Julie, could you please pinch me—hard? I’m convinced I’m dreaming!
Julie complied, her pinch eliciting a surprised squeak from Amanda. The two girls sat in the dim hallway, their shadows stretching along the old wooden floor. They had slipped away from the drawing-room unnoticed, leaving the extraordinary reunion inside to unfold without their intrusion. The excitement and disbelief from the moment seemed to cling to them, making it hard to process what they had just witnessed.
“I’m still trying to wrap my head around this,” Amanda began, her voice tinged with confusion. “He’s supposed to be dead!”
“Well, clearly he’s not,” Julie replied, her voice trembling with a mix of relief and excitement. “Otherwise, he wouldn’t be here right now. I’m thrilled it worked out—though I hardly dared to hope it would.”
Amanda stared at Julie, her brows knitting together. “Julie Kenway, what on earth are you talking about? You sound like you’re losing it!”
Julie sighed, frustration edging her voice. “You don’t understand, and it’s partly your fault. I wanted to explain everything, but you were so infuriating last night that I just went home and thought things through myself.”
Amanda’s confusion deepened. “Well, I might be slow, but I really can’t make sense of what you’re saying.”
“Listen carefully,” Julie said, leaning in as though to share a secret. “Last night, while you were glaring daggers at me, I was skimming the newspaper and noticed a small article about a passenger on the Campania—Mr. Fairfax Collingwood, who had just arrived from abroad. The article mentioned he was involved in Western and Australian gold mines and had not been in the East for nearly forty years. I nearly jumped out of my seat when I read his name. It’s such a rare name; I couldn’t believe there’d be another with it. Especially since our Fairfax Collingwood was reported dead.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Amanda’s eyes widened as she listened. “So what did you do?”
“I went home, and after hours of mulling it over, it hit me that there might have been a mix-up. What if he wasn’t actually killed in the war? What if there was a mistake, and he’d never had the chance to clear things up with his mother?” Julie’s voice grew more animated. “The article said he hadn’t been back East for forty years. I thought maybe he had left that note and given up hope when he didn’t hear back from her. He probably thought she didn’t want to reconcile, so he stayed away.”
Amanda’s astonishment grew. “So what did you do?”
“I decided to write to him,” Julie continued. “I didn’t want him to think his mother had rejected him all these years. So I penned a note saying she never saw his letter. I sent it to his hotel, hoping it would reach him before he left. It was almost ten o’clock, and I didn’t want my parents to know, so I had Anne run it to the post office.”
Amanda shook her head in disbelief. “And to think that each of us—me writing to the mother and you to the son—without even knowing what the other was doing!”
Julie nodded. “I’m amazed too. But there are still things that don’t add up. For one, why did he come in using the name Arthur Calthorpe? And why didn’t I recognize him immediately?”
Amanda looked puzzled. “You thought he’d come straight to South Carolina, not to this house. But why was he so different from how you imagined him?”
Julie frowned. “I always pictured Fairfax Collingwood as young and golden-haired, like the description Aunt Lucia gave. Seeing him as an older man threw me off completely. I didn’t expect him to look like this after forty years.”
“Why—” Amanda started to ask, but Julie cut her off.
“Let’s not try to figure everything out now,” Julie said, rubbing her temples. “My mind is spinning with all these revelations. I think he’ll clear up the confusion. For now, let’s wait.”
Faint sounds filtered through the closed door—the murmur of voices and the occasional soft sob. Inside, the long-separated mother and son were reconnecting, bridging the gap of forty years. Outside, Julie and Amanda remained in the quiet darkness, their minds whirling with the magnitude of what had just happened.