Once Beautiful

"The Doctor and His Wife"


Jack Kuhn had always been a lucky man. He was born into a very well to do family and although his marriage was arranged, it was a smart match. Ever since he and Molly McCoy were children, they enjoyed spending time together and when they were eighteen, their parents set about planning their wedding. Jack feared he would look ridiculous in his expensive black tailcoat and red necktie with his orange curly hair and large green eyes, his pale skin and his freckles. Those same freckles were adorable on Molly and he was sure she’d be lovely in her white wedding gown, a veil attached to a crown of white baby roses in her long black curls which so neatly brought out the color of her lovely blue eyes. It was Jack’s worry that those beautiful eyes would be on him the entire time. However, when the day came and Jack stood at the altar, all that filled his head was the smile on Molly’s face as her father, the elderly banker Nathan McCoy, walked her down the aisle towards Jack.

“You look ever so right, darling!” Molly whispered to Jack as she arrived next to him. Jack smiled a little, a happy laugh coming over his face, Molly had never grown out of her buck teeth and her nose was still rather pointy, but those flaws which might have made Jack consider any other woman plain just made Molly seem all the more beautiful since he was in love with her and not just her appearance.

“Thank you, my beauty.” Jack bowed to her, but the two had to straighten up looking a little embarrassed when Father Smith cleared his throat and gave them a sharp paternal look.

“I’ll be thankin’ ye to avoid yer old Sunday school habits, you tae.” Father Smith laughed a bit, shaking his head. “Anyhow…” He addressed the guests. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered today tae join Jack Kuhn and Molly McCoy in the bond of holy matrimony….”

The wedding went by so fast; it was the happiest day in the lives of these two privileged young socialites, when the Father said the final words “You may kiss the bride!” Jack and Molly kissed eagerly but still a simple chaste kiss on the lips as was proper for their station in society.

That night, they were moved into a beautiful and expensive manor filled with tasteful furnishings and artwork, all a wealthy young couple could ever want. Jack would begin work as a physician in his father’s offices the very next day so as to make more money with which to buy Molly anything she could ever want and so it was that she wore the finest clothing and jewelry in town. What she would do without money, no one knew, for as beautiful as Molly was and as sweet and kindhearted, there was nothing between her ears but air. She was a silly girl who never used her head or had a single thought about anything like politics or the arts at all.

Jack, on the other hand, was a bit shy, but handsome and intelligent. Without Molly and her social outings, he would probably never leave his house. This was why he truly loved her, Molly was so kind to him and treated him like he was the most important person in the world and said so to everyone in the neighborhood.
Within a year of their marriage, Molly became pregnant and in December of the year eighteen hundred and eighty seven, she gave birth to a beautiful black haired blue eyed baby boy who she named Ryan. Overjoyed that she had given her husband a son, she dressed her boy in the finest baby clothes and pushed him about in the fanciest pram she could find when they were out on a stroll, sometimes she simply carried him about in her arms just to keep her little boy close to her heart. Father Smith, of course, baptized Ryan into the Protestant Church of England just as he’d baptized both Molly and Jack when they were babies.

However, with Molly and Jack out more often, showing Ryan off to the world, another man had become interested in Molly. A cruel and calculating Scotland Yard Officer even wealthier than Jack named Corvair Anderson. Anderson had a cruel idea in store for Jack and he carried this out when Ryan was only two years old. He accused Jack Kuhn of being legally insane and of committing the murders of five prostitutes. He sent Jack away to be permanently locked away in an asylum in Australia for the rest of his life.

Poor Molly had no idea what had happened and so every day she would just wait and wait for Jack to come home. She would feed and bathe her child, play with him, read to him, rock him in her arms and put him to bed everyday rarely ever leaving her window. Corvair would watch her from his home across the street every day. Molly never noticed this; she was always too busy taking care of Ryan. Eventually, though, money became tight and Molly didn’t know what to do, so she kept her savings tight enough to keep her home and fine items, but in order to buy food for her growing son and herself as well, she was forced to turn to prostitution on the streets of London. Anderson had her now. He could easily have her arrested for this and so one evening he came calling.


“Oh Molly, my love….” Corvair smirked when Molly answered the door.

“Oh dear….Um….I…..I…I’m afraid you need to leave!” Molly said, trying to close the door on Corvair, however, he placed his foot between the door and the frame to stop it from closing. He pushed into the doorway, gripping the doorframe and leaning in.


“Well, my dear, I’m afraid you will owe quite a fine and a bit of jail time for your little money making venture.” He sneered, grabbing Molly’s shoulders and pushing her up against the wall.

Molly trembled but looked up the stairs to the gorgeous mahogany door behind which Ryan lay asleep in her cradle. She knew she had to do this for him. “Alright, Corvair….” She said, leading him into the house and up to her room. The usually regal red and gold silks and satins seemed to be dull and lusterless, the lovely French windows and the doors to the balcony seemed like eyes leering tauntingly at her. Even so, she tried to ignore it, sitting on her bed and slowly undoing her corset, Corvair refused to wait that long, though and simply grabbed a pair of sewing scissors from Molly’s red silk sewing basket by the bedside, shredding the ties of her corset to pieces causing it to fall off. Molly’s body beneath the corset was slightly pudgy, a symbol of her prior status in that she could afford to eat fine foods, as Corvair shredded her dress and shoved her down, Molly was slightly embarrassed for the first time about her body. She’d known when she’d been with Jack that he loved her for who she was and not for her body, but Corvair wasn’t anywhere near as kind as Jack and might taunt her. He didn’t despite the sprinkling of freckles over the pudgy skin and the bags under her eyes from not getting as much sleep as she used to or the fact that there was grey coming through her black hair from the stress of life without a husband.

Corvair smirked wickedly as he ran his hands over her body exploring every inch. Molly choked back tears as he felt her up, she didn’t want to wake Ryan with her sobs or screams, so she just lay back and took what Corvair did to her, every painful thrust, every agonizing prod or slam. When he got off of her and left, the bed was a mess of blood and bodily fluid. Molly was ashamed and humiliated, she had defiled the bed she and Jack had once willingly and lovingly shared, she’d tarnished the love she still had for Jack and she could never be a mother to Ryan knowing how she’d betrayed his father.

In desperation, Molly threw on a robe, tears streaming down her pudgy freckled cheeks, eyes closed tightly, her face was a hideous red mess, screwed up in a hopeless wail of despair like that of a banshee as she threw open the French doors to her balcony, ran like a wild woman to the edge and threw herself off to the street below, her long white silk robe flying about her like the wings of an angel. She landed with a sickening ‘KER-AACK!’ as every bone in her body was broken and her large frame was bruised and ruddied with blood from the smashed vessels. Her face was a grim mask of shame as she lay there spread eagled, her limbs snapped at odd angles. Upon finding her, Corvair put on his most convincing look of sorrow claiming he had been her lover after Jack left. Because of this, he managed to assume responsibility for Ryan, taking the little boy to live with him as his own child. Poor Ryan would never know the truth about his parents. Corvair already had a story for him, a cruel mother who abandoned him and a father who left, never loving him. A story Ryan would grow up hearing from his supposedly ‘loving’ foster father.