Chapter 2

I flipped to the next page and it had the loopy handwriting of a quill pen that looks like it has been dried for years. Strange thing is, quill pens here, are expensive. I can understand if my mother bought a neat notebook like this, but quill pens.

I thought, 'Didn't Mom said she was an orphan and her parents were dead." I thought, 'So then, how did she get the money to buy expensive ink and a pen like this?' I knew someone in school, Viscountess Margaret Astor, her parents were part of the nobility, so she could buy these expensive fountain pens.

I went to a private school and it cost a lot. I was begging my mother just to put me in a public school but she said, "Only the best for my daughter." I was irate for that answer and thought she was delusional.

I thought, 'What best? We're literally downright broke.' My only friend, Countess Mary Bowes, said in that refined british voice they were taught since kindergarten, "Emma Jenkinson, it's strange that you share the same last name as my next door, Selina Charlotte Jenkinson." I grimaced and just flipped to the page. 

Written in loopy handwriting was:

Dear Mary Selina Jenkinson:

It's Mare, the other half of you. We both met a beautiful guy today. We met Jane, the daughter, the daughter of Baron Carew. Ah, Jane. Sweet, amazing, tomboy Jane, who bought us to the pier and played matchmaker. What happened was that we were at the pier and suddenly, an angel walked by.

Blonde hair like golden thread and innocent blue eyes, he really looked like an angel. Jane looked at me and said, "Amanda, stop looking like you want to eat him." Ugh, Jane and her vulgar slangs. Jane and her sense to my sensibility. Jane and her want for independence.

I said, "No, I'm not." Jane said, "Yeah, that's like me saying I will quit smoking like a chimmney." She then pushed me to him and ran off. You thought, 'Oh god forbid, what the hell, Jane Carew.'

I said, "Hi." The guy said, "Friend of yours?" I nodded and said, "You seem new to Scotland." I raised his eyebrow and said, "That's because I am, I'm a scholarship student to Gordonstoun."

You thought, 'Well, goodness gracious, of course he would 't be at town, Mare.' I smiled and said, "Nice to meet you, name's Mary Selina Jenkinson." The guy looked at me and whispered to his friend. His friend snickered and the guy said, "Name's Nathaniel." I grabbed his hand and asked, "Would you like my number?" You thought, 'Just stop, Mare.'

Nathaniel laughed and said, "Okay." He passed my number and you were celebrating. I just said, "Nice to meet you, I'm also a student at Gordonstoun." He raised his eyebrow and looked at his friend, his friend broke into laughter. I just rolled my eyes and left.

Yours sincerely,

Mare, the funner side of the future countess.

I thought, 'This whole entire diary is a pathetic…' I was interrupted by my doorbell ringing. I opened the door, thinking how am I going to tell the people representing the foster care system that I have not packed up.

I opened and saw a brunette woman with brown eyes wearing a gown, a gown that I have seen the nobility wear. She said, "Hello, Emma." I retracted a step until she showed me a ring with the arms of the Cary family. 

I collapsed on the floor and ran into the kitchen. She said, "Emma, Emma Jenkinson, as the Viscountess of the Cary family, I'm telling you to calm down and listen to what I have to say."

I took the knife and said, "Stay five meters away from me and answer me honestly, how do you know me?" This is not real. How would the viscountess of such a powerful family know my name?

The viscountess breathed a sigh and said, "My name's Jane Cary (nee. Carew), I was your mother's best friend." I gave out a shaky breath and said, "My mother never talked about a Jane Cary/Carew, why didn't you help her?"

The viscountess said, "Emma, I know this is a lot to take in but you need to know something, your grandmother is looking for you and-." I said, "These are lies, y-you're telling me my grandmother is alive and you're my mother's best friend, well news flash, my grandmother is dead."

The viscountess sighed and said, "Okay, Emma, then what is that ring around your neck? Your mother always wore that ring." I said, "I-I thought she bought it off an antique shop."

The viscountess said, "Listen, Emma, I know this is a lot to take in but your mom's part of the nobility, why do you think she send you to Gordonstoun despite barely making by, I'm sorry I didn't help her, I just got the news she 's dead, my best friend who cut herself off from the nobility despite wanting to be a part of it more than me, gosh, Nathaniel, why the hell."

I took a shaky breath and said, "I need to think about moving in with my grandmother, please give me a day." The viscountess nodded and left, then it just dawned on me, that woman was Jane Carew from the diary, but she was not.

Jane was described as lively and cheerful, but this woman was not her, she was poised and well-spoken. That made me more curious. If what Jane and my mother was saying was true, then, Nathaniel could be my father.

I needed to know why Jane changed her personality. How this woman became who she became. She was not how my mother wrote her. I then turned to the next page, I needed answers.

Whatever that woman, the viscountess, Jane Cary, is saying is not giving me any fuel to why she and my father divorced. I need to find the truth so I kept on reading that diary.