by Wendy Webb
Before Simon had finished reading the first chapter, Kate’s rhythmic breathing told him that she had fallen asleep. He felt her forehead. Cool to the touch, but not cold. She would sleep off whatever it was that had taken hold of her. He slipped out of the covers and gathered them back up around Kate’s neck. He kissed her lightly, set the book on the bedside table, turned out the light, and padded silently out of the room.
“Sleep well,” he whispered to his cousin as he quietly shut the door. He knew he would check on her several times during the night, worried hen that he was.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Great Bay, 1906
The last of the October leaves crunched under their feet as Jess and Addie walked to the Saturday-night dance at the Great Bay social hall. The wind off the lake was brisk and exciting, filled with promise of the season to come. It snaked its way into their collars and ruffled their hair, making Addie, who had fussed over her appearance for hours before Jess arrived at her door, self-conscious and shy. It was a new feeling for her, one that had grown since that kiss on the platform. This was no child’s fantasy anymore.
Addie’s apprehension about the evening had to do with more than just the jitters that tied her stomach in knots every time Jess was around. Many people in town had thought her a fool for waiting for Jess Stewart while he was away at college all those years. She hadn’t dated anyone in his absence and made no bones about proclaiming that he would come back for her someday. They smiled politely and whispered behind her back, wondering when that fool Cassatt girl would wise up.
Tonight, everyone would see for themselves what Addie had always known.
The night was illuminated by the full moon and a sky filled with stars that looked like the flickering lights in the houses they passed. Addie and Jess walked arm in arm through the dark streets, chatting about everything and nothing at all.
The social hall was bright and alive with music. Nearly everyone in town showed up for these Saturday-night dances in which young people got their first taste of love, older couples twirled together on the dance floor, and the community as a whole celebrated life on the lakeshore. The women of the town usually brought food and drink, everyone sharing what they had.
Jess’s arrival was like that of a conquering hero. He had been in Great Bay only a couple of days and had seen few people beyond his parents and Addie. He and Addie entered the hall to shouts of Look who’s here! and Jess Stewart’s back! Old friends embraced him, girls whispered about his good looks, and his former teachers and parents’ friends greeted him one by one with hugs and handshakes. Addie, meanwhile, was ushered away from him by her girlfriends, all of whom wanted to know every last detail. Had he changed? Had he come back to marry her? Had he proposed? She laughed off their questions, but her blush spoke volumes.
“So you really came home for her,” his old neighbor Ruby Thompson said to Jess, motioning across the room toward Addie, who was laughing with a gaggle of girls. Ruby had been there the day of Addie’s birth, and she had watched these two grow their whole lives.
“Yes, Mrs. Thompson, I believe that I have.” Jess flashed her a conspiratorial smile. “But mum’s the word. I haven’t asked her yet.”
“You’ve surprised a lot of people in this town,” she told him.
“Is that so?” Jess said, slightly offended on Addie’s behalf, slightly chagrined on his own. “Excuse me, ma’am,” he said to her. “It’s time I danced with my bride-to-be.” The music began to play, and he crossed the room to where Addie was surrounded by her girlfriends.
“May I have this dance?” He smiled, extending his hand.
Addie blushed. Shyly, she took his hand, and he led her out onto the dance floor. The entire hall seemed to take a collective breath. All eyes were on them. Jess pulled Addie close. As they began to twirl around the dance floor, staring into each other’s eyes, the world fell away, the music stopped, the lights extinguished, the people vanished, and all that was left was Jess and Addie, finally together again where their hearts had always been.
Later, as they walked home through the darkened streets, Jess stopped in front of the old willow tree where he had taught her to ride his bicycle all those years ago, took her hand, and dropped to one knee.
They remained that way for a moment, neither saying anything, simply looking into each other’s eyes. “Addie, will you marry me?” he whispered, choked up at the enormity of the words.
“Of course I will. I married you the first instant I met you.”
He knew it was true for both of them. The question was unnecessary. He remembered the day of her birth, knowing she belonged to him. And, as it turned out, he to her.
A few days later, they sat bundled up on the lakeshore, talking excitedly about their plans. Weddings in Great Bay usually occurred on bright summer days when the lake was calm, but Jess wanted to marry Addie as soon as time would allow. He had a job back in the city, after all. How much time did she need to make the preparations for the wedding? Four weeks? Six?
For her part, Addie had always loved this time of year and was thrilled to be marrying her beloved Jess in the winter season. She had long dreamed of Jess coming for her in a one-horse sleigh. In her mind, they would dash off together through the white landscape, snuggled against the wind under a woolen blanket. It was all the stuff of a young girl’s romantic dreams, of course, but it was indeed coming true.
They would be married according to Addie’s wishes: a late afternoon ceremony in a candlelit church with friends and family singing Christmas carols to mark the occasion. A reception would be held at the town hall next door, with an army of local women providing the food and other refreshments.
“You’ll need to learn about life in the city,” Jess said to her. “It’s not like Great Bay.”
“How so?” Addie wondered how life on this same lake, albeit on a different shore, could be a world away.
“Life here in Great Bay is very simple,” Jess explained, “but in the city, you’ll see that it’s quite complicated. As my wife, you’ll be meeting people and doing things you never imagined. Going to parties, society soirees. Hosting dinners for important people.”
“Dinner doesn’t sound too complicated to me.” Addie smiled at him. “Wife sounds good, though.”
“It’s all about furthering my career in business,” Jess told her. “You’ll have as big a role in it as I do.” The words reverberated with a shallow ring in Addie’s ear. Her image of life as Mrs. Jess Stewart had included only the two of them, living life as one, as it had been when they were children. Now it seemed rather crowded.
“Inviting friends to share a meal is one thing, but I don’t know how to host the kind of dinner party you’re describing,” Addie said gingerly, looking into Jess’s eyes. “I’ve never even been to one. What if I can’t do any of that?”
Jess smiled, warming her with the softness of his gaze. “I taught you to ride that bicycle, remember? You didn’t think you could do that, either.”
Addie laughed at the memory. It seemed so long ago now.
“I can teach you this, as well,” Jess continued. “Listen, Addie, it was the same for me when I first left Great Bay. I didn’t know the first thing about the ‘new world’ of the city until I started experiencing it. I learned to move gracefully in that world; so can you. It’s really not that difficult, I promise. You simply watch the way other people are acting and act that way, too. Easy. You’ll see.”
“You seem so sure,” Addie said. “But this ‘simple’ life in Great Bay is rooted in my heart, Jess. Living on the tempestuous lakeshore. Shutting the doors against the elements and curling up with family at night. Helping neighbors when they need it. Attending church picnics and Saturday socials. All of that seems like such a far cry from the life you’re describing.”
“But is it a life you want, Addie?” Jess turned and faced her. It had never occurred to him that Addie might not wish to share his life in the city, with all that it entailed. “Do you want to marry me?
”
Addie smiled. “I believe you’ve already asked me that question.”
“Marrying me means giving up life here in Great Bay,” he continued. “I know you love this place, and we can certainly come back to visit, but I can’t live here, Addie. There’s nothing here for me. I need to be in the city, my job—”
She silenced him with a finger to his lips. “Life, for me, is wherever you are,” she said. “We are supposed to walk through this world together, wherever that may take us. I’ve always known it. Since the first day we met.”
“But I’m taking you away from all of this.” He gestured toward the lake.
“You’re not taking me away from anything,” she told him. “You’re bringing me to something.”
Jess kissed her then. “I am such a lucky man,” he whispered into her ear.
Marcus Cassatt was elated when Jess Stewart asked for his only child’s hand in marriage. Oh, there was no doubt that he had been suspicious of Jess’s intentions for, well, the better part of his daughter’s life. But now that Jess had gone to college, secured gainful employment in a large, prosperous business, and had indeed made good on his promise and come back for the girl, there was no complaining from Marcus about losing his daughter to this man, or to the city where he lived.
“Better Jess Stewart than a fisherman like her father,” Marcus said, shaking his head. “She’d have a hard life here. He can give her a better one than we’ve known.”
But Marie was less than overjoyed at the idea of a union between her daughter and this man. Addie’s dreams seemed to be telling her that life with Jess Stewart would be filled with some sort of confusion and even danger. And now that he was back in town, proposing a marriage that would mean Addie would be leaving the only home she had ever known, Marie wondered what it all meant. The dreams weren’t concrete or clear enough to deny her daughter’s happiness. Just vague images, one after another. Fog. A knife glinting in the moonlight. A gunshot. Nothing she could put her finger on.
And she had never seen Addie look more radiant than in Jess’s company—that was real, tangible, and undeniable.
“I’ll always be here for you to talk to,” Marie said to Addie one evening. “Especially about your dreams. Please promise me you’ll heed their warnings.”
“I will,” Addie promised.
There was another reason for the hasty marriage, and everyone in town knew what it was. Phil Stewart, Jess’s father, was not in good health. In fact, he was dying. Cancer was taking his life, but nobody knew that, then. The townsfolk simply knew that he was seriously ill and becoming more so with every passing day. Jess was grateful that he had indeed listened to his mother and come home on the train.
Between the time Jess proposed to Addie that night at the social hall and their wedding day, six weeks hence, Jess left for the city to put his affairs in order. He needed to find a suitable place to live—a bride and, someday, a family required more space than did a single man. He also needed to spread the news of his engagement to his closest friends in town and especially to his employer, a traditional sort who was eager for all young men in his employ to find a wife and set up housekeeping.
It also meant the unpleasant business of breaking the news to Sally Reade, whose wrath proved to be surprisingly vehement. He had taken her to a restaurant, thinking the public setting would make things easier. He was wrong about this. It hadn’t helped matters that she was giddy and keyed up when he arrived at her door. But later, when he squeaked out the fact that he had proposed to another woman, Sally reacted with a stunned silence—Oh, thank God, Jess had thought—but then, to his utter embarrassment, it mutated into a fierce rage. Before he was able to usher her out of the room, she threw every one of the plates on their table at him, shrieking obscenities, much to the horror of their fellow diners. She cried all the way home in the cab.
After he saw Sally to her front door—and had it slammed in his face—Jess took a deep breath and looked toward the future.
His company was based in the city, but upon news of his engagement, the owner presented Jess with an opportunity to accompany him in setting up an office in the small bayside town of Wharton. Jess suspected that it was an effort by the company’s well-heeled boss to distance this new star employee from the unfortunate Sally Reade business, which, by now, was all over town. Jess was relieved. Beyond escaping Sally’s immediate social circles, which would no doubt be closed to him and his new wife, the job itself provided an opportunity for advancement, one that Jess would not turn down.
While he loved the city, Jess found that he was enchanted by Wharton, with its warm winter winds and charming houses with large front porches and backyard gardens. He walked through the streets and thought of how much Addie would love this town. It was an easy sort of life, not a large, thriving city, which might have intimidated and even frightened her, but it was much more cosmopolitan than the tiny community of their birth. A perfect balance. Best of all, it was located on her beloved lake. He had fretted about how she would adjust to life without that massive body of water in her view, and now it was a moot point. What a wonderful place in which to start anew.
Jess bought a white wooden house with an enormous front porch that overlooked the harbor. It wasn’t the grandest home in town, but it was a highly suitable residence for a young businessman and his new bride. He furnished it modestly, knowing that Addie would want to tend to the details later, herself.
Addie and Jess were married in Great Bay on a snowy December afternoon as the sun was setting on the tiny church on the main street. Heavy, wet snow had fallen the night before, draping the streets and the houses and the enormous pine trees that lined the street like sentries in a blanket of white. The wedding-eve snowstorm had Addie and her mother fretting late into the night, peering out of the icy windowpanes of their home, wondering if the snow would let up in time for guests to arrive at the church the next day.
Marie, Addie, and several of the local women had worked tirelessly creating the perfect wedding dress—just six weeks between engagement and wedding hadn’t left them much time. Marie ordered the fabric from Minneapolis the very day Addie announced her engagement, and when it finally arrived, wrapped in brown paper, the ladies of the town began meeting, usually at Marie’s large kitchen table, and sewed all day, every day until the dimming light forced them to stop their careful work each evening.
As the sun was setting on their wedding day, townsfolk bundled up in their scarves, boots, and woolen overcoats for the walk to the church. Those who lived farther outside of town arrived on snowshoes and by sleigh; the Carlsons even hitched up the dogsled for the trip from their farm.
When the candles were lit in the church, Addie walked down the aisle on her father’s arm in a long off-white dress decorated with pure-white embroidery on both the skirt and bodice. A wide satin ribbon at the waist and bustle in the back accentuated her tiny waistline. Dressed in white, with her deep-auburn hair cascading around her face and her violet eyes shining, Addie Cassatt looked like an angel.
Her happiness was evident to all who witnessed it, no more so than to Jess Stewart himself, who was struck by the sight of the woman who was walking, no, floating, toward him. He was used to seeing Addie in the simple, practical cotton dresses worn by the hard-working wives of the fishermen in this town. Even dressed in those usual rags, Addie was stunning. But now, in this finery . . . Jess caught his breath and thanked God for his good fortune. He might have lost her in the pursuit of a more “suitable” wife. Instead, he would be the husband of a woman he truly adored and the envy of every man in town.
As the townsfolk watched this young, beautiful couple exchange wedding vows, many of the older ones were struck by the memory of the day Addie was born. The blinding fog, the way Marie had been drawn to the lake and had given birth in the water, how young Jess was the one who found the baby floating peacefully near his home. And now here these two were, pledging to spend the rest of their lives together. A thought drifted from one
to another in the pews—was destiny possible? Could it be true that some people were literally made for each other? Proof of that romantic notion seemed to be standing before them. Some wives gave their husbands sidelong glances and lamented the fact that their own destinies had run so far off the track. Did I choose the right man? Is this all there is? Did I ever have the chance to be in love? A few people wondered about roads not taken, sweethearts who had been deemed unsuitable by parents or other circumstances, loves lost to the lake or the woods, men who left their homes one morning and, without warning, never returned.
As her son was standing at the front of the church reciting the words his parents had said to each other more than thirty years before, Jennie Stewart slipped her hand into her husband’s palm and held it tight. He looked at her with watery eyes. She kissed his cheek and whispered, “I’m so glad I married you.”
Throughout the years, Phil Stewart had been, and remained, a man of few words, and those that he uttered were practical ones. But on this day he surprised his wife by smiling down at her and whispering, “We’ve had a wonderful life together, haven’t we?”
To this, Jennie couldn’t respond. It had indeed been a wonderful life, every day of it, and as Jennie squeezed her husband’s palm, she knew better than anyone that it was ending, and rapidly. His health was beyond prayer for a miracle, it was beyond all hope. She had seen his pain intensify, had witnessed him lying in bed for days. That he was here, dressed and smiling at his son’s wedding, was miracle enough. Jennie knew that, even as their son was embarking on a new life, so too would she. That of a widow. As she sat, leaning against her husband in the candlelit church, with the sun hanging low over the lake and all that love and happiness around her, Jennie Stewart repeated the prayer that she had whispered, over and over, to God or anyone else who would listen: Thank you for all that I have. Please make his last days comfortable.
After the wedding, there was much laughter, eating, drinking, and song. Addie floated among the crowd, thanking everyone for coming and trying to make a point of speaking to each person in turn. She was talking with old Mr. Peterson when her new husband took her by the arm and led her across the room. “There’s someone you really must meet, darling.” He smiled at her. They walked through the crowd toward another young couple, about their age. Addie had never seen them before.
