M. Donice Byrd - The Warner Saga
Page 23
“It’s slipped, Mr. Warner, I swear.”
“Hogwash! You’ve been rude to my wife every time you’ve come to the table and I’m fed up with it. Look, you splashed syrup all over the table. Should I send you the cleaning bill when it gets all over her sleeves?”
“I’m sorry, sir. I’ll get a rag.”
The commotion in the corner drew the attention of both diners and workers. The manager was soon at the table asking for explanations and offering apologies.
“I’ll see Lena gets sacked,” the manager capitulated fawningly.
Meredith saw a look of fear in the girl’s eyes. “No, Blake,” Meredith broke in. “I don’t want to see her fired. I just don’t want her serving us anymore.”
“I-I’ll see to it she’s put to work washing dishes during the remainder of your stay.”
“Hey!” Lolly cried drawing everyone’s attention. “Petey stole my strawberry.”
“If you’ll excuse us,” Blake said to the manager. “Pete, give Lolly back her strawberry.”
Pete shook his head no and began pulling at the tablet but the waitress had placed his plates on top of it and he couldn’t get it out.
“Give it back,” Lolly pouted sounding like she was going to start crying.
When Pete shook his head no again, Blake snatched the strawberry off his plate and put it back on Lolly’s. Pete grabbed it again and set it on the edge of his plate as he vocalized his protest within indistinguishable utterance. Frustrated by his lack of progress getting the tablet free, Pete turned his fingers under shaping his hands into claws and touched his face all over then scratched at one arm.
“Dammit, Pete.”
“No, Blake, he’s trying to tell us something. Show me again, Pete.”
Pete did the same pair of gestures.
After a moment of contemplation, Meredith figured it out. “Rash? Strawberries give Lolly a rash?”
Pete nodded and pointed back and forth between them.
“Both of you. They give both of you rashes?”
Pete nodded again.
“But I still like strawberries,” Lolly protested.
“Sorry, sweetie, but you don’t want to be itchy because you ate one.”
Blake sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, Pete. I should have known better. I’ve never seen you be mean to Lolly.”
Pete lifted his plate turning the strawberries towards Meredith offering them to her.
“For me?”
He nodded.
Blake was shaking his head. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve commented about other people’s children’s behavior. And most of the time people would say, ‘You don’t understand because you don’t have children.’ They couldn’t have been more correct. I had no idea. I thought you just tell them to do something or not to and they complied.”
“You were a perfect child?”
Meredith sensed Blake’s withdrawal. “I think I was kicked out of six boarding schools, if that tells you anything.”
Meredith finished chewing her bite of French toast and asked, “When did you finally grow up and start behaving?”
Blake knew there was still a lot of that rebellious teenager in him. A half smile quirked his lips. “Honestly, I didn’t begin to behave until my father threatened to ship me off to a Tibetan monastery where, according to him, they would shave my head and castrate me.”
Suddenly, Pete began choking, coughing reflexively. Blake reached towards him to slap his back but Pete grabbed his wrist with one hand and grabbed his milk with the other. He quickly took a few sips of milk. After a few more coughs and a few more sips, Pete got his coughing under control.
Pete slid the remainder of his meal onto one plate so he could stack the plates and get to his tablet.
“Nice mealtime talk, B.”
“Sorry, Pete. I didn’t think…”
“Do you ever?” he wrote.
“Fine, I’ll change the conversation,” Blake said refusing to be pulled into another argument. “We’re going to need to look for a house.”
Meredith sat down her fork “I nearly forgot – Mrs. Billingsham sent me out with an estate agent yesterday. My plan when I got here was just to take the $30 a month and find a little apartment.”
It was Blake who nearly choked this time. “I didn’t mean for you to try to live off that money. I thought you could buy yourself a few dresses or baubles. Of course, I thought you would be staying with Donna.”
“Oh,” she said surprised. “It’s more than double what an army private makes. I’m sure I could live comfortably enough on that much.”
Blake only shook his head knowing she probably could.
“Well, Cloris already picked out three houses and was very insistent I choose one. I’m glad you’re here because she scares me and she was practically going to force me to take one and have you reimburse her.”
Blake grinned. “She can be overbearing. Tell me about the houses.”
“Even after seeing a little of her house, I was expecting to see something smaller than Donna’s house. But the smallest one had eight bedrooms.”
Blake raised his eyebrows. “That’s the one you liked?”
“What do I know about these things, Blake? I lived in a three room log cabin until the day we married. I didn’t even know anyone with plaster walls until I met Donna. The only reason I picked that one was because the Pembrooks left a considerable amount of furniture in it and it had a nice stable and carriage house in the back for horses. And there was a large area that would be perfect for a vegetable garden in the spring.”
Pete picked up his pencil quickly. “I’ll help.”
For the first time, Blake saw Pete’s interest sparked and he wondered if the boy needed to be around things that felt familiar like a garden.
The neighbors wouldn’t know what to think of the lady of the house outside working in a vegetable patch. Would they think he was miserly with his money or worse would they think he did not have much money? He needed to face it. Meredith was going to raise a great many eyebrows. She was not going to fit into society’s mold and he doubted if she really cared.
“I’ve been to the Pembrook’s house a few times and it seems nice. Is it missing anything you’d like to have?”
“The only thing I would really like is more land so I can ride. But we’re not going to find that much land in town.”
28
As they crossed the lobby to return to their room, two nicely dressed women entered the hotel. One greeted Blake warmly while the other one appeared to want to escape. As soon as the introductions were made the woman lagging behind made the excuse that their relatives were waiting on them. She wrapped her arm around the other woman’s and pulled her towards the dining room. Before they made it to their suite, two of the maids greeted Blake by name with saucy comments and tawdry smiles.
They were barely back in their room when Meredith let her feelings be known. “Is there one single woman in this city who you have not…” Meredith refrained from being too graphic with the children nearby but struggled to come up with a term that he would know what she meant but Pete would not. “… Courted?”
“I have only courted one of those women.”
“Is that what it’s going to be like being married to you?” she shouted. “I can’t leave these four walls without running into more of your conquests.”
“I can’t believe you’re getting mad at me over me courting other women before I married you!”
Pete ushered Lolly into the bedroom, closing the door behind her as Blake and Meredith continued arguing. Suddenly, Pete was standing between them, bowing up on Blake just before shoving him back.
“What the hell?” Blake yelled. “Pete, I’m not in the mood for any more of your nonsense.”
Pete balled his hands into fists.
“You don’t think I was going to hit her, do you? Oh my word, you do.”
Blake raised his hand in a surrendering gesture.
&
nbsp; “Pete.” Meredith put one arm around his shoulder and placed the other hand over one fist. “Blake and I didn’t know each other very well when we got married. There are things we are going to argue about. But it’s just arguing. He’s not going to hit me.” Meredith gave him a little peck on the cheek. “That was very brave of you but unnecessary.”
“Go check on Lolly, wash your hands and get ready to go.”
Pete walked to the table where he left his paper and pencil. He flipped it open and began writing. He ripped out the page and carried it to Blake.
“You may be bigger than me but I will kill you if you ever hit AM,” it read.
When Blake finished reading, he looked up to find a hard, angry expression on Pete’s defiant countenance. He remembered back to his first encounter with Pete where Pete had held the shotgun on him and Blake suddenly realized the anger in Pete had been there long before his parents were killed. He remembered the man at the stable telling him Howard Morgan was a mean drunk but didn’t deserve what happened to him. But maybe he did. Maybe Howard Morgan beat his wife. Maybe he beat Pete as well.
“I stopped solving my problems with my fists when I was a teenager. Go wash up and get ready to go.”
Blake would have liked to have had a heart-to-heart talk with Pete but he doubted Pete would listen to anything he had to say.
“Sweetheart,” Blake said to Meredith, his voice dripping with sweetness. “I’d like to speak with you in the other room.”
“It’s all right, Pete, do as Blake asks. We’ll be out as soon as we’re ready to leave.”
Blake sat on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands when Meredith entered. She closed the door.
“I don’t know what to do with him. He tried to run away when we were in Rolla but I found them and refuse to let him take Lolly with him. Maybe I should’ve just let them go.”
“Blake, you did the right thing and you know it.”
“After the sheriff released me, the man who ran the livery told me their father was a mean drunk. If that is the example set for him before I got there, how is he ever going to learn to trust me? I’ve already given up all hope that he’ll ever think of me as a father figure. You saw what he thinks of me.”
“Give him time. Put yourself in his shoes. He’s got no control of what is going on in his life. Help him take control.”
“How?”
“Let him make his own decisions for one,” she said. “I think standing up to you might have been good for him. He’s felt powerless. It doesn’t help that you’re treating him like a helpless child. How would you have wanted to be treated when you were his age?”
Meredith stood in front of Blake. He lifted his head and wrapped his arms around her waist pulling her close enough that she was standing between his legs and he turned his head as he rested his head on her breasts.
“That’s not a fair comparison. That was two years after my mother died. I had been living in boarding schools. I was given very little freedom. I ate when I was told and whatever they were serving. I went to bed when they told me. I got up when I they told me.”
Meredith didn’t say anything, knowing Blake was mentally comparing his situation with Pete’s.
“He’s lost both his parents not just one, Blake, and he has a little sister he’s responsible for. He’s had to grow up overnight. He’s got two more disadvantages. He can’t speak and he’s had very little education.”
“Was this a mistake?” he asked looking up at her.
Meredith stroked his hair and placed a light kiss on the top of his head. “How can it be a mistake? It’s just more difficult than you anticipated.”
Blake nodded as he realized she was right. Even if Pete continued to resist him, removing Pete and Lolly from a place where they may have been in danger could not have been wrong. “You’re right,” he said setting her back from him so he could stand up.
“We need to get ready to go. Pete and Lolly are probably out there waiting on us already.”
“Before we go, I want to look at your wardrobe to see if you have everything you need,” Blake said crossing to the wardrobe that held her clothing.
“Cloris acted shocked that I wasn’t wearing mourning attire.”
“Do you want to wear black?”
“No.”
“Good, it would look like you’re in mourning over our marriage.”
Meredith laughed. “I expect to see a couple dozen women wearing black at our next party – mourning the fact that you’re off the market.”
“So, you’ve decided to stay married to me?”
“I suppose I have no choice. Cloris said it would be in the paper on Sunday.”
“What story is she telling everyone?”
Meredith frowned. They both knew the truth was too scandalous. “We met two years ago in Minneapolis and have been corresponding since. When I wired you about my parents’ deaths, you came immediately and married me.”
“How gallant of me,” he said with a smirk. “It’s certainly better than I deserve.”
“That’s what Cloris said.” Meredith hesitated, debating whether to admit she’d intentionally eavesdropped on Blake and Donna’s conversation. “But the truth is, you found my parents and came looking to see if they had any children who needed help. And that was quite gallant.”
Blake’s face went blank. “Did Donna tell you that?”
“No, I’m ashamed to admit it, but when I excused myself to use the washroom, I stayed in the hallway and listened to your conversation.”
Mindful of the possibility that the children were just on the other side of the door, Blake dropped his voice to a whisper. “You may be a better spy than me, Mrs. Warner.”
After a quick jot to the bank and dropping Meredith and Lolly off at the dressmaker with a long list of everything Lolly and Meredith needed, Blake took Pete to the doctor’s office. Frederick Billingsham’s medical practice was impressive by anyone’s standards. His three-story office was a mini hospital with its own operating room and both a men’s and women’s ward where patients could recover after surgery.
Upon hearing that Blake Warner was in an exam room, Frederick ignored his usual rotation and went directly to that room.
“Blake!” he said, entering. “To what do we owe… Oh! Who is this young man?”
“This is Pete; we’ve adopted him and his sister, Lolly.”
Frederick stopped dead in his tracks and stared at Blake. “And you want me to break the news to my wife?”
“Well, you certainly can tell her but that’s not why we’re here. I want you to look at Pete’s injuries to see if they’re healing properly.”
“Oh, of course.”
“Pete, strip to the waist for Dr. Billingsham.”
Pete looked from man to man and slowly began removing his shirt and unbuttoning his longjohns down to his waist.
“Hop up on the table and let’s take a look.”
Pete used the footstool to get up on the table and sat on the edge while the doctor began examining the angry red scar. “What happened here? This looks like a stab wound,” he asked Pete.
“It is.”
“How on earth did you manage that, young man?”
“Freddy, he can’t speak. They cut out his tongue, too.”
The doctor’s eyes widened but he managed to tamp down the rest of his reaction. “They?”
“I don’t know. Bushwhackers, maybe. He won’t talk about it.”
“Criminy!” Frederick said, shaking his head. “Okay, Pete, can you show me how long the blade was?”
When Pete held his hands about eight inches apart, Frederick twisted around to look at Pete’s back but saw no injury.
“Can you tell me how far they pushed it in?”
Pete held his finger and thumb about three inches apart.
“Have you been having a lot of pain?”
Pete glanced at Blake before he nodded slightly.
“I didn’t realize… I mean I saw him wince this mo
rning when he helped Lolly to her feet and I just never knew he had pain at other times. I’m sorry Pete.”
The boy kept his eyes cast down.
“Pete, it’s very important that you don’t lift anything until it’s healed. If it ever bulges out you need to come in immediately and we’ll have to do surgery and you have to start healing all over again,” Frederick said firmly. “Show me your hands.”
Frederick examined the defensive wounds on Pete’s hands and forearms. “Looks like you put up a hell of a fight. “Open and close your hands then touch your thumbs to all your fingertips. Any tingling or numbness?”
Pete shook his head.
“That’s probably the only lucky break you caught – no cut tendons or nerves.” The doctor picked up a nearby lantern and returned to Pete. “Open up.”
He kept his mouth firmly shut as he stared at his hands in his lap. Blake had never seen Pete look so small and vulnerable. When he looked up, Blake could see his eyes were awash with tears.
“Do you want me to go into the hallway?” Blake asked. Rather than nodding yes, Pete pointed toward a corner of the room where he would not be able to see into his mouth. Blake felt a moment of relief knowing the boy did not want him to leave the room and Blake knew it was a moment he would share with Meredith later when they were alone. Perhaps Pete was softening towards him.
Blake watched Frederick’s face as Pete opened his mouth. His involuntary facial expression told Blake everything he needed to know. It was bad.
“It looks like it’s healing well, still a bit swollen.”
“He’s been eating solid foods,” Blake said. "The other doctor wanted him to wait a little longer but he’s been losing weight so I couldn’t say no.”
“You can close your mouth now, Pete.” Fredrick patted Pete’s knee. “You’re past the point where it’s going to reopen the wound but be careful. If it hurts to eat it, don’t eat it. How’s your swallowing?”
“He’s doing better. He’s mostly having trouble moving the food back to swallow it.”
Fredrick gave Blake an annoyed look because he kept answering for Pete instead of allowing the boy a chance to try to communicate. “That’s to be expected. Any other injuries?”