Excerpt: Holly, The Captain, and Handsome Jack

“I do not mean to judge you, Miss Burrows, so please forgive my comments. But I have spent much time seeing the worst that is to be found in people, and there are many dark thoughts and deeds in the world that may not yet seem clear to one so young. From my experiences, I would guess that this is not the proper establishment for a lady such as yourself.”
“Oh, I am barely a lady, sir, but I thank you for the pleasant compliment,” she continued before the Captain could respond, “but I do attend the tavern with a purpose. Another good friend, Mrs. Sara Parker, formerly Miss Sara Booth, is employed there. Her husband is a talented musician who entertains the crowds and tries, in most cases even succeeds, at keeping the patrons calm and in order. Sara is a bar maid. Since marrying Peter, I mean, since marrying Mr. Parker, she has been somewhat shunned by her friends and family. She used to be relatively well off, and definitely well respected. Her father is one of the most successful farmers for miles, and she is quite pretty and was seen as being a good match for any man. Alas, her selection of ‘acceptable’ suitors, those of respect and wealth, did not speak to her in the same way that Mr. Parker did. He was an indentured servant on a neighboring estate, but an accident with an angry mule left him with a gimp leg, making him unsuitable for the farm like he had always dreamed of.
“He was, however, quite a talented fiddler, and from time to time Sara, I mean Mrs. Parker, I mean, at the time she was Miss Booth, she would find herself in a nearby enough field to hear him play. Soon they were friends, and he would play for her often. When his indentured servitude had ended, he had nothing to offer Sara, nor any way of supporting himself. But Mr. Diaz had heard of Peter’s talent, and asked him to come work at the Merry Farmer, that is Mr. Diaz’s pub, the one we are discussing, as a full-time musician. Now Peter had a profession, and as soon as he got the word he went straight to Mr. Booth, Sara’s dad, to ask for Sara’s hand in marriage. Of course Mr. Booth said no, and of course Sara did not care and because Sara Parker all the same. She entered a penniless, scorned life. But with Peter at her side it is a life of joy.
“Still, she is overcome with extreme sadness at the rejection she now faces from the very people who were meant to love her always. Few of our friends are permitted by their husbands to make visits to the tavern, and so I am some of the only company afforded to poor, dear Sara besides, as we already discussed, drunkards and criminals. Would you have me deprive my friend of her only exposure to the warm friendly world she is so entitled to?”
The Captain thought this over, but did not have a chance to make answer since at that moment Charlotte entered the room along with Mr. Smith, her jail keeper husband. The Captain left with Mr. Smith for a tour of the jail, and Holly followed Charlotte to the back garden, where they picked herbs for that evening’s rabbit stew. Charlotte made herself busy giggling over the Captain and prodding Holly for signs of affection or attachment, but Holly could barely force herself to play along. She was too distracted thinking of the misery that seemed to be marriage. Here were her two best friends, married under the most different of circumstances, and yet both living in such unfair results. Sara came from a wealthy family and her choice of suitors, but became shunned when she married for love. Charlotte had little promise in her background and, having no true beauty either, married out of necessity to the jail keeper, a man two decades her elder who carried a slight hump, could not afford the simplest of amenities, and was generally ignored by all polite society. Both girls were good of heart, were excellent wives to their husbands, worked hard, never said a harsh word in their lives, and yet, thanks to the creature that is marriage, both had to pay the consequences for the invisible crime of marrying unwell.