by Geeta Kakade
Agnes Cupid’s entries fascinated her. When Bridget had read the first three chapters with Christy, Agnes had described how she’d looked up from her work one day to see an Indian watching her and she had almost died with fright but he had simply slipped away into the shadows. Phillip had insisted she learn to shoot and she had kept a gun in the kitchen but the Indians in their area had been friendly and the first incident had been followed by an old Indian woman turning up with corn for them. Agnes had given her one of her bead necklaces in return and after that she showed up regularly. Gradually the brave had returned and he and Phillip had cut down one of the large trees on the property together. After that he had started helping Phillip regularly.
The entry in the second diary years later grabbed Bridget’s attention.
“We have everything we could possible need and yet suddenly we are not happy. Our son Jacob has fallen in love with an Indian girl, White Feather. She is the granddaughter of the woman who delivered him saving both our lives. White Feather and Jacob have known each other since they were children and played together. I did not know that they have been meeting in secret for the last year. Phillip is furious and says an alliance like that will ruin Jacob’s life. I am torn between my son’s love for White Feather and my husband’s point of view. I have no choice but to side with my husband. He may be right in saying that Jacob will forget White Feather. Phillip says he is only seventeen and it is just puppy love. He says White Feather practiced some witchcraft on Jacob but I don’t believe that. She is a sweet, beautiful girl but she will not be happy married to a white man and vice versa. They don’t understand that of course. All they know is the way they feel about each other.
I just don’t know what to do. Jacob will not talk with us and there are dark storm clouds of anger and tension in the house. I am afraid he may run away with White Feather. If he does that, his father will never forgive him. The other children, Anne, Phil and Meg are all upset by the atmosphere of anger.”
The next entry was a month later:
“Jacob is in New York visiting my father who moved there to live with my brother and his family. White Feather’s grandmother has stopped coming to see me but when I asked the little boy she sent with the medicines for the stiffness in my hands he said she had gone away. I asked where White Feather was and he said she had gone with her grandmother. That is all I could get from the boy. I am very uneasy. Phillip is in a very good mood these days and that worries me. I hope he did not have anything to do with White Feather and her grandmother’s departure. I don’t know how Jacob will take this.”
After two weeks another entry followed:
"I was flummoxed to learn that Jacob has decided to live in New York and attend medical college. He rarely writes to us these days saying he is very busy. My brother has written to us to leave Jacob alone to get on with his studies. What made him stay behind? There is still no sign of White Feather or her grandmother and the boy has stopped coming. An older woman comes with the medicines and she doesn’t know the slightest bit of English so I can’t get any information from her. Phillip refuses to answer any questions on the subject. Our daughter Anne is to be married to a young man who is apprenticing at the bank and I have so much to do for the wedding.”
Bridget searched the following pages in vain for signs of any mention of White Feather but found none. Her heart went out to the young doomed lovers.
Like Christy once she had started reading she couldn’t stop and she started looking forward to the couple of hours every afternoon that she could spare on the old diaries.
Andrew came in one day to the unusual sound of someone crying. He’d been in the garage with Toby painting some of the doll furniture.
He was amazed to see Bridget in the living room, a hand over her mouth to hold back the sound of her sobs.
“What’s wrong?”
He was by her side at a flash.
She looked up at him, her eyes brimming with tears that pooled over and traced a path down her cheeks. He put a hand up to cup one cheek and brush a tear away with his thumb.
“What’s wrong Bridget?”
She shook her head and turned the diary towards him so he could see the page she’d been on. Andrew couldn’t believe it. He was staring at a copy of her ring on the page. Below it were the words, ‘The ring my parents sent me from New York on the birth of our son Matthew Cupid. It is to be given to the firstborn son in each generation.’ The entry was dated 1910.
He turned his gaze back to hers.
“There is a connection with your ring in this journal? You know what this means?”
Bridget nodded giving a big hiccupping sob. “These entries were made by Christabel Cupid, Mathew Cupid’s mother. Matthew Cupid was the grandson of Phillip Cupid the man who first decided he was going to build a house here. Christabel, Matthew’s mother loved drawing and has a picture of the house as it looked then too. on another page. The next two pages talk of Mathew’s childhood and the expansion of Cupid Lodge.”
She had scanned that quickly once she had seen the picture of the ring.
“1910. If Matthew Cupid was born then we only have to look at the family tree to see how many greats of a grandfather he was.”
He stood and went over to the fireplace with his cane, looking intently at the family tree framed and hanging there. Bridget came to stand beside him and he put his arm around her and pulled her into his side.
“He was your great grandfather,” Andrew announced studying the print of the family tree Christy had framed and put up in the living room. “Matthew Cupid had two daughters and two sons. His oldest son Stephen was born in 1930. Stephen married Brianna Cupid when he was twenty and had two sons Jake born in 1966 and Brian who was born in 1973.
Bridget nodded. “According to the diaries, Jake and Brian were both spoiled. Jake left home to go to college in New York and married Ruth Hathaway in 1987 when they realized she was pregnant. Brian fell in love with a dancer in Reno, married her when he turned 18 and disappeared. Brianna Cupid says here she met her son in secret once and gave him some money and some of her jewelry. Brian’s wife Lucinda wasn’t well and he couldn’t find keep a job. They were talking of leaving the area. Stephen died the following year and she tried to find Brian and Lucinda but she couldn’t. Brianna writes that he had terrible rages after his last meeting with Brian when the latter refused to leave Lucinda and return home. She was terrified of him and one doctor suggested the moods might have been caused by a tumor in his brain but he wouldn’t agree to any tests. He just stayed home, burned everything that reminded him of Brian and drank. He was found dead in the library one morning. Brianna passed away a few months after her husband of pneumonia. Her last entry is at the start of her illness. She says how sad she is about being estranged from both her sons. Her daughters Anne and Victoria were both settled in the New York area but Brianna didn’t want to leave Silver Lake to go live with them.”
Andrew looked at Bridget. “The ring must have been among the jewelry she gave them if she thought Lucinda was pregnant. She must have wanted them to have some connection to the family and your mother in turn wanted you to have it so one day you could prove whom you were.” He looked at her and said, “So you and Christy share a grandfather, Stephen Cupid.”
Bridget nodded, her tears brimming over again. “It looks like that.”
She looked up to see Andrew was still intent on the family tree. “There are no entries about his children or anything more about Brian.”
“According to Brianna’s entries in the diary, Brian never returned to Cupid Lodge.” Bridget said.
Andrew turned to her. “If Brian and Lucinda Cupid had no money that could be why they who left you at the Convent in 1991. Brian was only 18 when he married Lucinda and who knows what happened to them once she got pregnant and couldn’t dance any more. Brianna says Lucinda was unwell. I wonder what was wrong with her. The ring proves you and Christy are cousins.”
He felt another tremor go through her. �
��Why would Brianna Cupid give Brian the ring and not Jake who was her firstborn?”
“I think she was desperate for Brian’s child to have some connection to the family.”
Bridget had to think about it to take it all in.
“Are you all right?”
She nodded, her lips still trembling. “I never ex…expected to find anything like this.”
She went back to her chair and sat down, picked up the diary and looked at it.
“There’s no doubt it’s your ring,” Andrew said.
They heard someone at the front door and Bridget stood up quickly. “I…I need some time to myself,” she said wiping her tears away.
“Go ahead,” said Andrew. “I’ll stay here till Moira and the Kemps get back with Frank.”
“Thanks.” Bridget retreated just as the door opened. She had to read the entries again, look at the picture of the ring and make very sure she had her facts right.
It took a while for Bridget to send an e-mail to Christy and Mark saying she had found a link with the past in the diaries. Bridget didn’t trust herself to be coherent enough to explain things clearly so an email served the purpose better.
They called back immediately and said they couldn’t be more delighted.
Bridget told them about the ring.
“I saw that copy of the ring in the second diary,” Christy said, “and wondered if it would show up in the attic. Bless all those grandmothers and great aunts who kept diaries and even drew pictures. Stephen Cupid was our grandfather so now you can really believe Cupid Lodge is your home too. And it always will be. I still cannot believe my prayers for you to find some connection with the past at Cupid Lodge have been answered. I’ve always wanted a younger sister and now I have one.”
“Th..thanks.”
“We’ll have a party to celebrate when we get back.”
“Christy’s over the moon,” Mark added on the speaker phone. “She’s always said if she could pick a sister it would be you. Welcome you to the family.”
They promised to call back later at night.
Bridget lay on her bed the diary clasped to her chest. She would call Mother Superior later and write Sister Winifred a letter with all the details.
She closed her eyes for a minute thinking what a gift this was…she hadn’t realized what it would mean to know till the burden of not knowing had been lifted from her mind. This intense relief that she had a family, even though she didn’t yet know who her actual parents were, was immense.
“She hasn’t had anything to eat,” said Mrs. Kemp. “Think we should check on her?”
“I think she just needs time,” said Moira. “I’ll take a tray to her and leave it in the kitchenette for when she does wake up.”
Christy had called and told them Bridget’s news and both women were longing to tell her how happy they were.
“There’s a lot of crying going on in there,” Toby warned Andrew when he saw him in the garage. Coming in to the kitchen to say he would be staying another night he’d heard the call from Christy. He looked as happy as if someone had elected him Mayor of Silver Lake City.
“I feel like I married the Water Department,” grumbled Mr. Kemp joining them a little later, beaming himself. “That woman cries over everything. She’s telephoning our daughter in New Zealand to tell her the news and she’s still crying.”
“Happy tears.” Andrew said.
He hoped Bridget was okay. She’d been missed around dinner time and some of the guests had asked about her. Andrew hadn’t missed the blond blue-eyed skier from Norway who had started chatting her up whenever he saw her. He saw the tray Moira had ready for Bridget with soup and crackers and said, “Let me take it to her.”
They looked surprised but no one said anything as he picked up the tray with one hand. Mr. Kemp opened the kitchen door and Moira went ahead of him opening the other doors to the apartment. She knocked softly on Bridget’s door and when there was no answer she turned the handle quietly and stood aside.
Andrew walked in and saw Bridget was asleep. He placed the tray on her nightstand and turned to look at her. She was sleeping on her side, the diary clutched to her chest with both hands as if she would never let it go. He brushed the hair away from her cheek and covered her up with a quilt.
Turning he looked at the door. There was no sign of Moira.
He looked at Bridget again then bent and kissed her cheek before he left the room.
“I love you Bridget Cupid,” he said.
He wished he had said something earlier. Now she might think he was only telling her he loved her after the facts proved she wasn’t a nobody from nowhere. His reasons were solid though. He’d wanted his knee to recover completely and he’d been waiting for some sign from Bridget that she felt the same.
The feeling he’d made a huge mistake lingered as he went back to the house.
Bridget was in the kitchen before anyone else the next morning. She’d mixed the pancake batter and had everything else started for breakfast.
Moira and Mrs. Kemp came in hugged her and told her how happy they were again.
Frank gave her a big smile and a hug before he sat down at the kitchen table to have his breakfast.
“You aren’t an orphan anymore,” he informed her and then wilted as his gaze met his mother’s glare.
“That’s right.” Bridget started pouring pancakes feeling elated.
“Now you can stay here forever and ever!”
“I don’t know about that.”
Moira cut in with a reminder for Frank that his gym clothes were still in the apartment. He left as the breakfast crowd came down and they all got busy.
It wasn’t till nine o’clock that Bridget asked, “Where’s Andrew?”
Had someone taken a tray to his room?
“He’s out,” said Toby. “Took the SUV. His doctor said he could drive now and Andrew wanted to make an early start. He said he would get breakfast in town.”
Bridget felt a sharp pang of loss. She was happy Andrew could drive again but there was sadness mixed up with the feeling. They wouldn’t be spending time together on their trips to town. To fill the void she decided to do a major cleaning starting with the attic. Discussing it with Moira and Mrs. Kemp led to the agreement it would be nice for Christy if they surprised her with a complete Fall cleaning. Moira said she would do the bonus room upstairs. Mr. and Mrs. Kemp were going off to a Bridge marathon for three days in South Lake Tahoe, so their room would be next. She was sure Toby would help with the brass if she moved it all into the garage for him.
Unlocking the attic door Bridget decided to move all the trunks aside and sweep and mop the floor and wipe down the outside of all the trunks and boxes before she put them back. Christy had said she had always meant to do that one day and never gotten round to it.
She was exhausted by noon but the area looked good enough to have a party in. Putting all the trunks back Bridget locked the store room area and told herself she would do the rest of the attic the next day. Right now she needed a bath to get rid of the dust on her clothes and person.
Filling the tub in the master bathroom, Bridget threw in a generous handful of rose bath salts and got into it. She hadn’t been here since Christy had left though both she and Mark had told her to use the room and bathroom and help herself to any of the clothes in the closet.
Getting into the hot water she relaxed under the jets massaging her aching muscles. The strains of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata from the CD player between the double sinks, filled her with a wonderful feeling of accomplishment.
Andrew looked at the computer screen. HQ had sent him a message that needed decoding. They said no one else had been able to crack the code and it was urgent he have a go at it. It had been intercepted from a computer abroad.
He wondered where everyone was. He knew the Kemps were away for the day at a Bridge tournament. Had Moira and Bridget gone out together?
He needed a thumb drive to copy the message first before h
e started playing with it and Mark had mentioned there were some in his nightstand drawer. In the time crunch of getting everything ready before his trip Mark had forgotten to bring them down as he’d said he would.
Now was as good a time as any to try the steps with no audience around and get a few of the drives. He would have to continue to use the cane for a couple of weeks at least Dr. Rustom had said and it would help him with the steps now.
Bridget realized she had almost fallen asleep in the tub. Getting out she drained the water, switched off the music and wrapped herself in a towel. Picking up a washcloth she began to clean the sides of the tub aware that her movements were loosening her towel.
Andrew stepped into the room and walked over to the nightstand. About to open the top drawer he froze. The bathroom door was open and he couldn’t avoid looking at the mirror opposite it. It reflected the tub and the vision wrapped in a pale pink towel kneeling beside it.
Well almost wrapped. It had come loose and slipped halfway down her chest revealing more than cleavage.
She looked up and their gazes met.
Her gasp and the way she dragged the towel up made him snap to attention.
“I’m sorry,” he turned and limped to the door as fast as he could.
On all fours Bridget reached for the bathroom door and slammed it shut. Then she rolled over and still sitting on the bath mat she leaned against the side of the tub.
Some things, as Sister Winifred always said, there was no excuse for.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Bridget had dinner in her room on a tray saying she would help Frank with his Science project while she ate. Moira didn’t return to the apartment till eight saying Andrew had enjoyed the pot roast Mrs. Kemp had made yesterday and she had finished getting everything ready for the morning. There was no need for Bridget to go back into the house unless she wanted to.