The young woman settled herself delicately on the edge of the white washed wicker chair making sure her dress was placed so, covering her crossed legs. Before picking up her cup of now luke-warm tea, she readjusted the angle at which her summer hat lay upon her head. Turning her attention away from fixing the ceased wrinkles from her sundress, she followed her hostess' gaze which landed upon their seaport town of southern Maine.
"Have you heard?" Her hands fluttered gracefully landing on the bone china cup and saucer.
"Oh, I've just been so busy with the children and all…" Her hostess said still looking at the town below. "I haven't been able to do anything, really. For this is the first dinner party I will holding in over six months."
"From what I can remember it made the front page of the paper. Surely you would have seen it Marie?"
"Richard hasn't been picking up the paper lately so I wouldn't know. Stop with the guessing, tell me what happened." The woman Marie irritably said as she walked into the kitchen from the porch shutting the screen door behind her.
"Claudia is dead."
At this Marie dropped the wooden spoon into the steaming pot of stew. Quickly she lowered the heat on the stove. The young woman grinned at this with pursed lips as her listened to her hostess as she scuffled back onto the porch.
"Claudia…You mean—."
"Claudia River; yes."
Marie leaned in closer, her eyes inadvertently peered to the fence which encased her backyard. Though it was really a pointless action, she felt as if she was being watched. She could smell her friend's perfume as she whispered into her ear. "What happened?"
"What's with this low mumbled talk, there is no one to hear."
"Anne, not everyone has such charisma as you. I, for one do not want to be caught spreading rumors that aren't true."
"Who said they weren't true?" Anne replied coyly.
Marie stared curiously at Anne. Was she telling the truth? As she thought about it, she couldn't help believing what the other woman said. It was probable, no; it was an inevitable fate for Claudia River.
Marie remembered when Claudia and her husband Lewis married some six years ago. In Cold Port, consisting of a population of five hundred, everything about everyone was known. As she realized such, Marie realized that her death wasn't old news.
"Such a shame—." Marie couldn't hold back her relief and feeling of jubilation when she heard such. An unremorseful grin raised her cheeks.
"Yes," the young woman said, in-between her short fits of giggles. "it is quite a shame."