Isabella's Backstory
From DirtyWiki
WHOA!
THERE'S A LOT ON THIS PAGE.
Out of Character
BECAUSE I RAN OUT OF PRACTICAL ROOM.
This is Isabella Fitzwilliam's backstory. The part that isn't current. This is what made her intrinsically Isabella, so it's not an option to avoid reading it, even though I've essentially written what will probably be a novella instead of a wiki page. The timeline on Isabella's original wiki page will be a good overview, but it doesn't include everything.
Backstory
The Waves of Tory: 14 July, 1912 – ? June, 1922
Isibél Ó Móráin was born and raised by her mother and great aunt on Tory Island, about seven miles off the coast of Co. Donegal, where her family has lived for thousands of years. As the community itself was and still remains one of the Gaeltachtaí, she lived an incredibly traditional upbringing and learnt no English. Her Irish, however, is a combination of early modern and modern era and her spelling predates the reform (hence Isabella's birth name), although she is able to easily adjust and the family has, in many ways, been forced to adapt. She speaks in the Ulster dialect. Her mother and great aunt were both born two hundred years ago, and they've been to the mainland fewer than five times between them, so their Irish was generally preserved.
Her birth was unexpected and rather unwanted, as her mother was over a century in age when young Isabella was born and she had no father to speak of--she certainly never met him, nor does she know his name. However, despite the unfortunate circumstances, Cecily quickly grew to love her pregnancy and her infant. Having a baby on her hip gave Cecily a purpose. However, the lack of a father and the more isolated living conditions proved difficult to deal with when the new baby came. Especially since the new baby wanted to see every inch of her home and to explore every inch of the island. As such, though Cecily was loving and fiercely protective of the youngest angel in the family, she was also abrasive and strict and had little tolerance for her daughter's flights of fancy. Tory Island has a small population and is only three miles long and one mile wide, and though the family was very reclusive and mostly left alone, Isabella could barely stand the temptation of friends and socializing and often sneaked away to have a bit of fun. She made friends but was forced to end it. She even sneaked down to the pier to try and go to the country (the mainland) with some of the schoolchildren but was immediately sent home again. She had half a dozen adventures that ended in her getting in a fair amount of trouble.
All before she turned five.
Cecily couldn't cope with a child who was breaking every unspoken and strictly-enforced rule in the family, and was most likely stressed out by the situation in general (you might say that Isabella's birth brought about a midlife crisis). That the father of the child never returned was deeply disturbing to Cecily and she often took this insecurity out on Isabella as she got older. She scolded her daughter repeatedly and taught her the value of doing work, work that would have no magical relief until Isabella was much older. Cecily and her aunt, Aoife, did most of the work without any work at all and knew a great many secrets that were kept in notebooks that Isabella's mother often wrote in, but refused to let her daughter see. Isabella was schooled in mathematics and writing by the time she was three, and as far as magic went, she was taught how to listen to the sound of the ocean and how to, essentially, read the very core of the earth and all that was happening, simply by pressing her ear to the turf.
But promised secrets weren't enough to keep the young girl there. Cecily had been raised amongst younger family members by two doting parents, and Isabella felt alone and alienated, even at the tender age of nine. She had been told she could not talk to humans, could not marry or have children, and had to embrace what she was without questioning its value. This was a frustrating set of rules and Isabella could not understand them. Though Cecily did try to humor her daughter from time to time, including giving the girl rag curls when she asked how the human girls got such pretty hair, they often broke into fights. Because all three females in the house were very stubborn, it was rare for there to be an apology or even any closure. Just weeks shy of her tenth birthday, Isabella packed up a little basket and fled from the island before her mother and great aunt awoke.
The night before, Isabella had begged her mother to do her hair like the human girls in the towns. Every Sunday, Isabella watched them all file into a building (a church, but she didn't know what a church was) dressed impeccably, with bouncing girls unlike her own mess of thick waves. Cecily relented and eventually set her daughter's hair in rag curls, but as soon as she had finished, there was another fight. That was the final straw for little Isibél.
The Mummer's Dance: ? June, 1922 – ? June, 1923
There is some indication that Isabella understood the consequences of leaving. For instance, she left her cherished doll Síle behind, a doll that served as her very best friend (she was made when Isabella was two years old and never left her side). There was also a note left on the hearth. She didn't take out her curlers.
She stowed away in a boat bound for the mainland and was lucky she even made it off the island before her mother saw her. The ride was rocky and she was badly disoriented by the time she arrived on land again. No one saw her until she was running away, at which point several people tried to catch her and bring her back. They knew her face. They knew where she was from.
Unfortunately, Isabella was far too quick. She hid and escaped, celebrated her tenth birthday, cried for and missed her mother and aunt despite her having run from them, and somehow managed to survive all the way to the new Northern Ireland. Her timing was rather poor, but the Irish War of Independence had ended. Still, conflict was running high, the country was in a civil war, and she experienced her fair share of trauma before making it to Ballymenone, Co. Fermanagh. Seven months later.
By then, she had grown very thin and rather frail, but she was used to impoverished conditions and knew nothing else. The problem wasn't sleeping outside or in bad conditions. The problem was getting food.
On 28 December, 1922, Isabella ran into a group of funny men wearing straw masks. She followed them at a distance as they went into every cottage and sang and danced. At one point, the distraction of the mummers allowed her to get into someone's garden and steal some food. No one ever caught her.
By the start of January, she had grown used to the funny men. One evening, they held a ceili in a larger house and Isabella's curiosity got the better of her. She stared in through a window until someone noticed her. Not willing to reject a little urchin girl, they pulled her in to celebrate. She was unable to properly communicate, although a few older women and men knew what she was saying, and some of the younger ones found her extremely odd and made fun of her, but she didn't understand them enough to realize. For the first time in over half a year, she has enough food to feel full. She was happier then than she had been since leaving. She had friends and music and funny men to put on funny shows.
The locals didn't let her get away. No one would dream of it during a time of war. She was unable to explain where she came from, but they understood that she was alone and assumed that perhaps she had lost her family to a conflict. One of the older women with older sons took her in for a month, but Isabella was anxious to leave again, as this was surely not the end of her journey and she was slightly worried someone would take her back to her mother.
She made her wishes known instead of running away. Surprisingly, they let her go. The women packed her a basket of food and gave her a new dress and the men told her not to speak the language once she reached the city. Isabella wasn't sure what a city was. Before she left, however, there was a huge conflict about whether it was the right thing to do even if she didn't belong with them, and she ran before anyone could change their minds.
By March, she found a city. She was never more overwhelmed or shocked by anything than the buildings and streets. Belfast was big and loud and full of people shouting and yelling and for two months, the shouting and yelling and violence consumed her. She slept in the streets and slums and was often chased off or screamed at. Her natural reaction was to yell in Irish, and that made things worse for her. She avoided personal injury for most of her stay, but fled by May.
During her journey out, everything was even more unpleasant. There was fighting and shouting and horrible explosions all around her. She didn't understand what was happening, which made the entire experience worse. That people could be so horrible outside of her little cottage made her feel that her mother was right.
At the end of May 1923, she reached the sea. She hopped a ferry and found herself in Scotland, where she slowly worked her way down to England by June. She may have thought she had reached the ferry that would take her home, as she didn't know where she was. It is quite likely that she regretted leaving by this point, as she found nothing good in the people and landscape and the few moments of solace weren't enough. She wanted to go home.
But it didn't take her long to realize she wasn't there yet. No one was familiar anymore, no sound sounded like her or spoke words of her language, but there were vehicles and most of them became her hiding places. This method of transportation got her to London over a year and a half after she ran off, in November of 1923.
By now, her time spent in the middle of messy, horrible conflicts had prepared her for her final destination, though she wasn't sure she had a final destination at all. One of the lorries she jumped into drove to London, and it was there she set up her first home. The city seemed too endless to escape, and she was enthralled by it. Returning home was pushed from her mind again. This place was what she had wanted to find. Something big and different and new and full of interesting things instead of bloodshed and anger.
Lost in the tall buildings and strange language, and even more lost now that she had no skills to even exist there, Isabella went from doorsteps to alleys, once again the lowest ranking form of city life. Thankfully, her sheltered life prevented her from fully understanding negative human attitudes, such as sarcasm and insults, and though she lived alone in an alley in the slums for two years, she was not an unhappy girl. She could go anywhere, although she could not speak to anyone (though this was not entirely different than Tory, as her dialect was odd, even to those long time residents of Ireland), and she could do anything. But the city was not without its scares and Isabella was subjected to many of them. She was never raped, mugged, or otherwise assaulted, but she was often threatened or chased. Such was the case when her wings first emerged. Remembering how her mother and great aunt had always had theirs out, save for when humans passed by, Isabella attempted to mimic this behavior.
Unfortunately, it didn't work out very well for her, as she had no idea how many people could see her from so many places. In the areas she lived, money was so tight that Isabella was a walking goldmine. She was stalked for several weeks as a woman nearby learned her sleeping patterns and notified an agency looking for freak acts. Two men (Cecil Hart and Tyler Nash) were sent out to collect her. A few months after her first manifestation, Isabella, wings out, was kidnapped from the small shelter she had made her home, and sold to a sideshow. She was billed as the Winged Girl.
The Winged Girl: Late Summer - Winter 1924
The sideshow itself was not attached to any circus or carnival, though it often set up near to one in order to attract customers. As the manager, Billy Winston Smith, was also the showman and had willingly bought a child off of two London thugs with a fake agency meant to find and steal anything they could get them money, it was not surprising that Isabella was not treated exceedingly well.
Soon after arriving she was given a rough inspection, especially her wings, and a room in a tiny trailer. She ran off immediately but was easily caught.
Her name became Isabel because Isibél looked somewhat similar and Smith assumed she couldn't spell. When asked, Smith claimed she had wandered onto the property of his sideshow and wouldn't leave. He decided her age had to be ten, though no one ever asked her to write when she was born (and they would have received two different methods of dating, but one would have been 1912).
She received a penny a week, though profits for her went through the roof. Having no concept of money, Isabella didn't see that she was being ripped off, or that she was still malnourished. She was overwhelmed by everything going on around her so suddenly.
When news of Isabella's abnormality began to draw serious interest from the circuses, some of which were far more powerful than a three or four act sideshow, the manager decided to tour small English villages, instead, until an offer was made that he liked. As villagers tended to be highly religious, they paid a great deal of money just to look at what was fast becoming the Irish Angel. At this point, Isabella was only required to sing any song she knew, but most people were satisfied just to look at her and to take home a pitch card. However, and this is what she hated, to prove that she was not a hoax (and because the manager was so proud to have a genuine freak on his hands), she was allowed to be touched and inspected if you paid a little extra. Some people were more gentle with her, but others were rough. Because she didn't speak a language anyone understood and because she was so odd, most people didn't think of her as a young girl. She was paraded as an object and treated as one, too.
This was the only period during which Isabella was genuinely unhappy from time to time. Though she was fast becoming a sensation, her manager was selfish and neglectful and Isabella was kept under strict lock and key, lest she run away again. The sideshow itself only had four acts in total, with most of them rotating every few weeks, and Isabella was favored over the others, making it difficult for her to bond with anyone. The earliest photos of Isabella come from this period. The first photo ever taken of her was snapped the day she was kidnapped as proof that her wings were attached to her body. She's rather dirty and upset. The other photos from this period are pitch card photos or photos of her standing on a short platform or stage surrounded by the spectators. Numerous press photos were taken for local articles. There are also several short film reels taken of her standing on stage. The first film reel was one of her looking overwhelmed and slightly nervous as she stands on a platform in front of a crowd. Another poignant reel from this time is a close up shot of her face during what is presumably an off camera interview (she says something from time to time but there is obviously no sound). She looks incredibly sad and at one point begins to cry and looks directly at the camera as though it was the thing keeping her here. She regards the lens for a moment before looking down again. The entire thing lasts about a minute.
Thankfully, her life behind bars didn't last long.
It was impossible to keep her under lock and key. The entire country was watching her every move and several people had made claims that she looked unhealthy. While these claims were true, Smith wasn't totally at fault. Isabella just wasn't eating enough. Still, he knew he would be in trouble, and after traveling with her for a few months, during which Scotland Yard hounded him, she was finally released. A powerful manager of one of the biggest circuses in the United Kingdom (think Ringling Bros/Barnum and Bailey of the UK) made a quiet offer for the girl. Smith gave her up without announcing it, avoiding having to hand her over to authorities.
Authorities did come knocking, however, and she was given a medical exam. The records still exist, and include a few feathers they pulled from various parts of her wings (from the inside of the wing: lesser under wing-covert, greater under wing-covert, primary, secondary; from the outside of the wing: lesser wing-covert, median wing-covert, secondary-covert, primary-covert). The exam claims that the wings are real, the feathers real, that she responded to touch she couldn't see, that they moved when she was instructed to move them in a certain way, and that they could carry her weight at least two feet off the floor (and the exam mentions not having enough room for her full wingspan). Another remark was made that alleges they attach through what is likely bone, but the area of attachment was surrounded by down and impossible to see.
In addition to the exam, the families who had come forward to claim her were all interviewed, and she, of course, didn't recognize anyone.
Because the circus was so respected, authorities let her sign a contract and warned the new manager that they would be watching her. And they did.
Isabella's Pitch Card
This was the text portion of a pitch card used for Isabella when she was with this particular freak show:
My name is Isabel. I am ten years old. I was born in Ireland but I was raised in London after my parents abandoned me. I was born with wings and I can do many things with them. I can even fly. You can touch them if you like. I don't speak English yet but I'm learning fast. I like to dance and sing.
The Irish Angel: Winter 1924 - Spring 1927
Though living conditions were substantially better and her pay increased dramatically, Isabella was still only a freak act. Her manager, Henry "Hank" Brooks, wasn't sure how to approach a girl who couldn't understand him, but many of the others loved her and taught her to sing John McCormack hits. She was also taught how to tap dance. Isabella never had any complaints, as anything that was not a slum was very nice and no one would let anyone harm her, especially with the police watching for the first month or two of the show. Besides, she now had many people to see every day, people with odd features and funny voices who adopted her into their family without hesitation and took to calling her Isabella (it was prettier, they said, for the stage). She was the baby of the bunch and they did all they could to help her.
The circus became the first place she found genuine happiness and no longer thought of her mother and aunt and home. She had a new home and people liked her there.
As she could not speak English very well, and her understanding was shaky at best, she was tutored by her fellows and became very close friends with everyone around her. Brooks had no idea that the original men who paraded her from circus to circus had done so illicitly, and no one really knew anything about her because she didn't know how to explain. The information that had been published about her was shaky at best but no one in the country ever truly believed any of it. At one point, she was given the task of taking a stage name, which, in effect, became her real name, and she chose Radcliffe from a sign because it looked pretty, though she couldn't read anything but Irish.
After Isabella took well to tap dancing, she became intrigued by all of the odd talents the people around her had. She was an overeager, overenthusiastic girl and everyone was eager to please her. Though her own act was rather simple at first, as she began to learn acrobatics, juggling, fire-eating, Chinese poles, and many others, her manager decided to incorporate these into her act, so not only was she a girl with wings, she was a girl with wings who could do all sorts of amazing stunts.
As anyone could imagine, having a girl with wings wasn't easy to keep quiet. As more locals witnessed her and reporters came to check on their stories, her existence was suddenly thrown under flood lights. She became a worldwide phenomenon, wrangling so much publicity that the circus itself was able to stop traveling and to set up in a field in northern England. Around this time, she was able to move in with her manager and his family. Staying in trailers had garnered too much attention and photographers disturbed the other members of the circus. Though her manager wasn't an entirely proper father figure, he was better than nothing and he was very protective of her.
By her second year, everyone wanted to know everything about her and her manager needed to give interviews and have the girl tell her story. This became a problem when everyone realized that they really didn't know what her story was. The manager, who was really quite fond of her (as were most people), did some investigating. Smith had been arrested for engaging in a conspiracy to kidnap, which led the manager to believe that Isabella might have actually been the first victim (Hart and Nash had been arrested before then, as well, and weren't talking). With a little more digging, the woman who initially turned Isabella in surfaced and told her story to Brooks. Reluctant to give her up but even more reluctant to be arrested for something out of his control, especially something that would inevitably surface with all of the attention on her, her manager had to fabricate a story. He paid the woman to keep quiet but she was keeping quiet on her own. As Isabella had never once declared that she wanted to go home, was never once unhappy, they decided she would be better off with them (besides, he would lose a fortune and no one who had yet come forward to claim Isabella as their daughter was ever actually her mother). She was explained away as an orphan of Irish heritage whose parents were killed by gunfire in Londonderry when she was eleven years old. That she had been kidnapped in the chaos.
Despite this seedy dealing, Brooks was very close to her (she called him Mr. Hank) and equally protective, as were her fellow performers. Two years with this particular circus and freak show passed, but they were beginning to peak. Everyone who wanted to see her had either seen or her or was satisfied by pictures. Though Isabella was beyond the most popular act in the show's history, as well as one of the biggest phenomena in recent decades (and even attracted the attention of the Vatican, which was deliberately ignored), her manager ultimately decided to do more. At the insistence of several agents in America who had been clamoring for her since word of her existence first surfaced, her life was changed once more, irrevocably, almost overnight.
The Londonderry Orphan
This is the story her manager invented.
...She was explained away as an orphan of Irish heritage whose parents were killed by gunfire in Londonderry when she was eleven years old.
The Irish War of Independence was raging between 1919 and 1921. According to the story her manager presented, Isabella lived with her parents in Londonderry. They were Protestants, according to the interview, and her father was a supporter of English rule. This was not well-known enough to have his name be at the top of any lists, but all Isabella apparently "remembers" is that her parents went out one evening and never came back. She "said" she heard gunfire near her house and her parents screaming, leading her to run away. She was then "caught" and kidnapped and ran off again, only to collide with Smith.
Her parents names were not given, as apparently Isabella was "too traumatized to remember".
Most of the story didn't fit with the facts. Isabella spoke Irish and her accent was distinctly wrong for what her manager claimed her backstory to be. However, no one questioned it, as England was all for anyone who supported them and Northern Ireland's addition to the United Kingdom. And not for Catholics.
"Come See America's Little Angel!" The Small Time Vaudeville Circuit: Spring 1927 - Late Winter 1928
Riding the wave of Violet and Daisy Hilton and the vaudeville circuit, Isabella was sent to America. Her circus family in England pulled together to buy her new dresses so she could travel in style, and her manager went with her (his wife did not like the idea of her going to a new country all alone and tried to change his mind, but money came first, even with Isabella). With all of the revenue from her act, they could even stay first class on a grand ocean liner to New York. She was immediately given a reception at a hotel and several agencies met with her before they decided on one. For one week, her manager stayed with her. The first afternoon after the reception, she immediately explored the infamous Palace and hovered around the beach, watching the performers who were standing around before their acts. They shook her hand and gave her kisses and talked to her. She even got her ringlets cut short. She was fascinated and awestruck by the enormous buildings and fancy people and fast cars and it was only when her manager bid her farewell that she felt any sense of grief. Having lived with him and grown very close to him, she was unhappy to see him leave but had no opportunity to recover.
She was off to work immediately after he left.
She played in several venues around New York, living in a hotel with her new manager, George Parker Love, because she wouldn't be there for long. (Incidentally, he was also her first sexual parter. At the age of fourteen. Discovering this in a letter led Isabella's former manager to do something stupid along the way.) Her act now consisted of singing, dancing, performing stunts, and a grand finale of showing off her wings. Eventually, she began to do slapstick routines as her English improved, and she often performed self-deprecating Irish skits, which she didn't really understand (she didn't know any Irish stereotypes). She also performed in drag doing Chaplin-esque routines with her tapdancing, where she played the thin young man in love with a very large older woman.
Instead of her reputation exceeding her, her talents on stage began to exceed her reputation. No one came for her wings by the time she hit New Orleans; everyone had seen those. All they wanted were her stunts, songs, and slapstick. However, as she was now fifteen and her body was showing it (not to mention she was also very sexually active), she began to do more saucy routines in less clothing.
Mocking the angelic nature of her original popularity.
She was now billed as The Most Beautiful Little Girl in the World. Come See America's Little Angel! posters and programs said. She took extensive dancing lessons from location to location, improving her talent now that her wings were of no use.
It was at this time that Brooks made it back to America. He had received Isabella's letter in which she stiltedly spoke about having sex with her new manager, and in a fit of rage at anyone touching the girl, Love was stabbed over fifty times and, of course, killed. Brooks was arrested and the letter was found, which ultimately got him acquitted. Isabella was kept in the dark, but numerous articles were written about the scandal (see The Pretty Baby Scandal). Many people claimed that Isabella was clearly coerced into the affair and may have even been raped but unable to understand it. It was well-known that she had been brought up in a sheltered life and her English was poor at best. The public pitied and protected her.
But they couldn't overlook everything.
In New Orleans, Isabella got into more trouble than she ever understood. She developed a reputation for being somewhat 'easy' (she garnered a nickname for the stage: Easy Iz). She was not quite all that easy at all, but she didn't know the 'morals and standards' of society and didn't care if anyone saw her underwear, or if she flirted with a boy and was caught. Most people blamed her now deceased manager for corrupting her. Isabella didn't notice or care. She lived a barren life in the French Quarter near a seedy theatre on Bourbon Street, where she performed. Most of her time was spent out in the heat, attracting attention and impressing the bohemians. One such boy was lucky enough to see her more than once. He was penniless artist by choice, having been raised in a wealthy southern home. Isabella was his muse and he painted quite a lot of pieces using her as the subject. They sold well enough for him to not be a penniless artist anymore, but he still lived like one. He also began to show signs of severe bipolar disorder, which often sent him into fits of rage when he knew she was out with other men. Needless to say, he rather scared her off.
She was friends with some self-proclaimed witches and some actual vampires and had sex in one of the graveyards. Her penniless artist hanged himself without success in order to win her back. She narrowly avoided being kidnapped a second time while out very late one night.
Really, she got into all sorts of trouble in the bayou until she left New Orleans for Chicago.
Then, the trouble skyrocketed and no one could blame it on a dead man.
The Pretty Baby Scandal: Mid – Late 1927
AMERICANS REACT WITH SHOCK AND ANGER! RAPE OF ORPHANED VAUDEVILLE STAR LEADS TO MURDER!
In early 1927, when she was just fourteen, Isabella's American manager took advantage of her ignorance and beauty. Brooks, who had all but adopted her into his family, was reluctant to leave her, but he had to return to his circus, which had made him substantially rich during the time Isabella performed.
Knowing that Isabella would be traveling, George Parker Love, her new manager, set them up in a hotel room while she performed in small time theatres around New York to waiting audiences. Only a couple of nights in, the manager, who had likely been so keen on her because he wanted her from the start, slept with her. Though Isabella didn't put up a fight, it was most certainly a rape. Her manager was about fifty years old. Isabella had no sexual experience beyond what she had been taught, and when she screamed because it hurt, her manager kept her mouth covered. Still, they slept together several more times, even after leaving New York, and after Love's murder, pornographic photos of her were found in his hotel room.
It was during this time that Isabella wrote to her former manager, Brooks, and told him about it. She was not ratting her new manager out, nor did she understand the implications of telling the man any of this (she was far too ignorant, which was half of why her manager took advantage of her). When Brooks received the letter, however, he was enraged.
A month after receiving it, he was back in America. His anger had festered for so long that his initial plan, which was to call the police as soon as he located Isabella and her manager, had turned to something far more sinister.
He found the pair in New Orleans. Isabella was already a sensation across the country and making more money than she would ever see--because Love kept most of it for himself. When Brooks confronted the man one night after a show, with Isabella out of sight and sound, they got in a brutal fight and the new manager was stabbed over fifty times, dying at the scene.
Her former manager was arrested immediately, but upon searching his hotel room, they found the letters Isabella had written and the tables turned. Her current manager was also searched and in his apartment they found dozens of pornographic photos of Isabella.
The scandal consumed American pop culture. They dubbed it the Pretty Baby Scandal after a popular song, and people argued over the nature of Isabella's relationship with her dead manager. The letters implied she was a willing party, but she was only fourteen. Others said that she was far too naïve to even slightly comprehend what her manager had done. It was rape, one way or another, and in 1920 America, the media spun the story in every direction they could, even forging new trails.
For several months, a war waged over what her now dead manager had done. Isabella was kept out of the chaos because she was young and had no idea what had happened (America liked the ignorant angle), but her shows garnered more publicity than ever and she was mentioned in very newspaper and magazine for over a year with stunning regularity.
At the trial, which was more of a Hollywood drama than an actual, unbiased appeal for justice, Henry Brooks was acquitted of the crime. He returned to England and likely never saw Isabella again, but he was a hero for killing a man who had befouled a young girl's innocence.
The Pearl Theater and Big Time Vaudeville: Late Winter 1928 - 1930
In Chicago, when she was not even sixteen, she became a superstar.
She was passed off to a new manager (a pair of twin brothers, actually, called Tommy and Marty Leon) who found her a stint at The Pearl Theater. Though the Pearl wasn't exactly the big time yet, it was very popular and suited her personality. Most of the patrons didn't care that liquor was illegal. Most of the patrons didn't care that the girls may have been too young.
She made over $4,000 a week in today's money, but the theatre manager and her own personal managers weren't as chivalrous as Brooks, though they weren't as corrupt as Love. Isabella had made fortunes but these fortunes were taken from her and most of her wages were divided up, with Isabella receiving very little. As such, she lived in very poor conditions and was often evicted from her flats (she lived in half a dozen apartments around Chicago).
She was both a chorus girl and a girl with a few acts (most of them comedy or physical comedy) of her own, and her performances were lively and dynamic. She learned how to toy with the interests of the male audience by flirting and adjusting her body language. Where she had kept it off the stage most of the time before, she now used it as her trademark. It was very fun for her, as she was a very effervescent girl, but it led to some interesting situations involving some interesting people.
Not that it hadn't already.
She was a party girl and Chicago was the place for it. She had taken advantage of New Orleans and drugs and people, but it was in Chicago that she came into her own sense of self and sexuality. With steady friends, she would slip into inferno parties and opium-infused orgies of young men and women with too much money and too much time. At some point, she even had a threesome with a pair of young ladies. She also dabbled a bit in morphine and cocaine, but neither, thankfully, became addictions. She was alarmed by the highs.
During this time, Isabella also had a series of boudoir photos taken. As no one really knew her age, she comfortably lied and her managers touted her as eighteen, when she was publicized as her rightful fifteen (and later, sixteen and seventeen) every night on stage. Still, business wasn't exactly the most stable and reliable--not to mention ethical--in the late 1920s, and the photographer didn't care either way. Isabella's photos only increased her fame across the pond, drawing in more crowds to the tiny hole-in-the-wall theatre. But photos of that nature were normal for performers of the age, and it was simply one extra step before her place in the vaudeville history books was set and sealed.
She loved the stage, which was part of the reason the illicit dealings over her career didn't faze her. To her, everything was still a game. Her biggest and most recurring fault was the simple fact that she had ten years of centuries old upbringing in near-isolation that she didn't know or understand was different from everyone else's upbringing. The world was big but she was very simple. And, naturally, she assumed that being very simple was normal. She understood that some people hate for no reason (her mother being the biggest influence here) and that there is both nasty behavior and unhappy people (her time on the street showed her this), but cities and their dangers were a foreign concept. She simply didn't realize how foreign.
She was both genuinely and willfully ignorant.
The very most ironic thing about Isabella is that she experienced some of the worst and most violent or crime-ridden times in various places. She hit Northern Ireland during the Irish Civil War, she hit America during Prohibition and lived in Chicago during the gang sprees of the late 1920s, then rode the beginning of the Great Depression. And yet, despite all of what she witnessed, she did not emotionally connect to any of it. She was, ultimately, a drifter. Her mother had not equipped her with the understanding that there are other worlds, other languages, other people outside of Tory. The entire world was Tory, and the boats headed somewhere else--Isabella wanted to see where. When she ran away, she had literally no idea, no concept of what she was running into. She had never been given a reason to have a natural impulse to be afraid, as there was nothing to be afraid of on the island except her mother, and this also contributed to her overall ignorance of the world she was living in and made her mother the only thing Isabella ever feared.
She lived exclusively for the moment and didn't sit thinking about that moment once it passed. When someone was violent, she saw it as an exception to a rule. She did not treat the world like it would bite back, possibly because she didn't want her mother to be right. There was an undercurrent of spite in what she did when she left home. Though she was ignorant, though this ignorance negatively affected her, she likely chose to live with it rather than coming to see the bad in people. Her mother would never be right. When she finally met and married Randolf, he anchored her and allowed her to face the world in a new way. She was safely married and pregnant and living something her mother said would never bring happiness--Isabella was now safe to think of the world differently. But during her time in Chicago, this was still years away.
In 1920s Chicago, not everything was very safe. This, of course, is a rather large understatement. As Isabella's money was divided between her managers and living expenses, as well as costumes and other things, she was not very rich, even though she was more famous than many of the silent film actors of her day (she was even as popular as the original "It" girl herself, Clara Bow). This fact, that Isabella was being handled poorly by everyone who had authority in her life, was not publicized at any point. She lived alone in a dingy apartment and this only sweetened the pot for several well-to-do men in the city. Mobsters. Isabella was an ideal girl to have on their arm. Pretty, personable, willing to sleep with them if they wanted, and unable to speak much English. Most of them used her in lieu of hunting down a date at a brothel or burlesque house. They paid her, spoiled her, and let the reporters take pictures of her on their arms. She was the envy of anyone who didn't have her to display.
Isabella had no real concept of the mafia or the gangs of Chicago. She could speak English well enough, as Americans were more than excited to teach her, but she couldn't follow everything. All she knew was that well-dressed and well-spoken men were very appealing. One of these men in particular took a shine to her. The man, Abram "Marks" O'Connell, was twice her age, part of Moran's North Side gang (of Irish descent, which was half the reason he liked her so well) and fed off her naïveté. They didn't establish a physical or emotional relationship, just a very intensely flirty association and one of the first instances of Isabella using a hard-to-get approach with a man (something that would never go away). Teasing him made him spoil her more and she loved to be spoiled. He would often take her out or take her shopping or let her stay with him if she needed a new place (this happened often as her salary was unpredictable thanks to her managers). He spoiled her rotten and she still owns the clothing and jewelry to this day.
And when Isabella did begin to see men regularly, he shot a couple of them in the groin when they made her cry. Of course, he didn't tell her and she never knew they were injured. But she didn't often cry over someone, either. Most of her suitors were fleeting, but a few established roots.
Though Isabella was considered quite flighty in her romances before Randolf, she had a second "regular" beau. Unlike her mob protector, this man was a black jazz pianist and maestro of the Little Pearl. His name was Edwin "Eddie" Jones. Even in Chicago, where jazz and black artists had exploded across the music scene, this was a risky position. No one at the theatre cared that she was locking herself in her dressing room with the young man--except the gangster. No one talked about the relationship because of the criminal activity that often frequented the darker corners of the club, but he caught the young man hitting on Isabella and it enraged him. The young man, the pianist, was gunned down after midnight as Isabella left for her apartment.
Though she hadn't been with the pianist steadily, though they both saw other people and weren't quite in love, when she heard of his death, it was the first genuine fear she ever felt since running away from home. She had always been a girl of unfortunate ignorance due to her situation, the sort of girl who knows someone is following her but assumes they're just looking for the same destination, but now she understood that there were taboos and it wasn't just talk. Now she understood that you don't have to know the motivations of everyone and that some people are just bad, like her mother said. This, fortunately, hardened some of her instincts and gave a few new ones. She had been refusing to grow up at this point, and even though she was so young when it happened, she finally accepted maturity.
The particular gangster, her so-called patron, was never caught and Isabella never knew he was to blame. But then he disappeared.
Months following the murder and disappearance, before she began an act on stage at the Chicago Theatre that would last the rest of her proper vaudeville career, Isabella's life took its final twist when Randolf Fitzwilliam showed up at her show and sat right in front. He and his friends had decided to head to America to experience the jazz scene and vaudeville and found themselves in Chicago after a few weeks of nonstop travel and party. When Isabella took the stage, Randolf was hooked. Isabella noticed him during the following acts and was transfixed. He was sitting so close to the stage and was always watching her with a very bright look in his eyes. She kept staring at him and by the end of the night, everyone she worked with knew she was very taken with someone in the crowd. This wasn't totally unusual for her, as she was quite overactive in her attractions, but when she refused to go out and meet the man, a very different reaction, they knew this was a bit different. She was behaving far too shyly--Isabella never acted shy.
But Randolf asked the management if he could be introduced to her, and they couldn't refuse him. He was the richest client they'd ever known, one of the richest young men in the world, and they were not about to turn him away. They coached her before sending her out, making sure she wasn't about to incriminate them or herself, and the pressure only made her more jittery.
She was brought out in an evening gown and the two had a very long conversation (or half-conversation). Though she was nervous at first, she quickly relaxed. The two continued this routine for every day he was in town, meeting for lunch or going to his hotel room to talk or visiting the sights. (During this time, her managers began to lessen their fees and her salary increased. Possibly they feared she would complain.) They didn't have a formal dinner date, nor did they kiss or proclaim any affection, but it was obvious they were destined for something.
After he returned to London, they kept up correspondence regularly. While the letters were simple small talk, Isabella often required help from others to help decipher certain words. But the letters didn't remain simple for long. They lengthened, spoke of love and lust and Isabella could no longer ask others to help read them. She looked up the words on her own.
Randolf two years of school left, something he had put off, and couldn't get back to her until he finished.
The Chicago Theatre and the Ziegfeld Follies: Spring 1929 - Spring 1932
Isabella left the Pearl Theatre in late 1929. A new agent had taken interest in her and demanded that she play a first class gig. She became a chorus girl, got a few solos of her own, but it was no longer slapstick and stunt routines that she was fond of. Still, she loved the glamor of the Chicago Theatre and all that came with it, but she wasn't there for long.
It was here that a talent scout finally got her to come to New York again, where she was immediately wrapped into the world of Broadway.
Specifically, the Ziegfeld Follies.
Though she missed Randolf, she was incredibly excited. Chicago was great to her but she wanted some sophistication after getting a taste of it from the Chicago Theatre. Her new agents gave her honest wages and treated her well, but she spent most of her money on a very cheap apartment and lots of fancy clothes. Poorer than ever, but exalted on the stage, the city fell in love with her again. She was a favorite of the rich and elite and famous and found herself wanted by everyone. She became friends and acquaintances with many celebrities, as quite a few had ties to the Ziegfeld Follies. Randolf couldn't wait to get back to her.
He came for New Year's. There, their romance exploded all over the ballroom. Not before Randolf danced and flirted with other girls, however, which made Isabella incredibly upset. But when he returned to her, he didn't let her go, and they were locked together well past midnight, sharing his hotel room and getting into trouble every other second for just about having sex in every place available. Passionate doesn't quite describe their relationship. It was something far beyond that.
But he had to leave again and Isabella continued working, staying with the Follies from 1 July, 1931 - 21 Nov, 1931 for their last season with Florenz Ziegfeld. In her spare time she recorded hits for the radio and performed on vaudeville stages. The moving picture business stepped into her life on several occasions, but all required a move across the country, which she refused, as she was waiting for Randolf.
Randolf visited more often once he was free from school, including attending the Ziegfeld Ball. She teased him about how many people wanted her to go be a movie star, hoping to inspire jealousy, as she didn't like having a long distance relationship. In the meantime, Isabella was encouraged from all corners to marry him, which she very much hoped for even without the voices egging her on. Her closest friend, a girl named Theodora who went by Theo, was especially pushy, and even went over plans to help Isabella ask Randolf to marry her. Randolf was rich, handsome, charming, well-spoken, and English. Theodora, a noisy girl from Brooklyn, wanted to live vicariously through Isabella (she would later be maid of honor at Isabella's wedding). She nagged Randolf to make an honest woman of Isabella or someone else would.
Love from Andy & Iz: Autumn 1932 - 23 August, 1983
Randolf didn't think it was such a bad idea, either. He had been planning to marry little Iz since the first second her saw her. He proposed in 1932 and gave her a beautiful engagement ring that she never took off. She returned to England with him a couple of months later. It wasn't difficult to tear her away from the stage, as Florenz had died and her interests had shifted to her future husband. They decided to revive the old South Africa estate. He refined her English, which was mostly fluent but very American and very rough (full of double-negatives and contractions), and helped expand her vocabulary at her own demanding.
It was in Cape Town that they married in 1933. Her wedding ring was custom-designed and hand-crafted by Randolf and his father and contains a blue diamond and several other smaller white diamonds. It's quite expensive.
Though Isabella and Randolf were still young and relatively wild, they still wanted a family. Randolf had now taken over the company and the two had the world at their fingertips.
Charles Aiden was born a few months after the wedding.
The first child wasn't necessarily planned, but even at such a young age, Isabella was happy to have him, though overwhelmed by the thought of motherhood. They had a governess to help, and even Randolf's old nanny Mary Trudy moved in with them, but Isabella insisted that she do as much for herself as possible.
During this time, South Africa began to fascinate Isabella, and out of fear for the citizens there, she told Randolf to help, and Hope In Alms was created as a way to aid and protect the poorest citizens. She loved her son and this new country, but as she got older, she began to realize how she had treated as a girl and how poor she had been. The corruption suddenly began to register as she did all she could to keep her own son safe. The growing up she had decided to do as a late teenager in Chicago began to pay off.
With tensions rising pre-WWII, the family decided to return to England, fearing the prime minister's favor of the Axis over the Allies at the time. Isabella and Randolf settled happily into the estate while Randolf's parents moved south to Surrey into another family home (they visited constantly, anyway, as Betsy especially had a sense of duty to take care of Isabella, who had no family at all).
It was then that Isabella and Randolf returned to the ways they had left behind. Parties. Socializing. Charlie was never raised by a nanny, but he was often under the care of one when Andy and Iz, as they were more famously called, hosted a party. A lot of them were heaven/hell parties, some were simply wild, raucous affairs with gambling tables and liquor. There was quite a lot of drug use, though either did any (Isabella had gone to a few of these parties as a teenager and at the time used anything anyone was passing around). They would get delightfully tipsy and act surprisingly closer to the age, rather than married parents of one.
They attended quite a few royal events, as the Fitzwilliams were close to the family, and it was here that questions about Isabella's story began to be raised. It was known that she had wings. It was known that she was Irish. No one understood anything about her. She was not dignified, not rich, not reserved, not significant. She seemed to have come out of nowhere one day and captured the attention of anyone who looked her way.
Because they were close to the royal family, Isabella's background was checked on. No one could find anything beyond the fake story, and most people understood it seemed implausible. When more people began to ask, when articles began to be written, Randolf saw the papers crushed and threatened to do more should anyone believe there was anything illicit about his wife. Most people loved her, but the more people who did, the more people wanted to probe deeper. By the mid 30s, most of the problem had stopped and Isabella had a second child, Scott Irving. Their partying toned down and gossip became sensational instead of personal. For a while, things were relatively calm.
But the mood in the country darkened late in the decade. Shortly after Isabella gave birth to Scott, Randolf immediately went to train for the RAF, and WWII sucked England in.
When England declared war on Germany, Randolf was enlisted to fight for his country. Isabella asked him, the only time she ever did, if he would want to live forever. Randolf, scared that she would think he was afraid of death, refused. He repeated this in every letter until his first leave: "I want to live my life and not an extra one."
During a moment in a hotel room in London before Randolf shipped off for war in early September 1939, they conceived little Alice, who was born 12 April, 1940. Afraid Randolf would feel guilty for being away during a pregnancy or instinctively fearful of her safety, Isabella decided not to tell him. She told his parents, instead, and they stayed with her for the duration of the pregnancy, keeping a midwife on the staff.
It was nearly impossible for no one to accidentally blurt it out in letters, and Isabella had to be careful not to show off her waist on trips to London (thankfully Alice was a tiny thing). When Alice was born eight months later, Isabella enclosed one picture of the baby amidst several others of the boys and herself with his parents, and wrote 'Your girl' on the back. She wanted Randolf to name the baby, who they called Baby Josephine in lieu of a first name, so instructed him to do so in the letter.
As he was being evacuated from Dunkirk, he was able to name the child in person. They met him in London. Randolf chose the name Alice after getting over severe shock. Alice, he explained, had been the name of a girl whose parents were killed in the attacks. She had died shortly after from a fever under the watch of Randolf and some of his friends.
(Randolf had a surprise for Isabella on another leave. He had got a pin up photo of her tattooed on his bicep. The Dancing Iz(zy) tattoo became a favorite for her children, as he could make the tattoo wiggle its hips. But when the children got older, Isabella stopped Randolf from showing it off.)
After the children were born, Isabella returned without the rest of her family to visit her mother and great aunt in Ireland. She hadn't told Randolf anything much about her history, only that her mother was living and she willingly ran away when she was young. Though Isabella knew she was stupid for going back, she didn't know how bad it would be. She was rejected immediately after explaining what happened and attempting to tell her mother about her new life. Cecily banished her and told her she would learn nothing and be nothing and was dead to her as long as she lived amongst humans. Dead to her no matter what.
Refusing to do her mother's bidding but ultimately devastated and hating her mother more viciously than ever, Isabella headed back to the estate and took charge of keeping house while her husband was away. But being told she was barred from learning about her heritage made her spiteful. She stole a journal before she left, one detailing her mother's position on immortality and how to attempt it. Isabella never kept it a secret. She used it to help explain to Randolf what she was, as he never quite understood. (Randolf was well aware that she had wings, as photos of her showed them and she had become famous for having them in the first place, but when she attempted to describe herself to him, that she was immortal and youthful, it came out jumbled and he barely believed her, although the wings gave him reason to at least not immediately dismiss her stories, and when she made his tea float in the air one morning, that certainly helped, as well.)
After the experience with her mother and the outright rejection, Isabella mothered her own children extensively and spoiled them rotten. She told them about what they were, pinning the term 'angel' to it as she had quite liked the term when she worked with the circus. She thought it was more romantic than 'reader', as her family called it. Acceptance of their heritage was important to her but she kept her personal heritage out of it. She taught them all she knew but told them very little of her family. She didn't want her children to feel sad that their grandmother didn't want them. She also didn't want anyone to go looking.
They spent most of the duration of WWII under the care of the Surrey manor house and its staff. Randolf's parents, Fred and Betsy, had all three of their children in the war, and Fred, a WWI veteran, was involved, as well. Betsy, Isabella, and Nigel's wife, Netty, who was raising two toddlers, were very patriotic during this time. They were heavily involved in helping restore and fund the families who had been left homeless during air raids. They donated clothing and goods that were in short supply, as well as money. It was the only way the two young women could distract themselves while their husbands were away, and it was the only way Betsy could do anything to support all three of her children.
But once the war ended, the family became close again. Isabella was now regarded as quite the socialite, both fashionable and classic. She embodied the look of Old Hollywood without stepping a foot into those social circles (though she met a few famous people over the course of her life and even appeared in one film). Wavy blonde hair, big blue eyes, curved eyebrows, and at 5'7", all legs and curves. She quite enjoyed it, perhaps to shrug off the rejection of her own family. All of the fame that came with her from America simply ballooned into reverence after she married one of the richest and oldest families in Britain. It seemed fitting and perfect and no one could get enough of her.
In any case, Randolf spoiled his wife, but she was head of the household and incredibly loving and didn't let her new chapter of fame and fortune sour her personality. She was, in fact, quite used to instant stardom. It had followed her from the time she was twelve. She continued to flirt and socialize and was even more of a firecracker now that she was stable and had a purpose in life. And a future. These were not things that Isabella had as a girl. She had drifted from place to place, never knowing where it would end up leaving her.
Both boys went to Eton and Alice was put into stage school, though she wasn't as interested as her mother. She did, however, love slapstick and vaudeville stunts and put on shows for people so they would pay attention to her. She never did anything with these talents as she was slightly shier than her mother, but she used them to entertain anyone who would pay attention. Isabella was happy to see that this side of her was passed on. Alice was also the closest child to her parents, clinging at their legs constantly (when her brothers weren't around).
Which made it all the more distressing when, in 1950, she was diagnosed with TB after a months'-long bout of illness. Not wanting to place her in a sanatorium away from home, or to have surgeries performed that would likely not help, Isabella and Randolf moved the family back to Cape Town. In 1951, Alice's health was so bad that Isabella had a difficult time believing her daughter was immortal at all, and actually feared she would die. This low point lasted several months, when Alice's health began to recover slowly. By 1954, she was well again, if a bit weak from the lack of physical exertion.
During the period of Alice's illness, Isabella helped remodel the manor. Charlie was still at Eton at the time and utterly obsessed with Ruth Andrews. Isabella encouraged him, as she only knew how to do, but Ruth was intimidated by Charlie. Still, the pair eventually began to see one another, and Charlie even got his parents to fly Ruth to Cape Town to see him (under very controlled conditions that required Charlie to live in the old guest house with Ruth because Alice was not well). Isabella made sure the girl was enchanted despite the horrible situation. And she was.
Charlie and Ruth were engaged just a couple years later. Isabella knew that their time in South Africa wasn't going to last much longer, as Charlie insisted on living there with Ruth, and when the young lovers married in 1954, their time in Cape Town ended.
In 1954, Randolf, Isabella, Scott, and Alice returned to England, leaving the estate to Ruth and Charlie, who were intending to travel before he inherited the company. At this same time, Isabella began to toy with the idea of aging herself, something she had been reluctant to do. Not wanting to simply start wrinkling in the public eye, Isabella went out with a bang: she posed for Playboy in 1956 in a shoot that emulated the famous Vargas Girls. (She was so infamous in Chicago that it had been a dream to get her into the magazine since its inception in 1953.)
From that point onward, no one could speculate why she wasn't getting any older, as she did.
With Charlie gone, Scott continued his education, eventually meeting and marrying Winifred Latham, leaving Alice as a sudden only child. Isabella and Randolf began to host parties again, but Alice was always by her side. Randolf became increasingly protective of his youngest child and only daughter in a way that he hadn't been when there were two boys doing all of the protection for him. Alice had poor judgment in the boys she elected to date and Randolf constantly turned them away before they could hurt her (though many left on their own). Isabella was far less protective, as she had been very free-spirited as a girl and wouldn't be a hypocrite, but she still had concerns. Alice hadn't found a niche that her brothers had (she had dropped out of nursing school), nor had she found a long term relationship.
Until one day Alice met Robert Capio. Her parents knew who he was, though they didn't know him well, and they especially were aware that he had an iconic status amongst Alice's two friends, Violet and Mallory. They had been talking about him for three years, in fact, and all Alice ever did was complain about having to listen.
But now Alice was the one talking about him. By the end of 1961, he was the only thing she ever talked about with any passion. They became friends, both Randolf and Isabella were rather shocked by the age difference. A two hundred and eight year age difference, to be exact. For some reason, however, Randolf quite enjoyed it. Robert was responsible and mature and Randolf felt comfortable having him around his daughter. Isabella was just thrilled Alice found someone who instilled a passion in her.
They were surprised to have Robert asking their consent to "court" their daughter, but nevertheless confident in him and readily agreed.
During this period, Alice finally moved out, though she didn't stray far from home.
In 1960, just a year earlier, Randolf retired, handing over the company to Charlie. With Randolf home much more often, he and Isabella began to travel again. They took Alice with when they could, but she was traveling with Robert and no longer needed her parents.
By 1964, Isabella had a grandchild to spend time with. By 1977, she had eleven. In 1967, Charlie had his first child, a daughter called Claire, who looked the spitting image of her grandmother. She and Isabella became very close and Claire's love for performing and dancing, though ballet, delighted Isabella. Isabella was a rolemodel for her granddaughter but the two didn't get to see each other nearly enough. Isabella's love for Randolf stayed with Claire whether she was visiting or not. Isabella spoiled all of her grandchildren, however, and never played favorites.
She and Randolf hosted a yearly Christmas party at the estate, and Isabella could get it to snow. These were very wild, comfortable occasions when everyone got back together. Having so many young children around made Isabella feel younger again. She never aged herself in front of family.
Into the 1970s, Randolf began to be the focus of Isabella's attention again. The couple lived alone, could no longer have the wild parties of youth, and his mortality was more apparent than ever. He had white hair, the limp he had sustained during WWII was back, and his hearing, which had also been damaged during WWII, went bad again. Isabella became fiercely protective of him and wouldn't spend time away. He was still as able as ever to hop on planes with her, and they traveled constantly.
With the 70s came a resurgence in the lifestyle that had entranced Isabella as a young girl. The only difficulty now was that her husband was older and she, in turn, aged herself to look similarly old. Still, she couldn't stand being so far removed from the discothèques that were now dominating the 70s, especially famed Studio 54 in New York. When it opened in 1977, she wanted to be there.
As he knew his wife, knew her affections, knew her desires, and most importantly, knew she was too young to be forced to confine herself to a prison of age, Randolf flew to New York with her.
Looking herself again, as young as ever, Isabella attending the opening under an assumed name. She was still a Fitzwilliam, but no one could place her--most people were old enough to remember her and to recognize her, though no one said anything. What could they have said? Some even thought they had had a fourth child when Isabella was in her 40s, but no one could validate anything. She became the Unknown Blonde, but she was, as always, the life of the party.
No, not even the life. She was the party. Isabella had always been a woman with few inhibitions and an independence of thought bred through years of raising herself, and even though Randolf couldn't stay with her, she let loose.
But she always loyal to him. She never indulged in what made Studio 54 infamous, but it was the way she scattered at everyone's fingertips that made her even appealing. She was an enigma and she enjoyed it, as now people weren't looking at her because she was infamous and rich, but because she was just her. Just Iz. The unchanging center of a woman who didn't believe in settling if there was a new thing to look at, a new thing to do.
She and Randolf traveled back and forth for a year, but by the end of the 70s, it was wearing him down. Isabella had used the clubs to distract herself from the change in their homelife and the age of her husband, and Randolf realized this even before she did. He wouldn't even let her travel alone. She didn't protest, didn't pout, and stayed home with him, visiting grandchildren and keeping herself domestic again. Domesticity was never something she resented, even as her mind began to wander into an uncertain future.
Thankfully for her, Charlie and his family moved back to England in 1980, thus relieving Randolf the burden of traveling to Cape Town and giving Isabella further distractions. Randolf's health was becoming less reliable, as he had smoked most of his life, and this was making Isabella increasingly nervous. She began to have nightmares about waking up without him, and her children were very aware that they had a crisis on their hands, so paid close attention to their mother and father. Especially when Randolf caught pneumonia in 1982 and nearly died.
The months after that were difficult. Isabella became more scarce. She was usually bouncing between her children, ringing and sending packages. Instead, she and Randolf began to close themselves off, as Isabella didn't want any excitement that would hurt him further. His health never recovered after the pneumonia, and he was a ghost of the man he had been when she married him. It broke his heart more than hers to watch her suffer with him.
Randolf died on 19 August, 1983.
Isabella followed after a short, icy coma, crossing over on 23 August, 1983.
She didn't notify her family. The help did. She was too traumatized--in fact, no one was present when Randolf passed away. It was her screams that prompted the staff to burst into the bedroom and to call Charlie, who was closest. Within minutes, she was frigid, curled around Randolf's body.
It was expected. They had always known she couldn't live without her Randolf, but it was painful to let her go.
Her death was not announced. They had no body. They held a memorial service for both Randolf and Isabella and invited the people closest to her. She was interred without a body next to her husband. The casket was empty and will always remain empty.
There were questions raised about her death, as the family never talked about it. There was renewed interest in the little girl with wings and many attempts made to have the family explain the truth behind them, but no one ever said a word. Documentaries couldn't explain her. The medical records were of no help. Her mystery peaked for a while but within a few months everyone quieted down and for twenty four years, life moved on without her.
