The Invitation (Montgomery/Taggert 19)

Nellie laughed. “You have indeed stirred up a lot of talk. My poor husband can’t walk down the street without someone telling him the latest bit of gossip about two unmarried people being in bed together. You have scandalized all of Chandler. I’m sure you must be the first couple in this town to jump the gun.”

Jackie turned red with embarrassment and looked down at the ground.

“You know what they’re saying now? That maybe something was going on between the two of you when you were children.”

Jackie blinked a couple of times at that. “What?”

“Yes. Mrs. Beasley says that the bond between you and my son all those years ago was not natural.”

Jackie opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it. Then she began to laugh. “But William was a child! And a pest. An absolute pest. I did everything to get rid of him. If that isn’t natural, I don’t know what is.”

“Did you try to get a

way from him? I seem to remember the two of you being inseparable. I remember that you always told William to leave you alone, but when he did stay home you always came to get him.”

“I did no such thing,” Jackie said indignantly.

“What about the time he had the flu? You stopped by every day.”

“I was worried about your whole family.”

“William was the only one who was ill.”

Jackie picked up a stick and started to draw circles in the dirt. “He was just a kid. Still is. Always has been.”

“You never thought so. You used to ask his advice about any number of things. You always loved adventure, but before you did anything, you asked William if he thought it would be all right.”

“I didn’t,” Jackie said, sounding like a schoolgirl.

Nellie didn’t answer for a moment. “Did you know that William didn’t speak for a whole month after you left Chandler? He wouldn’t talk, would hardly eat. The only way he would go to sleep at night was if I’d hold him and rock him. I was afraid he might lose the will to live.”

“And I never thought of him.” Jackie ran her hand over her eyes. “And now he’s all I do think of. I don’t know what to do. William wants to marry me. But there are…differences between us. People—”

“Damn people!” Nellie said.

Jackie had never been more startled by any statement she’d ever heard. Nellie Montgomery was the calmest, gentlest, most easygoing person in the world. Nothing ever made her lose her temper, not twelve children climbing all over her, not even three of them dripping blood at the same time. Nellie was the person you wanted to be near during a calamity; she’d have remained calm in the face of a barrage of bullets.

But now she was cursing.

When Jackie looked at her, Nellie’s face was not the soft, sweet one she’d always seen. This was the face of anger.

“Jackie, grow up!”

That made Jackie sit up straight, her eyes widening.

“Do you think other people have easy lives and you’re the only one with problems? You’ve been lucky so far.”

“Lucky?” Jackie whispered. How had her life of poverty and struggle been lucky?

“Oh, I know what you’re thinking, that I’m one of the Montgomerys and therefore I know nothing but luxury and ease. But you’re wrong. All your life you’ve been able to do what you wanted, when you wanted to do it. And you’ve had people who loved you along the way. Now that you have one little obstacle, you turn tail and run. Why don’t you stop being so selfish and think of someone besides yourself?”

Jackie, still in awed silence at this woman’s unusual outburst, was shocked further when Nellie began to clean up the picnic food in preparation to leave.

Jackie wanted to defend herself. “I don’t understand. I’m not being selfish; I’m thinking of William. This is as much for him as it is for me.”

“No, it’s not!” Nellie said fiercely. Then suddenly she put her hands over her face and began to cry.

Jackie did the only thing she knew to do: she put her arms around Nellie and pulled her to her.