Come Spring (2 page)

“I haven’t,” Annika admitted.

Ruth patted the top of her own head in a futile search for her glasses. Then, she tapped her hips, feeling for the deep pockets she usually required of her dressmaker, but found them missing from the formal gown. Finally, she slipped her hand inside her bodice and withdrew the thick spectacles she had shoved inside for safekeeping. “Why aren’t you sure?” Ruth slipped on her glasses.

“It’s probably a silly reason.” Annika fought down her embarrassment.

“Not if you don’t think it is. Come now, this is your Aunt Ruth you’re talking to. Have I ever said
anything
was silly?”

Annika shook her head and blurted out, “I just think there should be more fire when he touches me, some inner need, some... some passion!”

They both jumped up at the sound of a knock at the door. Ruth called out, “Who is it?”

“Susan,” the downstairs maid answered. “Your mother said to tell you it’s time to come down, Miss Annika, andmeet them in the library so that your father can escort you into the reception room.”

“Tell them she’s not ready yet,” Ruth snapped. She walked to the door and pressed her ear against it until the sound of footsteps retreated. Her usually smiling face was serious as she looked at Annika squarely. “Recently I’ve seen some trouble coming in your life, Annika, something the stars are not clear on, but it has to do with love. Your letters reached me all over Europe, but always weeks late. First the engagement news, then the wedding announcement, and I wanted to be happy for you. I waited to see if things would clear up, but they didn’t. There is this shadow of doubt as Saturn, the great teacher, moves through your sign. And finally”—she looked away as if drawing upon her own courage to tell Annika some ominous news—“when you sent me Richard’s birth date, I knew.”

“Knew what?”

“That your marriage to Richard Thexton would be a mistake—at least right now.”

Annika hit her fist against her open palm. “I knew there was more to this than just a case of nerves!” Even though Ruth’s statement might upset and confuse her mother and father, not to mention Richard Thexton, Annika felt relieved for the first time in days. Then she turned to Ruth again, one question still on her mind. “If you knew that, Auntie, how could you let things go this far?”

“As I said, your letters always arrived late. The last one reached me in London and I immediately packed up and left, meaning to send a telegram to you first, but...” Ruth looked sheepish as she shrugged. “I’m not infallible. I wanted to see how things stood between you and Richard. I had hoped that by now, everything might have worked itself out. You can’t imagine how I felt when I arrived just now to a house full of wedding guests.”

“If I hadn’t said anything, would you have let this wedding go on?”

“At this point, if you had not voiced your own doubt, I would have let the wedding proceed. It’s not my place to interfere in people’s lives, Annika. I just read the stars, I don’t like to direct the outcome.”

Suddenly, another knock, this one more determined, rang out. They both turned toward the door at once.

From the other side of the door, Analisa called out, using the familiar nickname reserved for family. “Annemeke?
Wat is er aan de hand?
What is going on? Everyone is waiting for you downstairs. Are you sick?”

Annika shook her head. “No, Mama. Not sick. I just had to talk to Auntie Ruth for a minute.”

Analisa came into the room and looked at both of them carefully. Analisa’s unlined forehead wrinkled when she frowned. “What is it, Annika? Are you afraid of what is to come tonight? Are you afraid of Richard?” Analisa’s voice held such a note of tension and concern that Annika could no longer ignore her. She put an arm about her mother’s shoulders, glanced quickly at Ruth and then back to Analisa.

“No, Mama. I’m not afraid. It’s just that... I still have so many questions about life. There is so much I have not done yet. So many places I wanted to see before I married, so many things I wanted to do. I’m twenty, Mama, and all I know of life is what you and Papa have shown me.” Annika was surprised by the look of fear that shadowed her mother’s blue eyes.

“What is there to do that you cannot do it with Richard?” Analisa asked her.

“That’s not what I meant,” Annika protested, but somehow knew that her mother would not understand.

Analisa reminded her daughter, “You have your education. If you still want to be a teacher, Richard will let you.”

Annika hated the thought that she would have to worry about any man
letting
her do something. “I know, but it’s not that, either.”

Annika steeled herself for the coming scene and then sighed. “Sit down, Mama.” She indicated the tufted chair near the window. Annika carefully lifted her train, walked over to the bed, and gingerly sat down.

“I think I’ll just leave you two alone,” Ruth said, and tiptoed toward the door.

“Please stay, Aunt Ruth,” Annika begged, then stared back at Analisa for a moment. Her Dutch mother was always a vision of beauty and composure, even when she was working with Cook in the kitchen and managed to wind up with flour on her nose and wisps of hair escaping the neat bun atop her head. Today was no exception. Like Annika, Analisa’s dress was another Worth original, this one of sky blue silk taffeta. Ruffles gently graced the stylish crisscross bodice. Analisa had golden hair of a far lighter shade than Annika’s own. Today it was styled in an elegant twist. Their eyes were the same rich, cornflower blue. Annika had inherited her mother’s features and stature, but from her half-Sioux father, Caleb, had come the dark honey-gold skin tones that enhanced her light hair and eyes by giving her an exotic, earthy glow.

Nervous, Annika toyed with her gloves until she worked them off and tossed them aside. “Mama, you still love Papa passionately, don’t you?” It was really more of a statement than a question.

Analisa was visibly taken aback for a moment. Her feelings were clearly evident in her startled expression. Her cheeks flamed. “Passion? Why do you speak of such things, Annemeke?”

Again, Annika sighed and hesitated as if she had all the time in the world, as if there were not a crowd and a fiancé waiting for her downstairs. “It’s important to me. I can tell that you and Papa are still as wildly in love as you were when you first met.”

“It was not passion that brought us together; it was the measles.”

Annika laughed. “You’re always so literal. I think the way you met Papa was the most romantic tale I’ve ever heard.”

Analisa smiled a faraway smile as if she were looking back over the past twenty years. “It was always your favorite story.”

“And still is,” Annika added. “Papa rode into the yard of your sod house and got off his big black horse.”

“A horse as black as midnight. His name was Scorpio.”

“And then Papa walked up to the door...” Annika prodded.

“I was so scared,” Analisa went on, “I had taken
opa
’s gun from the wall and pointed it at the stranger’s heart.”

“Thank heavens you didn’t use great-grandfather’s gun to kill Papa.”

“Only because Caleb passed out before I could decide to do so.” Analisa laughed.

“Then you dragged him inside the house...”

Analisa nodded.
“Ja.
And then I saw that he had the measles. Many had been sick with it that winter, but not so sick as the Indians on the reservation to the north. Your Papa might have died.”

“But you nursed him back to health and he married you, adopted Kase, you two had me, and we all lived happily ever after.”

Analisa smiled wistfully and straightened the corsage at her daughter’s shoulder. “Which I wish for you, Annemeke, this happy ending, but this will never be if you do not soon go downstairs. Papa is trying to entertain the guests, but he will not be able to do so much longer. And poor Richard looks so worried. Will you come down now?”

Annika shook her head. “No, Mama. Not now that I’ve talked to Aunt Ruth and she told me what’s in the charts.”

For the first time her mother looked truly worried. “Charts?”

“Yes.”

“Annika, God is in charge of your life, not the stars.”

Ruth cleared her throat, bustled over to the bed, and quickly spread the pages she’d carried in with her around Annika, who bent to study them curiously even though the symbols were indecipherable to her.

“Now where are my glasses?” Ruth asked, patting her bosom.

“You have them on, Auntie,” Annika informed her gently.

“So I do.” Ruth lifted a page and wagged it beneath Annika’s nose.
“This
is what I was talking about earlier. Your stars are in the wrong positions for this marriage to work. The planet Jupiter is rising and Pluto—well, since you don’t understand I won’t go into Pluto. And then there’s Saturn. My goodness, let’s just say that getting married today would be one of the biggest mistakes of your life.”

“A moment please, Ruth.” Analisa stood up without trying to make sense out of the circles with their neat pie wedges drawn on the various pages.

“She asked my advice, Anja,” Ruth said.

“That’s true, Mama. I told Ruth I didn’t want to marry Richard before she told me the stars were all wrong.”

“Don’t want to marry him? But, Annika—”

A swift knock interrupted the women’s argument. The door swung open and Caleb Storm stuck head and shoulders around it and asked, “What’s going on? Are we having a wedding today or not?”

“Come in, Papa.” Annika smiled weakly. Her father had always treated her like a princess, so much so that ever since she could remember she had had everything her heart desired. She knew she had no need to fear his reaction to her decision, but she did wish she could have saved him the expense of the aborted wedding.

“So, what’s going on?” Caleb shoved his hands into his pockets.

She couldn’t help but feel proud each time she looked at him. Not only was he well educated, a lawyer and a former undercover agent for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, but also he was well connected in Washington, still fighting for Indian rights. Now, as she looked at her father, she smiled. At fifty, he looked ten years younger. A tall, striking man with waving coal black hair sprinkled with gray and startling blue eyes, his complexion, like her half brother Kase’s, was of a rich cinnamon hue. Today Caleb appeared quite dashing in his swallow-tailed coat and formal white shirt adorned with ruffles. An orange blossom
boutonnière
similar to the corsage on Annika’s shoulder, graced his lapel.

“Papa, what would you say if I told you I don’t want to marry Richard?”

Caleb exchanged a quick glance with Analisa before he asked, “What did your mother say?”

“Nothing yet. I’ve just now made up my mind for certain.”

Analisa, her face grave with worry, gave her husband a perplexed half smile. “She asks if we have still the passion for each other.”

Caleb’s cheeks colored with embarrassment. He bit back a smile and cleared his throat.

“You don’t even have to answer, Papa. I can see it with my own eyes whenever you look at Mama or she looks at you.” Annika stood up and began to pace the room, no easy task with her six-foot train trailing behind.

“Why is this passion so important now?” Analisa asked.

Forgetting the train, Annika spun around and nearly tripped. She righted herself and said, “Don’t you see?”

“No.” Analisa shook her head.

“Not a bit,” her father said.

“You’d best explain it, dear,” Ruth advised as she picked up Annika’s train and began to follow her around the room.

Annika attempted to put her feelings into words. “I want to share that same kind of passion with the man I marry and it’s just not there.”

“I thought you loved him,” Caleb said.

“I do. But it feels more like the way I love Kase and you and Mama and Auntie Ruth. Richard is more like a brother or a good friend. I don’t come alive when I see him, I don’t feel sparks fly when he kisses me, my heart doesn’t beat itself to ribbons when he walks into a room. After all, I’ve only known him six months.”

“He kisses you?” Analisa wanted to know.

“Anja,” Caleb said softly, “of course he kisses her.”

“And that is all, I hope,” Analisa said, looking Annika over carefully.

“Of course, Mama,” Annika assured her. “It’s just that Richard seems like a comfortable old shoe.”

“More like an expensive boot,” Ruth mumbled.

“Auntie Ruth’s arrival is a sign, Papa. I was uncertain, and now here she is telling me the stars are all wrong for this. That only confirms the way I have been feeling; it explains my doubt,” Annika told him.

Caleb paused, at a loss for words. He looked at his wife, who was waiting for him to utter sage words of advice. He glanced at Ruth, a hopeless romantic, who was watching Annika carefully, nodding agreement with her every word. Finally he turned to his daughter. “So you want to call off the wedding?”

Annika felt overwhelming relief just being able to admit as much to him. “I do. At least for now. I’d like to go to Wyoming and visit Kase and Rosa. By myself,” she added quickly when her mother started to speak. “I’ve never been any place by myself. Why, look at Aunt Ruth, she’s traveled the world alone.”

“Now, Annemeke—” Her mother looked truly frightened but Annika had no time to wonder why as she argued her case.

“Rosa invited me to visit when they were last here for Christmas. Maybe if I put some distance and time between Richard and me, then I might miss him so much that I’ll be dying to see him again. Maybe in a few months I’ll want to marry him so badly that I’ll be about to burst.”

“Maybe you’ll feel that missing passion,” Ruth added, her expression hopeful. “Six months from now your stars will align correctly for love and marriage, but until then, there’s only trial and tribulation in store.”

Annika was most concerned about Analisa. Her mother, whose face had drained of all color, had not said much at all. “Mama? What are you thinking?”

As if struggling to find her voice, Analisa swallowed and said softly, “It is your decision. Of course, you must not marry if you are not ready, but Annika, I think that perhaps you are acting a little bit crazy.” She cast a frustrated glance at Ruth. “You know nothing of life except what you have lived here in Boston. You have been sheltered, spoiled by all of us.”