Character Work, Veta, part 1.
(Please read in order, all drafts can be found in the jelisaveta tag.)
"But Papa!, he scares me," Veta objected to her father. He crossed his arms and looked out the window.
"I've allowed you a lot of freedom growing up, but it really is time you married and started on your own family. Every other man who's shown interest in you ran away soon after getting to know you, or you told me you couldn't be with him. Some of them were fine young men with a good home and family, you are getting too old to be unwed." Her father turned and grasped her gently at the shoulders. "I am just worried about you. I want the best for you, and he seems like he'll give you the freedom I have been."
"They're a bunch of nomads! I'll never see you or mama again. Please don't accept his marriage proposal for me!" Tears spilled across her cheeks. He wrapped his arms around her and let her cry on his shoulder as he softly ran his hand over her hair, a waist length cascade of mightnight curls, in an attempt to sooth her.
"Most caravans pass through areas frequently. Besides he seems like a reasonable gentleman, I'm sure he could be convinced to let you visit your mother and I."
"I don't like him, I'll never love him, and I'll be unhappy forever if you let him marry me," Veta spit out through her tears before running from the house to find a corner to hide in. Her father sighed deeply watching her leave.
"I never know what to do with her anymore..." he muttered to himself.
"You've given her too much freedom," his wife spoke up. "She thinks she can just do what she wants because you never taught her her place. I at least had been taught before I married you so the freedom you've given me hasn't gone to my head."
He crossed the room to his wife, and took her in his arms to rest his head on top of her's. "I wish I'd listened to you when she was younger, and perhaps this wouldn't be so hard. I only hope she'll understand this is for her own good. I'll send a reply with the messenger that'll come tomorrow."
Veta has been sitting under the window listening, and at that point she stood and ran with tears starting to run down her face again. She didn't care which direction she ran, she just had to get away... There was something about him that scared her very much, though she wasn't sure what it was.
"Where could such a lovely young thing be running this time of night?" she heard and stopped dead. Turning in the direction the voice came from, she saw him standing under the shadow of a tree, half obscured from the moonlight.
"Tell me why I should tell you?"
"No reason, for your father will allow us wed soon enough and that is enough for me, for now. I just get the impression you don't like it." He stepped closer to her, and gently cupped her face in one hand. She was so surprised she didn't step away. "I want you more than you could know, and I have never been one to not have what I want. If you don't want to make it easy, I have far more unconventional resources available to me, so do not tempt me to use them."
He trailed his hand off her face, then gently lifted her hand to press a soft kiss on the back of it. She pulled her hand away and stepped back.
"What sort of monster are you?"
"Monster? Not I... You'll come to understand me better eventually." With a close lipped smile and a nod, he slid back into the shadow and disappeared. She felt a chill despite the warm summer air and turned to go home to tell her father of the encounter.