The Beast of Napa

2 - Catriona

"I'll get him back, I will," Sara said, pacing the room.

Catriona watched her sister, pouting her lips in confusion while continuing to hand-sew buttons onto a blouse. "Payback who? Do you owe more money?"

"That horrible beast of a man. What's his name? Griffin?"

"You met him?" Catriona dropped her sewing. "You really met him?"

"Oh, he is a terrible man! I bumped into him - a pure accident - and gave a sincere apology for the situation. What does he do in return? He called me a whore in front of the entire city! What kind of man ruins a woman's reputation and dignity in such a way? I'll have my revenge on him. You wait and see."

Catriona picked her sewing back up, weighing her sister's words. "The best revenge is to live a life above reproach. A rumor means nothing if you don't give it evidence."

"That's not the way the world works. Your ideas were always too simple."

Catriona's brunette eyebrow twitched, but she didn't say anything. Sara plopped in front of the mirror, applying thick layers of makeup as she complained.

"I'll be ruined because of that man," Sara muttered to herself. "I should pay him the same. I think I know someone who can tell me where he lives..."

"His reputation isn't exactly spotless," Catriona pointed out. "He has an entire town that despises him. What could you possibly do? He's already at the bottom. Throw dirt on him and he'll just climb up it."

"I haven't decided how yet, but mark my words, I'll find a way to hit him where it hurts. But I don't have time to think about it now, anyways." Sara waved her hands around her head. "I have to go to work."

Sara trotted over and gave Catriona a kiss on the cheek.

"You'll pick up my clothes from the cleaners, won't you?" Sara asked on her way out the door.

Catriona nodded. "Of course. Along with dinner. Don't be late."

Sara shut the door, and Catriona was left to herself to finish her mending. She sighed. Sara had been working for two months, but Catriona never saw a penny. She meant to bring it up, but her sister would go into another rage, and she couldn't handle that today.

She continued to sew, whispering to herself.

"The famous Mr. Griffin, eh? I bet he never had to sew a button on a coat in his life." She smiled, imagining a place that didn't require any house labor. "I bet he washes all his clothes in fairy water, plays poker with his dogs on the weekends, and drives his car across the Pacific to have dinner in Japan... and all those wonderful things that rich people with opportunities do."

She bit down on the thread and tied it, then snapped the shirt to take a final look at it. There wasn't a snag nor a loose end, and it looked better than if it had been done by a professional seamstress.

"I'm no millionaire," she said proudly, "but I can still make opportunities."

Catriona folded the shirt neatly, then got off the bed to go up the stairs to the third floor. Each step creaked beneath her feet, and she wondered how much weight it would take for the stairs to finally collapse completely.

She knocked on Apartment 208.

"Who in the blasted hell is it?" a crackly voice said on the other side.

"It's Catriona, Mrs. Kendrick. I have the blouse that you —"

The door swung open as if a hurricane had swept through the hallway, and a wrinkled frown and hunched shoulder greeted her. Mrs. Kendrick cracked a yellow smile and tried to straighten her back.