sallythescorpian
a bad, bad girl
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2009
- Posts
- 12,106
1868 - Baltimore
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Anna clung to the rail, her eyes fixated on the misty outline of land. After 6 weeks crossing the Atlantic, she would be happy is she never laid eyes on the ocean again. She had worked as a lady’s maid in return for her passage, it was not a role that had come easily to her.
Born and bred to wealth and privilege, she had commanded the servants after her mother’s untimely death. Three years later, and following a hunting accident, her father had followed her mother and had been interred in the Fitzsimmons tomb in the ground of the family chapel. Of course, the family chapel, along with the family estate were now in the ownership of Lord Brunswick, to whom her brother had lost all bar his shirt. Inconsequential, in the greater scheme of things, but also lost was her dowry, and with it her beau, David, who, upon the collapse of her family fortunes, had distanced himself in a most painful manner.
Now, at 20, she found herself embarking on a new life, in a new land, and she tried to be upbeat about the husband who awaited her. She had never laid eyes on him, but her brother had negotiated things. He was to meet her at the docks, and she was nervous. If he did not, she had insufficient fare home, and would find herself with few options in a very short period of time. She wondered how civilised, or otherwise this place was. For five years, they had fought a bloody and embittered Civil War, and that had finished only three years ago, so no doubt there was still some upheaval.
“The Maid of Erin” docked, and she eyed the busy docklands, with so much noise and activity. Finally the gang plank was secured, and she walked from the ship that had carried her from her homeland, down the gang way to embark on a new adventure.
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Anna clung to the rail, her eyes fixated on the misty outline of land. After 6 weeks crossing the Atlantic, she would be happy is she never laid eyes on the ocean again. She had worked as a lady’s maid in return for her passage, it was not a role that had come easily to her.
Born and bred to wealth and privilege, she had commanded the servants after her mother’s untimely death. Three years later, and following a hunting accident, her father had followed her mother and had been interred in the Fitzsimmons tomb in the ground of the family chapel. Of course, the family chapel, along with the family estate were now in the ownership of Lord Brunswick, to whom her brother had lost all bar his shirt. Inconsequential, in the greater scheme of things, but also lost was her dowry, and with it her beau, David, who, upon the collapse of her family fortunes, had distanced himself in a most painful manner.
Now, at 20, she found herself embarking on a new life, in a new land, and she tried to be upbeat about the husband who awaited her. She had never laid eyes on him, but her brother had negotiated things. He was to meet her at the docks, and she was nervous. If he did not, she had insufficient fare home, and would find herself with few options in a very short period of time. She wondered how civilised, or otherwise this place was. For five years, they had fought a bloody and embittered Civil War, and that had finished only three years ago, so no doubt there was still some upheaval.
“The Maid of Erin” docked, and she eyed the busy docklands, with so much noise and activity. Finally the gang plank was secured, and she walked from the ship that had carried her from her homeland, down the gang way to embark on a new adventure.