The Burglar and Betsy's Blue Transferware

AtoZ Challenge...Letter B's 'fiction from forgotten fotos'

"Take that you dirty rotten thief"!  Those words were followed by a freshly filled, fine china teapot flung with a fury to match the impudence of the person who dared to burglarize my great great grandmother Betsy's parlor.  At least that is how the story has been told and re-told down through the generations.

It was one of the first nice days in April after an unusually long winter of being cooped up, and Betsy was  looking forward to entertaining her father's new business associate with an afternoon tea.  She had set out her Mother's treasured 'English Blue Ridgeway' Tea Service being ever so careful with the proper placement of each piece on the tray.  The 'Family Heirloom' set with it's blue design known as transferware, had come all the way from England without a single piece being broken or chipped, and had been a gift from her father to his bride on their wedding day. 

In her will, Betsy's mother had stipulated that the china be gifted to her daughter on her wedding day.  Tears formed in Betsy's eyes as she remembered her promise to be the caretaker of the treasured, heirloom china.  And so it was with tears in her eyes and the words of her mother on her mind, that she entered the parlor with the teapot filled to the brim with steaming hot tea to find an intruder standing in front of the lace curtained window.  A clear view of the burglar was blocked by the sunlight as it streamed through the window and illuminated the fine china teacup held in the right hand of the burglar as he studied it's worth.

Without a second thought she flung the teapot and hit the silhouetted figure square in the back of the head.  As if in slow motion, she watched as the teapot shattered...spilling hot tea down the mans back and sending china shards and streams of tea in every direction.  The man yelped in surprise and grabbed the back of his head with the his left hand and slowly crumpled to the floor all the while protecting the delicate teacup in his right hand.

Seconds later, Betsy's father stormed into the room pistol in hand ready to shoot Betsy's 'dirty rotten thief' and yelling over Betsy's screaming and the man's moaning, "What in the Hell is going on here?"  Betsy was sobbing hysterically, "Oh no, look what I've done to Mother's Teapot.  It's all his fault father...Shoot Him!!!!" 

Months later,  as Betsy was telling her bridesmaids the story behind her mother's wedding gift of the set of Transferware, she went on to explain the mis-matched Teapot.  When she finished the 'Bashing of the Burglar' story, the bridesmaids were all talking at once with, "Did your father, Shoot Him?  Was he bleeding all over the carpet?  How did he break in the Parlor?  Oh, Betsy, you brave thing, what did you do?"  Betsy's reply...

 "No Father did not shoot him. 

Yes, he bled like a stuck pig all over the carpet from the gash on the back of his head. 

He walked in the front door with Father and was waiting in the Parlor for Tea to be served."

As for what I did...I agreed to marry him on one condition."

"What was that", asked the bridesmaids in unison.

Betsy pointed to her wedding gift from her 'Beloved Burglar'.