The life of Eve De La Cruz

Chapter Fifteen

In the great hall, Lavinia, Isobel, Mary, Edith, Cora, Eve, and Mrs. Hughes watch as everything was being moved for Lavinia and Matthew's wedding.

"We can put the presents in the drawing room against the window," Cora suggested.

"Very good, Milady," Mrs. Hughes replied before she leaves to take care of it.

"I suppose we do have to display all the presents. It can look rather greedy," Isobel commented.

"I can't bear the disruption we seem to have brought down on your heads," Lavinia apologized.

"Don't be silly," Cora reassured.

Mary and Lavinia spot Matthew loitering at the doorway, no longer in his wheelchair, and is now using a cane. The two then walk over to him before talking about the wedding.

That evening in Mary's room, Sybil had just told her sisters and cousin that she is going to announce her relationship with Tom tonight.

"But why announce it tonight all of a sudden?" Mary asked.

"He's got a job at a newspaper. He heard today it's a real chance," Sybil explained.

"Let him go to Dublin and then you can use the calm to consider."

"Mary doesn't want you to be trapped before you're completely sure," Edith reiterated.

"But I am sure!" Sybil shouted, "How many times do I have to say it? Anna, tell them."

"Lady Mary's right. It's a very big thing to give up your whole world," She replied.

"Thank you. Listen to her if you won't listen to me," Mary said.

"But I'm not giving up my world! They want to give me up. That's their affair. I'm perfectly happy to carry on being friends with everyone."

"Married to the chauffeur?" Mary questioned.

"Yes. Anyway, he's a journalist now, which sounds better for Granny," Sybil told them before she sits down on the bed, frustrated, next to Eve.

"'That which we call a rose. By Any Other Name would smell as sweet; So Romeo would were he, not Romeo call'd, retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title'," Eve quoted Romeo and Juliet before saying, "The heart wants what the heart wants. If Sybil and Branson want to be together then who are we to judge. My parents were the same way and they led a happy life together."

"Thank you, Eve. We're going to tell Papa tonight," Sybil said.

"We"? You mean, you and Branson?" Edith questioned.

"He's coming in after dinner," She told them.

"But what will Papa do?"

"I imagine he'll call the police," Mary spoke.

Later in the drawing room, after dinner, Branson enters purposefully and everyone stares.

"Yes?" Robert addressed him.

Branson looks at Sybil before saying, "I'm here."

"So I can see," Robert said.

Sybil gets up and walks over to Branson, "I don't think this is such a good idea. We mustn't worry Granny."

"You've asked me to come, and I've come."

"Would someone please tell me what is going on, or have we all stepped through the looking glass?" Violet asked.

"Your grandmother has as much right to know as anybody else," Branson announced.

"Why don't I find that reassuring?"