April 10th, 1912
9am
She watched in horror as numerous men and women, some of whom she had never even seen before stripped the room bare of all it's decoration; items of clothing were packed away neatly in suitcases and carried outside, whilst ornaments and various trinkets were pulled from shelves and placed into wooden trunks, a number of which were strewn across the floor waiting to be filled. Persephone Swan wanted nothing more than to stop them all in their tracks, there and then, for these were HER things that they were manhandling and they had no right to be doing so! In fact, she had specifically requested that SHE be the one to pack away her things, and not the servants. Alas, as per usual, her pleas had gone unheard and there was very little she could do about it now.
"How long before we leave?" Persephone called out dryly, hearing approaching footsteps which she instantly recognized as those of her mother. She did not even turn her head, nor did she move from the spot by the door which she had occupied for the last two and a half hours. A part of her feared that if she left these people to their task, or even as much as looked away, then they would forget something... something important; something which she NEEDED.
"Exactly one hour, my dear. Are you dressed?" The older woman came up behind her and placed an affectionate hand upon her daughters arm. With a roll of her eyes, Persephone shifted away and folded her arms across her chest.
"Give that here!" She held out her hand to a rather startled looking steward, who quickly gave in to her demands and presented her with a small, tattered little book which he had retrieved from her bedside desk. Persephone placed it under her arm and with a small inclination of her head, she smiled and finally turned her gaze on her mother. "One hour? But... surely that does not give us enough time to pack EVERYTHING away? Look... these people have not even removed half of my things from my room; there is still much to do!"
"Persephone, darling, I have already told you... you cannot take all of this with you. At least, not yet. Grady has promised to have the rest of our things shipped over to New York in good time. For now, we must only take essentials. We WILL leave in an hour, and you WILL be ready. Do you understand?" Muriel Barrett grabbed her daughter by the arm, forcing the girl to look her in the eye. Persephone said nothing, her lips pursed as she bit back an objection; she knew it would be no use. She had already voiced her opinions about all of this, but no one had listened. No one EVER listened. All Mama seemed to care about was giving in to her husbands wishes; what her daughter wanted seemed obstanate in comparison. "Do you understand?" Her voice softened a little as she repeated her question, though her gaze remained stern and unforgiving until Persephone relented and nodded to her. "Good. Now stop dilly-dallying, and change your clothes. I cannot have you appearing in public looking like that! We are first class, darling... not steerage." She chuckled and jokingly tugged on a loose piece of fabric which poked out of the sleeve of the girls dress.
"I'll change." Persephone snapped, her face a frown as she once again removed her arm from her mothers grip and stepped back. Taking a deep breath, she turned away until she felt quite certain that Muriel was gone. The moment her footsteps died away, she found herself overwhelmed with guilt; she always spoke down to her mother, disrespected her and challenged her for no apparent reason. And she nearly always regretted it, once it was too late and the damage was done. But the events of recent months had hardened her a great deal, and she no longer felt like the person she had been this time last year... the person her mother still wanted her to be. Things were different now, and once again, change was upon her.