Hello lovely readers,
As I have stated I have wanted to get some more writing in this summer. It is somewhat odd (in a good way) to go back to a story that I have had to put aside. I have gone through and re-read some of my writing and I wanted to share some of the story with you...
Hope you enjoy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Those were
the grand days for us children at Southerton. Without mother and father there
we were under the care of Nanny Alba. Every day after lunch she took a long
nap and expected us to do the same.
Instead as soon as the weather turned warm we would run all the way to the Back
Woods not stopping for any breath. It was here we all plotted out the grand
adventures we desired for our lives. I wasn't old enough to plan a grand
escape. I still loved our home. It had been a part of our family since King
Charles II. It wasn't grand compared to Cranston Court but it was a prized
estate. I was still finding nooks and crannies when to hide in for hours. My
ancestors took Southerton Green from a simple hunt lodge to its grand scale
built in the a modern architecture in the Georgian style. My grandfather used
to tell me of the grand days of Southerton when they would throw lavish parties
on the scale of a Duke and Duchess. I promised him I would recapture those
grand day and bring them back to Southerton.
Of
course in a few years I would learn of the financial destitution of our family
and I would know to become a grand family we once were was utterly hopeless.
Right then in 1909 I thought no family could be better off than us, Harringtons
at Southerton Greens with a house in London and plantations in India.
"Rose I want to play!" My
little sister Georgina called from the side.
Georgiana, my younger sister, who
still at five had her baby fat including pudgy cheeks and stubby legs. No one
seeing her then would realize she would become England's high class model by
the time she was eighteen, of course by that time she was going by the name
Gigi Harris. She would always long for adventure and to be taken seriously but
for the most part she was held back because of her younger sibling status.
"I am not playing!" I
yelled back.
To be honest I was panning for gold.
The water was up to my knees and turning my dress from soft blue to an ugly
brown as the mud splashed on me. I was
bent over with one of cook's pie pans, scrapping the bottom, hoping to
find any sign of gold. In one of our history lessons we had learned about the
California Gold Rush in 1849 and I had hoped our creek could be lined with gold
but no one had ever looked. I now knew why no one looked because the water was
almost a numbing cold and there seemed to be little success no matter how long
I looked.
"Rose, I want to play."
"No you can't, mother says you
can't come in the creek."
"Please!" She begged.
"Daphne, you are suppose to be
watching Georgiana," I pleaded.
"No you promise you would do
all my chores and when mother is not her
and we are not with Nanny Alba that includes taking care of Georgiana."
"But-" I moaned.
"Do you want me to tell mother
you broke the teapot?"
"I wasn't trying to break the
teapot," I grumbled to myself.
I didn't really think it was my
fault that Pippin came running through the room as I was trying to host a tea
party for my doll, Camilla Jayne, but I was pretending she was Queen Victoria.
I had to use the best teapot for Queen Victoria, and with its hand painted
flowers and gold trimming it was by far the best in the house. I was holding
the now infamous teapot when Pippin came into the room, jumped on me, knocked
me down, and the teapot to the ground. Daphne was the only witness and now she
had black mailed me into doing her chores for a moth. Years later I would find
out Daphne told mother did not punish me because she hated that teapot. It had
been Grandma Harrington's but mother and Grandma Harrington never got a long so
she was glad when it was broken. If I had known that then I would have never
put up with Daphne's behavior.
"What are you doing," She
yelled at me. Daphne finally noticed that my dress had become soaked and
practically ruined with mu stains.
"Panning for gold like they did
in California."
Shane hearing this chimed in "There
is not gold in that creek, if there was Lord Welford would have already dug it
up."
"What would my father do with
little rocks bigger than finger nails. Rose, if you find any gold you can keep
it," Parker said pretending to stick up for his father, who was known in
parliament as being one of the cheapest Lords in the House. Penny and Pence Welford, I had once heard
father call Lord Welford.
"I agree with Shane there is no
gold in the creek," Daphne said "and now you have ruined your dress
for something that doesn't exist. Now got out of that and act a lady."
By now all attention was shared
between me standing in the creek and Daphne standing on the bank. No one but
Kelby had seen Georgina make her way into the creek and slip on a rock, and she
had gone under with a splash or gasp to get our attention. The splash that did
get out attention was Kelby jumping into pull Georgiana out of the water. In
slow motion I watched Kelby grab her and saw her limp body lie across his arms.
He laid her on the grass to get any water out of her lungs. She coughed some
up, opened her eyes, and then quickly fainted again.
Without thinking Kelby scooped her
back up into his arms and ran in the direction of Cranston Court.
