Mary's Tale, chapter 7
Sep. 12th, 2011 10:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scripsiTitle: Mary's Tale (Sleepy Hollow)
Chapter: Waiting
Pairing: Mary Archer/The Hessian, Mary Archer/Various
Rating: NC-17
Category: NC, dark
It's been a long hiatus for this story, but I really feel that I should finish it- the whole thing is already done in my head. I hope you will enjoy it, despite the long waiting period.
On her return to New York, Mary suddenly realized that although she now had learned all she needed to know how to exact her revenge, she had no idea how to return to Sleepy Hollow. She would not, could not, return to the shackle in the woods. To once again live in squalor would be too hard and then there was her sister. Eliza may very well be dead by now, but Mary didn’t care to come back and find that she had to live with her sister again. But Sleepy Hollow was an isolated place with few visitors and it would be impossible for a woman to arrive all alone and without an accepted place in the community. Mary thought about it long and hard and in the end the only solution she could come up with was to continue with the new profession she so accidently had picked up. She would continue with her nursing, people always needed nurses and eventually someone in Sleepy Hollow would need one too. She had been patient so far and she could be patient for a while yet. Mary carefully put every spell she could think of to nudge events to ensure that her fate would see her back to her birthplace and then she started to look for a new position.
It was not so difficult to find a suitable place and soon she took care of a young woman, Mrs. Moore, who was going through her first pregnancy. It was not hard work, the lady was more nervous than actually ill and she soon took a great liking to her nurse. For the first time in her life Mary was in the close company of a woman of her own age and to her surprise and apprehension she found that she liked her mistress. Mrs. Moore was a fashionable lady who lamented that her increasing girth made it impossible to wear pretty clothes and instead she turned her attention to Mary’s meager wardrobe, furnishing it with things that she herself couldn’t wear anymore and a stream of excellent advice on how to dress well. Mary accepted the clothes, stored the advices carefully in her mind and she also studied Mrs. Moore closely, watching and learning to copy her manners and refined speech. Mrs. Moore was also furnished with a husband, as young and nervous as she was and Mary quite liked him too. Even if he clearly enjoyed her looks as most men Mary met did, he never tried to take advantage of her. Instead he was grateful for every little thing she could do to ease his wife progressing pregnancy and Mary, basking in the real warmth her employers felt for her, blossomed. In her mirror she saw a very pretty reflection in a subdued elegance she would never have thought possible when she starved in the woods. The few months she stayed with the Moore’s would forever be remembered as the happiest days in her life, apart from the early childhood she never allowed herself to dwell upon.
Naturally the best midwife that could be found was to be had at the birth, but Mary assisted. It was a perfectly normal birth- a good deal of pain and hardship for the mother, but nothing out of the ordinary. A healthy boy was born and when the midwife had washed and swaddled him, she gave him to Mary to bring back to his mother. She had never held a baby in her arms before and it was a complete shock for her. The child, so small and warm mewed and turned his head blindly toward her body, opening his mouth in a newborn’s instinct for food. He was so helpless and an unexpected tenderness rushed through Mary. She quickly placed the baby in his mother’s waiting arms, fleeing the room as quickly as she could with the excuse to tell the very new father the excellent news.
After she hurried to her room, craving to be alone. There she lay on her bed, placing her hands over her stomach. She had always accepted what her mother had said, that the infection caused by the Hessian’s rape had left her barren. There had never been any reason to doubt it; she had never been impregnated when she walked the streets. She had never even wanted children, not in her present life and not in her future. There had never seemed like there would be a place for them in her life, however she envisioned it. But after holding that small body in her arms, Mary needed to know if she could conceive a child or not. She concentrated on her womb, going deeper and deeper into her mind to understand her body. She found nothing but darkness. Her womb was just a mass of scar tissue where nothing could grow. Dry-eyed she started up in the ceiling, whispering over and over again;
“I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.” In her mind the Hessian just laughed.
Mary gave her notice the day after, evading all requests to stay with the truth: she knew nothing about children, it was much better to hire a woman competent in rearing a child. The Moore’s were flabbergasted, ensuring her that she was needed, but Mary was adamant. She left with glowing recommendations and in the years that followed, Mary never lacked work. She worked hard, using her knowledge to heal and never again to harm and most of her patience lived to heap praise over the wonderful nurse Mary. She earned enough to find lodging with a respectable widow and though she never lost her focus to one day return to Sleepy Hollow, life was not bad during those years. The only thing she never did was to take a position in a house where there were small babies and she never nursed children.
On one of those rare occasions that Mary was between positions, a man came to her lodgings and asked for her and Mary received him in her landlady’s lodgings. It was a middle aged man with a kindly but unremarkable face. He was simply dressed and his clothes were very unfashionably cut, but Mary’s sharp eyes took in the good quality of the fabric and the excellent workmanship on his shoes and concluded that this man had money. Not a townsman, though, but somehow vaguely familiar. He presented himself as Baltus Van Tassel and proceeded to explain that he had travelled to New York from a small town called Sleepy Hollow in search for a nurse.
Mary felt quite faint. This was the moment she had waited for, it had finally arrived. Her heart beat furiously and her mouth felt dry, but she managed to smile politely, offering a seat and an invitation to her guest to continue his story. While he talked she looked at him closely and after some thinking she could place him. He was the man who had been given her home by Van Garrett. Evidently he had prospered and the old hate awoke in Mary’s heart. This was one of the men she wanted her revenge on and he was now offering the prefect way back to Sleepy Hollow.
It seemed his wife was ill, gravely ill. She needed a nurse and he, Van Tassel, wanted only the best for her. He had heard that nurse Mary was just that, but he knew that Sleepy Hollow was nothing to compared to New York. He was sure nurse Mary wouldn’t care to go such a long way from home. He was sure she was already engaged and he would, of course, not ask her to break any previous commitments. But if she could consider, well, the money would be very good, very good indeed.
And Mary smiled and said that she usually didn’t leave New York, but for this particular case she would make an exception and that she could be ready to leave the very next day. That evening she quit her lodgings and packed all her worldly goods. She was done with New York and would never return. Now she was going home.
Chapter: Waiting
Pairing: Mary Archer/The Hessian, Mary Archer/Various
Rating: NC-17
Category: NC, dark
It's been a long hiatus for this story, but I really feel that I should finish it- the whole thing is already done in my head. I hope you will enjoy it, despite the long waiting period.
On her return to New York, Mary suddenly realized that although she now had learned all she needed to know how to exact her revenge, she had no idea how to return to Sleepy Hollow. She would not, could not, return to the shackle in the woods. To once again live in squalor would be too hard and then there was her sister. Eliza may very well be dead by now, but Mary didn’t care to come back and find that she had to live with her sister again. But Sleepy Hollow was an isolated place with few visitors and it would be impossible for a woman to arrive all alone and without an accepted place in the community. Mary thought about it long and hard and in the end the only solution she could come up with was to continue with the new profession she so accidently had picked up. She would continue with her nursing, people always needed nurses and eventually someone in Sleepy Hollow would need one too. She had been patient so far and she could be patient for a while yet. Mary carefully put every spell she could think of to nudge events to ensure that her fate would see her back to her birthplace and then she started to look for a new position.
It was not so difficult to find a suitable place and soon she took care of a young woman, Mrs. Moore, who was going through her first pregnancy. It was not hard work, the lady was more nervous than actually ill and she soon took a great liking to her nurse. For the first time in her life Mary was in the close company of a woman of her own age and to her surprise and apprehension she found that she liked her mistress. Mrs. Moore was a fashionable lady who lamented that her increasing girth made it impossible to wear pretty clothes and instead she turned her attention to Mary’s meager wardrobe, furnishing it with things that she herself couldn’t wear anymore and a stream of excellent advice on how to dress well. Mary accepted the clothes, stored the advices carefully in her mind and she also studied Mrs. Moore closely, watching and learning to copy her manners and refined speech. Mrs. Moore was also furnished with a husband, as young and nervous as she was and Mary quite liked him too. Even if he clearly enjoyed her looks as most men Mary met did, he never tried to take advantage of her. Instead he was grateful for every little thing she could do to ease his wife progressing pregnancy and Mary, basking in the real warmth her employers felt for her, blossomed. In her mirror she saw a very pretty reflection in a subdued elegance she would never have thought possible when she starved in the woods. The few months she stayed with the Moore’s would forever be remembered as the happiest days in her life, apart from the early childhood she never allowed herself to dwell upon.
Naturally the best midwife that could be found was to be had at the birth, but Mary assisted. It was a perfectly normal birth- a good deal of pain and hardship for the mother, but nothing out of the ordinary. A healthy boy was born and when the midwife had washed and swaddled him, she gave him to Mary to bring back to his mother. She had never held a baby in her arms before and it was a complete shock for her. The child, so small and warm mewed and turned his head blindly toward her body, opening his mouth in a newborn’s instinct for food. He was so helpless and an unexpected tenderness rushed through Mary. She quickly placed the baby in his mother’s waiting arms, fleeing the room as quickly as she could with the excuse to tell the very new father the excellent news.
After she hurried to her room, craving to be alone. There she lay on her bed, placing her hands over her stomach. She had always accepted what her mother had said, that the infection caused by the Hessian’s rape had left her barren. There had never been any reason to doubt it; she had never been impregnated when she walked the streets. She had never even wanted children, not in her present life and not in her future. There had never seemed like there would be a place for them in her life, however she envisioned it. But after holding that small body in her arms, Mary needed to know if she could conceive a child or not. She concentrated on her womb, going deeper and deeper into her mind to understand her body. She found nothing but darkness. Her womb was just a mass of scar tissue where nothing could grow. Dry-eyed she started up in the ceiling, whispering over and over again;
“I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.” In her mind the Hessian just laughed.
Mary gave her notice the day after, evading all requests to stay with the truth: she knew nothing about children, it was much better to hire a woman competent in rearing a child. The Moore’s were flabbergasted, ensuring her that she was needed, but Mary was adamant. She left with glowing recommendations and in the years that followed, Mary never lacked work. She worked hard, using her knowledge to heal and never again to harm and most of her patience lived to heap praise over the wonderful nurse Mary. She earned enough to find lodging with a respectable widow and though she never lost her focus to one day return to Sleepy Hollow, life was not bad during those years. The only thing she never did was to take a position in a house where there were small babies and she never nursed children.
On one of those rare occasions that Mary was between positions, a man came to her lodgings and asked for her and Mary received him in her landlady’s lodgings. It was a middle aged man with a kindly but unremarkable face. He was simply dressed and his clothes were very unfashionably cut, but Mary’s sharp eyes took in the good quality of the fabric and the excellent workmanship on his shoes and concluded that this man had money. Not a townsman, though, but somehow vaguely familiar. He presented himself as Baltus Van Tassel and proceeded to explain that he had travelled to New York from a small town called Sleepy Hollow in search for a nurse.
Mary felt quite faint. This was the moment she had waited for, it had finally arrived. Her heart beat furiously and her mouth felt dry, but she managed to smile politely, offering a seat and an invitation to her guest to continue his story. While he talked she looked at him closely and after some thinking she could place him. He was the man who had been given her home by Van Garrett. Evidently he had prospered and the old hate awoke in Mary’s heart. This was one of the men she wanted her revenge on and he was now offering the prefect way back to Sleepy Hollow.
It seemed his wife was ill, gravely ill. She needed a nurse and he, Van Tassel, wanted only the best for her. He had heard that nurse Mary was just that, but he knew that Sleepy Hollow was nothing to compared to New York. He was sure nurse Mary wouldn’t care to go such a long way from home. He was sure she was already engaged and he would, of course, not ask her to break any previous commitments. But if she could consider, well, the money would be very good, very good indeed.
And Mary smiled and said that she usually didn’t leave New York, but for this particular case she would make an exception and that she could be ready to leave the very next day. That evening she quit her lodgings and packed all her worldly goods. She was done with New York and would never return. Now she was going home.
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Date: 2011-10-09 07:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-13 06:13 pm (UTC)