Escape by Carriage

IMPORTANT: I used an AI-powered writing software to check grammar for my story and to make very minor tweaks. I just want that to be clear. Laura’s parents expect her to marry a middle-aged drunken man known for his shocking behavior at houses of ill repute. How can she live that way? Laura decides that she simply can’t. Laura Mendlin lives at home with her parents in the port city of Holsten in the country of Welchstad. They taught her from childhood to expect very little from her life. Her whole life has been a preparation for an appropriate marriage to a proper gentleman. But the stories her brother passes to her in copper novels have kept her imagination alive. Yet it’s her father who changes the rules on her without warning. Instead of a prospective husband receiving her dowry to help them start their new lives together, her father expects to be paid by the man for Laura. It’s humiliating and completely unacceptable to Laura. She realizes she can’t go along with other people’s plans for her anymore. A friend offers Laura help in fleeing the country, but when that falls through, they will both wind up at the largest Yuletide ball in Welchstad. From a nobody in a dull town to the height of society in a matter of days. Laura does not have enough dresses for this. She’s fled her home to avoid the humiliating marriage, but she’s sure that won’t be the end of it. Author Notes: New Chapters Monday, Wednesday, and Friday