Eyre House

by Caitlin Greer

  So I was running away.

  Thunder rumbled as I pulled into a gas station in Savannah to fill my tank and check the directions I’d put in my phone. I knew I was close, but if Old Town Savannah was anything like Charleston, I’d be lost in no time. I also didn’t like the look of the sky. I’d had my fill of negotiating rainstorms on my bike, and I had no desire to get lost in the middle of another one.

  The pump shut off, letting me know my tank was full. After screwing the cap on my tank, I ran inside for a drink as the sky thundered again. I came out to find a girl maybe a few years older than me checking out the Indian.

  She was tall, had dark hair that she wore long and straight to a few inches below her shoulders, pale skin, and bright, dark eyes that smiled at me as I approached. I gave her a half-smile, enough to be polite but no more. I didn’t even check out the long legs that extended below her short dress. My head was still too wrapped around Ginny to think about other girls.

  “This is a nice bike, hon,” she said, her fingers playing along the chrome of the handles.

  I took a swig of my soda and stuffed it in one of the saddlebags. “Thanks.” I thought for a moment about the confusing maze of streets on my phone. “Hey, you don’t happen to live around here, do you?”

  “I do, actually. You’re not lost, are you?”

  “Not yet, but, ah…” I pointed to the sky as another roll of thunder sounded. “I don’t want to be either.”

  She laughed. “I guess not. I’m just headed home, but I can give you directions.” She glanced from my bike to me again. “What’s your name?”

  “Evan Richardson.”

  “Well, Evan Richardson, where are you headed?”

  When I gave her the address, she tipped her head back and laughed. “Hush your mouth.” She stuck out her hand to me with a smile. “Susanna Rivers. And I think you’re looking for my house.”

  I smiled a little and shook her hand awkwardly. “If your mama is Emmaline Rivers, then yes, miss, I am.”

  Susanna waved me off. “Well then, mysterious Mr. Evan Richardson, I guess I can do you one better than just giving you directions.” She pointed to a sleek little blue Audi behind her, and smiled. “Follow me.”

  I followed her out of the parking lot just as it started sprinkling. I was really glad I’d run into her once we started winding through the maze of cobblestone streets and old houses. The wrought-iron fences and park-sized gardens in front of giant houses would have had me turned around in seconds. By the time I followed her taillights into a cobbled drive in front of a pale yellow house with square white columns, I was completely lost. The rain had picked up, too.

  Susanna waved her hand out the window at me, telling me to follow her around back and into the carriage house. She walked over to me with an umbrella in hand while I took off my helmet and grabbed my bag.

  “Come on now—we can share.” She nodded her head at the house and smiled. I was grateful. The rain was coming down pretty heavy by then. We ran through it to the back door and into the house and stood in the mudroom, shaking off water.

  “Mama! You’ll never guess who I found at the gas station!” She set the umbrella aside, laughing. “This way. Mama’ll be in the parlor. You can set your bag here for now.”

  I did as she said and dropped my bag to the side, then hung my jacket on a peg above it. Susanna waited at the door for me, ready to lead me in. I shoved my nervousness away and followed her. My eyes darted everywhere around the house. Rivers Manse reminded me a lot of Eyre House. It was just as big but quiet. No guests running around. Where Eyre House was light and bright on the inside, Rivers Manse was darker with more wood paneling. But instead of feeling unwelcome, it just felt comfortable.

  Susanna led me through narrow corridors and back hallways into a high-ceilinged foyer framed by doorways and a wide staircase. She turned right, into a room with a fancy rug and fancier chairs. I took a deep breath and followed her.

  The woman sitting in one of the chairs looked up. Her dark hair was pulled back in some kind of twist, and she wore a skirt and heels. If I hadn’t felt out of place already, I would’ve the moment I saw her. “Susanna? You know I can’t hear you when you shout from the back. What were you saying, honey?”

  “I found your mystery guest lookin’ for directions at the gas station.” Susanna gestured to me. “Mama, meet Evan Richardson. Evan, my mother, Mrs. Emmaline Rivers.”

  I inclined my head and held out my hand. “Mrs. Rivers, Ma’am.”

  “Oh! Evan, honey, welcome!” Mrs. Rivers ignored my hand completely and pulled me into a hug instead. “Jenna and Mac would be so happy we finally found you.”

  Susanna gasped. “Mama, you don’t mean—this is him?”

  I stood frozen, not really knowing how to react. Mrs. Rivers pulled back and held my shoulders.

  “Now, you’ve met Susanna. I’d like you to call me Aunt Emmaline, if that’s all right. Come on over here and sit, I imagine you have all sorts of questions. Oh, I’m so glad you’re here!” She stopped and pulled me into another hug before practically shoving me in a chair.

  I couldn’t wipe the shock off my face.

  Susanna laughed. “Don’t suffocate him, Mama.”

  “It’s quite all right.” I gave a nervous smile and settled back in the chair. “Thank you for inviting me, ma’am.”

  “Nonsense, Evan. Now look, I want to get something straight right now.” Mrs. Rivers settled into her own chair and leaned forward. “I know you’ve been shuffled around the system quite a bit, and this is probably all a little hard to swallow. But please, believe me. We’ve spent too many years searching for you to stand on ceremony. This is your home now.”

  I couldn’t wrap my head around what she was saying. “I don’t… I’m afraid I don’t understand, ma’am.”

  “Didn’t those clods at Social Services tell you? We’d like to make this all official and adopt you. You’re family, and the only way that won’t happen is if you don’t want it. Because we very much want you. Now, I know we don’t know each other at all, but Catherine Eyre happens to be a very good friend of mine. I called as soon as I realized you were working for her. She has nothing but good to say about you.”

  I wasn’t so sure that was true anymore, but I kept my mouth shut.

  “I don’t want you to worry that this is any kind of trial or test run. We want you unconditionally. So now that we have that out of the way, what questions do you have for me?”

  I let go of a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. “I, um…”

  “I think you overwhelmed him, Mama,” Susanna laughed.

  Aunt Emmaline sat back with chagrined smile. “I’m sorry, Evan, sweetie. I’m just so happy that we finally found you. What do you know about your family?”

  “Only what they told me as a kid. My mother was murdered.”

  Emmaline hesitated. “Oh dear. That’s not even it in a nutshell, honey. There’s so much more to it than that, but first things first. Have you eaten anything?”

  I shook my head. “No, ma’am.”

  “Susanna, will you go get those biscuits Mary made up? And the coffee?”

  Susanna smiled and walked out, coming back with a silver tray, which she set on a dark wood coffee table.

  “We’ll have lunch in about an hour, but I hope this will tide you over until then,” Mrs. Rivers said as she handed me a cup of coffee. “Take all you want. There’s blueberry, marionberry, or cranberry compote.”

  I took a sip of the coffee and decided I was in heaven. It was really good. She smiled and waved at the biscuits again, so I grabbed one and settled back.

  “Now. I believe we should start with your mama.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  “The first thing you have to understand, my dear boy, is that Louisa Rochester was the belle of Savannah. Everyone loved her. She was beautiful and kind and smart and funny, and she had that gift of makin’ everyone around her feel comfortable. She was one of those rare people that made the
world better just by bein’ a part of it.”

  Aunt Emmaline picked up a frame from the side table beside her and handed it to me. The photograph was of a young woman in a white ball gown and gloves. Her blonde hair was a wave of curls that fell from a twist on her head. Beside her stood a tall, dark-haired young man in a tux that stared at her with an adoring look that even the camera couldn’t ignore.

  “That’s Louisa at her debutante ball. Your daddy, Edmund Fairfax, was her escort. They were… Oh, they were the perfect couple. So in love. He just adored her, and she, him. Their parents were over the moon with the match. It was all so perfect.”

  She held out another picture, one with twelve girls dressed like my mom and twelve young men in tuxes.

  “That’s all of us that came out that year. Here’s me, and Xander, Susanna’s daddy. And here’s your aunt Jenna, your mama’s twin, and my brother MacArthur. We all just called him Mac.”

  “My mother had a twin?” The girl Emmaline pointed out as Aunt Jenna had darker blonde hair, and while she looked like my mother’s sister, I’d never have pegged them as twins.

  “Yes. I know they don’t look it from the picture, honey. They were fraternal, not identical, and I think they liked it that way. They had such different personalities.”

  I sipped my coffee and stared at the pictures. Susanna’s chair scraped the floor as she scooted closer so she could see. She was pretty, my mother. I’d gotten her blonde hair, and her eyes. Her smile was warm and kind. I liked her. But in the second picture, where he wasn’t looking at my mother, my father had cold, hard eyes.

  Aunt Emmaline’s face fell as she continued. “No one really knows what changed between them. Life happened, I suppose. Louisa went to Wesleyan, Edmund went to Emory. They graduated, and Edmund got a job in his daddy’s law firm while he continued law school. Xander and I got married and had Susanna. Your mama and Edmund waited until he’d finished school, and the spring they married was just beautiful. It was the affair of the season.

  “But Edmund had changed while he’d been away, and we hadn’t noticed. He’d grown somber and brooding. Depressed. Angry. Or maybe he hadn’t changed at all. Maybe he’d just grown tired of hiding it. I didn’t know until his daddy died a few years back, but his mama told me there was a very long history of mental illness in the family. They’d hidden it, but there’s not a family in the South that doesn’t have some sort of skeleton in the closet. It seems that was theirs.

  “Whatever the case, Louisa covered for him very well. At least, at first. It near breaks my heart to think about.” She paused for a breath, covering her mouth with a slightly shaking hand.

  “He started beating her a month after their wedding. She told me it stopped for a while, when she got pregnant with you. But once you were born, it started all over again. Edmund turned mean and possessive. He didn’t like her even leaving the house without him.”

  Aunt Emmaline grew quiet for a moment. Her lips pressed into a thin white line as she stared at the photos on the coffee table. I sat on the edge of my seat, anxious to hear more.

  “She came to me in the middle of the night just after your first birthday. Her face was all black and blue on one side, just horrible. She told me everythin’, and it broke my heart to hear. Xander wanted to drive her to the hospital, but Louisa refused. She didn’t want Edmund tracking her—and you. She had the number to a…a battered women’s group. They’d told her they could hide her and had arranged a meet up. She’d only come to us to say goodbye and to give us letters for her father and Jenna.”

  Aunt Emmaline sighed and handed me another picture. A blonde woman and a baby. My mother and me, I guess. She looked worn, so much more tired than in her debutante picture.

  When she continued, her voice sounded hollow. “That night was the last time I saw her. You both disappeared like you’d never even existed. Edmund was furious, of course. He haunted us and Jenna, even your grandfather, certain Louisa would contact one of us. And then when your grandfather died, Edmund was sure Louisa would come back. She didn’t. She was too smart for him.

  “Edmund left after that, searching for her. For a while, it was like the two of them were nothing but a strange dream of a past that never existed. Life here went on. Your father’s family disavowed him, wanted nothing to do with an abusive son. And then word came that he’d been sent to jail for murder. Three different women, which we later found included Louisa. He’d changed his name, so it took time for the news to reach us. Your mother had changed her name, too, and by then, you’d been lost to the system.”

  Aunt Emmaline sat back slowly, as if telling all of this had worn her down. Susanna poured a cup of coffee and handed it to her with a worried expression.

  I just sat in shock. I didn’t know where to look, so my eyes darted everywhere, across the hardwood floors and rugs, the matching chairs, the fireplace and the dark wood tables. My brain took it all in as I tried to sort out everything I’d heard. It all felt so bizarre. Like something bad that had happened to someone else, someone in one of Tom’s ghost stories. But it had happened to me, and that was surreal.

  “Thank you, Susanna honey.” She took a sip, and the color slowly returned to her cheeks. “Jenna and Mac spent years looking for you. They were both killed in a car accident a few years ago, hit by a drunk driver. By then, they’d tracked Louisa to Charleston and found the name she’d been using. She had changed it a few times and moved around a lot. Elaine Richardson was the last one. Jenna and Mac were actually driving up to Charleston to meet with Social Services when they were killed.”

  I stared at my coffee cup when she paused again and realized it was empty. I was too jittery to get more, so I just set it down. “How long ago?”

  “Four years, I’m afraid.”

  I shook my head. Four years. Three foster homes.

  “I’m so sorry, Evan, honey. Xander and I spent what felt like forever combing through their research. Jenna had always made me swear that if anything happened to them, we’d find you and look after you. I’m just sorry it took so long. You were shuffled around so much that Social Services had lost your records. And when we finally found your last foster home, they told us you were gone.” She made a disdainful noise. “I was not at all impressed with their lack of care.”

  I grimaced. The Gages had not been anywhere near my favorite foster family. “I’m afraid they didn’t really give a damn about much—me included.”

  “I did get that impression. But I was incredibly pleased to see you’d found your way out to Edisto Island for the summer—and with Eyre House, no less! I couldn’t have been happier, especially when I talked to Catherine. She’s really very fond of you, you know. We had a long talk about it. She was a little reluctant to let you go, honestly,” she added with a small smile.

  I smiled sadly. “Eyre House was definitely the best place I’d been in a very long time.”

  “I’m very glad you ended up there.” She took another sip of her coffee, and set it down, placing her hands on her crossed knees. “Well. There’s that for your history. Let’s talk about your future. Have you thought about college?”

  “I…ah...” The truth was, I hadn’t. Ever.

  “That sounds like a ‘no’ to me, honey.”

  “No, ma’am. High school was kind of a bust, and even though my grades weren’t bad, a kid in the system doesn’t have a lot of choices when it comes to money for college. I just figured I’d get a job and get free. Get out of Charleston.”

  She nodded. “I can understand that. But you’re not in that position anymore, so it’s something to think about.”

  I hesitated. “With all due respect, ma’am—”

  “Aunt Emmaline. Or just Emmaline.”

  “Aunt Emmaline. I…”

  “You don’t want a hand out.”

  I ducked my head. “No, ma’am. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be.” I looked back up at the smile in her voice. “As it happens, this isn’t a hand out. It wouldn’t be anyway, e
ven if the money was ours, but it’s not. Your grandfather, Edward Rochester, left you a rather sizeable estate in trust. Some of it specifically for college.”

  I tried to keep my jaw from hitting the floor. “An estate.” I couldn’t even think about what that meant.

  She nodded. “The family house, too. Jenna was the executor until she died and passed the job on to Xander and myself. Your family has a long lineage here. The Fairfaxes, your father’s family, also left you a sizeable trust. Edmund was an only child, so it all comes to you.”

  I didn’t know what to say. Going from orphan to inheriting a literal fortune in the space of a few hours was kind of surreal.

  Susanna’s hand touched my arm. “We know it’s a lot to process, but we just want you to know you have options. Do you have any idea what you’d like to study? Where you’d like to go?”

  “I… I have no idea.”

  Aunt Emmaline smiled. “I expected that might be the case. If you’d like, Susanna and I have put together a tour of colleges for you. It’s a little late to apply for the fall, but you could still look at spring semester. Obviously, it would be nice if you chose a college in Georgia, but there are a number of very good schools across the South, all within a reasonable distance. Susanna has volunteered to take you around—is Remy for it as well?”

  Susanna made a face and laughed. “Yes, he wants to meet Evan.”

  “Remy Emerson is Susanna’s on-again, off-again boyfriend. They’ve been dating and not-dating for years. He’s a very nice boy, and one day he might even make an honest woman of my daughter. You’ll like him, I think.”

  “Really, Mama.” Susanna rolled her eyes, but kept smiling. “She’s right, though. He’s a good boy.”

  They both turned to me, waiting for an answer. “I guess it can’t hurt anything, right?”