Sincerely yours,
Charles A. Fortune
March 18, 1909
Dear Mr. Fortune,
Emma was not home this morning when the note arrived from Mrs. Doogie and as yet has not returned. In her absence, I accepted Mrs. Doogie’s invitation on her behalf. I now also accept your escort for her, as I know of no previous engagement.
Very truly yours,
Elizabeth Biggleswade Willows
March 19, 1909
Dear Miss Willows,
It is with some sadness that I will be on my way to the train station this afternoon, embarking on my journey back to school in Quebec. I have so enjoyed the short break in Winnipeg and the opportunity to have visited with so many people whose company I enjoy.
I am sending a book I liked very well with the hope that you may also enjoy it. It is The Sky Pilot, by Ralph Connor. I read it on the train on my ride home this month.
Lennoxville now seems a terribly long way from Winnipeg. I shall look forward to returning to the prairies at the end of the semester in seven weeks time.
If you see fit to let me hear from you sometimes, I shall certainly appreciate it. I am enclosing my address at Bishop’s School.
Sincerely yours,
Charles A. Fortune
March 19, 1909
Dear Mr. Fortune,
You must have secret knowledge that the book I have been reading was boring me to tears. I was ever so pleased when your man dropped your parcel for me at Ravenscraig this morning. I do wish you a safe and comfortable train ride.
I shall very much enjoy the relief your book will surely provide from the dreary tale I can now put aside. My mother is very keen on the writings of Ralph Connor, and I hope that you don’t mind if there is a delay in my returning the volume, as she would like to read it as well.
Mother is very impressed with the fact that one of the best selling authors in the world lives in Winnipeg and is pastor of our church. Sometimes I never know if I should address him as Reverend Gordon or Mr. Connor. I wonder if Mrs. Gordon also calls herself Mrs. Connor. I must ask her sometime.
Oh, my. Do I sound cheeky and spoiled?
I hope this letter finds its way to you in Lennoxville, Mr. Fortune, as I did not want to chance having our driver, Henry, miss you at the train station to get it to you there.
Sincerely,
Emma Willows
May 1, 1909
Dear Miss Emma,
It is always a special day when a letter from you is waiting for me after class. I daresay that you have helped the weeks to pass quickly for me here at Bishop’s with your letters and cards. Your letter of today is such a relief from the constant studying for the upcoming examinations next week. Do wish me luck!
I rather suspect that you are becoming quite accomplished in your musical abilities. My goodness, to take on cello lessons along with the piano is quite ambitious indeed. I can imagine how lovely it must be to hear you play and look forward to being part of your audience. That is, of course, if I might be so fortunate as to be invited to listen.
I shall be arriving in Winnipeg on the 20th of May. I am anticipating a very productive and interesting summer working in my father’s firm, renewing my acquaintances, and catching up on the news in Winnipeg.
Speaking of news, I was most intrigued to learn from your letter that Mary Doogie is planning to go on to university in the fall. How novel. I rather thought she was an old-fashioned girl, and I’m surprised her father approves of her advanced education, let alone that she will be going to New York. You poor girl, I’m sure you will miss her terribly.
Sincerely,
C.A. Fortune
May 21, 1909
Dear Miss Emma,
It is so wonderful to be back in Winnipeg. The train ride was forever long, but I am ever so glad to be reunited with my family and to enjoy Cook’s wonderful delicacies.
I do feel rather put out because I did not receive any letter from you since before my examinations, and I expect that I must have missed one between leaving Lennoxville and arriving at home.
If it suits you, and you have no previous engagement, I should very much like to come up for a visit at Ravenscraig this evening for a short while.
Yours truly,
Charles Fortune
May 21, 1909
Dear Mr. Fortune,
I am happy to hear that you have arrived safely. I am sorry to tell you that I already have a previous engagement this evening.
Very cordially yours,
Emma Willows
May 22, 1909
Dear Miss Willows,
If it would please you to ride with me, and if the weather is agreeable, I would be very glad to come round to pick you up for church on Sunday morning.
Yours very sincerely,
C.A. Fortune
May 23, 1909
Dear Mr. Fortune,
Thank you for the invitation, but I have already accepted a ride with Mr. Wilton for the church service this Sunday.
I do hope you will be attending the picnic and softball game in celebration of Queen Victoria’s birthday. It would be a shame to miss such a pleasant event.
It might profit you to know that I will be providing a picnic basket for the auction to benefit the Victorian Order of Nurses. I very much hope that a certain “C.F.” will see fit to bid for the opportunity to lunch with me under the trees at City Park.
Very cordially yours,
Emma Willows
May 26, 1909
Dear Mr. Fortune,
It was extremely generous of you to pay such a very large sum for my little picnic basket. I have received several letters from the committee members expressing their gratitude for the unexpected windfall that came from your financial gift, and each has expressed her desire that I pass along the sincere and deep appreciation the committee feels for your support. The Victorian Order of Nurses is a most deserving recipient of the funds that have been raised for the very good work they do in our city.
I only wish that the contents of my meager basket were worthy of the exceptional price you paid, and it is my hope that I did not bore you to tears with my enthusiasm for the university classes I will be taking in the fall.
I remain just a bit put out that my father will not allow me to go to school in the United States, as I thought Vasser would be an ideal school for me, but I shall make the best of the opportunities presented me at the University of Manitoba.
Very cordially yours,
Emma Willows
May 27, 1909
Dear Mr. Fortune,
Emma sends her regrets that she is unable to accept your invitation, as she has a previous engagement.
Very cordially yours,
Elizabeth Biggleswade Willows
June 28, 1909
Dear Mr. Fortune,
I am returning the book you gave me at the picnic, and I do hope you have not been inconvenienced by my having kept it this long. It was terribly rude of me, and I should have returned it to you long ago. The novel was greatly interesting to both my mother and to me.
In appreciation, I am sending you one of my favorite volumes. I do hope you like it. It is a novel by Mary Johnston called: To Have and to Hold: A Tale of Providence and Perseverance in Colonial Jamestown. I expect you must be terribly busy at work. I hope you do find time, now and then, to enjoy our glorious weather.
It seems a very long time since the picnic in May when I last saw you.
Cordially yours,
Emma Willows
July 7, 1909
Dear Miss Willows,
Pleases forgive my bad manners in the delay in thanking you for your thoughtful letter and the book.
You are a very sweet and intriguing girl, and I must confess that I am at a bit of a loss to know if you welcome my attentions or not.
Your choice of a book to send to me is most interesting. I have read To Have and to Hold before and shall enjoy re-reading my favorite parts. I hope you do not consider me
brash with my questions, but I must ask: Am I to assume that you may be wishing for me to understand something deeper in having sent me a story about a man’s deep love for his wife and the challenges he faces in that regard? Am I to hope that in your heart there might be found a glimmer of an interest that we may one day be sweethearts? Dare I think that possible?
In truth, I have really no choice but to dare it, as I am literally tormented. I think of you every day from the first moment that I open my eyes and then all the way around the clock to the last fleeting images in my dreams before I awaken again.
There are very many pretty girls in Winnipeg. There is only one who has captured my notice. Or might it be more correct for me to phrase it that her fleeting notice of me has utterly captivated me?
I therefore feel I must take a chance and bare my sentiments to you, in the interest of complete and honest disclosure and at the great risk that what you read might cause you to sever our friendship, leaving me to never again receive another of your letters and worse, to never again gaze upon your lovely face.
My dear Miss Emma, nothing would give me greater happiness than if you were to allow me to court you in a proper and well-intentioned manner. If you could find it in your heart to think well enough of me to give me this honor, I shall make every effort to gain insight so that I may appreciate your point of view when it differs from mine.
Please understand that for me, some modern ideas are quite difficult to accept, and I will need time to learn to adjust my thinking. I must also say, with honesty and humility, that I make no promise that I am of adequate character to make certain adjustments you may think necessary. The idea of higher education for women is just not something that I have thought a great deal about and I suppose it must be said, at great risk of offending you further, that I fail to see much value in it. Women do not work after they are married, so what is the point in studying and working so hard to earn a university degree?
That said, I clearly see your passion for formal education. It is quite obvious that you possess a quick and able mind and a great facility for learning anything and everything that catches your attention. You put forth very solid reasons for your intentions, and it is obvious you have done much research toward your desire to go on to the university. I suppose it might be said that I am dumbfounded by this side of your character. At the same time, I am thrilled by your intensity and your knowledge of who you are and the woman you wish to be. There is no other girl like you in the world.
I do agree with you that Reverend Gordon’s wife stands as a fine example of a woman of great accomplishment in her having earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. I also see Mrs. Gordon as very feminine and traditional and in no way seeking to cast her education about as any type of battering instrument to put her husband down. She is of great reputation and has never been seen or thought to detract from her duties as a wife and mother, and indeed, a committee chairwoman in the many good works she does related to her husbands parish at St. Stephen’s.
You can perhaps start to see, dear Emma, how all of this can be confusing to a man raised with strong traditions as I have been. You must realize that as the last to be born after my brother and four sisters, I have had a great many people bearing down on me with their views and notions concerning how I am expected to conduct myself. We are very accustomed to doing things a certain way in the Fortune family. My father is a terribly strong influence on us, and I don’t ever wish to disappoint him.
That doesn’t make the Fortune way any better than the approach taken by the Willows family, it just means that it is different, and I hope that you will allow me time to learn about these modern ways of yours without expecting that I might be able to just abandon everything that I know to be true in my view of myself, and the honorable man I wish to be.
I expect to be a gentleman first and always; a man who will forever put his wife above all else and do everything in his power to love, protect and cherish his wife and his children with every breath of his being. If that is an offensive or limiting view of the person with whom you wish to be associated, when you one day choose a husband, then it is best that we know now that our lives are destined for different paths.
Dearest Emma, I do so much wish to see you, even knowing it may be for the very last time.
If it suits you, and if you have no previous engagement, I would be glad to come up to Ravenscraig for a short while on Sunday evening.
I have missed you so.
Yours very truly,
Charles A. Fortune
July 8, 1909
Dear Mr. Fortune,
My parents and I would be very pleased if you would accept an invitation to dine with us at Ravenscraig on Sunday evening next.
Mother suggests that as the weather is so fine, perhaps I could give you a tour of her lovely riverside garden in advance. I think you shall be delighted to see what you will find there. The Garden Club has awarded Mother first place for her roses.
Would half-past four o’clock suit you?
Yours very truly,
Emma Willows
July 8, 1909
Dear Miss Emma,
I am very glad to accept your invitation to dine with your family, and I shall be very pleased to enjoy your tour of the garden.
Sincerely yours,
C.A. Fortune
Chapter Forty-Eight
The Rottenest City in the Domion
November 21, 1910
Rupert puffed away at the remnants of his cigar as he paced about the library, working to control his anger at the contents of the letter.
A prickly sensation traveled through the nerves on the back of his neck as he looked at his watch. He ripped the cigar stub from his mouth and smashed it repeatedly into the ashtray as if attacking a cockroach. Where on earth was that bloody lawyer? It had been almost an hour since he had called his office. As if on cue, there was a knock at the door and Chadwick appeared with a bespectacled man in tow.
“Mr. Grenville Doddsworth is here to see you, Mr. Willows.”
“Thank you,” Rupert waved the butler from the room. “We are not to be disturbed, Chadwick.”
“Very good, sir.”
Doddsworth had never seen Rupert in such a state.
“My God, man, you look terrible. I apologize for not getting here sooner, but I was in court. My secretary told me nothing beyond the fact that you said it was urgent. I take it this is the matter with the Russian.”
“The Russian?”
“The demand for more money, from your, well, Mr. Volinsky. He wants an increase to seventy-five dollars a month. You never responded to my question about what you wanted to do about it.”
“Send him the bloody money and get him off my back!” Rupurt shouted as he flew to his feet. “I have much bigger problems, Grenville. I am on the precipice of facing utter ruin to my reputation. It’s the bloody inquiry into vice. I need you to get me out of testifying before the Royal Commission.”
“The Vice Inquiry?”
“That’s what I said,” Rupert answered, thrusting forward a folded paper.
The puzzled lawyer took the letter from Rupert.
The letter was a summons commanding Rupert Willows, Esq. to present himself before the Manitoba Royal Commission Inquiry into Vice in the City of Winnipeg. He was to appear as a witness and was being called to testify two days hence, on November 23, 1910.
“This could wind up being a full-blown scandal, Grenville. I could be ousted from City Council.”
“Why exactly have you been called, Rupert?” Doddsworth’s brow wrinkled as he looked over his glasses.
“Because I own the mortgages on thirty-seven of the houses in the Red Light District.”
“Oh. I see.”
“I thought I had it properly masked, but apparently some overly ambitious clerk followed the paper trail right to my bank account. Now that this Reverend Shearer fellow out of Toronto has pushed the City of Winnipeg into staging this mockery, this lynching trial, I will be ruined.
” Rupert was on his feet pacing again.
“Rupert, forgive me, but I don’t follow every story on harlots in the city. What has this Reverend Shearer got to do with it? Who is he?”
Rupert put his glasses on and snatched up a sheet of paper from his desk.
“He is the General Secretary for the Moral and Social Reform Council of Canada,” he read, “and solely responsible for the inquiry having been called. It seems that the good reverend was touring the wild and woolly West looking to shine a light upon the social evil he claims to have found in great abundance. Upon returning to Toronto, he spoke to a number of newspapers and declared Winnipeg to be ‘the rottenest city in the Dominion’. The papers ate it up, and now we are embroiled in full battle aimed at destroying the image of our fair city.”
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