Tired of Waiting

Chapter 7

Sylvia rode home after her unpleasant meeting with her cousin Rimier. She stormed through her front doors and hollered to Nadine. Nadine scurried into the entryway with dirt covering her face.

"Oh you look horrendously filthy!" yelled Sylvia, "Do take more care of your clothing, Cindy never looked as dirty as you!" she scowled, looking Nadine up and down with a judgmental eye. It was silent for a minute.

Nadine cleared her throat and looked up at Sylvia and said with a quiet voice, "What did you need, mother?"

"I need you to go up to your room and bring me all your dresses and jewelry. Bring it back to this room as soon as you have it all," said Sylvia with a menacing tone.

Nadine lowered her head and scurried up the stairs into her room. She was up there for five minutes or so and came down with her arms full of dresses and a small box laying on top. She got down the stairs and plopped it all down in front of Sylvia's feet.

"All my dresses and jewelry, just as you asked. What did you need them for exactly?" asked Nadine keeping a few feet's distance from her mother.

"Pick out your two favorite dresses and necklace. You can also keep the dress for the ball. We are selling the rest," Sylvia said with no emotion whatsoever in her voice.

"What?!" screamed Nadine glancing at her pile of dresses, "Why? We don't need to! We can sustain ourselves here at home! And we still have money left over from Greyson, right?"

Sylvia looked her in the eye, hate burning bright in her eyes, "Your dear sister took more than half of what we had left. Our money now would only last two weeks. And yes, we can provide for ourselves here at home, but what about fire wood? We would still have to buy our wood. Unless you want to go out and chop down the forest with our sadly blunt axe?"

Nadine lowered her eyes, knowing Sylvia was right, but not knowing the real purpose for the need to sell her dresses. She somberly walked over to the pile of clothes and carefully picked up every dress and carefully examined each. She put them into separate piles and in the end was left with about six piles of dresses, about four in each pile.

Sylvia tapped her foot impatiently and blurted out, "If you don't make it fast I won't let you keep any of them."

Nadine hurriedly looked over the piles and decided to rummage through one pile and picked up two of the ones in that pile and the blue dress made special for the ball. "Alright," she said holding the dresses she wanted to keep close to her, afraid to lose them too, "I am keeping these ones." She laid them gingerly on the floor and knelt down in front of the box. She opened the box and rummaged through the necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. She examined the blue necklace Cindy had bought at the market. She placed the necklace on the floor and continued to look through the box. She didn't find anything else of special importance to her and shut the box. She picked up the necklace and dresses and climbed up the stairs and out her possessions on her bed neatly.

She returned downstairs and Sylvia told her to put all of the dresses in the cart that they kept in the stables. She saddled up their black and white mare and attached the cart to the saddle. She led the horse to the front of the house and opened the front door to retrieve the dresses. She grabbed them and the small box of jewelry. She stuffed the dresses inside the cart and opened the box to look at her things one last time. She mingled through the box and pulled out a necklace her father gave her before he died. She clutched it close to her heart and tucked it safely into the pocket of her apron, glancing over her shoulder, cautious to Sylvia's watchful eyes.

Sylvia stepped outside as Nadine went around the house to get water for dinner, which Nadine suspected Sylvia would expect upon her return. Sylvia left without another word and the only things she truly cared for left with her.

She walked into the kitchen and started to think of what she could possibly make. She roamed the pantry and came back out no farther along in her quest for food ideas. She paced through the house wishing Cindy had taught her how to cook remotely easy things. She was lost in thought when she heard a knock at the door.

She opened it up to find the mailman. She had had a crush on him since he got the mail route to her house. She blushed a little until she realized she was covered in dirt and promptly wiped her face in an attempt to clean her face and look natural at the same time. She wasn't sure if it worked or not, but smiled after he got the crooked smile on his face that made her heart melt.

"Afternoon, miss," said Jonny, the mailman, with a little bow, handing her the mail.

"Good afternoon, Jonny," she replied blushing profusely.

"Your mail, Nadine. How have you been lately?"

"Thank you. And very well. You?"

"Real fine, thank you for asking. How is Cindy? She usually answers, and I have to say this is quite the pleasant surprise"

"Actually, she left yesterday."

"Where to, if you don't mind me asking."

"I'm honestly not sure," Nadine said with a hint of sadness.

"Well then. Sure is a shame, she always was nice to me."

"Yeah, me too."

There was a silence for a minute and a smile started to form on Jonny's face.

"I don't know if this is exactly appropriate miss, but, well, would you like to go to dinner or something sometime?" asked Jonny.

"I, well, um, yes. Yes I would like that," said Nadine blushing once more.

"Well I will see you in the near future than, miss."

And with that, he left down the pathway, leaving Nadine blushing in the doorway.