The Choice of Her Life

The rain had just started to fall, and Rachael Waters walked down the street from the coffee shop on the corner of Main Street. It was the late 1800's, and Rachael's family lived an impoverished life. She picked up her slightly tattered dress from sweeping the ground as to make sure it didn't get any dirtier. She passed by a nondescript homeless man, who was holding out a cracked mug asking for spare change. Rachael felt like she was being followed. The man in the fancy suit who sat at the table in front of her as she enjoyed her small coffee was behind her, making barely any sound as they walked down the street. She turned the corner onto Garder street and began running, towards the light blue house that was hers. She went inside and panted, trying to catch her breath.

"Rachael, are you there?", her mother called. A warm scent drifted from the kitchen, and Rachael could tell that her mother was baking her favorite, blueberry bread with a hint of cinnamon. "Rachael?"

"Yes Mom, I'm home!", Rachael called back. She started climbed up the stairs when she stopped abruptly. There was a knocking at the door. Her father came from the living room to answer it, and when he opened the door, the mysterious stranger from the coffee shop stood on the steps.

"Hello there, is there a girl of blonde hair and hazel eyes living here?", he asked.
"What is your business here?"

"Oh, I am sorry for not introducing myself. I am Harrison von Decour, a man of high standards, if I do say so myself."

"What do you intend to do with my daughter?", Rachael's father asked.

"I have seen her here and there, and I wish to make her life better by inviting her to live at my house. She would fare better in an environment where she will be tutored, pampered and taken care of."

"Are you saying that I'm not capable of taking care of my own daughter?" Her father seemed angry.

"No, no, not at all." Rachael walked down the stairs and saw the man at a better view. She could tell that the man was prosperous, by his clothing and mannerisms.

"Hello there, Mr. Decour." Rachael smiled sardonically at him, thinking that she could never live in a fancy house. She thought that it was a joke. "I hear that you want to bring me into your home."

"Will you accept my offer?"

"I'll think about it. I'm not entirely sure, I only just heard about it."

"I shall be taking my leave then, and awaiting your answer. Come tomorrow at this address, or contact me at my company, Rochester."

"Rochester, as in the famous clothing brand?"

"That's right. Well then, goodbye." The man left the house, and Rachael felt weird about the situation.

"Honestly, what was that about?", Rachael asked. Her father answered her.

"I really don't know. But do you want to go? You would have better food to eat, more clothes to wear, a better education, lots of things that an ordinary family could only dream of having. You can go if you want to."

"I'd love to go!" Rachael said, a little too enthusiastically in her mind.

"Ok, if you say so, I'm not stopping you." Rachael skipped up to her room, excited at all of the possibilities. She forgot all about her fears and doubts.

"I'll be able to go to a proper school and be tutored and be a real lady in real clothes!", Rachael exclaimed. She lied down on her bed, and sighed happily. But then a thought creeped into her mind.

"Wait a minute..." Rachael paused to think. "If I go with Mr. Decour, then that means that I won't be able to see my family a lot..." Rachael thought about it long and hard. "I'll be able to do things that I've never done before, but do I really want to take away the joy and happiness of being with my family?" She sat down to think about it until she slept without realizing it.

---

Rachael woke up with her hair in knots and still wearing yesterday's dress. She remembered what she was concentrating on, and thought again.

"So... Do I want to be happy with family without being able to do much, or go live in a prosperous household and be able to do what I want, but not being able to see my family all of the time?" Rachael thought about the benefits and loses, and decided that she would rather live with Mr. Decour's house. She rationalized her thought her abandoning her family by saying, "I guess that I can always come visit, and I could give them gifts that we could never afford on our own!" She went into the bathroom, and preened herself for an hour until she thought herself presentable to Mr. Decour, with her hair in curls and she wore her best dress. She went downstairs, and her family was eating breakfast at the table.

"So you've decided to leave, huh?" Her father asked.

"Yes. If I go there, I'll also be able to give you things that we could never afford! Wouldn't it be wonderful? And I could probably visit anytime I wanted, so I won't be lonely without you!"

"Ok, I'll take you there." Her father went to the car and drove her to the Decour mansion." Rachael rang the bell at the gate, and waited patiently for someone to answer the door.

"Yes, who is it?" There was a servant at the door, who seemed to be dusting the furniture at the time. "Oh! Master Decour told us to expect you, Miss...?"

"Rachael." The servant smiled bashfully. Rachael took a good look at her left leg, and saw that it was mutilated badly. She assumed that the girl was taken in for pity, because she could not find work without needing to look pretty for it. She grimaced at the thought of having a scarred leg.

"I'm sorry, Master Decour isn't here at the current moment. Feel free to look around the house, and I'll call him to tell him that you've arrived." Rachael was excited, and ran into the halls where she went to the end of a corridor and found a pair of large doors with elegant designs adorning the wood. She furtively creeped inside, trying not to let the doors squeak. She found a private library and an office, presumably where Mr. Decour kept up on his ideas. She walked to his desk, and impulsively opened a drawer. She dug out papers and receipts, until she found a mysterious necklace, with an emblem that showed her family crest. Her ancestors used to be wealthy, until they fell into debt from borrowing too much to a project that they thought was successful, but ended up not being.
"This is a family heirloom...my parents have been searching for this for years! Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to come here..." She smiled pleasantly at the thought of finding something so precious.