Message in the Sand

by Hannah McKinnon

  Pippa smiled shyly. “A daisy chain.” She stared at Ginny. “You’re pretty.”

  “Oh!” Ginny laughed. “Well, thank you. You’re creative. May I?”

  Pippa handed her the chain of flowers. It was so delicate, Ginny worried it might fall apart in her hand. But then Pippa took it back, and before Ginny knew it, the little girl had reached up and settled it on her head.

  “Leave her alone, Pippa,” Julia said, coming up to them. But she was smiling, too.

  “Thank you!” Ginny turned left and right. “How’s it look?”

  Both girls seemed pleased. “I haven’t seen you at Wendell’s,” Julia said.

  “Oh, right. Well, I’ve been very busy.” Ginny indicated to the house. “Your aunt has me working hard. Not that I mind!” she added quickly.

  Julia snorted. “I’ll bet. You should come back. Wendell…”

  Ginny removed the daisy chain delicately and set it on Pippa’s head. “Beautiful.” Then she turned to Julia. “Wendell—what?” she asked gently. She could tell Julia was worried about something.

  “Nothing. We haven’t seen him lately. My aunt won’t let us. Until the hearing.”

  Ginny had heard about the hearing from Wendell, when they were still talking. “Is it soon?”

  Julia nodded. “Tomorrow.”

  “I see. Well, that sounds important. I wish you good luck.”

  The girls seemed okay, but there was a heaviness she hadn’t noticed at all in Julia that day at Wendell’s. Ginny was about to say her goodbyes when she realized she didn’t have her phone. “Shoot. I think I left my phone in your house. Do you think it’s okay if I go back in?”

  “Sure. I’ll take you.”

  Ginny felt bad interrupting their play and, worse, having to go interrupt Candace and Geoffrey after she’d just told them she’d wait to hear from them. How would this look?

  Julia showed her in but stopped at the kitchen. “You know where the office is, right?”

  “Sure, thanks!”

  Ginny was halfway down the hall to the office door when she spied her phone on a console table. Of course—she’d stopped there to zip up her briefcase and must’ve set it down. Relieved not to have to knock on the door, she was just reaching for it when she heard Geoffrey speak. Despite the heavy wooden door, his voice was loud and clear. “I don’t know, Candace. It’s a risk that could blow up the deal.”

  Ginny froze.

  “I disagree. The wetlands commission is just a small local board. Unless they find one, there’s nothing for them to report. And the permit will sail through.”

  Unless the commission finds what? Ginny wondered.

  “It’s not that simple. If the town hall files go back far enough, and if the commission does its due diligence, they’ll find the old reports. In which case, the Department of Environmental Protection would get involved. And that could delay or, worse, halt the entire project.”

  Despite the fear of being caught, Ginny found herself leaning in toward the door. So there was something they didn’t want her to hear.

  There was a long pause. Then Candace spoke. “It’s just a bunch of stupid turtles. How can that upend a multimillion-dollar project?”

  “It almost happened before. When Alder Combs was first selectman.”

  Ginny’s breath caught in her chest, and she had to steady herself. Alder was Wendell’s father.

  “Well, it didn’t then, and we won’t let it now. Keep the report buried. Whatever it takes.”

  There was a rustle of movement on the other side of the door, and Ginny leaped back, almost dropping her phone. She caught it just in time, and clutched it to her chest, and half-ran down the hall.

  Julia looked up from the kitchen island as she rounded the corner. “You okay?”

  Ginny glanced at the kitchen counter: at the bowl of cut-up strawberries and the red spotted stains they’d left on the cutting board. Pippa smiled, her lips bright red. “Want one?”

  “No, but thank you, girls.” She had to go and fast. “I’ll see you soon.”

  By the time she pulled the front door closed behind her, she was sweating. As a broker, Ginny was obligated to disclose any and all issues with a property she was handling. It was the law. If there was some kind of report that had any bearing on the property, and if she knew about it, she was obligated to disclose that information to the buyer. On the other hand, if she didn’t know anything about it, there would be nothing to disclose. God, she hated the moral compass her parents had instilled in her. The thought of her parents caused her more angst. They needed this sale!

  She hurried down the driveway. She was in her car before the next awful thought came. It wasn’t about what Candace and Geoffrey Banks were trying to conceal. It was about Wendell. She’d already made so many mistakes with him. Should she tell him?

  Twenty-Eight Julia

  The morning of the hearing, Julia dressed carefully. She’d known exactly what she would wear from the date the hearing was announced. It was the mint sundress her mother had bought her for the gala. Until then, she’d been unable to look at it hanging in her closet. It had not been to the dry cleaner, but she didn’t care; wearing it to court seemed fitting.

  She studied herself in the mirror, thinking of all that had changed since she last pulled this dress over her head. There were hollows under her eyes, and despite their bright blue color, they looked flat. Anyone else might see a young blond girl in a summery dress, but she may as well have dressed herself in grief. So much wrong had happened. Today was her chance to right some of it.

  She was about to turn away from her reflection when she noticed something stuck to the bottom of the hem. It was a tiny spiky twig with one dried green leaf. She examined it; it must’ve come from a prickle bush that she’d passed in the woods that night as she sneaked out to meet Sam. A single thorn, curved like a hawk’s talon, poked sharply from the stem. She pressed the tip of her thumb against it until the pain pierced. When she jerked her hand back, a satisfying drop of red bubbled at the tip of her thumb. There, she thought. This is happening.

  Jamie Aldeen picked Julia up an hour beforehand. “Remember, the judge is going to ask you a number of questions. Just answer them as honestly and thoroughly as you can.” They’d gone over this the day before. But now the thought of speaking before a judge made her mouth dry and her stomach flutter.

  Candace drove separately with Pippa. When they arrived, Candace sat in the opposite corner of the probate court. She did not speak one word to Julia on the way in. To Pippa she said, “This is the meeting I was telling you about, Pippa. Your sister and I will be going into a room to talk with a judge. There’s a nice lady who will wait with you.” She thrust a coloring book and a packet of crayons in to Pippa’s hands.

  The clerk checked them in. “Is Wendell Combs here yet?” Julia asked, glancing around nervously.

  “Not yet.” Wendell was never late to work. He wouldn’t be late for this.

  Julia took a seat beside Pippa. The courthouse smelled familiar, much like her middle school hallway: the recirculated air, the linoleum floors. It felt like it, too. Serious. Echoey. A place where adults ran the show. Beside her, Pippa squiggled on the bench impatiently. “When can we go?” she asked.

  Julia had packed snacks for her in a lunch box. She handed it to her and lowered her voice to a whisper. “I need you to be really good and patient, today, Pips. Okay? I’m trying to work on plans for us. Remember what we talked about?” She glanced at Candace, who was staring at them.

  “Okay, but hurry,” Pippa said. She dug into the bag and pulled out some pretzels. The door leading outside swung open and Julia’s chest gave. Wendell! But it was Geoffrey Banks, who nodded at them all and joined her aunt on a bench.

  Moments later, the chamber doors opened. A young woman in a suit addressed them. “Are you here for the Lancaster hearing?”

  Jamie stood and motioned for her to come. Julia’s heart began to pound. “Be good, Pippa,” she said.

&
nbsp; Judge Eliot Bartlett looked far friendlier than Julia had pictured. He was somewhat older than her father and had a neatly trimmed dark beard. He smiled at her as soon as he saw her. “Good afternoon!” Then he adjusted his glasses and glanced at a clock on the wall. “Rather, good morning. Goodness. I don’t even know what time it is!”

  The clerk laughed, as did the judge, and Julia felt her insides relax. This was a good sign. But where was Wendell?

  “Please, have a seat while I review your file.” This was not the courthouse Julia had seen on television and in movies. It was much less formal, like an office. The judge sat behind a separate desk, facing them. Julia followed Candace’s cue and sat opposite her aunt. Both turned to face the judge, who opened a manila file and began looking through the documents inside it without comment. As he did, the clerk offered water to both Julia and Candace, which Julia didn’t really want; she just wanted to get started. It seemed forever that he read through the file before he looked up. Gone was his smile.

  “Ms. Aldeen, you are the counsel representing Julia Lancaster in this petition?”

  “I am, Your Honor.”

  “And I see we have two Ms. Lancaster’s here.” He looked up at Candace. “You are Candace, custodial guardian and aunt to Julia and Pippa.”

  “Yes, your honor. This is the family attorney, Geoffrey Banks.”

  The judge nodded. “And I see we are also expecting a Mr. Wendell Combs?”

  There was a pause, and Jamie stood. “Mr. Combs is an interested party, and I wonder if we might give him five minutes, please?”

  The judge did not look pleased, but suddenly, there was a noise at the doors. The clerk poked her head in. “Mr. Combs is here.”

  “Send him in.”

  Julia’s insides flushed with relief. Greetings were made, Wendell sat down in the corner, and then Judge Bartlett turned sharply to Julia. “So, you are Julia Lancaster?”

  Julia nodded. “Yes, sir. I mean, Your Honor.”

  The judge pushed the file to the side, clasped his hands, and leaned in as though prepared for an intimate conversation. “Let’s talk about what we have going on here. Julia, I know Ms. Aldeen is representing you, but I would like to hear from you first. In your own words.”

  Julia cleared her throat nervously. “Well, Your Honor, I filed for emancipation.”

  “I see that. Can you share with me what led you to that decision? It’s a serious one, and I want to hear how you arrived at it.”

  Julia glanced at Candace, who merely raised her eyebrows as if to say, “Go on. You’re the one who dragged us here.”

  She took a breath, hoping her voice was steady. “I filed for emancipation because my parents died earlier this summer.”

  “I am very sorry to hear about that. The loss of any parent to a child, let alone both, is a trauma. My sincerest condolences.” His brown eyes were kind, and indeed, he looked very sorry as he said it.

  “Thank you, sir. I mean, Your Honor.” She could feel her cheeks flush, and that made her annoyed at herself. There were so many reasons she was here, all of them just and right and good, and she needed to pull herself together and get them out or this judge was going to think she was as incapable and idiotic as she was presenting herself to be. She took another deep breath. “When my parents died, I thought that was the worst thing that could happen to me and my little sister, Pippa. She’s only six, and she’s outside in the hallway now,” Julia added, gesturing to the double doors behind them.

  The judge nodded for her to go on, and she could tell he was listening carefully.

  “But then I learned that our aunt, a person we had never even met before, was going to be our guardian, and that she wanted to move us away from our home in Saybrook all the way to London. A different country.” She said the last part so it would sink in.

  The judge only smiled. “Indeed it is.”

  “Pippa and I have spent our whole lives here, outside of when I was really little and lived in New York with my parents. Pippa was born here, and Saybrook is our home. It’s where we go to school. It’s where all of our friends live. Everything I love and know is in Saybrook. To move us away from all that, to a place we’ve never been, with a relative we barely know, is like another death all over again.” She was so nervous she’d run completely out of breath, but she’d gotten most of the important stuff out. She reached for the glass of water, suddenly grateful for it.

  The judge waited as she took a few gulps, his hands still clasped thoughtfully. “So, this move to London has come as a surprise to you?”

  Julia set the water glass down. “A shock, to be perfectly honest.”

  He nodded. “I like perfectly honest.” He turned to Candace. “I imagine this has not been easy for you, either.”

  “No, Your Honor, it certainly has not.”

  “Would you please share with the court what has transpired between you and Julia and her sister since you arrived?”

  Candace was sitting slightly behind her, but Julia did not turn around. “I arrived two days after the death of my brother. I agree with Julia, it has all been a shock.”

  Julia swiveled to look at Candace. There were plenty of synonyms for shock; that word was hers.

  The judge continued, “I imagine it’s been quite a strain for everyone involved. And I would like to hear how the three of you have been getting on since your arrival here in the States. But first, having heard what Julia has just shared with the court today, what are your thoughts about her petition for emancipation?”

  Candace sighed, somewhat dramatically, Julia thought. “My thoughts are that she is grieving too hard to know what is best for her right now.” Candace looked over at her. “Julia is correct that we do not know each other well, but that is something time can take care of if she would be willing. Her father and mother’s wishes were to appoint me as guardian, and it has not been easy for me. But it is a wish I feel obligated to honor and uphold.” She paused. “Besides, Julia is a child.”

  Julia scoffed, and Jamie gently put a hand on hers and squeezed. “It’s okay,” she whispered.

  The judge made a note in the file. Julia did not like that. Nor did she like Candace’s word choice. Where was the honor in selling a child’s horse out from under her? “Excuse me, Judge Bartlett.”

  The judge looked up. “Yes?”

  There was another squeeze from Jamie, but Julia went on. “I feel it important to share certain facts, since you ask about what has taken place since my aunt arrived.” Her heart was racing, but she needed to set the record straight.

  “All right, please go on.”

  “I had a horse.” Julia ignored her aunt’s audible groan behind her. “A horse that my father gave to me as a gift. Radcliffe is his name, and he was the most important thing to me in the world besides my family. Radcliffe and I competed in shows and competitions all around New England. He wasn’t just a pet; riding is my sport and a huge part of who I am. Two weeks ago, my aunt called up a local stable and arranged to sell him without my knowing. I just happened to hear a commotion and look out my bedroom window to see a stranger leading my horse out of the barn and away.” She paused, catching her breath. “I ran outside to stop them. I begged her not to. But she ordered them to load him up and take him away.” She turned to face Candace. “That was the last part of my father I had. And she took that part away from me without even having the guts tell me first. I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”

  The judge’s brow furrowed. He looked to Candace. “Is this true?”

  “It is, Your Honor. But not quite as it is being portrayed. With our plans to sell the family property and move overseas, I had many decisions to make in a short amount of time, and there was no other choice but to sell the horse as well. It’s not like we could load it on a plane and take it with us. Had it been a dog or cat, I would have been happy to. But a horse?” Here she threw up her hands, and the jangle of her bracelets echoed in the small room.

  The judge cocked his head. “I’m curi
ous why Julia was not informed of this decision. Wouldn’t it have been kinder for her to have a chance for closure?” Kinder. Julia’s hopes rose. He was seeing in Candace all the things she lacked. All the things Julia and Pippa would need.

  Candace nodded. “For that I am sorry. At the time I thought it would only upset her more, and it also was not made clear to me when the stable was coming to pick him up; their communication about transporting him was a bit spotty, so I didn’t want the horse lingering and therefore drawing out her upset. I did, however, make a lot of calls and get the best recommendations for a stable who would take excellent care of the horse and ensure a good home.” She flashed a look in Julia’s direction, but instead of seeing sorrow, Julia saw only competitiveness in her aunt’s eyes, as if she had just scored some kind of point. Julia hoped the judge saw it, too.

  “So, you feel you did your best to find the horse a good home, given that you could not possibly bring him with you.” The judge repeated this as Candace nodded along, and he made another note on the file. He looked up at Julia. “It sounds like your aunt did try to find a suitable home for your horse, given the difficult circumstances and the timing. Still, it’s little consolation to you, I suppose.”

  Julia shook her head. “It is no consolation,” she said firmly.

  The next hour, the judge posed a series of questions, including input from both attorneys, about the current custodial arrangements and the tensions within the household. Julia breathed with relief as Jamie reported the two instances of Pippa running away to Wendell, once with Julia and once on her own. Jamie discussed the trauma of parental loss coupled with what would be a second trauma if the girls were moved away from their childhood home, school district, and friends.

  Next it was Geoffrey’s turn. He shared Candace’s work in finance back in London and the details of the large house she kept there, which would accommodate the children. The way she’d dropped everything to come to the States to care for Pippa and Julia. The difficult decisions she’d had to make, including selling the horse. Julia glared at them. How could they use Raddy to argue their case?