Authors: Mazo de la Roche
Tags: #FIC045000 – FICTION / Sagas
The sun put on a new warmth. The deep snow melted and swept in icy runnels through the ditches. Harriet Archer covered her shoes with shiny black galoshes and went with Renny to the stables.
It was the first time in all her life that she had put foot in one. She was amazed by the size of these and by the order everywhere manifest, which contrasted sharply with the haphazard manner of the housekeeping. But the size and order of the stables were as nothing compared to the revelation the horses themselves were to Harriet Archer.
Something in her that had never been awakened, now stirred, reared a strange dream-head, drew a deep breath of the varied smells of the stables. Renny had given her his arm and her delicate fingers clutched it excitedly They walked through the cold alleys, with the open stalls on either hand. The muscular buttocks of the horses caught the light like polished wood. Horse after horse spoke in deep whinnies to Renny as he passed. They curved their thick necks to look at him and at the little stranger by his side. He took her right into the stalls of his two favourites — Cora, an aged mare, with lovely beaming eyes and a white blaze on her face, and a big roan gelding whose mouth he opened to show Harriet his teeth. She shrank inwardly as the great cavern with its huge teeth yawned above her and an iron hoof was lifted as though in protest, but she held her ground. She even moved closer and stroked the barrel-like body. With that touch the something in her rose, shook itself as with a rattling of harness, and said in her own precise voice:
“I’m going to be a real horse lover. I can see that.”
They found Adeline grooming the pony that had been Wakefield’s, while the stableboy Wilf ran here and there at her bidding. Harriet saw her for the first time in her torn jersey and sagging breeches. She gave her elders no more than a smile but began to show off for Harriet’s benefit, lifting the pony’s hooves, slapping its flank. “And she is not yet five!” exclaimed Harriet.
They went to the harness room and, in its shadowy quiet, she saw the ranges of saddles, the lines of well-polished leathers — the snaffles, check straps, and pelhams. Harriet let go Renny’s arm and touched these things masterfully. She savoured the new bond between her and the master of Jalna.
Delighted with her, he displayed the collection of cups and ribbons. She did not understand one-half of what he said, but she felt that she understood
him
better every hour.
He took her to his office where the little stove was red-hot in her honour. But their breath hung on the air. He put her into his own swivel chair and himself made tea for her in a pot with a chipped spout. As they sipped their tea and he described the careers of the various horses of the lithographs, she felt bolder than ever before in her life. But she knew she was getting chilblains.
When they returned to the house Alayne met them at the door of the sitting room. Her face was flushed and an unnatural glitter was in her eyes. She said:
“I think I’m going to have my baby quite soon. I think you had better send for the doctor.”
He turned pale. “First let me put you to bed,” he said. But when he touched her she cried out. With her in his arms, his lips on her cheek, he stood hesitating a moment. Then, seeing the door of his grandmother’s room open, he carried her in and laid her on the bed.
So it happened that Alayne’s son, arriving before his time, was born in the painted leather bed where old Adeline had borne three sons.
S
PRING
S
PRING CAME QUICKLY
that year. The time between melting snow and greening grass seemed shorter to Alayne than ever before. She had seen from her window how the black tracery of branches was veiled in tiny leaves almost before she had realized the buds. Adeline had brought a handful of bloodroot from a sheltered corner of the wood and put their silver stems and drooping flowers into the little brother’s hands.
She and Alayne were never so near as when they were drawn together by their love for the infant: though Alayne found the constant “Don’t hold him so tightly” or “Don’t kiss him on the mouth!” an irritation. Adeline seemed never to remember how fragile the baby was. She wanted to treat him as a puppy and she resented her mother’s possessive guarding of him.
Toward this new child of hers Alayne’s love flowed in a strong tide, as it had never flowed toward Adeline. She realized this herself and accounted for it by the coincidence of his birth and her return to health and happiness. He had been a smaller child than Adeline, the agony of the birth had been short, and the recuperation gratifying to the doctor and a delight to Renny. In a fortnight Alayne looked like her old self. In a month she was filled with a new energy. The wings of her spirit spread themselves in the new springtime of hope and happiness.
Before the child’s birth she had often felt depressed by the lack of maternal yearning in herself. Even after her return to Jalna she had given all her thoughts to Renny — none, except those of foreboding, to the new life within her.
But how different when her son was in her arms! She became aware of a power he was going to have over her life. She felt his little hands take her heart into their keeping.
From her birth Adeline had definitely shown her resemblance to her great-grandmother. In the first weeks all that could be said of this child was that he had his mother’s colouring. But one day Harriet Archer, holding him to the light and examining his features critically, exclaimed:
“Why, Alayne, I know who he is like! Why did I never see it before? He is the living image of your dear father!”
Alayne looked earnestly into the tiny face. “I believe you are right, Aunt Harriet. Oh, how wonderful it will be if he really is!”
“There is no doubt about it! He has your father’s noble forehead. He has his eyes. Oh, my dear, just wait till I get the photo of him when he was a baby and you’ll see the likeness, feature by feature!”
She found the picture and they compared the infant to it in delighted certainty. When Renny returned to the house Alayne told him of their discovery. He looked rueful rather than pleased.
“Do you really think so?” he asked, staring at his son.
“I am sure of it.”
“Well, it’s to be hoped he doesn’t take after him in any other way.”
“Why not?” she flashed, at once on the defensive.
He laughed. “What on earth should we do with a Professor of Economics in the house?”
She answered seriously — “It would be the best thing that could happen to us.”
He showed chagrin at this. He said — “Then you’re glad that the boy isn’t like me?”
She drew his face to her and kissed him. “One of you is all I can manage, darling.”
But he was not satisfied. “I should think you would have liked your son to be like your husband. This fellow isn’t like any of us.”
“He is like …” She hesitated, as she always did, when speaking of her father to Renny.
“A far finer character,” he finished for her.
“Surely you can understand how much it means to me that he should resemble my father? Surely you don’t feel jealousy of someone you have never even seen!”
He was ashamed. He said eagerly:
“I am glad he looks like your dad, if it pleases you, my sweet! God knows, there are Whiteoaks enough! Perhaps he’ll be a go-getter and put the family on its legs again.”
Alayne found no allurement in this picture of her baby’s future. She frowned and said:
“I hope he will have my father’s intellect.”
“Look here!” said Renny, “It’s time he was christened. And we’ve never discussed his name. That do you want to call him, eh?” In truth he had thought a good deal about his son’s name but had waited for Alayne to say that it should be named for him.
He could scarcely conceal his disappointment when she said:
“I want to call him Archer. You won’t mind, will you?”
He repeated — “Archer … Archer Whiteoak. Hm, it’s an odd sort of name!”
“I think it’s a lovely name. What a picture it brings to one’s mind when you consider the meaning of it! An archer with his bow and arrow, standing beneath a tall oak tree. Don’t you see that, Renny?”
“No,” he returned perversely, “I see a professor in his cap and gown, riding Mrs. Spindles.”
“Oh, you’re hopeless!” She pressed the baby close to her and pressed his fingers to her lips.
“May I give him a second name?” he demanded.
“Of course — a dozen if you like!”
“Court, then. Archer Court Whiteoak.” Alayne had to be content with Adeline’s old perambulator for the baby, when she longed for one of the latest design. A thousand times she thought of what she might do for him, if only her income had not vanished! However, he did have a new crib, of a delicious pale blue enamel, and this stood in the corner of her room, where Adeline’s had once been. But what a different child! One might forget he was in the room he slept so sweetly, the little downy silver head just showing above the satin quilt. Week by week Alayne watched his intelligence unfold. She saw that it was of a different order from Adeline’s. His grey-blue eyes followed her movements, looked into her face, with what she felt was an almost uncanny understanding. At his age Adeline’s gaze had been as remote, as detached as that of some little wild animal peeping from its burrow. Oh, but this boy was near to Alayne’s heart! When she woke in the morning he was her first thought. She glided barefoot across the floor to make sure that all was well with him.
Piers remarked to Renny — “It’s disgusting, this habit of wives — having a first son with no look of his father or his father’s family. Gran did it. Pheasant did it. Now Alayne. My own mother did it.”
“Mine didn’t,” said Renny.
“That’s true!” laughed Piers, then asked. “What was your mother like? Neither you nor Meg resemble her.”
Renny stared at him incredulously. “You don’t mean to tell me that you don’t know what my mother looked like?”
“No. How could I? I should scarcely have known what my own looked like — if I hadn’t been told that Eden was the image of her.”
“Well, all I can say for you is, that you ought to be ashamed. Next Sunday I’ll get out the old album and show you their pictures.”
These brothers were so much thrown together, they were both so strong-willed and domineering, that quarrels between them were inevitable. Earlier in his life Piers had chafed or been sullen under Renny’s tyranny, magnanimous though it was. Now, he not only resisted when he could, but sometimes attempted to tyrannize over Renny himself.
Once Harriet Archer was an unseen witness of one of their quarrels. She had formed the habit of herself walking to the stables every fine morning. The air was becoming fresh and warm. The horses were being schooled for the spring shows. She was often deeply moved by the thought that she was becoming one with the life at Jalna.
She heard raised voices as she approached the paddock. She saw Wright, another man and the boy Wilf standing by holding horses which, attentive and motionless, seemed to listen with dignity to the altercation. Renny and Piers faced each other and Harriet heard from their lips words she had never expected to hear spoken. These were so mixed with the jargon of the stable that nothing was really coherent to her. But she knew that it was all very bad. She was afraid, by the expressions of their faces, that they would come to blows. If they did, she thought, she would cast discretion aside and rush between them. Her heart thumped at the thought of this but she had a faint, a very faint, feeling of disappointment when they turned from each other without violence.
Renny mounted one of the horses and put it at a jump in a manner which suggested that he was ready to fly to pieces with rage. Piers was given a leg up by Wright and galloped down the course after Renny. But his temper affected his mount. It kicked the top bar from the gate, ducked its head and all but threw Piers. Harriet could see how he tugged at the rein, hear how he lathered the horse. Renny galloped back to him. The horses reared. The brothers shouted.
“Now,” thought Miss Archer, panting with blood lust, “now Renny will strike him with his crop!”
But Renny did not! Renny was laughing! Extraordinary man! In another minute they were trotting amicably side by side. The boy Wilf looked over his shoulder, saw Miss Archer and grinned at her. She grinned back. She dug her hands into the pockets of her cardigan and stuck out her chest….
Alayne watched this metamorphosis of her aunt with mingled amusement and annoyance. It was funny, it was rather pathetic, but it was most of all annoying. Her aunt was deliberately, calculatingly, making herself over into a Whiteoak. She had almost no material to work with but she was succeeding! She had accomplished in three months what Alayne had not accomplished in ten years. A somewhat chilly rift opened, ever so slightly, between aunt and niece.
During these months Nicholas and Ernest had religiously given Renny seventy-five dollars a month each. His mind had been divided between gratification and shame when his uncles proposed that they should do so. He hated the thought of taking money from anyone under his roof but the temptation was too great, his need too pressing. He looked at the first cheque in bewilderment and delight. It seemed too good to be true. At the same time he was afraid that, if Piers knew of these monthly payments, he would come down on him more severely for repairs and feed bills. He said to his uncles, looking thoughtfully at the cheque:
“I think it would be better if you didn’t mention this to Piers. He’s a queer dog. If he knew I was getting this every month —”
Nicholas interrupted, rather glumly — “Piers already knows.”
Ernest added — “Yes. Piers was there when we first discussed it.”
“Well,” said Renny, “I’m sorry for that.”
Piers did not fail to enquire whether his uncles had toed the line. Renny was able to put him off for several weeks but at last was forced to admit that they had.
“They’d better!” growled Piers.
“What?” Renny turned on him suspiciously. “What?”
The danger of telling him the truth made Piers add — “Well, it is only the decent thing to do.” He was very curious to know whether Miss Archer was contributing toward the household expenses. He doubted Renny when he said that her losses were only comparative. But he liked the little woman and he liked her attitude toward the family, toward Renny and Adeline in particular.