M. Donice Byrd - The Warner Saga (33 page)

Although there seemed to be a sense of resignation in Pete over living with
Uncle Blake
, he did not cease his open hostility towards him. He went so far as to ask Sam if there was a sign for the curse word he loved hurl at Blake. Blake’s frustration with him hit the breaking point one day when Pete thrust the notebook at him with the expletive taking up the top half of the page and, “you, Blake” underneath it. Blake snatched the notebook out of his hand and the pencil from behind his ear and threw them in the fireplace. Pete protested verbally then began fingerspelling the word slowly so Blake, who picked up sign the slowest, would catch every letter.

“Go to your room and stay there until you can act like a young gentleman rather than a ruffian thug!” Blake
yelled, pointing his finger towards the stairs. When Pete stood there defiantly Blake shouted, “Now!”

“Please, Petey!” Lolly begged pulling his hand; her big blue-green eyes were awash with tears. “Please, Petey. Stop making Uncle Blake mad or he’s going to hit you.”

Blake didn’t correct Lolly since her pleading got Pete moving. “Lolly, you stay here. Pete is being punished and he needs to spend time alone.”

Pete stomped up the stairs and slammed his bedroom door.

“Criminy! I don’t know what to do with him, Meredith.”

“You know he keeps throwing that word it you because he knows it’ll get a reaction out of you. Stop reacting.”

Blake shook his head. “He makes me act like a six-foot-tall twelve-year-old.”

Meredith chuckled at the image he brought to mind. “Throwing his paper and pencil in the fire might not have been the best parenting I’ve ever seen,” Meredith admitted.

Blake took a deep breath trying to calm down. He knew Meredith was right but he was just so frustrated that no matter how much he tried to be a good parent, the boy knew exactly what to do to anger him. “Do you want to go for a ride – just the three of us?”

Meredith’s eyes lit up. “Oh yes, please.”

“Go change and I’ll saddle the horses. Lolly, go get your coat, mittens and hat.”

“The furry ones?” she
asked, her face lighting up.

“Yes, the furry ones,” Blake said scooping Lolly up and tossing her in the air once before setting her down and sending her on her way.

Within minutes they were riding to a nearby equestrian park with Lolly sitting in front of Meredith on the big gray horse. Despite the chill in the air, there were many people there riding their horses.

“Are those fences for jumping?”

Blake laughed. He loved seeing her excited. He sensed how out of place she felt trying to fit into his world and it was nice to see her excited about something.

“Of course.”

“Do you think it’s all right? I wouldn’t want to hurt you-know-who,” Meredith said referring to the baby.

“Try a couple of the small ones and see how it feels.” Blake said plucking Lolly off Meredith’s horse and setting her in front of him.

“I think as long as I raise up, my legs will absorb the impact but I don’t think I’ll jump anything larger than a foot or two just to be on the safe side.”

Blake watched as she started jumping small fences and worked her way to larger ones. “Isn’t your new mother amazing,” he said to Lolly as he unbuttoned his greatcoat and drew her inside to make sure she wasn’t cold.

“Blake!”

Two women on horseback trotted up to him. One was the wife of his friend Thaddeus and the other was her sister.

“Is this your niece that you’re adopting? I heard about your sister. What a tragedy,” Darcie said.

Blake tried to school his expression. This was Cloris’s doings. She had no doubt concocted a story to explain the children when there had been no cause to do so. Heaven forbid she should just tell people they were adopting two children after their parents were killed.

“I didn’t know you had a sister,” the sister added.

“We’ve been estranged.”

Blake sought out Meredith visually and found her hemmed-in between two men.

“If you’ll excuse us, ladies, my wife is being accosted by a couple of young bucks.” Blake didn’t wait for them to say anything else but nudged his horse into a quick clip.

“Go find someone else to bother,” Blake said pulling up directly in front of Meredith’s horse. He grabbed the reins and pulled the horse forward. “She’s married.”

“Come now, Warner. We were just complementing the young lady’s riding skills.”

“Oh, that’s how it starts, isn’t it? I practically wrote the book. Next comes all the innuendos about wanting to ride with her and maybe, since there’s two of you, suggestions of riding double – well, not with my wife.”

“Tell me it isn’t true. Tell me our hero, Blake the Great, hasn’t gone and fallen in love.”

Blake opened his mouth to say something – to say anything -- but could not find the words. He would not embarrass Meredith by saying he didn’t love her, nor could he say it just to shut up his friends.

“We’re very happy,” Meredith broke in. “Blake, we probably don’t want to keep Lolly out in the cold too long.”

“Good day, Robert. Good day, Nate.” Blake said turning his horse.

“There’s only one word to describe you, Warner.
Domesticated
.”

Blake turned in his saddle and grinned widely. “You should try it sometime.”

“Thanks,” Meredith said surprising him.

“Thanks?
For what?”

“For rescuing me.
I don’t mind admitting they were frightening me a bit the way they flanked me and stopped Viper. Are men here always so aggressive?”

“They can be,” he admitted knowing that he had probably been that forward more than once when pursuing a young woman.

“I didn’t know what to say to them. I didn’t want to be rude.”

“If it happens again try starting by saying your husband is a jealous man. It lets them know you’re married and that will stop most men in their tracks.”

“I’ll do that – even though I hate to lie like that.”

“What lie?”

“About my husband being jealous.”

“Oh, that lie,” he said smiling at her.

By the tone of his voice, Meredith sensed that he was teasing her. Was he jealous? The thought made her feel warm. To feel jealousy, he'd have to feel something for her.

“This isn’t the way we came. Where are we going?”

“I need to buy Pete a new notepad and pencil.”

“Oh.”

“There’s a store where I buy my stationery that’s next door to a little bakery. I thought my girls might like a little treat.” Blake gave Lolly a little tickle. “Do you like sweets, Lolly? Oh, I already know the answer to that. Lolly likes butterscotch, don’t you?”

“I do not! I hate butterscotch. I never want butterscotch again,” Lolly cried, vehemently.

“Well, you don’t have to have butterscotch again if you don’t like it,” Meredith told her.

“She must have eaten all the candy I gave her ma and gotten sick on it,” Blake said trying to understand why the mention
of the sweet candy upset her.

“Or maybe she got in trouble for sneaking one.”

It bothered Blake to think one of the last memories of her parents may have been getting in trouble over sneaking a candy. To a child, it would have seemed monumental but in reality it was just one of those small moments in life that happens to everyone.

“The bakery doesn’t sell candy. They sell cakes and pies and bread. They have these tiny cakes called petit fours,” Blake said holding his fingers about an inch apart. “Or they have cakes big enough to feed an army and they’ve got lots of different cookies.”

“Can we get one for Petey, too?”

“How about we each get one pastry or a cookie that
we eat there and a big pie we take home and share with Pete?”

“Can I share my cookie with Petey?”

“No, Lolly,” Blake said. “Pete is being punished. But I’ll make you a deal: the next time Pete has a good day, I’ll bring him here for a sweet.”

“Okay,” she said, her bottom lip pouting out.

“And if you don’t tell him we had a sweet while we were out, he won’t know.”

Mered
ith was extremely surprised the store Blake took them to sold nothing but paper and related products. They must have carried a dozen different colors of stationery and one could even have their initials embossed into or printed on their stationery. The paper was thicker than anything she’d ever seen and Meredith found herself trying to separate pages, thinking she held more than one. They had wax for sealing envelopes and stamps for embossing your initials into the wax. They also sold more ordinary things like ink and an assortment of ink wells from plain to fancy.

Blake grabbed a handful of small notebooks, and a pair of larger ones for school work, pencils and a pair of pencil sharpeners.

The clerk looked over the glasses at the end of his nose and greeted Blake warmly.

“Mr. Smithers, I’d like you to meet my wife, Meredith, and our daughter, Lolly.”

“Oh, yes, I saw it mentioned in the paper. I’m pleased to meet you, madam.”

“It’s nice to meet you as well. I love your stationery shop. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The man’s chest bowed out with pride. “Thank you. Have you come to have Mrs. Warner’s calling cards printed?” he asked looking back and forth between them.

“Oh, I’m glad you mentioned it. As a matter of fact, we need them for everyone.” Blake remembered how thrilled he had been when he received his first box but doubted Pete would feel the same.

“How do you wish your name to read?” Blake asked Meredith. “Mrs. Blake Warner, Mrs. Meredith Warner, Mrs. Meredith Vande Linde-Warner?”

“Well, definitely not the last one. It sounds like I’m just trying out our marriage until I decide if I like it.”

Blake smiled at her answer. He liked to hear she now felt the marriage was permanent.

“I think I would prefer my given name.”

“As you wish,” Blake said but somewhere inside him, he wished she had chosen Mrs. Blake Warner. “And I suppose we need a couple’s card. Mr. and Mrs. Blake or Blake and Meredith?”

In the end they decided on Mr. and Mrs. Blake Warner for the couple’s card and Blake and Meredith Warner, Peter and Lorelei for the family card although they knew those would have to be reprinted after the baby was born.

“Uncle Blake,” Lolly said. “Look what I found.” She reached up and pulled on his hand until they were standing in front of a book about calligraphy. “Petey doesn’t know how to write all the letters the right way. Sometimes he just makes up what he thinks they should look like.”

He didn’t have the heart to tell Lolly that Pete’s script was not exactly calligraphy but since Pete did have beautiful writing, it would still be a thoughtful gift.

Blake was torn. He wanted to buy the book for Pete but he was being punished for cursing at him again. He knew it would make Lolly happy as well.

“Why don’t you buy the book for Pete? It was your idea after all.”

“But I don’t have any money.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything but I’m pretty sure I saw a silver dollar in your ear yesterday. Hopefully
, it didn’t fall out while you were sleeping.”

Blake set her on the counter and pushed her hair behind her ear. A moment later he was performing the magic of countless generations of fathers by mysteriously pulling money out of her ear. He lifted her off the counter, and kissed her on the forehead before setting her down.

“I wonder how that got there. You must have put it in there for safekeeping when you were a baby.”

Lolly picked up the book and carried it to the man.

“Is this for you?”

“It’s for my brother, Petey. Uncle Blake found a dollar in my ear.”

“He did?” the man said with a laugh. “Well, Petey is going to need a very special pen for his calligraphy and I’m going to throw it in free for you because you are so sweet.”

Lolly squealed with delight. “Thank you.”

After they finished at the stationery shop, Blake took them next door to the bakery but Lolly was so excited to show Pete the book and pen that she couldn’t stand still long enough to pick out a sweet. Blake picked out a pastry covered in chocolate for her that she ate in the saddle sitting in front of Meredith. The chocolate was on her face and hands when they arrived home.

The housekeeper rushed out the door before they had the horses in the stable.

“Come quick, Mr. Warner. We don’t know what to do. It’s Master Peter. He’s torn up his room. I asked one of the girls to take Master Peter tea and he threw the tray across the room and turned over the bed. The poor girl nearly had an apoplectic fit.”

The idyllic outing was over and reality came crashing in. Blake handed the housekeeper the pie in his hand and alit from his horse. He helped Lolly and Meredith down before striding towards the house.

“No, Blake, let me deal with him. I’m either going to need Lolly to interpret for me or paper and pencil.”