Disclaimer: I own nothing except the gender bender for Francis and any alterations to the original storyline plot this creates to various readers amusement everywhere across the globe.
A Woman's Game Chapter 18
In the limited timeframe, Francis must get ready it's a miracle she left the house and made it to the restaurant on time. Luckily, her mother and sister were the ones to help prepare and were all too eager to do so after they learned from her what was going on with that invitation. As a thank you to her sister and a bonus to the rest of her siblings Francis promised to bring something back from the restaurant with her so they could enjoy a little something too from tonight.
Turns out Francis won't be going alone. Her mother will be accompanying her to the dinner in her best dress even though it's nothing fancy along with her daughter's own. Francis may be competing alongside these gentlemen during The Open and other people will be at the eating establishment, but to safeguard her reputation she should have a chaperon so no one can concoct any disagreeable rumors to sully her name by discrediting it.
Francis's father alone was going to have huge reservations once her heard about this occasion, and they were no doubt going to hear about it plenty later on.
Might as well enjoy it while she can before the man's temper flares on them again.
Mary Ouimet cannot be accused of not being a multitasker. She'd already had supper prepared for the rest of the family, the exception being her husband since he was still at work, so they could eat their meal while the two of them were gone. Her husband will take part when he comes home.
The walk to the Country Club restaurant is short, but Francis nearly lost count of the times she came close to turning back to head home from how anxious she was.
If it wasn't for her mother's calming presence and touch on her arm Francis would've lost her nerve and turned tail for home.
By the time the two women arrive Francis's heartbeat has calmed down enough to the point where a maintained composure is in place.
"Deep breaths, Darling," said Mary Ouimet, softly. "Deep breaths."
"Yes, Mama," said Francis.
The host was already expecting them thanks to Harry Vardon notifying them. Mother and daughter are then led over to a table where Harry Vardon and Red Ray are already waiting for them. As they're being escorted Francis catches notable differences between herself and the other female patrons spread out across the dining room. It's the same as what she went through during the dinner for the Amateur competition that she'd been a part of. Everyone's wearing more fancy dresses and hairstyles in the latest fashion. Her dress isn't old, but it's not new either. She doesn't even have a hat to wear. It makes her feel immensely out of place. The few restaurants her family did go to over the years at the chance they got weren't close to resembling anything like this.
Spotting them coming, standing from his chair to greet them properly, Harry Vardon said "Ah, Miss Ouimet. Right on time."
Shaking his hand, smiling back, Francis said "Thank you for the invitation, Mr. Vardon. This is my mother. Mrs. Mary Ouimet."
"How do you do," said Harry Vardon, taking Mary Ouimet's hand and placing a small kiss on it.
Mary Ouimet blushes a little, saying "Oh my."
Waving a hand at Ted Ray, Harry Vardon said "I believe you already know, Ted Ray."
"Yes, I do," said Francis. "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Ray."
"Call me Ted. All that formal stuff doesn't sit well with me," said Ted Ray, gruffly, in a kind manner.
A waiter came over and the four of them ordered drinks and courses from the menu. At first Francis and Mary were hesitant to order anything too expensive until Harry Vardon reassured them that it was perfectly all right to order anything they liked. The check was going to be covered by Lord Northcliffe.
The irony of that isn't lost on Francis.
The direction of casual conversation started with questions about England and talk of other players in the Open. Eventually, their food came and then, out of nowhere, the topic was brought up about how she and Harry Vardon knew each other.
Ted Ray found it quite amusing that his colleague and the young upstart Amateur met each other years ago on one of the former few trips to America. The facts are backed up by the girl's mother. Ted Ray even made a joke about it saying that Harry is now competing against his protegee. They all had a good laugh over it, not taking the comment too seriously.
Although it did considerably warm her heart in a way to be called that even in jest.
The desserts were brought out and all seemed to be going well in making this a perfect evening for Francis until an uninvited and unwelcome guest showed up with two other women on his arm.
Fellow competitor in The Open, Mr. Wilfred Reid.
The man who poached Francis's original caddy.
Oh, joy.
Francis had her fingers crossed that this precocious idiot would just pass them by, but he spotted them as he headed over to his table.
At first, he ignored Francis and Mary Ouimet, instead focusing on Ted and Harry. He was going on with how much he liked Americans, especially the women. Said along the lines of Ted fitting right in with them because his behavior is similar to his low-class background. That was already kind of pushing it too far and then Mr. Reid has the gall to attack Francis as soon as he recognizes who he is. In his arrogance, Mr. Reid mentioned how he poached the caddy from her and said that someone of her gender and background would never rise to the clubs that they're in now no matter how hard she worked. While they're men, that is a blow to Harry and Ted as they too started low class and made their way up.
Mr. Reid called her a sort of working-class hero to the great unwashed. Saying that to her face is what did Francis in. Before she could lose her temper and toss her drink into his face Ted Ray acts for her, punching Mr. Reid straight in the face and leaving him with a bloody nose.
After giving apologies to the ladies, Ted Ray takes his leave.
Harry Vardon soon does the same, escorting Francis and Mary out, leaving a dumbfounded Mr. Reid behind.
Mr. Wilfred Reid just had to come in and spoil everything.
So much for this turning out to be a nice and peaceful evening.
Authors Note:
For those of you on fanfiction I'm sure you've been facing the many unwanted ads when you're reading a story. Well, yesterday, I finally had enough, and I got an adblocker app. It worked! No more ads on any level! The one I got is Adblock Pro: Safari Ad Blocker. It really works. Just follow the instruction video that it attached to it.
Heads up everyone there's someone on fanfiction you need to seriously watch out for. Early a couple of months ago after I woke up I was checking my email and I saw I had a new guest review on my A Dog's Purpose Is Strange Magic 2 sequel. I took a look at it and got a very big shock. Some random person I've never spoken to before on here or anywhere else in my life was basically threatening me. Intimidating and practically ordering me to write a threatening letter to someone on their behalf, telling to stay off of for life or else they and everyone else close to them would be killed, disgustingly telling them to kill themselves. And at the bottom of the message this crazy person wasn't done. Warning me that if I don't send the letter then they would kill me and for confirmation to email them to make absolutely sure I complied with their demands. Of course I did nothing of the sort. Instead of doing what they wanted I reported them to the website, sent copies of this deplorable guest review message to police officer cousins of mine so they could have it on file, and I went to a nearby police station and reported it.
When I spoke to the police officers and they checked everything on the message they saw, that while the address and names of business were accurate the people and their names were not. They agree it was more than likely a scam because of the email address on the bottom in order to perhaps get access to personal information or potentially hack my computer. Despite that I'm still very happy they took it seriously as I showed and told them everything. All the same I'm still very happy that I brought this to the attention of law enforcement. Even though the entire thing might be fake I'm still very happy to have brought this to the attention of those who can do something about it if it was legit in some way. This may have been a scam, but it's obvious these people are beyond irresponsible if they try to goad people into sending death threats to random strangers just to get access to info.
Be that as it may if this does unfortunately happen to you do not send any messages to the email addresses they put down and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you bring the message to the authorities immediately whether it is legit or not.
Because it's a guest review it might not be visible for a couple of days as it loads if it is sent to you. But when it does you should definitely pressing the report abuse button and send it to the email that leads to the support staff that is available.
Just a heads up to those of you who aren't aware of this yet, Email alerts for this website are now only active if Email opts is enabled in account settings.
I hope you all like this one! I certainly did while writing it for your vast enjoyment! ;D
For those of you just starting out with my stuff there are other works on my profile that may catch your interest. I highly recommend you take a look as soon as the opportunity presents itself to you. Who knows, you may be pleasantly surprised by what you discover.
Stay safe everyone. Especially with all of these crazy natural disasters occurring a lot lately due to global warming and climate change everywhere for sure. I swear it's like they're getting worse and worse all the time and it's like officials are simply just ignoring it or pretending it doesn't exist entirely just to go on with their daily lives. Especially those in multi-million dollar companies that rely on certain elements of our planet that we rely on to naturally keep us safe instead of adapting and finding new safer ways to keep in business. There are so many options out there where they can adapt, but they just refuse to see it because all they care about is money. Climate change is altering so much faster than anyone can really keep track of.
So, in light of all this, it is important to live life to the fullest as much as anyone can.
I know I am. ;) See you guys next time.