Tag: Eli Davenport

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Kingsport #23

Nicholas Davenport waited for his older brother, Eli, to finish a business call which had already run into their meeting. He glanced around Eli’s impressive office which offered a million-dollar view of San Francisco. It was hard for Nicholas to be impressed, but when he was around Eli, who he considered the most successful of his siblings, Nicholas was always in a state of awe.

“Sorry about that,” Eli muttered as he hung up the phone. “One of my analysts wants to get into crypto, but she’s a lone wolf on this one.”

“I want to get into it,” piped up Nicholas. “I actually wanted to sell my stake in Davenport Technology to put some of the money into new investments, but Mom pushed back at me.”

Eli listened carefully before saying, “I know. Lisa told me.”

Nicholas shifted uneasily in his seat. He should have known their mother would have told Lisa everything. Lisa and Eli had always been the closest set of siblings, which should have registered to Nicholas before this moment. “Oh. So much for privacy.” Nicholas took a deep breath before adding, “I want you to buy my shares in Davenport.”

“I can’t do that,” muttered Eli.

“Why not?!”

“Nick, I hate to this say, but I think Mom may have a point. Davenport is a safe company. Your stock in it is worth $80 million. That’s huge. Most people will never see that kind of money in six lifetimes.”

“Eli, it’s not fair,” pouted Nicholas. “I’m a man in his thirties who isn’t even in control of his finances. Mom is the trustee on my trust. I can’t sell a share of stock or cash out of my market funds without her say-so. It’s ridiculous!”

“I think… Nick, you may not like it, but I think it’s been done for your own good.” Eli watched as Nick folded his arms and averted his gaze. “You’ve had a bunch of careers and no successes. The money and assets in your trust have been a golden goose for you…for the whole family.” Eli gave his little brother a compassionate smile. “I understand your frustrations, but there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Then this was a wasted trip,” snapped Nick, hotly. “All I want is to be in control of my finances. I’m sick of this family treating me like a child!”

“If you want to start a business or acquire one, you know the family office will give you the money. Do that instead of investing in something you don’t understand just because your friends showed you a meme on Reddit.”

Nick rolled his eyes. “That’s low, Eli.”

“Look, I’m glad you came to me, but I think you need to enjoy the fact that you’re fabulously wealthy without any work on your part. Nick, if you want my advice, talk to the investment manager and ask for a bigger payout from your various investments. Your money should be making at least eight to twelve percent. You have a lot of options, but I don’t think cashing out of Davenport is a prudent move.”

Feeling dejected and powerless, Nicholas thanked his brother for his time, gave him a hug, and left his office. On the way down to the street, Nicholas couldn’t help but feel useless. He called his driver to pick him up as he watched the hoi polloi of San Francisco rush past him on their way to lunch or a meeting. They had a purpose. Nicholas had yet to find his.

He got into the back of the black town car, turned on his Spotify EDM playlist, and closed his eyes as the driver whisked him to the airport hangar. Maybe my life isn’t so bad, thought Nicholas. After all, he had tons of money, could charter planes, and didn’t have to worry about a damn thing. However, in the depths of his mind, Nicholas knew life would get better, if only there were something to do…

“Miss Wilkes, a moment?” Dane Hurley, the Household Manager for the Montgomery Estate, approached Barbara on her stool in the kitchen.

Barbara straightened her back, plastered a smile on her face, and stood to meet Dane. She always put on her best face when he was around. It had taken her some time to work out the power structure among the staff of the Montgomery Estate, but she was now well aware that all of the power rested with Dane Hurley. Mrs. Taplin was a guard dog; Dane held the keys to the kingdom. “I always have a moment for you,” cooed Barbara.

“We’ve been pleased with your work so far. You were an asset during the Independence Day party. We would like to offer you a full-time position on the family’s payroll.”

Barbara’s eyes exploded with sheer excitement. “Oh, thank you!” She threw her arms around Dane’s neck, but quickly corrected herself after realizing her error. “I’ve tried to work so hard here, Dane.”

Dane fixed his collar, cleared his throat, and said, “We’d like for you to answer phones and be an unofficial Girl Friday of sorts to Mrs. Montgomery.”

“The mother or the daughter?” asked Barbara carefully.

“Mrs. Alison Farrell Montgomery. India is referred to as ‘Miss’ Montgomery due to her unmarried state,” Dane said with authoritarian gravitas. “Mrs. Montgomery’s assistant in Paris is unable to come to America for the duration of Mrs. Montgomery’s visit. You will bring her breakfast in the morning, answer her calls in the staff office, and assist her as needed in the house. I will not have to remind you how to act with members of the family. You are to be a professional at all times. If you don’t know the answer to a question, ask me or Mrs. Taplin.” Dane checked his watch. “I have to meet with the head gardener. We can discuss the rest of the details after lunch.”

Barbara didn’t see Dane walk away because she was stunned by this new wave of luck. She’d be in front of the family, not stuck folding linen and hauling beverage carts across the estate during the middle of summer. Barbara would finally be able to see how the other half really lived. What they were really like. She’d finally be able to enact the next portion of her plan. And that fact alone made a twisted smirk across her lips.

“You look like you’ve won the lottery,” said Ada as she walked by. “What’s news?”

“I’ll be assisting Mrs. Montgomery,” Barbara replied, coolly.

Ada’s face feel. “Oh, Barbara,” she said carefully, “that woman will run you out of this house.”

Barbara held her breath for a moment. She didn’t want to react to Ada, who she was now cross with for muddying her happiness. “I don’t think she will,” said Barbara, evenly. “Dane wouldn’t’ve given me the position if he didn’t think I was up for it. I’ll be upstairs, Ada! Upstairs!”

“How many times do I gotta warn you about going upstairs and bein’ around those people? Yeah, they’re rich and they pay well, but they’re not nice people. They’re mean and unkind and don’t care who they hurt in the process,” whispered Ada. “I wouldn’t trust them. Not an inch.”

“Well, that’s you,” sniffed Barbara.

“Girly, I’m looking out for you,” insisted Ada. “Going upstairs with those people… It won’t end well. Never does. The stories I could tell,” Ada said, her voice trailing off.

Barbara folded her arms with marked contempt. She tolerated Ada, but now she was growing annoyed with her instance that Barbara stay in her place and be invisible. Barbara had lived her whole life like that and she wasn’t going to do it anymore! The reason she came to Kingsport was to change her life for the better! No one, not even Ada, would stop her. “Ada, we’ll have to agree to disagree. I’m going upstairs to assist Mrs. Montgomery and there’s nothing you can say to stop me. I’m moving up, Ada. The last thing I want is to be trapped in the bowels of this house for the rest of my life!” spat Barbara.

A heavy feeling of dread filled Ada’s heart as she watched Barbara storm down the staff corridor. In all of her years at the Montgomery Estate, Ada had seen girls just like Barbara who thought rubbing shoulders with the family would be the answer to all of their prayers. More often than not, it was an opening to a portal to hell. Ada had seen it for herself; Barbara was too arrogant to listen. Ada sighed quietly because she knew what lay in wait for Barbara. For the first time in a long time, Ada was content to mind her own business and watch the destruction of Barbara Wilkes…

 

In our next installment, Eli makes a proposal to the Davenports…

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Kingsport #19

At thirty-five, Nicholas Davenport was the baby of his family as well as its black sheep. While Dylan had run the family company, Lisa had the auction house, and Eli had his own investment firm, Nicholas lived a slightly rudderless existence in Manhattan…or wherever the moment took him. He had had some success as a playwright, followed by two years writing for a procedural cop show, but he had yet to find his bliss. He drifted from relationship to relationship, party to party, dream to dream in such a way that his mother, Sheila, took umbrage with the way he lived his life. If it weren’t for the fact that his mother was still a trustee on his trust fund, Nicholas would have politely declined her request to meet in Kingsport today. As he sat in the Breakfast Room of the Kingsport Country Club, Nicholas felt instantly at home in a world he had cut himself off from years ago. It’s not that he didn’t take pride in his family, he did. The thing that always bothered him was the way they lived with such ostentatious disregard for those less fortunate.

“Nicky?” Lisa walked over to her baby brother and gave him a big hug. “I didn’t know Mom summoned you here as well!”

“Yeah, she’s full of surprises. How’ve you been?”

Lisa sat at the perfectly laid table with a muted sigh. “I’ve been fine. Mom and Dylan have been going at it over the company. To be honest, it’s starting to get on my nerves.”

“This is why I live in Manhattan,” laughed Nicholas.

“It would be nice if you moved back to Kingsport. Living in New York is fine in your twenties, but you should have a nice house, not that loft you call home.” Lisa let out a slight yelp. “Oh, no! I sound like Mom!”

“Just a little bit,” nodded Nicholas. “I’m happy in New York, Lisa. Trust me. I’d rather be there than under a microscope here.”

Lisa knew her brother was right. Although she loved Kingsport as well as the trappings that came from her social position, Lisa knew that Kingsport could be stifling, no matter how much money you had in your trust fund. “Mom wanted us here by ten. It’s not like her to be late.”

Nicholas looked up just as his oldest brother, Dylan Davenport, joined them at the table. “Hey, Dyl.”

“Nicholas! This is a surprise,” said Dylan, coolly. “I thought Mom was still voting your shares in Davenport.”

“Not as of last year. I’m finally free. She’s still the trustee on my trust, though. It’s so unfair,” sighed Nicholas.

“Wait,” said Lisa, suddenly. “This table is set for six people.”

“Sorry, I’m late.” Sheila Davenport approached the table with a heavy sigh. “My driver is out sick, so I had to have someone call the company to send another one. It’s as if people merely exist to inconvenience me.”

Nicholas shook his head with a sigh. “I doubt it.”

“Nicholas, you should have worn a tie,” tutted Sheila. “You look like you work in Idaho or something.”

“I look just fine,” he replied through gritted teeth.

“If you say so.” Sheila sat at the head of the table. “I’ve asked you all here because I’m worried about Davenport Technology. It’s our legacy. I fear that Meredith is trying to run it into the ground. You know I am against stock buybacks and she’s received board approval to do it. I want to stop her. If we…”

“You started without me. My plane was delayed. Fog and all.”

Sheila felt the color drain from her face. She slowly turned to see her son, Elijah Davenport, standing behind her dressed in a form fitting black suit with a perfectly matched tie. “How did you…”

“I called him,” Dylan chimed in. “I told you before, I’m not voting Eli’s proxy anymore. He has a right to be here.”

Eli smiled smugly as he sat at the end of the table next to Nicholas. “Mom, I wish you would have told me about this sooner, but Dylan filled me in.”

“I’m sure he did. Elijah, it would be…easier…if you simply gave Lisa or Nicholas the proxy to vote your shares. It’s not as if you’re even…interested in the company,” surmised Sheila.

Eli cleared his throat. “Please don’t speak for me. Actually, I agree with you, Mother. From what Dylan has told me, Meredith seems to be angling the company for a possible sale to bigger corporation. I still own stock in the company… Despite our feelings, I’d prefer if Davenport remained an independent company.” Eli looked at Sheila with a curious gaze. “I’d rather play nice. I want the company to succeed. However, if you’re intent on shutting me out, I’ll work around you. It’s up to you, Mommy.”

 

 

 

Barbara Wilkes re-read the Kingsport Post edition which revealed Will Montgomery’s engagement to Dr. Connor Windsor with unbridled glee. She felt as if she were a part of the story because she had served Connor an iced tea on the afternoon he proposed and she did work at the Montgomery Estate. As she soaked up the remaining details in the newspaper, Barbara wondered if she would be allowed to work the wedding and reception. Or, at the very least, maybe the staff would be invited as guests as they were in England. Barbara smiled broadly at the thought of being among the invited guests at a Montgomery wedding. She’d have to buy a new dress from the finest store in Kingsport called Abington’s or take the train to Manhattan in order to purchase a dress from a Madison Avenue department store. The thought filled her with so much joy she felt like she was doing to burst. For the first time in weeks, she felt alive again. If Dane or Mrs. Taplin put her upstairs again, she knew she could stay there. So far, that hadn’t happened. As Ada’s words rang through her head, Barbara decided to ignore them. What did Ada know? She was a servant who was content being a servant. Barbara wouldn’t be content until she reached her ultimate goal. She was close… She was so close… But little did she know that her past was catching up with her and it wouldn’t be long until her carefully constructed lie unraveled for all the world to see…

 

In our next installment, India asks Eli for a life changing favor…

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Kingsport #4

Sheila Davenport wasn’t in the business of inserting herself into the affairs of others. Although she shared Dr. Connor Windsor’s worry about India Montgomery, the last thing she wanted to do was offend India and, by extension, her best friend, Alison Montgomery, and their shared granddaughter, Faren. Sheila knew all too well that when it came to the Montgomerys, it was better for them to sort out their assorted issues rather than get involved.

In that moment, Sheila looked around the well-appointed library at her home, the Davenport Mansion. It sat on ten acres of exquisite grounds on the same road as the Windsor Mansion and the other great, old families of Kingsport. The mansion which had eight-bedrooms, ten-bathrooms, six formal rooms, a swimming pool, and guest cottage had been in the Davenport family for nearly a century. They were one of the wealthiest black families in America who preferred living under the radar. The Davenports had a lineage which went back centuries and their wealth, though it was much newer than the Montgomerys, now earned interest on interest and kept the family in comfort and understated grace. Sheila glanced around at the assorted family photos carefully placed around the library of herself, her late husband, Larry, and their children, Dylan, Elijah, Lisa, and Nicholas. Her eye then fell on a picture of India with Faren and Elijah on the occasion of Faren’s second birthday. It seemed like a lifetime ago. They were, indeed, quite happier times…before everything became so complex where it concerned India.

With Connor’s plea ringing in her ears and wanting to ultimately protect her granddaughter, Sheila took a deep breath, picked up the phone, and dialed a familiar phone number. As the phone rang, Sheila wondered if she was doing the right thing because, once she made this call, nothing would be the same again.

Barbara Wilkes glanced at the clock in the huge chef’s kitchen on the Montgomery Estate. She was only two hours into her shift, but she felt like she’d been there for years. When the agency and Dane told her that this would be a tough job, Barbara should have believed them. She’d already carried several heavy breakfast trays to the Morning Room before being told to vanish before the family entered. On top of that, she’d already cleaned six bathrooms and brought bags full of dirty laundry to the onsite laundress. In that moment, Barbara knew that any family that employed its own laundry person was a family she wanted to know more about.

“Day dreaming again?”

Barbara snapped back to reality as Ada Burke, one the of senior housekeepers, walked over to her with a cup of tea. “No… Just thinking.”

Ada sipped her piping hot tea. “The family is out right now, so it should be quiet for a while. Nothing worse than when they’re all here ordering this, wanting that, pressing buttons like we ain’t got nothing better to do.”

Barbara smiled tightly. She wanted to be friendly with her coworkers, but being friends with them wasn’t in her plans. However, she knew that sometimes plans change in such a way which can work to your benefit later on. “What’re the family like?” asked Barbara.

“Just people who haven’t worked since the Revolutionary War,” cracked Ada. “The nicest one is Will. They call him ‘Billy’. He’s high strung and in love with love, but he’s nice. I’d say the worst is Alison, the Lady of the House.”

“I’ve seen pictures of her in magazines. She seems so elegant.”

“Elegant and high minded about everything. She doesn’t even live here full time; Paris is her home.”

“Paris…” Barbara uttered with a lilt to her voice. That seemed to be the most exciting, glamourous place in the world.

“She’s lived there for twenty years or so. From what I’ve been told, she never really liked it in Kingsport. Anyway, she’s old money. Older than the Montgomery family. Royalty on both sides of her family, related to dukes and whatnot. She’s what they call a six-times heiress. Inherited money from both parents and four grandparents. More money than god, that one. I read she gets a billion dollars in dividends. Imagine! She’d be tolerable if she didn’t lord her money and breeding over everyone,” scoffed Ada. “Anyway, you liking it here?”

Barbara nodded. “It kinda feels like a fantasy. Say, Ada, is it possible to move up at this house?”

“You mean has a maid ever become a secretary or something? Girl, don’t get your hopes up. Everyone has dreams when they come in here…and they die here. That’s why so many people leave.” The cell phone clipped to Ada’s waist chirped. She glanced at it with a groan. “Gotta get lunch ready for Will in the library. Thought it would be an easy day.”

“I can do it for you,” offered Barbara.

Ada gave her a curious look. “I can manage…”

“I don’t mind. Honestly.”

“Fine. Come with me. I’ll show you what needs to be done.”

“I’m sorry I missed your call.”

“This isn’t a social call,” said Sheila, briskly. “I need to talk to you.” Sheila fiddled with the sapphire ring on her right hand. “It’s about India…”

“I’m going to stop you right there. I don’t want to discuss her with you or anyone else.”

“I know,” snapped Sheila. “It’s just… I’ve heard that India is planning a return to Kingsport. She’ll be back this week.”

The line went silent.

“I said…”

“I heard you. She hasn’t told me anything. I spoke to her two days ago and she never mentioned it.”

Sheila took a deep breath. “Has she been well…?”

“I’m not discussing that with you!”

“I’m only concerned because Connor Windsor met with me… He wants someone to talk to India…make her see that she should stay in Paris.”

“I don’t give two craps about Connor Windsor. He’s done more harm to India than any of us realize. If she thinks she can handle coming back to Kingsport after all of these years, then it’s not for us to stand in her way. Connor will have to get over himself.”

Sheila nodded in quiet agreement. “I suppose he will have to deal with whatever happens next on his own… I’ll let you go now.”

“Mom, I…”

“I have to prepare for a meeting,” lied Sheila.

The line went dead as Elijah Davenport stared at his cell phone, more heartbroken than furious. He hadn’t spoken to his mother in two years and now, in what he thought was an extension of an olive branch, was nothing more than his mother trying to get him to warn India to stay away of Kingsport. Eli sank into the leather chair behind his glass desk with the cityscape of San Francisco glittering behind him. It wasn’t easy for him to feel like an utter fool, but in this moment, Eli felt rejected and dejected by his mother. Had it not been for the fact that he and India had a daughter together, he knew his mother would never have called him. She didn’t love him. She never did. She blamed him for something so horrific, but if she knew the truth it would tear their family apart. That’s why he moved his life, his daughter, Faren, and his company, Davenport Investments to San Francisco. It’s why he never went home. In a way, he and India were two outsiders who found each other and thought they were happy until they realized they couldn’t find lasting happiness together. Eli closed his eyes, counted backwards from one hundred, and did everything he could to stop the onslaught of tears.

In our next installment, Barbara is put in her place…

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