Donners Bend
Page 21
It was there they stood, in the middle of the muddy yard, during one of the happiest moments of their lives, on yet another rainy day in Donners Bend.
So, that was the beginning of the many, many years Jamie and Ellie would spend together. They wed not long after that day in a small, simple ceremony out in the fresh air like Jamie wanted, instead of stuffed into a little church. They moved into a nice and fairly expensive, yet modest, house Jamie ordered to be built on the other side of the Rhodes’ Orchard. There, they invited over Gracie, Leah, Demi, and Wesley each day so Ellie could teach them and act as their nanny once more, and in due time, Jamie and Ellie had children of their own: three, to be exact.
Jamie ran the orchard’s affairs, just as he said he would, and although times were tough at first, with Jamie’s brain and a little luck, business was flourishing within a few years. After Robert and Louise passed away, Jamie, Ellie, and their children moved into the large house left behind, and they lived there happily until the end of their days.
Benjamin and Marcelle Fanning, always a very conceited pair, lived in wealth and comfort till the end of their days. Since Benjamin had already become quite rich by the time Marcelle and he married, they were able to spend most of their time traveling abroad and exploring the world together. They never had any children though; Marcelle didn’t want to ruin her figure and Benjamin didn’t care much for kids, but they lived a wonderful life, nonetheless.
Sarah Walsh’s infatuation with Jamie ended after that day at the church. Although she spent a few more lonesome years by herself, she soon found a man who loved her as much as she loved him, and they married soon after.
Phillip Browning became Jamie’s business partner for a few years, and they worked on the orchard together, but he soon found that Donners Bend just wasn’t the town for him and moved away to another little city called Covington. There, he spent quite a few years courting numerous women before finding the perfect one for him.
Jon Smithton, true to his word, really wasn’t a marrying man. He never found that special someone, nor did he ever even involve himself in a courtship. He and Ellie stayed friends forever though, and he became a fairly good companion of Jamie. Many days, he’d show up at Ellie’s and look after the children for her; he’d always loved children. He stayed in that little house of his in the hills of Donners Bend until the day he died, without a regret in the world.
So, the rainy days of Donners Bend continued, and with them the years passed by; and when Jamie and Ellie’s oldest daughter, Mae, turned thirteen, Ellie passed on to her the pearl earrings she’d received that Christmas from Jamie so long ago. She told Mae how she’d told Jamie she hated him that night and how mad she’d gotten when she opened up the box to reveal the beautiful earrings.
“But why did you become so angry, mother?” asked Mae as she gazed at the lovely pearls, “How could you not like these? They’re beautiful.”
“Yes, they are beautiful,” Ellie agreed.
“Then why did you yell at father?” Mae questioned, her dark brown eyes resembling Jamie’s almost exactly as she looked up to her mother.
Tears came to Ellie’s eyes as she answered, “I don’t know, dear. I just don’t know.”
Mae smiled, “You must have been quite the fickle girl to refuse him.”
Ellie wiped away a tear, trying not to let her daughter see, “Yes, yes I was somewhat of a fickle girl, indeed.”
Jamie entered the room as Ellie spoke. He came to stand behind her, placing his hands upon her shoulders and kissing the top of her head.
“Your mother was, and still is, a very beautiful girl, and a very uncertain one at that,” Jamie told Mae with a grin, “But for some crazy reason, I fell in love with her.”
Mae giggled.
Ellie smiled and added “And then one day he stole my heart away...”
-THE END-