Chapter Text
The Lake Estate
Chapter One: The Mansfield Estate
About 35 years ago, Susan Ward of the North Chicago Suburb of Huntingdon had the good luck to captivate Thomas Bertram, III, of the Village of Mansfield Park, an exclusive North Shore Suburb, and to be thereby raised into the illustrious One Percent, with all its comforts and consequences. She had met Thomas the summer before her senior year of college when she worked a summer job at the Lakes District Country Club. She had two close friends, a set of sisters, who were also employed during the summer by “The Lakes,” as it was called. Linda and Jackie Stevenson worked in the reception office and tennis courts, respectively. Linda was the same age as Susan and Jackie two years their junior. Susan had great plans to find husbands for Linda and Jackie among Thomas’ colleagues at New World Holdings, the private equity fund that Thomas was to inherit from his father, who had inherited it from the original Thomas Bertram. Alas, Linda had married a landscape architect who was employed by a firm that did middling business in the northern Chicago suburbs. Eric Norris had no ambition beyond earning his paycheck and watching his beloved sports teams nights and weekends. They managed to purchase a small home in the Village, and Linda ended up taking employment from Thomas as a “household manager,” as Susan was disinclined to manage the large estate that she had married into. Jackie fell in love with a young sailor, stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Station, and they were quickly married and quickly restationed to Norfolk, Virginia. When Jackie abruptly married Miguel Perez, and then almost immediately departed for Norfolk, it opened a rift between the trio, who had been nearly inseparable for most of their teenage and early adulthood years.
Their homes were so distant, and their lives so distinct, that for a decade and a half, the interaction between the Bertrams/Norrises and the Perezes was limited to the Perezes receiving the annual Christmas letter “brag rag” from the Bertrams, and Linda Norris telling Susan and Thomas, in a clearly irritated way, of any time Jackie gave birth or the Perezes were restationed. By the end of 15 years, Jackie Perez could no longer afford to let this estrangement continue as Miguel had just received word that he had been restationed again, this time to Naval Support Activity Bahrain. In the previous 15 years, with nearly as many base assignments, Jackie Perez had given birth to three children, Francesca “Frannie”, Guillermo “Memo”, and Isabel “Izzy”. Frannie was an extraordinarily bright child and was set to enter high school in the fall. Setting aside all her pride, Jackie called Linda to ask that she take in Frannie, so that she could attend North Lake High School, one of the best public high schools in the state of Illinois. Jackie was intending to homeschool Memo and Izzy while in Bahrain but felt that Frannie had already surpassed her in knowledge. Furthermore, Jackie was hoping that Frannie could spend all four years in one high school. She thoroughly explained to Linda her desires for her eldest child and prayed that Linda would come through. Linda said she had to think it over, and, of course, discuss it with her husband.
As was her custom when it came to important decisions, she spent a considerably greater amount of time discussing it with Susan and Thomas instead of her husband. She thought it would be very noble of her to take on her teenaged niece, and really, she was nothing if not noble. Furthermore, the Bertrams could certainly help with the expense, as they had teenaged daughters who could provide Frannie with hand-me-downs. After all, the Bertram girls’ stuff would still be much nicer than anything Frannie had ever owned. Susan, not being one to tax herself thinking about the lives of others, immediately consented that she thought it an excellent idea.
Thomas Bertram would not so readily consent. He felt that to take her from her family was a serious business, and Linda should be sure that she could provide a better life. He thought of his own four children, Thomas Bertram, IV, “Chip”, who was finishing his sophomore year in college; Edmund, who was finishing his junior year in high school; and the twins, Madison “Maddy” and Jessica “Jess”, who had just finished their freshman year in high school. The Bertram children attended the illustrious Mansfield Park Academy for primary and secondary school, which was the same school that Thomas, III, had attended, as well. The academy had a Bertram wing that housed state-of-the-art classrooms of the type one would see at the top universities. He suggested that Frannie should attend the academy.
“Oh yes, and I am certain she could obtain a scholarship, as her family has no real money to speak of,” Linda nonchalantly asserted.
“There’d be no need for that – we can sponsor her.” Thomas envisioned positive publicity of providing for a Frannie Perez, with family stationed in the middle east. He knew the social media coordinators for both New World Holdings and Mansfield Park Academy would have a field day with the visuals alone.
“Of course. You have always been so generous, Thomas! I will make sure that my niece and her family know how much they owe to you and your generosity. You know, although Jackie is my sister and Frannie my niece, I have always felt closer to your family than those of my own blood. Your children really do you proud, and I feel that I cannot stop bragging about them wherever I go. And it’s no surprise, as you’ve been excellent parents,” Linda said to both the couple, but really intending it only for the patriarch, who was also the only of the two actually paying attention. Susan was idly scrolling on her phone at this point, with her constant companion, a beloved Pug who she had creatively named “Pug”, napped in her lap.
Linda Norris certainly did feel that way about the Bertram children. Before Chip’s birth, Linda had been more of a personal assistant to Thomas. Susan was disinclined to deal with the staff that maintenance of the Bertram familial home, the Mansfield Estate, required, but Linda took it all on with an eye for efficiency. Although Thomas had never asked her to help keep costs down, Linda threw her whole self behind that very goal. After the children were born, Linda also coordinated nannies and school and sports and enrichment activities. She felt especially connected to the twin daughters, and there were often times that coaches and teachers mistook her for the mother instead of Susan.
Linda was about to leave, when she was struck by an idea. “Thomas, Susan – I have a thought. I know you are already showing this girl an exceeding amount of generosity, but perhaps she should live with you as well. I’ll take responsibility for her, but as I spend so much of my time here, I can almost keep a better eye on her if she’s here with your children. Plus, she’ll have Maddy and Jess to provide guidance. She’ll need their help in getting established in a new home and educational situation. She’s spent her life moving from school to school as her father has been stationed in so many different places. She’ll need good examples of how to behave at Mansfield Park – a setting that will be so foreign to her. Obviously, she’ll know that she’s living off your charity and if she’s causing any problems for your family, I’ll remove her from your household.”
Thomas thought about this. “I don’t know how I feel about bringing a 14-year-old girl into the house, what with two young men in the household.”
“Nonsense, Thomas! Chip is off at college and Edmund has no time in his busy senior schedule to pay any mind to some new freshman girl, even if she’s living under your roof.” Linda was also thinking that Chip would be more interested in a Frank Perez than a Frannie Perez, but she didn’t think that need be said.
Susan, who surprisingly was paying attention, piped in for the first time in a while with, “I think it would be lovely for the girls to have another young person in the house.” In the rare times that Susan was being introspective, she would think that her daughters had such a different childhood from her own. The Mansfield Estate spanned five acres of lakefront property on Lake Michigan. It had been built for the 19th century industrialist William Murray Mansfield, who had lost his Old Settlers mansion in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. He had decided to build an estate modeled on an English manor home 25 miles north of Downtown Chicago. The original Thomas Bertram purchased the estate from the Mansfield family in the 1960s and had poured an enormous amount of money into restoring it to its original glory. Thomas Bertram, Jr.’s contribution to the estate had been converting the stables into a three-bedroom guest house, and Thomas Bertram, III, added an Olympic pool with a modern pool house that also included a studio for guests.
“I suppose we could provide a home for her here,” Thomas said with a sigh, mainly because he was struck that his wife gave an opinion at all. “But I reserve the right to ask that she move in with you, Linda, if she starts to give us any trouble at all.”
“Oh of course, Thomas, I wouldn’t think otherwise.”
And with that, Linda had accomplished her good deed to her sister, and at no real hardship to herself. She drove back to her home in the Village exceedingly pleased with herself.