The People of Dewbrook

Chapter One

Only the threat of death could change her life at this point, which to her seemed rather far away. Countless people feared death, which made her feel more special and better than them. Whenever she thought of it, she did not see an afterlife engulfed with suffering, nor herself painfully withering and eventually rotting, becoming food for maggots beneath the ground, nor people she loved crying on her tombstone with unbearable grief. She imagined falling into a deep sleep, which she enjoyed doing every night, looking back at her dreams as something surreal and captivating. It also helped that everyone had to go there and that, although people did not live long and often had their lives ended by tuberculosis, she was forty-five and thus not that old, and also a healthy woman who did not seem as though she could be struck with such an illness.

Her profound thoughts were shortly interrupted by the arrival of a man she did not particularly admire. She would never fail to recognise that stern facial expression that was worn by age not that younger than hers, the age of forty, although age affected his appearance way more than it did hers. Other recognisable parts of his appearance were his blond hair and hazel eyes, his barely visible moustache, as well as his black suit with white buttons and tie. This time, he was even more sombre than usual, and given his history of being sombre thanks to her behaviour, she glared at him the moment he came face to face with her, crossing her hands. After that, he pouted, which, although surprising, did not move her much. She stood there with visible anger for several minutes while he was sighing, waiting for him to say whatever he had on his mind. She had had enough of it when the night fell, asking him the following question:

"Would you be so kind to open your mouth in front of me, Mister Wells, or did you come here to interrupt my solemn evening with your incessant sighs?"

Harold turned his head away from her. "My apologies, Mrs Proust, but what I have to say hurts my heart beyond belief."

"I am certain it will hurt less when you say it," she grumbled.

He sighed again. "If you insist it will, then so be it. A respectable member of the community passed away, and you knew him too. The ship called Atlantis was wrecked in the last night's storm, and many members of the crew did not make it, including your husband. I believe that his time in the afterlife is good and that he would not want us to indulge in sorrow, but it is hard not to mourn a man as kind as he used to be. May he rest in peace."

Caroline took her handkerchief out of a pocket in her dress, crying in a way that was not that noble, her heart pierced with the utmost agony imaginable. She felt like she was being punished for her arrogant belief that death would not come near her any time soon, and she wished that she had been on that ship as if she could have done something about it when dozens of people who had lots of experience when it came to ships could not. Not only was her reputation ruined now, as she became a widow with no further earnings to look forward to, but her life was also ruined, as her future held countless pitiful stares and days without the man she respected even when she fell out of love with him and began to pursue others. It was painfully ironic that a person with a heart of gold had to die in a random storm, and that a person with a heart of sin was nowhere near her demise, free to blunder furthermore. At least she was not the one who ended up in the accident, and with numerous prospects in front of her, she was sure that her pain would pass quickly.

And it did. The first week was the worst, with its fresh emotions and constant visits from sympathetic strangers and preparations for the funeral, but she was adamant about no one seeing her vulnerability, which was why, in front of everyone, she appeared to be bereft of the passions of life, leading them to believe that nothing too strange was happening inside her head and leave her alone. She could not allow herself to enjoy the first moments of a life without her husband too much either, so during the first month, she hardly ever left her house, reading stacks of books from her personal library, which had accumulated over the years, destroying the concept of time in her mind for many hours of her day, only halting to perform the basic functions every human had to do.

She had thought about teaching herself to play the piano, but after thinking about it for a while, she came to the conclusion that it would have been too much of a distraction when she returned to her previous life. The books she had read were mostly good, and they all meant to her at least a little, and while she was cleaning up her house and searching for every book within, she found dusty piles of unread books, wondering how she came to have that much of them.

The initial phase of mourning her husband was more idyllic than she had expected, but that idyll had to end someday. It happened on a morning that seemed like any other. The first rays of the sun, which entered Caroline's bedroom through the curtains, woke her up not only because of their light but also because she had commenced her slumber at ten the night before, unable to stay up any longer due to the fear of thinking about Alistair for a long time again. Someone was knocking on her door at five in the morning like an insane person, which caused her to groan and bury her head in her pillow, her maid still able to hear her order to let them in.

The person appeared to have brought another one with them, the voices of the guests both old and male and female respectively, which was all she could recognise about them at the moment. The maid offered them tea, but the man said that the two of them were not in the mood for it and that they wanted nothing more than to talk to Caroline at once. It motivated her to jump out of her bed, slightly brush her hair and put some shoes on, greeting them in her nightgown, which was a bit embarrassing to her, but at least she did not leave them waiting for too long. When she closed her eyes and opened them again from her sleepiness, she knew exactly who had come to her door.

The man was as stiff as a statue, holding the tip of his cane in his right hand like he was strangling someone, his face bald except for the minimal remains of his brown hair, his thick moustache and grown beard, his grey eyes and thin, light brown lips bereft of emotion, his tight grey suit with a golden badge that resembled a rose causing him to seem a bit heavier than he was in reality. The woman, while not too lively, had more life inside her than he did, standing haughtily with her tall figure and pointed nose, but not so much as to demean herself, her brown eyes gleaming and her raspberry lips forming a smile that showed her appreciation for the wonders of the world while the sun was shining near her, her purple dress light and loose, matching her lovely hat full of false violets. Those people, known as her parents, entered the living room the moment they got her permission, the three of them sitting on the divan right after she dismissed her maid, the mother's face becoming sullen all of a sudden. Her own face becoming sullen, Caroline asked the following shortly after:

"I have not gone out much for the last month. Has there been a new occurrence that upset you?"

The mother, Ophelia, sighed. "You tell her, Richard. I am too weak of heart to do it."

Richard shook his head. "We are in debt, Caroline. I apologise if this made you upset, but it was my obligation to tell you this. Now that your husband has passed away and that you have nowhere to collect riches from but your ancestors and that fortune will disappear soon as well due to your wasteful ways, you must marry another wealthy man to return to your former glory or sell the luxuries you have and not be a spender any longer, which I doubt you would be able to live with."

Caroline gasped. "Whom am I to marry then and in what span of time? Surely this will be my doom! I cannot live if removed from the position I thrive in. There is not another life for me."

Richard shrugged. "If that presents you with such horror, then you will either find someone or die trying. I have attempted to force you away from this type of living on many an occasion, but it appears to have absorbed you, and there is nothing that can be done about it. Farewell and live your life in health."

After everyone greeted everyone, Caroline was left alone in her bedroom to think without a sound in her vicinity. She did not read nor eat nor prepare herself for the rest of the day for several hours, too deep in thought to care about small things. She considered her options when it came to marriage, and no one seemed suitable enough. She had almost resigned when she remembered that there was a well-off bachelor near her who would surely be kind enough to accept her with time. It would take a while to seduce him, but in her hubris, she believed that she could seduce anyone with enough effort, which prompted her to take her first step. In less than an hour, her maid helped her dress the best she could and greeted her on her way to his house, sweeping the dust while she was walking towards that mansion like she owned the world, already imagining how the conversation would go.