Chapter Text
Tuesday, January 1st 1901.
The last living member of the Vandernacht family sat slumped on the cold hard bed, head tilted back against the wall, staring at the white tiled ceiling with their broken blue eyes.
She pictured her dear brother Theodore’s face, swimming in her blurry vision in and out of focus, but she forced her aching head to not let the image fade away, leaving her alone in her most needy moments.
‘I’m disappointed in you, Len’
His voice was as crisp and clear as if he was standing in front of her, yet her reply was whispered, so only his ghost, and no others could hear her talking.
‘What else did you want me to do?’
‘Fight back’
The black and white haired woman opened her eyes, not realising she had shut them, and whispered again to her empty surroundings, ‘what am I fighting for if she’s gone.’
She’s gone.
She’s dead.
You killed her.
Lenore Vandernacht stood up and rammed her whole bodyweight at the wall infront of her, her head taking most of the impact, yet as she crumbled to the floor she continued hitting her scalp against the surface, hoping the darkness could claim her with every blow, as her vision became blurry, and her ears ringing.
’Stop that.’
A voice, a low, old, male one, a voice she recognised, but no, no, no she didn’t want to talk to them. She couldn’t talk to them after what she’d done, what she had done to them, how she had doomed and brought sorrow to the rest of their days.
And yet she ceased her fit, facing her head away from the door where she knew they stood, peering through the bars at her, not wanting to see the look of horror on their face, the realisation the person they thought so highly of was a mad, mad, hysterical woman.
‘Leo- . You must tell me, did she know… about all of this?’
‘I don’t think Vandernacht is in a state to answer questions Sir, look at him- he is practically hysterical like a woman-‘ A voice unknown to Lenore scathingly replied.
‘I don’t need your opinion on this Johnson, why don’t you leave me and … just leave us alone.’
‘Understood sir’
‘The key- please’
‘Be careful. I’ll keep an eye out for you, Whitlock.’
The jingle of a key followed by footsteps down the hallway ensued, before silence enveloped the room.
‘Please answer me, you killed her, after all…’
Ira Whitlock pleaded under his breath, eyes transfixed upon the crumpled figure on the floor before he started to open the bars to the cell.
Lenore said nothing, as he drew a stool and sat down, but only before she decided to respond.
‘Mr Whitlock, I have nothing but useless apologies to tell you. Nothing can change what has happened, so I would rather you damn my insane soul for my inexcusable behaviour and sins and let me rot here alone.’
‘I don’t believe you are insane Mr. Vandernacht’
Lenore almost insanely cracked a laugh, despite tears that were flowing down her cheeks, ’The only real Mr. Vandernachts are one rotted, and one as well as, Mr. Whitlock, don’t give me their name, both were far honourable ‘men’ than Leo ever could have been, if he were not simply a delusion of mine.’ She never imagined a day where she would be calling her father a greater person than she was, cold hearted brute that he always had been, but at least he wasn’t a criminal and murderer.
‘Do not call me and my daughter delusional also, but listen…we both… very deeply enjoyed your presence, staying with us, I cannot accept you are that good of an actor to make two perfectly sane people pleasure in the company of a hysterical woman’
‘Do you. Do you even understood what has happened- Mr. Whitlock?! Why are you trying to defend me? The fraud who pretended to be a man to marry your daughter, before she ended up getting her killed, let alone the fact I have done nothing but kill and destroy my whole entire life! I am responsible for the deaths of my only brother, but now…Annabel Lee… ‘ She was near to shrieking now, that’d show him, that’d prove that she was insane, and crazy, and ill, and get him to leave her alone, ’I killed your rare and radiant angel of a daughter, after wooing her with my tragedy, and somehow convincing her to marry me. She would be alive, if I decided to never leave that damned prison of a house like a selfish fool. Do not pity me after all I have done sir. I cannot delude myself any longer. ‘
She did not realise she had stood up and was pointing accusingly at Mr. Whitlock as if he had done something wrong.
He did not react to her words, she observed, he just absorbed them like a sponge, taking in the finality and harshness of them, and not looking at her eyes.
Lenore followed his eye line to her vest, which she saw was soaked in blood. Her wedding suit, soaked in dry crusted blood. The blood of Annabel Lee. The blood of his daughter.
Lenore staggered backwards, hitting the wall once more, as the image of the blood oozing out of her chest plagued her mind, as panic set in her nerves and she started to cry and shake uncontrollably.
She felt large, warm hands pull her forward, Ira Whitlock’s hands, pulling her into a hug.
She was stiff and taken aback, before hugging her could-have-been-father-in-law back.
‘Lenore then, if you would prefer. I want you to understand child, that the death of your brother, was not anything to do with you if a tree fell on you both. Fate handed him death. Not you.’
‘But Theo was only there to save me’ Lenore moved to take out her white handkerchief, before remembering it was nestled in the open chest of Annabel Lee, in a desperate attempt to stop the blood loss.
‘Save you in the same way you saved my daughter.’
‘I never saved Annabel- I-‘
Ira patted her shoulder and walked to the small cell window looking out to the large prison courtyard.
‘I always knew Annabel hated the idea of being married, but what was I to do? Leave my only child to face life alone after I passed? No, I couldn’t bear the thought of it, so I pushed, and I pushed, for her to accept someone’s hand in marriage, to no avail. I only made her hate the prospect more. I was not so much of a fool to not see the sadness in her eyes every passing social season. But the only suitor she did ever lit up to… was you.’
‘You’re judgement was wrong, it would be better for her to be alive with a husband with whom she felt trapped with rather than in a morgue’ Lenore looked down at the floor, slumping onto the stool herself and watching Ira.
‘I am not one to question my faith Miss Vandernacht, but I- I do truly believe you two loved each other. In whatever way that could have been. There was no way the way she acted with you every evening at dinner, was because of your ‘wooing’ or ‘convincing’ or ‘coersion’. I cannot convince myself that that was the case, Leo- Lenore. So yes, I do believe you saved her, saved her from the fate of many women before who have died as nothing…Like my dearest Elizabeth. Annabel looked at you with the same expression she looked at me at our altar.’
A minute passed in silence.
‘So again, I ask you to tell me, Lenore. Did she know, that you, that you were Lenore the whole time?’
The answer came truthfully. Even too truthfully, for the way that it would damn Annabel Lee’s reputation like it would hers. But there was no point protecting her, when she had real angels with her, not frauds of the likes of Lenore Vandernacht.
‘Yes. Of course she knew who I am. From the moment she fainted when she first saw me.’
‘I presumed so much, with such distinctive features as yours.But Lenore, I shan’t reveal to a soul who you are really, I do not believe it will even worsen your situation let alone improve them.’
‘Thank you too much, Sir, if there was a way for me to express my gratitude and well, apology how would it be? I owe you my life, alas I don’t have much a life left to live anyways’
‘You could tell me one thing, Miss Vandernacht. Did you truly love my Annabel? There is nothing that can change the fate of my daughter, but I need to know, in some small way, was it worth it.’
‘I would do anything, anything I possibly could to be dead in place of her, for her to be alive with you right now, because I loved Annabel Lee more than I loved, or will ever be able to love anyone else in the world, and not in the way that any of her other suitors did, I cannot deny. Because there is a part of me that hopes to believe… That Annabel Lee loved-‘
Lenore was cut short as a man in a green uniform burst through the ajar door of the cell, in what seemed to be a state of utmost panic.
‘Ira, we have hope, you must come instantly, right at this moment, NOW! ‘
‘Yes Johnson- tell me as we walk- run- everything’
Ira looked helplessly back at Lenore, clearly hesitant to leave her alone for fear she would resume hitting her face on the wall.
Before he left, he said one thing clinging to the bars as they were being closed
‘Leo Vandernacht, I beg you one thing, do not end your life over this, no good will come from trying to join my daughter in the hereafter. I cannot lose the last person dear to me’
The cell doors were locked, and the lantern in the hall was snuffed out, the only source of light left being the orange glow of the winter sun through the barred window’
She was utterly taken aback by that whole conversation, as if the happenings of the past 10 hours had not been enough to shake her mind and soul.
’-the last person dear to me’
‘-the last person dear to me’
‘-the last person dear to me’
Lenore paced her cell, repeating his words, for surely they could not mean Ira still cared about her, after she tried to elope with his daughter, and killed her doing so. No, but maybe that was it, maybe he only cared for her because he saw that Annabel cared for her, and he wishes not to harm the only person his daughter ever truly loved.
And then, what he said about not ending her life over this- did Mr. Whitlock believe she was likely to commit suicide over this affair- well he wasn’t entirely wrong, because whether death be empty and eternal, or heaven be real, the chance to be reunited with her beautiful fiancée was as tempting as anything to her right now, even if heaven was a impossible feat to achieve .
Maybe it was better than whatever cruel fate awaited her after she would be trialled and sentenced for murder. Femicide. It would be far worse if they found out she was not only that, but a woman in a man’s prison and in a man’s prison uniform.
As 8pm struck the grandfather clock in the hallway of the prison, a woman and a man in white aprons opened her cell, and shackled her arms behind her back, before leading her out of her cell, into a room. While Lenore held her breath, hoping they wouldn’t be able to tell she was in fact a woman, they removed her blood stained clothes until she was only in her undergarments, which hid her body shape quite well, and handed her a plain white trouser and top to wear. She watched mournfully, with wide eyes at the blood stained wedding suit was torn away from her, seeing the last physical remnant of Annabel Lee- her blood, for what she believed the last time.
She caught her reflection in a mirror, not recognising the shaken person standing before her, but only briefly, before she was rammed back into her cell, landing painfully on her bottom, sending shivers down her spine from the nerves in her hips.
She yelped from the immense pain, provoking a guard to rattle her bars and shout at her, but she didn’t listen to whatever incessant comments he had to make, and lay down on her bed, watching her pocket watch, which she had been allowed to keep, until the short handle struck 12 and her wedding day was over.
‘Most botched wedding day in history perhaps,’thought Lenore bitterly, closing it, standing out of bed and watching the window, where she was greeted by the welcoming light of the moon.
She pressed her forehead against the glass and let it cool her overheating forehead, before she realised she was shedding tears again. They fell off her cheeks onto the windowsill like little crystals, blue in the moonlight, with little purple flecs in them……
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Monday, December 23rd 1900
‘Leo? My boy are you quite alright?’
‘Gah-‘ Lenore jumped a little , shaking the table, and looking at Ira, from where her vision had been transfixed at a chain of small shiny blue amethyst crystals embedded in silver around her betrothed’s elegant neck, whom raised a brow at her and fought back a smirk.
‘Y-yes of course, it seemed I must’ve zoned out a bit, a lot to- erm, think about of course, with our wedding approaching so soon- my apologies-‘
‘No need son, as long as you’re not getting cold feet about it’
Lenore was almost livid at this comment, feeling her hair prick up and blood brewing underneath her skin, despite its sarcastic and joking nature and retorted, ‘I would never, in my whole life, even dream of such a thing, not when I,’ she stared at Annabel’s pink eyes almost longingly, and melted instantly ’when I cannot hide the fact I love your daughter so very dearly Sir’
Ira roared with laughter at Annabel choking on a piece of beetroot and broccoli because of Lenore’s bashful flirting, before she swallowed her food and pointed her fork at Lenore, who sat across the table from her. ‘Listen Vandernacht, if you care to display your affections of me, at least do so when I am not going to asphyxiate, unless you want a very cold bride, in the literal sense.’
‘Annie, don’t say such things!’ Lenore retorted across the table, ‘speak not about death during the happiest time of my life if you care for my feelings,’ she was pouting slightly, a sight which Annabel was dearly glad her father hadn’t witnessed, for he was too busy talking ships business with a servant, who had handed him a letter on an update on a new quartet of ships being built for the White Star Line by Harland and Wolff, the same company that built the ship Oceanic, on which Lenore had sailed from New York (Lenore saw Mr Whitlock gesture to herself when talking to the seemingly uninterested servant out of the corner of her eye).
Annabel rolled her eyes.
‘Christmas Eve tomorrow isn’t it!’ Ira exclaimed, looking between his daughter and her fiancé, with apparent childlike joy at the thought.
‘Indeed it is Father, to which I may ask will the…’ Annabel Lee droned off into enquiring about the arrangements of events, and balls, and celebrations to which they would be attending during the festive season.
Her and Lenore had initially agreed to wed on New Years Day of 1901, in a small village 120 kilometres or so North of London, where it would be no problem to board a boat to North France where they were considering settling down more permanently. This bothered Lenore at first, she saw no good reason in leaving Mr.Whitlock alone in England, despite Annie’s protests that Leo’s true identity would be too much at stake.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________-
Sunday, December 22nd 1900
‘I’ve already moved countries and continents for us! I’ve already destroyed enough bridges to get here, and we need not tarnish more, my darling! ‘ Lenore hit her head with her hand in exasperation at Annabel’s arguing.
She walked round and round a rose bush, while Lenore perched clutching her cane, on a statue of a weird looking goblin she claimed looked like Annabel’s previous fiancé.
‘Pet, if I say it’s going to be dangerous for you here, I probably mean it.’
‘Miss Annabel Lee Whitlock, do not pretend you don’t know I know exactly why you don’t want to be here’
‘And what reason is that I will ask you?’ She huffed, hoisting her skirts through a patch of snow towards her, arms crossed.
‘You want to be rid of this place, everything about it, and, apparently, of your father’
‘I wish nothing of the sort! ‘
‘Yes, and I wish to fall off a horse again.’ Lenore took off, walking through an archway into a field of snow, abandoning her cane by the statue, for its lack of use in the icy clouds of fluff that threatened to enter her shoes.
‘Lenore! Pet! Come back! I would rather not get my shoes covered in snow ! My love! Lenore? Leo? PET!’
When Lenore did not stop moving, Annabel hastened after her, ignoring all worry about her shoes, for that was far less than the worry of Lenore and her dodgy hip.
‘Fine! I admit I do want rid of everything about this place’ She shrieked, giving Lenore the answer she knew she would hear, no matter how much or little force it would take.
‘Aha!’ Lenore spun on her heel, surprisingly briskly walking back towards Annabel Lee, who made little to no progress in her trek across the snow no matter how high she lifted her heavy winter skirts.
‘And whats to say that cannot be avoided by, hmmm, lets say, a countryside villa about a half hour train ride from here, courtesy of Vandernacht Railways,’ she smirked ,’that is secluded, maybe near a library, or two if we’re lucky, perhaps… a fancy ballroom, now you have the most excellent dancer in Manhattan at your shoes,’ Lenore smirked yet again, as the blonde shot her two raised brows, for Lenore could dance about as well as a dog on a tightrope could ,’and finally, a bakery. Doesn’t that sound nice Annie, all of that, and no expectations, whatsoever- Or well, that is assuming you want to live, or pretend to live the married life with me, but if not, you’re free to travel the world Annabel Lee.’
’Now we have established this engagement is not only a ruse, Pet, I would love both of those things you know, without the pretending,’ she smiled up at her fiancé, who’s silhouette seemed to be lengthened by the black tophat perched unruly above her messy black and white hair.
‘But alas, I still do really want to live somewhere else Pet, and more so, do not want anyone to recognise you here! Being a Vandernacht brings a lot of attention, even more so than the fact that we are now to be married, and for the majority of people in South England high society be present at our wedding! There will be someone who thinks it fishy, I just have this horrible twisting fear in my gut that I cannot rid myself of that someone will ruin us, and reveal who you really are to, lets say your father, as Lenore. My Lenore’
‘Oh there is no way my father has not heard about this, my liege~’
‘What’
‘Well, logically, if Mr Vandernacht senior, finds out that Mr Vandernacht junior, is in fact, Miss Vandernacht, and the Miss Vandernacht who just so happens to be his last living child, I doubt he would have the courage to out me, for fear of losing his reputation, his honour, his company, his dignity, his sanity, the list goes on and on Annie’
‘My God, how did I overlook this’
‘You? Annabel Lee? Miss something out? My, my, do you happen to be an identity fraudster?’
‘Rich of you to say’ Annabel huffed.
‘Well I arguably know Thaddeus better, and its not wrong of you to assume he would go haywire about this marriage, but anyways, you still didn’t answer my question about wanting to leave your father here alone’
‘Pet, it wasn’t a question it wa-‘
‘Regardless, I need a good answer now I am winning this disagreement’
‘Who said you’re winning-‘
‘Me. Now continue’
‘I hate the man then’
‘Because of him trying to force you into marriage?’
‘Yes’
‘Thats the only reason?’
‘No- well y- no. No, it is not the only reason’
‘I am not denying it is not a valid reason, I feel the same way, and despise that we have both experienced that- especially you though, I had only about three suitors’
‘Three? You’re not even that bad’
‘ ’Not even that bad’, put that in your wedding vows Miss Lee, but I count it lucky.’
‘Indeed, I have had about 300 and more.’ Annabel thought suddenly of the many of her friends who took a slightly too good look at her fiancé, or asked few too many questions about ‘him’ especially before she revealed they were engaged, at which the people generally blushed and tried to hide their feelings of shame. Even people in the streets stared at Lenore as though she were an exotic creature in a zoo, with her height and distinctive features. These instances couldn’t help cause the jealousy in her heart to throb dramatically with apparent overprotectiveness.
Annabel took Lenore’s arm as they walked through the gates of a different garden, this one filled with dead rose plants, frosted white in the snow.
‘Maybe you’re right though Pet, I suppose whatever things he has had to make me do, after losing my mother- he has experienced enough hardship’
Both women’s minds were cast to similar images of Mr. Whitlock alone in his house, passing past portraits of his wife and daughter, peering down at him with soft eyes, and the same tightly curled hair, knowing he would never be able to see either of them until he passes, probably.
‘Ira Whitlock has been kinder to me than my own father ever has, and will, Annie, and only in the last six months staying in this house too. I owe him a lot for welcoming me as not a guest, but a son. I feel we are a very happy family.’
Annabel didn’t find happy the word to describe it completely, but then again, she had been enjoying everything far more than she ever had since before her mother fell ill when she was 7, and her feelings were likely clouded by years of guilt and bitter anger directed at a man who meant no harm, but who just so happened was going to ruin her life by his actions. Lenore had brought their family together, saved them both, and Annabel hadn’t even realised what she had done for her.
‘I shall talk to him tomorrow about having slightly- or even many, less guests at the wedding. Only people who have already met you, and I can filter the rest of the people for who I think is least likely to have been to be a spy for your father’
Lenore bent down, leaning heavily on the Raven-skull-topped-cane, and kissed Annabel’s glove.
‘I do love you Mrs Vandernacht’
‘LEN- LEO!’ Annabel exclaimed, changing the name realising they were extremely close to the servants quarters that backed the Kitchen Garden now.
She turned as purple as the bird berries on the bushes around them, while Lenore roared with laughter in a similar manner to Ira; rocking back and forth on her heels, face pointed at the floor and arms clenched over her stomach.
Annabel watched her with a guilty smile, retook her elbow and entered back into the Rose Garden, head leaning on Lenore’s shoulder as they trudged through the snow.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Monday, December 23rd 1900
Back at the dinner table, Annabel changed the subject to the wedding, enquiring about the guest list to her father, after she promised Lenore the previous day.
‘…only the ones who I think will make the best business connections for Leo, and then of course, your mothers old friends, and my golfing friends, and your great aunt and her children, and maybe also your cousin….’
Annabel sideways glanced at Lenore, worriedly.
‘…Its a shame Leo has no family in England too, otherwise I would invite them, but since I have already sent letters to his Uncle, saying I could provide a fine suite in a ship to travel here for the occasion, I shall have to wait for the reply before I make any commitments.’
‘My Uncle Thaddeus was never one for parties I can’t deny, I don’t expect his presence unfortunately’
‘But-‘
‘Mr. Whitlock, I beg you not to press the man on the matter, if the Uncle Thaddeus I know is not interested in something, his mind about it cannot be changed, besides, him and my aunt lost both of their children in the last four years, I pity them too much to let them be disturbed, we all miss Lenore and Theodore very dearly’
Ira looked a bit disappointed, Lenore knew him and Thaddeus were very good friends, and Ira knew ‘Lenore’ and Annabel had also been good friends, before the young disabled woman had obviously been killed in a fire at the Finger Lakes a few years previously, which Mr Whitlock had pressed Thaddeus Vandernacht to disclose to him, due to the state of Annabel, who went into what could only be described as a grief-struck hibernation after learning of it.
But then Lenore was sitting next to him at his dinner table disguised as the nephew of Thaddeus.
‘Alas, I will expect a letter arriving tomorrow from them, so I will update you on that matter regardless.’
‘I’m looking forward to hearing my dear old Uncle’s reply then’ Lenore cheerfully remarked, taking a bite out of her blackberry pie.
But Annabel Lee noticed how Lenore’s smile didn’t extend to her cold blue eyes.