CHAPTER 29
“Hi Eddy,” Called the soft, sweet voice of a little girl. A broad smile grew across his face. Eddy didn’t have to turn around to see who it was.  
“Hi Rosie,” he sang in reply. Without another word, the petite child sat down next to her big brother.  
Rosalie Mackenzie Poe was the youngest of the three Poe children, and perhaps as a result, the most cheerful. She hadn’t been born yet when their father David abandoned the little family, and she was only an infant when their mother became sick. As a result, Rosalie had been spared the pain of a broken family, the memory of their terminally ill mother coughing up blood, and the endless stream of fans and other mourning strangers who came to pay their last respects to the fallen actress. Unfortunately for Eddy, the somber, indelible memory was all too vivid. 
After her passing, fellow actors, the Ushers [1], fulfilled Eliza Poe’s dying wish to find a good home for each of her three orphaned children. She could not have known that would mean splitting them up. 
When news of this plan reached the children’s grandparents in Baltimore, they were livid. Who were these people -the Ushers- to make custody choices on behalf of the Poe family? Heated letters volleyed back and forth between Richmond and Baltimore, with one side demanding the children live with their grandparents, while the other side insisted that separate, but wealthy homes were the answer for their welfare. 
In the end, two affluent families in Richmond won custody, along with charitable bragging rights. The toddler, Edgar, would go with the Allans, while the baby, Rosalie would live with their good friends the Mackenzies. Only the eldest child, Henry, a month shy of his fifth birthday, was capable of speaking for himself, and requested that he live with his grandparents in Baltimore. Nevertheless, the three siblings managed to remain in touch over the years through letters, but as a result of their long distance relationship with Henry, the relationship had been reduced to little more than a distant familial association.  
Unlike their elder brother, Edgar and Rosalie were in one another’s lives from the beginning. This was due in large part to the close friendship between Frances Allan and Rosie’s adoptive mother, Mrs. Jane MacKenzie. 
Eddy loved his little sister very much, and she worshiped him to no end. Nevertheless, as time and circumstance took their toll, the differences between the siblings grew. 
It had begun to occur to Eddy that his baby sister didn’t seem to be moving beyond her childlike state, even as she began to enter puberty. Where other girls her age were playing dress up in their mother’s gowns, pretending to be debutantes, Rosalie was off in a corner silently rocking a ragdoll. And although she had spent years attending her family’s popular charm school, Miss Mackenzie’s School for Girls [2], her intellect was remedial at best. And while Eddy, on more than one occasion, had gotten into fisticuffs with boys calling Rosalie ‘deficient’, or ‘feeble-minded’, lately he couldn’t help but think they might be onto something. [3]
 “What are you doing out here, Eddy?” she asked, sweetly. 
 “I should ask the same of you, little sister.” Rosie patted down her petticoats bashfully. 
“So, have you heard from Grandmother, or from Henry?” 
 “Henry wrote to us last week. Oh, Eddy- he writes so pretty! I wish I could do cursive.”
 “You will, Rosie. Just practice. What did Henry have to say? How is everyone?” 
 “Good, I guess. He says he and grandmother miss us. Oh Eddy, I wish we could all be together like a real family--”
 “With the same last name…” Edgar’s sarcasm was lost on his sister’s naive ears. 
“Huh?”
“Nevermind.” 
The brother and sister pair sat in peaceful silence together when all of a sudden Rosalie announced, “I think Henry is a pirate.” 
 “What?!”  Edgar laughed aloud, baffled by the strange non sequitur.  
 “Don’t laugh at me, Eddy. Everyone is always laughing at me.”
 Eddy put a tender arm around the little girl. 
“I’m not laughing at you, Rosie. It’s just that there haven’t been pirates for a hundred years, so what on Earth would make you think Henry is one?” 
 “Henry is a pirate,” she insisted. “He said so in his letter. He said he was going to sea. On a ship; he says he is to have a great adventure and that he is bound for the tropics.” 
 “Be that as it may, I assure you Henry is not a pirate.” Still trying to contain his laughter, Eddy recalled his grandfather’s prestigious rank of Assistant Deputy Quartermaster General under the command of General George Washington himself, and realized there might be some truth to Rosalie’s words after all. 
 “Rosie, think hard. Did Henry say anything about joining the navy? The Merchant Marines perhaps? Does that sound familiar?” [4]
Before she could answer, a heavy thud was heard from behind as the double doors to the hall flung open once again. This time a mass of churchgoers began to pour outside. Eddy grabbed his sister, and stood along side the crowd now making their way down the steps. 
 “There you are, dear,” Mrs. Mackenzie said as she took Rosalie by the hand, and whist her away before he could get an answer. 
The river of people continued to flow, heads bobbing as they exited through the double doors. Eddy spotted Ma’s spinster sister, Miss Nancy Valentine, in the crowd.  
 “Eddy, we were looking for you,” she said.  
 “Sorry, I just needed a bit of air.” 
 The Allan, consisting of John, Frances, Aunt Nancy and Eddy, sat cramped in the cabriolet on the way home.  John broke the silence. 
 “I saw you speaking with that Burling boy,” he said. 
Here we go again, Eddy thought.  “Ebenezer is my friend, Pa.”   
 “Oh, sweetheart. Didn’t you get into enough trouble with that boy last summer?” 
“No, Ma. We just went down river to go fishing, and swimming.” 
 “And hunting on private property. Until midnight,” said Pa. “Your Ma was worried sick, and I don’t mind telling you it wasn’t fun cleaning up your mess with the owner.”
Ma looked down as their eyes met. He huffed with incredulity. So it seemed, she didn’t want him to associate with Ebenezer either. Nevertheless, Eddy defended his friend. 
 “Nez, Ebenezer I should say, is a good kid. Frankly, Pa, he’s far more respectable than some of the boys that come from the so-called finest families in town.”
 “Oh, Eddy,” said Frances. “We aren’t blaming the boy. How could we? Its just that- he hasn’t grown up in a proper home. He lives in a tavern, for goodness sake, and he has no father figure to speak of.”
John interrupted. “Edgar, what I think your mother is trying to say is that we think the Burling boy is a bad influence on you. You will not associate with him anymore. Do you understand?” 
“Nez doesn’t live in the tavern, Ma. He lives in the boarding house next door…”
 “— A boarding house,” John corrected. “With sailors, and foreigners, and other dregs of society.”
 “It isn’t his fault where he lives,” Eddy could no longer maintain his composure. “And Mrs. Burling is a business woman. If anyone can appreciate that, it’s you.” 
John scoffed, “Business woman. There’s an oxymoron if ever—” 
 “Of course it isn’t his fault, dear,” Frances interrupted, trying to break the tension. 
“And that poor Mrs. Burling. I’m sure she’s done the best she can all these years. It’s quite sad, really.”
Having once lived in a boarding house with his own single biological mother, Eddy became incensed. 
 “Sad?! It’s commendable is what it is,” he argued. “Mrs. Burling does what she needs to in order to support her family. Besides, they attend our church, so they can’t be that bad off, can they?” Let’s see them debate that right after a liturgy. 
John Allan considered this before the corners of his mouth suddenly curled up. 
“Well, now, you have a point, don’t you? What kind of people would we be if we didn’t try and show the Burling boy some sympathy, isn’t that right Frances? Eddy is doing this boy a courtesy by showing him a life he otherwise would not know. After all, the Allan family is all about charity and generosity to those less fortunate?” 
Eddy wasn’t sure how to respond to the condescending statement. Was Pa trying to be cruel, or was he really that obtuse? While the sting of the insult ran deep, it also provided a conclusion that Eddy could live with, namely that his friendship with Ebenezer  wouldn’t have to be covert over the summer.