A Rocky Path (7 page)

Rebecca looked unconvinced, but didn’t pursue
the matter. They got back to work and were busy until five o’clock.
They had dinner, and Jamie was once again ignoring her. She decided
she had had enough and excused herself from the table. She went
down to her usual after dinner retreat, hoping to see Patrick. She
was earlier than usual, so she didn’t worry too much about it when
she saw that he wasn’t there. But after awhile, she was beginning
to believe he wasn’t going to show up. She waited a couple more
hours, and then disconsolately walked back to the house. This was
two days in a row that he hadn’t come. She wondered if he just
considered her a nuisance and decided to go somewhere else to draw.
But, then, why did he want to draw the picture of her? She was so
confused by this man.

She decided she would go exploring again. For
some reason, this was the only thing that took her mind off her
hurt feelings. She went downstairs to the storage room and started
rummaging through things again. She looked at the silver ring on
her finger and wondered if it belonged to the person who wrote the
love letters. Wouldn’t that be fascinating if that was the case?
That was probably too much of a stretch. She delved further into
all the old treasures, trying to find more clues about the writers
of the letters and journal. It was odd about the journal. Men
didn’t usually keep journals. But maybe they did 150 years ago.

Suddenly, she noticed that behind a large
privacy screen was another door. That was strange; she didn’t
realize this room opened into another room. She opened the door and
flipped up the light switch. The room was full of objects covered
in cloth. Fascinated, she pulled the cloth off of one of them.
There was a beautiful painting of the ocean with the sun rising off
the water. She took off another and saw a painting of the water
with a rocky shore in the foreground. This looked exactly like the
place she met Patrick! Obviously, someone who used to live in this
house was a wonderful artist.

When she pulled the cloth off the next one,
she gasped in shock. This was a portrait of a beautiful blond woman
with pink upturned lips and light blue eyes. She looked child-like
and yet knowing at the same time. But the shock was not her face,
but her hand. On the ring finger on her left hand was a little
silver ring with entwined hearts. Her heart started beating faster.
This woman had worn the very ring that she now wore on her finger.
This
had
to be the writer of the love letters. She was so
intrigued now that she felt like she had to share this with
someone. Her first thought was Patrick. Would he be as intrigued as
she was? Or would he be indifferent to the whole thing? Anyway, he
hadn’t shown up for the past two nights, so she couldn’t even count
on seeing him again. She would tell Rebecca.

She hurried up three flights of stairs to
Rebecca’s sitting room. The dogs were there lounging by the
fireplace. They looked up and wagged their tails as she came
in.

“Rebecca, you will not believe what I have
found!”

She told her everything she had seen. She was
so excited, she spoke rapidly. She was nearly out of breath by the
time she finished telling her story.

“Why in the world am I writing about dragons
and wizards?” asked Rebecca, amused. “I have a perfect mystery
right here in my house.”

“Are you making fun of me?” asked Emily with
a smile.

“No, it’s just great to see you so excited. I
do love a mystery. Tomorrow, you ought to do that research you were
going to do.”

“That’s right, I forgot about that. I need to
look and see if I can find something about the terrible thing that
the journal and letters were talking about. You know, I think I’ll
start right now.”

Emily went down to the library and starting
looking through books. She looked and read until her eyes started
burning. She didn’t find anything that she was looking for. She
felt a little let down, but maybe she would find something later.
This was proving to be an interesting mystery.

She decided that she would go back down to
the rocks. It was late, eleven o’clock, but she wanted to go where
she felt at peace. She pulled on a jacket, knowing that it would be
chilly tonight. When she got down to the shore, she sat on one of
the rocks and looked out over the ocean. There was a half moon, so
there was a little bit of light.

“It’s very dangerous for a young woman to be
out late at night,” said a voice behind her.

She let out a little yelp and jumped up from
the rock, turning toward the voice. It was Patrick!

“What are you doing out this late?” she
gasped.

“The same thing you are doing, I suppose.
Trying to find a little peace and solitude.”

“You weren’t here last night or this
evening!” she said accusingly. She cringed at how it sounded.

“Do you believe, somehow, that I have nothing
else to do but meet you here every evening? Do you think my life
revolves around seeing you here?”

Tears sprang to her eyes.

“Why are you so mean to me? Don’t you care
about my feelings at all?”

His face softened in the moonlight. “I’m
sorry. I don’t know why I feel as if I have to be cruel to you so
much of the time.”

“I don’t know why, either. One minute I think
you like me and the next minute I feel like you’re repulsed by my
presence. I don’t know what to think.”

“Emily, I do like you. You just have to
understand that it’s complicated. There are things that you don’t
know about me, and it would be wise not to get too close to me. If
I keep you at arm’s length, it’s because I don’t want you to get
hurt.”

“If you’re trying to keep me from getting too
close, then why do you do things that would make me want to be
closer to you? Why did you hold my hand while we were sitting on
the rocks for so long? And why did you touch my face and make my
legs feel like they were made of Jello? Why do these things, then
turn me away? ”

He sighed and looked away from her.
“Sometimes I just can’t help myself. You are beautiful and I feel
like you are someone I would like to know. But I can’t.”

Feeling bold, she walked over to him, put her
hand behind his head and drew his face down to hers. Just as their
lips almost touched, he pulled back.

“No, Emily. No. This cannot be. There are
reasons that you could not even begin to understand. Please believe
me when I say I am very sorry that it has to be this way. Another
time, another place….we could be close to each other. But not here,
not now.”

He turned and walked away from her. She
watched him go down the shore until he disappeared from sight. She
sat down on a rock, put her face in her hands and sobbed. She
realized that she had started falling in love with him the first
time she saw him. She had never believed in love at first sight.
She used to be so rational, so sane. And now she was in love with a
man she barely knew and her heart was breaking into a million
pieces. She also realized that she had been so hurt during their
conversation tonight, that she didn’t even get a chance to ask him
about sneaking into the house and giving her the picture!

She sat there for a long time, feeling
miserable and lost. What was she going to do now? One thing she
knew for sure. If she was to keep her sanity, she couldn’t come
down here anymore. The only way to get over Patrick was to stop
seeing him. So she resolved to stay away from this place until she
was completely over him. Maybe it wouldn’t be too hard to get over
him. After all, she hadn’t known him that long. She would be fine.
So she dried her tears, went back to the house and fell asleep with
a dry pillow.

Chapter Eleven

Emily got through the next few days in a
haze. She was quiet and withdrawn, but at least she wasn’t snippy
this time. Just sad. Instead of questioning her, everyone just sort
of looked at her oddly and said nothing. She was probably acting
unapproachable, but she didn’t care; she was miserable and she
wanted to wallow in it for just a few days.

She didn’t go back down to the rocks and
gradually she started feeling a little better. By the time the day
of the party rolled around, she felt like maybe she could enjoy
herself a little bit.

“No working upstairs today!” announced
Rebecca after breakfast. “Today is party day and we are going to
play all day. Everybody can do whatever they want today; we just
all need to be sure to give ourselves plenty of time this evening
to get the finishing touches put on everything and to get dressed
up for the party. We are going to start receiving guests at
seven.”

Even Emily started feeling a little festive.
She was actually looking forward to this party. Maybe she would
meet some new, interesting people.

Emily started dressing at about 5:30. She
wanted to give herself plenty of time to make herself look as good
as possible. She put her hair up, which she usually wore down, and
allowed soft curly tendrils to escape. She wore darker eye shadow
and she was pleased to see that the effect was rather dramatic.
Then came the dress. When she and Rebecca had gone shopping, she
almost didn’t get this dress. At the time, she had no idea where
she would wear it. Rebecca had talked her into it, and now she was
glad, because it was beautiful. The dress was lined with garnet red
satin and was overlaid with black lace, which let the red show
through. The top had wide straps of the same material and a black
lace sash tied at the waist that came down the side. The skirt was
long and flowing. She felt beautiful. She picked up the picture of
her that Patrick had drawn and saw that she looked more like this
now. Her heart ached as she thought of him. Then she lifted up her
head.

‘I’m not going to let him ruin this night,’
she thought. ‘Tonight I’m going to have the time of my life!’

* * *

Everything was ready. The food was displayed
beautifully in every room. There was caviar, deviled crab bites,
mini quiches…all the best food for the guests. The bar was set up
with every type of alcohol one could think of. Even Casper and Jake
were in a good mood, prancing around and wagging their tails.

“Do you let the dogs run around among the
guests?” asked Emily.

“Sure I do,” said Rebecca. “If a person
doesn’t like my dogs, they don’t need to be in my house.’

Emily smiled. “I think I agree with you. The
dogs are family.”

The guests came pouring in a little after
seven o’clock. Everyone was dressed to the nines. Emily met so many
different people. Doctors, attorneys, store owners, housewives,
every type of person you could imagine. There were many
interesting, good-looking men there and she had conversations with
several of them. But she had no interest in any of them. She just
wished Patrick were here.

There was one person she was especially
interested in. She met an elderly gentleman who was the town’s
historian. His name was Jarrod Connelly. They talked briefly about
the house, and when he saw how interested she was, he gave her his
card and told her to call him sometime and they would get together
to talk. She readily agreed. This man might be able to tell her
some of the things she was trying to find out!

At one point, Sam came up to her and said,
“Emily, you look beautiful tonight. If I thought you were the least
bit interested, I would take you out to the garden and have my way
with you.”

“You would come back in the house limping,
too,” she said.

Sam grinned at her. “You can’t blame a guy
for trying. We could have a good time together without getting all
tangled up in a relationship. What do you say?”

Emily punched him in the arm. “Be serious,
Sam.”

“I
am
serious. But I also know I’m
wasting my time, so I’m just playing with you.”

He punched her back lightly and sauntered off
in search of fun. Emily wondered if she should warn all the women
in the room.

After about two hours, Emily was starting to
feel a little claustrophobic. She had never really been that good
with crowds and she was beginning to wish the party would be over
soon. After checking around to see if Rebecca was watching her, she
casually walked over to the doors leading out to the garden. Then
she went outside and breathed in the fresh air. It was chilly and
she didn’t have any protection on her arms, but it was worth it to
be out of the house.

She walked over to the bench, which was
hidden from the house. She didn’t want anyone to figure out where
she was and make her feel obligated to go back in. When she got
there, she saw that someone was sitting there already. It was
Jamie.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know anyone was out
here. I’ll just go away and leave you alone,” she said.

“Now, now Emily, don’t be anti-social. Come
over here and sit by me and let’s make up. Let’s not be mad at each
other anymore, ok, Love?”

He was acting very strange. That was when she
noticed that he had a drink in his hand. What was he doing?

“Jamie, you’re drinking!”

“I certainly am, my dear, and I am enjoying
every minute of it. I don’t know why I ever gave it up.”

“You gave it up because it was the right
thing to do!” she cried. “Please, Jamie, don’t drink any more of
it.”

“Oh, you are way too late for that. I’ve been
drinking for a couple of hours now. I’m quite wasted and it feels
soooooo good!”

Tears sprang to Emily’s eyes. “Why, Jamie?
Why do you want to ruin everything you’ve worked so hard for? Your
mother will be devastated. Rebecca will be so disappointed. Please
don’t do this anymore!”

“Why do you care? What possible difference
could it make to you? You’ve made it very clear that you have no
interest in me. So if you aren’t going to sit here beside me and
enjoy the night with me, then bug off!”