Long has paled that sunny sky:
Echoes fade and memories die.
Autumn frosts have slain July.
A Boat Under the Sunny Sky, Verse 3 - Lewis Carrol.
The Kingsleys had survived two years without Alice, but they never went long without letters from their adventurer. They received many gifts and Charlie recieved special letters detailing some adventures the other women of the family would find inappropriate or distasteful. Their favorite gift was a portrait of Alice and her new fiance'. Alice was still the blonde beauty and her fiance' was handsome as well. He was slightly taller than Alice but not as pale; and had red curly hair and green eyes. From her letters, Alice had met the man in one of the ports her ship had docked on and he was invited aboard. In a private letter to Charlie, Alice had admitted that she felt she had met the man before.
While Charlie was happy for her sister, her sister's engament announcement had set their mother and Margret into a match-making frenzy. Many propsals came in, even Lady Ascot conceded to give Charlie a chance stating that while she was not as beautiful as her sister, she seemed more dependable and level-headed. Most of the bachelors that proposed were absolute monsters leaving Margret and Helen to decline them immediately. Charlie relayed all this and more in her letters to Alice but Alice never mentioned anything about recieveing any word from her family.
The weeks turned to months and months to years after Alice's last letter. The Kingsley family grew anxious and fearful of Alice's fate and Lord Ascot was unable to find out what happened as well. Finally word came when a gentleman in a simple grey suite called on Helen and Charlie, while they were visiting Lady Ascot and Hamish. Hamish and Charlie were under a gazebo in the Ascot Garden, sitting in uncomfortable silence, when the young man shly walked up to them.
"Excuse me, Miss Kingsley?" the young man was handsome with pale blue eys and black hair. He stood looking up at her while wringing his hat in his hands.
"Yes, how do you do . . . ?" Charlie asked waiting for the man's name.
"Sorry! I'm John Britteson, I was a ship mate with the China Trading Company." Behind the man Helen slowly made her way to Charlie, her face red and somewhat blocked by a hankerchief.
Charlie walked over to the man and stopped his hands. "What has happened Mr. Britteson?"
"Charlene that is hardly the way a lady should act."
"Silence Hamish!" Charlie ordered but kept her eyes on the man in front of her.
"I regret to . . . to tell you that two months ago most of the crew on the ship Wonder died when it sank in a storm in the middle of the sea of Bengal." He finally met her eyes, "You sister was one of the casualties." Charlie dropped his hand and stared into the space between the man and her mother. "She gave me something as the ship went down. I believe that is why I live, Miss, to give this to you." Charlie saw the man now held out a small grey pouch. She took it uncertainly and the man let out a relieved sigh.
"What is it Charlene?" Helen asked coming up and holding her youngest daughter. The pouch contained a silver oval locket on a silver chain. Inside was a picture of Alice on one side and one of her father on the opposite. Helen put a comforting hand on the man's shoulder. "Thank you, Mr. Britteson, this means very much to us." Helen turned to her youngest and lovingly patted her back while blotting her eyes. "Charlene, let us go inside." Charlie looked to Hamish, Mr Britteson, and finally to her mother."
"Excuse me, but I need time to think." Charlie turned away and walked briskly at first then began to run through the garden maze until she was out and on a hill that over looked the Ascot Manor. Exhausted physically and emotionally, she dropped to the ground and cried against a gnarled tree stump.
Several weeks later, there was a soft knock on Charlie's door followed by her mother's soft voice. "Charlene, I was wondering if you would like to visit your sister and Lowell, a constitution if it were." Charlie looked to the door as it opened and her mother's face peered inside. "May I come in?" Helen's voice was hopeful but uncertain, Charlie merely nodded and watched as her mother slowly made her way to the window seat the her daughter occupied. At once Charlie felt ashamed at her self-pity and selfishness, her mother was grieving as much as she was. Although traveling was the furthest thing from her mind, her mother had such a hopefull look, Charlie had to agree. "Wonderfull, we shall leave in two days time," Helen looked as if she might jump from her seat. Instead she rose gracefully and recommended that Charlie should think of everything she should pack.
Helen and Charlie were greeted at the door by an excited Margret and a slightly bored Lowell. Immediately Margret told her guests what parties they would be attending and the shops they were going to visit as well as all the confirmed and unconfirmed bachlors that would be attending said parties. Charlie accidently let out a groan and blushed when she realized it was out loud. "Charlie," Helen repremanded. "Don't be so rude.
"I'm sorry Margret, I thought we were coming just to spend time with you. Perhaps visit the new zoo I have heard so much about."
"Oh Charlene, that zoo is absolutely horrid. Lowell and I attended after the grand opening and the animals didn't do a thing.
"Margret is quite right." Lowell added, everyone had forgotten he was there. "It would raise a scandle should you not attend any social events while here."
"You are a young woman, Charlene, its time you put away your childish fantasies and accept a suitor." Margret agreed.
"Alice did not marry," Charlie stated quietly. "Alice was able to live her life the way she wanted, the way it felt right to her."
"And look where that took her." Lowell muttered and Charlie flinched.
"Don't ever say that again." Charlie demanded as her eyes teared and she dabbed her nose with her handkerchief. Helen and Margaret's eyes danced between Lowell and Charlie.
"It not too late to become a proper lady of society, you don't want to end up like your Aunt Imogene." Helen sighed.
"Is that why you brought me here?" Charlie questioned her mother.
"Of course not." Helen tried to protest.
"You are all siding against me." Charlie deflated, feeling completely alone and hopeless.
"Charlie don't be so dramatic." Margret scolded. "We just want what is best for you."
"And you are sure of what is best for me.?"
"To marry and live a life without worrying about money or a home. Is that so bad?" Helen reasoned.
"I don't want to marry for money." Charlie began to cry silently.
"If you know your place," Lowell began, "Then you will be happy in your position. It is a fact of life."
"I don't know if I would have put it so harshly my husband. The point is that you are almost twenty-one years old Charlie. You need to put yourself out there to find a respectable husband and to stop being such a burden on mother." Charlie's family sipped their tea slowly while waiting for her reaction. Charlie looked out the parlor window into the street, night had fallen and the street lamps provided minimal light for a few pedestrians.
"If this is the world I have to be apart of, perhaps you are right." Everyone let out a sigh of relief.
"I always knew you were sensible," Lowell smiled. He stood and pulled his wife to him. "It is late, Margret and I must ready for bed.
"Yes, as should we, come along Charlene." Helen bade.
"Coming Mother." Charlie slowly rose from her chair and followed the maid upstairs to her guest room. In the corner, opposite of her simple bed and next to her armoir, stood a long mirror from home. She drew back her curtains to allow what little light the street lamps provided. Sitting in front of the mirror, with her head resting on her arms and her arms resting on her knees, she stared at her reflection and thought about the second part of Alice's story Through the Looking Glass until she fell asleep.