1.A Well Born Young Lady

1864

Miss Katherine Pierce flinched slightly as she felt her maid, Emily tighten the corset strings around her slim waist. Each pull caused her to take away some of her breath, but it was worth it if it would have help her achieve the tiny waist that she had always desired. Next came the heavy crinoline and the silk white stockings that were so hard to get now during the Civil War. The Virginia day was pretty; Katherine couldn't help but notice. Even in times of war Katherine couldn't help, but think how pretty Virginia was. During those times it was hard to believe that they were even at war with the north.

Emily went to get her favorite green dress from her wardrobe that had many green folds and green silk ribbons. Emily put a necklace around her slim neck and adorned her dark brown curls. Katherine tilted her head and cocked it to the side and smiled. There she looked beautiful.

She was sixteen years old and pretty, Katherine was sure of that at least. It was summer and it was hot. It was supposed to be the time for barbecues, handsome boys, and engagements and hoping for a marriage. Katherine's own mother had been married at her age!

She was the only daughter of Isobel and John Gilbert and their only child and therefore had been determine to make them proud even if that meant tying herself down to a man and, she wrinkled her nose, having children and losing her figure. But the war had ruined everything, Katherine though bitterly. The stupid war.

"There my lady," Emily said proudly as she fixed the green skirt. "You look perfect."

Katherine tilted her chin. "Thank you, Emily." She picked up her skirt and headed down the ivory staircase of the grand mansion. Everything was spotless even though they had lost a couple of servants. The thing that Katherine most detested was that most of the handsome young men had also gone to war along with a few of her boy cousins which made for a very boring life. So far, Katherine was being surrounded by very boring and crying females.

She entered the dining room and saw that breakfast was laid out even though the food was poor, compared to the food that they used to have. Her mother was sitting there looking very pinched face and rather ill and Katherine was sure that she hadn't eaten breakfast for the past few days. The poor old dope still probably thought that by fasting and praying everything would solve itself. John was sitting there looking at the newspaper and stuffing his face with toast. He had dark circles under his eyes, but he still looks handsome.

"Good morning Mama, good morning Daddy." Katherine said as she took her place at the breakfast table and started buttering some toast.

"Good morning, sugar." John said, but he didn't bother looking up from his newspapers. Miranda curled her lip into a frown, but didn't acknowledge her daughter, instead she simply said. "There is no more sugar," was all she said. "And there won't be some for some time."

Katherine frowned. She had a rather sweet tooth and she liked sugar with her tea. "Can't Daddy get some more from the stores?"

"There isn't more," Miranda snapped. "The stores are in shortage for everything lately."

Katherine grumbled. If it wasn't for this stupid war, then this wouldn't be happening. Perhaps things would be more peaceful. Why couldn't the North and South just live far away peacefully. Then Katherine could have everything that her pretty little head wanted such as coffee, sugar, and tea. Come to think of if they were running low on things like vegetables and cheese. Well, it was a good thing that they still had some on the farm animals at least they wouldn't starve.

"Morning post," their elderly butler said as he gave one letter to Miss Katherine and the other to John. John opened his and Miranda nosily asked. "Well?" she demanded. "What does it say?"

"We lost the battle of the yellow bayou," John looked crestfallen as he crumbled the letter in his hand. "We lost again to the union, the damn Yankees. This is the third battle that we have lost in the past few months."

"What?" Miranda squeaked. "That can't be. Our good confederate soldiers should be more than enough to drive those damn Yankees away!"

"Well the Yankees has always been brutes, Mama. Don't sound so surprise." Katherine quipped as she opened the letter and read quickly. Her face turned pale as she let her parents know the news. "The Crawley brothers are dead."

The Crawley brothers had been the Pierce's handsome neighbors and had both been keen on Katherine and she was sure that she would have received a marriage proposal from one of them at least. But now they were both dead. Just a pile of corpses. Katherine felt a hardness in her throat, but she refused to cry.

Stupid Union soldiers. Stupid war. Stupid Yankees. They had taken everything that Katherine loved and that made it impossible for her to live as a Southern Belle, but Katherine would get her revenge sooner or later.

She crumbled the letter in her hand as her mother lamented the Crawleys' brothers deaths. Miranda had married John when she had been fifteen and all though Katherine was still young and pretty. She probably thought that she was already an old maid. "I'm going to go visit Caroline, I'll be back in time for luncheon, Mama."

"Miss Forbes?" Miranda blinked still overwhelmed by the news that she had receive at breakfast. "But you still have not eaten your Breakfast-Katherine! Put on your hat for crying out loud, you're going to get freckles!"

"Poor George, poor Matthew," Caroline Forbes sighed as she and Katherine walked into town. Even though Mystic Falls was still a very beautiful little town it still looks like a ghost town. The only people left in town were the woman, children, and old people. "I'm so sorry, Kat I know how fond of them you were."

"It doesn't matter," she said grimly. "They are dead."

"It does matter," Caroline insisted. "If it hurts this much to lose a beau, imagine a father or brother or husband."

"Well, we're not married nor have brothers. So I suppose we're lucky." Katherine grabbed the edge of her skirt to avoid it getting muddy. "It's been 3 years since it started. I was sure that it would be over by now. War is horrible. Why can't men just talk it out?"

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Men make everything much more complicated. I must go home now, Katherine. I must help Mother with supper," her pretty face flushed. "We're down to our last servant."

Katherine went back home and felt that everything was quieter than usual. She did not need any worse news. She asked the maid where her parents were and then she went to the parlor. Her mom looked like she had been crying and John was holding a letter in his hand.

"Mama, Daddy," Katherine said as she looked at them with worry. "Whatever is the matter what happened?"

Miranda started wailing again and John decided to speak up even though he looked rather ill and tired himself. "Darling, Kathy, darling I have been called up to war."

-End of Chapter One-

Thank you for your reviews! So after going through some rewrites I decided to post this up again! Enjoy!