“Sweet dreams, love,” he whispered. After he’d given her a simple kiss on the cheek, he placed the hat on top of both their faces so as to guard them from the light.
If she’d been in love with him, she’d have swooned at the thought of him calling her love and kissing her all in one moment, but it wasn’t really meant to be a romantic moment, and it wasn’t one after all.
They slept there together till mid-morning with no thoughts, no words, and no apprehensions. It was as innocent as it comes, and luckily no one saw. For if anyone but the two involved looked in on the present situation, they may have gotten a false impression, though Ellie and Jamie were as guiltless as they come.
When Ellie finally awoke, she was alone on the couch, but the Peter Pan hat was still on her head.
“Jamie?” she asked sleepily in a confused voice, “Jamie?”
From inside the tent out popped Gracie’s little blond curly head, “She’s awake!”
Another head, this one dark and curly, followed. “Come on, Ellie,” Wesley urged.
She slowly stood up, yawned, and let Wesley run over, grab her hand, and lead her to the tent. Inside, the children munched on lemon poppy-seed muffins and sipped orange juice while Jamie, wearing his glasses again, read the rest of the story from the night before since they’d fallen asleep during the ending the previous time it was read. His dark locks fell into his eyes as he read and he had to continually push them out of his view.
He smiled upon seeing Ellie, “Good-morning, Miss Henderson.”
“Good morning, Ellie,” the children repeated.
“Would you like a muffin?” asked Demi.
“Yes please,” Ellie answered as she sat down.
Wesley immediately sat down upon her lap and Leah held out a glass, “Orange juice?”
“Thanks.”
“Sleep well?” Jamie asked.
“Wonderfully. Thank you.”
“It’s still pouring outside and the thunder ‘n lightning haven’t stopped at ‘t’all since they began,” Gracie informed.
“Is that so?”
Jamie nodded, “It ‘tis. I just wonder when my parents will be able to get home.”
Demi smiled, “Well if they can’t come home, then Ellie won’t be able to leave either. You could stay with us a whole ‘nother night, Ellie!”
“You could stay with us for the rest of time if it rained that long,” Gracie agreed.
Ellie smiled, but she was too tired to really appreciate the statement, “Thank you, girls. I’m honored.”
“Ellie could stay with us forever, right Jamie?” asked Demi.
Jamie smiled, “If she wanted to.”
Chapter 14 - The Lake
Just as Jamie had predicted, it continued raining for three days straight. After the first night full of thunderstorms, Jamie took Ellie home in the carriage. Robert and Louise returned home that afternoon, and they sent Matthew over to tell her she might as well not come to work the next few days or at least until the rain stopped. It would be useless, they said, since they wouldn’t be going to work either. Ellie first thought she’d just have to sit at home all day by her lonesome self, but Jon braved his way through the pouring rain every morning and stayed at Ellie’s until late into the evening.
Finally, the weather returned to normal and it began to rain every other day, like it always had before. It had been a few weeks since Ellie had seen Sarah Walsh, and she’d forgotten all about Miss Walsh’s fixation with Jamie, but then one day she was reminded...
After a few hours of schooling with the children one afternoon, Ellie left Gracie in charge of her siblings while she went down to grab a drink and a little snack. She’d just sat down at the kitchen table when she heard the maid, Juliet, open the front door and give a small sigh.
“Another,” she said as she picked up whatever it was she spoke of, “Why this must be the third letter this week.”
Juliet walked into the kitchen not realizing Ellie was present. She held a letter and she said, “Poor Master Jamie. I feel sorry for the man.”
“Why do you feel sorry for him?” Ellie asked, surprising the unaware Juliet.
Juliet’s eyes widened, “Oh, I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to disturb you, Miss Henderson. I should probably get going and...”
“Nonsense, what were you talking about? Who’s that letter from?”
“Well, I shouldn’t be telling you this, since it’s Master Jamie’s private information, but you seem like you’re willing to keep a secret.”
Ellie nodded, “I am.”
Juliet leaned in and whispered, “The letter’s from Miss Sarah Walsh. She sends at least one or two each week, but this is the third in six days. She has them dropped on the front porch only on sunny days, so that the rain won’t ruin them. I feel sorry for poor Master Jamie. He obviously has no feelings for the lady, but she just doesn’t understand.”
“And what does he do with the letters?”
“I believe he tries to reply to at least one a week, and although he rejects her invitations and sentiments, he’s always very kind about it, being the gentleman he was raised as. He doesn’t want to hurt the girl, but I suppose if he ever wants her to stop, he’ll have to do something to change her feelings. If he doesn’t, I bet she’ll love him till the day she dies.
That afternoon, after Ellie’s teaching hours were through, the children pleaded for her to read them a story.
“Snow White,” said Leah.
“The Three Little Bears,” argued Demi.
“No,” Gracie added, “Cinderella.”
Wesley quickly ended all conflict when he suggested the children’s favorite, “Peter Pan.”
All the children happily agreed and they all began searching for the book. It was nowhere to be found. Before Ellie could stop him, Wesley ran out the door shouting, “Let’s go find Jamie! Jamie will know where it ’tis!”
Ellie ran after him and soon entered Robert Rhodes’ office directly after little Wesley. It was fairly large for an office, and eerily dim. High, fully-filled bookshelves covered almost all of the round room’s walls, and the only lighting was a gaslight sitting on some books atop the desk. Behind the large oak desk sat Jamie in a high-backed black chair. He wore a white collared shirt, suit vest, pants, and a tie, but his jacket was hanging on one of the coat hangers’ pegs.
When Wesley and Ellie had entered, he had been leaning over a mess of papers spread upon the desk with his thick black glasses on and a distressed look upon his face. His hair, looking black in such little light, fell carelessly into his eyes, but he didn’t bother to brush it out. A long stream of smoke occasionally flowed out of his mouth as he smoked a brown cigar. The hazy, dark room began to make Ellie feel dizzy.
“Jamie!” Wesley exclaimed, “Jamie! Do you know where Peter is?”
He crawled atop his brother’s lap and looked up at him anxiously. Jamie scratched his head and pushed the air out of his eyes. He tried to put on the most content face he could for his little brother, and gave a small, forced smile, “What is that you want, little man?”
“Peter,” Wesley repeated, “Peter Pan. We need it and you were the last to have it.”
Jamie rolled up his shirt sleeves to his elbows and gave a small sigh, rubbing his head again, “Well, I suppose it’s somewhere around here.”
He got up, taking Wesley in his arms, set his cigar in an ashtray, and they searched around the office first, but then, after having no success, they left to search around the house. Ellie was just about to follow when she caught a glimpse of some things on the desk and got the urge to see what had been stressing Jamie so much.
On one portion of the desk there were papers from various universities and a note from Louise Rhodes that read, “Just in case you decide to go back.” There were also brochures from the different sections of the military: the navy, army, marines, etc. Ellie knew those were from Robert Rhodes; Jamie had told her how his father had been pressuring him to go into the military. There were
also sections of job offerings found in the newspapers of several nearby cities.
And on the other side of the desk there were several letters from Sarah. From looking at the date of the letter on top, Ellie knew it was the one she’d seen Juliet with earlier. Beside the letter there was another, blank letter that Jamie had begun writing. So far it only read, “Dear Miss Walsh,”
As she moved over to get a better look, an open drawer caught Ellie’s eye. It was found at the bottom of the desk, but it was one of the largest drawers there. Ellie kneeled down and found that it was stuffed with tons and tons of envelopes. They all contained a letter and were sent to either “James Rhodes”, “Jamie”, “J. I. Rhodes”, “James Robert Rhodes”, “Mr. J. Rhodes” or one of the millions of other names Sarah had used. Ellie hadn’t realized how large Sarah’s infatuation was or how long it had gone on, but what she now knew rather shocked her.
Before she could look any farther, Wesley ran in with Peter Pan in his hand and shouted, “We found it, Ellie! Come on!”
Wesley waited out in the hall impatiently and Jamie walked back into the office.
“Having a good day, Ellie?” he asked casually.
“Yes, fine,” she answered quickly, hoping he hadn’t seen her snooping in on his private affairs and papers, “And you?”
He took a seat and lit another cigar, “Not so good.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. You know, if you ever want to join the children and I today, I’m sure they’d love to have you.”
“Thanks for the offer,” Jamie answered, “But I’d rather not.”
“Come on, Ellie,” Wesley repeated as he ran back in and tugged on his nanny’s arm.
“Well,” said Ellie, “I should probably get going. Goodbye, Jamie.”
“G’bye Ellie, Wes.” His voice was solemn, monotonous.
As they walked up the stairs to the playroom again, Wesley looked up at Ellie and said, “I don’t think Jamie’s having a very good day.”
Since she knew Wesley hadn’t heard Jamie and her conversation, Ellie asked curiously, “How can you tell?”
“Whenever Jamie’s stressed, he smokes. Of course, he smokes some other days too, but I can usually tell when he’s stressed smoking and when he’s regular smoking, and today, he’s stressed. I don’t think he’s been having a very good day.”
“Me neither.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” Ellie lied.
The next afternoon, Jamie, Ellie, and the children packed up a picnic basket full of sandwiches, cookies, and fruit. They loaded it into the Rhodes’ carriage along with some foils for fencing, a few books, and the girls’ dolls.
Jamie led them to a lake nearby and they set up a little picnic beneath the sunny, clear blue sky. Just as he was able to change characters so quickly before, he’d lost the glasses, cigarette, and distressed look to be the youthful man he’d been before.
It was a perfect day. With the beautiful emerald hills of Donners Bend as their surrounding landscape, Gracie and Leah played with their dolls beneath the oak tree, Wesley sat in Ellie’s lap as she read him a story, and Jamie and Wesley fenced on the lush green grass.
Once all the contents of the picnic basket had vanished but for a few spare cookie crumbs, Jamie decided to go get out the rowboats for a little fun on the lake. The Rhodes’ mansion was the closest house to the lake in all of Donners Bend, so it was generally considered to be “theirs”, though everyone was allowed to use and enjoy it. So, a good many years ago, when Robert had been but a boy, he and his father built a little shed nearby in which to keep their things. It was painted white and had cute little black shutters that matched the black-shingled roof. From out of it Jamie found two wooden rowboats complete with oars.
“Shall we?” he asked, as he held his hand out to Ellie.
“I’d love to,” she replied, letting him pull her up onto her feet.
The girls, complete in cute gingham, striped, and polka-dot dresses, ran to the boats with their hair flying behind them. Wesley followed, in a blue shirt and brown trousers folded up to the knee from when he’d been wading earlier. Jamie and Ellie came next; Jamie walked quickly and pulled Ellie along by the hand behind him. He was dressed just like Wesley except his sleeves were rolled up instead of his pants and he wore a white shirt instead of a blue one. With her hair down and loose, for it rarely was, Ellie wore a thin, careless pale green dress that blew with the breeze and upon her head sat a large, floppy white hat. All six were barefoot.
First they boarded the boats and floated around slowly, laughing and talking and relaxing in the calm water under the shining sun. Then, Demi came up with the idea of racing the boats across to the other side and all the children agreed it would be a wonderful game. Surprisingly though, when they chose which sides they’d be on, the children chose to be in a boat by themselves and Ellie and Jamie were left to the other.
With each rowboat starting at one end of the lake and the rower for each side, Leah and Ellie, in place, the race began. It wasn’t as easy as one might have thought. Minutes passed and both boats had barely moved at all. Finally, Jamie said he’d take the oars from Ellie, but the children screamed and wouldn’t let him. They said it was a rule that in his boat only Ellie could row, but in their boat anyone could row because of the age difference. Jamie, not wanting to start a fight, let them do as they wished and followed their made-up rule.
As the two sluggish boats moved like snails across the water, the non-rowing members of each side grew very patriotic towards their side and began trying to oppress their enemy.
“You’re going down, Jame!” Gracie shouted.
“Yeah! Eat our dust!” Demi added.
“I would gladly do so if I were losing, but I don’t believe I have anything to worry about,” Jamie replied with a smile and easygoing attitude, acting as though he and Ellie could win the race without much effort.
“We’ll be waiting for you at the finish line!” Wesley exclaimed as their boat inched forward.
“Oh yeah, little man?” Jamie shot back.
“Yeah!” a determined Wesley returned.
“Oh it’s on now,” Jamie said with fake malice.
The boats had reached halfway now, and both girls began struggling to keep their boat ahead. Ellie could have actually been far ahead of Leah now if she’d wanted to, but she didn’t want to damage the girl’s pride.
Insults began flying back and forth and everyone was shouting at their rowers to go faster as they smiled and laughed. And then, it happened. No one saw it coming until it was too late.
Jamie, in the excitement of the moment, stood up in the little rowboat, pointed his finger forward, and shouted, “Full speed ahead, Captain!”
If you’ve ever been in a rowboat before, you know that this is not always such a good idea. One minute he was standing confidently, waving his fist at the enemy, and the next the entire boat had flipped upside down, spilling its occupants into the cool lake water.
“Man overboard!” shouted Wesley.
After a slight hesitation, Jamie and Ellie emerged from beneath the formerly calm water. Obviously, both were soaking wet and Ellie’s floppy hat had fallen off her head and was now floating atop the water.
“Are you alright?” Gracie asked with a worried expression as she leaned over the side of her boat.
Ellie laughed, “I’m fine.”
Jamie grabbed Ellie’s hat and set it over his head as he floated on his back, “Just going for a little mid-afternoon swim is all. Would any of you care to join us?”
The girls shook their heads and Wesley answered simply, “Too cold.”
Leah suddenly realized something and shouted, “We win the race by forfeit!” and the children cheered.
Jamie shot water from his mouth like a miniature fountain as he paddled on his back over to Ellie.
“Are you alright?” he asked her again.
Ellie was holding onto the side of the overturned rowboat as the oars floated near
by. She didn’t seem to enjoy swimming as much as Jamie did. Ellie had always had a problem with swimming in large areas like oceans and lakes. Ever since she was a girl she’d been afraid of drowning because when she’d been only seven years old, her cousin Samuel drowned in the sea. She’d never admitted it to anyone before.
“A little cold,” she answered, minimizing her true fears.
Setting the hat on top of the boat, Jamie instructed, “Gracie, watch the others while Ellie and I get dried off.”
Donners Bend Page 11