Chapter Eighteen
June, 1920
"Mom! Hey, Mom!" Seven-year-old Gregory ran into the back yard garden, where Rose was tending a tangle of vines and flowers.
"What is it, Gregory?" Rose asked, raking some dead leaves out of the way.
"We have some new neighbors. I was riding my bike and I saw them. They look like rich folks, so maybe they'll only be around for the summer. They're right next door."
Rose looked toward the fence separating the two properties. She had been wondering when someone was going to move there. The Dawsons had moved into their house, just outside of Philadelphia, the previous autumn, shortly after little Nancy was born. They had decided that they wanted their children to grow up outside the city, and the countryside just outside of Philadelphia offered the perfect mixture of open space and easy access to all the city had to offer.
A family had been living in the house next door when the Dawsons had moved there, but they had left a few months later, after the house was sold to cover back taxes. It had been empty ever since.
Rose brushed the dirt off her hands, picked up a fussing Nancy, and called to Libby, who was playing on a swing tied to a sturdy oak tree. With Gregory leading the way, she walked through the yard and started next door, curious as to who the new neighbors were.
"Did you speak to them?" she asked Gregory.
"No. I went home. They look like they've got a kid my age, but she's a girl," he said with seven-year-old disdain.
"Someday, Gregory, you'll learn to like girls."
Gregory gave her a look of disbelief, as though he couldn't believe that he would ever find anyone as annoying as his two sisters likable.
The new neighbors were still in the process of moving in. Several large trucks with the family's belongings were parked outside the house, showing that Gregory had been right—these were rich people.
Two cars were also parked in front of the house. There were several people coming to live in the house, at least for the summer. Many wealthy people bought houses in the country and stayed there only for the summers.
The movers were rushing around, carrying furniture, crates, and trunks. Rose was reminded of the day Titanic had set sail, with all the items being moved. One truck was piled high with crates and trunks, not unlike the one that had carried the Hockley party's belongings when they had sailed.
Rose stepped around the movers, and was about to ring the doorbell when the front door flew open and a shouting couple walked out, not noticing her.
She stared in surprise at the Hockleys. Laura Hockley was shouting at Cal in her high-pitched voice, berating him over something—Rose couldn't quite figure out what. She stopped when she saw Rose.
"Oh, so is this why you wanted to live here? To be near her?" Laura's voice was grating.
Cal looked at Rose for the first time. "I didn't know the Dawsons lived around here. If I had, I wouldn't have bought this house."
"Nice to see you, too, Cal," Rose told him, rocking Nancy gently. The infant was squalling at the noise. "We live next door."
"You knew!" Laura screeched. "You only insisted we move out here so you could be near her. It's very convenient that your ex-fiancée lives next door."
"I didn't ask who the neighbors were!"
"Of course not. You already knew!"
"Mother?" A little voice came from inside the house.
"Not now, Emily," Laura told her, turning back to her husband. They continued arguing, while the movers tried to avoid the scene and the child inside the house waited quietly for this latest argument to calm down. Her parents had been at each other's throats as long as she could remember.
Rose stepped around the embattled couple and looked through the screen. A little girl with blonde hair was watching everything with wide, dark eyes. Rose remembered her vaguely. Emily Hockley, the eldest child of Cal and Laura. She hadn't seen much of the Hockleys since her stepfather had died five years earlier, and Emily had been very young then.
"Emily, come away from there." A tall, gray-haired woman called to the girl from inside the house, walking toward the door, a dark-haired boy in tow. Rose had never seen him before, but she knew that this must be Nathan Hockley, Jr., the younger of the Hockleys' two children.
"There's someone at the door, Nanny."
The woman came to the door, peering out with squinted eyes. After a moment, she dug a pair of glasses from an apron pocket and put them on, seeing Rose and her children more clearly.
"I'm Rose Dawson," Rose greeted her. "This is Gregory, Libby, and Nancy. We live next door."
"Hello," Libby greeted them, stepping up to the door. "I'm five. How old are you?"
"I'm six," Emily told her.
"Wow. You're grown up."
Emily smiled proudly, displaying two missing teeth. "This is my little brother, Nathan. He's three."
"I don't like brothers. They're annoying."
"I am not!" Nathan protested.
"Me neither," added Gregory.
"Yes, you are!"
"Enough already!" Rose and the nanny said, almost in unison.
"Mom, can Emily come over to play?" Libby asked.
"If it's all right with her parents." Rose looked doubtfully at the elder Hockleys, who had finally stopped shouting at each other.
Laura had heard the end of the conversation. "No, Emily, you may not. I don't want you anywhere near these people."
"Shut up, Laura." Cal looked as though he wished his wife would disappear, or at least lose her voice.
"I don't want my daughter near those people. I won't have her associating with your paramour. Besides that, they aren't our kind. They're new money. I don't even know why we're living next door to them—" Her strident voice went on. Cal tuned her out.
"Of course you can, Emily," he told his daughter. He turned to Rose uncomfortably. "Please excuse my wife. She's rather upset at the moment..."
"So I gathered," Rose replied, taking Libby's hand. "Do you want to come over, Emily?"
"Sure," the girl replied, opening the door and slipping outside. She avoided her mother, who had stopped shouting at Cal and was now trying to direct the movers. "Thank you, Mrs. Dawson."
Libby let go of Rose's hand and grabbed Emily's. "Come on! I'll show you my doll house."
Rose hurried after the two girls, glancing back at Cal, who was once again arguing with his wife. The peaceful neighborhood no longer seemed so pleasant.