by Carolyn Bond
“People can be vicious, Everleigh.”
“What if we created a school for others like Percy. Bethann could do her therapy with them. If we involved the community, they would develop compassion for the students. Perhaps the students could even be taught jobs to be productive and useful.”
“A school? I wouldn’t know where to begin.”
“I do. And if we can get supporters, we can use the school as evidence that the eugenics laws are wrong. We can keep those laws out of Kentucky. I will testify in Frankfort before the state legislators if I have to.”
“You are that compelled about this?”
“Yes. Between you and me and Bethann, we could do a great deal. Wouldn’t you have considered letting Percy come to a school like that if you knew he would be safe?”
“Well, yes. I suppose. If I knew it would be good for him.”
“Exactly! And you would pay the school to care for him and advocate for his rights, wouldn’t you?”
“When you put it like that, yes.”
“We could make a difference. Our passion for these vulnerable individuals could help not only Percy, but many, many more like him. They are out there, hidden in homes or not even born yet.”
“God, help me. You are an angel. I love you, Everleigh Addison.”
***
“I need to go to town. Do you want to go?” Everleigh asked her mother.
“Oh, that would be nice. I will visit Suzanne. What do you need to do in town?”
“I need to ask some questions. Malcolm is in a legal dispute over his estate.”
“Alrighty, then. If anyone can hunt down an answer, it’s you!”
The carriage dropped her mother off at the Inn and went on the lawyer’s office with Everleigh. Walking in to the office, the clerk looked up. He was a young man with small glasses who had been studying some parchments.
“Can I help you, ma’am?”
“Yes,” she stepped up to the desk. “Is the lawyer in?”
“No. He is away at the moment. What’s the nature of your visit?”
“I wanted to ask him some questions regarding estate law.”
He looked her up and down. Apparently women didn’t ask questions like that, she surmised.
“Uh huh,” he finally said.
“Look, if you have a set of law books, could I look at them a minute? I won’t bother you.”
His eyes opened a little wider.
“Now, missy, I’m sure if you came back in a couple of hours Mr. Skeller would be happy to help you.”
Her face fell flat. She looked at him through half closed lids of contempt. She felt a bubbling rise of bile in her throat.
“Mr…, what did you say your name was?”
“Sampson, Mr. Sampson.”
“Right, Mr. Sampson,” she drew out the mister. Do you think I would harm the law books if I looked at them?”
“Uh, no. No, of course not.”
“Then I would just ask that you humor a silly girl that wanted to see your magnificent library. I bet you know so many things that those big books say.” She smiled and batted her eyelashes.
He started giggling and scratched the back of his neck.
This is too easy.
“Oh my,” he started, “Yes, I have had to look up several things. But, honey, I don’t think you would understand it.” He said it sweetly as though he actually felt bad for her and was trying to prevent her from getting upset.
“Oh. Yes. I see what you mean. I just want to look at them to be amazed. Would that be alright? I promise I won’t bother you or keep you from your work. That looks so important.”
She smiled again and shifted her posture, pushing her shoulders back and demurely putting her hands behind her back. He seemed to be considering it but wasn’t sure. She bit her bottom lip and blinked several times.
“Oh, all right! But if the front door opens, you need to come right on out here and don’t say a word about it, you understand?”
“Oh, certainly Mr. Sampson.” She nodded quickly.
I should get an award for that performance.
He opened Mr. Skeller’s office door and motioned for her to go in. Leaving the door open, he went back to his desk and, looking around a minute, got back to his work.
Since this was not a matter of actual real estate law but rather contract law, she needed to find an example of a case in which a descendant had questionable lineage. She also wondered what rights a feeble-minded person had in regard to property ownership.
Heck, if he was royal no one would question his rights as an heir.
She found a legal dictionary and flipped to ‘heir’. She saw that ‘an heir of the body’ definition is why Malcolm could not inherit the estate. It has to go to a blood relative, not just a person related by marriage.
Scrambling through titles on a shelf she found a book of Uniform State Laws. Pulling the book from the shelf, she flipped through it. A section on property caught her eye. She turned and leaned against a table and skimmed the subheadings. ‘Rules Against Perpetuity’ caught her eye.
Perpetuity? Like perpetual?
She read in this section that in wills that leave property, the property must be received within twenty-one years. She thought about it, tapping her finger on the book.
“The first heir received the estate after Crazy Grandpa died. They lived their life on the estate and died.” She tried to get her head around it. “The will transferred as Crazy Grandpa wanted because it passed to the next owner within 21 years. After that, because of the Rule of Perpetuity, the will was finished.”
She tried to figure out what happens next to the estate.
“Oh, my gosh! That’s it. There is no hold on the title. The estate passes to the next of kin no matter if they are a blood relative or not.”
She shoved the book back in its place on the shelf just as the little bell on the door jingled. She sucked in a breath.
“Mr. Sampson, do I have any messages?” A deep gravelly voice boomed.
“Uh, uh, no, sir.”
“Sampson, why are you mumbling?”
“It’s just- Wait! Don’t go in there!”
“And why would I not go in my office, Sampson?”
She strode through the office door smoothing her skirt, “Oh, thank you Mr. Sampson.”
Mr. Skeller stiffened when he saw her, “Madam! What are you doing in my office?” his eyes shot up as he waited for her explanation.
“Oh, I’m terribly sorry. Mr. Sampson was kind enough to allow me a private place to mend my skirt. It got caught on a nail and tore in a most improper place. So I ducked in your fine office and your good clerk was very hospitable. I’ll have to tell everyone I know what fine gentlemen you are.”
With that she stepped past him with a wink to Mr. Sampson and sashayed right out the door. She heard Mr. Skeller tell Sampson ‘Good work, boy,” before she closed the door. She marveled at how much a women could get away with because most men thought they had the mind of a little bird.
She crossed the road and made her way down the wooden boardwalk toward the Inn. Horses, carriages and wagons passed her. She was impressed with what a hopping town this was. She would have thought it would be about 10 families and general store. The downtown was not too much smaller than it was in 2016. It seemed like most of Versailles had not changed much in 128 years. She had passed several new subdivisions and stores near them in the taxi, but the feel of the town had remained. The modern Versailles had maintained a feeling of timelessness.
She turned on to the sidewalk that led up to the porch and saw Suzanne and her mother chatting and laughing. Her mother seemed happy here. She was glad for her. For so many years her mother had been alone after her father’s death when she was just eight years old. Her mother had raised her and always been there for her. Still, she knew her mother missed sharing a life with a mate. Looking at her now, she saw how beautiful her mother was. The body she had now of Aunt Emory was just as beautiful as her mother’s in 201
6, graceful and elegant. Maybe she could find a good man in this time.
They saw her coming and waved her over smiling.
“Oh, my dear, we have been having a ball planning your wedding. I hope you don’t mind!” said her mother.
“I’m sure your ideas are wonderful. Let’s hear it!”
“Suzanne said you could marry here in the garden in the back and we’ll have a dinner in the dining room. What do you think?”
She beamed. “I think it would be beautiful! We won’t have a very big turnout since there isn’t much family on either side. Suzanne and Mr. Clark are all the friends we have here.”
“Then it will be perfect! The garden is cozy and the dining room will meet our needs.” Suzanne smiled at her reassuringly.
“I couldn’t be happier. I have everyone in the world that I need.” She winked at her mother.
Her mother smiled but Everleigh could see a crestfallen faraway look in her eyes.
“Aunt Emory, it’s alright. My father may not be able to give me away, but I know he is watching from heaven and thank heavens I have you since my mother can’t be here. You remind me so much of her anyway.”
Suzanne made a sad sound, “Oh, Everleigh. What a tragedy.”
“No, no, Suzanne. It will be beautiful. Love has a way of untangling hearts in time.”
Her mother squeezed her hand and gently turned up the corners of her mouth.
“You three have your heads together. What are you cooking up?”
His smooth voice caressed her ear and a zing of delight coursed down her spine. She turned to see him leaning against the porch with his arms crossed. She could have melted right into her chair as his gaze never wavered from her.
Suzanne stood up and crossed the porch, “We are planning your wedding, Mr. Steel. So far, all we need you to do is show up.” She said it matter-of-factly, winking at him as she sauntered past the screen door of the foyer.
He smiled delighted and chuckled, “That’s wonderful. Honestly, I don’t care how it happens as long as I get to keep Miss Addison.
Everleigh blushed.
“So I just have to show up, huh?” he asked with all seriousness.
Aunt Emory chuckled. “Of course, young man! Suzanne said every eligible girl in this county will be fuming. We will need you to keep them from accosting Everleigh!”
“They never had a chance. I was waiting for the right one.”
Everleigh stood up and crossed to him.
“Malcolm, I need to speak to you about something. Can we take a walk?” She turned back to her mother, “Do you mind, Aunt Emory?”
“No, not at all. When you get back, let’s have supper with Suzanne and her husband.”
“That sounds nice.”
Malcolm held out his arm and she hooked her hand over his forearm. He led her down the steps of the porch and around the side to the garden. They strolled to the place they had sat before. A dragonfly swooped and circled around them before landing on a lily pad in the water of the little pond.
When they settled on the bench he turned to her, “What is it, my love?”
She thought about how to say this without revealing how she found out.
“Malcolm, you said that the title to your estate had a caveat for passing through inheritance.”
“Yes. That is what the lawyer told me.”
“The lawyer told you?”
“Yes, he showed me papers that said since there was no heir after my aunt and uncle died, that the estate went back to the government. It’s true. I have seen the will with my own eyes.”
She thought for a moment.
Why would a lawyer say that to him? Surely they would know that will was no longer enforceable.
“Why do you ask?”
“You see,” she paused, “When I was in Charleston, I heard my father talking to a lawyer once about wills and estates. The lawyer there told him there is a thing called Rules of Perpetuity.”
“Oh, I have not heard of these rules.”
“Yes, apparently, when a property is the subject of a will or inheritance, the person receiving it must receive it within twenty-one years or it gets disbursed as if there was no will.”
He looked at her and squinted his eyes, “So how does this affect my estate? I’m certain it passed to the next ancestor within twenty-one years of his death.”
“Exactly. The will was executed. It was done.”
“You mean after that, it no longer affected future generations?”
“Exactly! The estate just naturally passed to the next heir as it would normally.”
He rested his chin on his knuckles with his elbow on his knee as he looked out over the garden. After a moment he turned to her and smiled.
“You are amazing! This is wonderful! This means the estate would either go to Percy or if not, then me. Percy and I are all that is left of our family.”
“So really you have a choice. You could acknowledge Percy as the rightful heir, but that would mean bringing him out of hiding. Or, you could claim that you are the rightful heir and it would pass to you. You would care for Percy so he would still get the benefit for his lifetime.”
He grimaced at the choices.
“I know you might not feel right having the estate in your name, but think about it, if his parents had put him in an asylum, you would be the heir anyway.”
“It’s a great deal to think about, but either way, it’s better than losing it.”
“I really think the lawyer is trying to swindle you. Which lawyer was it?”
“Mr. Skeller. He said he was appointed by the government.”
She was not surprised. He nearly blew a fuse when he saw her in his office. She wondered if he was worried that she saw something he didn’t want anyone to see.
“It might not hurt to have another lawyer, one who represents you, to take a look at this.”
“That is a great idea! I know a fine man in Midway that I trust. I’ll visit him tomorrow.”
***
Everleigh sat outside at a patio table with a sketchbook. She was no architect, but she had sketched out plans for a school and dormitory. She hoped to convince Malcolm to dedicate a portion of his estate to this school. She was certain that she and Bethann could handle the duties at first until they needed more staff. Perhaps Bethann knew of others who had been taught like her that they could hire.
Of course they would have Percy as a student, but they would need to seek out others. She wondered if it was possible for any at the Asylum to come. Perhaps not. Maybe it was too late for them. On the other hand, maybe they could adopt children from the Children’s Asylum. She decided that for now, they would focus on Down’s kids since that was Bethann’s area of expertise.
As she sketched, she added a therapy room for exercising, a recreational room for games and fine motor skills, and an outdoor playground. She wondered if there were any outdoor playgrounds in this time. She had not seen any like in 2016. She had seen any city parks with playgrounds or even playgrounds at schools. She knew it wouldn’t be too hard to build a playground to exercise gross motor skills. Besides, these kids need to have fun. She also added a kitchen to the design so that food could be prepared on site.
Lastly, she needed a place where the public could be invited. Community involvement was a must for increasing awareness. She sketched a Community Center were events could be scheduled. She would have to make it a place where groups could meet or she could plan events that would attract the community to come there. Maybe picnics or festivals. Maybe she could invite speakers to come and invite the community to come for free.
Her plan was two-fold: to have a place for Down’s kids to live and thrive in a loving environment and to increase public awareness of people with disabilities. Since there were no eugenics laws in place yet, perhaps they could turn the tide for Kentucky. She could write a monthly newsletter and send it to the state representatives.
“Everleigh, may I join you?” her mother asked.
&nbs
p; “Oh, yes, Momma.”
“What are you doing?”
“I am designing the Williams Home School for Mongoloids. It is named in honor of Percy’s parents.”
“That is wonderful! Oh, Everleigh! When I hatched the plan to get you and Malcolm in the same century, I had no idea that so much more would come of it.”
“I guess that’s just how God is. He gives us so much more than we could ever dream of.”
“And with the Addison’s fortune, you have all the financial resources you will need.”
“Yes. I am going to ask Malcolm if we can build it on his property, but I plan to finance it with my own money. I just wish there was a way to get the boy I saw at the Asylum.”
“Well money talks. Couldn’t you make a donation?”
“Of course, I could. I just don’t know if they would be willing to let us have custody of him.”
“You never know until you ask. Why don’t you go speak to them?”
“It might be better if I do that after I have the school up and running with staff and all.”
“That’s true. I think it’s a great idea, though.”
Everleigh thought about the boy at the Asylum and wondered if his family still kept tabs on him. From what Malcolm had said, most babies were handed over and forgotten.
“I need to speak to an architect to design these plans.”
“Plans for what, my love?” Malcolm came out onto the patio with the butler.
“Mr. Malcolm Steel, madame,” said the butler.
“Malcolm! Just who I needed to talk to first!” said Everleigh.
“Well, I will leave you two love birds to your plans,” Emory said and went inside.
“Sit down, Malcolm. I want to show you this.” He sat down and she continued, “Its some sketches I drew for the Williams Home School for Mongoloids.”
He looked at her curiously, “You are serious about this?”
“Oh, yes. I can see it in my mind. I really feel strongly about it.”
He looked over her sketches while she pointed out the details.
“Malcolm, I was hoping we could build it on your estate. Would that be possible? That way it would be close to us and Percy would feel safe there.”