Philadelphia, February, 1931.
Eliza heard the car pull up out the front, but she didn't jump up straight away, knowing only too well who it would be, and how unimpressed that person would be to see her. Eventually though she knew she would have to go downstairs, so she took a deep breath and went down.
Melanie was standing in the entrance hall, her face hidden by a large black hat, but by the way she was standing Eliza got the impression she was lost in memories of happier times. Suddenly she looked up and her eyes met Eliza's.
"So you're still here?" Melanie asked coldly.
"I was asked to stay until-"
"I know, I know-you're meant to remain here until the will is read. I don't see why since everything is being left to the children and I. Maybe Cal wanted you to have the time to find a new position-have you been looking?"
"Yes, but there don't appear to be many jobs for governess' at the moment." Eliza said.
"Hmmm. Well you'd better find one soon." Melanie said. "Now if you'll excuse me I think I might go lie down, I've had a very hard few days since Cal..died.."
Eliza thought about the words of the lawyer's assistant the other day-why on earth had someone like Cal killed himself? Many people would love to have lived the life he had lived. A huge house, a large fortune, a few businesses, a lovely looking wife and children.
"Eliza?" Melanie asked, as she started up the stairs. "I just want you to know I'm sorry about our argument before. I don't normally argue with people like that-I've been well brought up."
'And I haven't?' Eliza wondered, but she nodded. "That's okay Melanie. I'm sorry too." She said, a little insincerely, but Melanie didn't know.
*****
Eliza leant against the window, looking outside as Melanie left for the funeral. Cal's funeral. Cal-the only person who had ever really felt like family to her since she was six. Eliza had assumed that she would be able to attend the funeral, but Melanie had looked at her in despair.
"You can't come. You simply can't come!" She'd said, tears falling down her cheeks. "Do you have any idea how strange society think it is that you're still here? That Cal is treating you as part of the family? At first they thought he was doing a wonderful, charitable thing, but then they started thinking it was a little strange. And if you come to the funeral they'll talk even more. I know they're already talking about the fact that Cal killed himself-he doesn't need to have them talking even more."
So not for Melanie's sake, but more for the sake of dead Cal, Eliza decided not to attend the funeral. She'd go to the grave another time soon and go and tell him why, he'd understand.
*****
"Eliza?" The maid popped her head into the room. "Are ya awake? Melanie and Cal's lawyer is downstairs and they want ya t'come down for the readin' of the will."
Eliza sat up, and rubbed at her eyes. She hadn't even realised that she'd fallen asleep! "Already? The funeral's just finished."
"She wants to get it over and done with and get over to England." The maid explained. "And they asked me t'come and fetch ya down."
Eliza sighed, and stood up, straightening her skirts. "Fine." She said, and they went downstairs.
Melanie and the lawyer were sitting in the study. Melanie turned red-rimmed eyes on her. "Eliza. Sit down so we can get this over." She ordered.
Eliza did so.
"Now then?" Melanie asked the lawyer.
"Okay, well as you may or may not know Caledon came to see me the day before you and your children sailed-" The lawyer began.
"Yes, he mentioned something." Melanie replied. "He said it was no big deal though."
The lawyer frowned slightly. "That depends on what you mean by no big deal." Hr said. "Caledon added something into his will the other day."
Melanie looked shocked. "Added something? Whatever are you talking about?" She demanded.
"Let's see. Now as you know Caledon has left his estate to his children, however he wants you to be in charge of it until they each reach the age of twenty-five, whereupon they receive 20 per cent each. The remaining was to be left to you for your own use with Caledon suggesting that it would be left to the children when you died correct?"
"Correct." Melanie said. "It's all very straightforward. I mean sure the business things I can't understand, and all but that's why you're here right. All I know is that I am in charge of it all until the children receive their percentages, and the rest is mine after they've received theirs."
"Well as I said, Mrs. Hockley, this was what it said. Until the other day, when Caledon came to me and altered it." The lawyer said.
Melanie's jaw dropped. "Altered it? I don't believe it. Why would he alter it? And why wouldn't he tell me?"
"I don't know." The lawyer admitted. "But alter it he did. So yes, the children still receive their 20 per cent each when they come of age, however it has been added that Caledon Hockley would like to ensure that Miss Eliza also gets 20 per cent when she turns 25 in a few months. The remainder will go to you as per previously."
Melanie glared at Eliza for a moment, and then turned back to the lawyer. "There must be some kind of mistake here!" She snapped.
"There is no mistake, I can assure you. This will is perfectly valid, perfectly legal." The lawyer said, seeming a little annoyed at Melanie's doubting him.
Eliza, however, was still in shock. Cal had put her in the will? Cal had left her money? Why?
Now Melanie turned back to Eliza. "I don't know how you got him to do this!" She said angrily. "But I can assure you that I'll fight this with everything I've got. We'll go to court if we have to-"
"Mrs. Hockley there would be no point in going to court. You won't win. Miss Eliza is entitled to her 20 per cent." The lawyer said coldly.
"NEVER!" Melanie yelled. "Look at her! She's an orphan who Caledon was bribed into taking in, and she's still here. I don't know what power she had over Cal, unless she seduced him or something, I wouldn't put her class above it-"
"Mrs. Hockley get a hold of yourself." The lawyer said, shaking his head. "I'm sure this girl seduced nobody, and even if she had, she will still get what has been left to her in the will. This document has been signed, and witnessed and it is completely proper."
Melanie shook her head, but she didn't speak. She seemed in shock. Eliza also was silent, as the lawyer went into other details, but neither woman took much notice.
"And also, Caledon left this letter for you." The lawyer said, and he handed something to Eliza who took it silently.
Melanie glared at her. "I want you out of here now." She said. "You might get money for now but you are not welcome in this house."
Eliza nodded. "I'll pack my things and leave." She said.
"Your things?" Melanie asked, her eyebrow raised. "Things my husband bought you and things you can't keep and-"
"Mrs. Hockley." The lawyer shook his head. "You're not acting like a lady at all. The girl's things are not important to you surely?"
Melanie nodded. "Fine. Take your things. Just leave please. I don't want to see you."
The lawyer looked at Eliza kindly. "You'll have to make sure to let me know where you are so when it's your birthday soon you can get the money left for you." And he held out his card to her.
Eliza took it, and muttered a thank you.
Up in her room she looked around. The room seemed like home to her, and the idea of leaving it did upset her, but at the same time Eliza knew that even if she were to remain here it wouldn't be the same without Cal. No, the best plan was to go to New York and make her own way. She had the money she'd saved up from when she was working as a governess in New York and New Hampshire since when she was living with Cal and Melanie she had never needed the money. And hopefully this money would last her until she got another job, or until the money from Cal would come through. Thinking about this made her frown: why had Cal left her anything? She sat down on her bed, and opened the letter. Cal's normally neat writing was messy and erratic.
Dear Eliza,
I am writing this letter knowing that you'll be reading it very soon. I know it might seem cowardly but I can't live anymore. I've lost both my businesses, and a lot of my money. I've lost my wife and children-despite her words I see it in her eyes-I know she wants to remain in England, regardless of whether I want to or not. But the worst thing I've lost is my self-respect.
I can tell you all this now, since when you read this it won't matter anymore. When I saw you crying on the Titanic that night so long ago my first thought was that you could be my ticket to survival. Surely they wouldn't let a child get in a lifeboat knowing that there was nobody else for her. I took a risk and it paid off. I have to confess once aboard the Carpathia I didn't even think about you. It wasn't until I had a meeting in New York that I thought of you. The meeting ended with me being bullied into taking care of you. I decided that taking in an orphan was not a very high price to pay for my actions aboard the ship being kept secret. You know about how much I loved Rose, but what you don't know is that Rose fell in love with someone else on the Titanic. A man named Jack Dawson, a third class man. I was furious of course, believing that Rose belonged to me and me only. And so I lied and Jack was arrested for stealing. I was sure that he would drown on the ship, locked below deck. But I underestimated Rose. She went looking for Jack, and she rescued him. I wanted to kill them both, but I couldn't. Instead I turned my back on them, and it was then that I saw you, and we got into the lifeboat. In New York I listened hopefully for news of Rose's survival, but there was none, and it seemed that my beloved Rose had drowned with him. I think perhaps it was then that I realised how much I had loved that woman. So when they told me that I had to take care of you so my actions on the ship would remain secret I took you in. And in my mind I thought how Rose would be so proud of me. It was exactly the sort of thing she would have wanted to do. Spoilt and rich as she was, she had a conscience. Of course it wasn't until much later I found out that she wouldn't be up in heaven watching me, as you well know, but nonetheless I know she'd approve. I look at the pictures of her in the paper-she retired from Broadway a few years back to have a bigger family, but after a miscarriage the doctors said she couldn't have any more children, and then she went back to the stage. (I know this because I've made many inquiries about Rose Calvert, but to my knowledge nobody else knows who she is.)
I wanted you to know the truth about how I didn't just offer to take you in. I'm sorry if it hurts you to know the truth, but know this also Eliza: to me you're one of my family. I feel the same way about you as I do about Evelyn. I've known you for nineteen years, and you can't know someone for nineteen years and not care about them a little, can you? I know Melanie and some of our friends wouldn't understand that, but I don't care.
I'm leaving you something Eliza to make sure you're taken care of, since I know Melanie wouldn't look after you nor help you, and also so you will know that I am sorry for never telling you the truth, and what I did to you when you were six, and so that you'll know that I really mean it when I tell you I care about you as if you were my very own daughter. Rose and mine's daughter.
Love forever,
Cal."
Eliza wiped tears from her eyes as she finished reading the slightly incoherent letter. 'Oh Cal, I do forgive you, I do!' She thought, hoping he would know this.
*****
"You're leaving now?" Melanie asked, as Eliza stopped in the hallway with her two suitcases filled with her most important possessions.
"Yes." Eliza said. "I've called for a cab to take me to the station and then I'll go on to New York."
Melanie nodded. "Fine. Goodbye."
Eliza took a deep breath. Part of her felt sorry for the obviously distraught Melanie ('Oh Cal, she wouldn't have not come back to you-look at her and know!'), but the other part of her was upset about the way Melanie had acted.
"Goodbye." Eliza said simply.
"I'm seeing another lawyer in New York to see whether or not I can challenge the will, so don't expect the money yet." Melanie said.
Eliza didn't reply, she just went outside to the waiting taxi. As the taxi drove off she looked out through the back window at the place which had been the only home she really had ever known. And even though Cal had never treated her as a real daughter the knowledge that she had been important to him made her feel a lot better. She'd miss him. With a sigh she turned and faced the front. The house, and Philadelphia, and the Hockley's, were all in her past now. In fact it was now that her life was really going to begin- she was all on her own now. In charge of herself.
Eliza heard the car pull up out the front, but she didn't jump up straight away, knowing only too well who it would be, and how unimpressed that person would be to see her. Eventually though she knew she would have to go downstairs, so she took a deep breath and went down.
Melanie was standing in the entrance hall, her face hidden by a large black hat, but by the way she was standing Eliza got the impression she was lost in memories of happier times. Suddenly she looked up and her eyes met Eliza's.
"So you're still here?" Melanie asked coldly.
"I was asked to stay until-"
"I know, I know-you're meant to remain here until the will is read. I don't see why since everything is being left to the children and I. Maybe Cal wanted you to have the time to find a new position-have you been looking?"
"Yes, but there don't appear to be many jobs for governess' at the moment." Eliza said.
"Hmmm. Well you'd better find one soon." Melanie said. "Now if you'll excuse me I think I might go lie down, I've had a very hard few days since Cal..died.."
Eliza thought about the words of the lawyer's assistant the other day-why on earth had someone like Cal killed himself? Many people would love to have lived the life he had lived. A huge house, a large fortune, a few businesses, a lovely looking wife and children.
"Eliza?" Melanie asked, as she started up the stairs. "I just want you to know I'm sorry about our argument before. I don't normally argue with people like that-I've been well brought up."
'And I haven't?' Eliza wondered, but she nodded. "That's okay Melanie. I'm sorry too." She said, a little insincerely, but Melanie didn't know.
*****
Eliza leant against the window, looking outside as Melanie left for the funeral. Cal's funeral. Cal-the only person who had ever really felt like family to her since she was six. Eliza had assumed that she would be able to attend the funeral, but Melanie had looked at her in despair.
"You can't come. You simply can't come!" She'd said, tears falling down her cheeks. "Do you have any idea how strange society think it is that you're still here? That Cal is treating you as part of the family? At first they thought he was doing a wonderful, charitable thing, but then they started thinking it was a little strange. And if you come to the funeral they'll talk even more. I know they're already talking about the fact that Cal killed himself-he doesn't need to have them talking even more."
So not for Melanie's sake, but more for the sake of dead Cal, Eliza decided not to attend the funeral. She'd go to the grave another time soon and go and tell him why, he'd understand.
*****
"Eliza?" The maid popped her head into the room. "Are ya awake? Melanie and Cal's lawyer is downstairs and they want ya t'come down for the readin' of the will."
Eliza sat up, and rubbed at her eyes. She hadn't even realised that she'd fallen asleep! "Already? The funeral's just finished."
"She wants to get it over and done with and get over to England." The maid explained. "And they asked me t'come and fetch ya down."
Eliza sighed, and stood up, straightening her skirts. "Fine." She said, and they went downstairs.
Melanie and the lawyer were sitting in the study. Melanie turned red-rimmed eyes on her. "Eliza. Sit down so we can get this over." She ordered.
Eliza did so.
"Now then?" Melanie asked the lawyer.
"Okay, well as you may or may not know Caledon came to see me the day before you and your children sailed-" The lawyer began.
"Yes, he mentioned something." Melanie replied. "He said it was no big deal though."
The lawyer frowned slightly. "That depends on what you mean by no big deal." Hr said. "Caledon added something into his will the other day."
Melanie looked shocked. "Added something? Whatever are you talking about?" She demanded.
"Let's see. Now as you know Caledon has left his estate to his children, however he wants you to be in charge of it until they each reach the age of twenty-five, whereupon they receive 20 per cent each. The remaining was to be left to you for your own use with Caledon suggesting that it would be left to the children when you died correct?"
"Correct." Melanie said. "It's all very straightforward. I mean sure the business things I can't understand, and all but that's why you're here right. All I know is that I am in charge of it all until the children receive their percentages, and the rest is mine after they've received theirs."
"Well as I said, Mrs. Hockley, this was what it said. Until the other day, when Caledon came to me and altered it." The lawyer said.
Melanie's jaw dropped. "Altered it? I don't believe it. Why would he alter it? And why wouldn't he tell me?"
"I don't know." The lawyer admitted. "But alter it he did. So yes, the children still receive their 20 per cent each when they come of age, however it has been added that Caledon Hockley would like to ensure that Miss Eliza also gets 20 per cent when she turns 25 in a few months. The remainder will go to you as per previously."
Melanie glared at Eliza for a moment, and then turned back to the lawyer. "There must be some kind of mistake here!" She snapped.
"There is no mistake, I can assure you. This will is perfectly valid, perfectly legal." The lawyer said, seeming a little annoyed at Melanie's doubting him.
Eliza, however, was still in shock. Cal had put her in the will? Cal had left her money? Why?
Now Melanie turned back to Eliza. "I don't know how you got him to do this!" She said angrily. "But I can assure you that I'll fight this with everything I've got. We'll go to court if we have to-"
"Mrs. Hockley there would be no point in going to court. You won't win. Miss Eliza is entitled to her 20 per cent." The lawyer said coldly.
"NEVER!" Melanie yelled. "Look at her! She's an orphan who Caledon was bribed into taking in, and she's still here. I don't know what power she had over Cal, unless she seduced him or something, I wouldn't put her class above it-"
"Mrs. Hockley get a hold of yourself." The lawyer said, shaking his head. "I'm sure this girl seduced nobody, and even if she had, she will still get what has been left to her in the will. This document has been signed, and witnessed and it is completely proper."
Melanie shook her head, but she didn't speak. She seemed in shock. Eliza also was silent, as the lawyer went into other details, but neither woman took much notice.
"And also, Caledon left this letter for you." The lawyer said, and he handed something to Eliza who took it silently.
Melanie glared at her. "I want you out of here now." She said. "You might get money for now but you are not welcome in this house."
Eliza nodded. "I'll pack my things and leave." She said.
"Your things?" Melanie asked, her eyebrow raised. "Things my husband bought you and things you can't keep and-"
"Mrs. Hockley." The lawyer shook his head. "You're not acting like a lady at all. The girl's things are not important to you surely?"
Melanie nodded. "Fine. Take your things. Just leave please. I don't want to see you."
The lawyer looked at Eliza kindly. "You'll have to make sure to let me know where you are so when it's your birthday soon you can get the money left for you." And he held out his card to her.
Eliza took it, and muttered a thank you.
Up in her room she looked around. The room seemed like home to her, and the idea of leaving it did upset her, but at the same time Eliza knew that even if she were to remain here it wouldn't be the same without Cal. No, the best plan was to go to New York and make her own way. She had the money she'd saved up from when she was working as a governess in New York and New Hampshire since when she was living with Cal and Melanie she had never needed the money. And hopefully this money would last her until she got another job, or until the money from Cal would come through. Thinking about this made her frown: why had Cal left her anything? She sat down on her bed, and opened the letter. Cal's normally neat writing was messy and erratic.
Dear Eliza,
I am writing this letter knowing that you'll be reading it very soon. I know it might seem cowardly but I can't live anymore. I've lost both my businesses, and a lot of my money. I've lost my wife and children-despite her words I see it in her eyes-I know she wants to remain in England, regardless of whether I want to or not. But the worst thing I've lost is my self-respect.
I can tell you all this now, since when you read this it won't matter anymore. When I saw you crying on the Titanic that night so long ago my first thought was that you could be my ticket to survival. Surely they wouldn't let a child get in a lifeboat knowing that there was nobody else for her. I took a risk and it paid off. I have to confess once aboard the Carpathia I didn't even think about you. It wasn't until I had a meeting in New York that I thought of you. The meeting ended with me being bullied into taking care of you. I decided that taking in an orphan was not a very high price to pay for my actions aboard the ship being kept secret. You know about how much I loved Rose, but what you don't know is that Rose fell in love with someone else on the Titanic. A man named Jack Dawson, a third class man. I was furious of course, believing that Rose belonged to me and me only. And so I lied and Jack was arrested for stealing. I was sure that he would drown on the ship, locked below deck. But I underestimated Rose. She went looking for Jack, and she rescued him. I wanted to kill them both, but I couldn't. Instead I turned my back on them, and it was then that I saw you, and we got into the lifeboat. In New York I listened hopefully for news of Rose's survival, but there was none, and it seemed that my beloved Rose had drowned with him. I think perhaps it was then that I realised how much I had loved that woman. So when they told me that I had to take care of you so my actions on the ship would remain secret I took you in. And in my mind I thought how Rose would be so proud of me. It was exactly the sort of thing she would have wanted to do. Spoilt and rich as she was, she had a conscience. Of course it wasn't until much later I found out that she wouldn't be up in heaven watching me, as you well know, but nonetheless I know she'd approve. I look at the pictures of her in the paper-she retired from Broadway a few years back to have a bigger family, but after a miscarriage the doctors said she couldn't have any more children, and then she went back to the stage. (I know this because I've made many inquiries about Rose Calvert, but to my knowledge nobody else knows who she is.)
I wanted you to know the truth about how I didn't just offer to take you in. I'm sorry if it hurts you to know the truth, but know this also Eliza: to me you're one of my family. I feel the same way about you as I do about Evelyn. I've known you for nineteen years, and you can't know someone for nineteen years and not care about them a little, can you? I know Melanie and some of our friends wouldn't understand that, but I don't care.
I'm leaving you something Eliza to make sure you're taken care of, since I know Melanie wouldn't look after you nor help you, and also so you will know that I am sorry for never telling you the truth, and what I did to you when you were six, and so that you'll know that I really mean it when I tell you I care about you as if you were my very own daughter. Rose and mine's daughter.
Love forever,
Cal."
Eliza wiped tears from her eyes as she finished reading the slightly incoherent letter. 'Oh Cal, I do forgive you, I do!' She thought, hoping he would know this.
*****
"You're leaving now?" Melanie asked, as Eliza stopped in the hallway with her two suitcases filled with her most important possessions.
"Yes." Eliza said. "I've called for a cab to take me to the station and then I'll go on to New York."
Melanie nodded. "Fine. Goodbye."
Eliza took a deep breath. Part of her felt sorry for the obviously distraught Melanie ('Oh Cal, she wouldn't have not come back to you-look at her and know!'), but the other part of her was upset about the way Melanie had acted.
"Goodbye." Eliza said simply.
"I'm seeing another lawyer in New York to see whether or not I can challenge the will, so don't expect the money yet." Melanie said.
Eliza didn't reply, she just went outside to the waiting taxi. As the taxi drove off she looked out through the back window at the place which had been the only home she really had ever known. And even though Cal had never treated her as a real daughter the knowledge that she had been important to him made her feel a lot better. She'd miss him. With a sigh she turned and faced the front. The house, and Philadelphia, and the Hockley's, were all in her past now. In fact it was now that her life was really going to begin- she was all on her own now. In charge of herself.