The Aristocrat's Doll

Lauren sprawled out on the bench of the train. She had confined herself to her cabin in an attempt to stay away from anyone else during the trip into New England. She received word that her Mother had passed away, and had left Lauren with quite a large estate. The only problem is that her Mother's estate was settled in the capitol of a newly established aristocratic society, which had spawned after the war.

She wanted nothing to do with the backwards world of this new aristocracy. After the war, the people of the North East claimed that technology, social media, and women's rights were the root of all the evil in the world. They cloistered themselves in their cities and began to restructure their culture.

That kind of life just wasn't her style, she thought. The people were strict, and prude, and Lauren was a free spirit. She posed and made a duck face, puckering her lips as she snapped a selfie on her phone. She wasn't happy with it, and unzipping her pink hoodie a little more and fixing her shirt to show some more cleavage. She snapped another photo. Smiling at her phone, she sent the message to her boyfriend, Zach. She smiled to herself, rubbing her legs together. Lauren was glad she wore a comfy pink velour tracksuit on the long trip, she loved the soft feeling of the velvet like material sliding across her skin.

She had been heavily spoiled by her uncle, who she stayed with after the war. She was always shopping at the major fashion stores and spoiling herself with his money. She drove a fancy BMW convertible, and stayed in a sweet beach house right on the coast. When she heard that her Mother had passed and wrote Lauren into the will, she was more than eager to go claim the cash for herself.

Lauren felt the brakes of the train, and the steam whistle sounded loudly to let the passengers know that it was approaching a station. There was a loud bustling of people and baggage outside the door to her private cart, and as the noise was dying down the door to her cabin slid open.

There were two women at the door, one was dressed in a gray tweed dress suit, her brunette hair was pulled into a severely tight bun. She wore horn rimmed glasses and dark red lipstick.

The other lady was wearing a dress that looked like it was straight out of a history book. Her waist was pinched in to miniscule sizes and Lauren knew she must be squeezed into the tightest corset imaginable. The lady stood up straight as an arrow, and Lauren guessed that it was mostly in part to the corset the young woman wore. The ladies bodice was made of a dark blue velvet, and resembled a jacket, it had a low V front which cut across her ample chest, which was covered by a shear silk blouse with a high collar. Below the waist the woman's jacket continued lower, back and over a large bustle that was covered in black embroidery and ribbons. There were multiple layers of blue velvet underskirts and black satin embroidery to follow, the front of her dress opened to layers of black silk while the sides were blue velvet. The lady was wearing a blue velvet bonnet with a thick black lack veil covering her face. Her brunette french curls were visible between the veil and bonnet.

Lauren quickly sat up as she realized she was staring. "Oh hello, umm. Taken!" Lauren blushed as she attempted to claim the cabin for herself.

"Oh, why hello indeed young Miss. I'm Roscoe, and this is Lady Amelia Ashcroft," The secretary looking woman spoke smoothly and with an amused smile on her face as she looked Lauren up and down, "You see, Miss, what was your name?"

"Lauren-" Lauren froze, she didn't want to say anymore to these two. The lady in blue with the veil hadn't moved an inch, and the secretary looked downright evil and condescending with her stern stare and intimidating smile.

"Yes, Miss.. Lauren," The woman spoke dryly, as Lauren expected, but it still made Lauren felt her insides shift uncomfortably, feeling like she was being addressed by a grade school teacher after doing something wrong. Roscoe continued after a small pause, as if it was a practiced tactic she used to belittle new acquaintances, "You see, all of the other cabins are full occupied and Lady Ashcroft simply will not survive the trip without fainting if she is not able to sit. You seem to have ample room and I promise we won't disturb you."

Lauren suddenly felt like an ass. She looked at the veiled young lady, she was probably Lauren's age. She was veiled, covered in layers and layers of heavy cloth, Lauren knew velvet doesn't breath too well, and that the girl must be sweltering under it all. Lauren looked at the girls straight posture, and thought about the girls corset.

"Oh, sorry, yes there's plenty of room," Lauren got up from her seat to clean up the luggage she had managed to spread all throughout the cabin. She closed up her laptop, put away her mobile speaker, cleaned up her makeup kit. Roscoe helped her get her things together and packed them away much neater than Lauren ever could have.

Roscoe looked at Lauren as they cleaned, and noticed she had the letters 'OMG' printed on the butt of her pants, "Are those your husbands initials, Miss Lauren?" Roscoe asked, Lauren could tell it was a loaded question of some sort.

"No, it's just a phrase we use down south. It's like, "Oh my gosh", like something just happened that's shocking. But then the company that makes the pants is Ocean/Music/Girls, it's a sweet new company that's all about the glam life," Lauren felt herself switch into her gossip girl mode and felt like she could probably just talk forever about her designer sweatsuit. Roscoe smiled dimly, clearly unimpressed but also satisfied with the answer.

Roscoe took Lady Ashcroft by linking her arm around her elbow. It was now that Lauren noticed Lady Ashcroft's sleeves were sewn in such a way that she could not move her arms. The shoulder on the dress was very low, and the cuffs of the sleeves were sewn to the bodice. Amelia's hands were holding each other, wrapped in more soft velvet, but on closer inspection Lauren noticed that they were sewn together to look like she was hand in hand. It was almost like a straight jacket except that it was stunningly, beautifully done.

Roscoe gently guided Amelia into the cabin, and Lauren was surprised when Amelia sat daintily in the seat without being guided or told where the seat was. Lauren had initially considered the woman was blind, or else totally numb. Lauren smiled and looked between the two other ladies.

"So, what brings you to these parts, Miss Lauren?" Roscoe asked as she took the seat across from Lauren, next to Amelia.

"Oh, well my Mother passed, and I was left part of her estate in the will," Lauren replied.

Roscoe sat upright and turned to look out the window, cutting her eyes down at Lauren as if judging her, "Oh dear, that is just awful to hear, my condolences."

"Well, I didn't really know her very well, my Father died in the war, and after that she moved up to Concord to be with her dying Mother. I always thought she would come back, but she never did,"

Lauren heard a high pitched but melodic tone, which caused her to look around the cabin for whatever made the noise. Roscoe watched Lauren like a bird of prey would watch a mouse and spoke slowly and without any enthusiasm, "Most don't leave. Most can't afford it. Those who have money wouldn't leave," Roscoe looked Lauren up and down, making her skin crawl, "I imagine your Mother was an aristocrat or else you wouldn't have been notified of an Estate. What was her name, if you don't mind me asking?" Roscoe stared into Lauren's eyes, paralyzing her.

Lauren sat in shock, staring at Roscoe. She was afraid to tell Roscoe her Mothers name. Lauren was stunned when Amelia's name was mentioned, and Lauren had a feeling Roscoe already knew.

Roscoe smiled and leaned back, confident with the look on Lauren's face, "Your mother is Janice Ashcroft?" Roscoe burst out laughing, and Lauren swore she heard a lower pitched harmonic note quietly play out under Roscoe's laughing fit, "I'm sorry, I don't get a good laugh like that too often, what a coincidence,"

Lauren blushed as bright pink as her tracksuit, she pulled out her phone to try and distract herself from Roscoe but there was no service.

Stay tuned for chapter two~