The Explaining of the Making of a Particular Woman
Aurora Quatermain couldn’t believe what she was reading. A mysterious man who only signed his name as M has requested her presence for a mission of up most importance to be a part of a group called The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The letter assured her that her grandfather Allen Quatermain was already a part of the League and would be in need of her help in the end. Aurora re-read the letter a couple more times before looking around the hotel room in China that she currently resided. With a sigh she stood from the desk and walked across the room and began to throw her stuff willy-nilly into a suitcase before calling the front desk to let them know she would be checking out sooner than expected. A few minutes later she was standing outside the hotel in the dead of night watching the horse drawn carriage slowly come to a stop in front of her.
To look at Aurora would require a double take. As a woman of the 19th century she looked nothing like the part. A decent woman of that century would never dream of wearing the clothes that were her daily wardrobe. At first glance one would think she was a man, but the long curly red hair was the first clue that she was indeed a woman. The second clue would be her very womanish figure. She wore tight black leather pants most of the time with changing shirts, some more feminine than others, and guns strapped to both her thighs. And a long leather trench that gracefully danced about her boot clad ankles. To say she was an average 19th century woman was like saying a duck was like a swan.
As she sat in the carriage she thought about the last time she was in London. It had been years now, she wasn’t quite sure she could even remember the year of her last visit home. But she could tell you the last time she was in Africa. It had only been a year since she saw her grandfather in the place he now called home. After her parents died Aurora was raised by only her grandfather. He taught her how to shoot, how to ride, and most important, how to survive in a world of men. And Aurora’s world was indeed filled with men. She was an adventurer, like her grandfather. And like him believed the wild was no place for a proper woman. They were, at best a distraction. Always getting into some kind of trouble, or suffering from some kind of malady from touching or eating something they shouldn’t have. It never escaped Aurora the irony of such thinking, seeing as she herself was a woman, but she was also a Quatermain, which not only said she had money to spare, but also that she’d be more in likely able to tell you what poisonous plants could be found in the Amazon than what the latest gossip or fashion could be found in London. She had no need for woman’s fashions or the useless dribble of gossip. She was more interested in uncharted foreign lands and conquering dangerous obstacles that have been said unconquerable.
She had seen the world, and everywhere she went her all too famous last name preceded her. It seemed she was forgiven for the way she turned out because of who she was and the “delicate” situation that surrounded her childhood like a warm fuzzy blanket. Both her parents died when she was barely eight years old while they were out adventuring with her grandfather in a remote land. Her father was an only child, her grandmother having died two years prior, and her grandfather’s previous wife bared him no children and had died when he was still a young man.
Grief came heavily upon her grandfather so much so that he had taken Aurora and a few precious things and moved them all from Quatermain Manor on the outskirts of London, to the middle of Africa where Aurora continued to flourish. But not before a very nasty feud broke out between her grandfather and her mother’s parents over the custody of the only grandchild. The maids of the Manor did their best to shield a young Aurora from the daily fights and harsh words, and it wasn’t until a fateful day when she was only nine that the harsh truth came crashing down around her. She had been playing in the river on the property, much to the maids dismay, and had come in running, wet, her dress hems torn beyond repair and mud covering her legs, hands, and spotted across her cheeks, but very excited for she had found something in the river and was anxious to show her grandfather. She ran into the library in time to hear her mother’s father shout that his daughter should have never married a damn Quatermain. Aurora clutched the small artifact to her chest and she hadn’t realized she had gasped until her grandfather addressed her in a soft calm voice.
“Aurora, do you know who these people are?” Aurora slowly nodded and took a few steps closer to her grandfather.
“They are my mother’s parents.” She replied not taking her eyes off of them.
“Do you know why they are here?” Her grandfather asked and Aurora considered the question for a moment before answering.
“Because they are upset at you for letting mother die.” She said realizing she really didn’t know the answer.
“They are here for you Aurora. They’ve come to take you to live with them.” Her grandfather said in a toneless voice and Aurora’s eyes widened and she looked at him.
“Why? They don’t love me, they didn’t even love mother!” Aurora said in a panic and the library burst into an uproar.
“Quatermain! What have you been telling out granddaughter!” her mother’s father roared.
“I am not your granddaughter!” Aurora screamed loudly. “My mother told me that you would have no part in her life if she married my father, a man whom she loved more than anything, you didn’t even attend her wedding so therefore you did not love her. You weren’t there for the birth of your only grandchild, so therefore you do not love me! And I will not be leaving the only home I have ever known to live with strangers I do not wish to know!” And with that Aurora turned on her heel and ran from the library, ignoring the sobs coming from her mother’s mother, and the hot salty tears running down her own cheeks, down the hall and out the rear door. She ran hard towards the river and then beyond it in to the wilderness. Aurora was missing for three days before her grandfather found her sitting high up in a tree, refusing to come down so he climbed up to her and sat on a branch across from her and told her that her mother’s parent had left for good, leaving her in his care and well being. Aurora had looked at him a moment before carefully crawling into his lap and placing her head against his chest to listen to his heart.
“Are you upset at me for what happened to your parents?” he asked her softly and immediately she pulled back from him and shook her head making the dark red curls surrounding her face dance wildly.
“Never!” she exclaimed wide eyed and innocent. “You’ve taught me the dangers of adventuring as well as my parents. I’d never blame you.” Her grandfather smiled and pulled her close and it was that moment that she remembered the small artifact she had been so anxious to show him, and upon examining it he merely chuckled and remarked.
“Well, you’ll be an adventurer yet Aurora!”
She was almost sure her grandfather still to this day, had no clue the affect those seven words had had on her that day, or the years to follow.
“Miss Quatermain?” a voice asked softly making Aurora blink and be reminded of the present. “We’re here.” Aurora smiled and stepped unassisted out of the carriage. It would be a two week train ride from China to London, with nothing better to do then to recall old memories. At least she could only hope.
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