“I think I do understand, honey,” Lawson answered Shay.
“And since you do understand, Daddy,” Shay continued, “and since you always, always, always tell us Ipswich girls—Evangeline, Calliope, and me, you know, the three daughters you still have here at home with you—since you always tell us that you’ll always, always, always protect us and do everything to make us happy, please don’t let Fox Montrose come courtin’ on Calliope. All right?”
Lawson exchanged amused glances with Evangeline and Calliope, an unspoken recognition passing between them that Shay ever needed assurance that she was as much Lawson’s daughter as Evangeline, Amoretta, and Calliope were.
“All right,” Lawson agreed. “If Fox Montrose ever does come to me to request permission to court Calliope, I’ll kindly let him know that…well, that I don’t think the time is right or some such similar reason.”
“That sounds perfect, Daddy,” Shay approved. She looked to Calliope and smiled, whispering, “See, Calliope? You can always count on me to help you out.”
“Oh, I know it!” Calliope giggled.
“But, Shay, darling,” Kizzy began then, “what if Fox Montrose comes around to ask Daddy’s permission to court Calliope, and Daddy refuses, but he wants to court Evangeline instead?”
Shay’s pretty little brows puckered in puzzlement. “Well, I don’t know about that,” the child said. She looked to Evangeline and asked, “What about that, Evangeline? Would you want Fox Montrose courtin’ you?”
Evangeline laughed, shaking her head. “Heavens no! Even if I did have some infatuation with him, I want a man who wants me and just me, not one who wanted someone else as his first choice.”
Shay smiled. “That’s what I thought you would say, Evie.” Shay sighed and shook her head as she picked up the biscuit her father had just buttered for her. “Poor Fox Montrose. I don’t know what will become of him if he can’t have one of us Ipswich girls for a wife.”
Evangeline and Calliope exchanged mirth-filled glances with their father and Kizzy. Shay was so tenderhearted, sincerely concerned for Fox Montrose’s future happiness.
“You’re an angel, my Shay Shay,” Calliope said, leaning over and placing an affectionate kiss on Shay’s forehead. “How did we ever get by before you came along?”
Shay shrugged and bit into her biscuit.
“Now remember, Shay,” Kizzy began gently. “This discussion, about Fox Montrose and what Daddy will tell him if he ever does come callin’—”
Shay interrupted with an exasperated sigh, rolling her dark eyes with impatience. “It’s a matter of family loyalty,” she quoted the instruction her mother and father had given her time and again about such matters. “Don’t tell nobody else about it because somebody’s feelin’s might get hurt or somethin’ like that. I know, Mama.” Popping the rest of her warm, buttery biscuit into her mouth, she daintily wiped her mouth with her napkin and exclaimed, “It’s time for Molly’s mornin’ walk. Would anyone like to come along with us today?”
“I’d love to come, Shay,” Calliope chirped. “And maybe today will be the day we see some lilac blossoms, hmm?”
“Ooo, maybe so,” Shay giggled. “I can’t wait for the lilacs! Mama, will you help me gather bunches and bunches for our new house the way we used to for our old house in the wood when they’re bloomin’ well?”
“Of course, my sweet pea!” Kizzy assured her daughter. “As long as there are lilacs in spring, we’ll fill as many vases as we can for the house, all right?”
Shay clapped her hands with excitement. “Oh, I can’t wait for the lilac bunches! I think they smell so…so…well, I think heaven smells like lilacs!”
“I’m sure it does,” Lawson chuckled. “Meanwhile, I’ll help your mama with the breakfast dishes so you and Calliope can be on your way with Molly. All right?”
“Thanks, Daddy,” Shay said, leaping up from her chair and throwing her arms around her father’s neck as she kissed him quickly on one cheek. “You know how impatient Molly gets if we don’t get her mornin’ walk in early.”
“Ah yes,” Evangeline said, smiling. “Molly gets very impatient to get out and about.” Evangeline winked at Calliope knowingly.
Calliope sighed with resplendence born of contentment. Oh, she missed her sister Amoretta—missed her something awful. But she adored the new family environment that Kizzy and Shay brought to the Ipswich home. It was new, fresh, and filled with hope and endless possibilities of happiness. She enjoyed being the big sister for a change too, instead of the little sister as she’d always been to Evangeline and Amoretta. And Shay was the most adorable baby sister anyone could ever have wished for. And besides, Amoretta and Brake visited often, especially since winter had slipped away to welcome spring. Langtree wasn’t so far away after all, only half a day’s ride in the wagon. Amoretta and Brake would visit again soon, and meanwhile Calliope was joyous in the company of her family—of her sisters Evangeline and Shay, her father, and her stepmother and friend, Kizzy.
And there was something more as well—her secret bliss. The warm embers of felicity that smoldered deep in her heart, ignited months before in a moment of unanticipated epiphany, elevated Calliope’s delight in life to such a soaring height that she was certain no one in all the world could fathom it—even if someone did know of her bliss and its cause, which no one did.
Oh, she knew that her secret wouldn’t always gift her the euphoria it did in that moment—not forever. But she’d determined some time ago to linger in her bliss for as long as her secret would keep safely cached in her own heart and mind. Thus, as she watched Shay put the collar of the leash around poor Molly’s neck, as she saw Molly visibly sigh with buoying up her patience with her little friend, Calliope sighed as well. Winter was gone. Spring had arrived. And some secrets were well worth handing poor Fox Montrose over to some other young woman to adore—some other young woman who was not an Ipswich girl.
*
“Isn’t it a little cool out here, honey?” Lawson asked as he joined his daughter on the front porch that evening. “Are you sure you’re warm enough?”
“Oh yes, Daddy,” Calliope answered with a sigh. “Resplendently so!”
As her father sat down next to her on north-facing porch swing, he laughed, repeating, “Resplendently so, is it?” Stretching one strong arm along the length of the swing at Calliope’s back, he said, “That’s quite a theatrical response in the positive from a young woman who just this morning informed her father that she does not wish to be courted by the handsomest young bachelor in town.”
“Maybe I don’t think Fox is the handsomest young bachelor in town,” Calliope teased. “Have you met Tate Chesterfield, Daddy? My guess is poor dear Fox might lose his throne of handsomest to the charming Mr. Chesterfield.”
Smiling, Lawson asked, “Oh! So it’s this new young man that has you spurning Fox, is it?”
Calliope’s smile faded. “I’m not spurning Fox, Daddy…am I? I mean, I’ve never cared for him as any more than a friend, a chum. I have tried my best to be kind to him, yet simultaneously attempting not to encourage him to liking me as anything other than a friend. But I can see it in his eyes sometimes, his determination to…to…”
Lawson’s understanding laughter comforted her, for she did not wish to hurt Fox Montrose in any manner. “Well, my angel,” her father began, “sometimes a young man can’t keep from pursuing a beautiful young woman once that infamous old male determination kicks in.” He winked at her, adding, “And you are a beautiful young woman, my Calliope.” He paused a moment, thoughtful. “But if it isn’t Fox Montrose that makes your heart beat a little faster, then who is it?” he asked. “I’ve known you long enough—all your life, in fact,” he teased. Calliope smiled at him. “Long enough to know that there’s someone who strikes your fancy. You’re too loving-hearted, with your mother’s romantic nature simply radiating from you. Why, I can’t remember a time when you weren’t always going on about love and romance and weddings and t
hings. So who is it? It can’t be this new Chesterfield fellow…not that quickly. Can it?”
Calliope smiled with mischief. “Well, wouldn’t you like to know, Daddy?” she teased. “Maybe I’m between infatuations just now.”
“Oh, I doubt that,” Lawson said, pushing one foot against the porch floorboards and starting the swing to swaying a bit.
Calliope frowned. “You…you don’t think I’m a bad person for not caring for Fox as much or in the same way that he might care for me, do you, Daddy?” she ventured. “I mean, Daddy, I’ve even tried to grow fonder of him. But I can’t make myself.”
“And you shouldn’t try, sweetheart,” Lawson assured her. “You can’t force love, Calliope, and I wouldn’t want you to.”
Calliope sighed as a bit of discouragement entered her mind. “Blanche says that out here, out west, people often marry for convenience more than love. That just because of the need to survive, to have a helpmate and someone to be with, people out west often marry for practical reasons instead of love. But I can’t even begin to fathom marrying someone without loving him.”
Lawson looked down at Calliope, and when she met his gaze, it was to see him frowning at her with concern. “I would never want that for you, Calliope. Your spirit thrives on emotion, my girl. What Blanche says, well, there is some truth to that…a lot of truth. But don’t resign yourself to that, Calliope. Don’t you ever let me allow a young man to come courting you unless you truly want him to, all right? I want love for you—impassioned, thoroughgoing love the like Kizzy and I have…and Amoretta and Brake. I would never want to see one of my daughters marry for mere practicality or desperation or because they feel sorry for a young man who has inadvertently given his heart to her. Do you understand?”
Calliope sighed, smiled, and threw her arms around her beloved father’s neck in appreciation. “Yes, Daddy, I do. And thank you! I was beginning to doubt myself and—”
“Never doubt yourself, Calliope, especially where your heart is concerned,” Lawson whispered into her ear.
“Ooo, what a beautiful evenin’!” Kizzy exclaimed, as she and Shay stepped out onto the front porch from the house.
Evangeline followed closely, asking, “Are the crickets chirping yet, Calliope?”
Calliope released her father and smiled as she watched her two sisters and Kizzy take seats on the south-facing porch swing across from her and her father.
“Not yet,” she sighed. “But I keep hoping they’ll begin any night. I so love to go to sleep listening to them.”
“And then in summer when the frogs are croaking in the grass behind the house and down by the creek—heavenly!” Evangeline added.
Lawson chuckled. “I guess you girls aren’t missing the busy streets of Boston tonight then?”
“Not a whit,” Evangeline answered.
The Ipswich family sat quietly in the cool tranquility of the evening for a time, the soft squeak of the porch swings swaying to and fro and the gentle breeze the only sounds.
“This is sublime!” Kizzy whispered, exhaling a heavy sigh as she closed her eyes, savoring the feel in the air.
“Here comes the lamplighter,” Shay exclaimed, although quietly. “I love to watch Mr. Gates light the street lamps,” she added. “Up that little ladder he carries to light a lamp, then down again and onto the next one. I wonder if he ever gets tired of lightin’ the lamps, Daddy. Do you think he does?”
“I don’t know, Shay,” Lawson answered. “But I would guess that he wouldn’t continue to do it if he didn’t enjoy it to some extent.”
Shay looked up to her mother. “Would it be wrong if I asked Mr. Gates if he ever gets tired of lightin’ the lamps, Mama?”
Kizzy smiled. “I don’t think it would be wrong, honey. Just make certain you ask in a very polite manner, all right?”
Smiling with excitement, Shay jumped up from her seat on the porch swing, racing down the steps to the street and the lamp in front of the Ipswich home.
“I notice that Mr. Gates’s limp isn’t nearly as severe as when we first met him last summer, Daddy,” Evangeline noted. “I suppose that whatever his ailment was, it’s improving.”
“It would seem so,” Lawson agreed.
Calliope smiled. Oh, how she loved the simple conversations of evening. Easy conversation was so consoling somehow, especially while enjoying out of doors and midst a sweet spring breeze.
Calliope joined the rest of her family as they watched Shay scurry up to Rowdy Gates. Her little voice carried on the evening air, and it seemed its melodic lilt brightened the spirits of the man lighting the lamps of Meadowlark Lake, for he smiled as Shay babbled on to him.
Rowdy Gates propped the small ladder he carried with him when lighting lamps against the lamppost just in front of the Ipswich home. He stepped up several rungs of the ladder, lit the gas lamp with the small torch he carried for that purpose, and then descended the ladder again.
Calliope smiled when she heard Shay ask the man if he ever got tired of lighting the lamps.
“Sometimes I sure do,” the man answered. His voice was deep, with a resonance of strength that yet somehow conveyed calm.
“Then why don’t ya quit doin’ it?” Shay asked.
Rowdy Gates chuckled. “Well, somebody has to light the streets, right?” he asked. “And besides, I hurt my leg a couple years back, and it started stiffenin’ up on me. But I found the more I made my knee bend, even when it pained me some, the better and better my leg got. Goin’ up and down this little ladder every night and mornin’ keeps my leg limber, you see?”
Shay smiled. “Why, Mr. Gates, that’s the best reason I could ever imagine for lightin’ the lamps of town,” she exclaimed. “And I’m so glad it makes your leg better to do it.”
Rowdy Gates chuckled, tweaked Shay’s chin, and looked up to where the rest of the Ipswich family sat on the front porch swings.
“Good evening, Rowdy,” Lawson greeted. “Why don’t you come on up and visit a moment with us?”
Calliope watched as Mr. Gates paused, obviously uncertain as to whether he wanted to linger in visiting.
But Shay Ipswich was not one to be put off easily, and taking his hand, she said, “Oh, come on and linger awhile, Mr. Gates. You’re almost finished with the lamp lightin’ anyway.”
Calliope was certain that there wasn’t a person who walked the earth that would be able to refuse the sweet urgings of little Shay. Therefore, Calliope was not surprised when Rowdy Gates did indeed follow Shay’s lead to the porch.
“Mr. Gates explained to me that someone has to light the lamps, Mama,” Shay explained as she reined in Rowdy to standing on the top porch step. “But it’s even better that all that goin’ up and down the ladder helps keep his bad leg limber. I guess he hurt it awhile back somehow, but it’s gettin’ better now, and I think that’s a good reason for lightin’ the lamps, don’t you?”
“I certainly do. Good evenin’, Mr. Gates,” Kizzy greeted.
Rowdy touched the brim of his hat and nodded, responding, “Good evenin’, Mrs. Ipswich.” He looked to Evangeline, adding, “Miss Evangeline.”
Lawson stood from his seat next to Calliope and offered Rowdy his hand. “Rowdy,” he said as the two men struck hands.
Rowdy Gates looked to Calliope then, touched the brim of his hat, and said, “Miss Calliope.”
Calliope smiled and nodded in return. She was glad Shay had convinced the man to join them on the porch. As a general rule, Rowdy Gates wasn’t the most social man in Meadowlark Lake—even for the fact that he was so very handsome and personable.
Rowdy Gates wore his facial hair heavier than most men in town and was tall, broad-shouldered, and brawny—in truth, a somewhat intimidating presence. Calliope knew this was why most people in town didn’t seek out his company. Oh, he was an unusually attractive man—there was no denying that—even if his striking features were somewhat concealed by the length of his dark hair and heavy beard. But anyone who took a moment to look beyond the
conscious or subconscious attempt to conceal his face, almost as if he were hiding from the world, would’ve known at once that hidden beneath the rough exterior was a man of profound good looks.
“I hope you don’t mind that we allowed Shay to pose her curiosities to you directly, Rowdy,” Lawson said.
“Oh, of course not,” Rowdy assured him. “I’m always happy to answer the questions of a pretty little filly like this one here.” He looked to Shay and winked.
Calliope almost giggled out loud when Shay blushed cherry red with delight.
“So lightin’ the lamps helps the stiffness in your leg?” Kizzy inquired.
“Yes, ma’am,” Rowdy assured her. “I’ll admit it was a might awkward and painful at first. But it seems like that little ladder done the trick. And the pain isn’t nothin’ like it was before either. I guess I just had to work the cricks out of it.”
“Oh! So you just have a stiff leg, Mr. Gates,” Shay said then as sudden realization hit her. “You’re not missin’ half a foot like Warren Ackerman says!”
“For pity’s sake, Shay Ipswich!” Kizzy scolded.
But Rowdy Gates just laughed. “Is that what Warren Ackerman thinks was causin’ my limp?”
“Yes, sir,” Shay ventured, glancing at her mother apologetically.
“Well, I’ll tell you what. You just let Warren think that I was missin’ half a foot,” Rowdy began. “Then maybe when my limp is gone for good, he’ll get to thinkin’ I grew the missin’ half back. What do you say?”
Shay giggled and nodded, still looking to her mother for reassurance. Kizzy smiled and winked, and Shay was relieved.
“I hear you hired the new Chesterfield boy out at the mill,” Lawson ventured.
Rowdy nodded. “Yep. Today was his first day,” he explained. “I think it’s a little more laborious a job than he’s used to, but once he builds up a bit more muscle, he’ll do just fine.” He paused a moment and then continued, “Between you and me and the fence post, I’m glad a new family has moved into town. Maybe now the absence of the one that had to leave last fall won’t hover over all of us so heavy anymore.”
The Secret Bliss of Calliope Ipswich Page 3