Charlotte

I looked at Hellen, then Charles, and then the man called Henry. Hellen froze up. 

Charles weirdly looked at me. 

“P-Page?!” I was freaking out a bit, myself. “As in H-Hellen Page. A-and Charles P-Page? And Philip and Sarah?!” The man simply nodded his head. I just noticed that Hellen hadn't introduced herself with her last name. I looked at Hellen. She was still. She’d looked as if she'd seen a demon. "Well, it is my pleasure to meet you, sir. These are my very American siblings! Helle- I mean Harriet and our brother—er—Char?” The man looked very concerned. “And my last name isn't whatever I said before. I'm Charlotte Jones.” 

Hellen stiffly nodded her head. Charles looked at me even more. He was judging the name I had chosen for him.  

“We have to get back to our mother! At the bakery! Goodbye!” Charles said, clearly concerned at Hellen’s state. I dragged the twins to the bakery leaving Edmund at the mansion. I opened the doors to find my mother sitting on one of the chairs made for the customers. She looked up at the door slowly as if she had lost all hope. The second she realized it was me, she got up from her seat in glee. She pulled me into a hug.  

“You're alive! You’re not dead!” I felt her sob a bit as she spoke. 

“Mother, my arm. Can you let go?” I tapped her shoulder. She had been squeezing my arm a little bit too firmly. She pulled away and wiped a tear.  

“Where were you? You had me worried sick!” 

“It said in the letter. You read it right?” I heard Hellen shift. I looked over at her. She was looking around at the bakery décor as if she’d never been here before. 

“You didn't give me a letter, Charlotte. Charlotte?” I turned my body towards Hellen. 

“You did something!” Hellen continued to look around in a clueless manner. Charles just looked at Hellen for advice. I made eye contact with Charles. It was easier to get answers from him than Hellen.  

“What did she do, Charles?” Charles glanced over to Hellen. She was probably trying to tell him something. “Charles. What did she do?” Charles looked over to Hellen once again. “Fine, you have left me no choice, Charles.” Charles relaxed a bit. Hellen must have done something. “I'm burning all Shakespeare in this bakery, in my house, and in the Mansion.” Charles still didn’t seem intimidated. “In fact, I’ll burn every poem. Every line that Shakespeare has ever even written in this town. Then I will burn you! Then your family! I'll even go all the way to London and burn the Shakespeare that you have kept in that dumb little room of yours!”  

“HELLEN STOLE THE LETTER!” Charles had finally broken. I turned back to Hellen. 

“You what?” Hellen didn’t say a word. “I don’t know if you noticed but that was my goodbye to my family!” I was now yelling at the girl. “IF I DIED NOBODY WOULD KNOW WHERE I WAS! YOU would be to blame!” 

“Charlotte! Don’t you realize that I would have no place in this town if people found out the plan! This is my last hope at a better life!” 

“Your last hope?” Charles joined in. “You’re telling me that you did this all for yourself? Simon died, Hellen! Simon died so that you could live a better life?” 

“That’s not what I—”  

“Hellen, you don’t realize that I didn’t want to leave. I came with you because I knew that YOU needed me by your side. I wasn’t going to leave you to die in a shipwreck. The only reason that we came here was that YOU couldn’t handle knowing that our father betrayed his country. This is all because YOU couldn’t handle the fact that kids around the town would whisper things about you. Terrible things!” 

“Charles I—” Hellen tried to speak. 

“Well, kids already whispered about me, and I have grown to live with it; because of you! All because you can't handle dresses. All because you climb trees and read for fun! I took the blame for EVERYTHING! Our mother is most likely in our house where you once slept, where we were raised. Sobbing! You just had to leave. No goodbye! You just made us leave! And now Simon is DEAD—”  

“CHARLES! I know he’s gone! If I could bring him back I would! I wanted to bring you all here! I wanted you to be happy, Charles!” 

“Please leave.” The volume of Charles’s voice fell. 

“What?” Hellen put her hands against her mouth. Her face was stained with tears. 

“GO.” 

“Charles—”  

“GO BACK TO LONDON! Take Sarah and Philip. Go with Father. Apologize to Mother! Bring Simon back! Try to fix the mess YOU made.” 

“Charles please—”  

“GO! GET OUT OF HERE!” Charles opened the door and shoved the girl out. Charles left through the back door, off into the woods. As he walked away, he turned his head for a split second. I saw tears running down his face. He pulled a miniature book from his vest and left through the wall of trees.