Whispering Echoes - Maya Chandel (best books to read non fiction .txt) 📗

Michael was different; Michael was gentler and had the patience to play a game properly. Indeed he was the only boy whom she trusted with her dolls, and she knew that he secretly did like to play with them even though he always vehemently denied it.

‘Are you excited?’ asked Theo, gently tucking back a stray wisp of her dark curly hair.

‘Are we really going to sail on the largest ship ever made?’

‘The largest and the grandest! The Titanic is the talk of the country right now my little princess; for years to come people shall envy you having been aboard its maiden voyage. This trip shall be history in its very making.’

The little girl smiled, caught up by her father’s fervour, even if she did not quite understand. Glancing out the window of the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost towards the solitary figure on the driveway she said hopefully, ‘Perhaps Mama shall be a little less sad once we are aboard Papa.’

Theo followed her gaze; his expression instantly altering as he did so. ‘Don’t you worry your pretty little head darling; we’ll soon have your Mama smiling again. This is going to be a brand new start for us all; we will leave this place well and truly behind us. Now you sit here whilst I fetch your Mama; or else we shall still be waiting by sundown.’

Kitty watched avidly through the window at her father’s retreating figure as he approached her mother. She knew that her Papa was not sad to be leaving like her Mama was; she supposed it was because this was not the home he had grown up in. Papa was from London and she knew that was where his heart truly lay. She knew it from the way his bright blue eyes always lit up when he talked about it, from how excited he always was at a prospective trip, just like now. Of course they would be only be in London for a few days this time, so that they could bid their farewells to Papa’s family; then they were setting off to Southampton from where they would set sail. The little girl had recalled it all to memory, so many times had she been told. A part of her could scarcely wait to be aboard ship and sailing the vast ocean; it was like an adventure from a story. However, a small part of her was also scared; though as she did not want to dwell on that right now, she turned her attention back to her parents, who were now making their way across the driveway, her Papa’s arm encircled around her Mama who kept glancing back at the house with each step she took away from it.

As they finally approached the motor, the little girl thought her Papa’s voice sounded a little harshly clipped as he held open the door and said, ‘Come on Evie get in, its time we left.’

With a swishing of her long black skirt, Evie obediently climbed in and took her place beside Kitty; who now saw that her mother was in fact crying.

‘It is alright Mama; it is alright to be a little sad,’ said Kitty, snuggling up next to her as the Ghost began to crawl away at her Papa’s instruction to Matthews. ‘It makes me a little sad to be leaving too.’

‘Oh darling,’ sobbed Evie, wrapping her arms tightly around her. ‘I do not wish you to be sad; I never wish you to be sad.’

‘But Mama I am sure everyone has to be sad just once in a while,’ replied Kitty.

‘Well not you,’ smiled Evie, ‘Not you my darling. Besides I am not really sad, how
could I be when I am with you?’ she added planting a kiss on top her mass of thick curls.

The Ghost soon began to pick up speed such that they were fast on their way down the narrow country road winding down the cliffside and away from Rosevale. Kitty watched the familiar sights blur across the window, knowing it might be a long time before she set eyes upon them all again.

‘Look that way and you’ll catch one final glimpse of Rosevale,’ Evie whispered into her ear; such that Kitty instantly turned her head in anticipation.

‘I see it Mama,’ cried Kitty excitedly, her eyes fixed on the now distant sight. ‘Are you watching it too?’

‘I am darling,’ though even as she said it, Evie felt a hand gently turning her head away, such that she found herself instead looking into her husband’ s eyes.

‘I love you,’ whispered Theo. ‘You do know that don’t you?’

‘Of course I do.’

‘Just wait till we arrive in America; it will be perfect. You, Kitty, me and of course this little one,’ he added with a smile as he placed his hand tenderly across her waist and drew her to him. ‘Do you trust me?’

Evie nodded her head before resting it against his shoulder and closing her eyes; keeping them shut even as Kitty called out, ‘This is it Mama; I can see it disappearing…it’s the very last….and it’s gone!’
Chapter 4

Rosevale Manor, Cornwall 1930

Stepping out of the Crossley Silver onto the gravel driveway and looking up at the old house she had once called home, Kitty found herself taken aback by its beauty. Designed in the neoclassical style it emulated the grandeur yet simplicity of form of the ancient Roman and Greek classics; its perfect symmetry and dramatic use of ionic capitals quite mesmerizing to the eye. Yet its beauty ran much deeper than its physical splendour; strange as it sounded even in her own mind, this house had a soul. Standing before it now, Kitty could not help but feel an odd beam of pride and affection surge through her for the grandfather she had never known, but whose love for her grandmother had been the inspiration for all this. Indeed Kitty could but wonder what it would be to share such a love as that; she rather doubted that she should ever receive such a gift as this from her future husband whomever he may transpire to be.

‘Well by golly, here we are at last!’ exclaimed Freddy stretching out his long arms with a wide yawn. ‘I tell you I hope old Polly and Briarley have managed to set the place in some sort of order in the time that they’ve had; or at least if nothing else have got the kitchen running, I’m famished.’

‘When you ever are not famished?’ laughed Kitty, affectionately slipping her arm in his as they made their way up the front steps of the house.

‘Never mind the kitchen; so long as there is a warm bed made up ready for me, I certainly shall have no complaints,’ smiled Mrs Allen coming up behind them.

Fortunately neither Freddy nor Aunt Elizabeth were to be disappointed; though the small group of staff had only arrived two days ahead of them to get the necessities in order, as ever they had not failed to surprise. Why as Kitty found herself in the wide sunlit entrance hall donning off her strictly tailored tweed coat, she would hardly have fancied herself in a house that had been abandoned for nigh on twenty years. There was not a single speck of dust to be seen on the old oak banisters of the spiralling staircase, and the air around them was wonderfully fresh, holding none of the staleness one associates with a place long forgotten.

‘You must all be thoroughly exhausted,’ smiled Polly as she ushered them into the front parlour of the house where a snug fire was crackling warmly and much to Freddy’s delight a delectable luncheon was spread out on the table awaiting them.

‘Polly you are an angel!’ exclaimed Freddy, wasting no time in filling his plate before setting himself down comfortably in a chair.

‘Indeed you are,’ agreed Mrs Allen, casting her eye about the newly polished room. ‘Really I trust you have not put yourselves to too much trouble; there is plenty of time ahead of us for smartening the place up. It truly was only the bare basics we were anticipating.’

‘I assure you M’am we have not over exerted ourselves and there is plenty to be done. Indeed I hope you shan’t mind dining in here today; this really is the only room that is presentable as yet. Though we hope to open the Drawing Room for you all by tomorrow.’

‘Polly I assure you that I shall be quite content to spend the remainder of the day in my bedchamber,’ smiled Mrs Allen.

‘Yes but you must have something to eat first Aunt,’ insisted Kitty handing her a plate.

‘Oh very well, but just a little. My stomach is quite in knots after that journey, Lord knows how you shall manage all that Freddy,’ she said casting an eye over her son’s overfilled plate.

‘I assure you Mother dear I shall manage it without any trouble at all,’ he smiled between bites. ‘Though really Kit, if this room is anything to judge by, this place may not need that much work after all. It’s really quite modish.’

‘Well of course it is; after all the house is not even fifty years old,’ replied Mrs Allen. ‘Strange isn’t it, barely fifty years of standing and just look at the lives already lost; all of them taken so prematurely. First your grandmother, then your grandfather and of course poor Theo and Evie. Anyone would think the house was cursed.’

‘Really mother, there is no need to starting getting so maudlin,’ sighed Freddy.

‘Yes but some houses are like that aren’t they, they are just doomed.’

‘Mama once told me that this was a house of built of love and hope and dreams; I don’t think that she ever saw it as doomed,’ said Kitty.

‘No that she didn’t,’ agreed Mrs Allen. ‘Why she absolutely treasured this place, and indeed in those days it was not hard to see why. This house used to be simply brimming with life; I recall the parties they used to give here. Oh they were magnificent! Of course it’s all nothing more than distant memories now.’

‘Perhaps a new set of owners shall be able to breathe some life back into the place,’ said Freddy in an attempt to cheer his mother’s spirits. ‘Though really mother you shall have to steer clear of your stories of the house being doomed; doesn’t do well for a sale. ‘

‘Oh I am not so sure; there are those who are drawn to a house with a tale to tell,’ smiled Kitty.

‘Odd people like you I suppose,’ teased Freddy.

‘As opposed to boring ones like you,’ retorted Kitty.

‘If that is a sign of the two of you embarking