Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS WRITER
No one who was there forgot the day that Rosemary Duncan staged the coup that dethroned her mother in law. Priscilla Duncan had reigned over the community of Salty Creek, the fourth Mrs Duncan to do so, for almost four decades. When news came that her son, Sandy (the fifth), was to be married, gossip and speculation about his fiancée seeped under doorways and floated through the open pub doorway for weeks.
The Duncans were Salty Creek royalty. Ever since the first Alexander Duncan had edged out the competition to squat on the best piece of land for a hundred miles around, the town had been a Duncan fiefdom. Each successive head of the Duncan family was named Alexander, and the locals began to distinguish one from another by using their ordinal number, in the royal fashion. If this habit began with a hint of mockery, then by the time of Priscilla’s husband, Sandy the fourth, the term had long since become purely descriptive. The Duncans were woven into the fabric of Salty Creek, their legitimacy grounded in the sincere belief they shared with their fellow citizens that the interests of the town and those of the family were indivisible. They employed a combination of ruthlessness and gracious condescension, always with an eye to the main chance, and their networks of patronage were unfathomable.
The real key to the Duncan family success lay in the gift, displayed by Sandy after Sandy, of selecting wives. Fair, tall, well bred and fertile, all Duncan wives developed into formidable matrons. While their husbands conducted the public activities of business and government, the incumbent Mrs Duncan made social connections, gathered information, persuaded, bullied and flattered, always with a light touch, a good deal of charm, and reassuringly clear expectations. That was why it was utterly inexplicable to Priscilla when her son presented her with Rosemary as his bride. Average in height, perfectly normal looking and slightly socially awkward, she seemed to lack any particularly distinguishing features that might make her an unappealing daughter-in-law. For Priscilla, however, the possession of distinguishing features was prerequisite to be a Duncan wife, and the apparent lack of any represented an irredeemable sin. She was, however, not one to allow disappointment to overtake her. A woman of resolve and firmness, she chose to ignore the existence of Mrs Sandy Duncan the fifth.