VICKY

Looking around, I was enchanted by the décor that surrounded me. Late Victorian in design and colour, I could almost hear the late actresses singing in their beautiful flowing dresses, in full make-up and acting as they sang. Standing at the front of the stage, it was amazing to see how large this old building was. The auditorium could sit two thousand people. Even the seats still looked late Victorian and the lamps still had their original glass shades, but surely now electricity had been installed.

I looked at the keys in my left hand and the letter in my right hand amazed. My grandmother, on my mother's side, had left me this Theatre in her will. I was amazed because I had never met this unique lady guessing she had died some years earlier, my mother rarely mentioned her. Yet here I was, standing in this beautiful old Theatre which was now my Inheritance. What would I do with an old Victorian Theatre?

My mind wondered within this unique building and as it did, I began to walk around. The stage seemed huge with three trap doors. Surely a stage only needs one? The auditorium still felt brand new. The carpet was hardly touched and there were no stains of any kind, stains you would expect to see inside such an old Theatre. Even the lamp shades seemed untouched, incredibly clean with no soot marks you would expect to see from old used Victorian lamps. Even from the outside, this building did not look like a Theatre. As I drove up and parked outside, I had to look twice at the address in the letter. From the outside, the building looked like a Victorian house with windows showing three floors.

Opening the front door, I walked down a narrow passage with walls covered in wallpaper decorated with exotic birds of every colour. About twenty paces forward I came to a velvet red curtain which, when held to one side, led me to the stage. This was the large Victorian house, which inside, was this magnificent old Theatre.

Looking up, the balcony was carved skillfully in gold wood in the shapes of birds. It was exquisite and I couldn't help admiring my grandmother's taste in design. The colour scheme was typically Victorian with deep purple carpet, cerise velvet chairs and the walls were covered in the same wallpaper decorated with birds. Looking to the left and right of the auditorium, I noticed two doors on each side and started walking towards the first door. I was now facing the stage having done a full turn looking for another main door. But there was only two staircases up to the balcony and walls right at the back of the auditorium. No front or back foyers. This was an unusual Theatre. Beautiful but with a very strange character.

Facing the stage, I turned to open the first of the four gigantic oak doors, which was on my right. I walked into, what looked like, a massive parlour room only it had a bed at the back on the right side as I walked in. I saw a bed, a beautifully large wardrobe with a built in dressing-table and an en-suite bathroom, very dated but beautifully clean, almost untouched. There were two parlour chairs next to, what can only be described as, a gentle bookcase made of mahogany wood, full of Shakespearean books and original manuscripts, perhaps my grandmother's work. I was looking forward to discovering what was inside them. The décor was the same as the auditorium. Deep purple carpet, cerise velvet chairs and bed covering, the wardrobe and dressing-table was mahogany wood like the bookcase. The bathroom had a ceramic toilet and sink and bath all decorated the same, ceramic cerise with purple birds. But where were the windows? I could only see the same wallpaper decorated in birds with the same lamps. Is this where my grandmother slept? Or was she a great actress and this was her star dressing-room?

I wanted to discover more about this inheritance but my curiosity would have to wait for another time. Looking at my watch, time had got away from me and I had to get going. Owning my own business within the fashion world, I had half an hour to get to a meeting about the latest fashion show. Walking through the auditorium onto the stage, I went past the red curtain and locked the front door behind me. Sitting in the car before driving off, I had a thousand questions. But who could answer them now? Both my mother and grandmother were dead! Looking at the Victorian house, I wondered if I would find some of the answers inside.

The following Sunday, I returned to the Victorian theatre wanting to find out more about my grandmother. I turned my phone off and went straight into the first room again, the room which looked like my grandmother’s dressing-room (if it was hers, if she was a great actress). Opening the wardrobe, I found the most beautiful, old Victorian dresses and seeing them in real life, in their own colours, was a beautiful experience. I just knew that I had to photograph them all one day and catalogue them --- these were mine! Going over to the ‘gentle bookcase’, I saw a locked drawer. Looking over the keys, I tried about three before I found the right one to unlock the drawer. It was a small key with a black cover to it. Carefully I opened the drawer, hoping it wouldn’t fall apart from woodworm, but like the rest of the theatre, it seemed to be brand new. What I saw blew my mind away and I had to sit down. The drawer was full of dollars, all in tidy piles with rubber bands around them and a little, black, pocket-size notebook in the middle of the drawer, laying on the top of the dollars. Carefully, I picked up the book and saw that it was a moleskine notebook, beautiful to the touch, with an almost leather-look to it. I opened the book. “To my granddaughter, Vicky, this money is for you,” and my grandmother proceeded to explain the reason behind this generous gift. The book was her life story, when she was born, where she worked and so on. I sat and read with interest as I hardly knew anything about Victoria, my grandmother. When she was about 13 years of age, Victoria had gone to work for a Lord Montague as a maid. It was a big house and she really should never have come in contact with the Lord, but one day she was late doing one of her chores, and she ‘bumped’ into the Lord. He fell in love with her and over time, my grandmother became pregnant by this Lord. He took care of Victoria, making sure she was good for money and making sure that she married, because back then it was ‘shameful’ to be pregnant and not married. It seemed a shame to me that the Lord would not marry my grandmother but they were different ‘classes’ and came from different backgrounds. Victoria explained that the money had come from Lord Montegue and she wanted me to have it “to have a good life.”

I was nervous to pick up the money, but noticed that it was all in today’s money. Shaking, I started to count the dollars --- one, two, and three ---. I don’t know how long it took me but I counted $20,000 dollars! I nearly fainted, I’d never seen so much cash before. I was used to dealing with large amounts of money, being in business, but not ‘literal’ money. I put the money back in the drawer with the pocket book and locked the drawer. I’m going to have to think seriously about this, how on earth am I going to bank this money? Won’t it look strange, just walking into the bank with a briefcase full of money and handing it over to put into my bank account?

Looking at my watch, I saw that it was lunch time so I decided to go to the café I had passed on my way here. It looked a decent place, selling sandwiches and coffee which is about all I could eat, I didn’t know if I was excited, nervous or just plain terrified. I just did not expect this!

Over lunch, I sat and thought about who was left of my grandmother’s generation I could possibly talk to and even share my money with. There was only my great aunt, Rose, who was my grandmother’s sister. Rose now lived in a nursing home as she had dementia and I go and see her every month, being her only relative (as far as I knew). I planned to go and see her on Wednesday, only this time I will take a picture of grandmother to show Rose, to see if she would recognize her sister. I remembered seeing a beautiful one on the bookcase --- "Victoria" was written in Goth black lettering on the silver frame and she was dressed in a beautiful, Victorian dress. I always love those old photographs, the sepia colour makes them look so original.