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“Israel Hands, stop your daydreaming at once! There are customers!”
Izzy flushes a deep red at his mother’s voice, turning his attention to the customers waiting for service. They’re asking for standard things; sugar, flour, things Izzy could measure out in his sleep, leaving his mind free to wander to the night before. The night when he had finally, finally gotten up the courage to kiss his best friend.
He’s known Stede Bonnet his whole life. Stede’s family owns most of the town; Izzy’s family owns the mercantile. They’ve gone to school together since they were small, and have been friends for almost as long. Both outsiders, they had become friends out of necessity to have someone to stand up to their bullies with, but had ultimately realized that while not outwardly compatible, perse, they did get along rather well.
Although the mercantile was normally open during the lunch hour, Izzy’s mother tells him to go eat something, expressing her hope that maybe it will help get his head out of the clouds. So maybe he hasn’t done as good a job keeping his daydreams a secret as he had originally thought.
Izzy heads upstairs to his family’s home above the shop, planning to make a sandwich to have for his lunch. Something quick, that doesn’t require any thought, that he can eat and then spend the rest of the fifteen minutes his mother has given him thinking about Stede.
He puts together the sandwich, and is about to take his first bite when a quiet knock on the door interrupts him. He pauses for a moment, to make sure he heard properly, and when the knock sounds again, even quieter the second time, he goes to see who’s come.
“Stede!” he cries, surprised but thrilled to see his best friend on the other side of the door. “Come in, please!”
“I can’t, Izzy,” Stede says sadly. “I can’t stay. I’ve just come to tell you…my father’s sending me away.”
Izzy sits down hard on the step behind him, now shocked and horrified. “I don’t understand…”
“Someone saw us,” Stede says very quietly. “A groom, one of my father’s men, saw us kiss in the barn last night and told him about it. He’s sending me off to school.”
“How…how could he have gotten you a spot so quickly?” Izzy asks, his mind catching on the only thing he can think of to stop himself from spiralling.
Stede shrugs. “It’s his old school, a schoolmate of his is headmaster and even though he hasn’t heard for sure that I’m in, he’s sending me preemptively.”
“And you’re…going?”
Stede frowns. “Of course I’m going, Izzy,” he says. “I told you, my father’s sending me.”
“You could say you don’t want to go,” Izzy says harshly, knowing he’s being unfair but not caring. “You could at least try to stay!”
“I’m not like you,” Stede says, and Izzy is horrified to see tears in his eyes. “I can’t just…say no to my father.”
“You could,” Izzy snaps. “You would , if you cared about me at all.”
“That’s not fair,” Stede snaps back. “You know I care about you! Do you think I want this?”
Izzy shrugs. “Dunno what to think, honestly,” he mutters. “Last night we kissed and today you’re leaving.”
Stede pulls himself up to his full height and glares at Izzy. “I’m sorry I ever kissed you,” he says cruelly. “If this is what you think of me, then I’m sorry that I ever gave myself to you like that.”
Stede storms off before Izzy can think of a response, and Izzy is still sitting on the step, sandwich forgotten, when his mother comes to find him, telling him his 15 minutes were up five minutes ago.
Two years later
Stede steps off the train, taking a deep breath of the clean air of his home. He’s been away two years, not even allowed to come back at holidays, and he’s missed this place. He’s missed Izzy .
His father hasn’t sent a carriage, but that’s fine; Stede would rather walk anyway. He hasn’t any luggage, having sent it all ahead, and the trip to his childhood home isn’t far. He wants to stop in at the mercantile anyway, say hello to his oldest friend.
When he arrives at the mercantile, he’s shocked to see Izzy’s mother and sister behind the counter, no sign of either Izzy or his father.
“Hello!” Stede says brightly as he enters.
Elizabeth looks up from where she’s measuring out flour for an elderly woman Stede vaguely recognizes, and waves her daughter over to help Stede.
“Good morning, Mr. Bonnet,” Mary says, but her smile doesn’t reach her eyes. “How can I help you?”
“Mary, Stede is fine,” he says quickly, frowning slightly. “You know that.”
“Sorry, Mr. Bonnet,” Mary says tightly. “How can I help you?”
“I was rather hoping to see Izzy, if he’s around?”
Mary’s smile becomes a glare and she doesn’t even try to hide it. “Is that some kind of sick joke?”
Stede is taken aback. “Pardon?”
“Izzy hasn’t been here in two years,” Mary snaps, then shoots her mother and the customer a look before lowering her voice. “ Your father sent him off in disgrace. The shock of it all caused my father to have a heart attack. He managed to hold on long enough to ensure the shop would go to my mother before he died.”
Stede is utterly speechless, for what may well be the first time in his life. “Mary, I’m so sorry,” Stede says, fighting tears. “I had no idea.”
“Yeah well,” Mary says. “Doesn’t matter now, does it? Are you going to buy something?”
“What? Oh. No.”
“Then I’ll wish you a good day, Mr. Bonnet,” Mary says firmly as another customer enters the store.
“Wait!” Stede says, reaching for her to stop her from turning away, but stopping himself before he actually touches her, noting the look on her face. “Where is he?”
Mary shrugs. “Dunno. We haven’t heard from him. My father told him never to write or return, and he’s stuck to that. I really do have to go now.”
Stede lets Mary walk away this time, his heart utterly shattered. He leaves the store, his thoughts turning to his father’s last letter.
My business partner has a daughter, Mary, and we’ve arranged for the two of you to be married as soon as you return home.