Finding Your Love

by McBride, Bess

  “Thank you for your advice, ma’am. I don’t think I’ve been flirting, and if I seem to be, I’ll stop. I have a lot of work to do, so if you’ll excuse me.”

  She filled her tray as fast as she could and hurried from the room. Reaching the kitchen, she ran to the sink and piled the dishes in. One slipped off the tray and broke, and Emily started crying.

  “I’m so sorry!” Emily gasped as she crouched down on her knees to pick up the pieces.

  “Emily! It was just an accident,” Martha said, moving over to the sink to help her pick up the broken plate. “I have broken many dishes. Please do not worry about it.”

  Emily buried her face in her hands, her shoulders heaving. She felt Martha’s arm come around her.

  “Whatever is the matter, Emily? All these tears cannot be over a broken dish.”

  “Nothing,” Emily sobbed. “I just don’t belong here, do I?”

  “Here at the house?” Martha asked. “Of course you do! I do not know how I managed without you!”

  “No, I meant Kaskade, the twentieth century. I don’t belong here. I can’t seem to do anything right!”

  “Whatever do you mean?” Martha asked.

  “Whatever does she mean?” a voice said from the doorway.

  Martha gasped and stood while Emily looked over her shoulder from her stooped position. When she saw who it was, she too jumped up.

  “Come now, young lady. There is no need for this emotional display,” Miss Noble said from the doorway. She held her plate and cup. “I only meant to give you advice regarding Kaskade and small-town life. I remember Martha said you were from Seattle, and I am certain they live a more Bohemian life there in the big city than we do down here. Martha knows that I speak my mind when I think I should. I hoped that you would not take offense. I certainly meant none.”

  “What happened?” Martha asked.

  “Nothing,” Emily muttered. “Everything is fine.” She wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand and bent down again to finish picking up the broken dish.

  Emily saw Martha’s skirts swish toward the doorway.

  “Let me take those from you, Miss Noble,” Martha said. “I do not know what has occurred, but I hope that we can be gracious to our new arrival. Emily is my friend, and I would not want her to feel unwelcome here in Kaskade.”

  Emily rose to her feet and kept her back to the women as she dropped the broken pieces into the garbage bin.

  “I only hope that Emily took my words in the spirit in which they were intended, as friendly advice. At the dinner table this evening, I became uncomfortably aware of some tension between your brother and my colleague, Mr. Damon, and I believe Emily to be the source of it.

  “I do not like to gossip, but Mr. Damon appeared to be quite enthralled with Emily, watching her every movement. Emily, perhaps a little naively, seemed to bestow her favors on first your brother, then Mr. Damon, rather indiscriminately, I thought. I only wished to warn her of gaining a reputation as a flirt. I suppose I ought to mention that Mr. Damon is a very sincere man. He does not throw his affections around lightly. In fact, I have never seen him behave so. I would not like to see him embarrassed or hurt.”

  Emily, standing at the sink with her back to the room, let the tears fall. She had no defense to such outspokenness. She knew the older woman was wrong, but she was an employee in the house...for however long that lasted.

  “Miss Noble!” Martha protested. “You misunderstand Emily completely. She is simply being friendly. However, more to the point, I must say that it is up to Mr. Damon and my brother to sort out whatever goes on between them. Emily will continue to work here, and the gentlemen will treat her with respect. In fact, all the boarders will treat her with respect.”

  “What is this all about?” Luke said.

  Emily looked over her shoulder to see him come up to stand behind Miss Noble. That was all Emily needed!

  She turned her back on everyone and wished herself gone, gone from Kaskade, gone from everyone!

  “Nothing, Luke,” Martha said. “Nothing at all.”

  “Nothing,” Miss Noble echoed.

  Emily looked over her shoulder at the small teacher. Luke towered over her, but the expression of adoration on Miss Noble’s face told Emily all she needed to know. Miss Noble was in love with Luke, even given the thirty- or forty-year difference in their ages. If she wasn’t in love, she certainly had a fierce crush on him.

  Still, Emily couldn’t forget her words. Had she been flirting with the men? She had certainly smiled at single men—even married men—and single women and married women, and children, on her job at the Greek restaurant, and never thought a thing about it.

  Was the smile of a single woman misinterpreted here? Did Luke think she had been flirting with him? That was the hardest bit of all to take.

  Mr. Damon appeared to be quite enthralled with Emily, watching her every movement, Miss Noble had said. Emily met Luke’s eyes, then swung around to finish the dishes. She needed to retrieve the rest of the dishes from the dining room, but there was no way she was going to pass through the gauntlet of people at the door without getting injured, emotionally anyway.

  “Emily, why don’t you go home?” Martha said. “I will finish up.”

  Emily pivoted slowly to face the room. All eyes stared at her.

  “I didn’t finish clearing up the dining room,” she mumbled.

  “That is fine. I will finish. I will see you bright and early in the morning! Could I ask you to clear the doorway so I can get to the dining room?” Martha asked Luke and Miss Noble.

  “Certainly. Thank you for dinner. Good night.” Miss Noble turned away, but Luke stepped inside the kitchen.

  Miss Noble paused and turned back. “Mr. Damon, are you coming?”

  “No, I am walking Miss Alexander home.”

  Emily had dreaded the moment Miss Noble discovered Luke was going to walk her home. It was all she had dreaded.

  “Well, goodness!” Miss Noble exclaimed, sending Emily a severe look. Emily wilted under the older woman’s gaze just as she had her mother’s often-silent form of communication—the disapproving arched eyebrows. In fact, Miss Noble reminded Emily of her mother in many ways—one of them being to pretend she offered advice when what she really wanted was control.

  “Good night, Miss Noble!” Martha called out. She picked up the tray and turned to Emily. “Good night, Emily. Will I see you in the morning?”

  “I can really stay and finish,” Emily eked out, holding back another round of tears.

  “No, no, I can finish. Will you come back? Do not let Miss Noble frighten you off.”

  “Yes, of course, I’ll be back in the morning,” Emily said, forcing a smile. “I had a mother like her. I can tune her out. I was just surprised, that’s all.”

  Emily was awkwardly aware that Luke’s head shifted from Martha then back to her as they talked. He obviously didn’t know what the crux of the conversation was, and he looked confused but oddly patient, as if he waited to understand what was happening.

  “I’ll tell you on the way home, Luke,” Emily said. The conversation would be embarrassing, but she supposed she would have to tell him something by way of explanation.

  “Good,” Martha said. “Good night, you two.” She stepped past Luke to leave the kitchen.

  Emily pressed her lips together and removed her apron, painfully aware that Luke watched her. She hung up her apron and pulled her hat from the row of hooks by the door. Settling her hat on her head without benefit of a mirror, she stuck the hatpin in through her bun to secure it.

  She turned and bumped into Luke, who stood closely behind her. He removed the hatpin, adjusted her hat and stuck the pin back in with care. Emily’s heart pounded against her ribs at the intimate gesture.

  “Are you ready?” he asked with a wide handsome smile.

  Emily opened her mouth to speak, but his nearness seemed to have robbed her of air. She nodded and followed him down the hall and out the front d
oor.

  The sense of being stared at made Emily look up to the second floor, where Miss Noble looked out the window at them. Luke followed her eyes. With a grunt, he took Emily’s hand and tucked it under his arm to lead her down the stairs and onto the road.

  “I think whatever was happening in the kitchen had something to do with Miss Noble. Am I correct?” he asked. He set a slow pace, as if they strolled on a promenade and not a dirt lane.

  “Yes, I’m sorry to say. I know she’s a fellow teacher. She seems to have taken a disliking to me...or something.” Emily dragged in a deep breath to explain further.

  Luke spoke first. “I take it that I was the subject of the conversation?” He patted her hand comfortingly, and Emily melted at the gesture.

  “You and me...and Jefferson...but mostly me...and a little bit of you,” Emily said. She wanted to start giggling, and she didn’t know why. Nothing was funny.

  “That was a mouthful! What on earth did Miss Noble have to say about you? The woman just met you. And Jefferson?”

  Emily hardly noticed twilight descending on Kaskade as they walked. She took a deep breath and spoke.

  “Look, you have to know that in my line of work, it pays to be friendly. Literally! People enjoy being waited on by someone who makes them feel welcome. And they tip better when they’re happier. Don’t get me wrong! I don’t smile at people because I think about the tip, but I do have a professional way that I work, and part of that is smiling.”

  “I am trying to think where this is leading,” Luke said with another one of his own great smiles.

  “Well, it seems that Miss Noble thinks I smile too much...at the men.” Emily’s face burned, and she looked down at the ground. “Specifically at you and Jefferson.”

  Luke paused and turned to her. “Do not tell me she said that to you!”

  Emily nodded. “She said I was flirting with both of you. She said more, but I’ll leave it at that.”

  Luke shook his head. Emily could see a muscle ticking in his jaw.

  “She really has gone too far. What has gotten into the woman? I told her at dinner that I wondered if I had ever really known her.”

  “Why? What happened at dinner?”

  Luke continued walking. “I would not like to say. I thought I had put her in her place. I see now that she may not have a place where you are concerned.”

  “So it was about me at dinner?” Emily asked. She didn’t wait for an answer. “I hate to tell you, Luke, but I think this is mostly about you. I think Miss Noble has a crush on you.”

  “Emily!” Luke remonstrated. “That is a silly idea!”

  “Why is that silly? Why else would she concern herself with your happiness and whether I’m going to hurt you or not?”

  Emily drew in a sharp breath and stopped talking.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Emily awakened early the next morning to hear rain beating on the window and howling wind that rattled the panes. She climbed out of bed to look out the window. Visibility was zero. She couldn’t even see the lake through the rain. There would be no jumping into the car to get to the boardinghouse that morning. She knew Jeremiah had a carriage, but she thought it was stabled somewhere in town, and she wasn’t about to ask to use it. Not to mention, no horse wanted to be out in the weather.

  She wondered if Leigh had a cloak that she could borrow, preferably one with a hood. There was no way she was going to wear one of her two new hats in that weather. She imagined Leigh would argue with her about going outside, but she couldn’t bail on Martha on day two of her employment. She wondered too if Luke walked to the school in weather like that or whether there was school at all.

  She dressed with care, slipping into a dark-blue cotton skirt that she hoped wouldn’t look too bad when she arrived at Martha’s house sopping wet. Leigh had bought her a black pair of ankle boots, and she put those on as well.

  She went downstairs and found the dining room empty. Her stomach growled, but she remembered that she would be working in a kitchen where breakfast would be underway. She thought she could grab something there. She did want a cup of coffee before she braved the weather though. She didn’t see Leigh, and she wondered if she could ask Mrs. Jackson for a cloak or raincoat or whatever they wore.

  Emily stepped into the kitchen, not surprised to see Mrs. Jackson busily prepping food. To her delight, a pot of coffee sat on the stove.

  “Good morning, Mrs. Jackson. Can I have a cup of coffee?”

  “Of course!” the housekeeper said, wiping her hands on a dish towel. “My, but you’re up early this morning!” Mrs. Jackson talked as she went to a cupboard and pulled out a cup and saucer. “Terrible weather today! Just terrible!”

  “It is,” Emily said with a playful grimace. “I have to go to work. It’s only my second day, and I can’t very well call in sick!”

  “Call in sick?” Mrs. Jackson asked. “That is one of your modern terms, isn’t it?”

  “It is,” Emily said with a chuckle, taking the cup of coffee that Mrs. Jackson had poured out. “The telephone.”

  “Ah! Yes! Dr. Cook would like to get one, but we don’t have any of those telephone lines yet. Hopefully soon, perhaps in my lifetime.”

  Emily stood and sipped her coffee. “I’m afraid I don’t know when that will happen either. You would think if Kaskade was going to kidnap people to bring back in time, the travelers would at least have a working knowledge of Kaskade’s history.”

  Mrs. Jackson chuckled. “Well, you know I believe they are brought for another purpose. Are you sure you want to go out in this weather? Before breakfast? I’m making so much food!”

  Emily cued on Mrs. Jackson’s first comment, but she responded to that latter part.

  “I don’t want to go out in the weather, but I have to, and I have to be there before they eat breakfast so I can serve it to them! I’m so sorry I can’t stay for breakfast. I was wondering if you had a cloak or some sort of weather garment that I could borrow today.”

  “I have a raincoat and scarf hanging over there by the back door that you can use today. You are welcome to use them. I will not go out today.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Jackson. I’ll take good care of them.”

  Mrs. Jackson laughed. “Of course you will.”

  Emily thought she heard a knocking nearby, and she tilted her head to listen to the noise. “Do you hear that?” she asked.

  “That is the front door. Who could possibly be knocking on the front door at this hour in this weather?”

  Mrs. Jackson hurried out of the kitchen and down the hall. Emily set down her coffee to follow her to the kitchen doorway. She watched as the housekeeper opened the door.

  Luke stood on the porch holding a battered umbrella. He wore no hat, and his chestnut hair was disheveled, wet and curly. He looked beyond Mrs. Jackson to Emily, who started forward with concern.

  “Is something wrong?” she asked. She came up behind Mrs. Jackson.

  “No, not at all,” he said with a wide smile. His trousers were dark with moisture and mud up to his shins. “Martha thought you might like to stay home today, and I volunteered to deliver the message. I had offered to escort you over there, but she felt the weather was just too harsh for you to travel out in.”

  “No, of course, I’m going!” Emily said. “It’s my job!”

  Luke’s smile charmed her, but his soggy “I just got out of a rain shower” look truly delighted her—as did the fact that he had actually braved the weather on her account, at least for that moment.

  “I told Martha that I thought you might wish to go to work.”

  “What about school? Aren’t you late for school?”

  “Not yet. I doubt that many students will attend this morning given the weather.”

  “Thank you for coming to escort me,” Emily said with humility. “That is so nice of you!”

  “Not at all! I do not have a carriage, or I would have brought one with me.”

  “I would worry about the horse ou
t in this weather,” Emily said with a laugh.

  “I must get back to the kitchen,” Mrs. Jackson said. “If you insist on going outside, Emily, do come and get the raincoat and scarf.”

  “I’ll be right back,” Emily said to Luke. She hesitated. “Do you want a cup of coffee to warm up? Or a towel to dry off?”

  Luke’s brown eyes sparkled, something Emily hadn’t seen before.

  “No, thank you. I am just going to get wet again...and so are you!”

  Emily couldn’t help but respond to his rather playful grin. “Okay, I’ll be right back.” She hurried down the hall to the kitchen, where Mrs. Jackson held a large black trench coat for her. She slipped her arms into it, and Mrs. Jackson turned her around and buttoned the front, as if she were a child. The housekeeper then took a thick scarf off the hook and placed it on Emily’s head, tying it under her chin.

  “Off you go then,” Mrs. Jackson said. “Do be careful. I worry about things flying about in a wind like this!”

  “I will,” Emily said, turning to hurry out.

  “I am very glad Mr. Damon has come to get you,” Mrs. Jackson said.

  Emily stopped at the door and turned.

  “Me too,” she said with burning cheeks.

  She made her way to the front door, where Luke waited for her.

  “Very sensible,” he said, surveying her coat and scarf.

  “I really appreciate this, Luke. You know you didn’t have to come get me, but I really appreciate it.”

  “It is my pleasure,” he said. “Are you ready? We will not stroll this morning.”

  “No strolling,” Emily repeated with a chuckle. “Got it!”

  Luke opened the door and stepped out to open the umbrella. She followed him onto the porch, where he took her hand and tucked it under his left arm. The wind and rain lashed across the porch, but not half as much as they did once they descended the steps.

  Emily staggered against the force of the wind, and she raised her free hand to shield her eyes.

  “Ack!” she called out, swallowing a mouthful of water when she opened her mouth.