Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon but I wish I owned Mamo-chan. -=sighs sadly=-

Email Addy: SailrPhnx@aol.com or UtenaStar@aol.com

Rated: PG
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by Sailor Phoenix

Part Six

    After that both women watched the shore as the boat made its way out into the bay and headed towards Crystal Island. White gulls as well as grey ones swooped down and chattered and the waters looked like Indian ink under the summer sky.

    Serenity was entranced by the sight of the receding city. There was no evidence of the towering steel-and glass skyline of her time... and wagons and carriages moved through the streets instead of automobiles.

    She smiled. "It's just like a movie," she said.

    Luna frowned. "What?"

    Serenity patted Luna's hand. "I'll explain later," she promised.

    After an hour's journey, the boat docked at Crystal Island. There, another carriage waited the Alessandros party, along with two wagons for hauling their trunks.

    Serenity was fascinated by the island as she had been by the city. As they drove through a small cluster of buildings, she spotted a merchantile... a blacksmith's shop... and a lovely lighthouse formed of natural stones. For her, this new world had become a hands-on museum.

    The Alessandros' summer house, which overlooked the ocean, turned out to be just as beautiful as the mansion.

    It was an enormous white framed house that seemed to come out of a "Gone With the Wind" type novel with its massive columns and porch. There were roses everywhere, along with benches, arbors, fountains, and two rows of graceful weeping willow trees that lined the path to the house like an hour guard.

    Although Serenity was not happy to be in exile, she could not help but be charmed by the magnificent house. Just looking at the place made her feel as if she had come home that it brought tears to her eyes.

    She sniffed. "It's lovely," she said.

    Raye hadn't even glanced out the carriage window. "You've been behaving rather odd of late, Serenity. You speak as though you have never seen Rose Myst, and you were married here!"

    Serenity glanced over helplessly at her sister-in-law. There was simply nothing she could say that wouldn't land her in a nineteenth century nuthouse.

    If Raye only knew how many things she couldn't "remember", Serenity thought. What happened to Endymion and Raye's parents? For that matter, what had happened to Serenity's? Had the other Serenity brothers and sisters or was she an only child? Why was a beautiful woman like Raye unmarried?

    The questions were never ending, and Serenity hoped that the letters and the diaries that Luna brought would shed some answers.

    As the carriage wheels rattled on the brick cobblestone driveway, Selenity stirred in Luna's arms and began to fuss. Serenity reached for her, astonished by the depth of love she felt. She was another woman's child, concieved and nurtured by the light of a stranger's soul, and yet she could not help but fiercely devoted to her as if she were her own.

    "There now," she said softly, holding the infant against her shoulder and patting her tiny, flannel-swaddled back. "We're home."

    The inside of the house was as beautiful as the outside, and of the same gracious design. The rooms were all large and bright, filled with solid beautifully constructed furniture, but the pieces didn't loom oppressively over Serenity's head the way some of their counterparts as the mansion did.

    There was a screened porch overlooking the orchard and, beyond that, the indigo water. Serenity intended to spend a great deal of her time in that quiet, sheltered place, working out things in her mind.

    Her trunks were carried to the master suite, which turned out to be the chambers boasting the eight-sided stained-glass window. The suite offered both sitting room and dressing room, and the floor was of bare wood, polished to a high shine. There was a small fireplace, fronted in gray and white marble, and the mantelpiece was fashioned of wood so shiny and dark that it resembled ebony.

    "There's been a mistake," Serenity confided anxiously to Raye. Selenity had been fed, and Luna had taken her to the nursery across the hall, and Raye was supervising the placement of Serenity's trunks.

    "What kind of mistake?" Raye asked as John, the caretaker, and Victor, his helper from the stables, left the room.

     Serenity went to close the door, and the color was high in her cheeks when she replied," This is surely Endy's room. You know he and I don't share rooms..."

    "More's the pity," Raye reflected. "It would be better for the both of you."

    Serenity was impatient. "I think I should have my things moved to another room."

    "Poppycock," Raye returned airily. "Endy is not God, however he may protest to contrary; he has no right to hand down decrees. Besides, we probably won't see him until we return to San Fransciso in September anyway."

    "September?" Serenity loved the island, as little as she'd seen it, but the idea of not having so much as a glimpse of Endymion for three long months was practically unbearable.

    Raye sighed, spread her hands for a moment, then let them fall back to her sides. "You've finally fallen in love with your husband, haven't you?" she demanded with kindly frankness. "Forgive me for asking, Serenity, but what took you so long? Couldn't you have recognized your tender feelings before you humiliate the man in front of half the city of San Fransciso?"

    Serenity detected no hostility in Raye's words, only honest puzzlement. "I can't explain," she said, stepping through the French doors that opened onto the terrace. "At least, not yet. But yes, the Gods help me, I think I've fallen in love with Endy. I would practically do anything to win him back."

    Raye stood beside her at the railing of the terrace, and the two of them watched the sunlight dancing on the sound and the pale gulls soaring over the tops of the apple trees in the orchard. "I would like to see that happen," she said with a gently forboding, "for your sake as well as the sake of Selenity and Endymion. But the way you flaunted your--flirtation--with Seiya Lights, well, that kind of disgrace isn't easy for a man to live down."

    Serenity swallowed, and she didn't look at Raye when she went on. She didn't dare. "Suppose I told you I don't remember everything that happened to me before Selenity's birth? No wedding, no adultery, no anything. Would you believe me?"

    "I would be concerned," Raye replied gently.

    Serenity met Raye's gaze and knew she couldn't tell her more, not now. "You're so beautiful, Raye. Why haven't you married or even started a family of your own?"

    Raye's flawless skin paled slightly, and her mouth tightened almost--imperceptibly-- not with anger, Serenity noted, but with pain. "You really don't remember," she said. "Serenity, I was engaged to Jedite Silverman, the vice president of Silverman Jewelers. He was shot and killed just a day before our wedding."

    "Oh Gods," Serenity whispered, sagging against the railing. "Raye, I am so sorry."

    Raye looked more concerned with Serenity's state of health then her own tragedy. She took her sister- in-law's arm and escorted her firmly back inside the room. "Endymion should be told about this--this memory lapse of yours. It might make a difference." As she spoke, Raye was maneuvering Serenity onto the big bed and covered her with a creamy cashmere throw.

    Serenity shook her head. "None at all," she said. "He would think I was pretending, in effort to escape the consequences of Sere--of my mistakes."

    Raye left then, and Serenity slept for several hours. When she awakened, a lavender hatbox had materialized on her nightstand, like something left by Santa or the Easter Bunny. Serenity sat up, smoothed her hair, and set the box on her lap.

    It was filled with scented vellum letters, and there were sepia photographs and two thick leather-bound journals as well. Serenity started with the letters, which were mostly from school friends and family members back East. From the collection of mail, she learned that the other Serenity had been raised by a wealthy maiden aunt in Charleston. She'd gone to boarding school in Pennsylvania from first to twelfth grade, then attended a Boston finishing school.

    The photographs showed Serenity standing with Endymion, smiling brightly, and the two looked blissfully happy. How could things had been so perfect suddenly go wrong?

    Serenity leaned back against the carved mahogany headboard for a long time, staring at empty fireplace and assimilating what she'd garnered from the first dozen letters. Only after Mrs Stevens, the housekeeper, had brought her tea and fresh strawberries did she tackle the rest.

    It was strange, examining the images of another person's life, seeing her hopes and dreams reflected back in the handwriting of an elderly aunt, an understanding friend, a cousin. Even though Serenity learned a lot about the other Serenity in those leisurely hours of reading, the questions multiplied even faster than the answers.

    The journals awaited her, promising the most intimate insights of all, but Serenity's mind was already spinning with details. She would save the diaries for another day.

    At dinner that night Serenity was preoccupied, pretty much letting Raye carry the conversation. Her predecessor had been flighty and somewhat selfish creature, and very spoiled despite her isolation from her family. She must have been a lonely child, though privileged, starved for love and attention.

    The next day Serenity rose early. She saw to Selenity's needs, then left her with Luna and went for a walk, carrying one of the journals with her. Following a winding path down through the orchard, she heard the low, summery murmur of the tide, and the sound stirred some long-dormant hope within her.

    Serenity waslked along the shoreline, delighting in the sights and sounds, and smells, the wet, rocky sand, the water-beaten pilings and swaying boat docks. She came upon a bed of oysters, stopping to speculate, one hand shading her eyes from the morning sun, as to whether any of the hoary shells contained a pearl.

    When she began to feel tired she returned to the orchard, found a tree with a low, sturdy branch and a clear view of the water, and climbed. Once settled, her cumbersome skirts tucked in around her, she pulled the first journal from her pocket and started reading.

    The diary's author, whom Serenity now thought of as Serenity the First, had visited San Fransciso after sailing from Oregon to Japan and back again. She'd met Dr Endymion Alessandros at a party and deemed him "handsome, if dreadfully serious." She'd also recorded that he'd inherited a fortune from his father, who'd been the first gold rush barons in the area, a fact that apparently redeemed him a little for practicing the humble profession of medicine.

    As Serenity read, her legs dangled from the tree branch, one shoulder resting on its trunk, she confirmed her earlier suspicions. Endymion's young bride had not been a wicked vamp, bent on shaming her husband in the eyes of the world, but confused, lonely child. She'd needed everyone's love and attention, not just her husband's. When people failed to notice her, she'd written, she felt as though she were invisible and sometimes even began to doubt her existence. Often, she'd sunk into "black melancholia" and sincerely wished she'd never been born.

    Her name came tumbling toward her on a warm, salty breeze. "Serenity! Seeere!"

    It was Raye.

    Serenity closed the journal, tucked it back into her skirt pocket, and clambered down the tree. Her skill at this endeavor was a holdover from the life she'd lived on the other side of the crystal bridge. There, as a child, she'd been an inveterate tomboy.

    When Serenity reached the ground and turned to start toward her sister-in-law, she found the young woman staring at her, openmouthed.

    "Serenity, were you up in the boughs of that tree?" she asked incredulously.

    "You know I was," Serenity answered pleasantly. "You must have seen me."

    "But you never do things like that."

    Serenity smiled. "I do now."
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Coming Soon
Part 7