Story: Memories (chapter 17)

Hot was what the weather was over the Smyth estate. It was barely sun up, and the heat was already heavy and starting to grow over meadows and woods alike. It seemed that the sun overhead really wanted to make a mark on this day, and had turned up its rays to full power.

The Smyth’s dining room was silent at this time of the day. Mr, Smyth was sitting in his usual chair, having the local paper in his hands while sipping away on his coffee. His wife was next to him, reading over something with great interest and making small noises of frustration as she did.

The man looked over and eyed his wife. He could see the sourness of her mood even as she had kept reading whatever it was that she was reading. He hesitated for a moment, as he eyed her face.

" Why do you look so upset, My darling?" He asked, seeing how his wife was acting.

" So much to do and get done before that girl goes off to school... Heaven’s it is taking up my days as I finalize things.." She sighed, never once looking up. " We will barely be done with all of these preparations and packing for the girl... and it will be time to put her on that stage for the trip to the school."

" Are you not being just a tad too high-strung today..." He murmured, the wincing as he already was regretting what he had just said..

" What do you mean by that?" She said, her voice turning tight as she gave him a glaring look " Are you trying to imply something?"

The man took a deep breath in, hearing his wife’s stern tone towards him. It told the man that she was in a mood that would not be appeased very easily by anything he could say or do.

"What I am trying to say that perhaps you need to relax and take a bit of a break from all of this for awhile?" He tried to explain, seeing his wife was getting a little more upset with him. " Take a rest, and come back to it more refreshed."

" Easy for you to say... your not the one making all of the plans here!" She snapped back.

The man could feel the stare he was getting, even thought he had gone back to his paper. He sighed, knowing whatever he could say to his wife, at this point... she would not take from him as kindness or trying to be helpful.

" Your right dear... It is easy for me to say..." He capitulated quickly, already understanding that if he continued... a fight would ensue. " Is there anything I can do to lend you a little bit of help?"

" No thanks to you, I have it well under control..." She snapped back, sitting straight up in her chair.

The man knew that tone of her voice. After years of being married to the woman, he knew when he needed to back off despite her frustrations and anger she would flare with. He identified that this was that time. He resorted to going back to reading because the woman did not really want his help.

A middle aged woman in a servants outfit came into the room quite suddenly. She stopped just inside the doorway and gave a hurried curtsied to the people inside, as Mr and Mrs. Smyth looked up.

Mr. Smyth noticed the servant woman’s face was almost without any colour and seemed to be without any emotion. He shifted a in his chair nervously, as he could see the woman was nervous as she stood there.

"Uh...oh!" He said to himself, feeling that something was not quite right.

The woman looked at Mrs. Smyth, her eyes were now showing apprehension and a touch of fear. Mrs. Smyth looked up and saw the woman.

" Yes, Lilly?" She asked, her eyes locking on to the servant’s face.

Lilly seemed to just pause, her body posture was rigid and her eyes unblinking under the woman’s gaze.

" I went up to wake Miss Susan at the time you had wanted me to, Ma’am..." She finally said. " She was not up in her room, and her bed was all neatly made-up."

" Not in her room?" Said the woman back, an eyebrow raised.

" No, Ma’am... she is not..." Replied the woman, looking at her straight on.

" What do you mean by that?"

The woman seemed even more hesitant than ever, as she stood there under the glowering of her employer.

" The door to Miss Susan’s room was sittin’ wide open... and it seemed almost like she had not slept there." Explained the woman. " Her nightgown is laying on her bed, folded quite neatly at the foot."

" Damned girl always going off for a walk, Lilly...." Said the woman, with a snuff. " Lord knows that girl is always going off on her own... she is always being so defiant of me on everything...." The woman said, upset at Susan’s absence.

" What would you want me to do, Mrs. Smyth?" Asked the woman, her voice wavering a little.

" Go and find her then, Lilly... she likes walking on our property anyway.... when you find her, tell her I want to see her immediately!" She said, adding with a little more volume. " And tell her to come right now!!"

" Yes, Ma’am..." Said the servant woman, bowing and hurrying herself out of the room.

Mr. Smyth looked at his wife, and could see the girl’s actions had angered her even more than her sour mood had been all morning. He sighed, knowing very well not to say anything else. In his heart, he had a feeling that the girl had left their home... and in a way, he did not blame the young girl for that.

******

A large wagon loaded down with many boxes of all sizes eased down a road as it left the city of Cabot. A team of four stout looking horses plodded along the dirt path with their heads all down, while a aging looking man sat on the bouncing seat while controlling the team. He lightly held the reigns of the beasts with his hands, letting the team just do the work they always had done for him.

The man looked back at his payload in the back of his wagon, eying the figure of a young girl that sat in amongst the boxes and huge burlap bags... who was busy watching the city slowly disappear into the distance. The girl was quite young, her chestnut brown hair tucked under the bonnet she wore, the dress noting her as perhaps a farm girl. He thought back to meeting her on the edge of the city of Cabot, just a little more than a couple of hours ago by now.

She had said her name was Susan and needed a ride if he was heading south... that was pretty much what she had said to him that first time. The man was just finishing loading a large load of farm implements and seed he had been payed to come and pick up for his town’s general store... when this little gal came up to him, as brazen as anything. After the girl had asked her question, he was not quite sure of giving this girl a ride like this, but something about the girl made him quickly come to agree to help.

She seemed happy with the man agreeing to give her a ride, and actually helped him lift the last handful of bags filled with seed into the wagon. He was surprised when watched this slip of a girl handle a very heavy bag of seed with great ease... despite the gal being under five feet tall. She seemed to be not averse to heavy chores, and the man was grateful for the hand.

The girl did helped him out quite a lot, he had to admit... so he got on to the bench seat and got the horse team readied to go. The young girl simply hopped into the back of the wagon with the things now loaded...then the two of them started to make their way out of Cabot while the darkness of the night still hung, except for the ray of light that was telling of the morning only about an hour away.

The two strangers soon were riding along in silence, as the sky lightened and then day broke so brilliantly while they had exited the city by it’s most southerly rout by way of a somewhat rarely used road. By the time that sun was just half way over the horizon, they were already three miles from the city itself.

The man could not help but notice that his passenger was not at all sad to be leaving the large city. In truth, the young waif of a girl seemed to be actually becoming more relieved with every little bit of distance they put on away from the city. He could not ignore that air of lightness brightening her small face while she watched the city continuously get smaller in the distance.

He looked up at the sun that was climbing in the blue shy over their heads, and seemed to be pondering the golden orb. He seemed to shake his head, and turned back to look once again at the figure that was sitting near the back of his load.

" Gonna be one hot day today... I reckon by the look of that deep blue sky overhead of us that it will..." He commented back to the figure. " There is not even a small breeze going either..."

The young girl looked up over herself at the sun, then nodded her head. It was a dazzling blue the sky was, and she seemed to smile with the thought.

" Just might be..." She simply replied, looking at the man who controlled the wagon.

The man seemed to pause again, as the girl had stopped talking again. He snuffed and continued to control the wagon.

" You know that I am only going as far as a place called Mapleton, girl..." He called out.

" You told me when you agreed to give me a ride as far as that last night..." The girl said. " I know, thank you..."

" Why are you leaving Cabot like this, girl, an’ in the earliest part of the day and all...?" He asked. " Dont’cha think your family will be pretty worried once they find out that your gone?"

The girl seemed to look at him, this sad look crossing that sweet face as she took a noticeably long sigh. She sat there, locking her eyes onto the driver of the wagon’s soft baby blue eyes

" My parents... are dead, Sir..." She said, her inflection turning flat and very short..

The man looked back into the girl’s face for a long hanging moment, watching how that small face got such a long look on it. He could see that her words were bringing up many emotions deep inside of the gal.

" I’m sorry to hear that, Little Susan..." Stammered the man, obviously shocked at the girl’s so flatly spoken statement. He cleared his throat and turned slightly back to his horse team. " So I am guessin’ that your goin’ off to live with some other relatives or something like that?"

" It is something like that, Sir..." The girl said, her voice getting a little more tighter.

" Like your Ma’s sister or perhaps a cousin?" The man asked smoothly. " Is that who you are travelling to stay with?"

" Yes..." She said quickly, obviously she was not giving up any more details to the very curious man.

The man just let that part be dropped, knowing very well that the girl was not quite wanting to confide anything else to him on that topic. He decided that would be best, and hoped that long face of the girl’s would pass soon.

" Is it far that you have to travel after Mapleton?" He asked, watching the girl’s dark browns looking at him from over the boxes.

" It’s a town that is called Grandfield’s Point... down south." The girl explained quickly.

The man seemed to nod, as he turned back top the young girl.

" I know the place well, young lady..." He smiled softly, his eyes softly on the young girl’s determined looking face. " Now that I know where you are off to... I have to say that is going to be quite long way to be travelin’ all on foot though... would take a strong man quite a few weeks to do... and that is if he is walking always at a good clip"

" I have no money for any other way to get there other than to walk..." She simply put it. " I have no way else to get down there, other than walk my way down there..."

" So I take it that you were glad that you came upon me leaving that feed place this morning?" He chortled, understanding the girl a little more, despite her not saying too much about herself..

" It was very much, a stroke of good fortune for me, sir..." Nodded young Susan, her eyes conveying her gratefulness to the man. " I was glad that you were willing to help out a young girl like me.

The man nodded slightly, understanding why the girl was travelling like this... and respected her determination to do it honestly as well.. He snapped the reigns in his hands, getting the team to hurry a little more. He looked back, as the girl had leaned back into the load he had, resting up against one large crate for support.

" Well, I can get you as far as the town of Mapleton... that clears about forty or forty five miles or so off your trip." He said, adding. " Where you would be walking for almost two days... we should be in Mapleton by late afternoon."

" I know, an’ I’m grateful for the ride...’ Said the girl.

" You might have to continue your walk until you get to Chandler... it is a larger town than Mapleton is." He said. It is about a day’s walk further south. " Our town is rather small..."

Susan nodded and looked at the man.

" That would be fine, Sir..." She said. " I knew there would be times where I will have to do a lot of walking."

" I wanted you to know what you were facin’ here, after we get to Mapleton..." The man smiled, a low but friendly chuckle coming low from his barrel chest. " It really seems like you have just started on your long trip...."

" I thank you, Sir..." She smiled. " II have just started..."

He looked at the girl, hearing this feeling of maturity that seemed to be in her ever word to him.

" You don’t have to call me sir, child..." He chuckled with the girl’s words. " Call me Isaac..."

" Yes... Mr Isaac." She replied back to him. .

Isaac went to say something back at the formal way the girl was addressing him, but saw the girl had already gone silent. The man stared at the girl and saw she had returned to watching the city disappear over the horizon.

He just turned then back to attend to his horses, knowing that right now many things were going on behind the bright and expressive brown eyes of the young girl... intrusion would not be the right thing to do. He knew they had a long road ahead of them, and the faster he got them there... the sooner the girl could be on her way again.

******

Mrs Smyth sat in her plush chair in the parlour, her eyes glaring at the woman known as Lilly. With the woman’s face glowing a very bright scarlet and her gaze cold as ice, it told of a woman that was beyond infuriate at this moment.

" You could not find her... after searching for two hours?" She said, her voice was almost growling.

" No, Mrs. Smyth...." Said the woman, visually flinching as she spoke. " I had some of the other staff with me, and we looked... We could not find any sign of her on the property.

The woman stood up and glared at the servant woman, her fists clenched against her sides. She took one step, so she was staring down at the servant who was quite a bit shorter than the woman of the house was.

" Have you really looked everywhere you could of, gal?" She asked, nearly shouting at the woman.

" We all did... there is no other places to look..." The woman said, fear glinting in her eyes as her posture slumped a little. " We even tried a few places where she would have never went as well..."

" You have not looked hard enough apparently..." Said Mrs. Smyth, raising her hand, it at the ready to unleash a slap across the face of the woman in front of her. " I wanted you to find her ... and all you have come back to me with was nothing??"

Patrick the butler, who stood nearby spoke loudly and suddenly to his employer’s wife, with practised cation in his words..

" I assure you, Ma’am, we did... I personally have accompanied all of the staff while we looked everywhere we could think of." He said.

Hand stayed in mid air where it hung, Mrs. Smyth looked at her long time butler and seemed to quickly settle a little as the man spoke to her... her husband behind her seemingly glad of that.

" Are you sure that you have looked everywhere you could have, Patrick?" She asked the stately butler.

" I am very sure that we all have, Ma’am..." He said in his strong accented voice, as the servant woman took the moment to turn hustle herself out of the parlour... and the wrath of Mrs. Smyth. " I regret to inform you though... that the Young Miss Susan is nowhere to be found on your property."

Mrs. Smyth seemed to pause, as her eyes showed that she was deep in thought at the moment... but a anger still seethed inside of her as well. Patrick stood nearby in silence... as was his usual thing, knowing that was what he needed to do.

She looked at her husband, her eyes holding a coldness that even he had to flinch with after so many years of marriage.

" She just has ran off... after all that we have done for her, everything wh have given to her... and after what she has nearly done to our family as well with that Alice thing..." She said, huffing with anger. " She has the gall to run away from me?"

" She does appear to have done that..." Said the man, obviously knowing that was true.

" That girl has defied me for the very last time... Mark my words!!" Said the woman, her anger flaring with each passing moment. " She need to be taught some respect..."

" What do you think we should do, My darling..." Asked Mr. Smyth, knowing that if he would ‘suggest’ something... he would end up feeling her wrath as well... but needed to say something. " She obviously had left sometime after we all had gone up to bed last night... by now, she has a pretty good head start."

" Don’t state the obvious to me..." She spat., angered by her husband’s picked words. " We need to deal with this girl strongly and without mercy this time... and show her never to disobey us ever again.... that what we say, goes without exception."

" How do you think we can do that?" Mr. Smyth asked, seeing his wife getting more furious than she had been.

The woman turned to the butler, her eyes steel and cold. She beckoned him to come closer, which he did with one smooth step as her face showed that she already had thought about the situation..

" Go into the city and fetch the head Sheriff from the city for me." She commanded strongly. " Bring that man here... and then we will start looking for this wretched child we have adopted..."

" You are getting the law after her?" Her husband said, after hearing his wife barking out.

" Yes...that is our only option here to teach this girl a proper lesson..." She snuffed, almost as if she was trying to dismiss her husband. " I want him to drag this disobedient girl back home... then we shall deal with this child before sending her off to that school."

" The Sheriff might be too busy to deal with a runaway child, my dear..." He tried to warn his angered wife.

The woman shot a cold stare to her husband, stopping him from talking. She shook her head and made a noise of being hostile towards her spouse.

" Busy or not... that girl needs to be caught and brought back here..." She venomously said, her hands on her hips. " That lawman will search for that girl... and capture her at all cost... or his life will end up being worth less than the badge he wears." She turned to the butler again. " Go Patrick... and get the Sheriff right away."

The butler bowed and was off to do his employer’s bidding, while Mr. Smyth left the room, as his wife was too mad to listen to him. He seemed to harbor an understanding on why the girl had ran off like that. Deep inside, the man actually was impressed by the audacity of the brash girl... and saw that it irked his wife like this because she would have done the same thing when she was just a girl.