Chapter 14
Wednesday July 3, 1901
Epilogue:
Two women walked arm and arm down the winding lane towards a pond, beautifully collared with trees. A fountain in the center created a soothing atmosphere for contemplation, blocking out noise from the nearby Exposition. The setting was serene and pastoral, most visual evidence of human habitation obscured by gentle hills and lush landscaping.
Julia spoke very softly. "Thank you for coming with me, Ruby. I do not think I could have come here on my own. And I certainly could not have come here with…well, with William."
Julia was very somber today, and to Ruby, she appeared to be barely holding on. Something had happened between Julia and the detective on Sunday that seemed to diminish some of Julia's remaining spirit. Today was all the more difficult. Wanting to reassure her sister she said, "Julia, of course I would have come. This is very important to you, and since you are my sister and very important to me, I am glad you asked me to be here for you." Ruby's heart broke for her sister's pain.
They sat at a small bench facing the fountain, looking at birds in the water, and experienced a small gust of air which tossed leaves on the trees into sighing. They were quite alone.
"Take your time, Julia, I will be here when you get back." Ruby held her sister's hand for a moment and then Julia gave a small, determined exhale and stood erect, and walked the final hundred feet.
Julia approached slowly but steadily across the grass and hesitated only briefly before stopping at her destination.
"Darcy Edward Garland, MD. Beloved Son and Brother. Taken from this world too soon."
The mausoleum in Buffalo's Forest Lawn Cemetery was a clean-lined affair, with a bronze plaque honoring Darcy affixed to the top right corner of the front. Inside was his body, lovingly placed there by his parents, plaque bracketed by his birth and death dates; his marriage erased for all time.
As it should be, I suppose. Julia found she was trembling, with tears welling in her eyes. She stood for a moment to compose herself. She had come to pay her long-delayed respects and to face Darcy, or his ghost she thought, and had no idea what she really hoped to accomplish by the exercise. She decided to talk to him, honestly, like she would have to a friend, because they had been friends, at least for a while.
"Darcy, I am so very sad and very sorry this happened to you. You…died because of me…because of William and me. A sick and twisted man used you for his own evil ends. You were a good man, kind and generous and did not deserve this." Julia choked back tears that refused to abate, and needed her handkerchief to blot them.
"Darcy, I genuinely did love you, and I always liked and admired you. It was my free choice to marry you and I did it, fully-intentioned to be a loyal and loving wife to you. I thought I knew what it would take to make a good life for the both of us. I tried hard to make the marriage work, but it was impossible for you to ignore my unhappiness, and for me to ignore how unhappy I made you.
"There are so many things I would have done differently, Darcy, but none are possible now and it is not right to dishonour what we did once have and did mean to each other." Julia twisted the handkerchief in her lace-gloved hands.
"I do not want to blame anyone but James Gillies – not William for being the target of his psychopathic ravings, not myself for being William's weakness, and not you for being stubborn and angry about the divorce. It is all too tragic. I am not sure I believe in heaven or that you can hear me, but if you can, then you know now that because I would not lie under oath to obtain an annulment, I had to arrange for it to look like I committed adultery to obtain a divorce that held you blameless. That only made you angry and resentful, believing you were betrayed and so you wanted to punish me. William gave you his word not to interfere in our marriage, and he never broke his promise to you. And I never sought him until you freed me to go. Gillies used all of it to his own sick ends."
Her voice quavered. "Darcy, I am going to see Gillies hang. I am going to do that as my responsibility as your wife, and my duty to you and your memory, and so that someone who loved you will witness justice for you. That is the truth. After that I am not sure what will happen, but I will always honour and remember you." Julia stopped and took in a shaky breath, tears streaming.
She placed a kiss on her fingers and then reached up to his name in bronze, and held her hand there for a moment before moving away. She found there was nothing more to say, and waited until she had cried herself out. Then she straightened her back, held her head up, and turned to find her sister.
End
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To the Reader: Thank you for going on the ride with me! Tell me what you liked (or didn't like.)
1) The Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, Forest Lawn and Buffalo in general in 1901 was as I described, including the reputation of the canal district. I have taken liberties with a few minor things & events for the purposes of the story (The Scottish Games, however, were on that Saturday!) but the Power House, though, is a bit of a guess. And by the way, transformers have not changed much and are just as vulnerable today as in 1901.
2) The Twentieth Century Club was/is as I described, but I have moved the grand oval ballroom back a few years (I believe it was not completed as it is now until after 1901).
3) Ettie's Bordello house does not exist now-it is currently a parking lot for the Twentieth Century Club on Franklin Street, and you could indeed have seen that house from the ballroom.
4) Miss Love (and her house) and Miss deForest are Buffalo history I appropriated for the story—who is to say they would have not actually been like that?
5) Calamity Jane was in fact dug out of a brothel by a newspaper woman, Mrs Josephine Brake, for the Wild West Show at Cody's insistence.
6) Thank you so much to my kind reviewers—hope you liked the small homage and a little humor.
7) And finally: I never know where "T" ends and "M" begins; I beg forgiveness if I have overstepped or offended in service of the story -rg