Grandeur

Chapter Three

"Elizabeth allows you to keep this thing?" I asked, shocked.

The automobile was red and garish - everything Elizabeth was not. To me, it resembled a dog with its long snout and body. It held two rows of seats of black leather and had its steering wheel poking straight forward towards the first row. I could see the name scrolled on the front engine of the beast - Ford.

"Well, sort of," Teddy replied, placing my luggage in the back row of seats. He stepped up and behind the wheel. "She hates the thing, but she knows how much I adore it."

"I had only read about this company, Ford, in Europe. No one has them over there." I stared at the thing, half afraid to step inside its belly. Of course I had ridden in many horseless carriages but this was an automobile. A fine line between the two - perhaps the same thing to many - but to me, it was a thousand steps apart. Horseless carriages were for every man - poor or rich, it didn't matter. An automobile, on the other hand, was far too exquisite for the poor man. Only the wealthy could ever dream of owning such a piece of work, and even fewer actually had them in their grips.

"It's a Ford Model K. Just came out this year. Do you like it?" He cranked the beast to life, and it let out a loud roar. It shook with excitement.

"It's..." I hesitated for the right word.

Teddy rolled his eyes. "Just get in, Di. I promise it won't hurt you."

I tentatively slid in beside him - since there were no doors to hold you in, and gripped my skirt tightly in my fists.

The automobile was loud. Whenever Teddy tried to talk, I had to ask him to repeat his words. I felt every rock and pebble on the road from the docks. I had to hold my hand over my hat to keep the brim from flying up and falling off my head. It was only held on by a thin ribbon tied under my chin. It took me a few minutes, but I eventually got used to the rocking of the automobile and the loud hum of the engine. Teddy's words came clearer and clearer over the roar.

"You'll stay at our home, obviously," Teddy was saying. "Elizabeth will insist on it."

"Not in Gramercy?" I asked.

I had always pictured myself sleeping in my old room in my old bed, surrounded by the pink wallpaper and white fur rug that Henry had taken my innocence on. The house had many, many horrible memories living in its walls but it was my childhood home nonetheless. No matter what atrocities had occurred in there, they were in my past as a young and naïve girl. I was a grown woman now. The nightmares in the walls could hurt me no longer.

"I should think not," said Teddy. "As you know, your mother is in no state to receive you. It would shock her heart, surely. She is very weak, Diana." His voice was soft, careful, and tender. It made my head snap toward him in unease. Had Edith underplayed the severity of Mother's illness? Was she actually much worse than I had thought?

I had to distract myself from these thoughts. I would get answers soon enough, but my mind did not want them right now. I said the first thing that came to mind, but quickly regretted it.

"When you said the whole city knew of my arrival, did you mean everyone?"

He knew exactly of whom I was speaking of. The one man that made me leave the city in the first place.

Teddy was so silent and focused on the road, I was unsure if he had heard me over the engine. I was about to drop the subject when he finally replied.

"I haven't talked to Henry yet today."

Hearing someone else mention his name was an entirely new feeling - or at least one I had not felt in a very long time. I had spoken and thought Henry's name thousands of times over these last few years but to hear someone else speak it nearly ripped me in half. Half in glee, half in terror.