Free Golden Colorado by Katie Wyatt Page A

roof over her head. Her friends had shared their clothes, their tables, and their beds with her, but she knew she couldn’t do this forever.
    She had no relatives in America. Her parents had come from England when she was but a babe and the only relatives that she knew of over there were her mother’s sister and her husband. Unfortunately, the pair had a reputation, according to her mother’s not-so-kind assessment, of being rather unpleasant individuals. Her aunt was a bitter, angry woman living with a drunkard of a ne’er-do-well husband.
    Minnie had despaired over what to do, when finally, the week after the fire and following the funeral of her family at the local cemetery, an old friend of the family approached her. She looked to him as a grandfather, though a distant one at that; the rich man was rather eccentric and sometimes prone to violent outbursts of temper. To her surprise… no, shock , he had made a rather unusual proposal to her. Because she no longer had any assets, no dowry, and no skills to earn a living, he suggested that she marry him.
    At the proposal, her stomach had turned. My goodness, he was in his sixties! She had always thought that his assessing gaze and friendly smiles portrayed a kind, old gentleman, but now she wasn’t quite so sure. Neither of her two choices, the ne’er-do-well relatives in England, or the old man pressuring her to marry him, were something that Minnie was willing to consider.
    She had prayed for guidance, prayed for an answer to the situation she found herself in. Why had this happened? She was a good girl, faithful, always doing her best to be helpful and compassionate to everyone. Why had God allowed this to happen to her? Why ?
    She woke from her nightmare, her cheeks stained with tears. She slept in the small guestroom of her best friend Florence Elmer’s house, where she had stayed for the past few days.
    She tried to fight back the grief, to swallow her anger, resentment, and guilt for surviving when no one else in the family had. She thought of her parents and choked back a sob. Her younger brother and two younger twin sisters… gone.
    Why? Why had she alone survived?

Scene 2
    Minnie stared at herself in the mirror, stretching her five-foot-three-inch frame up as tall as she could. Maybe if she stood straighter people would take her more seriously. Her moderately curly, chestnut hair complemented her deep brown eyes as they stared back at her. Her friends had always told her she was beautiful, but all she saw reflected in the mirror was a frightened young woman who had no idea what to do. She wore a black mourning dress that Florence’s mother had quickly adapted to her small frame.
    When Minnie had told Florence about the old man’s proposition, she had stared at her with wide eyes, clasping a startled hand over her mouth. After Florence then telling her mother of the proposition, they had insisted that she come stay with them. As it turned out, she learned that the old man had gone through three wives in his lifetime and had a reputation of being emotionally and physically abusive. Minnie was horrified to discover the truth about him, and knew that her parents had never known or they wouldn’t have had such close associations with him.
    She didn’t accept the old man’s proposal, so it seemed that her only option was to return to England to relatives she had heard nothing good about, and who would likely make her life a living hell for placing an additional, and unwanted, financial burden on them.
    “No more of that.”
    Minnie looked away from the mirror to find Florence watching her from the doorway, a gentle and commiserating smile on her face. She swallowed and blinked back her tears, forcing a smile of her own. Florence was the only person who seem to understand her and her habit of sometimes wringing her hands in indecision and confusion when faced with pressure. She was so grateful, and thanked God for such a good friend.
    “I have something to