Chapter two: Sylvia Sage Sommers

In the amount of time in which that was going by so fast for me; one thing I did notice. Rene was acting strange. Gone was the old Rene who resembled my mother so. A new one had taken place and this one had a glint in her eye that no one knew what was behind. She would keep her mouth closed and go about her business, cleaning the house.

My mother always said, "We may not have our Manor, but we should take care of what we have. Just because we are poor doesn't mean that we can be lazy and let our house be dirty. One day we might not have servants as well...Better learn to clean and be useful while you can,"

My mother had many sayings. I have already told of her favorite.

The weeks indeed melted by for I had something to take my mind off the dreary confides of Dover Field. Every few days out of the week I would climb the bluff and go and see Teddy. I slowly started to know the servants; man of whom stayed on after the house change owners. The eldest maid, remembered my sister's coming out ball.

"Oh she was quite a pretty thing then," Julie would say wistfully. "She wore a pale pink dress, and the rest of the family wore white."

"Didn't she have any conquests?" I asked, helping her with the food, for Teddy was asleep.

"Oh, a fair few I would imagine. Pity though," Julie broke off, and bent down to knead the dough harder, her face contorted with concentration on that one small fact.

"Pity about what?" I persisted, giving a small smile at seeing the old woman flustered.

"Nothing dear. Go up and see if Mr. Cinny is up, if he is, pull the bell-rope and I'll come with his luncheon," I nodded and walked out of the kitchen; clearly dismissed by the maid.

I climbed the steps two at a time, feeling a little elated. Something had been up around my sister's debutante ball. One thing I never had for our "lack of funds" as Mother so blatantly put it.

Part one: A discovery by the beach

I made a horrible discovery one day. The thought still brings a cold chill down my spine; for I had been so confused. A million thoughts had rased through my mind. I was always over-imagining things, for it was just part of my nature. Making a mountain out of a molehill.

I was walking down the beach, heading towards Farceur in a happy way. Smiling at how my life had looked a little less grim now with Teddy around to brighten it up.

As I passed a small cave that was in the rocks that surrounded the beach, a low mourning sounding howl went up. I knew it was the wind, but there was something so..different about it. Low, and so painful that it could break hearts.

I had time...so I decided to go into the cave that any other time would not have gotten a second glance. I had been in there a few times before, as a small child playing treasure hunt. It was during the time when piracy was at it's cusp(it started to decline after the dreaded Blackbeard died) and I always fancied meeting a real pirate. I still did when I walked into the cabe with a curious mind and a heart in my throat.

Something was going to happen, I kept telling myself. Something that might just change my life the way I wanted it to.

And it did. I had walked around the small perimeter of the cave once, running my fingers along the smooth and mottled rocks, until a groove hit my fingers. I stopped, and ran my index along the crack. It went around in a five foot circle. Enough for a small human to fit through. I knelt down and brushed away some of the sand and shelled creatures on the rocks, and fell back onto my bottom, my hand flying up to my neck.

Written on the bottom of the circle, was Sylvia SommersIt was a grave header. And I guessed that whoever was buried there, was behind the rock. In a tomb of stone. Forgotten most likely.

But why did this person have my name? It was a she, for Sylvia was very much so a feminine title...but my exact name? It couldn't be. It must have been a mistake...or an ancestor of mine in which I had been named after, who wanted to be laid by the sea that was in our blood.

No. Every one of the Sommers, starting with Edward, were buried in the cemetery plot, a ways away from the Manor.

Water touched my fingers that were supporting my weight on the sand, and I jump a foot high. I turned to see the tide coming in, and if I didn't hightail it out of there soon, I would drown in the small cave. In the tomb.

Instead of going to Farceur like I would have, I went home. I was too intrigued...yet scared. Who was this Sylvia Sommers, who bore my name...hidden in that cave? No one who was passing by would see it, and if it hadn't been for the wind howling into the many blow holes in the rocks, I would never have gone into the tomb, and by change found what was once the opening.

I quickly walked home, hugging myself for the biting chill that hit as the wind from the north rolled in. It would storm that night.

I laid on my bed, staring up at the ceiling. I looked around my small room, and the portrait of my great ancestress Rosalyn Sommers stared back at me. I always liked that painting. It showed her as a spirited youth, with a curving mouth that suggested mischief. There was something she had done in her heyday in which put a smile to my mother's lips. It took a lot to do that. She supposedly met her end being thrown off her horse while running away from her husband with her lover. She had many of the latter, and three of the former.

Part two: Bad news

I soon found out the reason behind Rene's changes. She had made a conquest. The local vicar's assistant who was dirt poor, but they were in love. Nothing our mother would or could stay would or could stop them. Rene had confided all this to me, before running off to elope. My mother almost had a heart attack, and for a moment I thought she had stopped breathing. After she bawled my sister out, she finally cast her away. I was now the only child left at Dover.

Then, Teddy took a turn for the worst. After my initial shock had worn off, I went to Farceur somewhat rallied. I thought to ask Julie, for she knew everything that happened during the time I was vague about.

I walked into the main entry hall, whistling an old tune. My whistle slowly died as I saw the look on Jenk's face. He looked ashen, and his eyes were downcast. He would wring his hands, and shuffle his feet. It seemed as if he was lost with nothing to do.

"What is it?" I cried, running up to Jenks, and fearing the worst. If what I thought was true, and Teddy was really ill, then naturally the servants were downcast. They all loved him. He was wonderfully jovial, and would simply make a mess out of propriety. Jenks would have tea with him, and Julie would play cards with him on a rainy day.

"It's the master, miss," Jenks said heavily. "He has become gravely ill. His leg had flared up, because they didn't get all of the poison out of the first time. It might be...fatal,"

At those last words I gave a small cry and ran up the stares. I pitched up my skirts like a school girl, and climbed the winding staircase two and three at a time. I arrived it Teddy's room gasping for air, and looked wildly around for him, hoping that he was up in his chair reading or having a pipe.

He was laying in his bed, looking grey. He had a blueish tinge about his lips, and looked so frail in the large bed.

"Ah, Silvie," Teddy said in a low voice, reaching his hand out to me. I rushed to him and took it up, sitting down in the chair besides his bed.

"What's happening?" I asked.

"Oh, just the old wound flaring up dear."

"You never told me how you hurt your legs."

"Mining accident. The cave fell in, and I was too worried about getting out the diamond."

"You said you were a coal miner," I pointed out, wondering if his state was causing delusions.

"No. I was a diamond miner. A gouger. I have a company in the Caribbean, where the raw diamonds are shipped and then we make them into the rocks that people buy. I never told you this, but now I feel my time is near, and I owe you a bit of truth."

"Oh, Teddy...don't talk like that!" I felt tears pricking my eyes. Teddy smiled.

"Oh don't talk tummy-rot Silvie," Teddy sighed, and then took on a matter-o-fact tone. "Now, I know you have seen diamonds before, have you not?"

"Yes, I have. We have the engagement ring that all Sommers' take. My sister should have had it, but my mother says she disgraced the family."

"Well, there is this diamond out there, called the Caribbean Sunrise. You will never in your life see a more beautiful diamond; if you ever see it. It was getting that stone in which caused my accident. They say it is cursed,"

"Do you still have it?"

"No. A man by the name of Butch Winnet stole it from me...oh...before you were born,"

"How?" I was now enthralled.

"Listen, I need to tell you this. I need to, because no one else will. Most likely if I don't, you will never find this out, and it is almost life changing. It will also explain a few things."

"Like how there is someone entombed in a cave by the sea with my name?" I asked without missing a beat. I knew something was up with that.

"Yes. You will know then, that their name is Sylvia Sommers?"

"Yes, why is that?"

"Because that is your mother."

I laughed. Then stopped at the expression on Teddy's face. "No," I said slowly, trying to chortle my way out of this. "No, my mother is at Dover Field...scrubbing the floors."

"That is your grandmother," Teddy said gravely.

"Teddy, now is not a good time to jest,"

"I need to tell you this, Sylvia...you need to know."

"I..."

"Just hear me out." I nodded feebly, feeling almost faint. This couldn't be true. It was just an ill-timed joke on his part.

"Your mother was named Sylvia Sage Sommers. She was two years younger then your aunt Rene. It was back when I first lived in this house. Right after I had gotten the Caribbean Sunrise. She was a beautiful woman. So happy and filled with life. She didn't mind the change when she had to move to Dover. She was more interested in me, the new resident. She would sneak off many times to visit me as you do now.

"I loved your mother. And in fact, I was actually planning on marrying her, bringing her back here to Farceur. Until a man from my company named Butch Winnet came here to this Manor. He was a very much ladies- man. He loved to charm the women, then send them packing. I think in some small way he loved your mother. In his own way, but it would never bode well.

"They planned to elope. That very night their bags were packed, and they were going to go to France. I had learned of the plans, but couldn't stop your mother, because she wasn't in any way mine. I had no control over her.

"I remember going down to my study. I had shown everyone that night my prize diamond. Beautiful red-gold-orange-yellow color. Never before seen in one diamond. I had seen the glint in his eye, and right then I knew he coveted it. The stone did that to people. Made their minds go mad for the desire.

"I went down to the study, and saw Butch at my safe and holding my diamond. I then sent him away, and told people that he stole it, in one swing keeping people from trying to steal it from me. I sent him away disgraced.

"Sylvia would not believe that of him. She was crushed, and so so hurt. Then she found out she was pregnant..."

"With me," I whispered, slowly believing this amazing tale. "Oh Teddy! You killed my father!"

"No, I didn't. I merely sent him away. When your grandmother found out, there was hell to pay. They went to Paris, and hid her pregnancy. When they came back, they said that Sylvia's mother had conceived over there.

"How did my real mother die?" I asked, dreading the answer.

"She took her own life. After she had you, she wasn't allowed to even hold you. The fact that she would most likely never see Butch again didn't help. She drowned in the tide, in that cave."

"Why are you telling me this now?" I wailed, so much wanting this to all go away, and to all never happen. I wanted the old life. Where I thought my grandmother was my mother, and everything was right with the world in it's little ways.

"Because. Sylvia made me promise to give this to you if I saw you when you were old enough. I also want to tell you your real name,"

"Sylvia is my real name, unless they lied to me about that too,"

"No...your real name is Diamond Sylvia Sommers. But your grandmother though that Diamond was not a proper name."

Teddy produced a letter in an aging envelope.

"I always would like you to write to my son and tell him that I might not live out the rest of the year."

"What is his name?" I asked distractedly, holding the letter and not wanting to let go.

"Jack Sparrow."