Three Pretty Princesses

Chapter 3- Evalyn

A loud chime alerted the staff of Hawthorne Quality Merchandise that a potential costumer had entered the building. The staff, of course, being the Hawthorne family, consisting of Evalyn, Evalyn's mother and father, and Evalyn's elder brother. Her parents were up in the top sorting out their goods, and Jet was writing his application for Nebelle University, so it was up to Evalyn to attend to the customer. Not that, Evalyn was complaining, she adored playing the game.

The customer was a woman, well into her thirties. Much to Evalyn's delight, she was rich. Her gown was a thick red velvet, layered with forest green silk. Yet surprisingly, she wasn't wearing any jewellery except for a small golden band her right hand. The woman was a musician- probably a violinist- that was the most likely explanation for her not wearing any loud, cluttery accessories. Evalyn concluded that she was part of the orchestra from Frostvale that would be playing for Count Marius overmorrow.

Since the woman was a visitor to Kittown, she was most likely staying at the Inn, which provides food. Therefore, she probably hadn't come to buy food. Evalyn's eyes drew back to the woman's beautiful velvet gown. While the gown would be perfect for the cold weather of Frostvale, it didn't exactly suite the humidity of Gillamor. The sleeves were rolled up, indicating that the woman had figured this out by herself. She had come to Hawthorne Quality Merchandise to buy summer clothing.

"Ah hello there my fair lady," Evalyn sung out as she stood from the chair behind the counter, "What brings you here today? We have fresh watermelons imported from the Summer Isles, the newest edition of The History of Dulcinea, and a new collection of summer gowns- straight from the city!"
The last one wasn't strictly true. Evalyn's mother had gotten the whole collection off cheap from an Axmarshian trader last month. The gowns were from the corrupt and lowly city of Halivaara, but looked didn't look too bad if you ignored the shoddy sewing.
The woman clapped her hands together in joy. "Oh, summer gown? They're exactly what I need? Where are they?"
Evalyn lead the woman to the shelf on which the clothing was neatly folded. "They're 50 gold each, but if you buy two the other is only 30."
"That's the exact amount of gowns I need to cover my stay in Kittown!" the woman marveled, "I'll take the blue one, and the green."

Evalyn had the woman's customer packaged up within a few minutes, and even managed to convince her to purchase A Guide to Gillamor so that she could, "experience the most of Gillamor in such a short time!".
Evalyn grabbed a cushion off the homeware display shelf, positioned it on the wooden shopkeeper's chair that was responsible for her back problems, and sat down, immediately kicking her feet up. Her family's shop didn't do too badly, but on wednesdays they only received about four in the morning. She had kept a tally and analysed the results last month. The Hawthorne's could only afford tutoring thrice a week, and Evalyn sometimes got a little bored.

Suddenly, the the door chimes began ringing through the shop. A serious-looking soldier entered the room, wearing a bright, red uniform, with shiny gold plating. He had a tan line on his left ring finger, indicating that he was once married but now divorced. His blazer pulled in around the buttons, so Evalyn guessed that he had gained a little weight since he first received it.
But none of this answered the big question- why was he here?

She couldn't find any explanation for him coming into Hawthorne Quality Merchandise. The only wild idea she had was that Jet had committed some sort of petty crime, but that was still unlikely knowing how un-rebellious her brother was.
The guard glanced around the shop, until he peered over counter to see Evalyn staring at him. He immediately walked out of the shop.

Evalyn stood up in confusion. "Uh, dad. A soldier just came in here, looked at me, and then walked out."
She heard the familiar sound her father clomping down the stairs. Evalyn shared many qualities with her father, yet her stealthiness wasn't one of them. She could identify each other the members of her family by the way they walked down the stairs.
Just as her father reached the ground floor, the guard burst in, this time accompanied by another half-dozen soldiers. Two of them, brandishing intimidating longswords grabbed each of Evalyn's wrists, and pulled her over the counter. The Guide to Anvils were wiped straight off the counter by Evalyn's body.
Her father immediately began to yell at the guards. He desperately demanded to know where they were taking her but none of his questions were answered. The door of the shop was held open by a soldier, a Evalyn was dragged out, her uncovered shins scraping across the rough pavement. Outside stood a group of horses waiting in the middle of the marketplace.

She was placed onto one of the steads, and a guard climbed on behind her. Evalyn wished that she had one of her father's qualities that she had inherited was strength, but it wasn't. She tried to struggle with the guard, even take a few cheap shots, but her resistance was pointless. Evalyn's mother and brother had rushed out of the house when they heard the commotion. Months later, the look of confusion on her brothers face would still haunt her. Her father had already began to clash with the soldiers. He had grabbed a candlestick from the home decor shelf, and was wildly bludgeoning the soldiers with it. Kristoph Hawthorne was a pacifist, so the sight of her father doing such a thing brought bile's to Evalyn's throat.
She yelled, out, "Father! Stop! Please."
But her father didn't have a chance to consider his daughter. A soldier from behind stabbed his longsword in between her father's shoulder-blades. The wound wasn't deep, but it had its intended effect. Kristoph clattered to the group, his candle-stick rolling off into the street. Blood began to pulse from his body, slowly at first.
"Father!" Evalyn's voice was as broken as her heart. The soldiers kicked their horses, and the horse she was on began to gallop away, giving a fright to all the customers of the marketplace. Evalyn managed to push away from the guard holding on to her enough to look back and her family. Jet and her mother were knelt over her father, who was staring at Evalyn. Despite her uncanny people-reading skills, Evalyn couldn't be sure whether her father's stare was the look of a man who was losing his daughter, or of a dead, dead man.