Social Ruin

Estellas arrival

A knock at the door awoke Marilla Cuthbert from her sleep.
It was the middle of the night and the moon hung high in the sky.
She fetched her coat and made her way down the steps it was mid autumn and the leaves had already changed colors and began to fall.
She opened the door to find a small framed girl looking up at her.
"Are you Miss Marilla Cuthbert?" She spoke in a soft polite voice.
"I am, and who are you?" She asked confused and suspicious.
"My names Estella Shirley. I'm Anne's older sister." She said and Marilla's eyes widened and she pulled the girl inside claiming she'd catch her death in the cold night air.
"Anne please come downstairs. You as well Matthew." She spoke in a loud firm voice but not quite a yell, up the steps.
"Marilla is everything alright?" Matthew asked walking doesn't he steps tiredly.
He stopped halfway seeing she was not alone at the bottom.
"Yes Marilla?" Anne asked she asked rubbing her eyes and yawning she stopped dead in her tracks when she opened her eyes once again.
Her breathing quickened.
"Is it really you Estella? Or have my eyes and dreams deceived me once more into hallucinations of my imagination?" She asked in her fashion.
"Yes Anne it's me." Estella smiled a small polite smile.
"Have you gotten my letters?" Anne asked running down the steps quickly.
"Yes." She nodded once more as Anne tackled her in a hug.
"Oh I've missed you so!" Anne laughed and Estella smiled.
"Where have you been?" Anne then asked.
"Never mind that right now. I'm sure Estella has had a long trip and is very tired and hungry you can continue this conversation in the morning when you've both had your rest and she's had something to eat." Marilla said smiling at the girls in front of her.
"Thank you Miss Cuthbert your kindness is comforting." She replied politely.
Marilla smiled once more at the girls manors and went to cut a piece of bread for her. She grabbed some Jam as well and spread it over the bread she'd cut as well as grabbed an apple from the Blythe's orchard she'd bought no more than 2 days ago.
Marilla sat with the girl and sent Anne and Matthew up to bed.
"Anne's never said she has a sister. I too would like to know where you've been." Marilla said watching her eat.
"I was sent to Paris 2 years ago to attend finishing school. I matured a lot faster than my sister and the matron at the orphanage in Nova Scotia thought it best I went in hopes when I came back I'd be able to teach Anne how to be less herself. But the night I returned my chaperone was attacked almost as soon as we'd gotten off the train to continue on to Ontario. His attackers knocked me out and took me from Ontario to Quebec where I was put to work for a wealthy family whom had many children to take care of. I've only just now escaped Anne had been writing me in Paris and I only wrote back once to tell her I'd arrived in Ontario. The letters she sent still somehow managed to reach me." She revealed and the whole situation sounded untrue but something in Marilla gut believed the girl. She was up-kept and held her head high, Marilla had yet to see her slouch once, meaning she had gone to finishing school.
She was skinny like she'd been fed mere scraps for months and she had scars on her wrists most likely from the rope she'd been kidnapped with.
"Well you're here now and we don't intend to let you frolic around Prince Edward Island or Avonlea like you're a trollop." Marilla said and Estella smiled.
"Thank you Miss Cuthbert your kindness is something I strive to have one day." She said respectfully.
"Please call me Marilla." She smiled back and Estella nodded finishing her food. She took her plate to the sink and pumped the water out from the well.
She did her own dishes and put them away.
Marilla watched her as she did this.
"Now come upstairs there's a bed made right next to Anne's room." She said and Estella nodded and followed.
"Here you are, now have you gotten any baggage?" Marilla asked.
"Forgive me Marilla, I've only 5 dresses total. It was all I could grab before I left." She said and Marilla nodded understanding.
"Well let's hang those up and get you to bed." Marilla said taking the dresses from her bag and hanging them in the closet.
The dresses were very high class. Something Diana Berry could be seen in. Marilla knew in that moment that Estella had been forced to work for a very wealthy family. In fact she knew the exact family. The richest one in all of Canada. A French family by the name of Cailloux they were descended from British and French royalty and had many children.
"You worked for the Cailloux?" Marilla asked and Estella stopped getting undressed from an equally nice dress Marilla hadn't noticed under her coat.
"Yes ma'am, for the past year. They've treated me well but were unknowing to the fact of my capture. I figured it was time to come see my sister." She said smiling.
"Well you're welcome to the same circumstances she's been presented here. A fairly decent education, we don't have much money but what we do have will get you both in a fair spot for your future." Marilla really wanted Estella to stay. A more levelheaded woman in the house couldn't be a bad thing for her mental state of constant worry over Anne. She might even be able to get her to go back to school where she'd get an education, and possibly find a suitor in her coming years. That day the Minister had suggested she be taught housekeeping and the duties of a wife instead of going back to school. Marilla didn't like the idea of that but if it was what Anne wanted, which she knew it was not, then she wouldn't be opposed to it.
"Thank you Marilla that's very kind of you." She smiled.
"Well anyway tomorrow I'm going into town, and you're welcome to join me to get your school supplies as long as you assist with the groceries." She said and pulled back the sheets of Estella's bed.
"Of course Marilla. Will Anne be in school tomorrow while we're gone?" She asked and Marilla shook her head.
"It's a complicated situation that I'll explain in the morning. Now you've indeed had a long journey if you've come all the way from Quebec. If you need anything, Anne's bedroom is the one next to you, and mine is down the hall on the left, Matthew's is the one right next to mine. Goodnight." Marilla said and walked to the door.
"Marilla?" She said before her host stepped out.
"Yes?" Marilla turned.
"Thank you." She smiled.
"Of course dear sleep well." Marilla smiled back.
"You too." She said as Marilla walked out the door and closed it softly.
Estella looked around her new room smiling. Green Gables was a humble home that she knew she'd love. She'd wondered why Anne was not in school but knew Marilla would keep her word and tell her the next day.
She could hardly sleep a weird feeling of the town overall overwhelmed her. Something was different than the last she was in.