Chapter Three

A Chapter by Kelly M.

"The nerve of that woman!" Mary muttered, grabbing her last suitcase out of the buggy, unable to ignore the biting comments from Erma, who'd inquired if she'd brought along the whole state of Pennsylvania with her.

"Of all the exasperating, absurd--" Mary's sentence trailed off to an undecipherable mumble as she plopped her feather hat atop her wildly dark hair. Satisfied, she wheeled passionately on her heel, and happened to plow directly into a tall stranger standing in her pathway. Flabbergasted, she lost all hold of her luggage, including her largest suitcase, that managed to drop at a perfect target on the unsuspecting man's big toe. The dark-haired stranger jumped back and muttered inaudibly underneath his breath. Mary's hands flew to her face as she gasped in horror.

"I'm so sorry," Mary exclaimed, her dark eyes wide and redness flaming her cheeks, "I--I really am so sorry--" she blubbered, then her eyes fell to the dusty boot of the stranger, which was noticeably scuffed and indented.

Haste makes waste, Mary could just hear Marta saying with a cluck of her tongue.

"Is it-- does it-- hurt?" Mary asked meekly, gazing timidly back up at the wounded victim, whose green eyes briefly glistened with an emotion she couldn't decipher. He cocked his dark head of hair and studied her calmly.

"You must be Mary."

Feeling as though someone had just doused a bucket of ice-cold water over her head, she straightened to her full height.

It sounds like Aunt Erma didn't waste her time in filling in everyone about the new girl in town, Mary thought wryly, as she made a self-conscious effort to straighten out the tell-tale wrinkles in her skirt. She could only imagine what sort of description Aunt Erma had given him. Clumsy, big-mouthed...

"I'm Roy," the stranger quickly filled the silence, offering her his hand. Mary slowly reached for it, which he shook with a firm gentleness. She quickly let go.

A short silence followed-- not an awkward one, or a peaceful one, but a silence nonetheless. Mary's eyes fell as she tucked a wayward strand of dark hair behind her ear, conscious of his gaze. When she looked back up she thought she saw mirth in his eyes.

He's laughing at me.

But before Mary had the chance to verbalize her exasperation, Roy dipped his head, and, stooping to his feet, swept up all her luggage into his arms in one large arc. Mary started to mumble a retort to the unexpected act of service, but when he stood, towering above her with his face set, she couldn't breathe a word. Then he nodded towards her briefly, and, without so much as a "good day", he turned and strode away, leaving Mary's breath in her throat as she stared at his retreating back, utterly baffled.

And downright angry.

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