Keep My Heart- Prologue

Keep My Heart- 32

“It is on December nights, with the thermometer at zero, that we most think of the sun.”

-Victor Hugo, in Les Miserables

Hey lovelies! I hope you liked the last chapter I posted. I had so much fun writing it, just getting it all out! The quote above is from one of my favorite classics ever. The new movie came out this last December. I LOVED it, and I high reccomend it. Anne Hathaway as Fantine...sigh, she was fabulous. 

Anyway. That's my rant. Please remember to hit the vote button on the way out! Maybe let me know what you think? :) Thanks in advance!

It was good to be home again.

Olivia was happy to have returned to Hawke's Vale, and she had taken to putting everything in order. She made certain that the entire house was always clean, and made a great many changes. Constantly, she was having furniture rearranged, and changing the dinner menu. Constance stood by silently, taking orders happily, joyful that her best friend was home again.

She was shocked when Rashleigh Hawke returned with Olivia, for she had been expecting the only Mr. Hawke she had a great deal of respect for. Likewise, she had grown used to the oldest Mr. Hawke of the bunch, and she arranged for the cook to prepare his favorite breakfast every morning. He was a lively old man, with peppery dark hair. His oldest son was a mirror image to him. Constance supposed that was why Olivia welcomed him into life. 

It was a snowy February day that Olivia bundled up with Constance in tow, and made a trip into Boston. The streets, slushy and cold, were lined with people- women in dim colored traveling suits, holding onto their male companions with the highest amount of propriety. Constance, with her dark fringed hair and light blue eyes, thought of the man she had left in England, and she flattened her lips. With positivity, she glanced at her mistress and friend, grateful that there was at least one constant in her life- the friendship she had with Olivia.

"At first, I was so very nervous...Constance, about this baby. I have never once anticipated the coming of a child." She smiled sweetly. "But I think that I shall enjoy motherhood."

"You have right to be nervous, Mistress," she replied, and smiled in return. "I pray daily that Mr. Hawke shall be here for the welcome party of your child."

"As do I," Olivia said. Then there was a prolonged silence. They stopped, before a fine linen shop, and alighted from the carriage. A moment of bitterly cold wind rushed beneath their skirts, but they were soon inside, where it was warm.

Olivia smiled to herself, feeling a gentle movement in her torso, beneath her stomacher. She had not increased in roundness yet, but she was entirely certain to. She knew that much. In the back of her mind, she was greatly bothered by the fact that many women died in birth. Others lived...but their babies were not so blessed as that. 

Swallowing, she went to the larger folds of cotton dimity, and fingered the fabric delicately. Today, she had come for some type of fabric for new drapes in the drawing room. She had noticed, upon having the furniture rearranged, that the long, cashmere curtains were indeed very worn looking, and old. 

She selected some fine dove gray cotton dimity, and was comparing it to a blue color Constance had suggested, when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a woman. Behind the counter she stood, with dark hair and equally dark eyes--they were a dagger like contrast against her very white skin. If she had smiled, Olivia noted, she was likely to be very beautiful. Obviously, she was employed here, and Mrs. Hawke expected her to assist. But there, she stood, as if surprised. 

"Hello," Olivia called, as politely as possible, for she was uncertain of what she should do. 

"Are you Mrs. Hawke?" the young woman blurted out. "From Hawke's Vale? Is your husband the captain of the Sun Goddess?"