lips held much color, and her magnificent blue eyes were dull with no life, fringed by dark blond lashes.

"Hello," Darien said quietly as he stepped up beside her.

The girl started and leaped away from him. She tripped over an upraised root and was almost going to fall on her bottom when Darien reached out and caught her. She stilled in his arms. Looking up at him like a trapped animal. Then she stumbled out of his arms, staying a good four feet away from him.

"Who are you? How dare you disturb me," she said in a dark, grief filled voice. Tears shone clear in her blue eyes though they didn't fall at all.

"My name is Darien Knight and I thought you might have wanted some company," Darien said easily. He wasn't at all disturbed by her tone of voice. He was a confident young man who wasn't scared easily.

"Well, I don't! That's why I came here," the girl bit out angrily. "Now leave!"

Darien felt his eyes hardened as he looked at the girl angrily. What right did she have to yell at him like that? He was only trying to keep her company and she snaps at him! Well, he wasn't going to take it silently.

"Excuse me, Miss, but I thought I was being nice by coming here to talk to you. Obviously some people don't know how to accept something kind offered to them," Darien said darkly.

The girl didn't even look silently afraid. She was very angry instead. "Kind? I don't care for you kindness. My father is dead and my world is ruined. Now, please, go!" She turned away and bowed her head. Her shoulders shook, showing that she was crying.

Darien's heart softened. He hadn't meant to upset her that much. He just wasn't used to being snapped at by woman. They were always kind, simpering and swooning around him. Or at least flirtatiously polite. He stepped forward and placed his hand on the girl's shoulder.

"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."

The girl shrugged off his hand violently as if she couldn't stand the touch of him. "Please, just go!"

Darien narrowed his eyes. Again she brushed him off without a single kind word or thought. This girl was very, very impolite and he didn't like it at all. He expected she could at least have a kind voice when she told him to leave her alone. "Very well," he said in hard voice before disappearing out of the covers of the tree.

~*~

Serena didn't feel like eating dinner that night so she just went up to her room and stayed there. She locked the door so no one would come in to disturb her. She needed some time alone and the only way she could think of getting it was to make it perfectly clear that she didn't want any visitors was to skip dinner and lock the door.

Now she sat huddled at her window reading seat dressed in a black night gown. She leaned against the coolness of the window and sighed softly. Her warm breath making a small circle of steam by her mouth. She looked up at the bright crescent moon in the dark night sky and closed her eyes.

Oh, Father, I miss you so much. Why did you have to leave me? She thought mournfully as she sat there. She held herself tighter as she tried to gain some warmth. She picked up a blanket off the ground and wrapped it around her shoulders. It helped. But she was still cold from all the sadness and grief that shook her.

Her thoughts wandered off to the man that had spoken to her that afternoon. He was the handsome man that was speaking to her mother with the much older man. She couldn't get a clear look at him because she had been far too upset and angry to really look at him. But she did notice his wondeful cologne of roses and something else that lightened the scent. She also remembered how tall he was against her. But that was about it. She never really looked at his face.

Darien Knight.

That was his name. Knight. That was the other surname with her father's own surname in the business name. Possibly he was related to the man that her father worked with for so long.

Serena felt a little guilty for speaking to him so harshly but she had been upset and she didn't want any company at all. Why didn't he leave so she didn't have to snap at him any more? What a stubborn man.

Slowly, Serena drifted off to sleep as her thoughts continued dreamily about Darien Knight, man she only knew by smell and height.

~*~

Hope ya like! Really, I do. E-mail is good, please e-mail me!

Eternity Rose