The Daughters of Julian Dane

by Lucile McCluskey

  Addie and Della stopped in awe as they stepped inside the door. It was all so big, so spacious, so elegant, so much more than anything either of them had ever seen or imagined. The grand marble stairway leading from the black and white marble floor of the foyer, a room that seemed as big as their entire house, the tall, massive pocket doors on the left and right of them was more than they could comprehend.

  Della looked up and figured the ceiling must be thirty feet from them. Then she took in the big, round, marble topped table in the center of the room that held a huge urn with Chinese figures on it. Miss Willy must have kept fresh flowers in it, she thought – but it would take an armload to fill it. It now stood empty.

  Mattie Horn waited while they took it all in. After all, these were the new owners – at least this sixteen year old girl was. And her resemblance to the portrait of Julian Dane was so startling. How could that be? What did it all mean?

  “It’s all so breathtaking,” Della said as she turned to the smiling Mattie.

  “I agree,” the woman said. “I’ve been here fifteen years, and it still amazes me. The bedroom is this way.” She led them past the stairway to a small hall under the stairs and to another set of huge pocket doors of dark polished wood.

  “You coming, Addie,” Della asked her daughter, who had paused to look at a group of paintings.

  Addie was sure they were expensive paintings, but they weren’t to her liking anymore than that ugly urn was. Her favorite painter was Norman Rockwell. She followed slowly, gaping at everything she could see.

  “I’m going to make you a hot lunch and bring it to you,” Mattie said to Della as she slid back one of the doors, “and then let you take a nice nap. You’ll be real comfortable here,” she said again as she ran her hand over the white coverlet and adjusted a mountain of pillows of various shapes and sizes. Deftly, she turned back the bed for Della to climb into it.

  Della sighed at the size and beauty of the bed waiting for her. It was so inviting, it made her feel just how weary she really was.

  “Just look at that bed!” Addie exclaimed. The headboard almost touches the ceiling. And did you ever see so many pillows? You’ll get lost in them,” she giggled. Mama, it’s so big, we can both sleep in it, can’t we?”

  “Yes, honey,” Della said weakly, and Addie realized just how exhausted her mother must be. Mattie had left the room saying she’d be back in just a few minutes with Della’s lunch. Addie helped her mother undress down to her underclothes, and soon had her tucked snugly under the sheet and a light blanket.

  “I’m going out to bring in the packages and hang up our new clothes. One of those doors has to be a closet, and I’m going to have to dry those damp robes.” Addie looked at her mother whose eyes were already closed. Her mother was so tired she couldn’t appreciate this beautiful room, Addie thought, and again felt a sense of guilt. Maybe when she had lunch and a good nap, she hoped.

  Addie looked around at the room. Everything was so big. The furniture was heavy, ornately carved of a dark, well-polished wood. There was an oblong table on one side of the bed, and a large, massive chest on the other side. On the outside wall, just past the French glass doors, was a sitting area with a couch, two chairs and two side tables with lamps, and a coffee table. Besides this grouping on the inside wall was a door that Addie opened. It was a beautiful gray and white bathroom with shiny chrome fixtures. It was so big and roomy, and there were two doors in it. She didn’t go into the bathroom, but walked past a big dresser and a large chest of drawers to another door. Opening it, she found a closet as large as her parent’s bedroom with a big mirror on the opposite wall. It had built in drawers, shoe racks, cabinets, and enough hanging space for a whole family’s clothing. She shut the door quickly as Miss Mattie came through the open pocket door carrying a tray with steaming soup, heavenly smelling rolls, cheeses, a bowl of peach and pear halves, and a tall glass of amber liquid that she said was fruit tea.

  “And our lunch will be ready in the kitchen in just a matter of minutes,” she said to Addie as she placed the tray on the table for Della.

  “I’ll wash my hands,” she said, returning to the door of the bathroom. While she was there, she opened one of the other doors to find a small room with an ancient wheel chair, bedpans, and other items necessary for a person who spent most of their time in bed. She checked the other door and found it a large linen closet.

  When she returned to the bedroom, Della was seated at the oblong table enjoying her lunch. She stopped and kissed the top of Della’s head. “I’m glad you’re enjoying that delicious smelling food.”

  “I am. It’s so good, and Mattie is waiting for you.”

  Addie glanced up to see Mattie standing just outside the open door. She thanked her for bringing her mother’s lunch and followed her down the hall to the kitchen. Although, she wasn’t hungry after the big breakfast she had eaten with Mr. Cutler at the Log House, her mother’s had smelled so good, she couldn’t resist. Afterwards, she told herself, she had to unload the car and get their clothes hung up.

  At the kitchen door, she stopped and stood in awe. It wasn’t big, it was huge, with appliances that Addie didn’t even recognize. Gleaming pots and pans hung from a rack over a large work area in the middle of the room. A tall round, pedestal table stood close to the work counter, and it was set for two people with steaming bowls of tomato bisque, and there was that heavenly aroma of homemade rolls again. “Wow!” she exclaimed. “It’s so big, all chrome and white and gleaming.”

  “Yes, isn’t it?” Mattie agreed. “I could cook for an army in this kitchen. Have a seat, Dear.”

  Addie found the rolls tasted even better than they smelled, especially with the whipped butter, and she told Mattie so.

  “I’m so glad you like them. Eat all you like. I keep plenty of them ready to pop in the oven at any time.”

  “This is the most fabulous place. May I look around while mama sleeps?”

  Mattie smiled real big. “Addie, according to Grant Cutler, Stonegate belongs to you. You don’t need any body’s permission to do anything you like, especially, not mine.”

  Addie blushed. “Oh,” she said.

  “You can start at the bottom and go to the top, or start at the top and go to the bottom – take the stairs, front or back, or the elevator.”

  “Elevator? You mean there is an elevator?”

  “Right outside that door there. It’s beside the back stairs. I’ll show you how to operate it. It’s very simple.”

  “How many floors are there?”

  “Well, this is the main floor, but on the elevator it’s label as two, because there is the ground floor with the swimming pool, dressing rooms, exercise room, laundry, storage rooms, and even a couple of bedrooms with a connecting bath. There are other baths and shower rooms with their dressing rooms, and then there’s a very large room with a glass outside wall. Then this floor. There’s only one other bedroom and bath beside Eli Gates’ rooms. They’re mine. Then there ‘s the library, living room, dining room, breakfast room, Miss Willy’s study and bath, a couple of half baths, butler’s pantry, another pantry, a summer kitchen, oh, and a half bath off the back hallway. On the third floor, there is seven bedrooms with baths and dressing rooms or walk in closets, a sitting room with its bath and closet, a linen room, and a utility room.”

  “Mercy! Why did they build so many bedrooms?”

  “I asked Miss Willy that once, and she said it appeared that her mother was copying some place she had known in Europe where she had lived or wished she had lived. No one ever knew for sure. And the fourth floor is mostly a large storage area. It does have two bedrooms and a connecting bath like on the ground floor for hired help. I think even they are filled with furniture and stuff.”

  “What is stored there?”

  “Addie, Miss Willy was a fine person to work for. In fact, you couldn’t ask for better, but she had a few peculiarities. Like, she never went through a door to the outside except for her bedroom balcony
. Didn’t even go out on any of the porches until she had the back porch turned into a summer kitchen for canning and freezing vegetables. I guess no one knew why she made herself such a prisoner here.”

  Yes, someone knows, Addie thought. I do and so does my family and Donnie Whitefield.

  “Anyhow, she took a lot of magazines, especially those featuring homes. She’d be flipping through one and suddenly come across the picture of a room she liked, and she would decide she wanted a room just like that one in the magazine. She’d choose a room she was tired of, and everything in that room, from draperies to the carpet would be taken to the fourth floor. Then she’d get busy recreating the room like the one in the magazine. I figured it was her way of going places. For once the room was finished, she’d live in it until she was tired of it. Then she’d go back to her regular room. Sometimes I never knew where to find her.”

  “She must have made life awfully interesting.”

  “I can’t say it was dull.”

  “Well, after I bring in our shopping, hang up our clothes, and do something with two damp robes, I think I’ll start with the top and go to the bottom. I’d like to see what all you can see from up there. This was a mighty good lunch, Miss Mattie. Thank you for it.”

  “You’re more than welcome. You two are my responsibility while you’re here, and I’m going to love having you. I’ll check on Della while you go to the car to get your things. She’s probably asleep by now.”

  Chapter Thirty–two

  Jake Mobley parked his company car, a blue Mercury, beside his daughter’s red Camaro in the driveway of their modest size brick house. His wife, Eve’s, car would be in the one car garage where she parked it on days when she didn’t plan to go out, which was most always Saturdays. This being the day of the week she devoted to getting caught up on household chores, getting ready for Sunday, and spending her ‘rest’ time gossiping on the phone, not that she considered it gossiping. To her, it was letting everybody in on the truth, especially her best friend, Mavis Brown. It was now time to put a stop to it.

  He slammed the car door, and a few steps later slammed the front door of his house. He was angry, and he wanted those two to know it. Once inside the house, the sound of his wife and his daughter’s voices reached him from Evelyn Ann’s bedroom. No doubt they were getting ready for the church’s Spring trip to Florida and Disney World for the young people. They were to leave after morning services the next day.

  Eve appeared in the small hallway. “Jake! I thought you took your lunch this morning. I’ll have you something ready in just a few minutes.”

  “I did, but I fed it to a stay dog. I ate an early lunch at the Log House, then went to the bank.”

  Eve’s face brightened. “You did it! You sold the Lincoln! You sold it! Didn’t you?” she exclaimed.

  “Yes. I sold the Lincoln. I’m sure you want to know who bought it. Don’t you?”

  “That expensive car! Of course I do. Who on earth in this town could afford it?”

  Evelyn Ann came running out of her bedroom. “Daddy! You sold it! Oh, that’s wonderful! Now I can have some more spending money. I’ll need at least a hundred more. Everything is so expensive at Disney World.”

  Jake Mobley ignored his daughter. “Grant Cutler brought Della Martin and her daughter in this morning. The Martins bought the car. Grant Cutler wrote a check for it.”

  Eve Mobley absolutely screamed. “I knew it! I knew it! Didn’t I tell you?” she exclaimed to her daughter. “Now, Mavis will believe me! Just you mark my word. Della Martin is pregnant by our good Reverend Morris Kirkland. And now she’s planning a big paternity suit. I always heard that Kirkland came from money. That Cutler is not dumb. He’s going to get her a fantastic settlement. He’ll get his money back in a big fat fee. Oh, I can’t wait to tell Mavis.”

  “You were right, Mama, as usual. That woman should be ashamed to show her face in this town, especially in that big, black Lincoln.”

  “Yeah. Raise her from a penniless person to one of apparent means. It’ll get her a bigger settlement.”

  Jake had just stood there listening to his wife and daughter enjoying their malicious past time. Then he yelled, “Stop it! That will do!” He shouted.

  His wife and daughter turned to stare at him in surprise.

  “If either of you ever mention Della Martin’s name again,” he said calmly, quietly, “I’ll rip that phone out of the wall, and it will never be put back, except that you have this weekend to undo some of the evil you have already done. You two are responsible for the terrible gossip going around about that woman, and you’re going to put a stop to it.”

  “What is the matter with you?” Eve yelled.

  Jake ignored her. “Every busybody in this town that you’ve said one word to about Della Martin is going to be called. And you and Evelyn Ann are going to refute every word you’ve said.” Now he raised his voice very loud. “Do you hear me?”

  “Have you lost your mind?” his wife yelled just as loud. “Don’t you raise your voice to me! And just who do you think you are, Jake Mobley, demanding that Evelyn Ann and I do anything?”

  In a calmer voice, Jake said, “I’m glad you asked that. I am the person who pays the bills in this house – all by myself, but that too is going to end. I believe the saying is that idleness is the Devil’s workshop. Well, the two of you are going to become busy, too busy to operate the town’s gossip mill.”

  Eve opened her mouth, but before she uttered a word, Jake held up his hand to her. “Don’t say a word, Eve until I’m finished!”

  “Evelyn Ann, if you want to keep that car, you will get a part time job to pay the exorbitant insurance premiums, or it will be put on the lot and sold.”

  The girl gasped, “Daddy! What have I done? Mama, he can’t do this!”

  “Jake Mobley, have you lost your senses, or have you been drinking?” Eve yelled. “Why, the very idea of my daughter getting a job! Are you crazy?”

  “No. I have just come to my senses,” he said calmly.

  “Well, if you think ...”

  “I don’t think, Eve. I know. And you, Eve, they are taking applications at the employment office for sales clerks at the new Creek Falls shopping mall. It will open soon, and I know it’s twenty miles away, but it’s a straight drive – shouldn’t take you more than thirty minutes each way. You are to go fill out an application on Monday. Maybe, if the two of you have something to fill up your idle time, you won’t continue to destroy people’s reputation, and even lives, with your gossiping tongues.”

  Calmly, Eve said, “You have lost your mind, absolutely lost it. Why, the idea of me working as a sales clerk. I should think you’d be ashamed to have your wife and daughter looking for jobs.”

  “The thing I’m ashamed of is that my wife and daughter are known as the two biggest gossips in the world,” he said a bit loud, and not quite so calm.

  “Are we so destitute that your wife and daughter have to go to work? Just tell me, are we?” Eve demanded.

  “We aren’t yet, and we’re not going to be, and I’m not going to have a heart attack worrying about my every paycheck. Whether you like it or not, Eve, you and Evelyn Ann are going to go to work. And you’re going to stop this gossip going around about Della Martin. Otherwise, you will become responsible for the bills at this house all by yourselves. I’ve had enough.”

  Evelyn Ann started crying. “Now look what you’ve done, upsetting this child like this,” Eve said putting her arms around her daughter. “I think you had better go back to work! Maybe, you can come to your senses, and come home in a better frame of mind.”

  “I’m going back to work, but when I come in at six-fifteen, I expect supper to be on the table, and a list of gossipers, that either of you have said one word about Della Martin to, that you have called. I want their names and phone numbers. I intend to check with each of them.”

  “I’ll do no such a thing, and neither will Evelyn Ann.”

  “Oh, I think you will.”
He took a list from his pocket and laid it on the table beside the sofa. “I deposited eight hundred in the checking account. This is list of bills you are to pay. And no, Evelyn Ann, there will be no more spending money for your trip. If you can’t make it on what you have, then I suggest you stay home. You also won’t go unless you’ve done your share of telephoning and made me a list I can check on.” The girl burst out crying even louder. Jake turned and walked out the front door, slamming it on their screams of protest.

  Addie was delighted with the elevator. It was a room about six feet square with maroon carpeting and brass fixtures. She rode it to the top floor, down to the bottom, and back to the top before opening the doors. She got out and shut both doors until they clicked, in case anyone else needed to use it, just as Miss Mattie had showed her to do.

  She turned and looked about her at all the furniture and furnishings packed wall to wall and piled helter-skelter on everything and anything – so high she couldn’t see above it. She flipped on a light switch beside the elevator door. Any light coming from the windows across the room was dim from being shut out by the contents of the room, all of which looked new to her. She made her way between mattresses, dressers, beds, all sorts and sizes of tables, chairs, and chests. She wanted to see what she could see from this high up – if she could ever get to the windows? Everything was covered with a good layer of dust. She worked carefully around floral arrangements, mirrors, pictures, candleholders, trays, dishes, books, pillows, bedspreads, rugs, curtains, and draperies all thrown together. She sneezed.

  “Bless You.”

  She stopped where she was, “Who’s here?” No answer. “Who are you? What are you doing here? Miss Mattie didn’t say anyone else was in the mansion. Where are you?”

  “I live here.” came the answer. Then she realized – it wasn’t an audible answer. She was hearing it in her mind. “Oh, no!” she moaned. Not another one! “Are you Julian Dane?” she asked with a bit of fear. “Where are you?”