Disquieting: Day 14

Word Count: 84,023

Summary of Events:

Vera attended the soirée at the Forsyth's home with her family and was troubled to see Carlisle spending so much time with Miss Forsyth, which led her to suspect they'd seen a lot more of each other than she'd initially supposed. Mr. Millard — who had forced Matthew to walk home after delivering his message to the forty-some malcontents — didn't show up to work on Monday except to tell Kirk that he wasn't coming back until Matthew was gone, and suggesting that some of the malcontents were angry enough to kill Matthew over what he'd said. Several days after the soirée, Vera answered a knock at the front door which was revealed to have been made by Carlisle…

Excerpt of the Day:

“Good morning Vera, may I have a word with you?” he asked. “Privately.”

“Yes,” Vera replied, stepping back of the door to let him inside.

Carlisle scrubbed off his shoes on the coarse mat just inside the door. “I hope you won’t mind, this shan’t be long.”

Vera led Carlisle to Papa’s study, as Papa was out checking on Mr. Saunders again, and closed the door behind them. Carlisle waved her to one of the chairs facing Papa’s desk. He sat down in the other one.

“I’ve been engaging in a lot of thought lately,” Carlisle said. “Thinking about you, and about myself, and about our intentions to become man and wife.”

A spiteful thought came to Vera’s mind suggesting that Carlisle hadn’t engaged in much, if any, of that thought alone, but had done it all in the company of Miss Forsyth, as the two had looked at the soirée like they’d been spending a lot more time together than she’d initially supposed, which had made Vera glad when Papa had decided it was time for them to go home shortly after the clock struck half past eight.

“And in all my thinking, I do believe that both of us made our decision to be married under the duress of desperation,” Carlisle continued. “This is a town predominated by older people, a town from whence all the young are inclined to depart as soon as they are old enough, and thus neither of us had much before us as options for romance aside from one another.”

Vera nodded, reaching the fingers of her right hand to make contact with the ring he’d given her months ago, which she’d taken off after the soirée, and not been inclined to put back on until yesterday.

“But now, things have changed, in Emerald Wood, and between us,” Carlisle said. “We have both realised who the other really is, and I know that I for one have come to realise that you are not a woman with whom I could spend the rest of my life, and that it would be best if we concluded the relationship now.”

Tears pricked at Vera’s eyes, but she nodded. She didn’t want to be married to Carlisle anymore, even if she had no idea whether she even dared to hope that she might ever have the chance to be married now.

“I’m glad that you are reasonable in that way,” Carlisle said. “And I do hope that it is no imposition of me to ask if you might be so kind as to give me the ring back.”

Vera pulled the ring off her finger immediately. The last thing she wanted was a memento of him.

She dropped it in his waiting hand and immediately got to her feet, tears blurred her vision as she made for the door, which she fumbled to open before making her way to the stairs by memory and rushing up them. Carlisle would have to show himself out.