False Southern Gentility

"Oh, Elizabeth, there you are. Do you remember where you put my slippers last night after you and your sister finished playing in them?" Mary asked Elizabeth as Christopher came in from the front lawn.

Something about walking back into the house that had belonged to Christine and then walking back to Mary...it just felt strange. Seeing Mary standing in Christine's parlor, lifting Christine's teacup, and dusting Christine's brik-a-brac.

"No, I don't know where I put them at. But I wouldn't tell Claudia that you thought she was playing in them, she'll blow her top. You know how she is about feeling to much like a girl." Elizabeth said as she smoothed out her dress and sat down to the table.

Mary sighed as she adjusted her hips and sat down at the foot of the table. "I know, I know. Christopher, what's wrong? You seem distracted dear, something bothering you?" she asked as the aging Marcus sat dinner down in-front of them. "Thank you, Marcus."

Christopher did not answer, but he observed the way Mary sat in what had been Christine's chair once before. She did not slump as Christine had done, she was very straight backed. Her elbows did not dare even brush the tables edge, while Christine had often sat on the edge of her seat, elbows propped comfortably on the table while she ate.

"No, nothings bothering me. Where is Claudia?" he asked as he spooned a bit of the hot soup into his mouth.

Mary bit into her lip, but Elizabeth spoke up. "she's playing with the boys from around the neighborhood. She's taken to wearing breaches and even climbing up trees with...with a boys shirt tucked into her pants." she finished with a smile.

Christopher rubbed his forehead and slid his chair back reluctantly. "If you'll excuse me, Mary. I'll be back. I'm going to try and see if my daughter has suddenly turned into a son." he sighed as he walked out of the door, despite the sound of Mary and Elizabeth's jabbering.

"On guard, you dirty Yank!" Claudia exclaimed as she held out the wooden sword that she had fashioned out of breech-wood. "Oh Matthew, don't run away!" she cried after the little boy who had proceeded to retreat into the woods behind their home. "Fine then, scardy-cat!"

"Claudia Marie Rudd," Christopher said with one breath. "What in God's name are you doing?" Claudia froze as she bit into her lip, she tried not to turn and see her father's disappointed look.

She bit into her lip as she tucked her sword behind her back. "Um, what do you mean?" she asked quietly. She knew she was lying, and that didn't seem to bother her conscience a bit.

"Where has your dress gone? Mother Mary bought you that lovely pink and black striped dress. Now, explain to me why you're wearing breeches and where in God's name you got them." Christopher sat down on the fence post and crossed his long legs.

Claudia bit into her lip. "Well, I got the breeches from Peters old things...I just had to..." she stopped as she looked down at her bare-feet.

"Just had to what?" Christopher asked sceptically.

"I told Elizabeth that I was mending them for a boy who was to small for them. She was so terribly happy when I asked her what to do, that she finished taking them in for me. I gave her my measurements and told her they were the boys." Claudia finally looked back up.

Christopher shook his head and tisk-tisked. "So, your sister thinks that those were for--who?" he asked with a nod of the head.

"The boy that just ran away...Matthew Lanyard." she said as she squished her nose up towards the direction where the little boy had ran.

"Ah. So, your little...friend...has his own breeches." he said with a smile. Claudia nodded guiltily. "Where have you hidden your dress?" he asked.

Claudia bit into her lip again. "Well...it's most likely around the creek bed...or maybe it was in the tree on Elm street...or was it the lake behind the Shanty-town settlement." she smiled a shy smile and pushed her hands into the pockets of her breeches.

"How in God's name do you think it is in all o those different places?" he asked as he stood up and admired the way his daughter stood. So very much like her mother...but still so very different.

"Well...all of us...Matthew, Jeremy, and Jacob, well, we were playing out by the settlement. Jeremy dared me to shoot at one of them...so I just shot one of them in foot with one of the tiny pellet guns." she said as she wrinkled her toes in the dirt. "Do you want to see me shoot?" she asked with excitement.

"Who taught you how to shoot?" he asked as he cocked his head to one side.

"Well...I watched you shoot a few times. You are a very good hunter." Claudia said with a smile, she knew how to butter up her father, and was very skilled at it.

"Don't start buttering me up young lady. Now, you get into that house and change into some clothes that belong to a young lady." Christopher said. Claudia did not move. "Hurry up, go on!" he yelled.

Claudia rolled her eyes but walked obediently towards the door. She turned and her red brown eyes blazed like hot coals. "I loathe you." she said, her voice dripping with venom.

Christopher nodded and looked towards the woods, trying his best not to think of Christine. Why did every moment, every movement remind him of Christine? Why were his days full of thoughts about her, and his nights full of dreams with her?

"Alright then." he said as he looked back at Claudia and walked towards the door. "I'll see you in the dining-room. Mother Mary and Elizabeth are waiting for us."

Claudia rolled her eyes again and stamped inside, dark black footsteps trailing behind her. She stepped through the dining-room and smiled at her sister.

"Can't you act like a girl?" Elizabeth asked as Claudia sat down in her chair, having ignored her fathers' demands, she honestly didn't care what her sister, aunt step-mother, or her father thought.

"Why should you care what I look like? You know what sister?" she asked with a smile as she buttered her own biscuit.

"What?" Elizabeth asked as she sliced her meat just as Mary was doing.

"You're far to thin, here," she said as she lifted her biscuit and threw it at her sisters face, "have a taste." it landed smack-dab in the middle of Elizabeth's eyes.

"Oh, how could you!? I just had my hair fixed!" she screamed as she flicked the moist piece of bread from her face. Claudia laughed, laughed so hard that she turned blue and she still kept laughing.

"Daddy, look what she's done!" Elizabeth cried as Christopher walked into the room.

"What happened?" he asked as he rubbed off the yellow paste like blob from her forehead.

"Claudia hit me with a roll and butter!" she screamed as she turned and pointed her finger at Claudia.

As if I don't know who Claudia is, thought Christopher, the manners of Mary but the heart of her mother. And aloud: "Claudia, why did you throw buttered bread at your sisters head?" he asked with a smile.

Claudia scrunched up her face and looked up at the ceiling. "Because she is annoying, that's why."

"Well, just because your sister is annoying doesn't mean that you can throw buttered rolls at her face," Christopher held up one finger and shook his head at Claudia's smile, "or any other part of her. Am I clear?" he asked.

Claudia nodded and sighed. "Alright then." she wrinkled her nose and walked out of the room.

"Do you think that she is angry with me?" Christopher asked as he sat back down in the chair at the end of the table and and poured a tad-bit of whiskey into his glass.

"No, she's just upset," Mary said as she reached across the table and took the glass from his hand. "and don't drink at the table." she added as she put the glass down in-front of her and lifted her own glass to her lips.

"I think she should have been punished more harshly," said Elizabeth as she adjusted the ribbon atop her dark hair and looked over into Mary's glass. "May I have a sip?" she asked with a smile.

"No you may not." said Mary as she adjusted uneasily in her chair. Thoughts spun in Mary's head, as always, but for some reason or other, tonight's thoughts were harder to put away from her.

Perhaps the children don't like me..., she thought to herself as she made polite conversation with Christopher, maybe that's why Claudia has turned out the way she is...because of me...that must be it. If she was a happy little girl, having been raised by her mother, then there would most definitely not have been these problems.

And to Christopher she responded. "Why don't I take Claudia with me tomorrow...I'm going to have a look at those Female Academies that all the women at Mass keep telling me about. They say it is the perfect thing for a rambunctious girl like Claudia."

"A what?" Christopher asked as he looked behind him, reassuring himself that Claudia was safely in her room and out of hearings length.

"A Female Academy. My father sent Christine to one right outside of Savannah, but of course Christine didn't like it, she was far to outspoken."

"And Claudia is not?" said Christopher with a turn of the head.

"Well--" Mary hesitated, "she is, but not in the same way that Christine was. Christine's morals were different than a girl from her time...she always contradicted and refused to hold her tongue when in decent company."

"And Claudia does?" he asked with a laugh as he shook his head at Elizabeth. "Elizabeth dear, we do not primp at the dinner table, if you would like to rub raspberry juice on your cheeks when I'm not looking, then please move yourself into a brothel."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes as she rubbed off the red juice that she had been applying with an expert hand. "I shouldn't think I could live in a brothel, I am far to good of a lady to be a fallen one."

Christopher held is tongue at that statement. No one at this table knew what Christine had done in hard time, and he prayed to God that no one would ever ask him directly, for if they should, God only help is rolling tongue.

He nodded as Mary went on speaking of the manners of a young lady, and how if a young lady did not have the proper standings in the community...well...she would never find a way to be betrothed and would surely end up like Mrs. Darcy.

"Yes Mary, I'll think about it." Christopher said as he rose from the table and proceeded towards the staircase. And as if an afterthought, he added : "Don't mention this to Claudia, she would think that we were sending her away and that she wasn't wanted here and I won't have her thinking things like that."