by Adele Whitby
But when Betsy returned to the table carrying a small box, she walked right past me—and stopped at Mom.
“Here, Aunt Kate,” she said. “This is for you.”
What’s going on? I wondered.
When Mom opened the box, a cry escaped her lips. She snapped the box closed and folded her hands over her face. Dad was by her side in an instant.
“Mom?” I exclaimed as I jumped up from the table. “Mom! What is it? What’s wrong?”
But when she looked at me, I realized that Mom wasn’t upset at all. Her face shone with a greater joy than I’d ever seen.
“Oh, Beth,” she whispered. “How? How did you do it?”
“That’s not important now,” Aunt Beth said. “Go ahead, Kate. You know what to do.”
Mom rose to stand beside me and took my hands in hers. She was trembling like a leaf—or maybe I was; it was hard to tell. Is this it? I wondered. Will Mom finally tell me the big secret? Is it inside that box? But how did Betsy know before me? And why did Mom seem so surprised?
“Sometimes in our lives, there are moments that we’ve always dreamed about,” Mom began. “And sometimes there are moments that we didn’t expect to happen. Right now, I’m experiencing both—at the same time.”
I must have looked awfully confused, because Mom smiled at me and rested her hand on my cheek. “When we were interrupted yesterday, Kay, I was telling you about all the ways in which you remind me of Great-Grandmother Katherine. Your determination. Your resilience. And especially your loving heart. I wish that you and Katherine could’ve known each other, Kay. I think you would’ve gotten along famously.
“But even though Great-Grandmother Katherine is gone, in many ways, she’s still with us,” Mom continued. “Her remarkable life made ripples that still impact us—like the books you and Betsy found yesterday. There are so many ways, large and small, in which we can honor her memory. And this way, I think, would please her most of all.”
Mom presented the small box to me. “Happy birthday, Kay, my dearest daughter.”
As I struggled to unlatch the tarnished clasp on the box, I figured out which one of us was shaking.
It was me.
“I—I can’t get this open—” I said.
“Here,” Betsy said as she stood up. “Let me.”
No one spoke as Betsy deftly slipped the tiny clasp out of its snug loop. Without opening the box, she returned it to me. I held my breath as I eased open the lid . . .
And saw the Katherine necklace sparkling up at me.
How could it be? It was gone—everyone knew it was gone—
Was I dreaming?
I looked wildly from Mom to Betsy to Aunt Beth to Mom again.
“What—how—” I struggled to speak.
And then I burst into tears.
In an instant, Mom and Betsy had wrapped their arms around me.
“Don’t cry, Kay! It’s your birthday!” Betsy whispered into my ear, but I could see tears shining in her eyes, too.
“Here, sweetheart,” Mom said as she took the Katherine necklace out of its box. Then she draped the precious jewels around my neck and fastened the delicate clasp. The ruby-studded pendant rested lightly over my pounding heart; the gold was cool at first, but it soon grew as warm as my own skin.
“I thought I’d never get to wear it,” I said. “I thought I’d never see it again!”
Mom kissed me and held my hand tightly, the way she used to when I was small. “Beth, how?” she asked. “How on earth did you do this?”
“We’d made arrangements to buy it from a man in London,” Aunt Beth began.
“We traveled to the city the day before my birthday,” Betsy interrupted. “But someone else had bought it, right out from under us! We were crushed, Aunt Kate! Absolutely crushed! We thought it was gone for good!”
“It made for a solemn trip home,” Aunt Beth said. “But Betsy never wavered in her faith that we would someday find it again. And as it turned out, she was right. Because on her birthday, the very next day—”
Betsy clapped her hands. “You’ll never believe it!” she cried. “Cousin Gabrielle burst into my room, first thing in the morning, with the Katherine necklace in her hand!”
“Cousin Gabrielle?” Mom exclaimed. She turned to Aunt Beth with a puzzled look on her face. “The same Cousin Gabrielle who nearly ruined your twelfth birthday?”
“The one and only,” Aunt Beth said wryly. “She wanted to make amends for what she’d done so many years ago and had set her heart on giving the Katherine necklace to Betsy.”
“I don’t know why,” Betsy spoke up. She reached into her pocket and withdrew—at last—the Elizabeth necklace. “I know you’ve been wondering where the Elizabeth necklace was, Kay. I made a promise that I wouldn’t wear it until you had the Katherine necklace. It seemed too unkind to flaunt it in front of you.”
“Oh, Betsy,” I said, feeling a rush of love for my cousin. “You didn’t have to do that. Seeing you without it was as wrong as me being without the Katherine necklace.”
“I’ve been absolutely dying to tell you that we had the Katherine necklace,” Betsy continued. “But Mum said we had to wait until the debt payment was made. Otherwise, the creditor could seize it from you. As long as we kept it in our possession, the Katherine necklace would be safe, as it technically belonged to us, not you.”
My mouth dropped open. “What a difficult secret to keep!” I exclaimed.
“You have no idea,” Betsy replied, shaking her head. “Mum and I had a terrible row about it on our first morning here because I wanted to give it to you straightaway. And that’s why I insisted you pick out a red dress for the ball. Oh, Kay, your dress will look absolutely stunning with the Katherine necklace around your neck!”
So that’s what they were arguing about! I realized with relief. Betsy didn’t want to leave early. She wanted to give me the Katherine necklace early!
“Kay, let’s promise right now to never keep another secret from each other. Families shouldn’t have secrets. They’re far too complicated,” Betsy said.
“I promise,” I replied. “But there’s still one secret that we don’t know.”
Betsy knew exactly what I meant. She turned to her mother. “Now will you tell us the big Chatswood family secret?” she asked. “We’ve been so patient!”
Mom and Aunt Beth exchanged a mysterious smile. “Yes,” Aunt Beth finally said. “Yes, I do believe it’s time.”
“And I think it’s also time for us to bid you good night,” Shannon said as she rose from the table.
“But I want to find out the secret, too!” little David said before an enormous yawn muffled his words. Everyone started to laugh.
“It’s off to bed with you, my boy,” Hank said as he lifted David onto his shoulders. “Happy birthday, Miss Kay. The necklace looks as though it were made just for you.”
Nellie embraced me, then Shannon. “I knew that the Katherine necklace would find its way home again,” Shannon said.
Then Clara hugged me, too. “I’m so happy for you,” she whispered in my ear.
“If you’ll excuse me, I have some paperwork to attend to,” Dad said with a knowing smile.
And suddenly the crowded room was nearly empty. Betsy and I moved closer together, and I reached for her hand. The moment was here: At last, we would finally, finally learn the secret that had haunted our family for generations.
“Should I begin?” Aunt Beth asked Mom, who nodded in response.
Aunt Beth turned to us. “You already know that neither Elizabeth nor Katherine was eligible to inherit Chatswood Manor due to the strict inheritance laws in England,” she told us. “Only a male heir could inherit the estate, which was why one twin would have to marry her cousin Maxwell Tynne.”
“That’s unfair,” I said.
“Terribly unfair,” Betsy added.
“Yes, it was,” Aunt Beth agreed, “but the girls knew there was nothing they could do about it. They were bound by a d
eep sense of loyalty and duty; whichever one was chosen to marry Maxwell would do so without complaint.”
“Sadly, their mother, Lady Mary, became ill when the twins were eleven,” Mom said. “When it became clear that she would not recover, it was immensely important to her to know that her daughters’ futures would be settled. After a great deal of consideration, she and your great-great-great-grandfather Robert decided that Elizabeth, the older twin, would marry Maxwell and eventually become the lady of Chatswood Manor. As a Chatswood daughter, Katherine would always be welcome in the great house, but she would be free to forge her own destiny.”
“A bit more free,” Aunt Beth said. “Robert would still choose her husband, as was the custom of the day. And he eventually selected Katherine’s distant cousin Alfred Vandermeer, who was a good man, a kind man, and—most important to Robert—a wealthy man who would always be able to provide for his family.”
Yes, yes, we already know this, I thought, trying to hide my impatience. I didn’t want to wait one more second to find out the secret!
“There was just one problem, though,” Mom said. “The heart is not as easily compelled as the mind.”
I sat a little straighter; beside me, Betsy did the same.
“Elizabeth and Katherine well knew their duties and responsibilities to their family and to Chatswood Manor,” Aunt Beth continued in a quiet voice. “But though Elizabeth was pledged to Maxwell—who, like Alfred, was a gentleman of the very highest regard—she knew that she could not love him. Not as long as she loved another.”
“And Katherine had nothing but respect for Alfred,” Mom said. “But that was all she felt for him. Katherine had no idea how she could ever marry a man she did not love—let alone make a life with him far away from her home and family.”
“That’s terrible,” Betsy remarked.
“Just wait. There is so much more to the story,” Aunt Beth told her. “The twins had fallen in love—but in the most inconvenient way. You see, Elizabeth and Alfred were deeply in love, while Katherine had secretly pledged her heart to Maxwell.”
We were all quiet for a moment as Betsy and I absorbed the information. I felt a surge of pity for my great-great-grandmother and her sister. How awful to marry someone you don’t love . . . while your sister weds the man of your dreams! I thought in dismay. If this was the family secret, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know it anymore.
“But the girls—the young women, I should say—were optimistic,” Mom said. “After all, they thought, as long as one of them married Maxwell, the conditions of the inheritance would be met. Chatswood Manor would stay in the family, and the other twin would be free to marry Alfred. And so they told their father about their predicament, expecting that Robert would understand and release them from their engagements.”
There was a tone in Mom’s voice—ominous, dark—that made me suddenly nervous. Betsy’s hand in mine was very cold.
“Unfortunately, he did not,” Aunt Beth continued. “You must understand that Robert was from a different time entirely. All his life, he’d been told that it was his duty to make all the decisions—for the estate and for his family. He refused to be second-guessed, especially by his daughters. And so he denied their request.”
“So Katherine and Alfred weren’t in love?” I asked numbly.
Mom and Aunt Beth exchanged a glance. “No,” Mom finally said. “Katherine never loved Alfred.”
I sat back, stunned. How could that be? It felt like our entire family had been built on a lie.
“That’s an ugly secret,” Betsy said. “I wish you hadn’t told me.”
“Or me,” I added.
“Wait, my dears,” Aunt Beth said. “We’re not at the secret yet.”
“You mean there’s still more?” I asked.
“As their eighteenth birthdays—and their wedding days—approached, the twins were in turmoil,” Mom said. “Neither could imagine marrying a man she didn’t love. And so, true to their natures, they took matters into their own hands. Katherine and Elizabeth Chatswood switched identities.”
The room was completely silent. I don’t think any of us even dared to breathe.
“Elizabeth became Katherine, and Katherine became Elizabeth,” Aunt Beth finally said. “Remember, only their mother could truly tell them apart, and she’d been dead for six years. They switched everything—their wardrobes, their hairstyles, their names. Their destinies.”
“Almost everything,” Mom corrected her. “The one thing that neither girl could bear to part with was her necklace. And so, as Katherine changed her name to Elizabeth, her sapphire necklace changed its name, too, and became the Elizabeth necklace.”
“The reverse was true for Elizabeth and her ruby necklace,” Aunt Beth said, gesturing to the Katherine necklace I was wearing.
“And that is the long-held secret of the Chatswood and Vandermeer families,” Mom concluded. “A secret kept for generations, known only by a few people . . . and now, Kay and Betsy, you.”
I was too astonished to speak. So Great-Great Grandmother Katherine had been born . . . Elizabeth? In another world, in another life, she could’ve stayed in her homeland and become the lady of Chatswood Manor. I would’ve been born in England, not America. My name would be Betsy—Lady Betsy—not Kay.
No, it wouldn’t, I told myself. Because if Katherine—Elizabeth—my great-great-grandmother, hadn’t married Great-Great-Grandfather Alfred, I wouldn’t even be here.
My fingers fluttered to the ruby necklace dangling around my neck. Rubies that were as red as fire and as hard as rock; rubies that would not ever tarnish or fade. They would glitter for me just as they had for my great-great-grandmother and for every woman who had worn the Katherine necklace since her. I could only hope and pray that these everlasting rubies would give me a fraction of the strength my great-great-grandmother had shown when she had walked away from her old life, becoming a new person in a new world—and all for love.
“How sad,” I said suddenly. “How sad and lonely to give up your name, so that no one would ever know who you really were.”
“But also romantic,” added Betsy, and I had to agree. I could scarcely comprehend all that our great-great-grandmothers had done in the name of love. Would there someday be an event as romantic in my own life?
“We’ll never know the toll the switch took on Elizabeth and Katherine,” Mom began, “but I do know that they both considered it a very small price to pay to follow their hearts, and that their lives were rich in joy and love, blessings to which we should all aspire.”
“But someone must’ve known.” Betsy suddenly spoke up, a frown wrinkling her forehead. “Surely they told someone their secret, or else how would you know?”
Mom and Aunt Beth smiled together. “Their husbands knew, of course,” Mom said. “And they confided in Essie Bridges after they wed. And then, to the best of our knowledge, neither Elizabeth nor Katherine spoke of it again until July sixth, 1914.”
I knew that date. “Your birthday?” I asked Mom.
She nodded. “My twelfth birthday, to be exact,” she said. “What a day that was! Beth had left abruptly that morning, and I was heartsick to think that it would be years before I might see her again. I’d been presented to society at my birthday ball and had snuck into the East Wing for the very first time—where I’d discovered, of all things, a letter that Great-Great-Grandmother Mary had written to Elizabeth. I couldn’t begin to understand how Elizabeth’s letter had journeyed all the way to America, when she was never able to make the trip. I’d even met Essie Bridges, who’d been living secretly in the East Wing. I was filled to the brim with questions! And Great-Grandmother Katherine was ready to answer them.”
“Your mother wrote to me that very night,” Aunt Beth said. “When I read her letter, which arrived the very next day after I returned home to Chatswood, my shock was so great that I nearly fainted!”
“I think it was a relief for Great-Grandmother Katherine, frankly,” Mom said. “She had held tha
t secret in her heart for decades. How freeing it must’ve been to finally confide in someone else. When she heard Aunt Beth and me join our necklaces together, it brought back so many memories of her youth and her beloved sister that Great-Grandmother Katherine could no longer hide the truth.”
“When I think about this secret, as I often have over the years,” Aunt Beth began, “I’m struck by Katherine and Elizabeth’s devotion. Not only to their own happiness, but to each other. To me, there is no stronger testament to the power of family.”
Betsy turned to me, holding out the Elizabeth necklace. I knew what she wanted to do before she said a word.
I lifted my necklace to hers and we slid the half-heart pendants together until they were joined as one. Click-click-whirrrrrrrr. The metallic gears inside the heart were almost inaudible, until an unseen door in the back of the pendants sprang open.
“Katherine and Elizabeth’s secret message is still in there,” Mom said. “Aunt Beth and I replaced the letters when I attended her wedding in England.”
“ ‘A part of you forever,’ ” Aunt Beth recited. Then she smiled at us. “We added our own message, too.”
Betsy and I leaned our heads close together as we peered inside the hidden compartment. In addition to the yellowed snips of paper containing Katherine and Elizabeth’s message, there were two miniature scrolls. Betsy plucked them out with the tips of her fingers and handed one to me. Though I had to squint to read the impossibly tiny letters, I recognized my mother’s handwriting immediately.
“Cousins by blood,” Betsy read from her scroll.
“Sisters by heart,” I read from mine.
“As true now as it was then,” Aunt Beth said as she put her arm around Mom’s shoulders. “Perhaps you two will have to think of your own message to add before Betsy and I go home.”
From the way Betsy and I smiled at each other, I knew that that was exactly what we would do.
That night, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t fall asleep. I couldn’t stop thinking about everything that had happened—the delightful birthday dinner; the stunning return of the Katherine necklace; and most of all, learning the astonishing secret that my great-great-grandmother had held so close to her heart.