Dearest Julia:
I can't believe that these five months have seen us (heretofore inseparable!) twins parted, but I'm thrilled that the time for you to return to the states is almost here.
To answer your most recent question, "Yes, I will indeed be on the dock to meet you, and yes, I'll be sure to have a taxi and porter at hand." As to "the spot," I appreciate your sending along that helpful little sketch, but even without I would have had no problem in remembering the 1st Class Embarkation Gate. How could I not, what with my being so disconsolate at your leaving. Indeed, that detestable location is all but etched in my mind.
Anyway, I'm writing you today to tell you "My. Big. News." By all rights I should've shared the entire thing in my very first letter, but being caught up in such an emotional whirlwind I couldn't figure out what to sayâthe whole thing was (and is!) terribly embarrassing, if transcendentally wonderful at the same timeâbut as you can probably guess, procrastination was much to blame. You know how I can be!
With your homecoming less than three weeks away, though, I'd better fess up; if only to give you a chance to mull it all over in private before we're reunited. If you're standing, my dear, I would suggest that you sit down before reading another word. You'll be astounded, in either case, but we wouldn't want to bring on one of your fainting spells, now would we?
To be brief, I met a man, although to begin to understand the significance of it all I should tell you that I call him "daddy."
It's your fault, really. As I said, I was disconsolate when you left me. I managed to keep a stiff upper lip as you walked up the gangway, but as soon as you ducked out of sight, I found myself slumped down onto the concrete; sobbing.
It was your classic New York scene; hundreds of people milling about yet none of them paying the least attention to a distraught and crying girl. That is, I should say, until a handsome older gentleman did just that.
I'm not all that good at relating stories through dialogue, but I'll give it a go in order to try and give you the flavor of it all:
"Are you OK, miss?"
I wasn't, of course, but my British upbringing coming to the fore I couldn't help but try to fob him off. "I'm fine, sir; perfectly fine. I thank you for your kind concern, but..."
"Far be it for I to question the word of a young lady, but I'm going to have to disagree. I don't think I've ever watched a girl bawl so hard. Plus, a filthy quay is no place to alight in that pretty linen dress of yours. I don't doubt the fabric is ruined."
I couldn't help but blushâto judge from the heat that came into my cheeks, blush beet red!âbut even so, I tried to pull myself together and stand. Unfortunately, my heel took that very moment to snap.
The man steadied me before I could totter off the pier, but not before I brushed up against one of the mooring lines; further ruining my dress by smearing it with grease. "You are quite the mess, young lady, plus you've sat in something wet. Are you generally this much of a bother or is this an especially troublesome day?"
His query was smilingly offered; a clear invitation to attempt a bit of self-deprecating humor, and thereby "shrug it all off." Being as miserable as a girl could be, I threw the kind of tantrum that would have done a distraught toddler proud, instead. I don't, in all truth, remember most of what I said, but it surely involved a fair amount of unladylike language. Not cursing, I thinkâAuntie Eunice raised us better than thatâbut even so, she would've been, doubtless, horrified.
I can only imagine what Henry must have thought as I threw my hissy fit but, gentleman that he was, he didn't abandon the (obviously deranged!) girl to her ravings. No, he attempted all sorts of gentle measures to calm me down instead, albeit to no avail.
Before long, I began to hyperventilate; a panic attack given full vent!
Again, given the fact that Henry and I were total strangers, the reasonable thing to do would be to abandon me to my fates; to simply walk away. He didn't, though. Perhaps he was afraid that I'd well and truly throw myself off the pier, or maybe it was nothing more than his lordly upbringingâHenry turned out to be an honest to goodness Peer of the Realm, styled The Right Honorable Lord Ulster-Wallbrace Finister, a bloody Earl who's 8th in line to The Queenâbut whatever the case he stuck by me. Even so, I left the man with no other option but to resort to sterner measures.
A sizable mooring bollard served as a convenient spanking bench.
My first reaction was nothing more than simple outrage. Henry and I were complete and utter strangers, yet he had the temerity to spank me? Yes, my dress was ruined, but why should that be any concern of his. Who was this man anyway? As to his observation that I'd wet my behind, well that pushed all of my unpushed buttons; brought me back to the day when Cynthia Hintsteader played her prank, leaving me to spend the three months leading up to our A-Levels as "Betsy Wetsie".