The Forgotten Wife

Fighting For Life

After Lorna had finished cleaning the tavern's steps she returned back to her Mother in the kitchen, she was preparing a late supper of leftover vegetable stew and freshly made bread. She placed the bucket and scrubbing brush in the corner of the kitchen, she wiped her hands on the back of her dress while she turned around to face her Mother. She told her Mother she was going to get cleaned up before supper, but before she could even leave the kitchen her Mother asked her if she wouldn't mind eating her supper in the upstairs quarters tonight instead of the bar area of the tavern.

" Why not?" Lorna asked, she rested her hands on her hips and tilted her head to one side. " I've always eaten my supper in the bar even if we've got visitors at the tavern, what's so different about tonight?"

" Just do as I ask, it's important." Her Mother replied." Your Father doesn't want you around that Kenny Ackerman or the company he keeps, it's just for tonight. Everything will be back to normal by the morning, I promise."

" Okay, just for tonight then." Lorna sighed.

Lorna had no idea why she had to eat upstairs tonight, but she was more interested now in what they had been discussing the bar area this night. She took her bowl of stew from her Mother and quickly kissed her cheek before she left the kitchen, she hurried across the bar area of the tavern. She didn't make eye contact or speak with anyone in the room, she just focused on the staircase ahead of her.

" Goodnight Lorna." Father said.

" Night Dad!" Lorna said. 

Lorna hurried up the stairs and stopped at the top of the staircase though, she took a sneaky peek over the banister. She saw her Father and the Landlord sitting at the table with the tall man, the shorter man was standing next to the wooden casement window near the tavern's main entrance. She tried to listen in on their conversation, but she couldn't really hear what they were discussing because they were speaking quietly to each other. After awhile she gave up on trying to listen in on their conversation, she then decided to go to the living room quarters and eat her supper there before it got cold. She sat at the wooden dinning table and stirred her spoon around the bowl, the steam of her food wafted into the air. Spooning some of her food into her mouth she opened a book that had been on the table all day, she began to read some of it while she ate her supper.

An hours passed and Lorna's Mother came to the upstairs living room quarters to collect her bowl, she told her everyone would be turning in for the night very soon. Lorna asked her Mother what the Landlord and her Father had been talking about downstairs with the visitors, she told her that she didn't have a clue. Lorna knew her Mother was lying to her, she could always tell by the way she would look at her or how she would quickly change the subject.

" Get yourself to bed now, goodnight Lorna." Mother said.

" Night, don't let the bed bugs bite!" Lorna said.

" I've got more worries about your Father than bug bites." Mother joked.

" I didn't really need to know that..." Lorna said.

Lorna's Mother told her there was a basin of warm water and a clean towel in the washroom for her, she them left the room. Lorna closed the book she had been reading and headed to her room, she took her cotton nightgown from her dresser draw while she hummed softly to herself. She looked at herself in the mirror above her dresser and smoothed down her long dark brown hair, her green eyes sparkled in the lantern light while she used her fingernail to get a piece of stuck vegetable out of her teeth. The tavern's washroom was at the other end of the building, there was actually two washrooms upstairs. One of the washrooms was for overnight guests and the other washroom was for the live in staff of the tavern, but the guest washroom tended to get filthy more quickly because some of the customers used it when they were drunk without the barkeeps permission.