Day Twenty Four : Jilt - Bread Over Flowers

Jilt

Definition

: to cast off or reject (someone, such as a lover) capriciously or unfeelingly

Jilt traces back to the English dialect noun jillet ("a flirtatious girl"), itself from Jill or Gill (used both as a
proper name and as a noun meaning "girl") plus the diminutive suffix -et. Jilt itself came into use in the
second half of the 17th century as a noun meaning "an unchaste woman" (a sense that is now
obsolete) or "a woman who capriciously casts a lover aside," and also as a verb used for the actions
of such a woman. These days, the person doing the jilting can be either male or female, and though
jilt usually implies the sudden ending of a romantic relationship, it can also be used beyond the
context of a romantic relationship with the broader meaning "to sever close relations with."

Since I had time, whilst the engines were having the final maintenance checks completed, i was
casually scrolling through my phone, checking the daily trends. 

My co-pilot glanced over my shoulder and scoffed. “Are you still reading trashy shit like that? Shouldn’t
you be bored of it by now? After all, that couple has already broken up and ‘reconciled’ at least fifty
times by now right?”

I laughed gently. “Come now, isn’t that ‘love’ after all? Full of excitement and ups and downs, passion
and romance and all that bothersome stuff?”

They shrugged. “Pft. Sounds more like a case of lust and a rebellious period if you ask me. And
‘bothersome stuff’? I take it you’re more of the bread over roses kind of person then?”

I nodded firmly. “Oh most definitely. I spent my youth devoted to love, foolish girl that i was. Now I've
got much better things to spend my time on.`` I grinned. 

“Wasted your youth being devoted to love - sounds like a story and a half.”

I shook my hands in a negative gesture. “Oh no, just your typical teenage tale really. Not interesting in
the slightest.”

And it really wasn’t.

I had been raised in a wealthy family. Merchants we were and successful at that. Nouveau riche to the
core. Not that that had ever bothered me, but my parents had longed to be accepted into the higher
ranks of the nobility. Although why they ever wanted to associate with those inbred, stuck up, snobs I
could never understand.

Money, however ‘new’ it is, will buy you a lot of things and get you a lot of places. What it bought for
my parents was a powerful association with one of the oldest families on the planet - descendants of
the original space settlers and reknowned for their long legacy of outstanding spaceship captains and
explorers. Due to many poor investments and money managing (adventurers not really being known
for their financial capabilities) they had recently fallen on hard times and instead of sensibly cutting
down on their current spending, downsizing, perhaps even choosing a new, more profitable carer or
even hiring a damn accountant, they had instead come to an arrangement with my parents. They
would introduce and circulate my parents in to the highest levels of society and all it would cost my
parents is their first born daughter and the extensive dowry that came with her. 

Before you all get on your high horses about my parents selling off their only daughter like a cow at a
meat market, know this. My parents love me. They genuinely thought that this would provide the best
possible life for me. There were certain things that were only available to those at the top, and they
wanted me to have as many options as i could. Yes, they did not choose the best way to go about it,
but i truly believe they simply loved me and wanted me to have the opportunity of living like a princess. 

They just didn’t check if i wanted to be a princess in the first place. 

From a tender age I was brought into my fiance's house and given extensive bridal training, proper
etiquette, dancing, embroidery, astronomy, basic medical training, lessons in spaceship engineering
and communications, star chart mapping, navigation, biology of extra-planetary animals, deportment,
cooking, table placement, household management. 

Everything a wife of a space faring captain could possibly ever need to know and then some, should
the need ever arise. 

Not, of course, that a wife would ever accompany her husband out into space. How vulgar and
indecent! No, the wife would stay at home and take care of the children and entertain their business
acquaintances until said husband should return. Yet, in order to make intelligent pleasant conversation,
she must also be trained in everything a space captain might wish to discuss. 

Even now, this bizarre method of training struck me as simultaneously backwards and oddly
progressive and incredibly cruel. Why teach everything about something so wondrous to someone
who will never be able to attain it?

But I put up with it. The lessons were interesting (except the deportment, household management
(which didn’t include financial planning I noticed - luckily my parents taught me that) and table
planning lessons) and my fiance was actually quite a nice boy. I wasn’t head over heels for him (it was
an arranged marriage after all and I'd known him since we were six) but we got along well and I could
easily see myself growing old with him. Perhaps, if I worked on him for long enough, he would even
take me with him, up among the stars i’d read so much about. 

I worked so hard, devoted my entire adolescence to the increasingly demanding (and quite frankly
insane) lessons and, if I do say so myself, I was the perfect wife in all but name. 

The day of our wedding, my husband brought another woman before me at the altar, declared that he
was head over heels in love with her and could therefore not marry me. 

The girl in question was a current pop star. Pretty, I give you that and, I believe, somewhat talent too. I
wondered if she’d ever been trained so hard in an artificial gravity well that she’d pissed blood as well.

He stood before me, defiant, righteous and oh so incredibly stupid. I glanced sideways at his mother
who had gone dead white and was wavering on her feet. The woman had clearly never disclosed their
financial status to her idiot son. 

I sighed and threw the annoyingly sparkly veil out of my face. 

“Let’s go somewhere more quiet and discuss this shall we?” I said calmly. 

My ex-husband to be started to sputter but i pointed at his fainting mother and said ‘do you really want
to do this to her in public." I demanded. 

We retired to the vicar’s study.

My family were furious on my behalf. I thought my father would levitate through the ceiling he was so
angry. 

My ex kept trying to witter on and on about ‘true love’, ‘soul mates’ and other such dim matters until
his mother, rousing herself at last from her stupor shouted at him to shut the hell up.

Startled, he shut his mouth. 

Leaning on the arm of the chair behind the desk, I sighed heavily. “You damn fool. Why didn’t you talk
to me first before you pulled such an idiotic stunt.”

“You never would have let me go! I had to do it now otherwise you would have found some sneaky
way to keep hold of me.” he declared, the girl at his side clinging to his arm and nodding furiously.

So it was her idea then. I thought to myself. Interesting. 

“Pft!” I shrugged. “Marrying you or not marrying you - it doesn’t bother me either way. I only wanted to
make my parents happy.”

They teared up at that. “Sweetheart.”

I narrowed my eyes, “although the years and years of effort that I invested in this going to waste is, I
admit, something of a nuisance. However, at the end of the day, not marrying you will have little
impact on my overall life. Your life, however, is a different matter.”

“What do you mean?!” He scoffed. “How could you ever affect me.”

I leant forward and put my elbows on the desk and asked his mother, “So you really never told him?”

“Told me what?” he asked, confused. “Told me what Mother.”

She shook her head, trembling. 

“We own you.” I said flatly. “Your family is basically bankrupt. All your property, all your pocket money,
this wedding, basically everything that you have bought since we were engaged at six has been paid
for with my money.”

I leant back. 

“You’re penniless.”

Something flickered and died in the girl’s eyes. After all, it was so hard to maintain love on a limited
budget. 

“Wha, wha.” he stammered. 

“Oh, and see you just publicly declared that you broke the engagement contract between us by
cheating on me, that means you’re in breach of contract which means you’ll have thousands to pay in
compensation and court fees, along with the cost of this rather lavish wedding we which paid for in
good faith. Had you come to me earlier with this desire of yours, we may have been able to settle it
cordially and quietly and come to some sort of arrangement - but now that you’ve declared it to all and
sundry, there’s no way that can happen. You’ve basically just publicly condemned your mother to the
poor house.”

His mother let out a choked sob. He couldn’t even manage that.

“Now”, I leaned back in the chair, wagging a finger, “as i am not a monster and in light of the generous
diligence and care your mother has taken in instructing me in all these years, here is what I will do.
Your properties will be sold to cover the investment our family had sunk into yours. Your mother will be
given a comfortable property and a generous monthly stipend as payment for the instruction she has
given me.”

His mother nodded, once. We had them over a barrel every which way. What I was offering was more
than generous and she knew it. 

My parents started to protest but I held up my hand. “I love you both dearly but this is my life and I am
old enough to make my own decisions.”

They quietened. It seemed that as their own plans to make me happy had gone massively awry, they
were letting me choose my own revenge and future path. As i said, they loved me. 

“Now,” I grinned savagely, “as punishment for breaking the contract unfairly, I will be taking your place
at the Starship Academy.”

“What!” he stood bolt upright. “No! That place is mine by right.”

“Actually,” I said cheerfully. “It’s really not, we paid for it after all.”

“They’ll never let someone not of noble blood in.”

“A school is a place of learning is it not?” I asked sweetly, “then they’ll just have to learn to
accommodate me.” I stood up to leave.

“But, but what about me? What i am going to do?” He asked plaintively. 

I patted him on the shoulder as I walked past. “Why, you already chose did you not my dear? You
chose love after all!”

I winked at his new girl as I exited the room. “Work hard!”

***

I leant back in my chair and took in the vast panorama of space filling the view screen. The sight
never got old. 

Indeed, the school had been up in arms about taking me in, but, as always, money talks. A lot of it
shouts. And thanks to my ex-mother in law’s harsh training, I placed first in most of my classes. In
gratitude for this I doubled her monthly stipend into something quite lavish. It was, strangely enough,
probably more than she’d ever had to spend in her life. She still regularly wrote to me even now and
kept me up to date with all of the latest developments and inventions planetside, which actually came
in incredibly handy. I always remembered to send her birthday and Christmas presents.  

For her last birthday I had taken her up in a private spaceship and circled the planet. She stood at the
window and cried with happiness, saying it was something she’d always dreamed of. 

For Christmas that year i’d enrolled her on piloting course for small spaceships. She now regularly
flown trips between the planet and it’s accompanying moons. Her fellow socialites thought her ‘quite
bizarre’. She told me she didn’t give a damn what they thought. 

She frequently wishes i was her daughter but admits that it would have been a complete waste for me
to be trapped planetside.

Her son doesn’t call her nearly enough. 

He is too busy with his modestly successful singer career, although what he is most known for is his
scandalous romances with various actresses, singers, waitresses and the like. The one he dumped
me for, dumped him after less than a month. Apparently she couldn’t stand living with his mother. 

He’s still looking for ‘the one’ according to the latest tabloid interview.

Whilst reading that line, I snorted out loud. 

“Something funny?” My second asked.

“Always.” I said, amused. “Are the engines ready?”

He nodded. “We’re all set and ready to go Captain, waiting on your mark.”

I sat back in my chair, “Mark!” I commanded and watched the view screen as we leapt into the sea
of stars beyond.