Disquieting: Day 2

Word Count: 12,029

Summary of Events:

The following morning Kirk asked Matthew about his future plans, which Matthew conceded he didn't really have, admitting that his priority had just been to get somewhere where his father couldn't try to marry him off. Vera went to get the week's mail from the stagecoach depot; while she was there two stagecoaches arrived — which was highly unusual most especially because of the fact that there were no stagecoaches scheduled to arrive whatsoever — prompting her to linger and watch as two wealthy men, who looked very much to be father and son, emerged from the first stagecoach…

Excerpt of the Day:

The older man turned back to the coach, offering his hand to someone within, who was revealed to be a woman dressed in an incredibly fine gown, the likes of which she didn’t suspect any woman in town owned.

Although the woman was clearly an older woman whose age she supposed wasn’t all that far from Mama’s, the woman nevertheless looked younger than the man who’d helped her out by a significant margin, which served to make the man look older than he’d initially appeared.

Once she was out of the carriage, the woman took a couple strides in a rather suggestive way that implied that she was very proud of her fine gown and that there was no one in the group of onlookers who had any hope of possibly being able to afford such attire for themselves, or for their spouse, as the case might be.

The older man then turned back to the carriage once again and offered his hand to another woman whom she supposed was the older of the two children, but not by a vast margin.

She had the same rich brown hair as her father and brother — her mother’s hair was blonde — as well as having rather sharp, critical brown eyes, the same hue as everyone else in the family, but nevertheless seeming most like her father’s eyes, which also seemed sharp and critical.

Just as her mother, the young woman was dressed in a fine gown the likes of which was undoubtedly nonexistent in the whole of the town, and she carried the same haughty arrogance as the rest of the family, if not even slightly more so.

The stagecoach driver closed the coach door once she was out and the older man went over to the driver of the second coach with some instructions; he also gestured toward the wagon drivers, who followed the second stagecoach when it pulled away and carried on down the street.

She turned her gaze back to the young woman, who was rather critically looking over what had quickly become a significant crowd gathered around, probably rather impolitely staring at the family.

“What an uncivilised backwater,” the young woman said disdainfully. “No respectable lady would ever want to call this place home. Of course, that would explain why the women around here are nothing to look at.”

Only when the young woman broke gaze with her did she let herself fold her lower lip over her teeth and bite it. The young woman had stared her straight in the eyes for much of her arrogant commentary, and it stung.

Turning away from the group quickly, she strode home as briskly as she dared. She couldn’t possibly stay around there much longer and wait to have a more direct interaction with such a rude, haughty, and hurtful young woman or she was going to dissolve into tears.