Marry For Money

three

The room was full of a tense thick air. The five sisters sat around the different couched, their laced gloved hands folding onto one another. Eleanor straightened out her thick skirts and sucked on the inside of her cheek. She felt small beads of sweat collect on her hairline. Either from the heat inside the stuffy room filled with people or the anxiety bubbling in her stomach, she didn't know. 

Eleanor could feel Anthony's hand on the small of her back. She knew his mother, a tight lipped city rat who hated living on the countryside and therefore brought it out on everyone around her, would scoff at her son touching a woman. But his friendly supportive touch gave her a moment of ease. 

"Hello all, as known. We are here to read the will of James W. Ridgby. His funeral happened earlier, as we all know..." The tall elderly man at the front of the room cleared his throat and squinted into his small frame rim glasses.  "Here it's stated that the only ones allowed to hear his will is the surviving family members, his five daughters, and me." The old man looked up and eyed Anthony, who coughed uncomfortably and promptly removed his hand from Eleanor. 

"I'll be right outside," He said and gave a slight nod to her. She smiled back at him. The door shut behind him loudly. Which caused him to profusely apologize from the other side. Eleanor tried to muffle a giggle. 

"Alright, now that... that is over with. Let's move on," He cleared his throat again. The raspy sound was already starting to annoy her ears and promote a banging headache. "Hello my daughters," he read off "if you are reading this, than I have died." 

"Dad was always one for blunt jokes," May sighed. 

"I want to apologize for leaving you girls in a world like this. I know it can be difficult for woman to traverse 1800s Europe. And I want you girls to be safe, and well protected. So, I am splitting my money equally between the five of you, the house will go to my oldest Eleanor. Who I know will care for my others." He spoke, enunciating each word. Eleanor put a hand over her heart and breathed out a sigh of relief. 

"However, there is one thing. Unfortuanlty, woman as young as my daughters cannot live by themselves. It would raise eyebrows and I, for one, will not allow it. 

So, luckily, I'm sending you five to live with my sister. You met her once when you were very young. Call her Aunt Tam. She lived right in the middle of bustling London. She will have some men come to collect you in two days. So make sure to pack everything." The girls gasped. 

"What?" Stella screamed, she was one of the middle children. And had lived in the countryside her entire life. They all had, growing up with the rolling hills and wheat fields. Making friends with the rabbits and their father's bookshelves. 

It was a calming peaceful life and Eleanor and her sisters had never thought of another direction their life could take. The oldest racked it through her brain. Moving in with the aunt they hadn't seen in years who lived in the city? 

She had heard about Aunt Tam before. She was a widower who never had kids, married to a rich oil tycoon CEO who passed from a heart attack. Since he died a couple years ago she had been living in her fancy big mansion in the middle of the bustling streets of London. 

"Sir, I'm nineteen." Eleanor explained, "Why can't I take care of my sisters and I? I'm legally an adult." 

"I told you, woman can't own their own property or money. Or live alone." 

"Aunt Tam does all those things!" 

"She's widowed, it's different when your husband dies." 

"Okay well... what do we do?" 

"Let me continue- it states here that everyone inherits their share and the oldest inherits the house once Eleanor get's married." 

Everyone's jaw dropped.