Wellington Cross (Wellington Cross Series) (12 page)

“No, not at all,” I said, smiling.

He handed me the rose.  “I picked this for you from the
garden.”

I took the rose, noticing it was free of thorns, and put it up
to my nose.  “Mm.  It smells wonderful.  Thank you, Ethan. 
That’s so sweet of you.”  He’s such a romantic.

“I was going out for a ride and wondered if you’d care to join
me?  It’s a beautiful cool morning.”  It was only then that I noticed
he was wearing long riding boots and a riding habit.

“Oh, yes.  I’d love to.  I’ll get dressed and join
you.”  I started to close the door, but he put his hand on the door to
stop me.

“I will be waiting for you in the sitting room downstairs, the
room with the piano,” he added, and then he took his hand back off the door and
turned to cross the hall towards the staircase.

I quickly closed the door and dressed into a long dark grey
skirt, a white chemisette, my leather boots, and a long dark grey riding
habit.  The riding habit was a bit worn, but that was all I had, and
ladies wore riding jackets when riding on horseback, especially in the company
of a gentleman.  Since I was to be riding on a horse, I didn’t put the
crinoline on.  I pulled my hair up into a bun and pinned it.  I
thought about wearing an old sun bonnet, but it looked rather informal with the
riding habit, so I left it off, and simply put a hair net over my bun in
back.  After checking my face in a mirror, I headed downstairs.

I found Ethan in the sitting room looking at a photograph in a
silver frame on top of the piano.  I walked into the room, stirring him
from his thoughts. 

“You look wonderful,” he said.  “Not that you didn’t also
look wonderful in what you were wearing before, but, well, that was
unexpected.” 

“Thank you,” I said, blushing.  As I got closer to him and
the piano, I noticed that the piano had a hole in one of the keys.

Ethan noticed me looking at the piano keys.  “That’s from
one of the Yankee intrusions during the war.”

I nodded.  I looked at the photograph he was holding and
realized it was of me and him.

“Is that us?” I asked him, though I knew it was.

“Yes, it’s our wedding photograph.  I refused to allow
mother to put it away.  I left it on the piano because you used to play
it.”

He handed me the photograph, and I looked at it, standing close
to Ethan.  So I really was married to him.  There was proof right
there in front of me.  I stared at our faces, trying to remember the
event.  Our wedding.  The wind suddenly whipped through a nearby open
window, blowing wispy white sheer curtains towards my arm, brushing it
lightly.  It reminded me of a veil, covering my head, brushing against my
arms…just like in the photograph.  We were in front of the gazebo. 
The wind swept across my face, gently pushing wisps of hair off my face. 
I closed my eyes and could hear violins playing, laughter, and then Ethan’s
deep voice saying, “
This is for you, Maddie
,” and he handed me a silver
necklace with a Celtic cross hanging from it.  I suddenly realized this
was part of the scene I had remembered when I held the Celtic wedding ring and
heard Ethan’s voice.

The wind stopped blowing, and I opened my eyes.  I was
excited that I’d had another vision from the past.  “Ethan, I remember
something about our wedding day.”  I reached out and touched his arm and
told him what I remembered.

“Stay right here for a moment,” he said, quickly leaving the
room.  He returned a few moments later, slightly out of breath, with a
small box in his hand.  He opened it and showed me the same necklace I had
seen in my vision.  It was silver in an intricate design with small
emeralds inside the cross.

“This was a wedding present, from me to you.  It goes with
the wedding ring.  They have both been passed down through my father’s
family for many generations.  My father gave them to my mother, and before
that, my grandfather had given them to my grandmother.  They were a
wedding present each time, so they are a wedding tradition.  This necklace
was called the Wellington Cross, since it passed through the Wellington
family.  My great great-grandfather even named the plantation after it.”

“Oh, Ethan.  It’s so beautiful.”  I was so happy that
I could remember something as an adult.  I felt slightly nauseous I had
let the ring go, which I now knew was a family heirloom and belonged in a set
with the ring, but I tried not to think about that but concentrate on this
moment instead.

Ethan was standing so close that our shoulders touched.  He
offered to put the necklace on me.  “May I?”  I nodded
silently.  He moved around to my backside and gently put the necklace
around my neck and clasped it while I held up my bun.  His hands gently
touched my skin lightly, making me feel tingly and giving me cold chills. 
I was starting to get grown-up feelings.  I held my breath while he
finished.  Once the necklace was clasped, he returned to face me and
looked down into my eyes.  He gently put one hand on my chin and drew his
face slowly towards mine, as if he were going to kiss me.  My heart beat
in earnest with anticipation.

Before he could, however, his mother came into the room holding
Lillie.  “Ethan – oh, I’m so sorry, dears.  I didn’t mean to
intrude,” she apologized.  I quickly turned around and moved away from
Ethan a little.  His hand fell away from my face, but otherwise he didn’t
move and didn’t seem embarrassed at his mother finding us so intimate.  I
felt his hand touch mine.  My heart was still beating like a race
horse. 

“I just wanted to let you know that the old mare just gave birth
to a colt,” Clarissa said.

Lillie reached out for me when she saw me.  My heart melted
once again.  “May I?” I asked, letting go of Ethan’s hand and walking
towards her.  I had missed her.

“Of course,” Ethan and Clarissa both said simultaneously.

I took her in my arms, snuggled her up close to me, closed my
eyes and smelled her sweet skin.  We then smiled at each other, and I
kissed her on the forehead.  Ethan had walked over to us, and he also
kissed Lillie on the forehead, his face close to mine.  As he straightened
back up, he looked at my lips and then into my eyes, as if he regretted not
being able to kiss me earlier.  He then took my free hand.  “Come on,
let’s go to the stables.”  He seemed as excited as a little boy at
Christmas.

We followed Clarissa out the carriage-front door, passed by the
bachelor’s quarters, over towards the coach house.  Walking through the
coach house, there were stables over to the left, and we entered through an
open door.  Jake and Zeke stood by one of the stalls, and we found a mare
that lay licking her new baby.  Elizabeth was there, as well, sitting in
the stall on top of a bale of hay.  She was wearing an old dirty dress and
had a smudge of dirt on her cheek.

“Ethan, it was so excitin’.  I helped Jake birth her. 
There was nothin’ like it.”  She smiled excitedly at Ethan, but then her
smile faded when she saw that I was holding Lillie in my arms and that I was
also holding Ethan’s hand.  She turned pale, and I thought she might faint
or heave.  I hadn’t even realized we were still holding hands.  I let
go of his and casually patted Lillie on the back, looking away from
Elizabeth.  It seemed that her surliness from the previous evening had
faded, and she genuinely felt rejected.  It made me feel like I was breaking
up a marriage and that I was the scornful lady of ill repute.

Ethan could sense my uneasiness and clasped his hands in front
of him.  He addressed Elizabeth, “How wonderful, Elizabeth.  The colt
looks healthy.”

“Oh, she is.  She’s a beauty.”  Her smile returned
again and some of her color came back while talking about the horses.  I
could see that the woman truly enjoyed her life here on the plantation. 
It distressed my heart, just a little.

“We’re off for a ride.  Care to join us?” Ethan asked
her.  I held my breath, hoping she would decline.

I watched Elizabeth’s face turn into a frown again, and she
looked down at the ground.  “No, I…I’ve been up since before daylight, so
I’m not feeling like a ride just now.  You go on ahead without me, but
take a proper chaperone.”  She raised one eyebrow and looked directly at
me before she turned her attention back to the horses again, patting the colt’s
neck.  I was relieved that she declined but worried about her asking that
we take a chaperone.  It really wasn’t any of her business.  We had
been married before.  Yet perhaps it was for that very reason that she
chose to say that.  She was jealous.

Ethan guided me down the stables, out of Elizabeth’s listening
ears, and Clarissa followed us. “I’ll take Lillie,” Clarissa said, taking her
from my arms.  “Don’t you worry about a thing.  Go on and have your
ride, just the two of you.  You don’t have to take a chaperone,” she
winked at me.  “Elizabeth is just jealous.  I’ll take care of
Lillie.  You go and enjoy your time together.”

“Thank you, Mother,” Ethan said, kissing her and then Lillie on
their foreheads.  We began to prepare two horses for the ride.  The
horse I had brought from the Washington’s, which was named Cinnabar, was
already getting used to the other horses.  She was in a stall right next
to Ethan’s horse, a big black male horse named Blackfoot.  We saddled them
up and headed out of the stables.

Ethan led the way out, me riding side-saddle, heading off on a
path past the vegetable garden and the field of sunflowers down towards the
river.  We turned to the right and rode past the old damaged dock, and
past the hill where the gazebo stood.  At some point, the dogs saw us and
began following us.  We rode on for what seemed like a long way close to
the river, sometimes through thick trees.  The path was much cooler
through the trees, and we slowed down to enjoy it.  On the other side of
the woods, we continued close to the river, and Ethan slowed down and drew his
horse to a halt.  I did the same, glad for a break.  The only sounds
were of the gentle lapping of the river against the shore, some sea gulls, and
faraway frogs.

Ethan got off his horse and then helped lift me off of mine, his
hands lingering on my waist.  Reluctantly, he let go and pulled a blanket
out of his saddle and spread it out on the ground close to the water’s
edge.  We both sat down facing the water and were quiet for a few moments,
watching the water lap against the small rocks.  The dogs lay down nearby,
panting in the shade.

“Do you remember playing out here as kids?  We used to skip
rocks across the water, fish, and even swam a few times.”

“Yes, I do,” I said, grinning.  “Do you remember throwing a
frog on me once?”

“I never threw a frog on you,” he protested, feigning innocence.

“Yes, you did.  That was the first memory I had of all of
us as children.  It made me scream.”

“I didn’t throw it on you,” he insisted.  “He jumped out of
my hands.  I couldn’t help it.  You were standing too close to
me.”  He grinned at me.

I grinned back.  “Well, I still think you did it on
purpose.”

“Did not,” he said.  I enjoyed this playfulness.  It
made me feel more at ease with him, just like when we were young. 

“Do you remember the time I fell out of a tree I had been
climbing, following you and Jonas as you climbed higher and higher, trying to
get away from me?”

“Yes, of course I remember.  You scared me to death when
you fell,” Ethan said.  You didn’t want to be outdone by us boys, so you
kept getting higher.  When we reached as high as we could go, I turned
around and looked down, and saw your foot slip off a branch, and you
fell.  I felt helpless, watching you fall and not being able to help
you.  I felt bad that we had climbed so high, knowing you would follow,
and then you ended up getting hurt.  The fall knocked the wind out of you,
so we thought you were dead.”

“You carried me all the way back to my house.”

“Yes, I did.  Thankfully, you only broke an arm.  I’m
sorry, by the way.”

“Don’t apologize.  It wasn’t your fault.  Thank you
for taking good care of me and keeping me company.”  I sighed.  “I
wish I could remember growing up.” 

“Your mind is probably blocking out all the bad things that
happened during the war and whatever caused you to lose your memory.”

“You may be right.”

He inched closer towards me.  “I’ll just have to help you
remember all the good things that happened.”

We were quiet for a moment, just looking at each other.  My
hair must’ve looked a mess, and I was perspiring from the ride and the
heat.  Ethan took out a handkerchief from his pocket, and dabbed some of
the perspiration off of my face.  I glanced at his eyes while he did this,
feeling embarrassed that he was wiping perspiration off my face, but he just worked
meticulously, patting slowly.  I swallowed and smiled briefly, feeling
nervous at the intimate gesture.  The friendship we’d talked about earlier
was changing.  I started getting grown-up feelings again.  He put his
handkerchief back away, and I looked out at the river, wondering if he’d try
again to kiss me.  And then, as if he read my mind, I felt him kiss my
cheek softly.  I turned my head slowly towards him, and looked into his
eyes looking back into mine. 

“You’re so beautiful,” he said softly.  He was so close. 
My heart started beating wildly inside, so much that I was sure he could hear
it.  My throat seemed parched, and my hands were perspiring.  I
realized that I wanted him to kiss me, but wasn’t sure I had a right to want
it, so I said, “Thank you,” and then looked away, back at the water again,
pursing my disappointed lips.  I was surprised at how quickly my
affections for him had changed in me.  There was a new stirring deep
inside me to be with him.  And yet, even though I had a brief memory of us
at our wedding, I still wasn’t sure I knew him well enough – not the grown-up
Ethan – to justify kissing him just yet.  And there was still the nagging
thought in the back of my mind that he had married another woman, whom he’d
probably had relations with.  That those same lips had kissed another
woman.  I’d have to put those thoughts out of my head.