Elizabeth's Story, 1848

by Adele Whitby

  “Thank you, milady,” Essie said.

  “You’ve done a wonderful thing in reuniting Essie with her father,” Papa said, watching them leave. “Thank you for being brave enough to stand up for what you believe in.”

  “Oh, it was a grand adventure, Papa,” I said. “Sneaking about, coming up with secret plots, finding hidden passageways. Except for having to hide things from you and Essie, I think I loved every minute.”

  Papa laughed. “I can’t condone keeping secrets from your papa, but you do have an adventurous spirit.” Then he turned to my twin. “What about you Katherine? Did you discover a love of adventure?”

  “Oh, I think I’ve had quite enough secret escapades,” Katherine said, laughing. “No more bold adventures for me.”

  I giggled. “At least not until you marry your pirate.”

  Papa drew us into his arms. “Something tells me, my dear daughters, that this is but the first of many secret escapades you will undertake together.”

  I sat back in my deck chair, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath of sea air. No matter how many times I wished it, the paddle steamer Britannia would not stop rocking and rolling on the waves of the Atlantic. We could not reach America soon enough to suit my seasick stomach.

  Opening my eyes again, I saw my twin sister, Elizabeth, at the deck rail, watching a school of dolphins. They had appeared suddenly after luncheon, leaping and dancing in the waves. They seemed to be performing for the entertainment of the ship’s passengers, who surrounded my sister, laughing and calling out to the sea creatures.

  I saw one leap above the white foam of the waves and squeal loudly enough for us all to hear. Was it saying hello?

  Elizabeth made quick sketches in her drawing pad, catching the essence of the sleek creatures in a few simple lines. No doubt she would include the dolphins in her next painting.

  She turned to me, still in my deck chair, my journal unopened in my lap. “Katherine, aren’t they the most wonderful things you’ve ever seen?”

  “They’re splendid,” I said, trying to focus on something other than the lurching in my stomach, but it was no use. The dolphins were indeed splendid, but I would have enjoyed them much more if I had been able to watch them from solid land. My bold sister felt no ill effects from the motion of the ship, but I had been feeling seasick almost from the first moment we stepped aboard the Britannia.

  It was one of the few differences between us. Elizabeth and I were so nearly identical that when we were born only Mama had been able to tell us apart in an instant. The only obvious physical difference between us was in our hair: Elizabeth’s was stick straight while mine fell in waves. That and the fact that Elizabeth was half an inch taller. My twin often joked that she would gladly give me her half inch in height in exchange for my wavy hair.

  Right now I’d gladly give her my queasy stomach in exchange for just about anything of hers.

  Elizabeth’s face fell, seeing my discomfort. “Is it very bad today?” she asked.

  I shook my head, not wanting to trouble her. “Not today,” I said. “I’m grateful that yesterday’s storm has passed, but I am rather tired. I believe I’ll lie down for a while before dinner. I’ll go and find Essie.”

  I stood and made my unsteady way toward the passage to our first-class cabin.

  As if she had a sixth sense, Essie Bridges, our lady’s maid, stepped onto the deck from belowstairs. Like the steadfast friend she was, Essie supported me as I walked shakily across the deck. Minutes later, I was safely ensconced in my bed in the stateroom I shared with Elizabeth.

  Essie tucked me in and placed a cool cloth on my forehead. “It won’t be long now, Lady Katherine,” she said. “I expect you’ll feel right as rain the minute your feet touch the dock.”

  “As long as it isn’t moving,” I said with a wry smile. “And to think I used to joke about marrying a sea captain.”

  “Marry a man with two solid feet on the ground, milady,” Essie answered. “That’s what my da always says.”

  I couldn’t help but smile. Essie and her “da” had recently been united after a lifetime never knowing each other, and she had taken to quoting his wisdom at every opportunity.

  Many years ago, Essie’s mother, Maggie O’Brien, had been a kitchen maid at our family estate, Chatswood Manor. She kept the fact that she was married a secret from everyone at the manor. Her husband, Sean O’Brien, had sailed to India to earn his fortune. He’d planned to come home or to send for Maggie as soon as he could. Maggie had wanted to train to be a teacher—it was her deepest desire to teach children in her home country of Ireland how to read—and Sean O’Brien wanted to make her dream come true. But by the time he had enough money to send for Maggie, she had disappeared.

  Sadly, we learned much later that Essie’s mother had died in childbirth. She kept the fact that she was due to have a baby a secret even from her husband and slipped into the village one afternoon on her half day off to find the midwife. The midwife didn’t even know the poor young mother’s name, only that she was Irish and wished to name her daughter Essie. When the young woman died, a family in the village, named Bridges, agreed to raise the baby as their own, but they honored her mother’s wish to call her Essie.

  At Chatswood Manor, Maggie O’Brien was simply listed in the staff ledger as a maid who had worked in the kitchens for a few short months before disappearing one afternoon.

  Essie herself entered service at Chatswood Manor when she was a teenager. Her warm smile and cheerful nature soon made her our favorite housemaid. When my sister and I were old enough to require a lady’s maid, she was our first and only choice. Like Mama, Essie could almost always tell us apart, and she always knew just what to say when we were feeling sad or scared. She wasn’t a blood relative, of course, but she was as much family to me and my sister as we were to each other.

  When Maggie’s husband, Sean O’Brien, came in search of his wife twenty years after she disappeared, Elizabeth couldn’t resist the chance to solve a real-life mystery. My adventurous sister talked me into helping her find out what had happened to the mysterious kitchen maid. We had no idea it would lead to our dear Essie being united with her father.

  It was a happy, happy day when we made our discovery. Essie, who had helped Elizabeth and me survive the death of our own dear mama, deserved all the happiness in the world. I wondered if she minded our pulling her away on a pleasure trip just a short while after she and her da had found each other.

  “Do you miss your father very much, Essie?” I asked.

  Essie nodded and gave her customary cheerful smile. “It’s the first time we’ve been apart since we found each other,” she said. “But this is a grand adventure, and I wouldn’t want to miss a minute of it with my young ladies.”

  “Mama would have enjoyed it,” I said quietly, placing a hand over my necklace.

  Mama had died before Elizabeth’s and my twelfth birthday, but not before she chose the most special birthday present I could ever imagine. On the morning of our birthday ball this past spring, Papa had presented me and Elizabeth with two velvet boxes. Inside, we each found a stunning gold pendant in the shape of half a heart. Mine was studded in brilliant blue sapphires, as blue is my favorite color. My sister’s pendant was encrusted with red rubies, reflecting her favorite hue.

  When the two halves of the heart are joined together, a secret compartment reveals itself. Elizabeth and I wrote a secret message to each other, cut the letters into confetti, and divided the pieces between the two necklaces. We promised to pass the necklaces along to the daughters we would have one day. We hoped that future generations of girls in our family would discover the secret message and be inspired to feel the same love for each other that Elizabeth and I felt for one another.

  Adele Whitby wishes she lived in a grand manor home with hidden rooms and tucked-away nooks and crannies, but instead she lives in the next best thing—a condo in Florida with her husband and their two dogs, Molly and Mack. When she’s not busy writ
ing, you can usually find her reading and relaxing on the beach under a big umbrella. She loves getting lost in a good story, especially one set in a faraway place and time.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  SIMON SPOTLIGHT

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  This Simon Spotlight hardcover edition August 2014

  Copyright © 2014 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. Text by Laurie Calkhoven.

  Illustrations by Jaime Zollars. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. SIMON SPOTLIGHT and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Jacket design by Laura Roode. Jacket illustrations by Jaime Zollars. Jacket illustrations by Simon & Schuster, Inc. Designed by Laura Roode. The text of this book was set in Adobe Caslon Pro.

  ISBN 978-1-4814-1841-6 (hc)

  ISBN 978-1-4814-1840-9 (pbk)

  ISBN 978-1-4814-1842-3 (eBook)

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2013953184