The Gallant South- Part One

Chapter I- September 30, 1912

        The large steamship that pulled slowly but steadily into the harbor of the southern coast just a few miles away from the charming city of Estelle was carrying its normal load of passengers: folks returning from businesses in Charleston and Savannah, rich ladies and their husbands traveling to the city for all of its splendor, and men traveling for business. However, there was one single passenger on board who was different from all the others.
        Cora Yvette Heiler-Dairson was twenty-one years old with light and soft skin that had not a mark on it. Her orange Irish hair with all of its delicate curls and waves shone in the bright afternoon sunlight that is so very common down by the seaside, and her light green eyes sparkled with excitement about her sudden and unexpected adventure into the American south. She stepped out of the reception room of the ship and out onto the deck, which was now brimming with people eagerly awaiting their arrival in the city. It was around six in the morning, and the sun was just coming up. Cora wore a long, blue and black traveling dress with a small but expensive blue hat shielding her skin and hair from the blistering sun. Her satin dress seemed to billow out behind her in the sailing breeze, although it was a thin skirt. The only thing she disliked about the dress were its sleeves, which were long and tight, very much inappropriate for the warm September weather. Cora prided herself in keeping up with the times, and all the newest fashions and trends, unlike her old-fashioned parents, her mother who still dressed in the skirts and large sleeves of her earlier youth, and her father with his cold and glaring eyes, his only care in the world to make money, and the only love for his daughters coming from the fact that they would one day marry a richer man and make him more money, as if the year was 1812 instead of 1912. For that reason, Cora also prided herself in being Thomas Park Heiler's only unmarried and un-courted daughter.
        "I do say, Miss, have you ever traveled to Estelle before?" Asked a kind gentleman who had come up behind her. Averting her eyes from the view she'd almost laid eyes on, she turned around to face the gentleman.
        "I have not, and I eagerly look forward to living here," she replied rather excitedly, walking to the front of the ship in order to see the view that the other passengers seemed so excited to see. With a slight nod to the gentleman, Cora walked herself to the front of the ship, her dark leather traveling boots striking the deck as if she had power with each step- which she did. Her father owned the steamship company, and she had gotten her travel free of charge.
        Cora finally reached the front of the ship, where she excitedly ran to the very front of the deck and clutched the whitewashed metal railing in utter awe as she looked out at the scene of the small port town, and the Atlantic ocean surrounding it. The harbor was filled with other ships of all shapes and sizes, and the docks filled with cars, wagons, officers, and people waiting to depart. The way to the beach was covered in trees with only pauses for the brick chimneys that stuck out from the trees. From the ship's deck, Cora could only see the pause in trees and beginnings of buildings that marked a couple towns in the distance. Beyond that were the tall mountains that seemed almost to touch the heavens and speak to God about everything going down in the lands below Him. Cora had hardly ever seen mountains in her life, and the thought of living in them appealed to her greatly.
        "Well, I do believe it's going to take us a minute to get to your estate," announced a voice from behind. Cora recognized the voice to be Isaac Masterson, her driver. She had known him since she was but four years old, and he had always been a dear friend. He was a twenty-five year-old with short-trimmed brown hair and a tall figure. His father had worked for the Heilers as a horseman and carriage driver before the days of automobiles. When Thomas purchased his first one in 1903, he had learned to drive that as well. Masterson however, only knew how to drive automobiles, as someone as rich as Thomas Park Heiler wouldn't be caught dead in anything other than the newest, most expensive technology.

        All her life, Cora had lived in the north, in Pennsylvania, confined to a rich neighborhood filled with mansions and large yards for parties, the streets perfectly paved, the end of the cul-de-sac wrapped around a large fountain carved with an image of an angel pouring a basin of water. Cora's home in particular was three stories of tall windows, delicately carved stones and bricks, a large wrought-iron gate, and an interior so lavish that if ever a poor person stepped inside of it, they would believe that they had died and gone up to Heaven. Cora had rarely been allowed to leave the confines of the neighborhood, and had only left Pennsylvania to travel, either seeing family, or accompanying her father on business. She had never been to the south, but had heard how different of a lifestyle it was. She'd heard that it was rural, wild, and full of rednecks and lingering Confederates.
        As she had never been allowed to go much of anywhere, one can quite imagine Cora's surprise when her father announced that she would be moving to an estate he owned down in Estelle- an estate that had once belonged to Cora's great aunt Mary Ruth. She had built the home in 1857, upon her own move to Estelle from Virginia, and had lived in it until she died of childbirth just after the Civil War ended in 1865. Cora had always wanted to know more about Mary Ruth, especially why she had moved deeper into the south amidst the tensions that led up to the war, but her parents seemed dead-set on changing the subject every time Cora did so much as bring up the name of her great-aunt. Cora wondered if she had done something bad, and wanted more than anything to ask about it, but did not for fear of her father's chastises and her mothers hushing comments, commanding Cora to stay in her place and not inquire about trivial things such as the life of a woman long dead.
        What Cora was excited about was the fact that she now possessed property and a home of her own, that she had ordered to be furnished just two weeks ago, when her father had shown her photographs of the house and then had her pick out everything from furniture to wallpaper to paint to floors to what kind of electric chandeliers and lamps she wanted for each large and sunny room of the house. She was excited to begin living in this almost exotic-sounding locale, thousands of miles away from her parents and living on her own. She was free to do whatever she pleased, though she still had a reputation to maintain, and she was sure that her parents would receive news of anything she did. Parents always had a way of discovering every whim of their children.
        "Is the automobile ready?" she asked Masterson, who was looking in awe at the rural lands beyond them. Cora nodded slowly, remembering how her father had managed to get all of her things into the steamship: a dark green 1910 Packard limousine with black cushioned seats and large round headlights that lit up electrically, a wagon to carry all of her belongings, which were about five steamer trunks, several smaller ones, and dozens of hatboxes, all full of her clothes, jewelry, shoes, hats, fine china, cutlery, vases, everything she'd need moving into a new home in a new state in a whole new side of the country. She could hardly wait to see the house in person.