Part XI

Found

February, 1914

Blue Rivers

1.

~ Arthur watched from his upstairs bedroom as the footmen tied down his trunk and suitcase to the pristine new automobile that had finally retired the horse and carriage at Blue Rivers. It was a regal beauty, big enough accommodate a large family in comfort and safety. Arthur had kept his older car, but Ford stocks had done so well, he treated himself to a more family friendly car.

Ariadne was making sure he didn't forget anything for his trip. Attending to all the little details of her husbands impromptu travel arrangements.

"I don't understand why you can't handle this over the telegraphs." She fumed.

"It's a strike; in two of my factories. I have to be there. I knew this would happen. They're occurring all over the city. More demand and less workers. Even immigrants can only be pushed so far. I was over due to make a visit to the factories months ago." He told her as he pinned on cufflinks. He looked less the regal lord of the house and more the factory owner he was. His brow setting in those deep lines of worry and irritation he always had when they were first married.

"Are you sure you don't want us to go with you?" Ariadne asked.
"Lady Percy still is not herself. Olivia is too young and too into mischief to travel on overseas. I'll be back in less then a month." He told her.
Ariadne nodded. He was right of course.

Lady Percy had not died from her illness. But the formidable, strong willed old woman they knew before had vanished. She came out of her fever, out of deaths grip, another person entirely.

Her mind was simple and child like now. She didn't recognize anyone in the house, and constantly asked for her parents. She could no longer walk and had lost so much weight, she was skeletal. A nurse had to be hired for her care, and most days, she was lost in her own world.

Phillipa was afraid to go near Lady Percy now, and played with James in the gardens all day. Arthur was reluctant to make plans to leave Blue Rivers permanently until Lady Percy was dead. So far, the past months had been like living in Limbo. Waiting for Lady Percy to die, waiting for war to break out.

Mr. Saito had returned to Japan after a pleasant, month long visit, and he and Arthur wrote often.

Olivia suddenly gave one of her shirks that meant she wanted attention. The little girl growing tired of playing with her toys on the floor of their bedroom and was making a break out the door.

Her newly found walking skills put to the test as she would pull herself up on the side of their bed, stand and survey her world imperiously, and then try to run away before her mother or father could catch her.

It was her favorite game and she felt her parents must surely enjoy it as well, as they always gave chase.
"Olivia!" Ariadne shouted as the little girl tried to race on unsteady legs to the door, and freedom. "Oh you are indeed my child! No could deny you are my little girl." She scolded gently.
Arthur was chuckling.

"It's not funny." Ariadne huffed as she caught her daughter who was laughing uncontrollably.

"Sure it is. We need to have a word with Olivia soon. She's growing up much too fast for my liking." Arthur said with a serious tone.

"Well, I'm sure she will have her own view on that subject as soon as she learns to talk, dear." Ariadne sighed as she sat Olivia down in the middle of the room.

Between Phillipa, Olivia and Lady Percy, Ariadne was exhausted.

Arthur looked for a long time at Olivia. The little girl had a head full of dark, curly hair and her brown eyes were large enough to make her look like some kind of doll.

"Dad-da!" She shirked and held out her arms for Arthur.

"Olivia, no!" Ariadne scolded as Arthur made a move to pick her up. He was always weak to this little girl who now glared mutinously at her mother.
"Ariadne, if you have any good news for me to take back to America, it will certainly make the trip nicer for me." Arthur said hopefully.

Ariadne sucked in her breath.

She knew what he was asking.

They had been trying for a baby of their own since August; so far nothing.

"I'm sorry, Arthur. If I had good news, you would be the first to know." She said sadly as she folded up a small silver frame that held a new picture of her and Olivia.

"Well, when I get back, we can work on it again." Arthur whispered as he kissed her cheek. "We've only been trying a few months now."

"Arthur, what if having Olivia... what if it... broke something inside me? So I couldn't have another baby?" Ariadne asked. Her fears surfacing at last.

She thought she would fall pregnant right away. With Jeffery, she had been with child after only a few months. Now, she was disappointed there was no sign of a baby with Arthur.
"Don't think that. This time apart will be good for us. I'll return home and we can pick up where we left off." Arthur told her.

They watched as Olivia, stubborn as her mother, stood up again and looked innocently around the room. Plotting her grand escape once more.

"I'm sorry I won't be here for her birthday." Arthur whispered as he held her close and they watched the baby.

"She won't remember. You'll bring her back a nice present and she'll forgive you. Olivia never stays mad at you." Ariadne laughed as Olivia toddled on wobbly feet to the door again.

~ "Hello, Sir!" James cried running to the drive as Arthur left the house. Ariadne and Olivia behind him.

"Hello, James!" Arthur smiled as the little boy handed him a rough, well used leather ball.

"Can we play today? Phillipa didn't want to. She hates getting dirty now." The little boy complained.

Ariadne sighed as she watched Arthur and James.

Her husband had grown very fond of the little boy and she often found they had stolen away together to play ball or ride in the car.

A deep seed of jealousy nipped at her each time she saw them together. She knew Arthur was just being nice to the boy who's father was dead, and who hadn't even acknowledged him when he was alive. Arthur was always set on doing the honorable thing.
"Arthur, your train." Ariadne reminded him as the boys looked to be having too much fun.

"James, I have to go away for a little while; but I'll be back in a month. I want you to look after the house while I'm gone. I'm depending on you." Arthur told him.

"Yes, sir." James said eagerly.
"When is Maggie going to get a place in the village?" Ariadne asked Arthur as he kissed her goodbye.
"I haven't really pressed the issue." Arthur said as he kissed Olivia who shouted at him and smiled.

"A month." Ariadne said sadly. "That's the longest we've ever been apart."
"I know. I'll send you a telegram every week. Everyday if you like." He promised.

She smiled at him.
"You'll miss your train." She said sadly.

Arthur nodded. Kissed her once more for luck and she watched the driver take him away from her.

~ Lady Percy sat in her parlor most days. She would look out her window and watch the disappearance of winter.

"My, what a pretty little girl!" Lady Percy exclaimed as Ariadne brought Olivia into the parlor. She didn't like for the old woman to be so all alone these days.
"Thank you, Aunt Percy." Ariadne said with a smile. The older woman was much more pleasant since her illness.

"Is she yours?" Lady Percy asked.

"She is. Her name is Olivia."

"Oh she's precious. I have a little girl of my own. I have a doll to. Your little girl can't play with my doll though. I'm saving her for my own little girl." Lady Percy said with her vacant, empty smile.

Ariadne looked sadly at the old, tattered doll with the china face in the old woman's gnarled hands. Her hair worn away by time and her once pretty dress; dirty and ripped.

When Lady Percy came out of her fever, Ariadne had found the old doll and given it back to her. The old woman refused to be without it now.

"It's alright, Aunt Percy. We can save your doll for Rose." Ariadne said brightly.

"Yes, for my Rose. I could have taken her you know. My baby. I had a baby. She was always mine, you see. No matter what happens, she will always be mine." Lady Percy said.

"I know." Ariadne agreed. A pain in her heart at the idea of Lady Percy losing her olnly child.

"Missus?" Came a voice from the hall. Ariadne cast a worried look at her little escape artist and met Maura in the hall.

"What is it?" Ariadne asked her maid.
"I'm sorry to bother you, missus." Maura said as Olivia toddled over to Lady Percy and gave the old woman a lecture in her baby talk. Lady Percy seemed to understand perfectly and told her: no, she didn't have any cookies.

"There is a telephone call for you, missus. From a gentleman in London." Maura explained.
"What did he want?" Ariadne asked.
"Well, he said it's a private matter and he isn't willing to discuss it with anyone but you, missus." Maura said sheepishly.

Ariadne sighed.
"Can you watch those two?" she asked and Maura nodded.

~ Arthur had installed a phone line in his library to do business on and so she didn't have to go to the butler's office.

"This is Lady Ariadne Bradford." She said in her well practiced voice.

"Yes, madam." Came a nervous voice. "My name is Robert Fischer, I work at a special hospital here in London."

"We already have our charity plans for the year." Ariadne told him. Seeing right away where this was going.
"No, you misunderstand. We have a friend of yours here; in the hospital. He goes by the name of Eames. He's been here for a while now and listed you as his only family." The man said.