Disquieting: Day 4

Word Count: 24,054

Summary of Events:

Over dinner Vera told her father about the new arrivals and the hurtful words the daughter, in particular, had uttered, which dismayed her father significantly, just as they had her. After supper, Matthew informed Kirk that he was inclined to take work with Kirk's homebuilding crew, which Kirk informed him he could join the following day. Vera was visited in the evening by Carlisle, who distressed her by revealing that the new arrivals — whom he identified as the Forsyth family — were spending the night in his uncle's hotel, and by calling the daughter a beautiful young woman and comparing them favourably…

Excerpt of the Day:

“Is something the matter Vera?” Carlisle asked, bringing Vera back from her thoughts of Nola.

She looked at Carlisle, who was looking at her with a rather earnest concern in his golden hazel eyes.

“Why do you ask?” she asked.

“Well, I didn’t expect your response to be quite so subdued,” Carlisle replied. “I can’t say I’m altogether sure of how I expected you to respond, but this wasn’t it.”

“Well, my first impression of Miss Forsyth in particular was not as favourable as yours appears to have been,” Vera replied.

“You’ve met her?” Carlisle asked.

“I was at the stage depot when they arrived,” Vera replied. “They looked to be a very haughty family, and Miss Forsyth seemed the haughtiest of all. She called the town an uncivilised backwater, labelled every woman in town as the opposite of respectable by declaring no respectable woman would live here, and also declared that every woman in town was ugly by saying we weren’t much to look at.”

“Clearly she mustn’t have seen you,” Carlisle said. “She would never have said such things if she’d seen you.”

“She was looking me in the eye when she said those things,” Vera said, letting an edge of displeasure come onto her voice.

“Nonsense,” Carlisle said. “As much as Miss Forsyth hails from San Francisco — indeed, because she comes from San Francisco — she would be the first to recognise that you are very beautiful as well, and would never think to speak such statements of you. Assuredly she was looking on the simple housewives who had gathered around to get as much of the gossip as they could.”

“It’s not difficult to tell when someone is looking you in the eye Carlisle,” Vera said, looking in his eyes as she spoke, even though he wasn’t looking back.

“Surely you weren’t at the front of the group,” Carlisle said.

“I wasn’t, no,” Vera acknowledged.

“Then there were people in front of you, into whose eyes she very well could have been looking instead of yours,” Carlisle said.

“I would have been able to tell,” Vera said. “And all I could tell was that she was looking in my eyes.”

“Vera, she cannot possibly have dared to say such words in your presence,” Carlisle said. “As I said, especially being from San Francisco, she would know what a beautiful woman looks like, and would respect them all as her peers.”

Vera shook her head. She disagreed, but she didn’t know that there was much use in telling Carlisle so she didn’t say anything, but she was sure that Miss Forsyth had dared to say what she’d said far more because she’d been in Vera’s presence than she might possibly have been disposed to otherwise.

Pronunciation:

Forsyth: fourseith