Setting Out For New York Chapter 17

Traveling to New York was Miriams first big trip. Would it be exciting? Of course! Currently, she was pondering on wether or not she could find some good people to be her layman.

The sun was shining, it was the middle of September and wearing a light blue dress that had long ruffled sleeves, was Miriam Stuart.

Currently she was holding Beatrices hand with her left, and Bannons with her right.

Bannon did not know how he got so lucky as to come to New York.

His mother Fiona on the other hand was apprehensive.

Why had Stephen demanded she accompany him on this trip and bring along Bannon. One could not blame her for being nervous. She was merely an immigrant in America for a few days before she was made into one of Stephens many mistress's.

God only knows what he had in store for her and her child. But she had no other choice. Escaping an arranged marriage to a man much older than Stephen, she had fled to the U.S with her childhood sweetheart years ago. The childhood sweet heart of hers had died on the voyage over. Getting off the boat, with barely a dollar to her name she was swept off her feet when she met Stephen. He had money, a horse and carriage. Good manners, looks, well groomed. The dream husband.

Promising a stable life, she had been fooled into his bed and gotten pregnant.

At the time she didn't know he was married until after the deed was done.

Sighing to herself Fiona looked out the carriage window at her son, Bannon. He was currently being led along by his younger sister Miriam.

Fiona wondered if Miriam knew that the boy whos hand she was holding was her older brothers.

The family unit was currently at a rest area for the first night of their journey. Miriam was so excited when she saw a big town that she itmedaitly grabbed her big brothers hand and dragged him along with her maid Beatrice.

Currently she was trying to find a store that sold sheet music.

Anya and Stephen along with one male valet of Stephens and a buxom chested woman in her early 30s. Fiona had no idea who this woman was. Probably another Mistress. By the looks of it, she was in the early stages of pregnancy too.

Her name was Mauve. No idea where he had found this one. Sometimes, she wondered if Stephen even knew how many children he had. She had asked him once and he just replied, "Over 15...at least.".

Slowly Fiona got out of the carriage. Knowing her place, ahe didn't try and excessively fawn over Mr. Stuart. She just kept a respectable distance away from the two lovebirds and looked at the First Footman.

The First Footman, making eye contact with her, just shrugged his shoulders abit in response to the scene before them.

Anya was lucky she was a wallflower, otherwise Stephen might have oncorperated her into his harem...

Fiona was also abit worried that Stephen seemed to be paying extra attention to his youngest daughter.

Fiona could only try and keep an eye on the kids.

Noticing Miriam was almost out of his sight, he motioned to the First Footman and Anya to follow the children.

The First Footman, knowing his masters temper, quickly took off after them, not even waiting for Anya.

Meanwhile Miriam had finally found a store.

Jacks Fine Wares was the name of the first store she saw. Pulling the two in hand, she entered the store.

Upon her entrance she was itmeditely disappointed. There was a very small jewelry counter located near the back of the store. Capes and a few older style hats, and a wall with finely crafted canes for sale.

'Disappointing" thought Miriam to herself.

Figuring she should just enquire with the person behind the jewelry counter about what other various wares the store sold, she began to make her way to the counter.

The person manning the counter, noticed the woman and children enter the store and his smile dimmed abit.

Most of his higher paying customers were men. Women would only buy a few knick nacks occasionally most of the time.

This deflating of the man didn't escape Miriams keen eyes. Deciding to be a pain in the butt, Miriam slowed her pace and slowly the trio made their way to the counter.

Just as she arrived at the counter, Anya, the valet, and three other men entered the store along with a boy about the age of 10.

"Excuse me Sir, what fine wares might this establishment sell? I am looking for a few things in particular that have prooven rather difficult to aquire."

The man was surprised by how eleqountly Miriam talked and retook stock of what she was attired in.

The child looked barely over the age of three yet talked almost as well as an adult. Her clothes were of nice quality, but a year or two behind the most current trends. Probably hand me downs from an older sibling the counter staff had deduced

He rang the bell next to his counter, and two men in their early 20s came out from the back room of the shop.

After waiting for half a minute, Anya and the Valet finally caught up with Miriams little trio.

Looking up at the First Footman Miriam pouted her little petal like lips before politely asking, "Ah, are you not following father right now? Won't father be lonely? Daughter doesn't want father to be sad..."

The counter man looked at the sizable servant enteraoge that the kids had and deduced that they were of a fairly high status by the amount of their attendents.

The First Footman, upon realizing he was addressed by the youngest miss, responded respectfully.

"For your safety, your father instructed I accompany you in town."

Nodding her head in acknowledgement Miriam simply stated, "Father is very caring."

Turning her head swiftly back towards tje counter, Miriam decides to peer into the glass case and to her surpise she saw some raw cuts of rose quarts in the corner of the case.

Shaking her head, at it she decided to ask about musical instruments and sheet music first.

"Do you sell any music sheets? Preferably, Chopin,Mozart, Beethoven, Reicha,..." Before she could continue naming European composers the shop keeper stopped her by saying "I am sad to inform you we do not sell music sheets. However we have a few musical instruments in our stock. Are you looking for a musical instrument?"

Furrowing her brows, Miriam curtly replied " What easy transport instruments does this establishment have for sale?"

A greasy looking smile appearing on the man's face, he turned around and brought out a large case shaped like a guitar.

Her interest peaked she waited for him to open it.

Opening the case, the main revealed brand new romantic era guitar, except two of its strings were broken.

"Hmmm a Guitar. What else do you have?" Asked Miriam.

The owner swiftly closed the guitar case and placed it back behind the counter, before pulling out a large wooden tray and setting it out on the counter top. Pulling off a piece of fabric that was draped across the top of the tray, he revealed a assortment of flutes.

Looking them over carefully, she saw a boehms flute.

It had a small dent in it but that could easily be fixed.

Pointing at the boehms flute, she inquired about its price.

"How much for the boehms flute with the dent in it?"

The shopkeeper winced when she mentioned the dent, this meant he had to lower the price.

"How about 14 dollars?" He replied.

Nodding her head in agreement Miriam reached into Bannons left pocket and pulled out the right amount of money plus 10 cents that she handed to the man separately.

"Here is the correct amount, feel free to double check, and here's an extra 10 cents for your troubles."

Miriam said and gave a small wink to the moddle aged man behind the counter.

Baffled, the man blinked for a few moments before double checking the amount of money now in his hands and then confirming that he had recieved the right amount.

Bannon noticed the shopkeepers quizzical gaze that was shot towards him so he clarified something.

"I'm just carrying the money for her. Since I got pockets. Sir." This was said somewhat bashfully and Miriam could not stifle her giggle in time.

"Aheh."

The counter mam took the flute and wrapped it in paper before handing it over to its new owner.

Miriam frowned when she noticed how heavy it was for a small child.

She could also feel Samatha tickling her inside her dress. Samantha probably wanted to sun herself a bit before sundown Miriam reckoned.

Releasing Beatrices hand earlier to get the money, she now put the flute in Beatrices embrace.

"Please hold this for me Beatrice, I am not quite done shopping yet." Miriam said to her.

Crouching down, she looked intently into the case that displayed the jewelry.

Looking over it all, it was all uninterested except for a giant rose quartz crystal.

There were some pearl jewelry too.

"The small yellow pearl necklace, the simple white pearl earrings, and the silver ring with a quartz crystal in it. Also the small amethyst chunk, normal quartz chunk, and giant rose quartz piece."

"I'll buy them them all if the price is right." Miriam said standing back up straight.

The man at the countertop looked over everything and decided to sell it at bulk.

"That'll be 280 dollars." The shopkeeper said.

Reaching into Bannons pocket once more Miriam pulled out the correct amount of money and handed it to the man.

She watched as they put all the items into a small canvas sack. Miriam quicky snatched the sack off the countertop as soon as it was placed upon the surface of it.

She turned to see the shocked expressions of the valet, and governess.

She just shrugged in response and tried to quickly make a beeline for the exit.

Unfortunately, some tween rounded the corner behind a statue for sale and knocked her straight on her butt.

She heard an audible crack from within the canvas sack and little tears couldn't help but form from her eyes.

Looking up at the perpetrator, he looked about 10 and had close cropped hair that was a ashy blonde color and light brown eyes, accompanied by slightly tan colored skin.

He looked kind of Mediterranean.

The boy was very well dressed, even more so than herself.

Miriam looked into the sack and found that her giant rose quartz and her normal quartz had cracked in half if not even more pieces.

The boy felt something thud against his abdomen and at first he thought he had been stabbed. A potential mugging?

However, as fate would have it he heard the small cries of a child beneath him and saw a little girl that looked barely old enough to walk sprawled on the ground, her dress dirtied by the floor.

With a small sack that she was looking into and frowning.

He attempted to bend down and help her up only to be shot a fierce gaze and he distinctly heard her say very softly, "Stupid brat, breaking my precious stones..children with no manners... tsk... tsk."

And she then teared up more and cryed hysterically.

The First Footman and her Governess were on the scene in a jiffy and found poor Miriam being loomed over by a boy much older than her.

Sniffling, she said. "My goods are now broken because of you, I demand compensation."

Trying to get up Miriam found her behind was rather sore and her knees and palms of her hands were skinned on the rough wooden floor planks.

When no one was looking, she leaned on her cuts abit and made them bleed more.

Looking like a angel who had been attacked by a vicious child, any onlookers would immediately feel sympathy for her.

Reaching out one of her scrapped up hands to her governess who quickly had sped over, she was carefully helped up with bag of damaged goods in hand.