Colette brushed out her hair for the hundredth time that morning, her arms aching as she tied it in a knot at the nape of her neck. She pulled out a few brown strands to frame her face, bringing attention to her painted lips and blue eyes. She turned her face each way, taking in the sharp angles of her face, her strong, straight nose splashed with light freckles.
"You look beautiful, my little dove," chirped her mother from the door, her hands up to her chest as she rushed into the room. "You will be a beautiful bride."
Colette smiled pleasantly at her mother, locking eyes with her in the mirror as she placed her pale hands on Colette's bare shoulders. Colette couldn't find the strength to say anything in response to the compliment, instead taking in the familiar features of her mothers kind face like it was the last time she would see her.
Although that wasn't quite the case, it was close to the truth for Colette. She was to be married to a wealthy man, to help save her family from the crippling debt her father had gotten them into. Her beauty was the perfect bargaining chip, especially for a man like Cornwall.
Colette Silverstone met Leviticus Cornwall two years prior, when she was twenty three years old and her parents were hosting one of their many lavish parties. She'd been wearing a pale blue dress, not that different from the one she wore today, when Cornwall asked her father why she was not yet married.
That was all it took for her father to see the opportunity in front of him. He slowly started planting the seeds. Whenever there was a social event that Leviticus Cornwall was attending, her father would make sure Colette was attending, in her best dress, each time more beautiful than the last. It didn't take long for Colette to understand what her father expected of her. She was to charm Cornwall and get him to marry her, saving her family from their bankruptcy.
Colette sighed softly and tied a white, silk necklace tight to her throat. It felt like it was strangling her. She had been successful in the mission her father had set her on, and now she was preparing for the train journey to join Cornwall at his private manor, where she would be introduced to his family before the wedding. The necklace constricted her throat further and she gulped down a desperate breath.
Her mother squeezed her shoulder, sensing her daughter's rising panic. Her mother and father would be joining her at Cornwall's estate a day before the ceremony and Colette felt an intense sadness at the prospect of not having her mother at her side for the next few weeks.
"We'd best hurry," Colette said, her voice barely shaking, "It would be incredibly rude of me if I made a whole train late."
"Darling, the train is specifically for you," her mother said, laughing gently as she pulled a thick coat from Colette's wardrobe.
Colette snorted, which earned her a reproachful stare from her mother.
"You can snort like that once you have a ring on your finger," she said, tutting, "but until then you will laugh like the young, well bred lady you are."
Colette laughed in earnest then and her mother smiled before joining in on the laughter, both of them snorting in the family's signature cackle.
Their joy was interrupted by the sound of a carriage pulling onto the gravel outside their home, the hooves of the horses stomping in impatience.
Colette took one last look at her childhood bedroom, and said goodbye to her innocence.—-----------------------
The train car she was seated in felt like a prison. A gaudy, bright red prison. There were no windows and the only entrance into the train had been locked behind them. She was attended by three guards, all men a few years older than her. She kept her distance, uncomfortable in the presence of only men, a scenario her mother had always warned her against. She took in their guns, the metal glinting in the artificial light of the lamps, and shuddered at the threat they would pose. Colette, despite the face she puts on for those around her, was not a stupid woman. She knew the hired guns were not just to protect Cornwall's young future bride, but instead there must be something on this train that was much more important to Cornwall than herself.
She resisted the urge to start rummaging through all of the drawers and cupboards, knowing that such an undignified act would be reported by the guards the minute they arrived. But she was dying of boredom. She had been on this train for eight hours already, with an unbearable amount of time left on the trip.
Colette reached for a book from her large coat pocket. It was the sort of tacky fiction novel that men would roll their eyes at, but she enjoyed the stories of rogues and cowboys, with their senseless adventures. It was the closest she would ever get to freedom and she lost herself for hours to those stories.
The youngest of the guards, a rather cute blonde man with a matching mustache made his way over to where Colette was sitting in an armchair. She raised her book to slightly cover her face, not wanting to engage in any idle small talk when she had a dashing bounty hunter to read about. The guard cleared his throat politely and Colette finally looked up at him, raising a dark brow in question. Perhaps in a different world she would have enjoyed flirting with him, as he blushed when she locked eyes with him. Perhaps she would have made him fall in love with her and then broken his heart for fun.
Colette wasted little time on aching for that simple world, but occasionally it would strike her, that hopeless feeling of not having a single fraction of control over her own life.
"Miss Silverstone," the flustered guard said cautiously, "can I get you anything to drink at all? Some water? Gin?"
Colette forced an amiable smile to her lips.
"I'd love a glass of water please."
"Of course ma'am," he said, "I'll go grab that for-"
A loud gunshot interrupted his sentence, and he immediately jumped up with a hand on his pistol.
More shots rang out, followed by the cries of men in pain.
"Get under that desk," snapped one of the other guards.
Colette paused, scared as the gunshots echoed around her, and the train screeched to a stop.
"Now!"
Colette didn't hesitate any longer, and she scrambled under the large oak desk, her heart pounding in rhythm with the gunshots.
YOU ARE READING
Heart Of Coal
FanfictionColette Silverstone was a lady of society. Promised to Leviticus Cornwall, she had accepted her fate as the bargaining chip that would save her family from debt. Arthur Morgan was no stranger to trouble, but he managed to keep the most vulnerable o...