"Are you ready? The chauffeur is waiting."
Cora closed her eyes on hearing her mother's voice. She felt incredibly sad having to leave her home, only because her father decided he wanted to work with a British company. And now here she was all packed to go to a foreign country. Why was he not just going himself? What was the reason they were sending her away.
She would be in a country that she did not know. She would not have any friends there. She knew how British people looked down on Americans. The people at 'Crawley Advertisements' would not be different.
"Cora? Did you hear me?" Martha's voice sounded again.
"Yes mum, I am coming." Cora closed the last suitcase and walked towards the hallway. She turned around and gave her room a last look. This was the room she grew up in. She had never suspected that she would leave this place, other than going to live on her own.
She had mentioned to her parents before, that she wanted to move out and find her own place. But her father had always said, she was better off staying at home, until she would marry. Cora huffed, look at the situation now, she thought. He was sending her away. Playing it off that it would be good for the business. 'Levinson and Son' was a big name in the United States. Every company that needed advertisement, came to them. Cora was convinced her father did not need the Crawley company to expand and grow in the United Kingdom. Did they even know that she was coming and not her brother Harold?
Why was he not going? She had asked her father, but his answer had been misleading and without a real answer. Her mother had not been much more help, and she even suspected her mother to be the reason she was sent off to England. She had always dreamed of her daughter marrying into British nobility.
A loud sound made Cora jump, right behind her stood her mother. She had stomped with her feet, which made the sound. "It is a private flight, so even if you arrive late, the plane will wait. Stop stalling and move." Her mother's words were hissed at her. Cora felt the hairs in her neck rise, her mother always managed to crawl under her skin.
"Yes, mother." Cora followed her mother meekly. It was pointless to try and stop everything that was happening at this point. She would make the best of it she thought.
In the car, she was surprised to see Harold, her mother had stayed behind with her father. She could see the tears in her mother's eyes and she knew that her harsh behaviour came from sorrow. Although her mother was the one sending her away, Cora knew it did hurt her mother to see her daughter go so far away.
"Are you ready for this big adventure?" Harold asked.
Cora shrugged her shoulders. "I do not have a choice, do I?"
"You will have an amazing time in England. You will show those cavemen how the real and new world operates."
"England is not a third-world country, Harold." Every time her family talked about England, they pretended it was a poor stay-behind country. It was something she did not understand, especially not because her mother wanted her to marry an English lord, but at the same time, they always talked badly about the country. She sighed because she knew it would be the other way around once she arrived in London. The way they viewed Americans was almost comical.
"Harold?" Cora turned towards her brother. "Why are you not going instead of me?"
Harold raised his eyebrows. "Why do you ask?"
"Papa has always treated you as his partner, not me."
"Nonsense." Harold interrupted her.
"Is it though? What is the name of the company?"
"What do you mean?"
"As I say, what is the name of the company? It is Levinson and Son, am I right?" She saw Harold's cheeks slightly colour. "I am not even mentioned in the name. Papa always thought I would only join for the time being until I would marry."
"In that case Papa is right, you are 21 and it is time you will settle."
"I am 22 and you are older and also not married!" Cora shot at Harold.
"That is different."
"Just because you are a man it is different? That is rubbish and you know that. Papa and also you never saw me as a full partner in de company, but now you want to expand in England, I am good enough to do the dirty work?"
"Who knows, what if the love of your life walks around in London?" Harold laughed when he saw Cora's angry face. He put his hand on Cora's. "My darling sister, whatever Papa and Mama want to be the outcome of this adventure. Look at it as an adventure and just enjoy the chance to widen your world. And you will be able to show what we can do and make a name in England. Because of what you are going to do, we will have departments in England before we know it."
Cora contemplated his words. Why did 'Crawley Advertisements' agree with this? They must know what the intentions of 'Levinson and Son' were. Or, she thought, they were going for the same goal. Opening offices in America.
She was caught up in this web, and she would not fight it. She had fought before, and look at where she was now. In a car towards the airport. Her brother was with her, to make sure she would step into that plane.