Read Online Riverbreeze: Part 1 by Ellen E. Johnson - Free Book Online Page B

care of them since
the day they were born. Six months ago she had been standing by
another window, framed in gold silk damask draperies, that one in
her own bedchamber, in her family’s four-story townhouse in West
Cheap, London, on one of the wealthiest streets where all the other
goldsmiths lived and worked. Six months ago she and her twin sister
had been living lives of privilege, wealth and elegance despite the
recent takeover of London by Oliver Cromwell and a Puritan
Parliament.
    As little girls, they had been treated like
princesses; they had both been tutored by the best tutors, learning
both the arts and academics. They had been equally given everything
their little hearts desired, had been dressed alike in satins,
silks, brocades and laces, and had attended the grandest parties,
always being the center of attention because of their identical
appearance. They had been pampered and spoiled by their indulgent
father, Bernard Tyler, Francis’ younger brother.
    But that life was over now. A new life was
just over the horizon; a new life with a husband she hadn’t even
met yet. But these prophetic dreams always came true; this was the
second one she had had about this man. Who was he? Where was he?
Was she really ready to meet him? She was only seventeen, too
young, she thought, to live without parents, to be sent out into
the world to be a responsible adult and perhaps become a parent
herself within the year.
    Elizabeth went over and over again in her
mind the events of the past six months. Why had their lives taken
such a bad turn? Was it something she and her sister had done
wrong? Had they not been kind enough to everyone they met? Had they
not been humble enough during church services and during morning
and evening prayers? Had they not been generous enough to the
unfortunate and the suffering? Were they being punished for their
love of fine things, music, celebrations, and beauty? Elizabeth and
Evelyn did not follow the strict religion of the Puritans with
their banishment of entertainments and all things beautiful, but
now she worried that maybe they should have changed their
lifestyle. Evelyn, however, had disagreed when they had discussed
this sudden tragedy in their lives. Evelyn had been the strong and
sensible one, assuring Elizabeth that they had done nothing wrong
and that God still loved them. He was not punishing them; He had
not abandoned them. It was just that He had a new plan, and they
must be strong and have faith.
    Elizabeth wanted to believe her sister. She
wanted to feel secure and lighthearted again. But it was so
difficult when all she could think about was what they had lost.
They had lost everything they had ever known, their warm home,
their beloved parents, their friends and their dedicated servants.
And Elizabeth not only grieved for the loss of the people and the
material things, she also grieved for the loss of her beliefs. So
much of what their father had told them had been lies, lies to
shelter them from the truth, lies about their Uncle Francis because
their father had never forgiven him.
    Elizabeth and Evelyn had never known their
Uncle Francis; they had only been two years old when he had gone
away. But they had been told of him by their father and always in
an angry, bitter tone. They had heard stories of their father’s and
uncle’s boyhoods, how they had learned their trade and had worked
side by side with their father in a prosperous goldsmithing
business in London. The twins’ grandfather had been an esteemed
member of the Goldsmith’s Guild assuring the boys’ membership when
they finished their apprenticeships. But when Elizabeth’s and
Evelyn’s grandfather had died sixteen years ago, their Uncle
Francis had wanted something different, something more
exciting.
    The twins had been told how he had been lured
by the promise of free land in the colony of Virginia. They had
even been shown the handbills that were continuously distributed
around the streets of London