Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
E loise watched the morning light filter through the filmy curtains of the Cassiopeia Suite. For a moment, she lay still, listening to the gentle rhythm of Aaron’s breathing beside her. The tranquility of the manor at dawn was a stark contrast to the whirlwind of thoughts spinning in her mind.
She rolled toward her husband and gazed at him. He’d been getting up and getting the girls and other teens on the ferry to school, so she could sleep in and have a slower start to the morning. He’d brought his laptop, and he did a few things for the police department before lunchtime, and then he only wanted to spend time with her.
He breathed evenly, but his eyelashes fluttered.
Eloise smiled. “I think I’ll ask my mom if she wants to stay over on Saturday,” she whispered.
Aaron opened his eyes and it only took a moment for him to focus on her. “El.”
This weekend, The Starlight Manor would once again be filled to the brim. Charlie and Mandie would be here later today, as they came in on the New York ferry.
Spouses and children would gather after work and school, and Eloise had planned two big meals—one tonight, and one tomorrow night.
The house would come alive with laughter and chaos—just the way it should be during the holidays. Eloise had planned a few activities she hoped would entertain teenagers and adults alike. Sugar cookie decorating in the grand kitchen, a crafty stocking stuffer workshop for the kids so they’d have something to give their parents on Christmas morning, and a festive pool party complete with an array of holiday-themed floaties she’d ordered through her connections at Cliffside.
“I want her to be here if she wants to be here,” Eloise said.
“There’s nowhere for her to sleep,” Aaron whispered. “Where are you going to put her? In the bunk room with the boys?”
The only empty bed this weekend would be a single twin in the boys’ bunk room on the third floor, and Eloise grinned at her handsome husband. “Maybe I’ll put you in there and let my mom sleep in here with me.”
Aaron scoffed, but he searched her face as if she might be serious. Eloise giggled and took his face in her hands to kiss him. He matched her stroke for stroke, and then pulled back. “You’re joking, right?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“I know you want everything to be perfect,” he said. “But your mom won’t want to stay here anyway.”
“No, probably not.” Eloise sighed as she rolled over.
“What are you doing this morning?” Aaron asked. “More sleuthing?”
She slipped out of bed and padded over to the window. Pulling back the curtain, she gazed out at the estate. The gardens were covered with frost, each blade of grass shimmering like it had been sprinkled with diamond dust. They stood in leafless contrast against the pale sky, and in the distance, she could just make out the ocean’s horizon blending into the morning mist.
Eloise hugged her arms around herself. “Yeah, we’ve been looking through all the items from the office, and we’re going to meet this morning.” She gave him a glancing smile and looked back outside. “I promise I’ll be waiting at the ferry when you get off, and we’ll go to lunch.”
“Just the two of us?” He got up and came around the bed to where she stood, wrapping her in his arms. The warmth from his chest kissed her back, and Eloise leaned into his strength.
“Yes,” she murmured. “Just me and you.”
“Who’s on dinner tonight?” he asked, rocking her slightly.
“Jean and Reuben,” Eloise said. “And Clara and Scott.”
“So dessert will be delicious.” He stepped back and moved toward the bathroom.
“They know how to cook too,” she said.
“I’ll eat a lot at lunch,” Aaron called. “And bring home leftovers.”
Eloise didn’t care what he did for food, as Aaron had more tact cells in his body than most people, and he wouldn’t say anything about the food. In fact, he’d load his plate with it and eat it anyway, and Eloise didn’t worry about him when it came to getting enough to eat.
The girls, yes. But not Aaron.
So Eloise stayed at the window for another few moments, drinking the beauty of this place. Something else lingered too—a feeling she couldn’t quite name. The discovery of the hidden office and the tragic story of the Everleighs weighed on her. Elizabeth Everleigh had tried so desperately to maintain control, to preserve her world even as it crumbled around her.
Was she so different?
Eloise wasn’t sure, but she did feel like she’d been trying to climb a mountain and was coming away with handfuls of dirt as she did. She dressed without showering, and once Aaron was ready, they went downstairs together. At least a half-dozen boxes of cereal had been lined up on the counter, and Eloise smiled at Grace as she poured herself a bowl of Lucky Charms.
“Morning, my beautiful girls.” Aaron pulled Billie to his chest despite her protests, and he did the same to Grace as she continued to try to put milk on her breakfast.
Eloise usually only drank coffee for breakfast, and she set about making herself a cappuccino from the fancy coffee maker in the manor. Once she had that, she joined those who had to leave and go somewhere that morning at the eat-in table in the kitchen.
Soon enough, Aaron bustled everyone out of the manor who needed to get on the ferry, and that left Eloise in the house with only women and children under the age of three. She went up to the third floor and made up all the beds in the bunk room, as Ian and Charlie would be coming in that afternoon. She checked on the Cosmic Bunk Room too, as Tessa and Dave would be staying there.
“My mom could sleep in here with them,” she mused, smiling to herself as such a prospect. Of course, she would never do that to her mother—or Tessa and Dave.
Down the hall, she checked on the Shooting Star Room, where Ben and Maddy would be tonight. Maddy would be gone for dinner service at The Glass Dolphin, a high-end restaurant she managed on Diamond Island, for tomorrow’s dinner, but she’d be here tonight.
With the third floor ready for its weekend guests, Eloise returned to the second floor. She paused on the landing, seeing the creases in the wall now that she knew it opened. Part of her wanted to open up the office and let it air out, but she hadn’t been in the room alone since they’d found it, and she wasn’t keen to do so now.
Then she continued downstairs, because all of the bedrooms on the second floor had been lived in for a couple of weeks now by women or couples who’d been here, and Eloise wasn’t going to go make up Jean’s room. She wouldn’t even make her own bed.
Back downstairs, she found Kristen coming up from the basement. “Clara and Scott’s room is ready,” she said.
They had the only bedroom in the basement beside the female bunk room, and Eloise nodded. “Thank you, Kristen. Do you think Lena will be okay in the bunk room?”
“I told her she could some sleep with me if she’s not.” Kristen smiled and patted Eloise’s arm. “She’ll be fine. We’re not worrying about the sleeping arrangements, remember?”
“I’m not, you’re right,” Eloise said.
“I found something I think you should see.” Kristen moved into the kitchen, where someone had put away the cereal boxes. Laurel stood there with James on her hip, a squeezable applesauce at the boy’s mouth. “I’ll make tea.”
“It requires tea?” Eloise asked as she took a barstool at the island.
Kristen opened a drawer and pulled something out of it. Eloise had spent plenty of time in this kitchen in the past week, and she knew that drawer to hold rolls of plastic wrap and aluminum foil. But Kristen plucked a leather-bound book out of it and put it on the island in front of Eloise.
“What is this?” Eloise reached for it, already reading the gold lettering on the front. JOURNAL in all caps. “Another one of Elizabeth’s diaries?”
“I believe so,” Kristen said as she busied herself with the kettle. “But this one is different. More personal, perhaps.”
Opening the journal carefully, Eloise began to read. The script boasted an elegance no one printed with anymore, the ink faded with time. As she skimmed the pages, fragments of Elizabeth’s thoughts emerged—her fears about the mounting debts, her desperation to keep up appearances, her obsession with controlling every aspect of their lives to prevent scandal.
Eloise’s throat tightened. The parallels were unsettling. She only read one entry, then looked up as Kristen put a cup of tea in front f her. “She was so consumed by her need to manage everything. Even when it was all falling apart.”
Kristen sat beside her, her fingers curled around her cup, which had to be scalding hot. “Holding on too tightly can sometimes cause everything to slip through our fingers.”
Eloise let the words sink in, feeling like they’d been ordered just for her. She closed the journal, unwilling to read it right this moment. She would leaf through it later. “Thank you for showing me this,” she said. “It gives me a lot to think about.”
Kristen placed her hand over Eloise’s. “You’re not alone in this, you know. We’re all here to help.”
Eloise squeezed her hand gratefully. “I know. I think I’ve done a pretty good job the past few days just letting people help.”
“You have.”
“I think so, too, El,” Laurel said as she went behind them. She’d just strapped James into a booster seat, and he shrieked as he slapped the tray with both hands. “I’m getting it, buddy.” Laurel laughed as she re-entered the kitchen. “He is so demanding.”
She started cracking eggs, glancing past Kristen and Eloise as someone else entered the main part of the house. “Morning, Kel,” she said. “Do you want any scrambled eggs?”
“Sure,” Kelli said. Daphne perched on her hip, her pretty strawberry blonde hair thick and still tousled from sleep.
“Can I take her?” Eloise got to her feet and reached for the baby.
“Of course,” Kelli said, sliding Daphne into Eloise’s arms.
Eloise instantly felt everything and anything that had been pent up release. Nothing compared to holding a baby and the peace that came with it. She walked away with Daphne as Kristen asked, “Tea?” of Kelli.
“Tea would be lovely,” Kelli said.
Eloise took a rocking recliner in the family room and tucked Daphne against her chest. The little girl simply melted into her as if she had no bones in her body, and Eloise toed them back and forth, back and forth.
She thought about the waves that came in from the sea, and how they seemed to move in the same way, perpetually coming ashore and then washing back out again. Life mirrored that sometimes, with each new day simply a repeat of the wave of activities from the previous day.
She closed her eyes and simply enjoyed this new, different thing she didn’t get to do everyday. Soon enough, Kelli came to get Daphne so she could feed her, and Laurel put James on the floor in the living room to play. Kristen took a seat too, and Eloise’s heart felt overfull as she surveyed all of them.
“Kelli,” she said. “I’d love it if you could take charge of the cookie decorating tomorrow. You’re so creative, and the older kids adore you.”
Kelli blinked a couple of times. “I’m sure that’s not true.”
“If you don’t want to do it, because of Parker, I’ll ask Jean.” The fact that Eloise was asking anyone didn’t feel like her at all.
“I can do it,” Kelli said.
“Good,” Eloise said. “Because I’ve already asked Jean to run the stocking stuffer craft.” She grinned around to everyone. “Alice is going to run the pool party, because she’s the best at mocktails, and she loves that pool.”
“That she does,” Kristen said.
“Speaking of which,” Kelli said, stifling a yawn. “I heard you ordered some over-the-top floaties?”
Eloise grinned mischievously. “Perhaps. There’s a reindeer you can ride, a gigantic Santa-shaped doughnut, and a candy cane raft that fits four people.”
Kelli laughed and shook her head. “The kids are going to go nuts.”
“Who says it’s just for the kids?” Eloise asked innocently. “Alice has already called dibs on the raft for her and Arthur.”
They laughed, and the tightness in Eloise’s chest eased. This weekend, only nine days away from Christmas, was going to be fun on many levels.
Her phone buzzed, and Eloise pulled it from her pocket to find a message from Maggie, the assistant manager at the Cliffside Inn.
Good morning, Eloise! Just wanted to update you—the new reservation system is up and running smoothly. No issues so far. Enjoy your holiday!
Eloise stared at the screen. Normally, she would have been the one triple-checking every detail on a busy holiday weekend before check-in. But she’d left it in Maggie’s capable hands, albeit with a lengthy list of instructions.
And nothing had fallen apart.
“Everything okay?” AJ asked, appearing at her side with a mug of coffee.
She slipped the phone back into her pocket. “Yes. Maggie was just updating me on the inn.” She flashed her friend a smile. AJ wore a pair of black, flowing pants and a pale purple pajama shirt. Her hair sprouted in an unruly way from her head, but she still exuded beauty and charm.
Asher now crouched down in front of James, and he asked, “I play? I play?” while holding up one of the toy cars James had been playing with.
“You can play, buddy,” Laurel said for her son. She nodded and smiled at Asher as he straightened.
“Vroom!” he said, lifting the car up into the air as if flying vehicles existed. In his world, they obviously did.
Robin came in the front door, calling, “Duke’s got lobster for tomorrow night!” She hurried into the living room, a triumphant look on her face. “He just texted me. Fresh lobster to add to our barbecue.”
“Good job, Robin,” Eloise said.
“I’m going to put it in the binder.” She started for the kitchen, and Eloise laughed at her as she did.
She once again picked up Elizabeth’s diary. As the women around her chatted, and children played, Eloise traced her fingertips down the side of the aged paper.
The pages whispered as she turned them, Elizabeth’s voice emerging from the past.
December 18, 1912
Everything teeters on the edge of ruin. Edward insists that we host the Christmas gala, but I fear our charade is unsustainable. The debts mount, and whispers of impropriety have begun to circulate. Control slips through my fingers like sand, no matter how tightly I grasp.
“What are you reading?” Kelli asked, and Eloise looked up.
“Kristen found a new diary,” she said, holding it up.
Kelli perched on the armrest of the recliner, jostling Eloise slightly. “I found something too.” She held out a folded piece of parchment.
Eloise took it gently. “What is it?”
“I found it tucked inside one of the books in that office yesterday,” Kelli said. “It’s a letter from Edward to Elizabeth. It’s interesting.”
Eloise unfolded the letter carefully. The handwriting was bold, the strokes heavy, so unlike the careful, controlled, frilly strokes in the diary.
My dearest Elizabeth,
I know not how to bridge the chasm that has grown between us. The pressures weigh heavily, and I fear I have become a man you no longer recognize. But believe me when I say that all I have done was in hopes of preserving our legacy.
Please, let us not fall to ruin apart. Together, we can withstand any storm.
I must confess, in the quiet of these words, what I dared not speak aloud. The decisions I have made in the past months—no, years—have led us to this precipice. What began as small compromises to our values quickly became something far greater. I thought I could manage it all, conceal the cracks forming beneath the surface, but the walls are beginning to close in.
They watch more closely now. My name is no longer spoken with respect in the circles we once held dominion over. Questions are asked. Deals, once hidden, now hang on fragile threads.
I never intended for the business with Haversham to go this far. I thought it was a mere transaction, a loan we could repay without issue. But he’s ensnared me in something darker, Elizabeth. I have wagered more than money, and in doing so, I fear I have wagered our future. If they discover what I’ve done—if they learn of the false investments and the accounts I created in your name—it will not just be our reputation that falls. We could lose everything. You could lose everything.
But you must believe me when I tell you, there is a way out. Haversham is a dangerous man, but not an infallible one. I’ve learned of his dealings with the Banksworth family, and it is far worse than anything we’ve done. He won’t dare expose us for fear of his own ruin. He thinks I’m ignorant, but I’ve gathered enough to ensure his silence. We can use this against him, Elizabeth.
If I can pull this final thread, we will be free. No one will suspect anything. Our standing will be restored, and you will never again need to worry about maintaining the life we’ve built here.
I ask for your forgiveness for the lies I’ve told, and the burden I’ve placed upon you without your knowledge. But I ask, too, for your trust. If you stand beside me, I will not let this destroy us. There is still time to turn this around. I just need to make one final move.
Tell no one of this. Not even those closest to you. The less they know, the safer we will be.
Forever yours,
Edward
Eloise swallowed hard. “Wow,” she said. “This says so much more than anything else I’ve seen.”
“I thought so too,” Kelli said. “But I found it in the afternoon, and you and Aaron had already gone on your winer walk.” She smiled at Eloise, who returned the gesture.
She had time this morning to look up some of these names, and she got up to go get Aaron’s laptop. Alice hadn’t come downstairs yet, and she had the financial information she’d been working on to share with everyone.
So Eloise had a few minutes to search the Internet for these new names. As she went up to the second floor, she thought of Edward. He’d tried to salvage what he could, but perhaps too late.
Was she making the same mistake? Waiting too long to give up the Cliffside Inn, to acknowledge that it didn’t make her as happy as it once had?
Aaron’s laptop sat plugged in on his nightstand, and Eloise unplugged it and picked it up just as a shadow covered the light coming in through the window.
A chill ran down her arms, making the fine hairs stand up tall. Eloise stepped over to the window and peeled the curtains back. Clouds had come in, and the sudden tension that had come into Eloise’s muscles bled away.
A story below, near the pool, Dave worked with a string of multicolored lights, already prepping for the pool party tomorrow afternoon.
The clouds shifted again, and sunlight poured into the room once more. Nothing supernatural about that. Eloise turned away from the window, the laptop tucked securely under her arm. She wondered about the people who’d lived here in the past. She couldn’t help feeling some strange connection to them, as if they’d left a piece of themselves behind.
Anticipation blossomed as she went downstairs and found Alice spreading out a sheaf of papers on the table. Yes, there were still mysteries to unravel, both within these walls and within herself, and for the first time in a long while, Eloise felt ready to embrace them.