Beauty From Ashes (39 page)

Anne smiled a little, but the smile was warm. If anyone in the city of Marietta knew Louisa Fletcher was truly sensitive, it was Anne. Louisa had simply not thought about John at all. Handsome and strong in his Royal Marine uniform, he looked down at them this minute, but to Louisa Fletcher, John would always be a stunning, slightly arrogant, strikingly good-looking portrait hanging on the parlor

wall. 521

“Don’t keep me waiting another second, Anne,” Louisa begged. “I must know at once that I’m forgiven. I—I don’t think I forgot about your beloved late husband. I just think I’ve seen clearly for perhaps the first time in my whole life that my way is more or less to reckon apart from Dix. Unlike you and your John. Oh, I cherish my husband.

I admire his goodness of character, his industry, his unblemished faithfulness to me, his adoration of all three of our children, but—was

“But you don’t really love him?” Horrified at her own blunt question, Anne added quickly, “What I meant to say is that when you think of your life, your deepest personal life, do you think of yourself rather apart from him?”

“Do you forgive me? I certainly intend to answer your question, but not with a shred of a barrier between us, Anne. Am I forgiven for having been so thoughtless? Your daughter Pete, the very first day I brought you to this house, made it plain to me that the love you and her father shared was not ordinary married love. But I have no excuse whatever for what I said. Please, please say I’m forgiven! What you and your John had together must have been most

unlike what otherwise devoted couples share.”

After a tender embrace, Anne whispered, “I forgive you, but I also understand what you’re telling me about you and Dix now. And, Louisa, it changes nothing. If anything, we’re even closer.”

“You really don’t envy me, do you? Many women do and I know full well why they do.” Louisa thought for a minute. “So many women in this small city would give almost anything to be able to trust their husbands as I’ve always trusted Dix. Not only to be faithful to me, but his self-control in all areas is—was She broke off with a soft laugh. “Well, the man’s self-control is not only an amazement to me still, it can be quite maddening as well. You know how stimulated I am by good conversation. I can’t tell you how long it took me to realize that when Dix just didn’t answer one of my questions, he meant to be telling me to use my own good judgment.” She laughed again. “I honestly think I’m still learning how to interpret some of his grunts, to remember to look up at him when he merely nods assent or shakes his head in disgust.”

“But he’s always so kind and agreeable.”

“And he also seldom forgets a 523 promise. Only this morning at breakfast he asked again if you’ve decided about needing him to build you a new bookcase or a table. Perhaps even new cabinets. He really wants to give you something to celebrate your new Marietta home, Anne. My husband meant his offer quite seriously, I assure you.”

“I don’t doubt that for a minute. But leaving the hotel and undertaking new work will mean his time will be limited, won’t it?”

“Not according to Dix. Actually, he thinks he may have more free time once he’s back from his political errand in Macon next week. And Anne, I hope you won’t mind this, but when my husband and I were at your delightful family get-together the other evening, he made a splendid suggestion. Perhaps no one else would be rude enough to come right out and tell you, but your daughters are of the age when dancing is highly important, and the wide, original pine boards in the floors of your parlor, dining room, and entrance hall don’t make the best dancing surface. My husband would be so pleased if you’d permit him to lay a good, smooth, hardwood floor on top of the one already

there before you have your first big party. Have I offended you?”

Anne’s eyes lit up. “Offended me? Far from it, Louisa. Pete and Selina have brought up those uneven floorboards every time we talk about giving our party. But isn’t that an enormous job? And won’t the materials for hardwood floors be costly?”

“No, and this will show you how seriously Dix takes his offer to do something that will really welcome you to Marietta. You know how much my husband likes and respects Mary and Edward Denmead, I’m sure.”

“I do indeed,” Anne replied.

“Edward Denmead has begged Dix to allow his lumber yard to supply the best hardwood for your new floors if you’ll permit my husband to supervise their installation. Dix has two available carpenters and needs only two more men to help them out.”

“I can supply two men. Neither is young, but both are totally reliable. Eve’s husband, June, is already experienced, and my other man, Rollie, once my husband’s blacksmith, has turned into quite a repairman. They’d be

honored to help out—if you’re sure 525 all that extra work won’t be an imposition on Mr. Fletcher.”

“Then it’s settled,” Louisa said, getting to her feet to go. “If it were proper for women to lay bets, I’d wager almost anything that your acceptance will actually make Dix smile, so that even with little practice in translating his moods, even you will be able to see for yourself.”

Walking arm in arm with Louisa to the front door, Anne said—her voice thoughtful, serious, almost solemn—“There will be a way for my children and me to thank you for the huge part you’ve played in helping them bring at least a semblance of wholeness back to their mother. I don’t yet know what that way will be, but there will be one, Louisa.”

“Don’t you see you’ve brought wholeness to me, too, Anne? I wasn’t unhappy when you reached Marietta, but I wasn’t complete, either. I suppose I won’t be entirely happy until some church welcomes me to the Holy Communion table simply because I’m a Christian.”

“Louisa! Do you mean St. James doesn’t allow you to take Communion at its altar?”

“I’m a Unitarian, Anne. I want to remain so. That makes me an outsider to this Episcopal parish.”

“But you sing at St. James almost every Sunday!”

“I know. I sing for God, though. For the God of love.” After a soft laugh, Louisa added, “St. James’s rector doesn’t agree that God loves and welcomes us all, especially Unitarians.” She glanced at Anne’s hall clock. “I must get back to the Howard House with the happy news for Dix that you welcome his new hardwood floor. That Dix and I love each other in the inclusive love of God is our strongest bond.”

“Dix can’t receive Holy Communion either at St. James?”

“No. But the dear man will be touched by that inclusive love in the very fact that you so welcome his idea of a smooth hardwood floor over these wide pine boards. You and Dix and I will at least know that we will dance because of the all-welcoming love of God on that new floor. It will be only among us. Dix will be so pleased to be included in our secret.”

“Wake up, Miss Sleepyhead,” Eve sang out as she flung back the winter curtains so that Miss Anne could have her first look in years at real, honest-to-goodness snow covering their well-kept nine acres of land and every bush and tree June, Rollie, and Big Boy tended. “Open your eyes an’ look out de windah! We got us snow for New Year’s Day. An’ Eve brung your breakfus. Mina, she say she send you a New Year surprise!”

As usual, Eve noticed, Miss Anne had slept her nightcap off to one side, but the big smile on her face was like a light shining into Eve’s heart because her beloved mistress had opened her eyes with the smile. Miss Anne had never fooled Eve when that certain smile had to be worked on. This one didn’t. Surprise raisin muffins on her tray from Mina, plus the surprise of a newly fallen snow, plus John Couper’s coming this very morning, plus its being the first day of the new year 1853, guaranteed that the smile would shine first thing.

“Oh, Eve, pull both curtains wide

open so I can have a good look! Do you remember back when we still lived at Lawrence when Papa and John got so Christmasy from one little dab of snow, they dumped tons of pine and cedar and holly branches into poor Mina’s kitchen? Their load was so big, we had to burn half of it in our fireplaces. Then you and I made fragrant little pillows out of the leftover needles.”

Eve’s smile flashed. “I sure do ‘member an’ I kin still feel how them pillows scratch, too! Mausa John an Mausa Couper, they bof go all the way whatever they do.”

She checked Miss Anne’s smile again. It hadn’t faded a bit at the mention of her dead papa or her dead husband. The smile was still there and Eve’s heart felt lit up from it. Only Eve had known how worried her own mind had been that moving all the way north to Marietta, away from the Island Miss Anne loved so much, might stop that smile. But there it was, and Miss Anne looked twenty years younger because of it. Pete and John Couper had been right, Eve thought to herself: It might for sure bring their mama to life again, just having her own house and property to live in.

“I remember the first time John and 529 I saw snow together. He’d grown up with it in Scotland, but he never stopped being amused at me because when we were married, I’d seen only two or three light snows in my whole life!”

Eve turned from pouring Anne’s breakfast coffee and stood facing her. “Mausa John, he sure like to laugh. And that ‘minds me, Miss Anne, I been keepin’ count ob somethin’.was

“What?”

“June tell me today that I kin add one more day to my count. Big Boy, he cry ever mornin’ we been in Mar’etta till last week. Me an’ June we figure he ain’t cried all this week between Christmas an’ today, New Year’s.”

Miss Anne was staring at her as though dumbfounded. “Big Boy’s been crying daily because he can’t go fishing up here?”

“Yes’m. Tears roll down his big ole face every day ‘cause he miss dem fish an’ his skiff an’ some kind of riber. Big Boy an’ Rollie, they eats breakfast wif me an’ June in our cabin. He done cry sometime while we sittin’ at my kitchen table—till this

week.”

“Well, tell me, does he hate the work he does up here that much? I know he was Papa’s fisherman all his life, but—was

“June, he say jus’ las’ night he had some hope now that he won’t die of old age before he see Big Boy smilin’ while he pull weeds outa your flower beds. June, he think once Big Boy’s seeds starts to bloom, he git to like growin’ flowers almost as much as fishin’.was

Eve placed Anne’s tray before her and stood back as she’d always done to watch her mistress’s face for the sign that Eve had made a good pot of coffee that day.

After one sip, Miss Anne grinned up at her. “Your coffee’s delicious, Eve. Thank you. And can you truly believe that John Couper could be here in something over an hour from now if his train isn’t late because of the snow?”

“Lil ole siftin’ ob snow like that, Miss Anne? Anyhow, you done got it fix so’s he don’t need to wait for a ride from the depot. You got Miss Louisa holdin’ a carriage for that boy.”

“I didn’t do it,” Anne said, taking a

huge bite of one of Mina’s buttery 531 raisin muffins. “It’s not polite to talk with food in my mouth, I know, but my sweet Louisa Fletcher volunteered a carriage for him.”

“Even if she forgit, he come on shank’s mare. Dat boy gonna see his mama no matter what. Ain’t nothin’ gonna stop him gettin’ here to wish you an’ his sisters a Happy New Year!”

“I know. I also know I’m getting one of these delicious muffins because my handsome son’s coming. Mina wouldn’t think of not having a basket of his favorites waiting. I’m sure she made up extra dough so John Couper’s will be so hot the butter swims. Oh, and when Mina bakes his batch, be sure she makes enough for June, Rollie, and Big Boy, too.”

“Yes’m.”

“Here, sit down on the bed with me and eat one of these. I’ll be too stuffed to have breakfast with the girls if I have them both.”

Still standing beside the bed, Eve said, “I done had one. Mina, she done slip me one in de kitchen while I’se waitin’ fo’ daylight to wake you

up.”

“Well, have another one, and bend your knees and sit down on this bed beside me. These muffins are just too good to let cool off.”

Eve broke hers in two and popped a sizable bite into her mouth. “Oh, dey be good, all right. But Mina, she skin me alive if she ketch me eatin’ one of yours.”

“Is something wrong with your knees?”

“No’m. Somepin wrong with yours, Miss Anne? You plumb forget I’m a whole year younger than you.”

Miss Anne gave a little laugh. “Hush up and sit down.”

“Eve got work to do. It be purt near eight o’clock, an’ even if John Couper’s train late comin’, he gonna git here befo’ you done let me help you bathe an’ fix your hair. I got orders from Pete.”

“What orders from Pete?”

“She want me to be sure you looks young an’ happy an’ as purty as John Couper ‘members you lookin’. Them two takes full credit fo’ gittin’ you to move up here to this fine house. Now, lemme get that hot water cool

off some for yo’ bath.” 533

“Oh, Eve, sometimes since we’ve lived here in Marietta, I feel so spoiled!”

“Why you feel spoil up here?”

“I guess because I know poor Louisa Fletcher not only has had to work hard at the hotel, but that she bathes and dresses herself every day of her life.”

“She don’ believe in no slabery.”

“For goodness’ sake, that’s why I feel so spoiled! Louisa’s a real lady, too. It just doesn’t seem right for you to carry hot and cold water all the way up those steps, bring my breakfast coffee every morning, and treat me as though I were the duchess of something.”

Eve thought a minute, then decided her mistress’s mood was good enough to give her the smile Eve knew would really puzzle her. The smile that had always puzzled her so much, Miss Anne seemed to want to smack her or beg to be told what the smile truly meant. So, with the smile on her bright-skinned, regal face, Eve said, “Well, Miss Anne, you an’ me does things some different from the way other people does.” The smile was gone before Miss Anne’s question was

asked, and Eve went on. “I know you’s some downhearted ‘cause Miss Louisa’s husband, he don’t get the new floor laid before John Couper get here.”

“Of course I’m disappointed, but that beautiful flooring—all of it—is an outright gift. We couldn’t afford to put down a new hardwood floor if our lives depended on it. Beggars can’t be choosers, can they?”