"She shall not go anywhere Hugh!" She spat. "Things must be done, are you going to just let her run amuck, she is a mockery to his house hold!"

My father’s monocled eye groomed over me and he smiled like he was seeing me for the first time. "Where are you going to go?" He prodded.

Again, instantly flushed. I saw over the hues in my cheeks and managed, "Possibly to town with Alice."

"She lies!" My mother squealed, "She merely dismissed Alice yesterday! There is no way they are speaking as of yet."

I wished to speak up to say, how I conduct my own affairs is a private matter kindly see your way through, but I didn’t. My father waved me off and I grabbed my hat, coat, and gloves for the trip. The oak doors crashed shut behind me.

I hopped into the carriage and demanded make way to Alice’s. I propped my hat on the way my aunt showed me last spring-my aunt Pheona, an unmarried rich woman from Suffolk. That’s how I wanted to be. I slipped on the gloves and placed my hands in my lap. An abyss in time was made for me to think.

My mother, although weird on a regular basis, was acting quite directive and unconventional lately. She had measured me, surely no doubt, for a wedding dress. A wedding in which a man did not yet exist. A man I did not want to exist. There were no new suitors back from war or new neighbors from fathering states. A ball gown could have been in the works, but mother did not take care of those sort of things, Ruby did.

The only reasonable explanation can be found in the fact that she is merely mad. Losing it after Jacob ran off with his mistress of the household, a poor girl named Fanny, mother was never the same. Jacob was never seen again, I wrote him some times but without parental knowledge. They would certainly disown me if they knew.

Jacob became a handsome man with handsome money, working with trains. He had 5 kids, only one girl, and constantly bragged about Fanny’s house management. It was odd momma did not want to see him, the proudest she could be of her children should be lost in him. But alienation is a crime in all its own.

By the time I had reached Alice’s I had completely gotten off track about momma’s behavior and Jacob’s overlooked greatness. The carriage halted in front of the large brick home with only candles lit inside. I thought maybe the Massey’s were at prayer.

I stepped around the garden to peer in the window. It was so dark my eyes strained as hard as they could manage, I outlined Alice’s figure. I hopped over the brush and began to bang on the door. Alice had to leave before dark if she wanted to get out and I did not want to wait.