Dreams and Promises: Love, Loss and Redemption in a Land of Infinite Promise

by Anna Markland

  Clint sneered. “Going for pretty boys, are you, Katie?” He let go, but included a hard shove in the movement. “I’ll be back. You belong to me, girl. Don’t forget it.” He bolted down the front steps and mounted the cycle, roaring off without bothering to put on the helmet.

  Kate and Jamie stood on the porch, neither moving. A couple of minutes later she heard a siren in the distance. “Do you suppose they caught him?” she asked, her voice shaky.

  “Hope so.” Jamie had been so calm through the confrontation, but suddenly that evaporated. “Christ, Kate.” His arms were shaking as he pulled her against him, holding her tight—then equally suddenly he released her. “Damn, I’m sorry. That must be the last thing you wanted.”

  “No, it isn’t,” she wailed, and threw herself against his solid chest.

  After a minute, while they stood there locked together and she listened to his heart, strong and steady, he separated them enough that he could look down at her. “Come inside with me,” he encouraged. “This might be a good time to avoid Mrs. Cummings.”

  Still with arms around each other, they entered Jamie’s house.

  ~~*~~

  “Want to talk? It’s okay if you don’t.”

  Jamie felt as if he were inching his way through a quagmire of forbidden topics, dangerous subjects that might jeopardize the sheer delight he found in the tiny dynamo now hunched over her coffee, a Pop-Tart cooling on her plate, lost in her thoughts. The silence was fraying his nerve endings, but that was the least important thing at the moment.

  “I think I always disliked him,” she said in an undertone, as if she spoke to the Pop-Tart instead of him. “But he was magnetic. And I was nobody, just this little mouse going to classes and back home.” She looked up. “I’ve been on my own for years, but maybe I didn’t make such a good job of it. Then along came Clint. Suddenly there was all this glamour. Danger. I didn’t know any better, and then it was too late. He weaves a sticky web, and you can’t get out. I don’t even know how he found me here. I did my best to vanish without leaving any clues.”

  Jamie kept himself quiet. Her eyes were reddened, as if she’d been crying, or trying not to. He risked reaching across the table to cover her hand with his own.

  “I only ever wanted ordinary, but… I guess I screwed it up.”

  “You came here,” he offered tentatively. “And your research is anything but ordinary. You’ve brought order into that mess in the attic. Jan and I are learning new things every day about our family.”

  He got a half smile, but her eyes filled. “Not good enough. After that… you saw it yourself.”

  Jamie shook his head. “I saw you standing up for yourself. I only stepped in because I was afraid he’d hurt you.”

  “He knows how to inflict his wounds without leaving visible scars.” Despite her words, bruises had come up on the delicate skin of her arm. “The kind of counter-culture life we led… well, who’d believe me? My only option was to run. So I did.”

  Right into my arms, if there’s any justice.

  “You are, beyond a doubt, the most amazing woman I’ve ever known. He won’t hurt you again, Kate. I swear.”

  She looked up. “I need to get out of here for a while. I’m too spooked.”

  “I know a place.”

  ~~*~~

  Kate watched as Jamie threw together some sandwiches, then he drove them to a provincial park right on Saanich Inlet. By the time they’d hiked to the ocean and climbed up on a rock outcrop to eat, Kate felt grounded and human again. She leaned against him, letting the gentle shush of the water on the rocky beach, the sun’s warmth, and the strident arguing of the gulls lull her most of the way to sleep. She was done with running from her past. Whatever happened between her and Jamie, she’d found a present worth building into a future.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  That night, Kate read the last letter. The one she’d put off, because she was afraid of what it would say. The handwriting was so shaky it was almost illegible. Stains on the page suggested tears. She bit her lower lip and began reading.

  November 14

  Dearest, dearest Robert,

  You have to come home. They’re sending me away! I’ll write if I can, but Mother says they won’t let any mail in or out. I’ll be a prisoner!! Betty Lou will post this for me. Oh, Robert, I miss you so much!! I’m so scared. Please come home.

  Your devoted Annie

  Kate stared at the ceiling, her eyes tracing a subtle crack that wove across Mrs. Cummings’ white plaster. What had happened to Annie? Did she have the baby? That child would be almost seventy years old now. Did Robert ever locate her?

  It must have been hell. Confined, isolated, lectured, probably forced to put her newborn up for adoption.

  Kate’s historian’s instincts itched to track down the elusive Annie, but how? The letters provided no clue to base a search on. From the genealogy chart, she knew Jamie’s grandfather—Robert—had died fourteen years ago, and his grandmother before that. No one was left who would know. She didn’t even have Annie’s last name.

  Still, it was time Jamie and Jan learned their grandfather’s hidden story. She fished her phone from the bedside table and texted them both. Urgent we meet. Tomorrow eve?

  Within a few minutes, they’d both agreed. Tomorrow she’d share the letters. After that… well, she supposed it was up to them.

  ~~*~~

  Summer evening light flooded the attic through the window. Jamie made a quick study of Kate as he reached the top of the steps from his side of the house, Jan in his wake. Kate had changed. It took him a few moments to figure out the difference. She wore a tailored, pale pink shirt tucked into navy slacks. No black except her shoes.

  “Love the look,” Jan said, cluing in the same time he did. “Suits you.”

  Kate blushed. “Thanks. Not used to it yet,” she mumbled.

  She sat on a sagging sofa covered in a collection of Mexican blankets from some long-ago vacation, a plate of peanut butter cookies on the coffee table in front of her. She had a look in her eye that shifted between sad and determined. Jamie settled next to her and took her hand. Jan pulled up a straight chair and straddled it, her eyes on Kate. Gramps watched, hovering cross-legged by Kate’s stairs.

  “So,” Jamie said. “What’s up?”

  Kate’s grip on his hand tightened. “I have something to tell you,” she began gravely. “And I wonder if you have something to tell me.”

  Jan spoke up, eagerness in her voice. “You’ve talked to your supervisor?”

  “I showed him my log books this morning, and he wants to see the attic. He thinks there may be enough material here.”

  “Oh, I hope so.” Jan was deflecting, Jamie was pretty sure, dragging the conversation away from whatever Kate’s solemn face suggested was to come, but he agreed with her sentiments. He’d never had much interest in family history, content to leave all that to his mother, but this summer had fired a new curiosity in him. Besides, Kate wanted it.

  But something about the stubborn line of her jaw suggested that not even turning his family’s junk into a thesis topic was going to prevent Kate from having her say.

  Jamie glanced at his sister, then down at the woman next to him. “There is something about our family I want you to know,” he said. “Before it gets any more out of control.” He glared toward the stairs.

  Jan’s mouth twitched as if she were suppressing a grin, but she didn’t speak.

  “Me first,” Kate said. “I found these letters.” She dropped a thin binder in Jamie’s lap. “Dear Robert, love Annie.”

  They all felt the disturbance in the air over by the stairs.

  “I closed the downstairs door,” Kate said, shooting Jamie an accusatory look. “Mrs. Cummings doesn’t want dust or noise invading her domain. So what is that?”

  Jamie sighed. “A challenge.” Across the room, Gramps signalled frantically, but Jamie couldn’t see any way or reason to shut down this conversation. “Let’s start with the let
ters.” He opened the slim binder.

  Kate looked puzzled, as well she might, given his cryptically worded comment. But she gave him a pass and ploughed forward with her own agenda. “They’re fairly easy to read, but I’ve typed out transcriptions.” She stood, dropping his hand, and gestured Jan over. “Both of you. This is your story, after all. Or not quite, but related.”

  Jan sank on the sofa next to him, and they read. Then they both stared at Kate.

  “In a box with a uniform,” she said to their unasked question.

  “Why didn’t you say anything before?” Jamie asked.

  Kate, who had paced around the open space while they read the few pages, shrugged. “I wanted to keep it for myself, at least for a little while. I always intended to share, but… not yet.”

  “Something just for you,” Jan murmured.

  “Sort of. I don’t see a happy ending. But there’s more. Someone’s been rummaging in the letters.”

  “What?” Jan looked sceptical. “Who would care? Did they take anything?”

  “Last night, when we got home…” She glanced at Jamie; his heart skipped at the memory. “I found them all over the room. No open window, and I’d left them in a file folder on my dresser. Someone had been in them.”

  “Or some thing,” Jamie muttered, glaring at Gramps, who had the grace to look sheepish.

  “Yeah. So that’s when I scanned and printed them. I locked the originals in a safe deposit box this morning. They aren’t valuable to anyone but me, but I don’t want to lose them.”

  “Good thinking,” Jamie said, glancing again at the stairs. What was Gramps playing at? Just because he was a ghost didn’t mean he could get away with invading Kate’s privacy.

  Kate persisted. “You can see why I’m excited about these, but they lead to an almost certain dead end. Is there anyone in your family who might know what became of Annie? Or how the letters got strewn all over my room?”

  “No,” Jan said in the same instant Jamie said, “Yes.”

  Brother and sister looked at each other. Jan chuckled. “You’re right. Can he do it, though? Will he?”

  “No idea, but it’s time we found out.”

  Jamie stood and walked over to Kate, draping his arm over her shoulders. “Gramps,” he said loudly. “Enough. Get yourself out here. And do whatever you have to do so Kate can see and hear you. Now.”

  The attic grew very quiet. Kate didn’t move. Jan watched curiously. Their grandfather had been a part of their lives for years, so they took his presence for granted, but with this demand, all bets were off.

  “You’re asking a lot, son,” Gramps said. “Don’t know as I trust this young lady yet.”

  Kate frowned. “There’s that echo. I’ve heard it before.”

  “You may as well trust her.” Jamie tightened his hold, pressing Kate against his side. “She’s here to stay. And you’ve been in her territory often enough.” He immediately regretted his declaration about Kate’s permanence, but her only reaction was a lifted eyebrow.

  Jan winked. “Not to mention pushing Jamie to go courting.”

  Jamie groaned at the old-fashioned turn of phrase.

  “Well, now, let’s not be hasty.” The old man levitated to his feet. All three of them fixed their attention on the spot by the stairs.

  “Now, Gramps. Stop stalling.”

  Jamie had seen the phenomenon often enough, but it still surprised him, every time. He felt Kate tense as, very slowly, the air around the translucent spectre changed, thickening into the familiar shape of his cantankerous grandfather.

  Kate let out a squeak and turned under his arm, her fingers in tight fists against his chest. He stroked her short hair. “Kate,” he said formally, “I’d like to introduce our Gramps. Known to you as Robert.”

  “Howdy, miss. Pleased to meet you.” Gramps’ voice had a slightly more hollow tone than usual, but there was no doubt Kate heard it. She glanced over her shoulder, keeping contact with his chest, to stare at the spectre gliding toward them.

  “Yes. Hi. I mean, well… hi,” she stammered.

  “For heaven’s sake, Gramps,” Jan said. “Settle somewhere. And stay put. You have no idea how unnerving that floating-around thing is.”

  “For you, anything.” The ghost sketched a bow, then appeared to sit on the arm of the sofa. In actuality he hovered about an inch above it. He’d never managed to gauge the distances accurately.

  “Just out of curiosity,” Jamie said, “does Kate’s work cleaning out the attic have something to do with the fact you’ve been hanging out up here for years?” He turned to Kate. “Scared the heck out of me. We were teenagers when he first showed up. Our family still lived in our half back then.”

  “Maybe,” Gramps said.

  “Oh, come on.” The exasperation in his twin’s voice made Jamie grin. Their familial spectre had driven them both batty for half their lives. “You must know why you’re hanging around. I’ve even considered calling in a shaman or something to send you on your way. It’s not natural.”

  “Can I call you Robert?” Kate asked, her voice small. “That’s how I think of you.”

  “Mighty honoured, young lady. Yes, ma’am.”

  Jamie let Kate go long enough to pull up another dining room chair. He claimed her hand as the two of them sat. She was holding up well. A little trembly at first, but getting more confident by the minute.

  “I’d like some context,” she said. “You’ve been hanging around with Jamie and Jan all along, right?”

  “You might say that.” Gramps looked uncomfortable, twisting his hands together and kicking his dangling leg against—or through—the sofa, a trait Jamie had inherited. He figured his Gramps was used to banter and challenge from him and his sister, but he hadn’t been forced to confront another living person, never mind one with as much ‘spunk’, as he put it, as Kate.

  “Why?” Kate demanded.

  The ghost was silent. Jamie said, “Based on the limited evidence, he’s wanted to see me married.”

  “Me, too,” Jan added. “Seems that in his day, I’d be considered an old maid. Source of serious concern.”

  “Well, that’s ridiculous,” Kate said. “You’re both healthy, attractive, personable, and you’ve got good careers going. Why would some ghost worry about marrying you off?”

  “Unless,” Jamie mused, “that was all a smoke screen.”

  Gramps looked down to his folded hands. He was twiddling his thumbs. Guilty, Jamie thought.

  Kate stared at him. “You’ve been waiting for someone to clean out the attic, haven’t you? To find the letters.”

  Gramps stopped twiddling and levitated up into the rafters. Jamie wondered if he was about to make a break for it, disappearing to wherever he went when he wasn’t harassing his grandchildren. But gradually the figure stabilized again on the arm of the sofa.

  By now Kate treated his Gramps as just another fact of life… one she intended to confront. As she sat straighter, Jamie fought back a grin. Gramps didn’t stand a chance. “You’re the reason I keep thinking I’m being watched, right?” she demanded.

  Gramps looked sheepish. “I never intruded. No voyeur, not me. Respect the privacy of ladyfolk.”

  She stood and planted herself in front of the spectre, which exhibited very human nervousness. “That’s not much comfort when you go tossing around the papers in my room.”

  There was a long pause.

  “You wanted someone to find the letters,” Kate continued. “Because I’d bet you can’t pick anything up, can you? So you couldn’t dig through the drawers and boxes yourself.”

  Silence. Gramps looked down, across to the stairs, anywhere but at one of them.

  “Tell us about it,” Jan said quietly. She reached out as if she might put a hand on his knee, then withdrew it. “Maybe we can help.”

  Another pause. Jan grabbed her water bottle and took a long pull.

  “What happened to Annie, Gramps?” Like his sister, Jamie modulated his vo
ice. Despite the old ghost’s irritating ways, it hurt to see him thrown so far off balance.

  No one broke the silence while his Gramps pulled his story together. “Before we shipped off in late November, I got a one-week leave. I hadn’t received Annie’s last letter when I left for home.”

  Kate retreated and stood by Jamie’s chair, her hand on his shoulder. He reached up and covered it with one of his own. Jan sat unmoving, staring at her grandfather.

  “I darn near ran to her house. Folks on the street must of figured I was nuts. Annie lived over near Fairfield, you see. I could hardly breathe once I’d climbed those steps. And then Mrs. Douglas chased me right back down them again, yelling that Annie was gone and I’d never find her, and she ought to have me arrested for defiling her daughter.”

  He looked at Jan, then at Jamie. “In those days, well, it didn’t get much worse for a young woman. But it could have been so different. I’d made up my mind to sail to Korea a married man. In fact, I was thrilled. My Annie, mother of my child.”

  The old spectre buried his face in his hands. Jamie sat frozen as his Gramps’ shoulders shook. Jan once again reached toward him, and once again pulled back. No physical comfort was possible, when the mourner was a ghost.

  Kate said, “So you went to Betty Lou.”

  Gramps threw off the despair with lightning speed—the old faker—and grinned. Playing this for all it’s worth, Jamie thought. “Foxy, that one. Ended up with a forester, living up near Campbell River. Always longed for the bright lights, or so I heard. Lost touch with her eventually, a good long time after I met your grandmother. I have to tell you, my Beatrice was no fan of Betty Lou.”

  Kate was insistent. “After her mother sent you packing…”

  Gramps’ shoulders sagged. “I missed her by one lousy day. Betty Lou didn’t know where she’d gone, only that it was off the island. I went back to the Douglas house, and so help me, her father chased me away with a shotgun. That was extreme.” The ghost sounded indignant. “All I wanted was to make an honest woman of his daughter.”