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| Evie Jordan-Lord |
When I was 24 years old, I left my family in England for a life in American to live with a family I was to be married into. That decision still haunts my family today, even if we don’t talk about it. But this is not the story of what came after, this is a story of how it started -- many years before
Someone once said, "The more absolute the hush, the more shocking the thunderclap." That seems very true to my life, so I won't begin with Once Upon a Time, I begins with thunder.
**LONDON, OCTOBER 1898 **
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| The Lords arrive in London |
On an autumn day, bleak and dreary, I was to see my future in a flash like the white-hot light of the thunder in the air outside my window. I was only 11 years old; time back then seemed to pass slower as slow as the drops of rain running down the glass of my bedroom window. trickling like transparent slugs that collected all in a puddle at the bottom of the pane.
This was the day I was to meet the boy I would someday marry. His name was Sebastian Lord and he along with members of his family were headed to our home in London. Sebastian's grandmother and my mother had a mutual friend who tried their hand in matchmaking. It wasn't typical for an English girl from a old money family like my father's to be linked to a nouveau riche American, but my mother was an American and that had worked from daddy.
The matchmaker friend was called Augusta Stoddard. She was a bird like woman, American too, who'd married several times over her lifetime including to a man who was a former business associate of my paternal grandfather's. She loved to meddle in well-to-do families who had children of a certain age who'd at one point need to marry. To link the families together via a third party wasn't uncommon, but it was old fashioned. This for Augusta, sport for her. Some played cricket, or tennis, Augusta sized up family fortunes and made them bigger by joining them in matrimony.
My family, however, wasn't one with millions in the bank. We were safely wealthy but nowhere near the Lord empire. I assumed it was a favor to my grandfather that Augusta even allowed the Lords to set foot in our modest London town house. After all, our families the Lords, Jordans and Stoddards, weren't necessarily close, but ran in the same trans-Atlantic circles of a snobbish upper class that I had never understood. Money has a funny way of drawing acquaintances to deep friendships.
When they arrived at our house, I watched their cab stop just below my bedroom window. So many times I'd stare out of that glass onto the London street and dream about my future, and now there it was in front of me stepping out of a taxi into an autumn storm. I wasn't sure if I should continue to watch the members of the family stepped out of the sleek rain-soaked car. But I did. I watched and I waited for him to appear.
First the driver popped out of his seat and quickly pulled the backdoor of the cab open. The patriarch, Albert Lord, stepped out first in a smart gray suit. He had a silly grin on his face as if he had just heard a joke. I'd learn later that he always looked that way. Then a hand extended out. Feminine. Gloved. Albert's wife. He grabbed her hand and out came the stoic woman I'd soon know as Rebecca Lockwood-Lord.
As she was helped out of the cab she adjusted her coat and looked around the neighborhood. She smirked. It seemed to suit this American queen who'd been around the globe and seen every type of neighborhood imaginable. I noticed her red hair. It was like a deep sunset tucked under a feathered hat shading her fair skin. She didn't look like any grandmother I had ever seen; she seemed rather young.
Rebecca whispered something to her husband, and he nodded and dashed around the cab. Rebecca's son Jacob followed her out of the cab. Jacob was extremely handsome and as well dressed as any prince at just 29-years-old. His hair was slick and black as night, his eyes so perfectly spaced. He looked back into the cab and said something to someone. It was Sebastian who followed his uncle out with careful movement.
At least Sebastian told the truth. He was as nervous as I was. His curly dark golden hair fluttered in the cold wind and cold rain, and he quickly covered it with a cap by order of his grandmother. His peach toned skin blushed and his lips made a perfect pout. I was surprised at his height -- taller than any 11-year-old boy I had met. The others in his group seemed eager to get things moving. To them, they had to be sure our family was the right one. The perfect English family to join their American dynasty. What did they expect of me? I wondered. I could only imagine, and it felt like the walls around my eleven-year-old life were closing in quick.
"Thankfully this rain let up!" Augusta said, coming out from the other side of the car where Albert Lord had helped her.
"Is it always this .... this here?" Jacob asked gesturing to the rainy sky, clearly unimpressed with his first experience of the dreary cool gray after noon of London.
"Not always." Rebecca replied. She'd been here before.
"You might want to keep the attitude in check, son." Albert replied. "We don't want to come off as if we're...I don't know, better than them.".
"Besides, Welshport isn't exactly Havana." Augusta reminded them all of Welshport's own grayness. "Now Sebastian, I know this feels strange, we all understand, but do try and remember that for Evangeline this is just as awkward. Nothing is set in stone, and we're only here to meet them, alright? Make friends." She added
Rebecca, always the territorial grandmother, grabbed Sebastian by his sloped shoulders and pulled him away from Augusta as if to get him out of the line of fire of her words. "He'll be fine."
"She's really my age?" He asked, his voice sweet and tender. Worried even. Unsure of what he himself was getting into.
Augusta's head went back with a great big laugh "OF COURSE CHILD! Did you think we'd be betrothed to some old granny like Rebecca here?"
Rebecca's eyes narrowed. "Enough Augusta. Let's get out of this wet street."
"Yes, please." Jacob said annoyed.
"I'm only teasing Becca. Shall we? Let's not keep them waiting any further.
I saw the group suddenly turn and face our front door, and my room. I jumped from the window, the small diamond ring my grandmother gave me for my first communion got caught on the white lace curtains, I yanked it off and Sebastian noticed the movement and looked up.
I looked down. He saw me. I saw him.
I quickly turned away; it was like staring at the sun. Don't look too long -- you'll go blind! Sebastian stared only turning back towards the front door when fresh rain starting to fall on his perfect cherub face.
Jacob rolled his eyes at the weather front and paid the taxi driver and tried to warm himself. "Ugh. Can we please go in."
As the group made their way to the door, my mother walked into my room. I was already sitting at my vanity. She walked over and stood behind me. Her hands were on my shoulders, and we stared at each other in the mirror.
"I know what you're thinking." She said to me. I shrugged then looked down at my ring. "Trust me I do. These things are completely old-fashioned and truly, I wish it were different, but I think that when you finally do come of age to marry, marring into this family would be one of the greatest opportunities any girl could wish for."
I shrugged again and grabbed my brush. It was silver embossed; my initials were carved in the handle. Another gift from my first communion.
"No one is taking you from us. This is just a meeting, a way for us to all get know each other better. Then one day, you'll enter a world of endless fortune and new beginnings. You're our hope, darling, to keep things on our end afloat." My mother replied. She hadn't often noted our money problems with me before.
"What if he doesn't like me?" I said turning to my mother from the mirror.
"He will. He will love you. He will love you for all eternity. I promise you."
For all eternity she said. It was like I was giving away my life to -- to him? To a person, a boy, I didn't know. I took a breath and a whimper came out. I was crying and hadn't even noticed.
My mother began brushing my hair and when she was done, she cleaned my tear-stained face and kissed my cheek.
"I promise you -- he'll love you forever."
*
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| Jacob & Marissa get reacquainted |
Back in our foyer my maternal aunt Marissa welcomed the Lords in. She was only a few years younger than my mother, but just as beautiful and just as American. Her wide eyes of green reflected her spontaneous and happy nature, a trait the English in our circle had yet to warm to. Aunt Marissa wasn't brash by any means, but she was very open to the world around her. Different cultures fascinated her. She loved art and took me to so my first museums and galleries and it was with her that my love affair with the arts bloomed. One Christmas she even gave me a book on works by Caspar David Friedrich. I read it and looked through its pages over and over and over until the book's spine gave.
I wasn't the only one very fond of Aunt Marissa. Jacob Lord found her equally as beguiling the moment he entered the room.
"Please, please come in!" Aunt Marissa said, taking Rebecca's coat into her arms. "We've been so excited for your arrival."
"Thank you, Miss?..." Rebecca asked.
"I’m Aurora's sister, Marissa, ma’am." My said.
Jacob lit up. My aunt Marissa was a dazzling. Jacob was not shy to eye her up and down but there was something else, something too familiar even for people who run in small circles of the wealthy. Jacob and Marissa were not strangers.
“Well hello again.” Jacob said, his handsome young face quickly remembering her from a chance encounter the summer before.
“Again?” Rebecca asked as she turned to her son confused.
Marissa squirmed in place.
"Jacob and I have met before." she replied shyly also making the connection to Jacob.
"Have you?" Albert asked, stepping into the house with Sebastian's hand tightly wound in his.
"New England summer's on the Cape aren't exactly as exclusive as one would imagine." Jacob replied.
Augusta strolled passed, her eyes never leaving Marissa for a second scanning her for more info through expressions, although my Aunt never gave anything away.
Rebecca too felt her mind quickly search her memories, Jacob had only gone to the Cape with his footman Filipe Braga, no one had ever heard of Marissa.
"So this is a recent acquaintance?" Rebecca asked, Jacob and Aunt Marrisa both nodded, she blushed.
"Last summer." Jacob said shortly.
"Small world, very, very small world." Aunt Marissa added almost embarrassed by it all. "Please, come into the parlor, Richard is waiting."
"The smaller the better I always say." Augusta chimed in, always eager gnaw on some tawdry gossip.
As my aunt ushered the socialite and the Lords into the parlor, Rebecca gave our English townhome a very good once-over. She was impressed. She'd been to England several times over her lifetime She'd always loved the homes, inside and out, and even tried to build a few in Welshport to rent out to a varying degree of success. The Welshport homes were charming and cozy, but they still lacked something these true English homes had -- Rebecca couldn't quite figure it out.
Our home, however, was indeed special. It was old, but my mother had always made it look as fresh as she could. Clean walls of white, green ferns and palms that stretched the eye to make the tall ceilings feel even taller. The hardwood floors were original but with a yearly varnishing looked newer than anything else.
"This is lovely, just lovely." Rebecca said. "Richard Jordan, so good to see you!"
"OH! I adore it. So simple." Agusta's voice said of the house. "It's one of the most beautiful parts in Holland Park, we're only steps away from Kensington Palace, isn't that right Richard?"
"Yes, that's correct." My father replied, slightly annoyed. "Rebecca, Albert please come in, come in!" My father replied jovially as he held little brother Nikolas's hand.
"Rebecca, you'll never guess who's been seen walking her dogs down this block, Princess Beatirice. She's very plane, but royalty nonetheless." Augusta replied to Rebecca's lack of interest.
"I see." Rebecca said, trying to keep up appearances.
"We've been so happy to see you all again." Albert said quickly moving the conversation. "Sebastian, go on, say hello to Mr. Jordan."
Sebastian, meekly looked out from under his thick mop of curly blond hand and like a true gentleman shook my father's hand. "Sir." he said in a boy's voice.
"Good to see you chap, how was the trip?" My father replied to his future son in law with his thick English accent fluttering into air.
"It was fine sir." Sebastian replied.
"Well then, good to hear that. This is our youngest, Nikolas. Nikky, say hello."
My brother froze. Much shyer than me and I was incredibly shy. He quickly stepped behind my father, slightly visible to the group and only whispered a meek "hello"
"So good to meet you Nikky." Rebecca said, her smile warm as she slightly crouched down to be eye-level with him.
"Aurora will be down in a second, she was just getting Evie ready."
My name sent Sebastian's skin into a prickly fit. His nerves tangled in his stomach, and he found himself now hiding behind Albert's legs like Nik was behind my father's.
"Sit! Sit! Make yourselves at home." My father's said, as he ushered Albert over to the bar near a bright window that looked over Holland Park.
Over in a small cushy corner, Aunt Marissa and Jacob got reacquainted.
"It's very good to see you, the last time we saw each other was quite the blur of bed sheets and champaign." Jacob recalled.
"I remember." Marissa said, her eyes scanning the room to see if anyone overheard.
"Do you remember how I kissed your neck. How you clenched my..." He continued to whisper as she quickly changed the subject.
"Jacob -- I think we should keep that summer's events -- just between us."
Jacob narrowed his eyes "Are you ashamed of what we did?"
"Ashamed? No." She answered. "But considering your nephew and my niece are entering this sill and old-fashioned love connection I think it would just cause a bit of a gossip explosion should anyone get word that you and I ... well... became close."
"But we did. There shouldn't be any issues with Sebastian and Evie's betrothal and our budding friendship. There can be two Jordan women in the Lord family tree, can't there?" He wondered.
Aunt Marissa had fallen in love that summer with someone else completely and the fact she had any connection to Jacob was something she wanted to forget. It seemed her free spirit had accidently gone too far this time, and Jacob had become more smitten with her than she realized. Their summer fling had pulled itself into the chill of autumn. Had she known before they met how he'd one day be linked to me, she'd been more careful but there it was: her chicken came home to roost in the form of a lovesick Jacob Lord.
"There's nothing wrong with a little fun, Jacob, but let's just be respectfully discreet? Shall we?" Aunt Marissa said as an eager Rebecca caught her eye. "Rebecca, please sit, would you like something refreshing to drink?"
"Water." Rebecca replied coldly; she'd already seen Jacob's private conversation with Aunt Marissa. It didn't take a psychic to know what was going on. "We didn't come at an awkward time did we? Is Evie alright?"
"Not at all!" My father replied from the bar. "I'll go upstairs and get them."
"I could go up!" Augusta suggested.
"No, no. You stay, rest, please. I'll see what's keeping them." Marissa said, as she handed Rebecca her water. "I won't be a minute."
This gave Rebecca a second to dust off any fluff from Sebastian's smart jacket and interrogate Jacob as she could clearly see my Aunt Marissa couldn't leave the parlor and Jacob's hungry eyes fast enough.
"Careful." Rebecca whispered to her son as she approached.
Jacob rolled his eyes. "Of what?"
"You don't have the greatest track record when it comes to choosing women. Mary Goode sits in Welshport as I speak heartbroken and a month pregnant if our calculations are correct. And may I remind you about Sabri..." he cut her off.
"You don't have to remind me of anyone; I know exactly what I am doing." Jacob said. Albert noticed their tense interaction and excused himself from Richard's small talk to walk over to his son and wife. Richard noticed too but politely turned and talked to the two boys Sebastian and Nik about Sebastian's trip.
"The two of you need to be as normal as possible today. We've been here all but 10 minutes and you're already whispering in corners. I won't have you ruin this for my grandson. The future of this family is set on this match, he deserves to have a happy future and I believe we've found it for him."
"Of course." Rebecca replied, as she caressed her husband's cheek. "I'm sorry."
"Yes." Jacob replied.
Albert narrowed his eyes at the two of them. His trust had thinned over the years especially after what happened with Sebastian's parents David and Sabrina.
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| Rebecca & Sebastian meet Evie & Aurora for the first time |
As my Aunt reached the top of the stairs, my mother and I had already left my bedroom. As we made our way down the hallway, I turned back and stared at the open door to my room. I felt that if I turned away, even for a second, when I would be someone else. That all my books and pages of art, and bed, and clothes and old friends of dolls and bears, would be gone -- and I too would suddenly be someone else. Sebastian and his family's arrival had me at the brink of transformation, and I could feel it in my bones.
"What's taken so long?" Aunt Marissa asked my mother as the three of us met in the hall.
My mother looked at her like she had three heads "Has it been long?"
"They're here Aurora, they want to meet Evie." My Aunt replied as she then looked down at me. "He's very friendly, Evie. Shy, but friendly. Are you ok?"
I shrugged.
"It's odd, I know, all of this is so odd. Think of this as the first time you're meeting a new friend that you'll have for the rest of your life." She added.
"But I don't marry my friends." I answered.
My mother smirked. "I married mine."
I looked up at her, slightly confused. Then she turned to the wall and there was a wedding photo of her and my father. She turned back and it made sense. But I was still a nervous wreck.
"It's going to be ok." My mother reassured me.
"Come." My Aunt Marissa added as she reached for my hand and the three of us continued down the staircase and into the foyer. We turned down a bright little corridor that led us passed the parlor that was now empty. My father had moved everyone into a larger more formal drawing room and as we made our way. In that short walk all I could see nothing but the backs of my mother and aunt and hear our shoes clacking on the hardwood floors that had been freshly polished for this occasion.
We entered the drawing room and like two sea sirens rising out of the ocean my mother and aunt parted and I walked in between them. Everyone turned and faced us. I looked at down at my feet that were covered by the hem of my egg-shell colored dress. My mother's cleared her throat and I looked up.
Rebecca instantly stood up, she smiled at me. Very warmly, if I recall. She walked over caressed my face with her hand. The lace of her glove felt scratchy, but I smiled.
"Oh, Evangeline. I am very pleased to finally meet you." She said, giving each of my cheeks a kiss. "This is my grandson, Sebastian."
When Rebecca said his name, she moved slightly to the side and there stood the most beautiful boy I had ever seen now up-close. He was dressed impeccably in a royal blue jacket made of velvet. He smiled, his shyness melted away when our eyes met. I curtsied and the rest was blur.
I remember voices, Augusta's mainly. The introductions of who was who too, and Jacob reaching for my mother's hand, Aunt Marissa disappearing somewhere behind me, most likely to escape more time with Jacob. The laughter of my father and Albert bonding. Jacob's eyes scanning for Marissa. My little brother begging to be allowed to go back to his room to play. Even attempting to lure Sebastian up stairs to see his toys.
And in this blur of voices and movement and excitement of these two 11 years olds finally meeting to one day -- years from now -- become husband and wife, I finally heard his voice as he walked up and patted my shoulder.
"Hi."
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| Evie and her art book |
The grown-ups decided to separate into two different groups. The ladies stayed together in our parlor and made small talk over small biscuits and tea, and the men took to the small study my father had set up earlier that day already anticipating the splitting of the sexes.
Sebatian and I moved stayed in the kitchen with our cook Holland. He was a tall man who spoke fluent French almost all the time even though he was from the Scottish Highlands by birth. He'd tell us that he was only born in Scotland and raised in a rural part of France. He never really told us from where, always just a rural part.
No one could be sure of the truth, so French it was when speaking with him.
As Holland prepared small treats to deliver to the parlor for the ladies, Sebastian and I got to know each other over a book I was reading. His green eyes were so intense. He was curious, he was smart, and -- he was very cute. I could barely look in the eye as we chatted about whatever painting or sculpture was on the page at the moment.
"It's funny how the woman stares out of the window and there's really nothing there, huh? I wonder what she was looking at." Sebastian said to me, I couldn't look, my eyes fixed on the woman in the painting.
Stupidly I finally replied in a shy voice "Well she's not real, so maybe whatever is out of the window is not real."
He laughed. "I guess."
I decided I needed to make more sense and added "She could have BEEN real."
"What do you mean?"
Art and the beauty of what someone could do with their imagination was already so engrained in me, I was so sure of myself when I spoke of art. Even if my own little composed explanations of what something was meant to convey wasn't at all true to the artist, it was true to me.
"You see the artist, Johannes Lamme, had this person in their mind. Just this person. He could picture her sitting at the window and he could picture her clothes and hair and details of her face. But he couldn't see what she was seeing. He could only see her." I explained.
Sebastian scrunched his nose and paused before replying.
"WHAT?" My little brother asked, his mind too unshaped to understand art. Then he laughed at me and poked at treats.
"I think maybe he didn't want us to see what she saw." Sebastian added.
His answer to my theory struck me. "Didn't want us to see" ... that was interesting. It made me wonder.
"Why do you think that?" I asked, finally making eye contact.
He stared at me, this boy, someone that in about 10 or 11 years I would, god willing, call my husband, looked at me and smirked.
"Because whatever she's looking at she's scared of. Whatever it is out there, is coming for her and she's uncertain of what is to come in her own life; in her own future." He said pointily.
I knew what he was doing. "Like me." I replied.
Holland heard it too, I could hear him hum a reaction to it, surprised by Sebastian's astute reply.
"And me." Sebastian said.
I quicky turned the page of my art book to a beautiful landscape. A painting that neither of us could pull personal worries or anxieties from. It was just a farmhouse on a beautiful day. We admired it and Holland brought us butter rolls to snack on. It was such a strange feeling to know that this would not be the last time he and I spoke or saw each other that somewhere, sometime, some way, we'd eventually come together again. Maybe for another meeting, maybe for another test. Or... worse, maybe on the day of our wedding.
For now, all we could do is talk about the farmhouse.
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| Rebecca, Augusta, Aurora & Marissa |
"It really was a stroke of luck for us to meet you and your family through Augusta and the rest of the Stoddard family Aurora. I am very pleased." Rebecca said kindly.
Augusta, the match maker, smiled her wide grin then crunched down on a small biscuit. She made a sound confirming her closeness to the Ashby side of my family then added with a full mouth "When Lady Stoddard told me Rebecca was hoping to make a match for Sebastian, I could only think of our dear Evangeline. They're perfectly the same age, and if I do say so myself, getting on quite well too."
"Sebastian is very sweet." My mother noted.
"Yes, they are very cute together." Aunt Marissa said. "I think all of us appreciate the way that you've allowed them to meet so early on in this processes. They're so young, that allowing them years to get to know each other before they marry is valuable."
"In truth, I had wished that that was what happened with Albert and I." Rebecca confessed. "I was thrust into the Lord family fold like being dropped into an icy river without being able to swim. My father-in-law had already passed, but Mother Lord, Marina, I met. She was very stern. Very hard to get used to. But we eventually got on."
"Was she the only one of the family around?" Mother asked.
"No." Augusta interjected. "There's an older brother and younger sister. Calgary and --- oh what's her name? The sister, Rebecca, what is she called?"
"AH! Yes. Like the empress." Augusta joked, "Alix, for short." she added, almost mockingly.
"Alix is far more distant than Cal. Both live abroad." Rebecca added.
"Thankfully." Augusta said as my mother and Aunt Marissa shot each other looks.
"That reminds me, Marissa, have you married?" Augusta asked as if to brand my unmarried aunt as our family's special member. Rebecca coughed.
Aunt Marissa gulped, she knew where this ship was sailing to.
"No, I am not."
"And you yet you have a child." Augusta replied, surprising Rebecca with this bit of gossip.
Marissa narrowed her eyes; she could feel the warmth of her cheeks. Rebecca sipped her water unsure of what to make of this unmarried mother. My mother too felt a bit protective of Aunt Marrissa, but she said nothing.
"I don't pretend not to be disappointed in that myself." Marissa said hoping to salvage her reputation. "The father of my child became very ill before would could marry. I wanted a child, and so, we conceived Roman in hopes that he would be better soon for a wedding. I know what you're thinking, 'what an odd way about it', but time was of the essence. Unfortunately, his father's illness took him before Roman was born and before we could wed."
My mother cocked her head slightly -- almost astonished with how fast her sister came up with that.
"Ah." Rebecca said. "How very tragic."
"Indeed." Augusta replied.
This made Rebecca's eyes light up. She wanted to see this, she wanted to visit soon, if the rain let up.
"Of course, of course." My mother agreed, then asked my Aunt Marissa for help in the kitchen with more refreshements.
The request for help was just a rouse. My mother pulled Marissa aside and into a quiet hallway where she scolded her about that story of the father of her child.
"Where did that come from?" My mother asked in a whisper.
"I had to say something, they were looking at me like I had the letter 'A' embroidered on my boddice." Marrisa replied.
Marrissa gave her a look that could only be described as baffled. They hadn't discussed explaining little Roman's missing father. The excitement and nervousness of meeting the Lords overshadowed all else, and in the heat of the moment, the lie worked better about his father. Not even Roman's father, who was indeed alive, knew who he was. Just Aunt Marrisa and my mother.
"Leave it as is. If we bring more attention to the matter, it may make them ask more questions and frankly, I'm not in the mood to concoct MORE of a story." Marrissa added.
"Fine." My mother replied sternly to her younger sister. "We'll just distract them with more talk of Anne's Square. Rebecca seemed to enjoy that."
Aunt Marissa nodded and then the two went back into the parlor after quickly grabbing the extra plate of treats from the kitchen and checking in on Sebastian and myself.
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| Albert, Jacob and Richard |
They made small talk about business, money and politics. Friends they may or may not have in common in both New and Old England, "old" as Jacob put it, made the left side of my father's mouth dip. He always preferred Old to new -- in all things. It wasn't that my father didn't like the Lords, he like my mother, barley knew them. They had only met once in New York much before it was decided that I would eventually marry Sebastian. And that interaction was cordial, but the idea that he'd one day set my on a ship to America to marry felt heartbreaking.
And even though marriage by arrangement was a very old tradition in families like mine and the Lords, my father wasn't one hundred precent sold on it. But seeing as how this status update for our family would give me so many more opportunities in life -- he agreed.
"It's not that the I don't fully trust your Prime Minister, Mr. Jordan, he's surely been very good about this whole situation with the Spanish we're dealing with, but I have to have my reservations. After all, what kind of an American would I be if I didn't keep one eye on our former oppressors." Richard said.
"What? Oh yes, yes, oppressors. Well, that all ended with tea in the bay, isn't that right? A right-oh way to show the crown where to stick it. Besides, Queen Victoria is no George III. So, it all sorts itself out when the crown switches heads." My father replied, completely uninterested in the conversation.
"Money?" Jacob asked.
"Not mine, of course. Well, that's not always mine. Sometimes mine. I help the very rich and those who want to be the very rich invest in the great world around them. Money goes a long way now, Mr. Lord, especially with how fast the world moves. Money needs to move just as fast. I help that happen."
"I do love that." Jacob said.
"What's that Jacob?" My father questioned.
"Money." Jacob said, his eyes almost turning to cartoon dollar signs.
"My brother had his own interests." Jacob answered.
"Had! -- I forgot. I over stepped." My father replied remembering too late that David was presumed dead.
"David's ideas weren't always full minded and trustworthy as mine interests are for the family and our business. He was mother's favorite you see. The golden child. " Jacob added finally said puffing along with Albert.
Albert sucked his teeth at Jacob and waved a puff of smoke form his face "David worked just as hard. I won't have you speak of David in any disapproving way."
"I wasn't saying -- " Jacob began before Albert interrupted.
"He had his demons, we all do. He suffered from something so damaging that it took over. I can't say that I can ever forgive David for what he did, but I can also say that I can't forget how it all happened either."
Albert stared daggers at Jacob. It was Jacob, that had an affair with his sister-in-law Sabrina. It was Jacob who confronted by a hung-over David to tell him what he had done on Bellmore Beach. It was Jacob who drove his younger brother to the devastating decision to leap from the widow's walk of Welshport's lighthouse and into the sea -- never to be seen again.
Those demons that Albert spoke of were all monstruous lies brought on David by his twisted older brother.
The family's most lethal scandal -- the murder of Sabrina by David -- is what plunged the family company and their social standing into free fall.
"He's had his difficulties." Albert answered. "But its been about 4 years. He's come out stronger than we realized."
"Stronger. Yes." Jacob said his eyes slightly cold.
Albert turned to Jacob "Despite outside attempts otherwise."
Jacob shot up like a firecracker into the sky darting out of the room. His father's reply felt like a hailstorm of words pointed at him over the truth.
"Is he alright?" My father asked Albert.
After a short pause my father said something that froze Albert still.
"That?" My father asked.
Tomorrow, when the sun woke us, we'd all head to the Square for what my parents hoped would be a light-hearted excursion.
His mind might have wondered back to the time in America, 2 very short summers ago, when he was introduced to a gorgeous woman from Maine who had been living abroad in England with her sister. Her name, Jacob might have recalled in this memory, was Marissa Ashby -- my aunt.
"Is this child mine?"
FOR PART II
