The Proposal (27 page)

“She’s pretty.”

Jennings, barely listening to the little girls’ chatter, sat amazed at the way life continued. He was not the same person. Just that morning the most astounding change had happened, but life still had to be lived. A small part of his mind wanted to stop people and tell them what had occurred, but because he didn’t do that, it made him more aware of the people in his life.

Never before had Jennings realized what a marvelous staff worked for him. They were efficient, and his life and home ran smoothly and comfortably because of the welloiled wheels they created. He wasn’t going to start gushing over them and make a fool of himself, but he did wonder if any of them had a personal relationship with God. Did any of them realize that nothing they did on this earth was as important as knowing God and His Son?

“Why did we stop, Uncle Jennings?” Emma suddenly asked him.

“Well, now, I guess I wasn’t paying attention. Walk on,” he ordered the pony who looked quite content to be standing and doing nothing.

“Let’s stop and pick flowers!” Lizzy suggested after they made a turn and were headed past the barn. “Can we do that?”

“
May
we,” Emma corrected her.

“May we, Uncle Jennings?”

“I think that would be fine. What will you collect them in?”

“Our bonnets!” Penny chimed in, but Jennings didn’t think that the best idea.

“There’s a little space in the rear. Maybe we can put them there.”

As though they’d been promised the moon, the girls tumbled from the cart and into the field of wildflowers with great abandon. In little time at all, they had flowers aplenty and only one scare with a honeybee.

Amid all this, Jennings found himself doing it again: He picked a flower, a small yellow bloom with a dark center, and for the first time thought about its creation. His mind wandered to the book of Genesis, and he wondered if the creation of flowers was covered in those chapters.

“Mr Jennings?”

Jennings looked down to see Penny addressing him.

“Yes, Penny.”

“I have to be excused.”

“We’ll go with you, Penny,” Emma offered before Jennings could reply, and that man watched as the little girls began to move to the trees.

“Go where, Emma?” Jennings finally managed.

That little girl stopped and turned.

“To the secret spot. The one we go to with Marianne.”

This said, the girls continued on their way. Jennings did not take them seriously until he saw that they were indeed headed directly into the trees. He hurried to catch up, his long legs covering the distance in a hurry, but by the time he arrived, he found nothing. He was on the verge of calling out when he heard soft female voices.

Following the sounds, he realized the girls were inside a group of bushes. Talking all the while and with the occasional giggle, they took matters into their own hands. Not until that moment did he realize that they’d said Miss Walker brought them here.

Jennings didn’t know the last time he’d wanted to laugh so hard. The lovely, dignified, always-a-perfect-lady Marianne Walker brought these little girls to the forest for their personal needs when the house seemed a bit far away.

He decided suddenly that he didn’t wish to be caught waiting too closely for the girls, so with chuckles still shaking his shoulders, Jennings made his way back out of the trees to wait at the edge of the copse. He didn’t have long to linger. The girls appeared a short time later, but in those few moments he realized that he wanted Miss Walker to know of his decision. He wasn’t certain how he should go about it, but it was suddenly important to him that she know.

“Uncle Jennings? I think we should take our flowers back now.”

Jennings looked to where the girls had walked beyond him, back to the field. They had stopped when he didn’t follow.

“You’re going to have to keep your wits about you, Jennings,” he muttered to himself as he moved to join them. “All right, girls. We’ll take the flowers back.”

Skipping and laughing all the while, the little girls went to scoop up their treasured bouquets and head to the cart. Bessy was just about asleep by then, but Jennings roused her with the reins and they ventured back to the house.

Jennings turned his head to look down at his three charges, and they chose that moment to look up at him. Their smiles were like a tonic for his wandering thoughts. Asking questions about their favorite flowers and gaining fascinating answers, he talked with the three of them all the way back to Tipton’s front door.

Chapter Fifteen

Thornton Hall

“I wish to tell you something, Thomas,” Jennings began that evening when the two of them were alone.

“Yes, sir?”

It had seemed easy in his mind, but now, looking into Thomas Jennings’ open and trusting eyes, the guardian was at a loss for words.

Thomas continued to wait, his expression not changing, but the longer the silence continued, the tenser he became. He shifted a bit in his seat, and that was enough to snap Jennings from his wordless state.

“I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time, Thomas, and when a man does that he doesn’t believe he has many needs.” Jennings stopped and studied the young man’s face. “Then you and Penny and James came into my life. I’m sorry for your loss, but I’m not sorry for my gain. You know better than anyone how ill-equipped I was to see to your needs. And not until I got to know my sister and Palmer again did I realize the real source of having one’s needs met.”

Thomas began to smile. “If I may say so, sir, you seem rather at peace today.”

Jennings smiled back at him. “I had no idea, Thomas. I didn’t know that anyone could know for certain. My heart was burdened down. I didn’t see how much until the burden was lifted.”

“Thank you for telling me, sir. I’m extremely glad for you.”

“And I for you too, Thomas,” Jennings admitted soberly. “I wanted to know God so that I could be the guardian you needed.”

Thomas found that he couldn’t speak. His young heart had worked hard to trust in God’s care when he missed his father so much, but at times he felt so faithless. His throat began to close in an alarming fashion. He suddenly rose and went to the window. He stood still, hands clenched in his pockets in an effort to contain himself, and after several moments he turned, ready to face Jennings.

“I don’t think we thank you enough for everything you’ve done, Mr Jennings. Please accept my thanks now.”

“I appreciate that, Thomas, but don’t feel that you must constantly shower me with thanks. None of you are in the habit of taking things for granted. I witness that fact every day.”

Thomas nodded, but his face didn’t look overjoyed. Jennings had observed young Frank with that expression one day, and Palmer had immediately asked his oldest son what was on his mind.

“If there is something you need, Thomas, I hope you’ll tell me.”

Thomas came back and sat down, a move so mature that Jennings could only stare at him.

“I don’t know if I can term it a need, sir, but I have been thinking of Morehouse,” Thomas told him.

“I think it’s time to make a date to visit,” Jennings responded, needing no other prompting. “Your birthday is in eleven days. Lydia is planning a party. Why don’t we go a week or two after that?”

“That sounds excellent.”

“Which shall it be? A week or two weeks?”

They consulted a calendar and saw that two weeks put them into August, a warm time of the year.

“Two weeks, I think. The breezes at Morehouse are nice at that time of year.”

“Not to mention your brother’s request to go sea bathing.”

“Will we do that?”

“Certainly.”

Jennings witnessed a smile on Thomas’ face that he had not seen before. Years melted from his already young face, and he laughed.

“Sea bathing! Penny’s going to talk of nothing else.”

“And what about you?” Jennings asked, suddenly wanting to offer this child the world in a silver spoon. “Will you enjoy it?”

“Yes,” Thomas said, his mouth still stretched into a smile. “I’ll enjoy it.”

Before Thomas could finish his answer, a knock sounded on the door. James came into view, book in hand.

“Oh, here you are. I lost track of you, Thomas.”

“I thought you’d gone to bed, James,” his brother said.

“I was reading in the chair and fell asleep. Then I woke and checked your room. You weren’t in bed, so I thought I’d find you.”

“We’ve just been making plans to visit Morehouse and go sea bathing.”

“Sea bathing?” James questioned, his face lighting up as Thomas’ had. “When is this?”

“A few weeks after our birthday.”

“Does Penny know? She’ll talk of nothing else.”

Jennings laughed, and the boys laughed with him.

“We’ll tell her in the morning.”

“Why can’t we tell her now?” James asked.

“She’s sleeping,” Jennings said simply.

“No, she’s not. She was awake and followed me down.”

Jennings went to the door of the study and there in the dark hallway staring up at him with a serious face was a dark-haired moppet in a pink flannel gown.

“Come along,” he invited, and Penny raced inside and into the large chair Jennings had been occupying. Jennings was not put off in the least. He went to the chair, scooped her up, sat down, and deposited her in his lap.

“We have good news for you,” he said, ignoring her large eyes. “We’re going sea bathing.”

“Sea bathing?” Penny perked up, completely forgetting in whose lap she sat. “I can come?”

“Yes, you can. After your birthday we’re all going.”

“And Marianne? Marianne can come?”

“Yes,” Jennings said with a bit less enthusiasm but remembering that at some point in the past he had said as much.

“I wish you could marry Marianne.”

Silence descended on the room, a total and devastating silence that lasted the better part of a minute, until Thomas, his voice telling of his horror, took his sister to task.

“Penelope Jennings, you apologize this minute!”

“I’m sorry,” she said, scrambling from Jennings’ lap in fear.

Seeing her reaction, Thomas was instantly sorry for his tone and would have spoken up, but Jennings beat him to it.

“Come here, Penny,” the older man bade. “Come back so I can tell you something.”

Penny went back to him with no intention of returning to his lap, but as soon as she was close, Jennings took her back on his knee.

“You must never fear telling me how you feel, Penny. I won’t be angry with you. You can always tell me. And by your statement, I assume you wish you had a mother.”

“Marianne,” Penny admitted quietly, a slight quiver in her voice. “I wish we had Marianne.”

“She’s very kind, Penny. I can see how you would feel that way.”

“You could like her,” Penny went on almost pleadingly, shocking her brothers so that their mouths fell open. “Emma said her parents liked each other and then fell in love. You could like Marianne.”

Jennings looked into her earnest little face and eyes before smoothing the riot of hair from her brow.

“It does work that way at times, Penny, “liking” turning to “loving,” but not always. You understand, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

She sounded so sad about it that Jennings didn’t know what to say. It was a natural yearning on her part, but that didn’t mean he could fix it.

“I think we’ve stayed up late enough,” Jennings finally suggested. “I’m for bed, and you should be too.”

Goodnights were said as the room emptied. Jennings followed the children slowly, planning to check on everyone once they were settled. Lantern in hand, his eyes caught a large map of the earth—one of his favorites—that had been hung in the hallway. He stopped to study it, wondering at the last time he’d even noticed.

There was a time in his life when his own pursuits and interests were his world. Jennings went on to the children’s rooms, not giving the map another thought.

“I’m going sea bathing,” Penny told Megan as she brushed her hair the next morning.

“You are?”

Penny nodded. “After my birthday.”

“You don’t have a birthday coming up, do you?” the housekeeper gently teased.