{TLM} Falling Portraits

[Harmony Young]

October Writing Challenge!
Victorian Superstitions Falling picture = death

Harmony was a bit irritated that the big part of the season was over and she was entirely unattached. Were there really no men out there worthy of her? None had even so much as made a pass at her. Well, except for that lower class gentleman who surely didn't have pure blood. She'd been left thoroughly disgusted following that encounter. The very thought made her shudder.

She stabbed almost angrily at her embroidery, sharp blue eyes focused on her immaculate work. She was frustrated and there was no denying that by looking at her. Her tea sat on the table in front of her quite ignored and surely cold and she worked tirelessly away at her piece. Quite entranced in it, she didn't even notice the others within the same room as her. In fact, it wasn't until a rather sudden gust of wind swept into the room and sent a portrait hanging on the wall clattering to the ground.

Her eyes went wide as she realized exactly what it was that had happened. She felt her breath catch in her throat at the realization of it. Quickly, she scanned about the room to see who else was there, hoping someone else would take notice of the portrait and replace it quickly. The fact it had fallen was a cause for concern, superstition stating that someone known by someone else within the room would die. Harmony could only hope someone else's someone would be the one to die, not sure she could stand the loss of someone else in her life.

  

[Evangeline Rowle]

Eva had been under the weather all week, which was enough, she thought, to put anyone in a cross mood. And it was hardly as though Eva was given to a sunny disposition normally anyway.

This was the first day that she felt well enough to venture out into polite society again, which was a blessing, as she'd been about ready to begin climbing the walls. An awkward choice of words, perhaps, considering the crash that occurred as a painting fell from a nearby wall. Peering up from her seat, Eva commented to someone nearby, "I wonder what caused that."

  

[Harmony Young]

Harmony still sat stock still, staring at the fallen portrait. It wasn't until another woman spoke that she realized she wasn't breathing. She suddenly felt rather faint and was forced to lean back in her chair and bring the back of her hand to her forehead in an attempt to get her blood flow going again. Perhaps being scared to death would fit the superstition though she doubted it.

"I don't know," she finally said, her voice shaky, "But it was not a good sign in the slightest."

  

[Evangeline Rowle]

Eva was not generally superstititous, which was probably for the best, since she had enough flaws, frankly. So her first thought was not that someone was likely to die, but that she hadn't felt the earth shake.

"Oh?" Eva asked, genuinely curious. She looked at the painting, then up at the wall, wondering if there was something the other woman was seeing that she was missing. "Not a good sign of what?"

  

[Harmony Young]

Harmony had sat up straight again but had begun fanning herself with her hand. The whole thing was quite disconcerting and when the woman asked about it not being a good sign she felt almost as though she were going to faint all over again over the absurdity of the question.

"Someone that someone in her knows is going to die," she said, though just barely above a whisper so as to not aggravate the spirits that had caused the portrait to fall. She had a feeling that whoever it was to right the portrait would be the one to suffer, though that was something she'd made up entirely in her own head only further adding to the superstition.

  

[Evangeline Rowle]

Eva wasn't sure what she expected the woman to say, and she honestly didn't mean to laugh, but she couldn't help herself. It seemed so silly. What could the two things possibly have to do with each other? Unless the person happened to be standing directly underneath the painting when it fell, anyway.

"I'm sorry," Eva said, trying, and failing, to turn her laugh into a polite cough. "But you must be joking. I don't see what the two things would have to do with one another."