CHAPTER ONE- CHANGES
- By Jd Wheels-
( This is a original Yuri fiction. I own all rights to all characters in this story)It was a cloudy day in the earliest days of spring of 1889. The trees had yet to shed the all of its white mantle of winter from there limbs, but the dripping of water from their wooden arms signaled the departure of winter's frosty grip. The lilting sounds of the birds from the surrounding land seemed to call out to old man winter, bidding him a chorus of joyous goodbyes in a cheery tune, urging him to leave the land as quickly as possible.
Along a mud and snow-slush mixed path through the spring awakening woods rode a elegant black carriage, pulled by two sets of broad chested stallions that lumbered along at a constant rate.
The thickly coated driver seemed to be trying to urge them on to a faster gate with clicks he made inside his wind reddened cheeks and sharp snaps of the reigns. The beasts seemed unimpressed at the insistence the driver was trying to get them to go, and they just seemed to completely ignore the man thoroughly, and simply plodded along at their own pace.
The driver just fell silent abandoning his calls, stoically resigned that for now, the steeds were in control, not him. He just brought the collar of his coat up around his mouth to shield it from the coolness of the spring breeze that seemed to still hold a slight touch of old man winters bite in it. He leaned forward for a second, relieving the stiffness in his body, before settling back and making sure the carriage does not stray too far off of the small path it was following.
Inside the luxurious carriage, three figures sat silently inside, and they were the only occupants. There was man and his wife, both in there very late thirties or just into their early forties who sat on one side of the interior. A lone figure sat on the other side, that of a young girl, about roughly thirteen or fourteen, who sat in the silence staring out of the window.
The man and wife were dressed in very finest sets of clothing. The man sported a black top hat and a smart looking suit and coat set, that was highlighted by a thick gold chain of a pocket watch across his stomach which showed through the coats opening. The very stocky man fingered a glossy gold handled cane which rested lightly across his lap as he seemed to be thinking while absently fingering his long mustache with a gloved finger on the other hand.
The quite tall, yet shapely built, lady beside the man wore a pretty powder blue dress with a tight fitting fur hat in accent. Long gloves adorned her hands and the edge of her hat was partially obscuring her face and the light brownish hair that was piled up regally under it The very long grey coat she wore was plush and shiny, obviously it had been made from some sort of illustrious animal and her purse seemed to be made of the finest of fabrics. She was a very fetching sight to see.
Oppositely dressed, the long chestnut brown haired girl who sat across from the couple was very different from the couple. The girl was dressed very simply, compared with the very aristocratic looking couple that sat across from her. The girl was wearing a simple brown calico dress, with a quite tattered apron hung on the front of her small, very willowy built body . Against the cold, the girl wore a ratty coat that had more holes than her young age could account for. She also had on a simple dingy white bonnet that hung behind her shoulders, which all but covered by the cascade of dark brown tresses she wore down.
The differences between the three occupants of the elegant carriage were very polarly evident. Markedly so.
The young girl had been sitting silently, blankly staring out at the passing scenery of the spring awakening land. Her eyes seemed to hold a air of sadness, and a sign that the young one’s mind was far away from her physical body. The round cherub face had no smile upon it, only a straight, tightly held line where a smile might have found a home on the paleness of her skin. With chestnut brown bangs hanging level with her eyebrows, that was adding to the air of solemnness of the young girl.
The girl's far away thoughts were interrupted by a woman's voice from across the carriage. They came suddenly, as if out of some fog that had enveloped inside of the girl’s mind
" Girl!." The voice called out loudly, it’s tone was one that almost was demanding in a way..
The girl turned her face from the window, and looked over at the woman with a partially blank stare.
" What is your name again? I am really quite bad with people’s names at times." The lady said politely, her tone then dropping a little to a more softer one.
The girl seemed to just stare at the woman for a moment, almost as if the woman’s question had not registered for a moment.
"It’s Susan, Ma’am." Simply replied the girl in a soft voice, without a change in her tone. " Susan Collins."
The woman sat back into the seat for a moment, her face showing that she was thinking over the girl’s reply to her.
" Susan Collins..." Echoed the woman, her eyes looking over the smaller form of the girl sitting across from her. " You do understand though, that now that we have taken the time to adopt you... your last name has changed from the original one... do you not? " She asked, adding before the girl could respond to her. " It will now be Susan Smyth now."
The girl seemed to blink with the woman’s words, a small twitch on her cheek told of the many things that were going through the young girl’s mind... her eyes showed also the sadness that resided in her..
" Yes, Mrs. Smyth, I understand that." Susan replied back, in an automated tone.
" Do you really understand that we are your family... as of now?" Said the woman, this time there was a little tightness was in the way the woman was speaking to Susan.
" Yes, Mrs. Smyth." The girl restated.
The lady seemed to pause, as if she was scan the girls reply for any hint of sarcasm when the young girl had answered her again.. The lady then simply continued after she had found no flippant attitude held in the girl's words and tone.
" How long were you living in the Hedger Creek Orphanage for?" She then asked.
The girl’s cheek twitched slightly again, as she made eye contact with the well dressed lady. Things seemed to be flashing through the girl’s mind as she regarded the woman with a look.
" About two years or so, Ma'am, I reckon’." Uncomfortably responded the girl, obviously fighting back waves of emotions that welled up inside of her. " Since I was about nine."
" So... You lost your parents around that time.... " Mrs. Smyth asked, almost bold in her questions
" Yes, Ma’am... I did." Susan said, seemingly now fighting even more painful emotions which her flattened voice se seemed to have to use.
The woman seemed to take in the small fragment of information the girl had offered up. She sat back in her seat, her eyes never leaving the young girl’s face for a single moment
" May I ask what happened to them?" Said the woman, yet there was a strange tonality in it.
" To my parents?" The girl asked flatly.
" Yes, child... to your parents." Said the woman, her voice showing signs of abruptness springing up.
The young girl’s face went void of any emotions, her eyes fell to look at the floor of the carriage.
" My Ma and Pa died in a wagon accident, when their horse teams snapped their harnesses when they were coming back home from town...." She started, almost too hesitant to relive that time of her life even in her mind. "...The wagon flipped off of the road, and landed on them both... My Ma was with another child when she died in the accident."
" You were not with them when they died?"
" I was over helping a neighbor, Mr and Mrs Keller, who lived just west of our farm, Ma’am..." She began her explanation, her voice was now very flat and had no real inflection to it. " The family’s Ma was sick, and I was sent by my Pa to help Mr Keller with the young ones for a few days.." Susan said, her reply was very flat. " Coming back from his field... Mr. Keller was the one that found my parents about three miles from his farm.... he thought they were going to check on me before heading past back to our farm."
Mrs. Smyth’s face fluttered with a very little emotional response for a moment or two. The woman kept her stoic face, all the while her eyes never once leaving the girl’s pretty yet solemn face.
" And you had no brothers or sisters in the family?" She continued.
" My young sister, Beth, died when she was three and a half... from the pox that struck in the town near our farm when I was maybe six or seven." Susan said, her voice shuttering noticeably. " Many died that spring around us... the town of Haganbrook was almost gone from it."
" Did you fall ill as well?"
" I got it too, Ma’am... but my fever soon broke after a week or so an’ I got well." Tightly responded the girl, obviously bothered by all of the questions put to her, but she tried to answer all of them in a polite fashion.
The lady sat back, as if to clear herself from the somberness that seemed to radiate from the short girl. Staying quiet for a moment, the woman’s gaze watched the girl, as she began to control her emotions once again. With a sigh, Mrs Smyth sat up straighter than she did before.
" I am sorry for your loss, Susan... but now you do have a brother." Mrs. Smyth said, after her pause, in a proud announcing way.
" His name is Ambrose, Susan." Interjected the man, his very resonating but kindly voice seemed to attract the attention of the angels on high with its surprising warmth. " He is not but perhaps a couple of years younger than you are, but he is small for his age."
The lady glared over at her husband, showing that she was somewhat irritated at the man coming in to the conversation the way he had. She just turned herself to face the girl squarely.
" He is about two years younger than you are, I think." Continued the lady proudly, repeating what the man had said in a way of overriding him. "He is a very sweet, very smart lad, that he is."
The lady went on talking about the their home that they were taking Susan to, almost as if the young lass actually knew of it all before. With how the woman was describing it, it was hard to stay interested.
Susan tried to keep her concentration fixed on every word the woman spoke, but her mind soon was drifting off. All of what the woman was telling her was so foreign, as her new home was sounding that could have been right out of a book or something. She was not quite ready for this, she thought, but knew that she had no say in int from the very beginning.
Fear began to grip her with remarkable swiftness, as she pondered the unknown that she was now on route to.... a new life with this wealthy couple which was very far removed from the joyous and comfortable simplistic life on her family’s farm, before she had things totally turn on her and she had became a orphan. Nothing seemed to be good to her.. and she was scared of how it was turning right now
" God, watch over me." Prayed the lass in her mind, as she made herself go back to blank thoughts to escape all of these very overwhelming emotions.
******
The day wore on until the sun finally had given way to the moon’s night, and odd warmth of the day had been replaced by the deep chill of the early spring darkness.
A single large oil lamp, attached to the inside of the carriage, was the only light that illuminated the carriage interior, where the three people sat in quietness. Two larger lamps lit up the road for the driver outside, as the moon above bathed the land just outside of the carriage beams with it’s softer angelic glow.
Owls could be heard all about on the night breezes, doing their soothing moonlight serenade as they called to one another, singing to ignore the passing of the humans on their path through the woods and prairie. Only a few scattered crickets could be heard, because the season was still too frigid for most of their kind to be out, joining in the nighttime forrest sonata, yet the sound was calling out for spring to deepen and bring some needed warmth.
The air in the cabin of the carriage was almost uncomfortably cold. The warm breaths of the occupants came out in a large white stream of smoke, which hung in the air for many moment before slowly disappeared until another cloud was exhaled to take its place.
Susan sat, leaning into where the seat met the side wall of the carriage, the day had been spent for the most part traveling. Her eyes were drooping heavily, as she felt the great weight of weariness overtake her slowly, but surely. She was trying to fight it off, but it seemed her body was agreeing with the exhaustion, and her mind was beginning also to bend to it as her mind started to succumb to slumber.
The girl could not fight it any more, and let her head fall backwards to rest on the wall of the carriage. Her eyes drooped quickly, then shut dispite how hard she was forcing them to stay open. Sleep overtook her almost at the moment her eyes closed, into a void of no dreams, but into a sleep of exhaustion.
The couple watched as the young girl fell in to sleep as the rocking of the carriage helped. They witnessed her eyes finally closing, as each of them made sure not to make a sound for awhile after..
Mr. Smyth crossed the carriage interior after a few minutes, and slowly lifted the girls legs on to the bench seat. With great care, he covered her up with a blanket he brought out from under the seat that she was on. Susan did not awaken once, as the man moved the cloth bag from her arms, gently placing it under the girl’s head to act as a makeshift pillow.
The large man paused to stroke the girls cheek with one of his thick fingers in a surprising tender fashion for his size, as if he could tell if the young lady was sleeping as sound as she possibly could. Satisfied that the girl was as comfortable as he could make her, he returned to the seat next to his wife.
" She's fast asleep, My Darling." He whispered, glancing at the sleeping girl for a second or two. " She's so tired, when we stop to gather fresh horses at the next town, she’ll probably will not even stir." The man paused to take a long look at the sleeping girl again.
" She is very tired...." Agreed the woman.
" I think this small waif of a girl will end up changing our lives, forever." The man commented, with a smile.
" We already have changed her’s for the better.." Said the woman, in a curiously flat tone to her husband as she put her head back. She gave a sigh. " Let us get a bit of sleep as well, John... we will not reach Talgenbrook for those horses for a couple of hours more."
" A yes... capital idea, my love." He said, nodding.
The man sat back in his spot and put his head back too, but he started to ponder in his mind why his wife had been so stern in her questioning of this girl. His wife had picked out this particular girl for some reason, after meeting so many girl’s over a few day period they were in the community of Hedger Creek. Other girl’s were more refined looking, even he could see that...but this was the gal that she wanted. He was unsure why his wife had picked her after all of that.
He closed his eyes, as what ever the reason was, he knew his wife would never tell him. He liked the girl, liked her a lot... he just wondered what life he could give this pretty young thing in the first place, and he also thought that the girl might bring something back to them.
With that surging in his mind, Mr. Smyth soon fell of to sleep as well under the hypnotic lurching of the carriage.