“Not at all,” Andrew said. Although a guide boat resembled a canoe, it was rowed, not paddled. He climbed in the center and settled between the long, graceful oars.
Refusing assistance, Katherine scrambled into the stern. Randy took the seat in the bow.
Andrew steered the boat through the water toward Loon Island, a small dollop of land covered with tangled trees and brush, and edged with a strip of golden brown sand. The oars dipped into the clear lake and they glided into deep water. The waves rippled from the breeze and slapped lightly against the hull.
Katherine leaned forward on the cane-backed chair. “Do you remember when we all came to the island as kids? We called ourselves the Three Musketeers. We brought a picnic lunch and you two ate almost all of it. My mother thought I was quite fast, stepping out with two boys without a chaperone.” Her laugh nearly drowned the cry of a gull swooping down on a small fish. “I was all of twelve years old, but she was already worried about how everything appeared.”
Andrew nodded, smiling with her. “I don’t think I’ve ever had more fun. Or ate more delicious food. Fried chicken, fresh bread, chocolate cupcakes with white icing . . .”
She tried unsuccessfully to hide a sardonic smile by glancing down and shielding her face with her hat brim. “You two finished all the really good food and left me with only a few sour pickles.”
Andrew recalled the memory of Katherine’s outrage when she found they’d left her only a dill pickle and half a cucumber sandwich. “We still need to make it up to you.”
“Yes, you should. I’m sure you two gentlemen are far more gallant now than you were all those years ago.”
“Sorry, I can’t vouch for Randy, but I shall certainly try to be more polite.”
Katherine threw back her head and laughed heartily. “You always were such a dear friend, Andrew.”
Heat blasted through his skin. She met his eyes and tilted her head, as if she just now realized his great fondness for her. As they drew closer to the island, his face cooled and he felt better—more in control. He hated how she affected him. Yet he loved it as well. His insides shook with delight and discomfort at the same time.
He rowed the guide boat to a narrow strip of coarse sand just as the sun slid behind a mass of gathering clouds. He helped Katherine off the boat and then pulled it up and onto the pebblestrewn beach.
“Shall we hike to the other side of the island?” Her gaze slid from him to Randy.
“That sounds like a fine idea. Let’s go,” Andrew agreed.
Randy put up a hand. “Wait a second. No hiking for me. This island’s covered in poison ivy. I don’t want any more than I already have. Why don’t you stay down here with me?”
“We could keep to the paths,” Andrew said. “But it’s up to Katherine.” He glanced her way, hoping she would choose to take a walk and leave Randy behind.
“Come on, Katherine, don’t wear yourself out hiking.”
Randy dropped onto a large, smooth rock and patted the space beside him.
She shook her head. “No, I’d like to walk up the trail for a bit, stretch my legs. After all those days on the train, I’d welcome the exercise. But please, go ahead and rest.” She planted her hands on her hips and grinned at his expression. “Don’t pout. I promise we won’t be gone long.”
Staring upward, Randy frowned. “Look at the sky. It’s going to rain soon. Perhaps we ought to just head back to camp now.”
“We’ll hurry.” Katherine turned and followed Andrew, who quickly hid his smile.
Andrew led the way up a path that skirted the edge of the island. After they’d turned a corner, he grabbed her hand under the pretense that she needed help as the terrain had steepened and grown rough with roots and stones. Overhanging branches dipped in the freshening breeze and brushed their faces and arms.
“Stay on the inside of the path,” he warned as they continued to climb. “We don’t want to run across any of Randy’s dreaded ivy. And that’s a sheer drop to the lake.”
She squeezed his hand. “I’ll be very careful. But I don’t remember this path being quite so treacherous. Do you think I’m losing my nerve now that I’m older?”
“I doubt it.”
They finished their climb in silence until they came to a clearing on the far side of the island. Stepping back from the path onto an open spot, they watched canoes rock and sailboats tip in the mounting breeze.
“I’d forgotten,” she said, panting, “how breathtaking it is.”
He looked across the lake to the large, rustic camps surrounded by acres of woodlands and rounded mountains dotted with evergreens and hardwoods.
Some of the New York millionaires had purchased enormous tracks of Adirondack wilderness for their summer retreats, far from the noise and pollution of the city. And then they built railroads for easy transport of their families, friends, and goods. He’d never own such a great camp himself, but he felt thankful he could enjoy the Wainwrights’. How many young men with only moderate incomes and modest inheritances even got to see places like this, let alone stay for an extended amount of time? He was a fortunate fellow. Andrew removed his cap and felt a light wind brush through his hair.
“I missed this place,” Katherine admitted as she gazed at the royal blue water. “I didn’t realize how very much.” She spoke like a pensive old lady who reveled in her most treasured memories of times long past. He smiled.
“I’m glad my father came for me. I didn’t understand I was more than ready to come home. I hope I’ll feel the same way a month from now.”
“Just relax, Katherine. Give yourself time to adjust.” Heal. Find hope again.
“I shall. If my mother will allow me that time.” She held her straw hat on her head so the stiff breeze wouldn’t lift it off. “Mama and your aunt Georgia expect me to marry Randy.”
“I’ve always known that. Didn’t you?” Andrew held his breath, waiting for more from her. Did she welcome that plan?
Katherine shrugged. “I suppose I knew, but I didn’t know they were still holding out hope until Mama hinted at it today.”
“Katherine, before you decide who you want to marry—”
“As I told you, there’s no need to worry, Andrew. I don’t want to marry anyone,” she said, staring at him with a quizzical expression that drew her brows together. “I’m returning home to Florida.”
Andrew frowned. “Nevertheless, your parents might press you. But before you pick a husband, you should pray about the Lord’s plan for your life. And then ask for the courage to follow it.” He looked away before she read too much in his expression. He knew exactly what he’d like God’s plan to be, but that was more likely a pipe dream than a reflection of the Lord’s will.
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Do you pray?”
“Of course I pray!”
“But what do you pray for?”
Obviously befuddled, she paused. “Well, I pray for everyone’s well-being, for happiness, for guidance that I’ll do the right thing. What else would I pray for?”
“You could also ask the Lord to show you what He has in mind for you to do with your life.”
Katherine looked skeptical. “You don’t think He wants me to become a missionary, do you? I can’t imagine traipsing off to Africa or China. It’s a splendid ministry, but certainly not for me. I’m quite sure of that.”
Andrew laughed. “I agree. I can’t quite imagine you’re meant for the mission field.”
She tilted her head and smiled. “Some would say the wilds of Florida are practically a mission field.”
He smiled with her. “The Lord wants each of us to listen for His voice.”
“Then I’ll have to listen better, because I’m afraid I don’t hear Him very clearly. But tell me, Andrew, what does He have in mind for you?”
Taken aback, he hesitated for a few moments. “Right now it’s to work for your father. But I don’t know what the future holds. The Lord may send me off in an entirely d
ifferent direction.”
“And you believe He’ll tell you which road you should take?” She sounded more doubtful than he would’ve liked.
“Yes, I do, although it might not be the one I’d choose for myself.” He was open to a change in plans, though he hadn’t received any hint he’d be sent down a new road.
“Hmm. Well, you’ve given me a lot to think about, and pray about.”
Andrew pointed toward the fat clouds rapidly turning from pearl gray to charcoal. The wind stiffened and clouds began to thicken. “Look at the sky. We’d better start home. We’ll have to hurry before the rain starts.” A distant boom of thunder quickened his step.
She followed close behind. “I agree. I’d hate to look like a drowned rat on my first day home.”
They picked their way back down the path and ignored the few raindrops slapping their noses. Andrew glanced over his shoulder. Even with her arms wrapped across her chest, she was shivering. He pulled off his lightweight jacket and tossed it over her shoulders.
“Thank you. It’s getting a bit chilly.” Katherine slipped her arms into the long sleeves. The jacket swallowed her, but she seemed grateful for the warmth.
Glancing toward the lake, he noticed darker clouds pouring over the mountaintop like an attacking army. Thunderstorms sometimes invaded from the west without warning. “Come on. We need to hurry.” He led her forward as the trail darkened.
She tripped over an embedded root hidden by a scattering of crumbled leaves, lost her balance, and pushed into him. Twisting around, he grabbed her before her knees slammed into the ground. “How clumsy of me,” she muttered, quickly straightening.
The urge to pull her close almost erased his good sense, just as it had nearly overcome him in the orange grove. What is the matter with me? He had to maintain control; he couldn’t rush her, push their relationship, not if he hoped to keep her near. He struggled to drop his hands while fat raindrops fell in earnest.
“Let’s hurry,” she said, looking at him strangely. Did she feel the pull too? Or merely wonder over his odd pause?
Back at the beach, they found Randy huddled under the limbs of a swaying tree.
“Shall we try to make it back to camp?” Andrew gauged the distance between the island and Birchwood. The camp looked a long way off, but it might be possible to make it back before the storm unleashed its full fury. He glanced up at the tall trees above them, already swaying in the wind, and felt a renewed urgency to get Katherine to safety.
She nodded without hesitation. “Let’s try. These trees don’t make a good shelter.” A crash of thunder, followed several seconds later by lightning, hurried her along. “The heart of the storm’s still a few miles off yet. I think we can make it.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Randy said with a scowl and stared at the sky. “We’ll capsize.”
“We’re going to get wet either way,” Andrew pressed. “Either on our way home, where we can dry out and nestle by the fire, or here on the island where we might catch our death from the cold.”
“Go on, then,” Randy said. “You can come back and retrieve me as soon as the storm ends.”
Andrew stared at him. He couldn’t very well leave his cousin behind. And the waves were growing rapidly. “All right, then. We’ll wait it out, together. Come on!” Hand in hand, he and Katherine ran toward a clump of swaying, short, scrubby trees. Leaves pulled loose and scattered across the beach. Once beneath the sheltering limbs, they leaned against the rough bark and lifted his jacket over them both to try and maintain some cover. We might be stuck here for hours, he thought, glancing back at his cousin. Not that he’d really mind. Because Katherine was with him.
A jolt of thunder sounded and a brilliant flash of lightning seared the dark sky. But it was a second loud crack that caught their attention. Andrew looked toward the noise. Forty feet away, a tree tore from its roots and began to fall directly in their path.
Chapter Eight
Katherine’s heart tightened, and for a split second she froze, staring as the tree hurtled down upon them. Andrew grabbed her wrist and yanked her to the side just as the trunk smashed to the ground behind them. Branches snapped and broke and brushed against her skirt as they fell, and the heady scent of wintergreen arose from the severed twigs. Rising to her feet, Katherine turned away from Andrew and examined her knee, scraped and bloody.
“I’m so sorry, Katherine. It’s all my fault.” Rain pelted down upon them, running in streams down his face now, as well as hers.
She blinked and smiled up at him. “It’s your fault that you saved me from being crushed? My knee will be fine.” She ripped the bottom of her cotton petticoat, balled it up, and dabbed at her scrapes and cuts, careful to keep her back to Andrew and an old, disfiguring scar on her leg out of view. She tied the improvised bandage around her knee, trying to ignore the steady throb.
Randy hurried over to them. “Are you two all right?” His eyes ran up and down her, clearly horrified at her disheveled state.
Katherine glanced downward. She was a sodden mess, now as dirty from her fall as she was wet. She accepted Randy’s arm and they followed Andrew to another stand of trees, sheltering them from the worst of the wind and driving rain. Her throat gurgled with nervous laughter and she couldn’t stop staring at her two old friends. “So much for not arriving back at camp looking like a drowned rat. Aren’t we a sorry sight? Just look at us.”
They nodded, glancing down ruefully at their clothes and wiping their faces of rain.
“Mama won’t find my appearance at all funny, but it really is—unless I’m just a bit hysterical.” Her straw boater caught the wind and tilted over her forehead at an angle and covered one eye.
She reached up to rearrange it, but it blew off and skittered across the beach and out over the roiling lake. Andrew raced after it before she could stop him. “No, don’t bother! I can buy another!” she cupped her hands and called over the wailing wind.
“There’s a good man,” Randy cheered as Andrew plunged knee-deep into the water and caught the hat riding a wave. “Well done!” he called.
She noticed he edged closer to her in his cousin’s absence.
Andrew waded back in with the soggy piece of millinery. “Here you go.” Looking sheepish, he handed her the remains of the hat with a filthy, ripped band and streamer. “I’m afraid it’s ruined.”
She giggled as she accepted it. “Don’t worry. I can dry it out and make it look as good as new. Thank you for retrieving it.”
They settled under swaying branches of a red maple, its leaves silver-white on the underside, as the men talked about storms of this magnitude from their youth. Strands of damp hair whipped around her face and into her mouth as she stared across the angry waters, as impassible as a stormy sea at the moment. “I think we’ll be late for dinner,” she said benignly.
“I don’t think we should stay under these trees,” Andrew said, looking upward. They all heard the thunder, rumbling ever closer. Lightning flashed.
“There’s that old lean-to on the other side of the beach,” Randy said doubtfully. He pointed to a broken-down shelter, open on one side. “Want to make a run for it?”
Both men offered their hands, and together they dashed across the wet sand and into the hut. Katherine collapsed onto the floor littered with leaves and branches and hugged her hurting knees to her chin. Her sodden skirt clung to her legs. “This reminds me of my childhood,” she panted. “Our childhood.”
“You’re remembering the last time we got caught out here,” Randy said, shaking rain from his hat brim and then taking a seat beside her. Andrew sat down on her other side.
“We couldn’t get home for hours and Mama had a fit,” Katherine said.
“Not a memory I like to revisit,” Randy winced.
But Katherine gave a nostalgic sigh. “We had such fun together. Such adventures!”
Andrew’s mouth twisted in a wry smile. “Until you turned sixteen or seventeen.” He was closer than before, a
nd Katherine decided to not ease away as she should. It felt good to be close to the two of them. Truly like old times.
“I’m afraid I dropped the two of you because you were my chums, not my beaux. That was a dreadful mistake, and I’m sorry.” She looked at each of them, remembering those fateful years. She’d wanted to explore the world of adults and indulge in new experiences and turn strangers into friends. Randy and Andrew lost their allure. To her great shame, she hadn’t appreciated their loyalty until a few years later, when she’d looked back at the friends she’d left behind and compared them to Charles. Only then did she begin to appreciate them.
Randy smiled sadly. “We never lost interest in you.”
“Well, I regret that I took you both for granted. I was so absorbed in myself I never noticed you still wanted to be chums.” Katherine reached for their damp hands and pressed them tightly. “Can you two ever forgive me?”
Andrew squeezed back. “Of course. I suppose we were like a pair of comfortable old shoes and you wanted a brand-new pair.”
She chuckled. “Not a very flattering description of you. Or of me, I’m afraid. But you’re right. I wanted excitement and charm, so I turned to Charles.”
She stopped, afraid she’d reveal more about her marriage than she wished. Andrew was a most sympathetic man, but she wasn’t sure about Randy.
Another clap of thunder disrupted her reverie. She slapped her hands over her ears. “My, that was deafening.”
“We’re in the thick of it now,” Andrew said.
“It’ll be all right, Kat,” Randy said. He reached for her hand without hesitating. It was a proprietary gesture, and she wasn’t quite sure she liked it. Andrew tightened his mouth and looked away. Were they each silently struggling to lay claim to her? She shivered, this time not from the cold and damp. She needed old friends to laugh with and confide in, not suitors vying for her attention.
“Shall we go home?” she asked, as soon as the wind died down and the rain slowed to a drizzle.
Together the trio rose and watched as the water calmed and the sky lightened to pewter. By the time they pulled the guide boat to shore in front of Camp Birchwood, the storm had entirely blown past, leaving cooler air. Mama, Aunt Georgia, and a handful of her mother’s other guests were gathered on the beach, awaiting them.
A Path Toward Love Page 9
