Chapter 1: You Know What They Say About Millineresses?
Summary:
Celestina's 1st birthday is almost here and that means Irene will be 33. Rumours circulate quicker for a millineress over the age of 30. When a young man enters her hat shop one day and to Irene, it seems to be normal. But all changes when later that week, terrible lies about her are spread in the papers and almost everyone is turned against her.
Chapter Text
Celestina's 1st Birthday was fast approaching meaning that just over a week later, she would be 33. Of course, turning 33 wasn't the end of the world for anyone, you still have a long life to live if you are 33. But for Irene, it was the age she was dreading. When most women got to 33 they would just be told that they should marry soon or have a child soon, if they hadn't done one or the other yet. For millineresses, it was slightly different. A millineress was considered to be an evil scheming woman for her entire life when the only evil thing she did was make wonderful hats that meant people were to spend their money. From the moment Irene opened her shop, people would enter just to get a glimpse of the woman. It hadn't changed since she'd gotten married to Cornelius either. When a millineress was to become 33, she would be considered a man-stealer per se. Most millineresses were married but the younger ones all had a quality in common, or so Irene had heard. Any millineress under the age of 55 was still considered 'young' to be working in a hat shop. They were usually described as irresistible seductresses. Irene had read about it in a novel once, a woman who was a millineress and coincidentally aged 33 lures married and unmarried men into her hat shop by telling them it would be perfect if they bought a hat from her shop for their wives or mother or sisters. Shed seduce them, they'd make love then she'd kill them. It was all a lie, well in Irene's case anyway. She'd never killed anyone, she may have slept with a married man...or like 5 but she had no idea they were married in the first place, so how was that her fault? Sure their now ex-wives wanted to and still want to kill her but that's a normal reaction when your husband sleeps with someone more attractive than yourself. But she would never steal someone's husband if she knew they were married and there was no way she'd seduce let alone sleep with any of those old hags' sons. None of them were her type and she was way out of their league. Besides all of that, she had remarried again and had a daughter and wouldn't risk ending that with a stupid mistake.
But the rumours had already started. People had started coming into the shop just to get a glimpse of Irene, just like they used to. They'd send young men into the shop and ask them to return with some form of evidence proving that Irene and other millineresses alike were all wicked women. One day a man was sent in. He looked familiar although he was nowhere near as young as some of the other men. They'd all been between 18 and 24 but this man was around 28-29. "Hello Ms, could you tell me what hat you'd recommend for a beautiful young woman like yourself?" he asked "Oh well, you can keep trying to flatter me all you want but it isn't going to work" she laughed. Irene had caught onto the tricks by now and she was sick and tired of them "I'm sorry, whatever do you mean?" "What I'm saying is, don't call me beautiful because I already have a husband, flirting doesn't really suit you and don't call me young when I am clearly older than you. I know you are in here to get me to prove that millineresses are wicked women, but it's not going to happen." she smiled at him. "Now if you are really going to buy a hat, what sort did you have in mind?" she asked, he just laughed "Alright you caught me, I am here to prove you're a wicked woman. So I'm just gonna come over there and ya know, kiss you" he said, laughing. "You don't want to do that", Irene panicked. He started to kiss her and she pushed him away, he didn't stop no matter what she did. "Get off me!" she pushed him, "Oh and one other thing, get out of my hat shop! You are wasting my time!" she shouted "You can't kick out a customer" "I can and I will now get out!" Irene screamed, she then slapped him across the face. It left a bright red mark on his cheek and her nails scratched just above his eye making it bleed. The man ran out of the shop and what Irene hadn't realised is that yes she had disposed of the man stealing millineress rumour but by shouting at him she'd proved the fact that millineresses were wicked women.
The people of New York started talking and she hated it. She'd come home on the train every day and Cornelius would ask what was wrong and she'd always just answer that it was either too hot or too cold in New York that day. These rumours had gotten to the point that they were being carried around, not only in New York but Yonkers as well. "Irene, love. Come here," Cornelius shouted from the kitchen. "Coming" She made her way to the kitchen carrying baby Celestina. "Have you seen this?" he asked pointing at a newspaper. The headline was 'New York Millineress is a Wicked Woman' and it had a small description before telling you what page the full article was on. She put Celestina down on the floor and took the newspaper.
The description read: Ms Irene Molloy-Hackl, owner of Irene Molloy Millinery in New York is being called a wicked woman for shouting at a 27-year-old man. This man, Mr George Winston, was apparently in Ms Molloy-Hackl's shop last Friday afternoon when he asked the millineress, age 32, whether there was a hat she could recommend to buy for a young woman. This is apparently when Ms Molloy-Hackl shouted at Mr Winston to get out of her hat shop and to stop wasting her time and then proceeded to slap him across the face and scrape above his eyebrow with her nails making it bleed. Mr Winston said on the matter "I entered that shop ready to buy a hat for my wife, and I must admit that Ms Molloy-Hackl is a gorgeous woman. She ended up coming up to me and flirting with me, she began to kiss me and appeared to be ready to make love to me. I slowly pushed her off of me because I am a married man after all and she is a married woman. Then I went on to compliment her, telling her she was kind and had a beautiful shop when she just blew up in my face shouting at me to get out of the shop and she kept insulting me. She said that I should never return to the hat shop again. I thought it was a bit much to say to a person who was going to become a customer. I ended up trying to explain what I meant by being in there and why I was there when she slapped me, I fell to the floor and when I put my hand on my forehead it was bleeding. If that's her attitude and temper then I wouldn't want to be her husband". Ms Molloy-Hackl is now viewed as evil by many people from New York.
It crushed Irene. To know that Cornelius read that about her, the exaggeration. "Cornelius, I didn't mean to slap him, I got out of control. He was lying though, it's all over-exaggerated" she said, there were tears in her eyes, "Irene, you assaulted someone. You'll get imprisoned for that" Cornelius answered "I was trying to protect myself" "There was no need to assault a man, Irene. Not only did you do that but you also kissed him and were about to make love to him. Irene, why?" she began crying and ran upstairs. "Irene! Please" Cornelius shouted, following her. She locked their bedroom door and just cried. Everyone had been turned against her and she knew it was only a matter of about 10 days until it would all be confirmed. She was supposed to have 10 days until any large accusations were made about her, but they came too soon. Irene had made her mind up then and there. She couldn't live any longer, nobody cared about her as a person. Even her own husband believed the people in the papers rather than her. If that wasn't enough to make her decide that ending her life was the best idea, then what else was? She'd made her mind up, the next morning she would be off to the apothecary next door to her hat shop. If her own husband didn't believe her, who else would? and besides, any husband who doesn't believe his wife wouldn't care if she died.
Chapter 2: Buy Arsenic from Amanda's Apothecary
Summary:
Irene has made her mind up and she is off to an apothecary as soon as she wakes up. It happens to be run by an old friend but she's not gonna tell her what she's using the poison for, because that would be stupid. To make it seem like she isn't killing herself, Irene decides to mix the poison with her whiskey because Cornelius won't suspect a thing from his wife then, right?
Chapter Text
She had lived a good life, well parts of it were good. The day she met Peter and the day they married, the day she hired Minnie, the day she met Dolly, the day she met Cornelius, her and Cornelius' wedding day, the day she found out she was expecting Celestina and when her little princess was born. They were such good memories they were the good parts of her life. But unlike most things, the negatives outweighed the positives in this situation. When she thought about it in more detail, her life had been a sad and miserable mess. The bad days were always there like the bitter taste of coffee if you were going to drink it without the cream and sugar. The day Peter was diagnosed with an incurable illness, every single miscarriage, Peter's funeral, the wardrobe incident, the day a man broke into the hat shop and did the most unspeakable and disgusting things to her without her consent and now the rumours in the papers about her supposedly attempting to sexually assault someone who was trying to do it to her. The thoughts made her sick and the only way to get rid of them was to die. Celestina was just young enough so that if Irene was to die she wouldn't remember anything about her mother. It was the perfect plan
11 am
"Cornelius, I'm off to work," Irene said getting up off the sofa. "I thought you said that you got married to get away from working there?" Cornelius said, "No, I was going to marry Horace Vandergelder for that reason, I married you because I love you, dear" she smiled. Irene leaned down and kissed him then kissed Celestina on the head, "I'll be back soon, love you" she said before leaving the house. When she arrived at work, Minnie was there to greet her and to give her all the orders they had for the day. Minnie, you wouldn't mind if I went to grab something from the apothecary next door, would you?" Irene asked, "No, I wouldn't mind. But why would you need to go to an apothecary? You already have plenty of rumours in the papers, more will spread like wildfire if people see you go into an apothecary." Minnie said, "I know but I have to buy something from there, see you in a bit Minnie" "Bye". Irene walked out of the shop and into the apothecary on the corner knowing that it would be in the papers. The bell on the door rang and a woman appeared from behind the counter, "Ahh so the famous Ms Molloy-Hackl stops by my apothecary for the first time in 10 years," she said "Oh shut it will you" Irene answered, "What can I do for you today, Irene?" "Well, I need to buy some sort of poison, Amanda. I don't care what type it just needs to be strong." "Gonna kill Cornelius, Rena?" Amanda laughed, "How dare you suggest such a thing, Mandy. I'm not going to kill my husband, I'm going to kill something, but not my husband" she replied. "Is it rats?" "Yes, it's rats, the horrible little things". Amanda got her ladder and climbed up to the third step. She pushed against the wall and the wheels moved her to the middle of the shelf. She pulled down a large jar filled with blue-grey powder and a scoop. Amanda also pulled down a smaller jar, a pair of gloves and a mask of sorts. "Ok, I have arsenic. You should give it in very, very small doses. Only a pinch at a time and I suggest you wear gloves when doing it. Make sure you clean the area you open the bottle thoroughly, very, very thoroughly. Do not eat it or anything like that but you have enough common sense to not do that," Amanda said scooping the powder into the jar, "it should take about a week to kill them but then you should still have some of it just in case they come back".
"How much is that then?" Irene asked, "You can have it for free, Irene" Amanda answered. "Thank you, Mandy. I promise I'll come in to talk more often" "Yeah, yeah. See you, Rena" she waved as Irene left the shop. It was going to be hard to sneak the arsenic past Cornelius but she could do it. There were two strategies she could use. Strategy number 1, taking the arsenic at work or strategy number 2, taking the arsenic at home. She almost instantly decided against the first strategy, so Irene went with the second. But how was she going to take it without Cornelius seeing her consume this powder? There happened to be a poster on the inside wall of Amanda's Apothecary stating that arsenic dissolved well in liquid, but dissolved better in alcohol. Alcohol it was. Irene already drank whiskey from time to time and Cornelius never really drank the stuff so she was fine with drinking that.
7 pm
Irene walked through the front door to see that Cornelius was sitting on the couch reading one of Irene's books with Celestina asleep in his lap. "I'm back, love" she whispered, placing her bag down on the table by the door. "Hello, darling," he said standing up, bringing Celestina up to lay on his chest. "I'll just take the baby upstairs and I'll be back down," Cornelius said as he walked up the stair to Celestina's room. Irene took this as her golden opportunity to hide the small bottle of death from her purse. She took the bottle of whiskey out of the cupboard and a glass from the shelf. She poured herself a drink and before Cornelius came down the stairs, she took a pinch out and stirred it into the alcohol. She licked her finger, it tasted like a very subtle bitter-almond flavour. It wasn't unpleasant but it wasn't nice either. She kept the arsenic bottle in her bag and downed the glass of whiskey. The poison and alcohol burning her throat in the most painfully satisfying way. She coughed a little after drinking it. The slight almond taste was still in the back of her throat so she poured herself another glass and went to sit down on the sofa, bringing the bottle with her. Cornelius was coming down the stairs as she did so. "Why the bottle?" he asked, sitting down next to her "I don't know, I just feel like drinking tonight" she smiled at him. Irene lay her head down on his chest and he wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "Cornelius?" "Yes, Irene?" she paused for a moment to take a sip of her drink, "You don't believe those rumours in the papers about me, do you?" the red-head looked up at him "Well, I don't know how to feel about them, dear. It doesn't seem like something you'd do, but then again I don't know everything about you," he answered. She closed her eyes and tilted her head away from him. "I'm going to bed," she said, standing up quickly and picking up the bottle of whiskey too. "Irene, wait," Cornelius said, grabbing her arm. "I'm sorry," she pulled away from him, took the bottle and went up to their room.
This was going to be a long week.