The Unknowing Heiress

Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

Maggie broke the seal on her mother’s letter and unfolded it eagerly, anxious to read her mother’s voice.

My dear Maggie,

What luck that you found this letter! I wanted to put it in with your stationery but Daddy thought that would be too obvious and you would find it before you even left England. We thought we were being very mysterious and covert by hiding it in the lining of your trunk.

Maggie wiped a tear away, a happy tear though. She could just imagine her parents quarrelling over where to hide her letter.

I hope you are well, my darling. I hope you are safe and happy and are being cared for properly and I hope this journey is everything you wished it to be.

I know your troubles, Maggie, and I know you often believe that we do not understand what it is like to be different. I know you often resent being different. But you are only different to those you do not know you. You are not different to me. You are beautiful to me. I do hope that one day you will cease to pay attention to those small minded people who ignore or talk across you. I look forward to the day that society is so diverse that we will meet folk from different cultures and religions every day.  

I know you accept your father and me as your parents, regardless of your birth, but you cannot stem your curiosity regarding Mr Isaac Lavelle. I would just like you to know that it is alright to have this curiosity. It is alright to wonder about where you came from and what might have been.

Just please do not forget that, no matter what, you will always have a place where you belong and where you fit perfectly. No matter where you go or what you do, your home will always be with us.

So while you are finding yourself, dear girl, we will be missing you, even your brother!

Maggie chuckled at that.

And I know you will miss us as well. I do not know when we shall meet again, but I pray it will not be long.

Godspeed, Maggie.

All my love,

Your Mama.

 

Maggie traced her mother’s words with her fingertip and felt such incredible nostalgia and longing. What she would give to be in her mother and father’s arms. But she had come to America for a reason and that was to get to know her father while viewing her inheritance.

While it had become apparent that Isaac’s intention was to leave the plantation to Zachary as Maggie husband, Isaac was still a very ill man. Could she really leave a dying man, her father, in his hour of need? Her conscience simply would not allow it.

And when he did die, there would be many formalities that she would have to go through to have the plantation put into her name. If she were to leave then Joanna and Zachary would most likely to everything in their power to secure the plantation.

Maggie decided to stay. She would help Isaac in whatever way he needed to remain comfortable, but as soon as she was satisfied that the workers’ futures were ensured and Joanna and Zachary were barred from any controlling role, she would return home to England.

Though she had not heard Zachary’s side of the story, only his aunt’s and Isaac’s. Was he a willing participant? Or was he simply expected to adhere to the wishes of his elders like Maggie was? Perhaps they had something in common in that respect. She needed to speak with him anyway. She needed to tell him that there would be no formal arrangement between them.