The Vicar's Wife

Full edition of flash short The Proposal. Chapters marked by a * are those edited from the rough draft version as of 1-27-23

Flighty, sweet, naïve Hattie Foster is engaged to the country vicar, Jonathon Forsythe. What could possibly go wrong?
~
The object of Hattie's attention stood quietly at his study window, staring dismally at the green pastureland beyond the small vineyard attached to his property. Normally a picture of quiet refinement, his features were set in a faint scowl, lines marring the skin between his brows. The gentleman sitting in a high back chair behind him was equally somber.

"How soon?"

"It's hard to say, Jon. With things like these..." the smooth voice left off with a shrug. Lips thinning into a hard line, the vicar turned.

"Hard to say? My future hangs by fraying strings, and you say, 'hard to say'?"
~