Beth's Story, 1914
Page 9
Helena fell to the floor, weeping. “Non, non, ce n’est pas possible!” she cried. “I am faithful to my lady; I do whatever she asks of me! I would have never thrown away her locket if she had not asked me to do it!”
“Shannon, please take Helena downstairs so that she may recover her spirits,” Mr. Harrison ordered. “I am sure her employers will discipline her as they see fit.”
Shannon obliged at once. But on her way from the dining room, she paused beside me. At the neck of her dress, I could see the coppery glint of her Saint Anthony medal. The patron saint of lost things and missing people, I remembered, pleased that everything—and everyone—was back in its rightful place.
“Lady Beth,” Shannon began. “How can I ever thank you—”
“There’s no need, and there never will be,” I told her, grinning. “But I’ll see you after breakfast, I hope. I’m not satisfied with my hair, though I know Miss Dalton did her best.”
Shannon grinned back at me, then hurried Helena from the room. We could hear her sobs echoing down the hallway.
I turned my attention back to my cousin, who looked as though she were on the brink of tears herself. “Gabrielle, why?” I asked. “I was so looking forward to your visit. We’ve always had such jolly times together. What happened?”
“I would’ve liked a birthday picnic,” she whispered, staring at the floor. “Or a party. Or a necklace made of precious jewels. My birthday trip to Paris was . . . not as special as I claimed. I thought—I thought it would be easy to celebrate you, Cousin. But it was easier to covet your many fine things. I am sorry. I thought the Trufant locket would simply disappear, nothing more.”
“You were brought up better than this, Gabrielle,” Aunt Beatrice said. “I hope you’re aware of how desperately you’ve embarrassed yourself—and your family. I am canceling our trip to America. You clearly lack the maturity to undertake such a journey.”
“Maman! No!” Gabrielle exclaimed.
“Enough,” Uncle Claude said, holding up his hand. “It has been decided.”
“Oh, please, Mother, might I go?” I cried at once. “Oh, please? It would mean ever so much to me to be there when Cousin Kate receives the Katherine necklace! I’ll be on my very best behavior! I promise!”
Mother and Father looked at each other for a long moment.
“In my day, a girl your age would never go abroad on such a journey,” Mother finally said. “But times are changing. And Beth, my dear, you have proven yourself far more capable and resourceful than I ever would have imagined. Perhaps your father and I have underestimated you, and for that, I am sorry.”
I scarcely dared to breathe while I waited for her to continue.
“Yes,” she said at last. “Yes, I think it’s high time you met the other half of the Chatswood dynasty . . . with Shannon to accompany you, of course.”
“Thank you, Mother; thank you, Father!” I cried as I rushed to embrace them. “This is the most exciting day of my life! I promise I will be perfectly well behaved—a credit to the Chatswood line!”
A loud laugh filled the room as Cecily rose from the table. “Well, you’ve already done better by the Etheridge line than that shifty cousin of yours, my girl,” she announced. “You’ve got pluck—just like your great-grandmother Katherine. I daresay she’d be proud of you.”
“Great-Grandmother Elizabeth,” I corrected Cecily. I knew it was rude, but I couldn’t help myself.
Father and Aunt Beatrice exchanged an uncomfortable glance, troubled by Cecily’s wandering mind. “Come along now, Grandmother,” Aunt Beatrice said. “I think you need some rest.”
Then she turned to Gabrielle. “And you’ll take the rest of your meals in your room today, young lady,” she said. “I hope that will be ample time for all the apologies you need to compose.”
“Beth, please sit and eat something,” Mother instructed me. “I think we’ve all had enough excitement for one morning.”
I immediately slid into my chair as Mr. Harrison stepped forward to pour my tea. I was so excited that I couldn’t possibly imagine eating a single bite. But I would, of course. Mother and Father expected me to behave like an adult, and I had every intention of meeting their expectations. But that didn’t mean I had to stop daydreaming about what was to come. A smile spread across my face as my fingers rested upon the Elizabeth necklace around my neck.
To travel all the way to America . . . to see the Katherine necklace with my own two eyes . . . to celebrate Cousin Kate’s birthday with her . . . to meet Kate and my Great-Great-Aunt Katherine at last . . . and to finally, finally find the answers to some of my questions . . .
The excitement of my summer had scarcely begun!
“ ‘Then, with quaking hand, her ladyship reached for the rusty key hanging on the wall—’ ”
“Kate.”
My mother’s voice wafted to us from the doorway. I dropped my book as my lady’s maid, Nellie, leaped to her feet. Rats, I thought. If it wasn’t bad enough that Nellie and I had been caught reading when I should’ve been getting ready, now I’d lost my place in The Hidden History of Castle Claremont. And just when we were finally about to learn Lady Marian’s secret!
“I trust you’re ready for the meeting,” Mother said with a pointed look at my stocking feet.
“Yes, Mother,” I said as Nellie and I reached for my shoes at the same time, cracking our heads together. “Ow! I mean, I’m nearly ready. Just look at my hair. Didn’t Nellie work wonders with it?”
“Very stylish,” Mother said as a smile flickered across her lips. She always tried to be stern when she caught me breaking the rules, but she could never completely stop her smiles.
Nellie curtsied quickly. “Thank you, ma’am. Will there be anything else?”
“No, Nellie. I’ll escort Kate to the garden myself,” Mother replied.
With another curtsy and a nod of her head, Nellie scurried from the room.
Mother fixed her eyes on me. “Kate,” she repeated.
“I know. And I’m sorry. I was ready, really I was. I just had to put my shoes on!” My words tumbled out in a rush. “See, it’s my fault—not Nellie’s. She loves to read but never has time, so when she does my hair, I read aloud so we can both enjoy the story. So you see, she really didn’t do anything wrong—”
“No one is blaming Nellie.”
I stopped talking. Mother slipped her arm through mine as we walked into the hallway.
“Kate, sweetheart, you’re almost twelve years old,” Mother continued. “It’s high time you started acting like a Vandermeer in all that you say and do.”
“But I—”
“I appreciate Nellie’s love of stories. And she is welcome to spend her day off curled up with a book. But you must set an example for her. After all, if you don’t behave as you’re supposed to, how will Nellie and the other servants understand what is expected of them?”
We had almost reached the door. Mother paused and held both my hands. “You’re ready, Kate,” she said. “That’s why your great-grandmother and I have decided that you’ve earned the privilege of attending your first meeting of the Bridgeport Beautification Society today. Sooner than you think, you’ll be taking your place in society beside us. I’m sure I don’t have to remind you how important the next eight days are.”
I grinned at Mother. As if I could forget! In just over a week, my twelfth birthday would arrive at last. I would finally receive the Katherine necklace, a precious family heirloom that had been passed down to every Katherine in my family since my great-grandmother had received it on her twelfth birthday many years ago. Her twin sister, Elizabeth, had received a necklace, too. Each one was shaped like half a golden heart, but that was where the similarities ended. Elizabeth’s necklace was set with shimmering blue sapphires, while Katherine’s glittered with red rubies—the twins’ favorite colors. The necklaces were as meaningful as they were beautiful, for they were the last gift that the twins’ mother, Lady Mary Chatswood, my great-grea
t-grandmother, had selected for the girls before she died.
I’d heard the stories for years: that Elizabeth and Katherine were inseparable from the moment they were born. And they looked so much alike that their mother was the only one who could truly tell them apart. But only one twin could marry the heir to their English estate and become the next lady of Chatswood Manor. After Elizabeth became engaged to Cousin Maxwell, Great-Grandmother Katherine married my great-grandfather Alfred Vandermeer, and he brought her back to his home in America. Not soon after, my great-grandfather founded Vandermeer Steel, and the Vandermeer fortune grew and grew, what with Vandermeer Steel incorporated in nearly every building, bridge, and train track constructed from then until this very day. His success enabled him to make his family home on the cliffs overlooking the ocean even grander. Today, Vandermeer Manor has seventy-five rooms, four separate wings, five floors, and eight gardens. For many people in our town, it is the largest building they’ve ever seen. But for me, it is home. And though Lady Elizabeth Chatswood never set foot in Vandermeer Manor, her great-granddaughter, Beth—my cousin—would arrive here in just five days! I was so excited to meet Beth at last that I could hardly think about anything else. We knew each other only through letters, but it was obvious that we had so much in common. Our birthdays were just one month apart, and as the first girls in our generation, we shared the privilege of being named after the original Elizabeth and Katherine. I love my Great-Grandmother Katherine more than words can say, and I am honored to be her namesake. And I knew that Beth felt the same way about her name, even though her great-grandmother Elizabeth had died before Beth was born.
“Make me proud today, Kate,” Mother said to me as Emil, one of the footmen, stepped forward to open the doors to the garden. “Like you always do.”
Instantly, I put on my best, brightest smile. It had seemed so vain to practice it in the mirror, but now I was glad that Mother had insisted. “When all eyes are on you, you’ll find it hard to smile naturally,” she had told me. And she was right.
Adele Whitby wishes she lived in a grand manor home with hidden rooms and tucked-away nooks and crannies, but instead she lives in the next best thing—a condo in Florida with her husband and their two dogs, Molly and Mack. When she’s not busy writing, you can usually find her reading and relaxing on the beach under a big umbrella. She loves getting lost in a good story, especially one set in a faraway place and time.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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This Simon Spotlight edition June 2014
Copyright © 2014 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. Text by Ellie O’Ryan.
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ISBN 978-1-4814-0632-1 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4814-0631-4 (pbk)
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Library of Congress Control Number 2013943810