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Past
Meg sat next to Charlie on the settee in his room, listening to Carrie snore on his bed. It was nearly midnight, and she knew she should go back to her room, but she didn’t want to. Mauretania was due to arrive in Southampton in the morning, and thoughts of what that would mean kept creeping into her mind, along with a host of ghouls from the box. The battle of pushing them back in was exhausting.
“Do you think my sister and mother are enjoying planning the wedding?” Charlie asked, clearly trying to lighten the mood.
She looked up at him with one eyebrow raised. “I’m sure they are, though if it goes anything like the engagement announcement, we shall have to purchase stock in heart medication.”
Charlie chuckled. “At least Grace apologized. That’s something, I suppose.”
They hadn’t really talked about the events of the engagement party since that night, the fireworks having marred the ent
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The motor coach Jonathan had somehow procured pulled to a stop just short of her front door, and Meg was glad to have a bit of a walk to gather her nerves. She could see the front stoop from here, the window to her bedroom that looked down on the front garden where she’d spied on Charlie the day he’d visited and decided she didn’t deserve him. Jonathan got out of the driver’s seat to come around to her side, but his hand fell short of the handle, and she was certain he would give her all the time she needed.Another auto parked behind them, and Meg used the mirror at the front of the vehicle to see two police officers climb from inside. One was a plainclothes detective, the sort that might investigate murders and other horrible acts; the other was in a uniform. Again, she wasn’t sure how Jonathan had managed to have the authorities meet them there, but she was glad for it.Meg licked her lips and took a deep breath. She looked at Charlie b
Ghosts of Southampton Mother
“We were so relieved to hear that you weren’t harmed, particularly when we learned of the disaster at sea. Such a tragedy. Thank God you were all safe.”Meg cleared her throat. “Would it be possible for Bertram to join us? I want to say what I have come to tell you only once.”“Well, as I said, he’s resting….”“Wake him,” Charlie said, and his tone was enough to make Mildred recoil slightly, something Meg didn’t think she’d ever seen before.“Very well,” Mildred said. “Just a moment.”Charlie stood as her mother rose from her chair to go find her uncle, and Meg felt ill. He reclaimed his seat as soon as it was polite to do so and rested his hand on her arm. “It will be all right, darling. You’ve nothing to be afraid of.”“I don’t want to see him. I don’t want to smell him. I don’t want to hear the s
Ghosts of Southampton Heartless
“What’s past is past?” Meg asked, struggling to keep her voice down. “No, what’s past is present, Mother. It continues to follow me around everywhere I go. Every time I close my eyes. Every time I lay my head down to sleep. You can’t honestly think that, can you? That I should simply forget what’s happened to me here?”As Meg’s eyes bore holes through her uncle, without looking up, he quietly said, “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”She couldn’t quite believe her ears. She looked at Charlie and saw his jaw set in such a way she knew he was doing his best not to fly out of his seat and knock her uncle into the next room. “Don’t you dare!” Meg said, her tone menacing. “Don’t you dare sit there and make it seem like an accident. Like you didn’t mean to come into my room night after night to torture me, to make me feel helpless, to invade my personal space, my own bo
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Meg’s tears had dried up by the time her mother finished speaking, and even though the reasoning seemed sound, Meg didn’t think it was much of an excuse. Her entire life she had been of the opinion her mother was also evil, just like her uncle, and she wasn’t able to budge her stance one bit based on these remarks. “Mother, we’ve decided we will marry before my birthday on one condition, and one condition only.”Mildred’s face perked up just a bit as she turned to face her daughter. “What’s that?”“You will testify to what you witnessed the day Bertram took advantage of me, just before I left to board Titanic.” The woman was already shaking her head back and forth. “If you want to show me that you truly do care about me, then you will do this. Otherwise, we will wait, and you will get nothing. And you can rest assured there will be no more wire transfers of funds from the Ashtons.&rd
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That explanation made the rage well up inside of Meg again. “She needed help—so you dropped everything to help her? Where were you when my uncle was carrying me up the stairs?” She was shouting now, and she glanced back at Charlie to see he’d taken a few steps in her direction. She shook her head at him to let him know she was all right.“I tried to follow him, I really did,” Ezra said, moving closer to her himself. “Your mother stopped me. She said… she said if I did anything to intervene, she’d let my father go. Meg, what was I to do? My father was so ill. He needed the money he earned here to pay for his medication. Now… he’s on his deathbed, Meg. If I had tried to stop your uncle, my father would be out on the streets and likely dead.” He had tears in his eyes; his voice was imploring. He looked the picture of a son in misery, unable to help his father.“So you chose to leave him behind
Ghosts of Southampton Betrayal
Meg was still able to keep up with his words, but they’d begun to lose meaning. The feel of Charlie’s hand on her shoulder gave her courage. “Your father believes that my mother poisoned my father?”Ezra nodded once, sharply.Charlie’s grip tightened, and Meg pressed down hard on the lids of all of the boxes in her mind—including the one that held memories of her da. Thoughts of him pushing her on the swing, just under the tree there. The pram she’d pushed around the garden after he brought it back from his trip to New York. The lilacs he’d pick and tuck behind her ear, calling her his little flower when he did so. Without wiping the tears from her cheeks, Meg looked Ezra directly in the eyes and said, “What happened to Charlotte?”“I don’t know,” Ezra mumbled, seemingly shocked that she’d reversed topics so quickly.“What happened to her?” she asked again, mor
Ghosts of Southampton Considerations
They began to make their way through the kitchen, and Meg noticed Tessa had moved on to some sort of baking. She offered a smile but said nothing as they passed through. Meg made a mental note to make sure that Tessa received enough money that she wouldn’t have to work anymore. It was the least she could do for the woman who’d served her mother and put up with her uncle for so long.Mildred was standing in the foyer speaking to an officer Meg didn’t recognize. The other officers Det. Weber had mentioned must have arrived, because several men in uniforms stood both inside the entryway and on the porch. Officer Brown was speaking to the ones on the porch, and Meg decided to wait for him to notice her rather than announce her presence and be forced to get on with her report of what happened with her uncle any sooner than necessary.“Mary Margaret,” Mildred said, turning to face her daughter. “You’ve returned. Did you get everythin
Ghosts of Southampton Over
Mildred only raised her eyebrows at Charlie but didn’t say a word about his blunt statement of what Meg certainly saw as the truth. “I shall go upstairs and fetch Bertram for you,” Mildred said, glancing at the detective before she turned to ascend the stairs. “It will give me the opportunity to say goodbye to him privately.”Meg was certain that last comment was a jab at her, her mother implying what Meg had always known was true, that the relationship between her mother and uncle was more than either of them were ever willing to admit to, but Meg ignored it. The emotions running through her mind were too much, even for her carefully guarded compartments, and she felt like she might begin to crumble at any moment.“Miss Westmoreland, we are prepared to take your statement whenever you are ready,” the detective said quietly, a weak smile pulling at one corner of his mouth out of politeness.“Give her a few moments,
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