A New Acquaintance, a stravaganza fanfic

A New Acquaintance

By Laura Schiller

Based on: Stravaganza

Maura O'Grady stepped into the shop with curious eyes, intrigued by the jumble of old furniture, paintings, elaborate clocks and venerable-looking books. Dust motes sparkled in the air before her as she entered; a set of chimes rang out above her head.

"Good afternoon, ma'am," said the elderly man by the cash. "How may I help you?"

So this was the man Georgia had been coming to see in his shop. 'The old guy', Russell had called him. 'The creep she's so friendly with'. Maura looked him over from top to bottom: short, a little stooped, with a full head of wavy white hair and a round, snub-nosed face. He wore half-moon spectacles with shining brass frames and a green tweed suit; altogether he reminded her of a friendly teacher or librarian. She reminded herself that one couldn't expect a pedophile to be visibly evil; a lot of them looked normal or even pleasant at first meeting.

"My name is Maura O'Grady," she said, stepping forward. "Mr. Goldsmith, I presume?"

He nodded and held out a hand across the counter; his handshake was neither sweaty nor weak, which made him rise a point in Maura's estimation.

"It seems my daughter, Georgia, has been coming here quite often," said Maura, in what she hoped was a casual tone. "She told me about your shop," which was technically true even if Russell had broached the subject first. "It's lovely."

"Thank you." The lines around Mr. Goldsmith's eyes crinkled as he smiled. "And so you are Georgia's mother? I must say, it's been a pleasure to see your daughter coming here. She's a charming young lady; very polite."

In the course of her career as a social worker, Maura had learned to 'read' people quite well. Either this Mr. Goldsmith was an amazing actor, or he was genuinely pleased to meet Georgia's mother – which he wouldn't be, if Georgia were his prospective victim. There was not a hint of guilt in his smiling gray eyes. Besides, Maura loved to hear anyone praising Georgia; it had been a long time since this reclusive, tomboy daughter of hers had been referred to as 'charming'.

"I know," she now said, smiling, with the comforting idea that Georgia's charm and politeness were all due to Maura's own merit as a mother. "I'm very proud of her. Did you know she won the blue ribbon at her riding school last year?"

"No, but I wouldn't be surprised. It was a horse she bought from me, you know – "

"The winged one. Yes. My stepson, er…damaged it a little recently, but I managed to fix it."

Mr. Goldsmith gave her a look, but said nothing. It was not a look of disapproval or judgement, but Maura had the sudden uncomfortable conviction that something was wrong. Telling this stranger about Russell's breaking the ornament made the boy's deed seem less of a prank and more a deliberate insult to Georgia, but instead of looking into whatever problems Russell had, she had let him sidetrack her into suspecting this kind old gentleman of being a child molester.

Maura was so swamped with accounts of broken homes every day – parents abusing their children, drinking or taking drugs, orphans shunted from one foster-home to the next – that she liked to tell herself that her own family was mercifully crisis-free. Perhaps the suffering of strangers had blinded her to what was going on under her nose; perhaps there really was something wrong between Russell and Georgia.

Maura chatted some more with Mr. Goldsmith, convinced with every word that there was nothing of the 'dirty old man' about him and thinking guiltily that perhaps he knew even more about Georgia these days than her own mother. Family dinners, indeed! For all the information she could coax out of her two teenagers, they might as well have been strangers. How long had she gone on without noticing this?

As she exchanged nods, smiles, and a farewell handshake with the antiquarian and rang the chimes on her way out, Maura thought to herself that someday soon, the O'Grady/Thornton household would see a change.