Tracie Peterson: Dawns Prelude

"What do you suggest we do?" Jeannette asked. "The lawyer said it was legal. I can scarcely believe it, but it seems to me-"

"Oh, shut up." Mitchell was not one to brook his sister's nonsense for long. "I don't care what it seems to you. The fact of the matter is, we are in for a fight. Robinson is obviously happy to stand on Lydia 's behalf. After all, he will, no doubt, receive a tidy sum.

Marston paced, tightening his facial muscles as he often did when disturbed. "Do you suppose we could pay someone off? We have connections amongst the judges. Surely we can get someone to take up the case on our behalf."

"But even if you do," Evie's husband, Thomas, interjected, she could do the same. The money will he tied up for years. You will he destitute by that time."

Mitchell got to his feet and motioned Marston to take a seat. "The way I see it, we will simply have to find a way to handle this ourselves. As far as I know, Lydia has no family, and certainly has not had time to draw up a will. Perhaps if she is… eliminated, the problem itself will go away."

"Better still," Marston said with a wicked grin, "she could leave her entire fortune to us."

"Exactly my thinking," Mitchell replied.

Jeannette and Evie's husbands appeared to he trying to mask their shock, yet they said nothing to suggest they wouldn't support such an idea. Marston reasoned that with a little thought, they'd know exactly how it would affect them, and he believed they would hope for any decision that might benefit their coffers.

Evie was indignant. "I can't believe you're sitting here so calmly suggesting the death of another human being. I understand wanting to reclaim what is rightfully ours, but to kill someone is an entirely different situation."

Marston turned to his youngest sister. "You are only seventeen. What do you know of life-or death, for that matter? Lydia has never liked any of us, so you can hardly hope that she would willingly right this wrong."

"We never gave her a reason to like any of us," Evie replied. "You were always scheming against her."

"She didn't belong in our family" Jeannette's voice was shrill and bitter. She should never have married Father in the first place."

"I hardly believe she was given any say in the decision," Evic countered. She didn't want to marry Father any more than we wanted her to marry him."

"l3ut the fact remains, she did marry him," Marston replied. "There is absolutely nothing that we can do to change that now. What we cannot do is stand by and allow that woman to ruin our well-being. Can you really tolerate her taking all of Mother's jewelry and furs? Would you see Lydia sell off the family heirlooms to pad her purse?"

"She will do it, too," Jeannette said, hissing against her sister's ear. "She's only been waiting for a moment like this. I say we put her from our lives once and for all."

1Evie could hardly believe her siblings' heartless comments. She moved to the parlor door, saying, "I'm afraid I have no stomach for this. I will retire to the music room until you have concluded this madness."

"Oh, for pity's sake, Evie. Sit down and do stop with your prattling."

Evic looked into the eyes of her husband. The man seldom had more than two words to offer her in any given day. Now he fixed her with a cold stare that left her feeling empty inside. Theirs, too, was a marriage of arrangement, set up by her father for the betterment of business. Her husband stood to lose a great deal in this situation.

"Yes, do sit down and be quiet," Marston ordered. "We haven't time for your delicate constitution." He and Thomas turned back to the gathering.

It frustrated Evie that they had dismissed her, knowing she wouldn't dare defy them. With a heavy sigh, she did as she was told just as they had known she would.

If I had more courage, I would stalk from this room and give them all something of a shock. She frowned and looked down at her gloved hands. If I had move courage, I would have stood up to Father and refused to main Thomas Gadston. It isn't as if he caves about me or loves me.

No, love might have actually made the arrangement bearable. Even if the love had only been on Thomas's side, Evie might have learned to return his feelings. Instead, they both found the arrangement a misery. Thankfully, Gadston had never even attended her properly as a husband. He had never visited her room to consummate the marriage, and rumor had it, he never would. The household servants often whispered of unthinkable, unholy interests held by her husband, and while Evie found such ideas abominable, she was just as glad to he left to herself.

"You do make a good point." Mitchell's deep voice broke through Evie's thoughts. "If she were to be murdered, then everyone would suspect our family. It would have to look like an accident."

"Or a suicide," Marston suggested.

Evie cringed at the word. She was immediately taken hack in time to when she was four years old. It was Christmas Day, and gifts had already been exchanged. Evie had received a pretty new doll and a handmade wicker perambulator. She loved her holiday dress and especially her kid-leather button-top shoes.

The morning had been a happy one, she recalled. Father had not raised his voice or his hand to any of them. Even Jeannette, who generally had a whining, weepy temperament, seemed content.

Still, that day became the worst in Evie's life. She had been a fearless child, often making her way in secret to the attic, where she would search through long-forgotten trunks and crates to see what treasures they might hold. On that Christmas morning, she remembered a particularly lovely hatbox that contained doll clothes and thought they might work well for her new baby.

The attic and its dark shadows had never frightened her. Here was the only quiet and peaceful room in the entire house. Here, Evic could sit and play and dream.

But that day there was to be no peace in her lovely hideawayor ever again, for that matter. She had heard her mama's footsteps on the attic floor and hid away to avoid being chastised. Mama went to the small door that led outside to a railed walk. Evie had heard her call it a widow's walk. It was a wondrous place at the top of their mansion, where her mother could pace away her frustrations.

Evie watched her there on more than one occasion. Mama would walk and cry softly into a lace-edged handkerchief. Always, Evie wanted to go to her, but she never did. Even at her young age, Evie knew her mother would have been embarrassed that Evie knew of her misery and shame. But for Evie, it was a special kind of bond that knit them together in a way she knew none of the other children shared. Not only was she the one child who favored their mother's features instead of their father's, but Evie was also the one whose soul was intricately tied to Mother because of this secret.

Moving to a place in the attic where she could watch her mother out of a decorative oval window, Evie longed to go to herto comfort her. It was cold outside, much too cold to he walking without a coat, yet her mother didn't have so much as a wrap.

How strange it seemed. Mama stopped pacing and stood at the rail doing nothing. She seemed to stare out across the landscape as if contemplating the future. Evie heard a disturbance behind her and ducked down just before her father entered the attic. He walked with determined steps to the widow's walk door and stepped outside to join his wife. Again Evie was drawn to the window, wondering if they would fight, as they so often did. To her surprise, however, Father embraced Mama. The sight caused Evie to feel a surge of hope. Maybe her mother would learn to smile again and he happy.

Evic gripped the windowsill and watched with a sense of anticipation as her father lifted her mother in his arms and pressed his lips to hers. Then without warning, Father stepped to the far edge of the walkway and without so much as a word, threw her mama over the rail.