The life of Eve De La Cruz

Chapter Fourteen

"Have you seen the boys' haircuts the women are wearing in Paris?" Mary asked.

"I hope you won't try that," Matthew said. Mary looks over at him in surprise and Violet looks curiously between them.

"I might," She responded.

"I'm not sure how feminine it is," Lavinia commented.

"I'm not sure how feminine I am."

"Very, I'm glad to say," Richard told Mary.

"I think it sounds very revolutionary. It's a way for women to express their newfound freedom in this new day and age," Eve said.

"Carson, I keep forgetting to tell Mrs, Hughes we've had a letter from Major Bryant's mother. She and her husband are in Yorkshire on Friday and she wants to pay us a visit," Cora informed him.

"Why?" Robert asked.

"The last time they saw him alive it was here. I can understand," She replied.

"Will they be staying, my lady?" Mr. Carson asked her.

"No, but we'll give them luncheon. That way, they can talk about the Major with all of us who knew him."

Eve noticed that Sybil looks like she was trying to contain her irritation toward the insipid conversation.

"That lets me out, thank heaven," Violet said.

The next day, Sybil, Edith, and Eve were walking through the library with Hera close behind them.

"Doesn't it feel odd to have the rooms back?" Sybil asked.

"And only asked to sit in them. I suppose we'll get used to it," Edith replied.

"I don't want to get used to it," She said.

"What do you mean?" Eve asked.

"I know what it is to work now. To have a full day, to be tired in a good way," Sybil explained, "I don't want to start dress fittings and or paying calls or standing behind the guns."

"I know what you mean. I feel that ever since I lost my memory and I can't go back to being a nurse, my life is not as fulfilling as it was before," She told Sybil.

"But how does one escape all that?" Edith asked her sister.

"I think I've found a way to escape," She replied.

"Nothing too drastic, I hope."

"It is drastic," Sybil told Edith, "There's no going back once I've done it, but that's what I want. No going back."

"I don't want to go back either," Edith said.

"Then don't. You're far nicer than you were before the war, you know."

That night, after Anna had helped Eve get dressed, Eve sat at her desk writing on her typewriter while occasionally reading what she had written before she lost her memory. Suddenly, she heard her Uncle Robert call out to her, her Aunt, and her cousins.

"Mary! Girls!" Robert called, "Cora, come at once."

Eve opened her door before she and Hera followed her cousins, Aunt, Uncle, and Lavinia down the corridor.

"Everyone come at once!" He told them.

"What is it?" Mary asked, "What's happened?"

"Come and see this!" Robert replied as they rushed down the stairs and into the library.

"Is it true? Is it true what Lavinia says?" Robert asked Matthew. Lavinia goes to Matthew and he takes her hand to help himself stand up. The family is stunned with joy.