Moonlight on the Millpond (30 page)

Mrs. Nunley nodded, but secretly she didn't agree. She felt that talking about something could be a great help, and in her opinion was the only real help. For now, however, she let the matter drop. The sadness in Maddie's eyes was almost too much for her, but she wouldn't press her, not on any subject. Much as she wanted Maddie to join them on the voyage and to talk to her about her pain, she was wise enough to know when to listen to the younger woman's wishes.

Tucker Mills

“How are you, Doyle?” Doc MacKay stopped in at the store to ask. “I see you up and around and assume you're doing well.”

“I am feeling well, thank you.”

“Did you hear about Woody?”

“Yes,” Doyle replied, his voice sober.

“I got the news this morning but haven't heard details on the funeral.”

“It's this afternoon,” Doyle answered. The townspeople expected the general store owner to be the keeper of important information.

Doc MacKay nodded, his mind thoughtful. He'd known Woody for years, but they'd never had a deep discussion of any kind. He knew this day was coming and now wondered how Jace would deal with it. Tucker Mills' doctor almost mentioned that younger man but then remembered the rumors he'd heard about why Maddie had returned to Boston.

Beyond asking how Cathy was doing, he didn't linger in the store but took himself off, making a mental note to be at the funeral in a few hours.

Jace could hardly believe what he was seeing. The coffin was done; Woody's body had been prepared and wrapped in a white shroud; and he was lying in the parlor. Jace's eyes went around that room. How many nights had they sat by the fire in this room in companionable silence or with Woody explaining some aspect of the farm or mill to Jace? And now it was over. Jace could barely take it in. He thought he was prepared for this time but now knew he wasn't.

Yesterday morning Woody had not gotten up. The three of them had been through this several times—Jace arriving in the kitchen to find Clara on her own, and then the two of them heading up to check on him only to learn that he just needed more rest or that his chest hurt.

Yesterday had been different. Yesterday Woody had not answered them or moved. And for the first time since Jace had known her, Clara cried. Her apron had come to her face, and she had sobbed like a child. She had cried the way Jace wanted to, feeling suddenly bereft and utterly alone.

But when the tears were done, she set to work. Doing as he was told, Jace helped Clara prepare the body. He'd never been involved in something like that before, and even now couldn't repeat what happened. Everything was in a fog, a fog of unreality that this man, this uncle who had taken him in, was gone.

And then word had gone out. Clara had been the one to walk to the neighbor's and ask them to tell Mr. Sullins. Clara told Jace that Mr. Sullins would spread the news and come and read over the body. Jace didn't know what he would have done without her. He wanted to cry when he looked at her, but just having her nearby was a comfort.

Amid these musings, the first mourners began to arrive. Jace and Clara sat stiffly side by side in chairs to the right of the coffin as the townsfolk filed through the house. His world became almost artificial. Folks approached and recited rehearsed words to him. Jace answered them, but he remembered little of it. And then Mr. Sullins was speaking, and Jace had to fight away Maddie's questions concerning death and heaven.

Before Jace was ready, the coffin was being loaded into the back of a wagon, and they all followed the wagon to the cemetery. Mr. Sullins said a few more words but kept it mercifully brief. As the grave was being filled in, folks began to depart, stopping to see Jace and Clara on their way. To his utter amazement, some of the last ones were the Shephards.

“I'm surprised to see you here,” Jace said, and then wished he could take it back.

“We considered Woody a friend, Jace,” Doyle told him, his tone quiet but also quite formal.

Jace nodded, unable to miss the fact that Cathy would not even look at him.

“How's Maddie?” Jace asked, not sure where this had come from.

“Now is a fine time to wonder that,” Cathy said. She'd spoken with no heat, but still she turned on her heel and left the men.

Doyle looked at Jace with sadness, but he wasn't ready to let him back into his life.

“Goodbye, Jace,” was all Doyle said, slowly moving after his wife.

Jace stared after them, asking himself not for the first time how things could have gone so wrong. They had been his friends. Had Maddie's crimes really been so bad that he had to lose everything?

“Come on, Jace,” Clara urged him, having heard the exchange. She wasn't angry with the Shephards for having their say, but she was angry that they chose this day to say it.

She took Jace home and tried to get him to eat, but Jace was interested in only one thing: drink. By evening he was asleep in the chair by the fire, having consumed enough alcohol to blur the pain.

Jace did not remember to write Eden for several days. He knew he should have thought of that immediately but made up for lost time by walking the letter to town as soon as it was done. Having done this, he was not surprised to see her the weekend after she should have received it.

He had enough to do that he'd not been wallowing in self-pity for days, and in truth was glad for her company. He was missing Woody something awful, and having Eden around for the weekend suited him quite well. What he hadn't expected was the amount of planning Eden had been doing since his letter arrived. She waited to speak of it to Jace until Sunday afternoon when Clara was at home and they had the house to themselves.

“I've been thinking about moving to Tucker Mills,” she began.

Jace looked up from his plate to find her watching him.

“Sell the boardinghouse?” he asked.

“Yes. I think it would work.”

“You like Tucker Mills that much?”

“I do like it, yes,” Eden answered, trying to gauge what he thought.

“So would you try to find a house in town to set up as a boardinghouse, or build one?”

For a moment his question stunned her. It took a moment for her to see the joke and laugh a little.

“I would live here with you,” she finally said, a pleased smile on her face.

“No, you wouldn't.”

“Of course I would. Don't be silly, Jace.”

Jace sat back, his food forgotten for the moment.

“No, Eden.” Jace's voice was more than serious. “You're not living here.”

“Why ever not?”

“Because you're not,” Jace said, picking up his fork. In his mind, that was the end of it.

“I want an answer.”

“I gave you one.”

“Jace Randall, I think you owe me an explanation.”

“Fine,” Jace agreed. “Eden, you're not living here because I don't want you to.”

Eden was stunned. This was his idea of an explanation? She decided that he was deliberately being rude and would call him on it.

“What's the matter with you?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Only that you're not happy unless you're in my business and my life. Why can't you be happy with your own life in Pine River, or even Tucker Mills, but not in this house?” Jace stared at her, waiting.

Eden couldn't speak. To deny what he said would be a bald-faced lie, and Jace would know it. She had never been forced to answer that question before, not to herself or anyone else, and she found her tongue strangely quiet.

“I think you need more time to think about it,” Eden said at last.

“Don't you try that with me, Eden.” Jace was angry now, hating the guilt she could so easily lay at his door. “When you get on that train tomorrow, you remind yourself that you are not welcome to live here with me. Don't go back to Pine River and persuade yourself that I said otherwise. If you up and sell and try to move in here, you'll find yourself without a home.”

Eden was speechless. Jace's eyes had been steely. She knew he would not bend on this issue.

Not surprisingly, little was said the rest of the day. And in the morning, Eden was still so hurt that she told Jace she would walk to the train station. She was even more hurt when he didn't argue with her.

The shaking began again as soon as she found her seat on the train. It was unsettling and familiar all at the same time. As the train pulled away, Eden felt almost desperate to jump off and somehow turn back the hands of time.

I've gotten everything I wanted. I chased Maddie Shephard away,
and Jace doesn't even blame me. Woody is gone and no longer
standing in my way. But it wasn't them. Jace really wanted this
change, and not because he was under the influence of his uncle or
some woman.

This realization for Eden was almost more than she could take. She nearly broke down on the spot. Jace's rejection of her and her need to control him was so complete that she wanted to sob.

And she did sob, completely losing control, but she waited until she was back in Pine River. She took a long walk in the woods and cried for the first time in years, knowing she was completely alone.

Fourteen

“Listen to this,” Doyle said when Cathy came to the store to bring his dinner. He'd just opened a letter from Maddie and now pulled Cathy close to read it to her.

“ ‘I'm not missing the Nunleys just yet. The staff is turning the house out, cleaning everything in sight, and I'm categorizing all of the missus' collections. It keeps my days very full. And the treasures I've found!—things that Mrs. Nunley has probably forgotten she owns.'

“ ‘I'll probably do Mr. Nunley's books next and then start on the missus' letters. She wrote and asked me to do this, and that's what got me started on the collections. I thought I would be lonely, but the days are rushing by, and I look forward to all I'll get done before they arrive back.' ”