The life of Eve De La Cruz

Chapter Five

In the dining room, Edith, Mary, and Eve are eating breakfast, Robert reads a letter, and Sybil is getting her breakfast.

Mary broke the silence by asking, "Who's that from, Papa? You seem very absorbed."

"Aunt Rosamund," Robert answered, still looking at the letter.

"Anything interesting?" Edith asked.

"Nothing to trouble you with," He replied.

"Poor Aunt Rosamund, all alone in that big house. I feel so sorry for her," Sybil spoke as she sat down.

"She must be so lonely since Uncle Marmaduke passed," Eve said.

"I don't. All alone with plenty of money and a house in Eton Square? I can't imagine anything better," Mary voiced.

"Really, Mary, I wish you wouldn't talk like that. There will come a day when someone thinks you mean what you say," Robert scolded Mary after he closed the letter angrily.

"It can't come soon enough for me," She told her father.

"Carson, I'll be in the library. Will you let me know when Her Ladyship is down?" Robert asked as he stood from his seat.

"Certainly, My Lord," Mr. Carson replied.

"Sybil, darling, this one's for you," Robert hands the letter to Edith who passed it to Sybil.

Sybil quickly reads the letter before showing it to Eve. The two get up from their seats and leave the room.

In Sybil's room, Sybil and Eve informed Gwen of what the letter said.

"We saw another opening for a secretary, and we applied," Sybil told Gwen.

"But you never said," She said.

"We didn't want you to be disappointed," Eve explained.

"I thought you'd given up."

"We'll never give up, and nor will you. Things are changing for women, Gwen. Not just the vote, but our lives," Sybil told her.

"Generations of girls will look back at this time and be inspired by us women," Eve added.

"But it's tomorrow at ten o'clock. Last time, we waited for weeks and weeks and—and this one's tomorrow," Gwen said with worry.

"Then we must be ready by tomorrow, mustn't we?" Sybil told her.

A little later on that day, Eve walked down to the servant's hall before her shift at the hospital started. In the room are Daisy, Anna, Miss O'Brien, Thomas, Mr. Bates, and William.

"Have you recovered, Daisy?" Anna asked her.

"What from?" Mr. Bates asked Anna.

"Are you feeling ill, Daisy?" Eve asked with worry.

"She had a bit of a turn when we were in Lady Mary's room, didn't you?" Anna asked Daisy.

"I'm fine, thank you," She replied.

"What sort of a turn? Did you see a ghost?" Thomas asked Daisy with curiosity.

"Will you leave her alone if she doesn't want to talk about it?" William defended Daisy as he questioned Thomas.

"I've often wondered if this place is haunted. It ought to be," Daisy told them.

"Of the spirits of maids and footmen who died in slavery?" Miss. O'Brien questioned.

"But not, in Thomas's case, from overwork," Mr. Bates said.

"Come on, Daisy, what was it?" Thomas asked.