The Tattered Apron

Family and Blood

On the horizon, at that strange line in the distance where the Atlantic met the sky, storm clouds began to roll in. Kerry was always such a pleasant place, just the meadows and shores for as far as the eye can see. However, spring storms seemed to hit the coastline hard but it never bothered Nellie, who would merely sit from her Aunt Nettie's sunroom and admire the view with a book in her lap and her favorite shawl around her, "Elenore! Won't you put that book down and join us for tea?" Lucy asked, walking over and sitting by her feet.

"I had just gotten to a good part,"

"But it is tea. A lady always make time for tea,"

"I am not thirsty,"

"But, Elenore, a lady-"

"A lady makes up her own rules," A woman spoke, her cane clicking beside her heels. Her shining blonde hair hung down around her shoulders that were covered by the blue material of her day gown, "Lucy, run along and leave Nellie be for now,"

"Yes, Aunt Nettie," she glanced back at her cousin, "You should put down that book sometime. You shall confuse yourself,"

Before either Nellie or their aunt could say one more thing, Lucy skipped off back to the drawing room. Soon, the girl's eyes returned to the view before glancing back down at the pages of her book, "I will never understand how two girls could be so similar but different," Nettie smiled softly, slowly walking over and sitting in Lucy's place. "What do you mean?" Nellie asked, knowing her aunt wouldn't mind if she didn't look up from the book.

"Lucille and yourself,"

"You know she is like a sister I never gotten but her and I are nothing alike,"

"You are both sneaky, loving, you have the mind to be determined to something-"

"Exactly. She is determined to family, marriage, all things I loath," she finally looked up from her book.

"Maybe so but your similarities are stronger than differances," a kind smile spread across her lips as she lead over and brushed a stray curl that had escaped from it's pin back behind her ear. "My sister's and I never truly got along,"

"How could one with me mother," she muttered, her gaze returning to the now fog coded sea.

"We were all once very close. At least your mother and aunt Johnanne were. I was always considerably older than them, they can't even remember London or you grandfather like I do," Nettie sighed.

"Well, I am considerably younger and considerably more female than me brothers," Nellie huffed.

"That is why Lucy is a blessing to you," she spoke earning a strange gaze from her niece, "Friends are stronger than family. I should know. Blood is just an added bonus for you two but it is not a requirement to feel such a connection with a person," Nettie let ou a large breath before looking back at the girl with a small, gentle smile, "Take Lucy for granted. You alone are special, Nellie, but you two together… my, that is some mischief. Don't allow anything to come between you."

~

She could feel the heat come off his body, their lips pressed together and their tounges intertwined. The moment of last night replayed through Nellie's mind as she leaned against the pie shop counter, her chin rested in her palm and her legs often growing weak from her thoughts. She somehow managed to drift off to sleep easily last night, perhaps it was all the excitement, but now she struggled to think about anything but him.

Benjamin Barker kissed her. He did more then kiss her, he made her feel alive in such a desolate place where she had felt nothing but dead and dreading for years. Albert never kissed her like that, never gotten excited just by the feeling of her lips on his. Nellie's mind kept slipping into her thoughts; Did Benjamin actually kiss like that or was that all Sweeney? Can a cruel world really change how a gentleman treats his woman? Did his sweet Lucy ever see that hungry, aching side of him?