Winslow's Web

by Jeanie P Johnson

  Yes! Katie thought to herself. A friend, or a child is all he thinks of me. He thinks we can be friends, and that his very touch does not arouse a yearning within me that makes my whole body feel weak! He cannot look at me and possibly know how his eyes burn through me. She forced herself to smile at him. "Of course we are friends," she said reaching up to pull the daisy ring from her hair.

  He grabbed her hand. "No," he said sternly, almost as if he was scolding her, and then more tenderly, "they belong there. It seems that you are not only a Snow Queen, but also Queen of the flowers."

  He arranged the flowers neatly in her hair. The feel of his fingers in her hair was nearly her undoing. "Daisies become you, Katie," he whispered. Their eyes locked for what seemed an eternity to Katie. Finally, Katie tore her eyes away and got up, intending to walk back towards her horse, but Alden reached out and took her hand pulling her back down beside him.

  "Katie, you keep trying to run away from me, or hide from me. Ever since you came into my life you have been turning your back to me and walking away. I told you last night that I need to get some explanations from you. Why do you keep evading me?"

  Katie looked into his beseeching eyes. "Because ...I...I don't know what it is you want from me,” she confessed. “From the beginning you have tried to take over my life. You say you want us to be friends, but then you...you...try to seduce me with your kisses, and I wonder what kind of friends you have in mind. You are betrothed to some questionable heiress, Alain is fit to be tied because she has always had her eye on you, and you entertain yourself with me as though you...you had the right to do so."

  "Is that what you think? That I am just entertaining myself?"

  "It would appear that way as there is no possible way that it could ever go beyond that."

  "I suppose you are referring to the fact that you are illegitimate, and I should have nothing to do with you."

  "That is correct! You should have nothing to do with me!"

  "If that was so I would have washed my hands of you the first night you approached me at Emerson Manor, imploring my help."

  "Perhaps we would all have been better off if you had."

  Alden looked at her for a long moment. Finally, he spoke. "Katie, there is something that I can't understand. I have been trying to figure it out all this time. It is not just that you looked familiar to me in my sister’s dress. I think I sensed it even before that. There is something about you. I keep trying to put my finger on it but I can't. I keep thinking I've seen you before, or met you before. There are little things that you do, the way you tilt your head, or smile, and just as I think I remember where I saw you before the answer evades me, the way you keep trying to evade me. I couldn't let you go back to Windy Gate until I discovered what it was that drew me to you that way. It is like love at first sight...but it is more than that. It is..." he stopped as though he was at a loss for words.

  "Love at first sight?" Katie asked, in a shaky voice.

  "I mean the feeling that I know you. Isn't that the way it is supposed to feel when you see the woman you plan to marry, like you have known her all your life?"

  "Is...is it?"

  "Oh...don't get me wrong, I am not proposing. I'm just saying I can't shake the familiar feeling I have about you. That is why I need you to remain my friend, Katie. Don’t you understand? You seem to be a needful part of my life."

  "Oh, I...I see,” Katie choked, “like...like your horse, or your Manor, or your servants! I need to be there for you so...so you can feel secure. Is that it?" Katie fumed. “You want me to stay around so you can figure out who I am? I will tell you who I am! I am Katie Dow…someone you have never met before, someone who is illegitimate, who has no place in your life except as a servant. That is all I can ever be in your life, so what is it that you really want from me?”

  "I... I...can’t really say... I mean I don’t really know... This is so confusing to me as well, Katie. You don’t quite understand what I meant.”

  "You are right, Alden. What do you mean?” Katie exploded. “What did your kiss mean last night? You are making me confused as you seem to be!"

  "My kiss meant that I... like you very much and I was so empresses with you last night that I wanted to show you how much. Do not fool yourself into thinking that a man never kisses anyone but the woman he plans to marry."

  "No....no, I suppose not. I'm sure that my mother could testify to that!"

  "So, now you are trying to tell me that you think I only want to take advantage of your womanhood? You certainly are a strange one. Even though you seem to be a woman of intrigue, I would certainly not take advantage of you unfairly."

  "Then please refrain from kissing me the way you did last night," Katie retorted. She pulled her hand away and jumped up turning back to her horse. "If...if we are to go riding together," she said, trying to make her voice sound light, "perhaps, that is what we ought to do." She picked up the reins of her horse and Alden, coming up beside her, helped her up onto her horse.

  Alden mounted his black stallion his brows drawn as if in deep thought. They rode in silence for a while, both looking straight ahead. Presently, Katie found her eyes wandering towards him and thinking how handsome he looked, mounted so majestically on his horse beside her.

  Alden turned and saw her staring and she hastily looked away. He laughed. "There is no crime in looking at me. You act like you are out of place by just being with me. I cannot believe that you are acting so much like a rabbit today, when last night you had everyone speculating on who you were. I can't tell you how disappointed everyone was when they discovered you had vanished. I was the only one who was lucky enough to have my curiosity satisfied. Now there will be nothing but talk of the mysterious young lady at the ball that seemed to disappear into thin air without a trace."

  Katie gave an involuntary giggle. "Really, do you think I have caused a stir?'

  "I am certain of it! Did you manage to make it back to your room all right? I remember last time you tried using that passage, you ended up dangling from the balcony."

  Katie turned and looked at him for a long moment before she answered. She started to say, Yes, fine, and then changed her mind. She was very curious to see what his reaction would be if he learned what had really happened?

  "As a matter-of-fact, no," she said, just as casually as he had asked the question.

  He waited for a moment, and when she didn't continue, he persisted. "Well, aren't you going to tell me what happened?"

  "There's not much to tell. I got trapped in the secret passage, is all. I was lucky that Maggie was waiting in my room and opened the door for me. No telling how long I would have had to stay there otherwise."

  "If you would like my opinion, I don't think that passage is very secret. You are foolish if you think it is."

  "That is true," Katie agreed, even though she was piqued at his attitude. He didn't seem very upset that she had been trapped.

  "It’s a good thing you got out though. Not a good place to be spending the night, I'm afraid."

  Katie's temper flared. "It was not just a matter of getting out," she spat at him. "Someone wanted me to be trapped there, perhaps forever!"

  "Nonsense, we would have found you easily enough. I was aware that you used that passage, and since Alain allowed you to use her costume and attend the ball, she would have known your most likely way of returning to your room without being seen."

  "Regardless of who knew that I was using that passage, it was still no accident that I was stuck there. Perhaps, I would have been found easily enough, but who ever intended me to get trapped was trying to scare me for reasons I cannot not fathom!"

  "Come now, Katie. You have an overzealous imagination! You can't be serious about someone wanting to scare you.” He was using the same soothing tone Katie had often heard him use with Alain when she threw her tantrums, and it grated on her nerves. “Who would want to do a thing like that, and Why? Aren't you being a little dramatic?"

  "No, I am not bei
ng dramatic. The door was deliberately closed. I put a book in the pivoting door before I left for the ball and when I got back it was no longer there. Someone had put it back in the shelf. The trap door was jammed too, yet this morning when I went to see why, it opened easily."

  "Then that proves you were not intentionally trapped. You probably just panicked when you couldn't open the door in your room and when you tried the trap door you didn't push on it hard enough to open it."

  "If that is what you wish to think," Katie seethed, realizing that Alden only thought of her as a hysterical woman, not much unlike Alain. "Doesn’t it seem strange to you that when I first used that passage that I was thrown from my balcony, and then the next time I used it, I was locked inside?”

  “Yes, it does seem strange that you would continue to use that passage if dangerous things kept happening as a result, but that doesn’t mean that someone is trying to harm you in some way.”

  “You may not think so, but for your information, there is someone at Winslow Hall, who would be happy to be rid of me, and might try scaring me away." She had not meant to tell him, but could not help herself, when she saw how lightly he was taking her story.

  Alden drew in his horse and stared at Katie. "Are you sure you know what you are talking about?"

  "Yes, I know what I am talking about." Katie was starting to feel exasperated with Alden's skepticism. "I have reason to believe that my father would be happy to get me out of his hair for good," Katie blurted out.

  "Your father, I thought you didn't know who your father was? Wasn't that the reason you came to me in the first place?"

  "Yes, yes it was, but I have discovered who my father is now." Katie paused and then plunged ahead. "I wasn't going to tell you about him, but in case anything drastic does happen to me, maybe it would be better if you knew."

  "Then by all means, tell me!" Alden still sounded bewildered.

  "It is James Langdon. James Langdon is my father."

  "What, why...why that is absurd, whatever gave you that idea? I think you are letting this mystery of your father, go to your head."

  "No, it wasn't just something that I dreamed up. You remember the locket with the picture of my uncle in it? It was a picture of James Langdon. It was not a picture of my uncle, though, he was a picture of my father. It was Maggie who made me realize it all."

  "What would Maggie know of your father?"

  "Maggie told me there was a rumor that James and Nancy Dow were planning to be married, but something happened, and Nancy left Emerson Manor. I showed Maggie the picture in my locket and she told me it was a likeness of James Langdon. He certainly wasn't my mother’s brother as I thought, and considering the rumor, it all fit!"

  Alden looked on in disbelief as Katie continued. "He came by when I was very little and my mother was so upset. She didn't want him to leave, but he left anyway, and he never returned. When he and Katherine came, I ran into him in the stable yard. He recognized me, Alden. Haven't you seen it yourself? The red hair, the resemblance I have to that portrait in the hall, to Katherine Gail Winslow herself? He was very upset when I asked him about Nancy Dow. He told me to stop meddling, and...and Alain's uncle, Justin, told me the same thing. That is why I think there is something not quite right about all of this. Justin told me I was better off if I left. He hinted that James might try and harm me in some way.

  “When I asked James something about Katherine's disappearance as a child, he wouldn't answer my question. Instead he tried to buy be off by promising to set me up somewhere after Katherine inherits the Hall. I can't tell whether he is worried because someone might find out who I am or if he is afraid I know something I shouldn't. But whatever the reason, he is the only person I could think of that would want me out of the way.

  “What is strange though, is that when I was pushed from the balcony, he was with you, so who else would have done that?"

  Alden looked at Katie as if for the first time. "Wait...wait...wait! Just slow down here! This is craziness! You are James Langdon's daughter, and you think James is trying to get rid of you, and you also think there is something strange going on concerning Katherine's claims to Winslow Hall? This is too much to... This means that you are really Alain's cousin and Katherine's cousin as well, if what you say is true.

  “Katie, this is ...is incredible! Why are you working as a servant in your cousin's house? Why haven't you brought all this to light long ago?"

  "How do you think Katherine and Alain would react to a bastard cousin? I am illegitimate! You seem to keep forgetting that. I have no right to expect anything from them."

  “But Katherine will soon receive her inheritance, and undoubtedly share her wealth with her uncle. If he acknowledges you as his daughter, you would share in that wealth and could take your rightful place in the household."

  "Didn't I just tell you he tried to buy me off? He doesn't want anyone to know about me. Somehow it would upset his plans, whatever they are. It is not a question of not wanting to support me, because he claimed he would set me up if I wished. No, there is something more to it than that.

  “Justin suggested I go back to Windy Gates where I came from. He said there were things that I did not know and that Nancy Dow never told me. I felt he was talking about James being my father, but maybe there is more to it than that. He thinks it is unsafe for me here, and it could be that he is right!"

  "You frighten me the way you talk, Katie. I don't see how it would be to James' advantage to harm you. Don't you think that if everything was brought out in the open now, it would prevent further accidents?"

  "It doesn't make any difference. Don't you understand? He doesn't want to accept me as his daughter, only to set me up if I keep quiet about it! I don't want a penny from him. He left my mother. He didn't want me then or now. You can hardly expect me to want to stay with someone who deserted me from the beginning. So...so please Alden, do not tell anyone, and don't let on that you know anything either. Only...only if something happens to me, then all this should come out in the open."

  "So I should wait until the worst has happened and then try and do something about it? That is stupid Katie! If you are in danger, or you fear you are, then you should do something about it before anything does happen to you."

  "No, I should not have trusted you with my confidence! I should have known that you would want to take control of the situation as you have seemed to do with everything else concerning my welfare."

  "I am sorry if you feel I have overstepped my bounds, Katie. I am only concerned about you."

  "Then will you please do as I ask?" Katie pleaded.

  "Very well then, I do not want to do so, but if it will keep you from being angry with me, I will let you have things your way. Only you must promise me that you will be very careful, until we can discover just what is behind all this."

  "Thank you, I will," Katie said meekly.

  “That means not going near that passageway or out onto your balcony!” Alden gazed at Katie for a long moment, and then shook his head slowly. "You are so very independent, Katie. I don't know whether it is a fault or a virtue. Whatever it is, it is very exasperating!" He scanned her with his eyes, and then added, "Yes...yes I can see it now. That is why I have thought you were so familiar. I saw it the night you came down the stairs in my sister's dress, only I didn't know it then. And again when you were standing by the portrait that day, and I mentioned that you reminded me of Lady Winslow, but I just couldn't put my finger on it. Whether you know it or not, you are very much like Alain in certain aspects. All along you have been part of the Winslow family, and I have been blind to it."

  "Then it was really not love at first sight after all?" Katie teased.

  "I...I suppose that is why I feel this way about you. I recognized you all along but didn't realize what it was. As a matter of fact, now I know why I thought I had seen James Langdon before too. It was when you showed me his picture in your locket. I kept thinking I had seen him recently."

  "Well, now t
hat you know all this it should resolve everything. Only it doesn't resolve my concerns about why Justin is so sure that I may be in danger if I remain here."

  "He told you that he thought James was the danger?"

  "Yes, but I don’t think that he was telling me everything that he knew or thought."

  "To tell you the truth Katie, there is nothing you can do from here on in. Since I have been appointed caretaker of Alain's affairs, it is really my job to get to the bottom of all this."

  "That is only the case if it concerns Alain, but not me!" Katie reminded him.

  “However, you are in Alain’s employ, and I am the one who put you there. This concerns me more than you realize, Katie.”

  “There you go again, always acting as though I am your responsibility. I am old enough to take care of myself, Alden!”

  Alden gave her an exasperated look. "I can see you are going to be stubborn about this, which does not surprise me. This can be dealt with later. Come along then, Katie. Enough of this Cloak and Dagger business! Shall we have a little sport and race to the top of that hill?"

  Katie was grateful that he had finally changed the subject, and eagerly challenged him to a dash.

  Running Chance at top speed gave Katie a chance to forget all the events that seemed to be pressing against her and suffocating her with overwhelming power. She had to center her whole attention on controlling her mount, which pushed everything else away from her troubled mind.

  The two steeds were straining neck and neck, and Katie could not help but smile to herself. She knew that Alden's hunter could easily overtake her, but he was obviously holding back his horse until the finish.

  They were both laughing as they came to the top of the hill, but Katie's laughter suddenly turned to a scream as she felt her saddle slipping from Chance's back. The next thing she was aware of was lying in the grass beside her saddle.

  Her head was spinning, and her elbow ached where it had hit the hard ground. She saw that Chance was still running madly in the same direction, but Alden had spun his horse around on its haunches and was returning to her side, jumping from Satan's back even before the horse had a chance to stop.