Goneszh was allowed to peruse the back issues as long as he wished, provided he was gone by the time they closed the doors on the rest of the visitors. He knew he would be getting a "colored" version of events, but he was not concerned about that. He just wanted the high points of the contention between the two women.
According to the official version, Elaina Connelly had stolen a green scarf from Miss Lenora Malana. The scarf was said to have been a gift to Lady Malana from one Merrin Trask, a young Freeborn gentleman on the rise, with a future in medicine. There was speculation that the Lorak family had their collective eye on the young man. With the Malana ties to the Ackina family, through the prestige of Ava, the owner and editor of the Gazette, it would improve ties between the Ackina and Lorak families.
But then the insufferable Miss Connelly had arisen to complicate matters by claiming that young Mr. Trask was engaged to her, and that the scarf had been her gift to him. She had even claimed to have crocheted it herself. Of course, she had no way to prove this claim, beyond the grudgingly accepted fact that Miss Connelly was an accomplished home body. Little mention was made of the shop she ran, which featured numerous items of a domestic nature, including hand-knit goods.
There were numerous confrontations, many of which were conducted entirely in public. As expected, the low-born tended to side with Miss Connelly, while those courting Dynasty favor were unanimously supportive of Miss Malana. Goneszh could imagine the situation this put poor Trask in. It struck him as very telling that there was never any mention made of his vouching for one woman or the other. Goneszh suspected that if the man had ever made even the slightest leaning toward the Malana woman public, it would have been splashed across the Gazette in bold face.
He was inclined to think Mr. Trask was doing what he thought was right by not inviting public humiliation upon Miss Malana with an open declaration for her rival, Elaina Connelly. This did not prevent the would-be aristocratic from heaping public abuse upon the commoner at frequent intervals. Goneszh was somewhat surprised that the Gazette did nothing to conceal the fact that most of the public blow-ups occurred in front of Miss Connelly's shop, and not in Miss Malana's parlors, as she had suggested.
Goneszh hardly needed any more convincing who was the one that sought trouble, and who simply met it when confronted by it. But it all came to a head when Miss Connelly answered one of Miss Malana's tirades with the news that she was pregnant with Trask's child. Those who were in support of Miss Malana insisted that Trask was miserable and felt trapped by circumstance. The testimonies of those who supported Miss Connelly were conspicuously absent from print.
Shortly thereafter, Mr. Trask's body was found submerged in Reed Park. The Gazette sadly confirmed his suicide, attributing it to his depression over the ruined opportunity to have the woman he truly deserved, and to have to settle for the grasping and conniving Connelly wench. Every tidbit of conjecture which could be scraped up to support this theory was used to berate the Connelly woman.
She was harassed relentlessly by those with near impunity to retribution, due to their connections. Many said she should have been put on trial for murder, since there were a few irregularities in the usual trademarks of a suicide. On this one point, Miss Malana graciously sided with the riff-raff, to put it behind them. Her supporters hailed her compassion, citing her stance that only more pain would come from an investigation, and the Connelly woman now had a child to raise without support of a husband. Oh yes, such a magnanimous gesture.
But cruel fate continued to rain upon "poor Miss Connelly" with the loss of her child to miscarriage. But the ingrate did not return Miss Malana's compassion, and now openly accused her of murdering Trask, or at least of being the one behind it. This was the basis for the next round of confrontations, many of which now crossed the borders of remaining merely verbal. It all became too much for the poor Connelly woman one night, and she too was found floating in Reed Park. This time there were no irregularities found to suggest anything other than suicide.
But it did not stop the enmity between the two women. The gazette reported the spirit of the mad woman bursting into a function and bringing great distress upon "poor Miss Malana" with demands for the green scarf. The Malana woman was credited with great resolve and determination by refusing to surrender her only keepsake from the man she'd loved. And it now appeared that the Connelly ghost was steadily backing down from the feud.
It was never stated openly, in word or print, how embarrassed the Lorak and Ackina families were by the hostility. The Ackina, with their advantage of swaying public opinion with The Gazette, were able to rise above it. But they left the Lorak to spin their own distortions regarding what backing Mr. Trask might ever have been promised. Goneszh wondered suddenly if this might be the reason why the Lorak woman, Yvenna, had not pursued The Kelvic slave Kaitanu, the Konrath woman Estrellir, and himself, that rigorously earlier this season. Did she have a return favor in mind?
That would be something for later, he decided. For now, he needed to meet with Miss Connelly again. He thought now that he had a simple way of showing that he was on her side. |
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by Viszragoneszh on February 3rd, 2015, 5:39 am 
