Summary:  Written in Response to the May 2023 – Double Drabble Prompts:  “Will he kiss me?” and “Metamorphosis!”
Rating:  Teen  (Words: 650)

Longings

Part 1

Rolling my eyes at my brothers talking about a new hand Pa had hired, it was difficult to ignore their excitement regarding just how good Tab could rope, shoot, and ride!  Crossing out another wrong entry, I fervently wished they’d just leave, and no longer be a distraction.

Later, needing a mindless diversion from balancing the books, I decided to watch the action at the corrals.  The new kid did a good job keeping up with Joe and Andy, the three alternating in breaking horses…. until the red roan.  The horse stood calmly in the chute; too calmly.  The ride started bad, and went downhill from there.

Joe, Hoss, and the others worked to get the horse up and out of the corral while I jumped down, yelling for someone to get Paul Martin.  Imagine my shock, while running my hands over Tab’s ribs.

#####

That was almost two months ago.

Waiting at the bottom of the staircase, imagine my surprise at looking up.  What a metamorphosis!

Tonight, Tarynn Aileen Brophy (Tab) would be presented to Virginia City, and reunited with her family.

Part 2

Dressed in black with a few top buttons of his shirt undone, revealing that oh so enticing V; he stood there, stoically waiting at the bottom of the staircase.  A slight lean, his left arm casually rested on the newel with a book in his other hand.

At my footfall he looked up; dark brown eyes began at my kid boots, but I know in his mind’s eye he was seeing a daintily turned ankle or two, next were my legs hidden by my long dress.  Each part of me came alive as those smoldering eyes continued their upward trek.  Ever so slowly he smiled, taking in the fit of my dress and appreciating my own decolletage.  I’d not normally be wearing so daring a neckline but tonight was a very special occasion. Earlier, I cried when one of my sisters-in-law presented me this formal gown, originally worn by my mother.

Stopped at the landing, running my hands nervously across the soft silk of the skirt fabric, straightening away a wrinkle that wasn’t, inhaling as deeply as my corset would allow; I smiled.

Closing his book and setting it aside, he extended a hand towards me. Adam Cartwright, ever the gallant gentleman, ensuring my safety until I stood before him.  But what I need to know is, will he kiss me?

Epilogue:

It was a shock, checking Tab over for injuries after that nasty fall, only to realize we’d been misled. During her recovery, and later, we spent hours discussing Shakespeare, Michel de Montaigne, and talking of far-away lands, always with Hop Sing, Pa, or my brothers keeping a watchful eye on us.

When she had sufficiently recovered to come downstairs, Pa had insisted on the truth.  As she spoke of growing up and her life in Europe, I could tell Tab, or rather Tarynn, was growing homesick.  Well, that set into motion events that culminated in last night’s cotillion.  Wires and special envoys came and went before the Lord and Lady Brophy, and his five younger brothers and their wives arrived in Viriginia City.

I wish I could be as happy; Pa told me how ecstatic she was after being reunited with her family.  I guess I can understand why she ran away; having six much older brothers and feeling lost in the shuffle, especially after their parents had passed away of influenza.  But to cross the Atlantic and head west on her own, all the while taking on the persona of an American cowboy?

I didn’t attend, I couldn’t.  Seeing her stopped on the stairs, my image of her as my wife was shattered, irrevocably.  A chaste kiss goodbye paled against what I wanted as I handed her to Pa to drive her into town and to her future.

~The End

End Note:  The last line of Part 1 and all of Part 2 were inspired by the image on the left from Woman of Fire.  The epilogue was inspired by the image on the right from A Song in the Dark.