Maggie ran toward the lodge with the puppy at her heels and her sisters not far behind. James picked up his hat and put his gun back on.
“Where did you find a puppy?”
“Rancher south of here. Dominic bought all of the litter except the runt.”
“Did Maggie need time alone with you?”
“I think she needed time with both of us. We did some target shooting. She has good aim and a steady hand. I think it’s time to find her a rifle but I don’t know if she’s going to continue to grow.”
“Well, it’s not like you don’t have three coming up behind her if she outgrows the rifle.”
“True. Chicken coop looks good.”
“I insulated it so the cold winters won’t kill them off. We’re going into town later this week to pick out some new egg layers and fryers.”
“James, are you staying after the summer?”
“I don’t have anywhere to go unless you want me to.”
Meeks laughed. “I actually thought you held back pretty well the other night but it was nice to see her let her hair down. She’s so afraid if she is improper at all that I’ll…well, she’s been walking on cat’s paws. No, it will be nice if you stay for a while.”
“Dominic will be heading back in August and I imagine that Garnett will go with him.”
Mirisa set the table as the girls laid on the floor playing with the puppy. James sat down on the chair and watched them.
“Have you named him?”
“We can’t decide. Mommy says we must name him something that is easy to call and it can’t be a girly name.”
“James where is my daddy?”
“He’s out with Dominic and the boys.”
“Will you tell him I need to see him?”
James looked at Lizzie’s sweet little face and looked over at Mirisa who was trying hard not to react. “I’ll tell him.” James walked over and put his gun back on. “I might be gone tonight.”
“Alright. Do you want Meeks to ride with you?”
Meeks came downstairs buttoning up his shirt. “Ride where?”
“I’m going to go relieve Garnett for the night.”
“Sounds good. Darling can you hold dinner?”
“I’ll feed the girls and eat with you later.”
Meeks kissed her and told the girls not to let the puppy out unless he has a rope around his neck. They headed south for the fishing camp. The moon was full and you could see the bonfire as you approached.
They dismounted as Matthew was putting the fish in the pan. James walked over and squatted down next to the fire and talked to Garnett. Meeks talked to the congressmen about how good the fishing was at that spot in the river. Garnett stood and told Dominic he was heading back to the lodge for the night but would catch up with them before they went further down river.
Meeks mounted and thought about the first time they camped on the river. It was such a beautiful part of the country.
Mirisa looked up when they came in. “Are you hungry?”
“No, I ate earlier. Where’s Lizzie?”
“She’s in her room.”
Garnett nodded heading down to the children’s wing. Maggie and Sara were laying on the floor drawing. Cassie was in bed with the puppy curled up with her and Lizzie was sitting on the window seat looking out at the stars. He watched as she pointed and counted.
“Lizzie.”
She turned to her father and smiled. Garnett sat down with her as she told him that she was waiting for a falling star so she could wish upon it. “What would you wish?” Lizzie looked at him and turned back to the stars but he could see her little lip quiver. He brushed her hair away from her face and lifted her chin. “If you don’t tell me than how shall I know what’s in your heart?”
“Wishes can’t be told daddy.”
“And if there are no falling stars tonight?”
“There must be for I have asked so nicely.”
Garnett stood up and reached down picking her up on his hip. He stepped out onto the porch where he pointed out across the river to a group of falling stars that moved from east to west. Lizzie wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. “Daddy?”
“What darling?”
“Can you come see me more?”
“Am I ignoring my favorite little girl?”
“I believe you may be. The boys get to sleep over with their father and James is always here but I never get to be with you.”
“Then your wish is my command.” Garnett walked her out to the field and sat down with her between his legs as he talked to her about his childhood and his parents. Lizzie fell asleep against him but he just sat under the stars and wondered where she would go in life.
Everyone was up early and James had breakfast of eggs and ham cooking. He watched as they whipped the poles landing their flies upstream as they popped them pulling out beautiful stream trout. Dominic had hired a local man who usually spent a week teaching them to fish. James much preferred pole fishing but he imagined that’s because it was the only way he had ever fished. Jonathan walked across the river to the other bank before he cut down a branch and sharpened the end into a point. He usually speared most fish that dared to come near him. Dominic squatted and poured a cup of coffee. “You plan on staying out here?”
“I think so.”
“What are you going to do when you get bored and have no one to go into town with?”
“I’ll just pay them to come to your place.”
Dominic laughed. “I envy the fact that you don’t need a purpose in life.”
“I have a purpose. She’s three foot tall with snow white hair. If you couldn’t take your sons east with you, I am sure that the job wouldn’t be near as interesting.”
“Jonathan has decided he is staying but Matthew will be going back with me and start prep school.”
“Where?”
“In Washington. He wants to go to the University and get a degree in medicine. Mirisa’s father pulled strings to get him into the University if he gets good marks in prep school. I told him that four years of school is going to take up a lot of his time but he seems determined.”
“Have you talked to Mirisa?”
“Her father sent her a letter and Matthew said she has agreed if it is what he wants.”
“Hard to believe he is that age.”
“It’s harder to believe we are. At his age, we pretty much had the run of the town with no one much caring about what we did. He is so disciplined and polite.”
“Well, he has had a lot of guidance where we had none.”
Garnett rode up with Lizzie in front of him. James walked over and lifted her down as Garnett tied up his horse. Dominic smiled because she was in jeans and a checkered shirt with her hair in pigtails. James asked her if she was going fishing.
“Daddy’s is taking me fishing with bread and cane poles.”
“You are using dough balls?”
“Yes because we want some little river fish that you cook up so crispy.”
Garnett walked over to the small lean-to and took out two cane poles leaning them up against the tree. He took the bread out of his saddlebags and handed it to Lizzie. She sat down next to Dominic and unbuckled her shoes taking them off. He watched as she buckled them again lining them up before she took off her socks folding them. She stood up and looked at her feet.
“Daddy?”
“Yes darling.”
“Can you roll up my jeans so they are the same?”
Garnett knelt down and slowly rolled up the jeans making sure they were even. Lizzie kissed him and picked up the bread taking his hand as they walked down to the bank. Lizzie tiptoed in the water until it was up to her knees. Garnett picked her up and set her on the large flat rock as he climbed up.
“Daddy will you sit with me?”
Garnett unwound the poles and dipped the piece of bread in the water before making little balls. He put one on the hook handing Lizzie the pole. She dropped the hook in the water and ben
t over watching as a fish took the bait pulling her pole as she laughed. Lizzie pulled the fish out of the water and stood up grabbing the line until the fish was over the rock. Garnett gently took the little fish off and put it in the basket before putting more dough on it.
“Daddy are you not going to fish?”
“I would much rather take off your fish because you are just a fantastic fisherman.”
They sat on the rock for over two hours before Lizzie put down the pole and told her father that she was hungry. Most of the fishermen were sitting around the fire resting until the evening when the fish would be running again.
“Garnett is this your daughter?”
James looked up and Dominic just watched. “This is Lizzie. Lizzie these are friends of Uncle Dominic’s.”
“Are they from Mississippi or Washington?”
“They are from both I suppose.”
“Do they know I am going to become a most famous violinist?” Lizzie had no sooner said it than she put both hands over her mouth as her eyes got so round. Garnett kissed her nose and whispered to her that they didn’t know she made a wish. She nodded.
“Little missy do you play the violin?”
“Oh no. My father teaches me at the piano because he loves to play the piano more than poker.” They broke out in laughter at how sweet she was. “Mommy says that I must first play the piano before I can become a violinist. I don’t know how I’m going to do that since there are no music teachers out here only bears and turtles.”
“Have you seen a bear?”
“Oh yes. We sit in the music room…Daddy’s music room not ours…and look out over the valley with the ‘noculars.” Lizzie pointed north of the river. “They come down out of the mountains when the flowers first start blooming and they always have little baby bears.”
“Were you not afraid?”
“No. Mommy will shoot them if they try to eat any of her children.”
“Garnett, how many children do you have?”
“Only Lizzie.”
Lizzie looked at her father. “He only has me.”
“I have a granddaughter just about your age. She would probably love to come out here but I’m afraid her mother would have vapors.”
Lizzie took the fish basket and put it next to James. “Mommy says that women only have vapors because they’re never taught to shoot a gun. She was married to Uncle Dominic during the war but I don’t remember that because I wasn’t here yet but she never had vapors did she daddy?”
“No your mother never did.”
James gutted the little fish as he listened to her. Lizzie walked over and took each fish putting it in the pot of water swishing them around and handed each one to James. He rolled them in cornmeal and put them in the skillet.
“Daddy do you want to eat my fish?”
“I would love to eat your fish.”
Matthew was sitting on the log next to his father tying flies for the evening session. He didn’t think he had ever heard Lizzie talk so much. Jonathan came up behind her and lifted her onto his shoulders as she leaned over and kissed his cheek.
“Are the children here for the summer?”
“The boys always come out with me during the summer but Meeks and Mirisa have decided to live out here for a while.”
“Strange place to raise girls.”
“The girls actually do well out here and there’s nothing like good mountain air.”
“Lizzie?”
She turned to the older gentleman smoking a pipe. “Yes sir.”
“How shall you learn to play the violin?”
“Daddy will hire someone to come teach me.” She leaned over and Jonathan put her on the ground as she picked up the tin plate and put it next to the fire for James. He put the small fish on the plate and told her that she was as beautiful as her mother.
“I know.”
The rest of the summer was uneventful as they spent most of their time enjoying the weather and enlarging the barn so they could bring in cows and pigs. The girls helped Mirisa plant and harvest a plentiful garden. She taught them how to prepare the vegetables for canning as James and Meeks had an orchard planted along the river. Garnett took Lizzie out with them often and by the end of the summer the girls were riding as often as their brothers. Dominic and Garnett took the train with Matthew to Mississippi in September before heading to Washington.
James and Meeks spent the fall hunting filling the smokehouse as Jonathan and Maggie trained Ghost how to hunt for fowl. He was a natural hunter but more he was a very quiet dog which is why the girls named him Ghost. Meeks found a rancher with a litter of larger dogs and bought two to just roam the property. He kept them penned when they were puppies but had everyone interact with them so that they were familiar with who belonged on the property.
In the spring of 1883, James made reservations to take Lizzie and Cassie to New York where they met Garnett. Mirisa thought their enthusiasm overweighed the tugging of her heart as she put on their coats and bonnets. They had reservations to go to Coney Island and to enjoy the city.
The first week home Lizzie and Cassie talked non-stop and Mirisa remembered the how excited Matthew was to tell her his adventures when he would go anywhere with Dominic. They had gone to the theater twice for musicals, they had shopped until there was nothing left to buy and they had worn out both James and Garnett. James and the girls returned with two small horses and an Irish Water Spaniel.
1883
”ON GLANCING over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic.” Adventure of Speckled Band
Mirisa sat curled up with Meeks in front of the library fireplace as James started the new book. The children were all lying on the floor eating popcorn.
James finished the chapter and closed the book. The children all complained but knew that it would do no good since they all loved the hours spent before bed when someone would read a new book or a favorite story. Mirisa told the girls to get ready for bed and someone would be in to tuck them in. They all ran down the hall with the two dogs on their heels. Jonathan stood and picked up the bowl taking it to the kitchen. He slept in the room next to James instead of in the girl’s wing but was always the last to go to bed.
Mirisa sat down at the bar and waited for him to finish washing the bowl. She didn’t know why she was sitting there since she could talk to him no matter where they were. “Jonathan, are you spending the summer in the mountains?”
Jonathan turned and looked at her knowing that she would never really understand him but would always encourage him to follow his own dreams “I have been invited and I think it is time I spend more than a week or two.”
“Matthew is staying east this summer so that he can get ready to enter the University.”
“He will make a good doctor.”
Mirisa smiled. “He will but I have missed him.”
“He misses the family but his dreams are stronger than anything else right now.”
“Sometimes I think when I talk to you that you are channeling other people. It’s almost like you are the center spoke on the wheel. Who are you?”
“A fish out of water. A bird without the wind to lift it.”
“You are very much your father.”
“I am the final piece of the circle. I am what you had promised to the people. I was always meant to live with them.”
Mirisa looked at him and realized he was so much older than she ever would be. “Jonathan.”
“Mother, I know you won’t understand this but I would like to take Maggie with me this summer.”
“Have you talked to her?”
“No, I need your blessing first.”
“
Actually, you will need Alexander’s blessing but I don’t see him allowing his daughter to spend the summer in the high mountains.”
“I shall assure him that she will be safe.”
“Fourteen is very young for her to be unescorted.”
“Maggie is very brave and very cunning. She has little of you in her and a lot of her father.”
“I shall allow you to talk to Alexander without input but know that his answer will be weighed heavily before he makes it. To be the father of a daughter carries a burden that men hold dear. Alexander loves his daughters so he must be able to trust your maturity to give you that burden.”
“As it should be.” Jonathan released her hand and stepped back. He went up to his room and laid on the floor seeking the calm that he needed.
The summer came in with unusually warm weather allowing them to start on the garden. They spent hours going through the seed books. Sara brought out all the journals from last year’s garden and the canning as Lizzie and Cassie charted out their garden.
Mirisa wrapped a robe around herself as she stepped into the bedroom. Meeks was lying on the bed reading a journal. He had a shot glass in his hand and his shirt was open though tucked into his jeans. She walked over and ran her fingers along his toes as he looked over the journal at her.
Mirisa let the robe slip off her shoulder falling to the floor. Meeks lowered the journal and smiled. She crawled from the foot of the bed until she had straddled him. Mirisa lifted the journal from his hand and took the shot glass setting it on the table. His hands came up her hips as she untied the ribbon running her fingers through the braid until it hung loose. The house was quiet and the moon was high.
Meeks swore she had the traits of a cat as she stretched her body along his enticing him to come to her. It was such an invitation of erotic escapade mixed with the danger of her sharp claws. Her arm slid through his as she bit his lip lightly before she slid down and bit his nipple as she pulled out his shirt. Mirisa placed his hands on her breasts as she unbuttoned his belt slipping her hand between herself and her husband. Meeks never knew what woman would come to his bed at night but this one was matching his mood so perfectly.
The Visitor_The Final Ride 1875_1928 Page 16