For Years to Come

For Years to Come (FIRST DRAFT)

I

Please note that this is only a draft. If you read this and you enjoy it, please let me know in the comments section. That being said, if you do not enjoy it or something is historically inaccurate, please tell me and I will appreciate that as well! This story has been in my heart my whole life. Do be kind. :)

For the final time, Peter Renton gathered his courage, and opened the drawer to his bedside table. There, nestled in the mahogany drawer that smelled of wood and old books, was a silver velvet ring box. He stared at it for a moment, admiring the way the light from his bedroom window seemed to grace it, and he smiled proudly to himself. Outside, there was a gust of wind, and he lifted the curtain away apathetically, gazing out across the cobblestoned street to the Woolfords' residence. "There she waits," he thought, and took the box from the drawer, flipping it open to appreciate the ring in all of its glory.

It had been his mother's engagement ring, and his grandmother before that. He was certain that this ring might showcase his intentions, that he was indeed serious. And Peter would always relish the surprise on his father's face when at last, he asked for it. Of course, Thomas Renton could not say that he was surprised; it was common knowledge that his son had proposed to Katherine Woolford twice before. However, he was hard pressed to conceal his delight when at last Peter requested his grandmother's ring. Before, he had tried to give Katherine a little diamond.

But she was the kind of girl who required an opulent engagement ring, and that was precisely what she would get. The ring he possessed was antique in every sense of the word, but more lavish than anything she might ever expect. It was a beautiful diamond in an asscher cut, set in a shining filigree band of gold, accompanied most splendidly by six diamonds, three on each side of the center.

Peter straightened his jacket on his shoulders, feeling quite nervous. In truth, he felt a fool to be asking Katherine to marry him again, but before, he admitted to himself, he hadn't been so serious. In fact, his first proposal had been half joking, but she, in all her kind but pensive nature, had vocalized she felt that he wasn't ready to be a husband.

Hurt, he had gone away from her, working away in his office for a week. Then, he grinned at himself, he came to the realization that she was more than correct. There would hardly be anyone else besides her to know that, too, as they had been friends from infancy. He wasn't sure that there was any part of him that she did not know.

And yet, he thought, he wished to know her from the bottoms of her little white feet to the depths of her girlish, thoughtful soul. Everyone thought they would make a good pair, for they were both logical. Yet there was a need in her, to be entertained, that drew him from his introspective shell to make her laugh.

It helped that their families would approve of the union. Thomas Renton had been in business with Clarence Woolford, Katherine's beloved father, for over thirty years. Thomas had been the heir of a railroad company that was headed in Sacramento, which was now ran by Peter's older brother. Clarence had been an industrialist who fell in love with the leisure of California, and thus left the streets of New York behind.

Now, they owned a luxurious hotel together, and they had promised Peter that it would be his in the future. None of the other children seemed to care for it the way Peter did, and both gentleman were certain that his head for figures and investments would grow his wealth exponentially.

However, they said, that future was still far off, for he was still a boy in many ways. Despite the fact that his twenty-first birthday was only a few weeks away, he had spent the summer before at the small vineyard he had purchased throwing loud, extravagant parties with his friends from school. In his boyhood, he had been nervous and uncertain of himself, but as he grew, he liked himself quite a lot. Katherine helped greatly, to build his confidence, for she thought him to be quite handsome and made no efforts to conceal her opinion.