The scent of fire

Polk County, Plum Valley, Texas 1839

Lucy pov:

I always look out of the broad window that cages me in my chamber. In a too big house, with too big responsibilities for a young girl at marriageable age.

The town I live in is always brewing with all kinds of people. The people who come here are mainly men with goldrush, Indian hunters and just the locals, like me and my family.

The area where we live is beautiful, it’s a valley surrounded by beautiful green hills and loads of nature. It’s called the Plum valley. At night, the beautiful valley turns into the domain of bloodthirsty wolves and other predators.

I like the night better than the day though. The night has something special, a certain freedom I can’t have. I long for it, just as I long for being able to fly away like the birds I see out of my window.

But I am not free, I am trapped like a beautiful bird in its cage, sitting there for display. Waiting for the day someone accidentally leaves the cage open and sets the bird free. Caged, in a too big house with closed windows, waiting for the day I have to marry a man whom I do not love.

Every time I hear my mom talk about Josh I feel this unease, I have no idea why, I don’t even know him. Well I probably will very soon get to know him, he is the man I need to marry after all. Not that that was my own choice, but I will shut my mouth about that and just do what my parents want me to do.

It’s for the honor of the family they say,

I think it’s for the money and the title of sheriff.

Josh comes from good money and his dad is the sheriff of our town and a bonus is that he originates from a noble family, he’s a well respected man and Josh will be his successor next year.

I detest men that are too proud of themselves and their achievements, so I hope that Josh will have a humble personality and not be very full of himself.

“Lucy darling, come on, are you ready?”

My mom yells at me from downstairs.

I mumble a reply.

I’m wearing my most beautiful dress, a mint green dress with a beautiful corset detailed with embroidered pink flowers. It’s gorgeous, newly shipped all the way from Paris. It was a present that my dad gave me for my birthday two weeks ago. I have never worn it until now.

While looking in the mirror I adjust my dress, the corset perfectly fits around my body while the skirt is broad and flowing down at my feet. It’s gorgeous.

I look at my hair and grab a hairpin to put a lost golden curl in place. My hair is now neatly tied in a big curly bun with a beautiful green dragonfly hair ornament complementing my golden curls.

My mom appears in the doorway of my room. She is smiling at me when I turn around to face her.

“You’re so beautiful honey, you will definitely win Josh’s heart.”

I grimace, she doesn’t really care about me at all. She wants me to marry this Josh Williams and then she will be satisfied, because I would have saved our family name. Lucinda Williams, I’m already disgusted by the surname.

She sees my expression and sighs.

“Honey we’re Elwood’s, our noble family line is dying, you need to continue for the sake of our bloodline.”

I nod, even though it’s more about money than keeping our family ‘noble’ I think.

Sometimes even though these people are my parents I have the feeling that I don’t know them at all.

An hour later I see myself sitting in an unfamiliar living room in a too big, Victorian style house for only a family existing out of two sons and their parents. I look around at the furniture in the living room where I’m sitting. It’s the newest design that is popular in France. The whole house is based on the newest designs and trends that are now hot in Paris.

Then I slowly look at the man sitting in front of me, still talking about something he achieved. Many women would say that Josh is very handsome. He has broad shoulders and a sharp jawline. His grey eyes and his dark blonde hair is charming and he has a charismatic smile.

I would have been attracted to him too if he would not open his mouth and start blabbering about what he has done in his life and talking about his wealth. And about how amazing he and his family are.

He only asked me what my age was and what I thought of their house. He seems to only have eye and interest for himself and not his future wife.

I was already against this marriage, but now that I know him I’m even more convinced that I don’t want him as my husband.

I look outside through the window and see my carriage standing there proudly. I can’t wait to set foot on that carriage again and just leave this place. It’s the worst.

“Lucinda, are you still paying attention?”

I look up at him, startled.

“Y-yes I’m sorry I got a bit distra-”

“Good then I can continue about that time that I went hunting with one of my mates and we……”

An hour later I’m in the carriage again, together with my mother. I’m trembling from anger and frustration.

“Mother, he doesn’t even let me finish my sentences!”

She looks at me, her face turned cold, her usual warmth was nowhere to be found.

“Sometimes Lucinda…”

She only uses my full name, Lucinda, when she’s very serious about something.

“…you need to step aside from your pride and accept that you’re just a woman and have nothing to say or to want in this society.”

I look at her again, even though her face is cold I can see a whim of sadness in her eyes that I have not seen before. It goes deeper than just normal emotions. It’s something that she buried deep long ago, a very long time ago when she was young herself.

I don’t ask her anything more as I feel my eyes filling with tears. The whole way back home as the grasslands and hills flew by we silently wept and dried each other’s tears when we got home.

When we opened the front door and hung our capes, my dad was waiting for us in our dining room. His eyes wide from shock and reddened, it looked like he had been crying. My mom dropped her purse when she saw him and went to him.

She put her arms around her husband to reassure him, not sure why he looked this miserable.

“What happened?”

He shook his head and mumbled to my mom something I couldn’t hear.

Her worried expression changed into horror. She looked scared, almost mortified. She exclaimed a soft yelp and put her hands on her mouth.

“Mother, father tell me, what’s going on?”

My mom shook her head.

“I-It can’t be, they can’t be back…”

She mumbles, as she softly walks backwards until her back hits the wall.

“Mother I don’t understand, what’s happening?”

She looked at me, her deep green eyes meeting mine. She had little wrinkles on her forehead and around her eyes, from all the years she has lived.

“They’re back”

“Mother, who are back?!”

“The blue Indian tribe”

I looked at her confused, why would an Indian tribe be a problem? They’re the Native Americans after all, they have even more right to be here than we are right?

“Mom I don’t understand, why would it be bad that they’re back?”

She looks at me shaking her head.

“Honey, they wouldn’t be a problem if they left us alone.”

She walked up to me and held both my hands. Her hands were cold against my warm hands. Tears were welling up in her eyes.

“They murdered our people, the bakery woman and her husband were found. Scalped and their faces smeared with blue paint.”

A cold feeling is spreading through my body, the hairs on my arms spike up. Not because of the low temperature, but because of the ice lump settling in my chest.

“M-mother, father, are you sure?”

They nodded.

Days flew by, days became weeks and weeks became months. I felt nothing, I was just an empty shell existing but not really there.

It wasn’t because of the Indian tribes threatening us, it wasn’t because of the idea that I could be their next victim. It’s because of the fact that even when

there were more people found, scalped and marked with a blue paint streak, I only could think about having to marry Josh.

With time I’ve grown to hate Josh even more, he is an arrogant prick that doesn’t value a woman as he should. For example, he has these comments when he sees a man standing in the kitchen, he will say to them that that’s a woman’s job, but that they can’t get a job because women can’t work because they’re too stupid.

He also only talks about how he wants to kill the blue Indian tribe, that they have no right to live here and that they need to die.

All women and children were prohibited to leave the town alone. The sheriff, Josh’s father is busy to locate the Indians and Josh was proudly telling about it to me.

I met every week with Josh, we usually sat in his living room drinking tea. Usually he talked the whole time, ofcourse about himself, but this time he seemed a bit more interested in me.

“Lucinda, you’ve been awfully silent the last couple of weeks, tell me what is on your mind.”

I look up, startled by Josh’s sudden interest in me.

“I was just thinking about how the ceremony will be, the tablecloth colors are still not picked and the wedding will be in a month.”

Of course I am not really bothered with what color a tablecloth has, but that’s what Josh would want to hear. A woman should be silent, stupid and being busy with tablecloths instead of the Indians and people slaughtering eachother.

He chuckled and looked at me, a sneaky grin on his smug face.

“Well, wouldn’t that be the duty of a woman to decide what colors? I will send you to the big town nearby to pick out the tablecloths.”

Ugh, the duty of a woman? He is so stupid for even thinking that. This man is killing me by his stupidity.

I looked up, trying to look grateful instead of disgusted.

“Well thank you, but aren’t we not allowed to travel to other towns right now, because of the blue Indians that are murdering our people?”

He grinned, his voice dripping with fake sweetness.

“Honey, you are indeed not allowed to go alone, so I personally will go with you to protect you from those barbarians.”

I don’t like the way he’s talking about the Indians, he talks about them as if they’re pests that have to be eliminated. Well they are indeed killing our people, but nobody deserves to die in my opinion, not even for justice.

He takes my hand.

“Darling, let’s go tomorrow around one in the afternoon so we will be back around four, on time for the afternoon tea.”

His hands on my hands give me goosebumps, I try not to vomit. Everything about him disgusts me.

I have no idea how I will survive the rest of my life with him.