Wagon Girl

The wheels rattled over the rough cobbles, making the carriage sway gently from side to side.

Two elegant grey dappled horses pulled the carriage through the centre of the great city and the crowds on even the busiest streets that it moved down parted to let it past. To stand in the path of the duchess’ carriage was a crime and it could result in a cold and hungry evening spent in the prison.

Even knowing this, as the carriage passed through a busy market one woman refused to move. Through she was not blocking the carriage’s progression, she stood much closer than the rest who all retreated to give it a wide berth.

There was nothing particularly special about this woman. She wore commoners clothes and a wide-brimmed hat, a basket on her arm, laden down with vegetables.

As the carriage passed by the woman and the duchess made eye contact, the duchess giving her a warning scowl.

The woman stepped up onto the curb as a car passed behind her. She made brief eye-contact with a girl, no more than five, sat in a plastic wagon being pulled by two Australian Shepard Dogs dogs, their dapple patterned coats stark in the sunlight. The girl made a sour face at her before her mother urged the dogs and the wagon across the street, leaving the commoner behind.