*ON HOLD* Cora Crawley had another brother. Her brother married and had a beautiful daughter named Evelyn Levinson. When a mysterious fire burns the Levinson home, 6-year-old Evelyn was the only survivor. Cora takes in her orphaned niece - and this...
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The 8-day ship ride flew by for Evelyn. She followed the same routine every day: wake up, meet Samuel in the dining area to drink coffee, and overcome her fear of the ocean by looking out the window, joining the kitchen staff until their busy hour, doing some exploring (a different sector of the ship each day), meet Samuel for a drink in the bar and stare back at the old men who gave her dirty looks, and play blackjack with the staff until she was so tired she could barely hold her head up.
She hadn't realized until this week that while there were some exceptions, she had a similar routine at Downton that kept her interested every day - she was thrilled to have something similar here as well. It pays off to be as outgoing as Evelyn.
However, she didn't like the fact that she would yet again be sad to leave a group of friends - these she would be less likely to see ever again. The one downside to being as outgoing as Evelyn. On the day of unloading, however, she made sure to say goodbye to every one of them and make sure they had all the information to write to her if they wished. As a goodbye gift, the crew gave her a deck of playing cards - one of the several they had as backup. Evelyn graciously accepted and was dead set on teaching her grandmother to play when she got to Rhode Island.
Evelyn bounded down the hall into the lobby as one of the crew members followed behind with her cart of luggage. Samuel stood in the lobby waiting for Evelyn with his two bags and laughed at Evelyn's six, fairly large bags.
"I'll take the cart, thank you." Samuel took it from the man and started towards the ship door with Evelyn beside him. "Relieved to leave the ship?"
"I'm actually a bit sad. It was a nice trip. Is water my favorite method of transportation? No...never will be. But it was quite fun."
Samuel nodded, satisfied enough with her response after his several days of trying to warm her up to the idea of ships.
The two eventually made their way out of the ship and onto the large Virginia dock and soon to the street where cabs waited to take the passengers where they needed to go. Samuel chose one for her and helped the driver load her things.
"All loaded. I'll take the cart back to the ship for you."
She grinned, standing on her toes and throwing her arms around his neck. He smiled and patted her back.
"Be careful on your way to Texas. And don't forget to write to Uncle Robert!"
"I will and...I won't."
Evelyn smiled at the driver, who held the door for her and waved to Samuel one last time before scooting in the cab. He returned the wave and left to head back to the ship. Evelyn sighed and leaned her head back into the seat as the cab began to make its way to the train station.
An hour and a half passed as Evelyn was now on the train en route for Rhode Island. Altogether, she would be on the train for over 13 hours, so decided to sleep as much as she could considering her wild grandmother would want to chat for hours when she arrived.
