Rebecca's Promise

by Frances R. Sterrett

  CHAPTER XVIII

  Granny woke in the morning with a headache. Rebecca Mary found her withheavy eyes and flushed cheeks when she went in to see if she would getup for breakfast.

  "I have such a headache," Granny moaned piteously.

  "Poor dear!" Rebecca Mary put her fresh cool hand against Granny's hotold face. "Then you should stay in bed. You mustn't get up forbreakfast."

  "I shan't." Granny was a model of obedience. "I couldn't," she said withanother moan. "I shan't be any good all day. I always have to stay inbed when I have one of these attacks, and I just want to be left alone.I don't want to see any one! You can tell old Peter Simmons that it wasworrying over my golden wedding present that gave me this headache. Thatshould make him ashamed of himself. No, I don't want a thing but to beleft alone."

  But Rebecca Mary shook up her pillows and smoothed her bed and pulleddown the shades and kissed her hot forehead, and said it was a horridshame that she was ill, and she hoped that Granny would be better soon,and she certainly should tell old Peter Simmons what Granny had said.Then she tiptoed out and shut the door very softly behind her.

  Old Peter Simmons was very sorry to hear that Granny was ill, and hethought she was very sensible to stay in bed until she was better; heknew those headaches and there was nothing for them but quiet and rest,but as for the golden wedding present----

  "That's nonsense, perfect nonsense!" he declared stoutly. "Can't shetrust me?"

  Rebecca Mary slowly shook her head. "I think she feels that she hastrusted you and now she isn't sure she can trust herself," she ventureddemurely. It was rather fun for Rebecca Mary to stand before the greatPeter Simmons and find fault with him.

  "And my past is against me." Old Peter Simmons admitted it ruefully. "Idon't know why it is so confoundedly hard to remember some things. Youwomen! Can't you learn that an anniversary or a holiday is just a day,just one of the three hundred and sixty-five which make up a year?"

  "Anniversaries and holidays are the decorations of the year," RebeccaMary told him quickly. He should have known that without being told. Noone had ever had to tell her.

  Old Peter Simmons looked at her from under his shaggy eyebrows. "You areall alike, you women," he grumbled. "And I guess men are pretty muchalike, too. Decoration doesn't mean as much to us. But my wife mightremember that I've had a good deal on my mind the last few years. Shehas, too," he admitted honestly. "Peter will never know how many nightshis grandmother lay awake worrying about him. She did too much, all thatRed Cross work during the war and all the refugee work after the war.And now she's worrying over this golden wedding of hers." He spoke as ifthe golden wedding belonged exclusively to Granny. "She should be homewhere she could look after it herself. She shouldn't be here."

  "She can't help that!" Rebecca Mary was indignant that old Peter Simmonsshould blame Granny for what wasn't her fault. "She didn't want tostay."

  "You made the rule yourself," stammered Major Martingale, who waswaiting fussily to carry old Peter Simmons away. Major Martingale wasindignant, also. "When we had so much trouble with the labor agitatorsyou said no one was to leave Riverside. Absolutely no one, you said!" Hebristled like an angry turkey cock.

  "Sure, I made the rule," admitted old Peter Simmons. "I made it for youand the boys and the mechanics. But I didn't make it for my wife and herfriends."

  "How did I know you hadn't sent her?" began the Major bitterly, but oldPeter Simmons wouldn't let him finish.

  "Why should I send a woman, two women, to a place I had chosen for animportant experiment which I wanted to work out in secret? That'snonsense, Major! At the same time I believe that it has done Mrs.Simmons good to be here. I'm glad you did keep her. There hasn't beenanything for her to do so she has been able to get some rest. It hasn'tbeen bad for you, either, young lady." And he nodded his grizzled headapprovingly as he looked at rosy cheeked Rebecca Mary.

  "Women," muttered the Major in a dark dank way, "are always interfering.They do their best to ruin things for a man."

  "Oh!" Rebecca Mary looked at old Peter Simmons for help.

  He gave it to her at once. "My experience, Major Martingale," he saidslowly, "is that women help men more than they hinder them. I've hadfifty years to prove a decision I made on my wedding day, that a womanperfects a man's life, and I know that I'm correct. Yes, I'll be rightout," as the Major moved hastily and suggestively toward the door."Don't wait for me."

  "If you feel that way," Rebecca Mary said impulsively, "why do you teaseGranny?" She was rather scared when she had put the question, but shelooked at him as if she were not scared at all.

  Old Peter Simmons seemed nonplussed for a moment. "On my soul, I don'tknow. Mrs. Simmons used to like me to tease her, and so I kept on. ButI'm afraid she doesn't care for it as much as she did," he admittedruefully.

  "Indeed, she doesn't!" Rebecca Mary wondered why on earth he kept onteasing Granny when he knew Granny didn't like to be teased. RebeccaMary was beginning to feel sorry for old Peter Simmons, although she didthink that even the head of a big manufacturing plant should have roomin his mind for anniversaries and holidays. His mind shouldn't be filledentirely with contracts.

  "Does she honestly expect me to remember that golden wedding present?"The twinkle was more pronounced than ever in old Peter Simmons' blueeyes. "Can't you give me a clue?" he begged with a chuckle, but RebeccaMary couldn't. She hadn't any idea herself what it was that GrannySimmons and her husband had talked about so many times. Granny Simmonshad never told her.

  So old Peter Simmons had to go away muttering that women were thedickens, the very dickens. That was exactly what they were. How was heto know what one of them wanted for a golden wedding present? And evenif his wife had told him what she wanted, if they had talked it overhundreds of times together, how could he be sure that she would want iton the golden wedding day? Women changed their minds once a minute. Aman was never sure of them. But his eyes twinkled as he grumbled, andRebecca Mary's eyes twinkled, too. There was no doubt that old PeterSimmons was the greatest kind of a tease. Granny had described himperfectly.

  They were in the big parlor where the old portrait of Richard Cabot'sgreat-grandmother hung. Rebecca Mary never thought of that portrait asJoshua Cabot's great-grandmother, but always as Richard'sgreat-grandmother. And when old Peter Simmons went grumbling andtwinkling away, Rebecca Mary looked up at the portrait.

  "I wonder if your husband gave you what you wanted on holidays andanniversaries?" she asked impulsively. "And do you think yourgreat-grandson will remember his golden wedding without being reminded?"

  "I don't know what it is, but I'm sure this great-grandson will make adesperate effort to remember anything you want him to remember,"exclaimed a voice behind her.

  Like a red and yellow wooden top, Rebecca Mary swung around andsaw--would wonders ever cease?--Richard Cabot, himself. It was not theRichard Cabot she had seen in Waloo for that Richard had always lookedas if he had just stepped from a brand new bandbox and this Richarddidn't look as if he had ever seen a bandbox. His hair was too rumpledand his clothes too crumpled. Rebecca Mary stared at him, her eyes andmouth big round O's of astonishment. Her heart suddenly climbed into herthroat and promised to choke her as he crossed the room with quick eagersteps.

  "Aren't you going to say that you are glad to see me?" He took the handshe was far too surprised to offer him.

  "Where did you come from?" She didn't seem able to find her every-dayvoice and had to use her Sunday one, which shook a little. "Are you aprisoner, too?" Rebecca Mary hoped that he was. Although there were fourmen at Riverside all devoted to her, you see she was not satisfied. Shewanted a fifth, even if this fifth man did make her heart beat souncomfortably. "There is a very jolly crowd of prisoners here," sheadded encouragingly. "I'm sure you will like them."

  Richard looked from her sunburnt fingers to her face, which was a mostadorable pink, and knew that he had not been mistaken--she was just whathe had thought she was.

  "If I had known you were he
re I should have come long ago," he saidquite as if he could come and go as he pleased. Evidently he had not metstern Major Martingale. "How could you run away without leaving a wordfor me?" he went on reproachfully. "I tried to make old Pierson tell mewhere you were, but all she would say was that Granny had taken you on amotor trip. I thought that meant Seven Pines and called up the houseonly to be told by Mrs. Swenson that for the first time in seven yearsold Mrs. Simmons had disappointed her. She had promised to come toOtillie's wedding and the wedding was on and Mrs. Simmons hadn't come.Mrs. Swenson didn't know whether to be mad or worried. And I was in thesame boat. I wrote to Mifflin, and when I didn't hear a word from you Ithought that perhaps you had decided that you didn't like bankers. Isure was sore!" He laughed softly as if now, with Rebecca Mary's handstill in his, it was rather amusing to remember how sore he had been.

  Guilty consciousness was plainly written on Rebecca Mary's pink andwhite forehead. "It wasn't my fault." She made the best defense shecould. "I didn't have a minute in which to send any one word. And sincewe have been here we couldn't send words. You must remember that I havebeen a prisoner." And she laughed as if it were the greatest fun in theworld to be a prisoner.

  "A prisoner in my great-grandmother's old home," smiled Richard, who hadnot been half as surprised to see her as Rebecca Mary had expected himto be. Indeed, he had not seemed surprised at all. "How do you like mygreat-grandmother?" he asked in a whisper as if he did not wish hisgreat-grandmother to hear Rebecca Mary's answer.

  "We're the greatest friends," she whispered back. "And I like yourgreat-grandfather's old house enormously, but I don't quite like to bea prisoner."

  "You'll be given your freedom soon," promised Richard, quite as if heknew all about her case. "Things are moving right along out there." Henodded in the direction of the shop. "I shouldn't be surprised if youwere released very soon now."

  "Are you interested in this mysterious experiment, too? Granny and I aredying to know about it for all that we are sure of is that an aviator, achemical engineer and an electrical engineer and a United States Armyofficer and a Luxembourg count are working on it with a lot of Waloomechanics. It is a very confusing combination. Major Martingale insiststhat it is, oh, frightfully important and that Germany is reaching outgrabbing hands for it. He scowls like a pirate if we ask any questionsat all. At first we thought it must have something to do withaeroplanes, on account of Peter, you know, and then we thought of awireless something, but when the Luxembourg count was tangled up with itwe stopped trying to imagine what it was. We hear the weirdest noisesand smell the weirdest smells but they don't tell us anything." Shesmiled expectantly and waited for him to tell her all about the greatexperiment, but when he never told her a word but just smiled at hershe crinkled her nose and went on more slowly: "And now if a banker isadded to the staff we shall be more hopelessly at sea than ever."

  His smile grew into a laugh. "The banker hasn't very much to do with it,but Major Martingale is right. The thing is tremendously important. AndGermany does want to grab it. It would do a lot to reinstate hercommercially and she is still making every effort to get control of it.That's why Major Martingale has been so cautious. He didn't want to runany risk of a leak. Did you know that old Mr. Simmons is the Big Boss?"Then Rebecca Mary had guessed right. She was sure she had, but she likedto hear Richard tell her that she had.

  "He brought me down with him last night and old Martingale caught me assoon as we passed the guard and carried me off to the shop. That is whyI didn't see you last night and why now I'm so suggestive of 'themorning after.' But you haven't said yet that you were glad to see me,"he said suddenly, and he took Rebecca Mary's other hand. "It has seemeda thundering long time since I saw you. Has it seemed long to you?" Hebent his tall head so that he could look into her eyes.

  But before Rebecca Mary could tell him whether the days since she hadseen him had dragged or whether they had exceeded the speed limit MajorMartingale's harsh voice was heard in the hall.

  "Cabot!" he bellowed. "Where are you?"