After the ball

The days following the ball there was a shift in the household. People came to Danford Hall to call on the family and when Kathryn made her calls she invited Emmy to come with her not Julia. Emmy found most of the visits to be mind dulling and repetitive. She heard the same news, the same gossip or reports from each of the women they called on. The only calls Emmy found interesting were the ones Kathryn did for the church, it was these calls Kathryn and Emmy would visit the poor or the invalid. Here Emmy felt useful and the conversation were not mindlessly repetitive. But nothing replaced the pleasure Emmy gained from her quiet times in the woods.

            Emmy had tried to be more lady like but the woods still called to her so she would slip out before the house rose and then be back at breakfast with every hair in the right place and dressed without a spot of dirt. She thought no one was the wiser but little did she know one morning Caleb James woke up from the restless night and watched Emmy creep out into the woods.
 

            "Hello Miss Emmy," Caleb called up to Emmy who was sitting on the lowest branch of the tree she always hid in.

            ”How did you know I was here?"

            "I saw you sneak out yesterday and today I followed you."

            "Oh Mr. James please don't tell the household."

            "Why not?"

            "I would be mortified if they found out."

            "Mortified?"

            "Yes so you must not tell them."

            "Why don't you come down so we can go for a walk or at least not yell and perhaps wake the house."

            "All right I'll come down."

            When Emmy was down from the tree Caleb asked. "Now what were you doing in that tree? and why can't I tell anyone?"

            "I am sorry Mr. James I guess I still have childish ways in me."

            "You need not apologize to me. I think that is endearing."

            "Thank you Mr. James but I don't think your sister or my sister would agree."

            "Why do you say that?"

            "Both of them want me to grow up or at last act more grown up.  I think they would see it as childish to climb trees or wade in creeks and get all muddy."

            "Well then Miss. Emmy it will be our little secret."

            "Thank you."

            "Now Miss Emmy, we should probably get back before anyone notices. I would hate to ruin your reputation by having you seen a lone with a man."

            "But we have walked alone before."

            "You had not been presented yet, now you have countless men seeking after your hand."

            "You are kind Mr. James but I doubt I will have countless men seeking after my hand."

            "You had a line of men wanting to dance with you."

            "Yes but that was one night, I can hardly believe any of them will turn into a suitor."

            "Why?"

            Emmy couldn't tell him they were penniless so thought of something quick. "Mother, would not allow me to court anyone till Laurel was married or at least engaged."

            "That is very traditional."

            "My mother is very traditional. We had all hoped she would be engaged soon but we have heard nothing from Mr. Foster since he left," she didn't mean to say the name but it slipped."

            "Mr. Foster?"

            "Oh Mr. James, you cannot tell anyone I said the name. Laurel would slaughter me for speaking about it."

            "Two secrets in one day," Caleb smiled. "But Mr. Foster? A Mr. Ethan Foster?"

            "Yes. Do you know him?"

            "By name only. But I cannot believe he would propose to your sister."

            "Why not?" Emmy said in an angry huff.

            "Well the Mr. Foster I know, and it could be a different Mr. Foster is already engaged."

            "What?"

            "Yes, to a Sally Lawrence."

            "How do you know?"

            "Like I said it could be another Mr. Foster but two years ago I wanted to court a Miss. Lawrence. I had walked her home from church and once called on her but she told me then and there that she had been engaged for almost a year to a Mr. Ethan Foster. She apologized profusely but she begged me to swear to keep it private."

            "Yes it must be another Mr. Foster. The Mr. Foster I know is too stand up to be engaged to one girl and act the way he acted with my sister. Besides the Mr. Foster I know lives in Boston and you live in New York."

            "You are right, I was wrong to suggest it was the same guy. I just want to protect you and your sisters."

            "That is kind of you. But you must promise me Mr. James that you will not tell my sister or anyone I told you about Mr. Foster."

            "Your secret is safe with me."

            Even  though Caleb changed topics Emmy still couldn’t get the thought of Ethan Foster being engaged to someone else. How could it be so? He was certainly in love with Laurel, and Laurel was certainly in love with him, though she never speaks of him. Ethan Foster was too upstanding to be a man who would be engaged to one woman and fall in love with another, he would never allow himself to be scandalized in such a way.

            “My goodness Miss Emmy you look pale. Is everything all right?” Caleb asked as they were half way to the house.
            “A sudden headache, I guess  lack of breakfast.”
            “Ah yes that will do it. Well lets not make this walk any longer, I will show you home. We will sneak in the back grab a quick bite before you put on your clean and proper clothes.”
            “Thank you Mr. James.”

            He offered her his arm in case she got light headed from lack of food.

            “I will miss these woods,” Caleb said as they crossed over between the woods and the landscape gardens
            “What do you mean?”
            “I have to go back to New York.”
            “What? When?”
            “Well not today but soon, maybe in a fortnight?”
            “I thought you were going to spend the summer here?”
            “I thought so too but I have to get back to work. My business partner is pleading with me to be back by the end of the week.”
            “But you won’t leave before the Melbourne picnic.”
            “I shall try to stay as long as I can?”
            “Oh you must stay.”
            “Miss Emmy, are you going to miss me when I am gone?”
            “Of course I am. You have brought such life back into this house.”
            “And you have brought such life back into my world. I will miss you even more than these woods. When I go back to New York it will be only business and boring dinners and parties. I shall think of you sitting in these woods playing out some big adventure.”
            “I am sure the city will amuse you plenty. I wish I could leave these woods and not play out a big adventure but actually have one.”
            “You should come to New York, you will have a fabulous time. I will show you off to all the socialites and you can put them in their place for having their noses in the air.”
            “I doubt my mother would let me go to New York by myself and we can’t convince Laurel to go to Boston for a month. I doubt she would go to New York with me.”
            “You could always run away. We could have a smashing time.”
            “Run away?” Emmy was taken aback by the suggestion.
            “I was only joking Miss Emmy. I wouldn’t think of you actually running away. I don’t know if I could look at you if you ran away. Think of the worry and the brokenness your mother would feel knowing you had run away. I would not encourage you to cause that on such a sweet woman like your mother.”
            “Oh Mr. James, how silly of me to think you were being serious. Imagine us running away and eloping it would be something out of a novel, it would probably ruin both our reputations and break my mother's heart.”
            “Yes, true heroines must be good at all times. I see grandness for you Miss Emmy and I will not have a silly idea of elopement ruining that,” Caleb smiled. It was a smile half way between sweet and trickery.

            Emmy was so wrapped up in Caleb she only saw the sweetness behind the smile. The truth is Caleb had never suggested the elopement part of the runaway plan it was all in Emmy’s imagination. But Emmy thought when he said she could run away, that he meant they could run away together and elope and she saw it as sort of  a marriage proposal not just a trickery ideal. “Imagine me engaged at sixteen, mother will be over the moon, and she will have to agree to it, Mr. James is far better than any other prospects I could have.”

            What was to happen later Emmy would know nothing about till months later. That night after dinner Julia watched Caleb escape into the library alone. Ever since the ball Caleb and Emmy had been inseparable. Julia even over heard Laurel getting made at Emmy for them sneaking off into the gardens alone before breakfast. To Julia it now seemed as if nothing would come between Emmy and Caleb and that vexed Julia more than anything to see her penniless cousin making such a good match, a match she had wanted. Julia knew the only thing she could do was throw herself at Caleb and she would suffer whatever consequence mother would throw at her.

            “Hello Mr. James,” she said softly.

            He quickly turned around “Oh Miss Danford, I wasn’t expecting anyone to follow me in here.”
            “Are you okay? You seemed quiet at dinner but I saw the looks you and my cousin were sharing as if you guys shared a secret.”
            “You noticed that?”
            “Well Emmy has been acting odd all day. I couldn’t help but keep a close eye on her. But you admit you guys share a secret."

            "I didn't say that. But yes I guess you could say we share a secret."

            "You're engaged? I knew it! How could you engage yourself to that child."

            "Engaged? No. Why do you think we are engaged."

            "All day Emmy has been acting giddy. Overly happy like someone love struck. Then you and her sharing those looks at dinner it only seemed logical you guys were engaged. Ever since the ball you have been inseparable."

            "Well I guess in honesty she thinks I suggested elopement I guess in that way we are engaged."

            "Elopement!"

            Caleb hushed her. "I joked she could run away to New York and I guess she thought I meant in elopement. It is kind of flattering how much she is in love with me."

            "You can't be serious Mr. James."

            "I am besides Miss Danford what would be so wrong with me engaging myself to your cousin. I have never met any woman like her."

            "That’s just it, she is not a woman she is still a child."

            "She is hardly a child. True she is not a woman all the way but I find that refreshing. She doesn't know how to act properly all her words and thoughts are not perfectly played out like a chess game."

            "Are you serious, Mr. James? You sound like a man in love."

            "You sound concerned. Well rest easy, I am not in love."

            "Good," Julia heaved a sigh.

            "You never answered my question what would be so wrong with me to your cousin?"

            "I could not bear to see a man deceived in such a way."

            "Deceived?"

            "My cousins are penniless. They are charity."

            "What do you mean?"

            "You don't know. Your love didn't tell you. The Cromwell girls are penniless. They have been since the day my aunt married a Mr. Jefferson Cromwell. He was going to be a lawyer but his father's publishing business needed help but it just tanked. He left his girls ruined being nothing but a charity case that my Grandmother and father have been covering up for the last eight years. Their only hope is a well marriage, everyone thought it was Laurel's burden to carry but when you started showing attention to Emmy, they all started whispering that you could be the one to relieve them from their rotten fate."

            "I think you have said too much," he had a mix tone of coldness and disappointed.

            "It is true all of it."

            "Well rest assure Miss Danford. I am not in love with Miss Emmy, I am not in love with any one," now he sounded a little sad.