CHAPTER FIVE: LADY MATILDA ELIZABETH CRAVEN MAY 1899 TO NOVEMBER 1899

Collin and Mary are more determined to find out more about Collin's sister who died from the Scarlet Fever in November of 1899 at the age of five months old

Collin could not forget that he had a sister who died of the scarlet fever at the age of five months old. He had seen one picture of his mother with his sister that he found up in the attic. He told himself that there must be more pictures of his mother and sister up there. He wondered if Lady Lily had kept a diary as young women did back there of all the important dates of their lives.

 

 

What more important dates could there be but Lady Lily's marriage to his father in 1898, and the birth and death of Lady Matilda in 1899? 

 

 

Collin knew that his mother named his sister after their paternal grand-mother, Lady Matilda Louisa Craven and for  Lady Elizabeth Howard, her matron of honor and the wife of his Uncle David, who was married to Lady Elizabeth.

 

He never knew he even had another first cousin until she showed up and he meant to ask his Uncle Neville why he was never told about his sister nor his Uncle David, Aunt Elizabeth, and first cousin, Lady Elizabeth Craven.

 

Lord Neville walked into the study, and Collin stood up and said, "Why did you never tell me about Uncle David and Cousin Elizabeth and my sister, Lady Matilda?"

 

 

"I did not think it important Collin. Lord David made his choice to marry Lady Elizabeth and turn Catholic.  Our parent's were disappointed with his religious choice." Neville said, "As for Lady Matilda, she died very young, and perhaps I did not think you needed to know about her since you would never know her."

 

 

"Do you really think I care about what religion my first cousin and Uncle have?" Collin said in stern voice, "Fighting over religion is that last thing I want to do.  Everyone has the right to pick out their own religion. I don't believe in everything the Church of England teaches."

"I am content to believe in what I believe in within the Church of England and I go with Mary because she asks me to go otherwise I wouldn't go at all. Oh yes, we will be married at St. Ann's as my late mother and father were." Collin said.

 

"Collin, Lady Matilda Elizabeth was only five months old when she died of the scarlet fever. It hurt me when I was not able to save her just like when I was not able to save your mother after her fall from the tree after she had you." Lord Neville said.

 

 

"Your father forbade us to talk about so many things, and we did as we were asked as he was Lord Craven." Lord Neville said.

"The two things we could not talk about was Lady Lily or your sister, Lady Matilda Elizabeth in the company of your father." Lord Neville said, "I think your father thought I was an incompetent doctor, but I am just a country doctor." Dr. Neville said.

"I thought when you were born it would bring him out of his depression and sense of loss, but it did not.  He refused to stay at Misselthwaite Manor in the spring and summer months and only returned for the bleak autumn and winter months here." Lord Neville said.

"When spring started to come, he would run away from it. I don't know where he would go with his gentleman's gentleman, but sometimes he would go from one European country to another and travel across the continent." Lord Neville said.

 

"When Lord Craven, came home, and you were asleep he would go to your compartment and sit by your bed." Dr. Craven said and behind a curtain is a picture of your late mother. He would draw the curtain open and look at the picture and draw it back again."

 

"Your father's gentleman died and he was by himself, so he would travel by himself to Switzerland to the sanatorium with the hope of getting some of his health restored. Old Mr.  Pitchard was always with him even as a young boy." Dr. Craven said.

 

Martha enters the study and says, "Beg your pardon Lord Craven. It is tea time."

 

"Yes, please place the tea tray on the table and thank you Martha." Collin said and Martha curtseyed and left the study.

 

 

Mary walks over and pours tea for everyone in the study and passes the scones around and sits down and joins Collin and Dr. Craven and asks, " Do you know where My Aunt's wedding dress and veil are up in the attic?"

 

"The wedding dress and veil that Lily wore should be in her Hope Chest in the third compartment wrapped up in  white paper. This would keep it from becoming yellow and keep out the musky smell from the attic." Lord Neville said.

 

"We did not get that far when we were up there. We will return another day and look through my father's trunk and my late mother's Hope Chest. I am hoping to find some more pictures of mother and my sister. Did mother keep a lady's journal?" Collin asks.

 

"Lady Lily kept a lady's journal from 1898 until one day before she fell from the tree. They should be in her Hope Chest but remember she only kept it up for important dates." Lord Neville said.

 

"Your father kept a gentleman's journal, but he rarely kept it up I think there are only a few entrees in it." Lord Neville said.

 

"All I want to know is more about my sister even though she was only five months old when she died. I only saw a picture ofher when she was a baby." Collin said.

 

"There are no other pictures of her unless  she was a baby." Lord Neville said, "She had just learned to crawl when she caught the scarlet fever."

 

"The picture of mother in my compartment is it still there?"  Collin asks.

 

 

 

Lady Lily's portrait in Collin's room at Misselthwaite Manor.

 

Collin got up and said, "I am going to the upstairs to unveil the picture of my late mother who is standing in compartment. I knew it was there, but I never wanted to see it until now."

 

Collin asked Mary to go with him, and together they walked out of the study, into the foyer, and they walked up the stairs together and into his compartment. There was a violet curtain with a golden cord, and he walked over to it and pulled it and the curtains separated and there behind it was a picture of Lady Lily standing outside in her garden.

 

Collin and Mary stood back and Mary said, "Oh Collin, I never really knew how beautiful Aunt Lily was until I saw this portrait of her. She is as beautiful as my late father told me she was."

 

Collin looked at the portrait and said, "I wish I had known her she was taken away from me shortly after my birth. My father blames me for my mother's death along with her garden. I am surprised that he never blamed God."

 

"There is a time to be born and There is a time to die Collin. I know this is what Aunt Lily would have believed." Mary said.

 

"There must be other pictures of my mother and sister." Collin says.

 

"Yes, but not here. They must be up in the attic." Mary says

Collin leaves the portrait of his late mother unveiled and Mary and he walk out of his compartment and into the hallway and back downstairs to the study.

 

"I have seen the portrait of my late mother. She was very beautiful." Collin told his Uncle Neville.

 

"Oh yes, she was the most beautiful young woman in all of Yorkshire, England and how I despised your father for winning her hand in marriage."  Lord Neville said.

 

"You will never get over the fact that my late father won my late mother's hand in marriage." Collin says, "You are really a spoiled sport about it."

 

"I had my profession and I thought that was all I would ever need but when I saw Lady Lily, I  had fallen for herself myself, but it was too late and my brother won her hand in marriage." Lord Neville said.

 

"Even I know that one's profession is not enough to keep one fulfilled and happy." Collin says, " I want to be married to Mary, I want to have a family, and have children and grand children around me."

 

"That is too late for me.  I will never love another woman as much as I loved the Late Lady Lily. She will be the only woman I will ever love." Lord Neville said.

 

"I feel for you uncle but my late mother has been dead for many years now. You can't turn back the clock and undo your past." Collin says.

 

Lord Neville said nothing but drank his tea and Mary quietly picked up her book and started to read it. This was a conversation between Collin and his Uncle Neville, and she did not wish to get involved. It was better that way although Lady Lily had been her paternal aunt.