Love Across Time

~2009~
Frank found his friends in the old gardener’s cottage. It was more than apparent it hadn’t been used in quite some time. Dust covered everything and there wasn’t even a microwave in the kitchen.

“There you are, we were wondering if we would have to send out search and rescue,” Gerard said as Frank walked up to them.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Frank said, not even attempting to explain is delay.

“I don’t know, I was just telling Mikey, this would be a good place to fix up just to get away from everything.” Gerard commented, looking around the small living room.

“It would be,” Frank agreed. “Or a nice little guest house.”

“Why would you want a guest house when that house up there is fucking big enough to where you could both look for each other for hours at a time.”

“Uh, I do plan on having kids Gerard. I could fix it up and when they get ready to move out, let them move into it to get a feel of what it’s like to live on their own.”

“That’s a good idea actually,” Mikey muttered, nodding his head.

“I still say you and Jamia should keep it as a get away, so you can, you know, bow-chica-wow-wow.”

“Get the fuck out of here,” Frank said, shoving Gerard slightly toward the door. Gerard laughed and ran from the cabin, screaming “Frank and Jamia sitting in a tree!”

“He’s the oldest of us right?” Frank asked Mikey. Mikey sighed and reluctantly nodded his head, embarrassed by his brother.

“So what do you say of getting Ray out here and us just chilling here for the night?” Frank asked Mikey as they followed Gerard across the lawn and toward the trees.

“Sounds like a good idea to me. I can’t get over this place, and to think they’ve kept it from you for so damn long.”

“I know, I love it here.” Frank looked around his family’s property, and his mind went back to the woman in the picture from before. “I wonder how much she loved the place,” he muttered, not expecting Mikey to hear him.

“Who?” Mikey asked, looking down at Frank confused.

“I can say this without you being your brother?” Frank asked. Mikey nodded and they stopped walking. “I can’t get that picture of that woman out of my head,” Frank admitted. “She shouldn’t have been put through that. My great-grandfather shouldn’t have let her lose the house that way. I can’t imagine losing this place and putting Jamia on the streets.”

“Frank, you don’t know the entire story. Maybe you should talk to your grandfather, see if he knows what really happened through stories his father told him.” Mikey suggested. Frank thought for a long moment before nodding his head. Mikey looked up and realized that Gerard was nowhere to be seen.

“Damn, we lost Gerard,” Frank said, looking around as well. Mikey turned around with just enough time to dodge Gerard’s attempt to tackle him to the ground.

“Gee, will you behave?” Mikey asked as Gerard just ran away from them again. Frank and Mikey rolled their eyes at each other, but smiled at the same time. They knew Gerard was carefree and would do as he pleased. He was a 33 year old man after all.

They went back up to the house, Mikey pulling out his cell phone to call Ray to get him over to the house. Frank decided to take that time to find his grandfather to talk to him.

“Caio nonno,” Frank said to his grandfather after finding him a back room.

“Frankie, my boy, are you enjoying it here?” The elder Frank asked as he hugged his grandson.

“I’m having a great time here, why wasn’t I ever told of this place before?”

“Your mother wanted to keep it private, but she’s gone now, so now you know.” Frank nodded, not wanting to think of the fact that his mother had just passed away. It was still taking it’s toll on him to think about it, even after two years.

“So, I have a question for you nonno, upstairs in the library, Mikey found a newspaper clipping of a Veronica Mason. Isn’t Mason the family your father got the house from?”

“Sì, it is.” The elderly man said. “I knew you would start asking questions, that is why I was back here, finding things to show you.” He pulled a painting toward him, and Frank’s heart jumped when he realized it was the woman from the clipping, Veronica.

“My father told me, that when he won the house, things was not going to well for Ms. Veronica. This was her family’s home, but her husband lost it to me because he had no money to give my father. He was a gambling man, Mr. Mason was. He didn’t know how to stop. He soon spent all his wife’s money, and eventually, lost her home.”

“It didn’t stop there though, no of course it didn’t. Mr. Mason ended up leaving Ms. Veronica. Said he had fallen in love with someone else. At that time, there was nothing worse for a woman’s reputation than to have her husband leave her like that. In society back then, the higher up you were in class, the better off you were.”

“That’s basically how it is now,” Frank mumbled to his grandfather.

“True, but now, if a woman’s husband leaves her, that’s his loss, and she won’t be seen as anything but a lonely woman trying to find another love. Back then, however, if a woman loses her husband, and seeks comfort or love in another man’s arms, then she is seen as promiscuous, and everyone would turn their backs on her.”

“So, to offer her safety and security, my father offered to let her stay and care for the mansion. She did so until she died, probably twenty years later. She couldn’t take the loneliness anymore, so she filled the bathtub with water, and she was found the next morning.”

“She was able to stay though, your father didn’t let her go out onto the streets?” Frank asked to confirm what his grandfather just said.

“No, she never went onto the streets, she lived in the mansion until her death. I remember that day well though. I was a mere boy, eight years old, when that happened. My mother, she cried over the woman. My father didn’t understand how she could do it, so they laid her down to rest.”

“What happened to Mr. Mason?” Frank asked his grandfather after a long silent minute.

“Nobody knows,” he replied, staring at the picture from a hundred years ago. “I personally, hope he died. The bastard didn’t deserve to live after what he put poor Ms. Veronica through. You know the worst part of his betrayal?” After Frank shook his head, his grandfather continued. “The woman he ran away with was a dear friend to Ms. Veronica, and it happened just barely a year after the death of her parents.”

“A year after the death of Veronica’s parents?” Frank asked, stunned. “That son of a bitch deserves to rot in hell.” He muttered. The elder Frank nodded his head, now seemingly lost in thought.

“Oh, so, Mikey, Gerard, Ray and I are all going to stay here for the night, is that okay with you?”

“Perfectly fine with me nipote.” Frank nodded at his grandfather and kissed his cheek before going to track down his friends. He found them in what he knew to be the old ballroom.

“Talk to your grandpa?” Gerard asked, spinning around the floor by himself.

“Should I ask?” Frank asked Mikey. Mikey just shrugged and watched his brother with a bemused smile on his face.

“Yeah, I talked to him. Turns out that woman in the picture was the actual owner of the mansion, but her husband gambled it away. He even left her for her best friend a year after both Veronica’s parents died. She stayed in the house, but ended up drowning herself twenty years later.”

“That was kind of pointless,” Gerard muttered, stumbling from an apparent head rush.

“It was, but she was lonely. You have to think, we’re talking over a hundred years ago Gerard. Women wasn’t thought of as a possible equal the way they are now. Her husband left her for another woman, that pretty much butchered her chance of finding someone else. The loneliness was getting to her.”

“You’re talking like you care about what happened to her,” Ray pointed out from the doorway. “I heard enough to be caught up,” he explained as he walked up to the three others. “I get it’s a sad story, but it’s like you said, it was a hundred years ago, it’s over and done with. Nothing can be done about it now.”

“I know,” Frank sighed, scratching his chin. He left the others to chat as he walked to stare out the window. Mikey watched him though, concern in his eyes over his friend. He and Frank were closer in age, being only a few months apart, so they related with each other better.

“So, what are we going to do while we’re here?” Gerard spoke up to Frank. He glanced over at them and shrugged.

“I don’t know, I was thinking about running to the store to get some seeds to start fixing up that greenhouse.”

“Let’s go then, we can get some stuff for the night to just hang out after you’re done.” Mikey said. Ray and Gerard was a few feet in front of them, Mikey looked back to his friend, who was staring into space.

“Frank, this is getting crazy,” He muttered, knowing if Gerard and Ray heard them they would make it worse. “You have to get her out of your head man. You have a fiancé right here and now. You can’t keep obsessing over a woman from a hundred years ago. Damn it Frank, tomorrow is the new year, 2010. Don’t start it off like this.”

“I’m trying Mikey, I just, I can’t get her out of my head.”

“Try harder, you know Jamia, she can sense this stuff, and she’ll leave you if she thinks your cheating on her.”

“Well, I’m not cheating, I just can’t get a dead woman out of my mind.” Frank replied, his voice laced with sarcasm.

“I’m just trying to help you out man.” Mikey said, stopping Frank with his hand. “There are so many people who get so caught up in the past, they forget to live in the here and now. You can’t be like them Frank, you’ll go insane.”

“I know, I’m trying Mikey I really am,” Frank sighed. Mikey continued walking down the hallway, realizing that Gerard and Ray had stopped at the end of the hall.

“You two coming?” Gerard asked.

“We’re here aren’t we?” Mikey answered his brother when they reached him.

“Let’s get going then,” Ray said, continuing down the hall. Frank followed them, knowing he had to get the woman out of his head, but not really knowing how.
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~1909~
“Darling, some of the guests started to arrive,” Veronica informed Nicholas later that evening.

“I will be down to greet them with you in a moment love,” he said, smiling up at her. It was the same smile she was growing accustomed to though, the one that didn’t reach his eyes.

“Okay, just whenever you’re ready,” she said, walking back down the hallway. She smiled warmly at the elderly man walking up to her. He was a friend of her fathers for many years. Whenever she seen the man, it was like seeing an uncle that she hadn’t seen in a long time.

“Maxwell,” she said, grabbing the man’s hands and kissing his cheek.

“Nicky, darling, how are you this evening?” Maxwell asked her, holding her out at arms length. “It’s been too long.”

“Way too long,” Nicky agreed. “I have been doing well, how about yourself?”

“Never been better,” Maxwell replied, releasing her hands. “So, tell me, should I be expecting the same celebrations as before?”

“I’ll try not to disappoint you Maxwell, however, it was rather difficult being this is the first celebration to take place since my parents passing. I hope that I meet your approval.”

“I’m sure you will my dear, as they say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Nicky smiled at the man and bid him farewell as Sampson escorted him to his room for the evening. Nicky said hello to numerous others, and by the time the party was to start, she was in her room getting dressed. Mally was there to help her with her corset and hair.

“You look lovely,” Mally sighed as Nicky took in her appearance. She looked over at Mally and smiled. “’Tis the start of a new decade Mal,” she said, looking through her wardrobe. “I do believe a little change is in order for the evening.” She held up a stunning red dress and another corset for Mally. Mally’s eyes grew wide as she realized what Nicky was planning.

“Ms. Nicky, surely you are jesting,” Mally said with a slightly nervous laugh.

“Never,” Veronica replied. She helped Mally with the corset and dress, and quickly did her friends hair.

“Simply exquisite,” Veronica commented to the woman. Mally blushed slightly and they walked to the ballroom together. Nicholas was waiting for Veronica by the door, so together, they made their grand entrance.