The English Descendants

28

It takes three years to sort through and organize Anne, Charlotte, and Eliot's papers. Eddie has binders sorted by date, the letters in clear plastic slip covers so as to preserve the fragile pages. As Edith's boxes and a trunk are brought into her room, she looks over the shelves. She has digitized and transcribed the first binder only. There are so many stories in them. Stories she had never known, and details to the ones she did. But one thing missing in all of them is Thomas. She still has no idea who he is. He visits sporadically as she sorts through papers, but he says little.

As she sorts through the first box, she realises most of it is financial documents. Things they no longer need to keep. She pulls over a paper bag and begins carefully going through every scrap of paper. Receipts. Tax paperwork. Grocery lists written on the backs of envelopes containing bank statements. These all go in the bag. But then she finds something she did not expect. There is a large portfolio from the British Clay Mining Corporation and she unties the string binding it closed.

"Hey guys! Mom!" she calls.

Daisy and Maria enter, "What?"

"Did you know we apparently owe the big bank account to owning stock in some mining company? And there's a contract here for sale of an Allerdale Hall in England. It says a lot about our family getting money from the mines in perpetuity."

"But the family's American," Maria says, "I didn't think we'd have property in England."

Nellie arrives, "What about Thomas? He's a Brit, isn't he?"

"How is he related?" Eddie asks.

Maria shrugs, "I don't really know."

"There's nothing in the letters yet, mentioning him."

Daisy shakes her head, "I don't think there would be in anything she'd have been into real regularly- Mom said he was her childhood ghost, too. Check the trunk. It's super old."

"But that's going out of order."

Nellie laughs, "You're going to have to wait another year if you do everything in order! Besides, if it's older, shouldn't you go through it first?"

Eddie shrugs, "Eh, sure." She tries to lift the lid, but it is stuck fast, "Is this thing locked?"

Nellie opens a box, "This one says, 'dressing table'- maybe her keys are in here."

"This box is a mess- who packed it?" Maria asks.

"I did...or, well, I dumped the drawers into it so we could sell the dressing table," Daisy says, "It was just too big to bring."

They dig through the box. Nellie pulls out a tiny belt with porcelain clasped hands on the front. She sets it aside. They find Alan's shaving brush and straight razor, antique broaches, lovely lace gloves and others of fine cotton with buttons up the side. A shoe hook. A brush and mirror set. At the bottom, there are two rings of keys. The trunk key on one ring is engraved with the name Enola. The other key ring also has a trunk key, this one engraved E.C.. They try it and the mechanism grinds aside.

"So what do you think is in here?" Eddie asks before lifting the lid.

"Oh just open it already!" Daisy urges.

They crowd around her as she opens it. On the very top, there is a worn leatherbound book. Eddie sets it aside. Under it is black velvet. She unfolds it and hands it to Nellie, "What's this?"

"A gentleman's jacket," she inspects the stitching, "Hand sewn. Very fine. Very old, too, but in remarkable condition. I'd say turn of the century- probably a decade or so earlier. It's a bit dusty. Don't handle it much, the dust weight might rip it apart- I'll show you how to clean it." She carefully folds it and sets it aside.