“My parents own the dry goods store in town. I’ve spent my whole life watching people from behind the counter. I can tell an honest man when I see one.”
I had no idea what I’d done to make her think I was honest, but I didn’t ask. She’d figured out everything else rather quickly.
“Her family invited me to stay for the holidays,” I said. “Which astounded me.”
“Get ready, Mr. Baker. That’s just the beginning. In Emerson Pass no one’s allowed to be a stranger for long. Before you know it, you’ll feel like you’ve been here forever.”
As if the train agreed, it slowed as we approached the station.
“Welcome to Emerson Pass,” Martha said. “Where you can belong if you only ask.”
Josephine
The house was quiet the afternoon we expected Phillip Baker to arrive. After lunch, I wandered down to the sitting room, where I found Theo at one of the windows.
Papa was at the office. My sisters, other than Delphia, were all at school. Mama and Jasper were downstairs working with Lizzie on the plans for the holiday festival in town. On hiatus during the war, we’d happily brought back the tradition last season. This was to be our most exciting one yet. We would have lights for the first time. At considerable expense, Papa had ordered lights to hang over our frozen pond and to decorate the tall fir that stood next to the gazebo. There would be food, music, ice-skating, and Santa for the children.
“Theo?” I asked from the doorway.
He flinched as if I’d startled him, then turned my way.
I walked over and took his hands. “How are you? Do you need anything?”
He brought my hands to his chest. “I’m fine. Simply enjoying the quiet.”
I looked into his eyes, large in his narrow face. He seemed young and old at the same time. There was a weariness to him that hadn’t been there before the war. But I remembered it from when he was a child. He’d been the one to find our mother. She’d been mentally ill and had gone outside on one of the coldest nights of the year and had frozen to death. For years after that, Theo had been quiet and haunted. I could still remember the smudges under his eyes. They’d gone away when Mama Quinn had come to us. Now, though? I wasn’t sure anything could bring back the old Theo. I’d woken in the night to hear him crying out in his sleep, followed by the soothing tones of Flynn.
“When I was away, it became impossible to imagine that any place could be this tranquil.” Theo let go of my hands and walked over to the fire. “I wasn’t sure we’d ever get back here.”
“Do you regret enlisting?” He and Flynn had told the recruiter they were eighteen when they’d not yet turned seventeen.
“I couldn’t let Flynn go without me. It would have been worse for me to worry about him than be there too.”
“It’s over now. You’re home where you belong.”
“It’s not completely over.” He tapped his temple. “Not here, anyway.”
“Oh, Theo, don’t say that. You’ll forget, won’t you? Over time?” I regretted it as soon as it was out of my mouth. He shouldn’t have to pretend for my sake.
“Yes, of course.” Theo grabbed a log from the stack and tossed it into the fire. His tone betrayed his words. He didn’t believe for one moment that he would ever forget. I’d seen him pretending to be fine for Mama’s and our sisters’ sake many times since he’d come home. I knew him almost as well as I knew myself. Something had broken in him over there.
Flynn rushed in, flushed from the outdoors and yanking off his coat. He rarely slowed down these days. In addition to working long hours on the ski area, he spent a lot of time in the barn with the horses, taking the sleigh out for long drives, teasing the girls, playing chase with Delphia. Sometimes I wondered if the demons would catch up to Flynn when he slowed down long enough to think. Would he have the same haunted look in his eyes as Theo? Or would he always outrun the ghosts of that horrible war?
Last summer and fall, the twins had begun work on their ski lodge and clearing part of the northern mountain for ski runs. Although they were partners, it was more Flynn’s dream and passion. Like the war, Theo would not let h
im go it alone.
“Just the two people I wanted to see,” Flynn said.
“Here, give me your coat,” I said. “I’ll hang it in the closet for you.”
“Thank you, dear sister.” He kissed my cheek.
My heels clicked on the hardwood floor as I crossed into the hallway. By the time I’d returned, my brothers had poured themselves tea and helped themselves to one of Lizzie’s scones.
“Jo, sit down with us,” Flynn said. “Let’s talk.”
I did as he asked. “I have nowhere to be today.” I’d recently hired someone to staff the library a few days a week, freeing me up to concentrate on procurement. In the years since I’d first secured funding from Carnegie, I’d been busy, but now I didn’t have as much to do. No man to write to. The library was up and running. Mama didn’t really need help with the little girls. Fiona and Cymbeline were nearly grown and fully ensconced in their studies and their friends. There were days I felt somewhat useless.