A/N: Wow. I haven't written anything in... months. I came up with this idea a few days ago, I have a vague idea of where I want to go with it, but we'll have to wait and see.

Grandpa’s Island

Prologue

“Let’s elope.” He said; so we did.

Wait, I’m getting just a little ahead of myself, aren’t I? I tend to do that a lot – tell the end of a story at the beginning; I’m too impatient to go through all of the details, the meaningless, simple details. But he loves those details, so I’m doing this for him. And maybe I’m doing it partly for myself too. I have realised how much this story has changed me, and I guess I want everyone to know how I have evolved. Evolution – that makes me sound like some sort of caveman, or ape, growing into what I have become. Well, you know, that isn’t too far off. Well, the word ape might be a little harsh to describe who I was all those years ago, but I wasn’t exactly a nice person… on the outside, at least. I soon discovered that I did actually have a heart, deep inside of me, and it took one very memorable event to make me realise that. One event that remains engraved in my memory, probably till the day I take my last breath. It’s not exactly a happy memory, but I know there is a reason for me remembering it… there is a moral behind what happened that day, that day I realised that everything wasn’t alright, that my life wasn’t normal, and that there was a world beyond the metal fence that marked my boundaries.

So you’re probably wondering why my life was so bad before this amazing revelation. Well, it wasn’t necessarily bad, at least not in a financial sense. My parents were well-off, which meant, basically, that I was a spoilt brat, and I can admit that to anyone. When I wanted something, I got it. I didn’t realise back then, that I would actually have to give something in return for all these things from my parents. It was only when I turned fourteen, that my parents began to take a real interest in me, perhaps realising that I did actually have a use after all. I was an only child, which meant they had no son to inherit the fortune that they had gathered, which in turn meant that they had two choices. Either, they could leave their entire fortunes to me, their daughter, or they could get themselves a son in law. I had only realised that they had chosen the second one, when they began to buy me these really revealing party dresses, and Mother began teaching me how to put my make-up on, to make me look like a grown-up.

I started to get really worried when Mother came into my bedroom one day while I was brushing my hair. Without a word, she took the brush from my hands and began roughly pulling it down towards her, tugging at my hair without mercy. I hid my winces from her and didn’t say anything. It was so rare that Mother and I spent quality time with each other that I cherished the minutes that we were together. I looked up to Mother as my role model; I wanted to be everything that she was. I thought she was beautiful, even though she complained that she was getting ugly, and old, and kept pointing out these wrinkles that nobody could ever see. Her hair was the colour of dark chocolate, falling down her shoulders in a mixture of curls and waves, framing her delicate face perfectly. Her eyes were the colour of a cloudless sunny sky, as my Father had once said, and could pin anyone to their seat if Mother wanted. She spent hours every morning in her room getting ready, using her hordes of anti-wrinkle and anti-aging creams, before choosing the perfect outfit to suit her day. Only when she was completely satisfied with her looks (and it took a lot for Mother to be satisfied), did she emerge from her room looking absolutely amazing.

People said that I looked like Mother, but I knew that most of them were just saying that to be polite, or to make Mother happy because they were implying that she looked younger than she was. My hair was similar to Mother’s, but seemed a lot… duller, my eyes were her blue, but I was slightly taller than her, something I had inherited from Father, and something that she continually put me down for. I often wondered whether I could have used some sort of cream to stop me growing, whether I did something wrong to make myself grow so tall. Not that I was overly tall, but Mother was petite, as she liked to call it, where I was just of average height. What I wouldn’t have given to have been a few inches smaller.

“Hailie.” Mother said, as she pulled the brush through my hair, not even concentrating on the task she was doing. I could tell that she was about to tell me something important, so I put the pain to one side and listened as intently as possible. “Your Father and I have been searching for a husband now.”

I think my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets at that point. A husband? This was the first I’d heard of them even thinking about getting me married. Why did I need a husband? I was still a child; I couldn’t get married till I was a grown-up, right? I think Mother saw the shock etched into my features, because after a slight pause, she started speaking again, a lot quicker this time.

“You know that we only have your best interests Hailie. The truth is, most girls at your age already have someone lined up for them to be married to, but your Father wanted you to have a bit longer before we started searching. You know that we’d never let you get married to someone you didn’t like, you’re going to have full choice of the men we choose for you, but you need to marry soon. You wouldn’t like us to lose our money, would you Hailie?”

I quickly shook my head, still silent. I couldn’t imagine living without our money, we’d have to get rid of our big house, and all our clothes, and our maids and servants, and… how would we eat? It would be horrible; I didn’t want to be the reason that Mother and Father lost their money, they’d hate me forever, Mother loves having money… how would she cope without her range of creams and make up?

Now, I didn’t quite realise how I must have sounded when I was this age, after all, I hadn’t known anything else other than having a lot of money. I woke up in the morning in my luxurious bedroom, with a full range of expensive clothes to choose from, and a hoard of servants and maids to help me. I couldn’t imagine anything other than this, so when Mother mentioned the idea of us losing all our money… I panicked; I wanted to do everything in my power to make sure that my parents kept their money, to make sure that I kept my parent’s money.

“No, Mother, of course not.” I replied. “I’ll help, however I can.”

She gave me a small smile and brushed my hair from my shoulders, so that it fell down my back, instead of around my eyes like I liked it… and like Mother hated it. She’d once told me that men didn’t like girls who hid behind their hair, and as these words came into my mind, I resisted the urge to throw my head forward so that my hair would return back to normal. With a distant look in her eyes, Mother tapped my head and then walked out of my room.

Looking back on that day, I know that I should have told Mother that I wasn’t something to be bargained off, that I wanted a choice in who I would spend my future with. Of course, I was a lot younger, and a lot naïve back then, and I didn’t want to disobey Mother in any way, I didn’t want her mad at me, I had seen her get mad at the maids every so often, and I had quickly decided that I didn’t want her anger directed at me.

That was the reason why, when a strange boy suddenly turned up at our house one day, when Mother took me to one side and told me not to speak to him, I obeyed her. I was curious when he first came, of course, as I had been stood on the stairs when our butler had opened to the door to reveal the scruffiest boy I had ever seen. He wore the dirtiest clothes, and didn’t have any shoes on his feet, and I swore that even from the stairs, I could smell him. Father came to the door quickly and ushered the boy back outside. I hardly saw him from that moment, Mother told me that he was to assist our gardener, and was living in the little cottage at the end of our grounds, with the kind old man who tended to our gardens. Well… I say I didn’t see much of him… I didn’t, at least not until the fateful day that would change my life forever.