The day finally arrived when she was standing outside the home she’d been born in, her trunks piled on either side of her. She didn’t immediately go to the door, just stood there smiling as the memories flooded back. The large house had been her brothers’ playground. How often she’d had to chase after them to keep them from breaking things! Boys that age could be quite rambunctious. She’d never told her father about their wild antics unless something did actually break. Charles hadn’t often been at home during the day, and the servants had been afraid to scold the sons of the house.
Her father was wealthy, had received a substantial inheritance from his father, including the house. He was able to live a life of leisure and pursue his own amusements and interests. She wasn’t sure what those were, could only remember that he liked betting at the racetrack and finding promising investments that he could brag about to his friends.
Violet finally noticed that all the draperies were drawn shut on the windows on either side of the front door, which was odd for such a beautiful Sunday in June. Even if the family wasn’t at home, the servants should have opened the drapes. She moved to the front door, but found it locked. She knocked, but no one answered. Where the deuce was the butler? She knocked louder, pounding on it with her fist, quite worried now. A locked house was definitely not what she’d expected to find at the end of her journey.
She turned around but was daunted by the sight of her four large trunks. She’d dismissed the hired carriage and had no idea how long it would take to find another. Was she supposed to sit on her trunks all day waiting for her family to come home? If they were coming home. Again she wondered why no servant had answered the door.
“Will we need to break into the house, Miss Violet?” Jane asked.
Such a pragmatic solution! “Let’s hope not.”
Violet glanced to the side at the windows. She didn’t relish crawling through one in her fancy traveling ensemble, but if they were open that would at least indicate someone was in the house. But the windows were shut, too. The drapes on the other side of the glass were utterly still.
“Is it an American holiday then, and everyone’s gone off to celebrate?”
Violet didn’t know what to think, except that someone, even if not the butler, should be manning the door.
Looking worried, Jane added, “Shall I go to the corner and hail a carriage? We can go to a hotel and wait there for your family to return.”
Violet was about to agree when she heard the door open. She turned back to it, but it had opened barely a crack, and all she could see was an eye peering out at her; then: “Violet?”
She let out a relieved sigh. “Of course!”
The door opened wide to admit her. Both brothers were standing there, and while she used to have no trouble telling the twins apart, today she couldn’t. Dark-blond hair like hers, sapphire-blue eyes, strapping instead of slim like their father, very handsome, they looked nothing like the boys she’d last seen five years ago. They were men now, twenty years old, and as tall as their father, which was a half foot taller than she! She leapt forward exuberantly to hug them, only to be grabbed by the one on the left who said, “I’m Daniel.” He lifted her high in the air, then passed her to Evan, who swung her around in a full circle. By the time her feet were on the floor again she was laughing, and finally managed to put her arms around their waists and hug them both at the same time.
She’d missed so much these last five years. She’d asked them to have portraits done when she’d sat for hers, and to send them to her so she could see how they’d turned out, but they hadn’t done it. They’d turned out splendidly indeed. And she felt something like motherly pride as she looked them up and down. It was hard to imagine she’d ever bossed and scolded these two, or that they’d let her!
But they had much to account for, and recalling that, she stepped back to say, “One of you let Father know I’ve arrived, then have someone bring in my trunks. We’ll talk in the parlor. You’ve much to explain, Brothers.”
They both walked past her to bring in her luggage themselves, Daniel only saying, “Father isn’t home.”
“Twin brothers?” Jane whispered as she joined Violet in the hallway. “And no butler?”
Violet sighed. “I will have a private word with my brothers. Wait here in the hall. I shouldn’t be long.”
“I’ll find the kitchen, miss, and order you some tea.”
“Thank you.”
Violet headed to the parlor, the first room on the left of the long hallway. She intended to open a few windows. The house smelled more than a little musty. But she stopped short just inside the parlor and didn’t take another step. This had been such a beautifully appointed room the last time she was in it, but nothing remained except the sofa. All the other furniture was gone. All the paintings that had been on the walls were gone. Were the boys waiting for her here so they could take her to their new home?
At the sound of footsteps behind her, she said, “I hope you didn’t make me cross an ocean just to tell me Father has sold this house and moved to a bigger one.”
“No,” one of them answered. “You might want to sit down, Vi.”
Without turning, she snapped, “No, you sit down, Evan on the right, Daniel on the left. I want to know who I’m shouting at.”
She was glaring at their backs as they moved past her. She saw them wincing as they turned to sit down on the sofa.
Abashed, Daniel said, “It’s as bad as it looks.”
“Really?” Her tone was sarcastic, but the added screech wasn’t. “If you haven’t moved, where’s all the bloody furniture?!”
“We had to sell it to make payments on Father’s loan and to keep up appearances,” Daniel explained. “The paintings sold well, but the furniture didn’t. A nasty amount of money is due every month.”
Her eyes were wide by then. “Why would he—where is Father?”
“Not here. He left seven months ago to make a new fortune,” Evan said. “He didn’t want us to tell you he was broke, so we didn’t. But if we can’t pay the loan, Mr. Perry, the banker, is going to take the house.”
“Broke? How is that possible?”
“Three bad investments in as many months,” Evan went on. “Father didn’t even realize his funds had gotten so low until he went to the bank to withdraw for the monthly household account and the clerk warned him he couldn’t do that for much longer. He came home and dismissed some of the staff but not all, because he didn’t want our neighbors and friends to know he’s fallen on hard times. Then he got drunk for a week. Perfectly understandable, now that we know why, but we didn’t find out until after he sobered up.”
“When he did, he went to the bank and got a loan, using the house as collateral,” Daniel put in.
“He wanted us to be able to live our lives as usual while he made more money,” Evan continued. “He showed us a flier touting the discovery of more gold out west. We don’t know why he fell for that nonsense. We’ve seen fliers like that since we were children. No one ever comes back rich. But he was so sure that gold mining would be the solution to our sudden dilemma.”
“Believe me, Vi, we both tried to talk him out of it. We warned that he was gambling on a one-in-a-million chance of finding gold, that he should come up with a more realistic plan. But he wouldn’t be dissuaded.”
She glanced around the empty room again, and her shoulders slumped a little. “I suppose you’re going to tell me next that after seven months, he hasn’t found any gold?”
“Worse,” Evan replied.
“What could be worse?” And then she paled. “Don’t tell me he’s—he’s—?”
She couldn’t say the word dead, but Daniel jumped in, “No, not that. Of course not. But he was writing regularly, and then the letters stopped. And we ran out of money. Both happened two months ago, which is why we sent for you.”
“You should just let us tell you the whole of it, Vi, and then you might not have so many questions,” Evan suggested.
She doubted it, which was why she was tapping her foot even as she nodded. “Go ahead.”