by Marie Silk
Davenport House Books by Marie Silk
BOOK ONE
Davenport House
BOOK TWO
Davenport House
A New Chapter
BOOK THREE
Davenport House
A Mother’s Love
BOOK FOUR
Davenport House
Heiress Interrupted
BOOK FIVE
Davenport House
For the Cause
For my children.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
About the Author
Chapter 1
Montgomery Manor House, Pennsylvania, circa 1892
“Louisa, please hold my hand,” begged Maryanne Montgomery as she walked with her sister through the hallways of the manor house.
“What is it?” asked Louisa worriedly.
“I must tell Father something today, and I am afraid that he will never let me see you again,” answered Maryanne in a scared whisper.
“What have you done? Is this why Father has asked to see us now?”
“No, he does not know yet. But I saw Sir George’s carriage here earlier…”
“Your fiance is here, then,” said Louisa sadly.
“I cannot marry him, Louisa. It is impossible.”
“Father will force you to marry Sir George, if he must,” Louisa replied. “Won’t you tell me what you have done?”
“I will tell you, but please do not be harsh with me. I—I have married John in secret,” she stammered.
Louisa gasped. “Maryanne, you cannot tell Father such a thing! Your refusal to marry Sir George will be bad enough!”
“I know, but I am afraid that he will discover it some other way. Pray for me, that I might live through this day!” Maryanne squeezed her sister’s hand as they walked into the grand drawing room where Mr. Montgomery and Sir George were waiting.
“Ah, my lovely daughters are here,” greeted Mr. Montgomery as Maryanne and Louisa sat down on the sofa.
“I will leave you to it, Mr. Montgomery,” Sir George said stoically. He stood up, nodded at Maryanne, then left the room.
“I have good news for you, Maryanne,” her father said proudly. “Sir George has set a date for your wedding. He will be here next in August, and you will marry then.”
Maryanne and her sister looked at each other. “Father, there is something I must say to you,” Maryanne began timidly. “I cannot marry Sir George.”
“You have been promised to him and you will marry him,” declared Mr. Montgomery, unaffected by his daughter’s words. “You may take your sister shopping with you for wedding clothes.”
“But Father, I never wanted to marry Sir George. I have never even spoken with him before,” Maryanne said anxiously.
“There will be time for that later,” replied her father.
Maryanne tried again. “It is impossible for me to marry him.”
“Why do you insist on contradicting me? Sir George will give you a proper home in London,” he argued, becoming more agitated as the conversation went on.
“It is impossible, Sir,” she cried with tears in her eyes.
“You will do as you are told!” her father bellowed angrily. The girls were silent as the sound of their father’s voice echoed off the walls. The girls knew that when their father got this way, the wisest reaction was to say nothing at all.
Maryanne looked down at the floor and nervously broke the silence. “I am—already married.”
“You are what?” he asked angrily. “It cannot be!”
“It is true. I have married John Smith,” she confessed, shrinking back in fear.
Mr. Montgomery’s eyes grew wide and his face was hot with anger. “My daughter—married to a gardener!” he cried. “I refuse to have my family ruined this way! I will order an annulment at once so this marriage you speak of will be nonexistent. You never had my permission to marry any other than Sir George!”
“An annulment is not possible, for I am already with child,” she explained to her father, tears now flowing down her face. Louisa looked on in helpless anguish.
Mr. Montgomery huffed loudly from his red face. He suddenly picked up a vase from an end table and threw it violently toward Maryanne. The girls leapt from their seats when the vase came hurling across the room. It shattered to pieces against the marble fireplace. The sisters cowered behind the sofa while Mr. Montgomery glared at Maryanne. “You foolish ungrateful girl! Leave my presence and never attempt to come here again! You and your disgraced child will have nothing from me!”
Maryanne ran from the room in fear. Louisa was about to follow her, but her father grabbed her by the arm. “Do not dare go after that wretch. I forbid you to speak her name in this house again. I will ride after Sir George and persuade him to marry you. Make yourself presentable for when he returns with me.” Mr. Montgomery let go of her arm and stormed out of the house.
Louisa whimpered as she ran to her sister’s bedroom. Maryanne had a traveling case already packed and was struggling to move the hope chest from the foot of the bed. “Father has gone,” Louisa told her breathlessly. “He is riding after Sir George to bring him back!”
Maryanne gasped. “They are going to kill John, I just know it! Help me, Louisa! Order the carriage at once!” Maryanne quickly left for the estate gardens behind the house. “John!” she cried frantically, running down the path through the hedges.
John Smith finally heard Maryanne’s cries and ran to meet her. “What is it? Have you told him?”
“Yes, and I am afraid that he will kill you for it! We must leave now!” Maryanne and John hurried to the front of the house where a driver was waiting for them in the carriage.
Louisa stood anxiously near the carriage as her sister approached. “Go, quickly,” she pleaded, handing Maryanne her purse.
“Thank you, Sister,” replied Maryanne tearfully. She kissed Louisa on the cheek and climbed into the carriage with John. Maryanne was relieved to see that her hope chest along with her traveling case had already been placed in the carriage.
Louisa waved goodbye as Maryanne and John rode away. Tears ran down her face at the thought that she may never see her sister again.
“Has he hurt you?” asked John worriedly, gently placing his hand over Maryanne’s belly.
“I was afraid that he was going to. He ordered me out of the house and to never come back,” she answered sadly. “Perhaps I should be glad that I never need to see him again.”
“Put him out of your mind. I will take care of you and the baby now,” promised John. He turned to the driver and instructed that they should go to Philadelphia. John had rented a small room there after the night of their elopement.
When they arrived in Philadelphia, John took Maryanne’s things inside while Maryanne lit a lantern to light the dark room. There was only a bed, small kitchen, and tea table and chairs. “Look, John,” said Maryanne as she opened the purse that Louisa had given her. “My sister has given us twenty dollars. We will be able to buy food while we look for work.”
John smiled at her and softly placed his hand over her belly, as he often did when they were alone. “You should not be working in your condition. Leave it to me. Our life may never be as grand as you are used to, but I will do my best to get us into a proper house.” He pulled her close and kissed her gently. “I have waited so long for this day. I will spend
the rest of my life seeing to it that you do not regret choosing me over Sir George.”
Maryanne giggled as she sat on the bed. “I could never regret it. Although I do worry that I have left Louisa all alone with Father in that big house. She is only fifteen, poor dear. She helped our getaway tremendously by thinking to have the servants take my belongings to the carriage before we left. I knew that it would be like this when I told Father, but I was still afraid that I would lose everything from my other life, and the wedding dress that Mother had made for me. I want to give it our daughter when she is grown.”
“Do you think we are having a daughter?” John asked with a smile.
“I am sure of it,” she smiled back at him. “I have had dreams of having a girl and calling her Anna.”
“Is it a family name?” asked John.
“It is not a family name, but it is what I call her in the dreams,” Maryanne sighed. “This is the first time that I have felt safe in a long while. Thank you for bringing me here. I feel as though I can truly begin to live my life with you.”
The months went by and John could not find the work that he had anticipated. They lived in a community with hundreds of others who had recently come to America and were also looking for work. For every one job were at least fifty eager men competing for it. John walked through the door of the small apartment after a long day of looking for jobs. Maryanne was inside sorting through her things.
“Perhaps I may sell some of my dresses,” suggested Maryanne, looking at her large belly. “It is not as though I may fit into them now.”
“It has not come to that yet,” John replied, greeting her with a kiss. “I have good news. I was hired for work today.”
“You were?” cried Maryanne excitedly. “What sort of work?”
“Deliveries. The pay is fifty cents for each delivery, so I need only make so many per night and we will be just fine,” John smiled proudly.
“Fifty cents!” Maryanne cried with joy.
“We will eat like royalty tomorrow. You stay here and rest and I will be back in the morning with some chocolates for you,” he said, winking at her.
“Oh, chocolate would be divine! But why must you make the deliveries at night?” Maryanne asked curiously.
“It is what the boss told me. I did not want to start asking questions and lose the chance of working for him.”
Maryanne nodded. “Do be careful, John. The city is a different place at night.”
“I will,” he said, kissing her goodbye.
Maryanne was soon asleep on the bed, dreaming of the delectable breakfast they would share in the morning. She waited the next day for John to come home. He did not come in the morning as he had promised. Maryanne waited for him and fell asleep again in the afternoon. She was worried when it became dark and she still had not seen her husband. She wondered if he had come home while she slept, but left again so he did not wake her. Maryanne put on her cloak and visited the family in the connecting apartment. John was often next door, helping the family who came from Germany to learn English words. Maryanne knocked on the door and smiled when a young boy answered. “Good evening, Dear. Is my husband inside?”
The boy shook his head. “We’ve not seen him today, Ma’am.”
“Your parents must be proud of how far you have come in your English. I know I am proud of you, Wilhelm. Would you please tell me if you see John tonight? He has a new job and I do not know when he will return.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Wilhelm nodded. “Don’t worry. I will take care of you until he returns.”
Maryanne smiled and reached out to stroke his cheek. “I will see you tomorrow, Dear.”
John did not return that night, or the next several days. Maryanne was soon out of money and had nothing to eat. She cried every day that John did not come home. She worried that he had died. She went to the hospital to look for him every night. She was so close to her delivery time that the nurses presumed Maryanne was there to have her baby. After looking for John at the hospital and speaking with the nurses again, Maryanne returned to the apartment in tears. She took a necklace from her hope chest and used it to pay a coachman to drive to her father’s manor house.
The housekeeper at Montgomery Estate went pale when she saw Maryanne at the front door. “Miss Maryanne, I am not permitted to let you in,” she whispered in a distressed voice.
“If you cannot let me in, then please send Louisa to come out and meet me. My husband is missing and I am in a desperate state!”
The housekeeper nodded with sad eyes and closed the door. Maryanne waited for what felt like hours for Louisa to finally emerge through the door.
“Maryanne!” she cried. Louisa tearfully embraced her sister. “You cannot be here! Father is home, and he will be furious!”
“John has been missing for days, and I know he must be dead. What am I to do, Louisa?” she pleaded.
“Oh, Sister! John is alive, but I am afraid he has been arrested,” Louisa told her solemnly. “They say he may be in prison for life.”
Maryanne gasped. “What happened?”
“I do not know, but when Father found out that your husband was arrested—”
“Who is at the door?” demanded an angry voice from behind her. Mr. Montgomery grabbed Louisa by the arm and forcefully pulled her inside, slamming the door in Maryanne’s face. Maryanne could hear his shouting on the other side of the door and she felt terrible for getting her sister into trouble.
“Father, I beg of you! She is due to have the baby at any moment,” Louisa cried.
“They can both die in the streets where they belong! Get back to your room!” Mr. Montgomery raged.
Maryanne hurried away from the manor house and returned to the carriage that she arrived in. “Where to now, Miss?” asked the coachman.
“Take me to the hospital in Philadelphia,” she replied frantically. “As quickly as you can.”
A year had passed when John Smith received the news that a lady had come to pay his fines and arrange for his release. He was both elated and terrified to see Maryanne again. He never stopped thinking about his wife and baby. Now that he heard he was being released, he thought that Maryanne must be within the good graces of her father. He took a deep breath and left the prison gate. Outside of the prison, near the Montgomery carriage, stood Louisa.
“Louisa?” John reacted in surprise. “Where is Maryanne? And the baby?”
Louisa looked sorrowfully at John. “It has been a year since I last saw my sister. Father would not let her into the house when she came to us for help. I have been been trying all this while to see you released from prison. It is impossible with Father at home.”
“If Maryanne is not with you, then where is she?” asked John worriedly.
“She has taken employment in a family home called Davenport House in York County. I received a letter from her explaining all, but Father burned it soon after it arrived. You must go to her,” Louisa urged while handing him several dollars.
John swallowed the lump in his throat and humbly took the money. “Does she want to see me?”
“She needs to see you. I would go to her myself if I could, but if Father found out…”
“I imagine you have risked an awful lot by coming to help me today,” said John, watching the tears fall from her eyes. “How could I ever repay you?”
“You can repay me by taking care of my sister,” she replied. “I must leave now so I can be home before Father returns.”
John nodded at her. “Thank you, Louisa,” he said sincerely, reaching for her arm to help her into the carriage. She winced in pain and quickly pulled her arm away from him. John felt terrible for hurting her. He had forgotten the bruises that Maryanne had brought with her from her father’s house, and John now realized that Louisa must have endured the same. “Come with me to Davenport House,” he offered gently. “I don’t know how yet, but I will provide for you and Maryanne. Please, do not go back to him. You deserve better.”
“I am afr
aid I do not have a choice,” she answered painfully. The carriage took Louisa away, and John went to Davenport House to find his wife.
Davenport House, York County, Pennsylvania, Summer of 1915
John Smith could feel the tears stinging behind his eyes while remembering those days of the past. When he found Maryanne after his release from prison, John did not know that he would only have seven years with his wife before influenza took her away. He had been forced to learn how to live without her in the years since. He knew that someday he would have to tell his son Ethan the truth about what happened before—he just did not know how.
Chapter 2
It was a sunny afternoon in the magnificent gardens behind Davenport House. The Davenport sisters, Mary and Clara, were having a walk to admire the flowers while discussing Clara’s wedding plans for the summer. Clara wore a delightful blue afternoon dress that day, while Mary wore the traditional black mourning dress that had been her attire since the death of her father. Mary was raised as a proper heiress in Davenport House, while Clara, who was the housekeeper’s daughter, attended to Mary as a maid. It was recently revealed that Mary and Clara were both from the same father, who was the late Master of Davenport House. Mary inherited the mansion on the thousand acre estate and was happy to share the wealth her newly discovered sister.
“Have you decided on a dressmaker?” Mary asked Clara, who had recently become engaged to the neighbor. Wedding planning ruled the conversation of every day since.
“There is one lady I would like to hire,” answered Clara. “Mrs. Livingston has a shop in Philadelphia. I wanted to ask you if I may have the carriage tomorrow to see her.”
“I am afraid that I will be using the carriage for Yorktown tomorrow. Can you go the next day?” asked Mary.
Clara was disappointed. “Her shop will be closed. I suppose I can wait until next week.”
“I understand that you want to have your dress started as soon as possible,” Mary said thoughtfully. “Take the carriage tomorrow and I will postpone my errands for another day.”
“Are you certain, Mary? I do not want to spoil your plans,” said Clara hesitantly.