The Story of Annabelle Ray | 4,638 words
It vexed the good people of Auburndale for a good many years that Annabelle Ray had been right all along.
For months in the small coastal town of Auburndale, the local beauty Annabelle Ray had been wooed. That in itself was nothing new. Annabelle was, after all, the only daughter of Thomas Ray, the wealthiest farmer in Auburndale. They owned all the land from the Easton brook to Matthew Hodgeson's fields, as well as a sizable barn, and a milking operation. Mrs. Leslie Ray's cheeses and butter was famed and prized in their small corner of Prince Edward Island. And their child, Annabelle, was the crowning glory in this picture of pastoral success.
Now, for a picture of Annabelle Ray, at the tender age of sixteen already the belle of the town: a slim face, and a cream-of-roses complexion, with a decidedly set chin, arch brows and a pair of frank blue-grey eyes. Her nose was delicate, and her mouth coral-colored. She often had a serious, thoughtful look on her face, but was always ready with a merry laugh. Her sun-tinted gold hair fell in curls to the small of her back, when it was loosened, and her slim figure, crossing her father's fields from barn to home at sunset, cut a beguiling silhouette for all the day laborers on Thomas Ray's farm to gaze at. Annabelle Ray was widely regarded as being beautiful, to be sure. Yet Annabelle also happily possessed some features that are not sung of in ballads and verses but nonetheless make the homeliest features a vision of beauty, such as a gentle touch, a generous heart and as her mother often thanked the heavens, a heap of common sense.
Annabelle Ray was indeed the belle of Auburndale, and loads of suitors came from Auburndale proper and the surrounding towns to court the only daughter of the richest farmer for miles. Swooning youths over Annabelle's beauty and the substantial wealth of her father's farms was nothing new. No, the novelty in this wooing lay in the courter himself.
Preston Payne was a newcomer to the town of Auburndale. Hardly two weeks had passed since he arrived in town ere he became the veritable darling of Auburndale. The citizens of Auburndale, being neither easily persuaded, nor difficult to procure the affections thereof, had welcomed into its bosom this newcomer with much delight, for he was the long-lost nephew of Mrs. Gena Payne, whose wealth rivaled that of Thomas Ray. Mrs. Payne lived in town in a large mansion; her wealth had come from her late husband, who had made a fortune in railroads out west. Her brother Jeffrey, whom she had been estranged from, died recently, and on his deathbed, sent to her the keeping of his only son, Preston. For the people of Auburndale, Preston Payne had enough to commend him on his own merits, without being the ward and heir of Mrs. Payne, but the additional wealth, like the dowry Annabelle Ray was to receive one day, only sweetened the deal for the girls of Auburndale. Preston was a tall young man, nearly twenty-two years of age, with a mop of dark brown hair and earnest blue eyes that played havoc with all the girls, save Annabelle Ray. His speech was cultured, as he had been raised in Toronto by his father, and he knew a smattering of Latin and Greek phrases, having been sent to one of the best private schools. His manners and his upbringing endeared him instantly to the citizens of Auburndale. Girls swooned over his good looks, older men and women murmured over his unfailing courtesy and manners, and even the local minister was impressed by his theological knowledge. He was widely regarded as an excellent prospect by scheming mothers and plotting girls, and there were no shortage of partners for him at the evening dances hosted by one family or another.
So it became the talk of the town when Preston Payne unmistakably set his cap for Annabelle Ray, and pursued her with an ardency that deterred her regular suitors. The gossips and the matrons of the town sighed with the romance of the situation: the loveliest girl for miles around, with all the wealth that land could grant, and the handsomest young man, heir to Mrs. Payne's town fortune! They would make a grand match, her fair head beside his dark figure, and they did cut an elegant figure on the floor when they danced together. All other young men who came to the Ray farm had dropped their regular visits as soon as they had heard that Preston Payne had presented himself for her hand, shaking their head in hopelessness; all save one young man.
Though he was only one of two suitors, Preston Payne was mystified to find himself treated scarcely differently than the penniless Edward Taylor, the adopted son of Matthew Hodgeson, who lived next door. No one who heard of it could fault Annabelle's ways - she was a true lady, and politely but firmly, she insisted she could receive his evening calls only once a week, with one after another suspiciously convenient yet faultless excuses: no, she was very apologetic, but the cows simply had to be milked that evening, and Mrs. Leslie Ray was in with a headache. And not tonight either, she had promised to meet her cousin in town at the fair. And tomorrow night, her father would need her assistance with the planting of the apple seedlings for next spring, Mr. Payne. She was very sorry indeed. Without ruffling any feathers but clearly without rhyme or reason, Annabelle Ray turned Preston Payne away from her doorstep four nights out of five, whereas any other girl in Auburndale would have welcomed his attention every night it was offered.
Preston Payne was as mystified as the next resident of Auburndale as to why the local belle would scarcely give him a second look - after all, he was the newly celebrated nephew of Mrs. Gena Payne herself, and she needn't attempt to look down on him for his education, as she had never gone to the Queen's Academy in Charlottetown herself either, even if she did have music lessons. Why, she entertained almost every other night that luckless Edward Taylor!
In fact, on one such night, when Preston Payne had been turned away yet again, Edward Taylor was making his way across the fields from his adopted father's cottage to the house of Thomas Ray, gazing at the stars and thinking of Annabelle.
Edward was what the people of Auburndale called a bit queer. He was nineteen years of age, and in short, everything that Preston Payne was not: he had never had another day of schooling after he turned twelve, and couldn't do arithmetic; he had no living relatives to speak of, having been adopted by Matthew Hodgeson's late wife Lilith when they were both young, much less a fortune unless you counted the woods that Matthew's property shared with Thomas Ray.; and whenever you met him on the road, he tipped his hat to you but never did he say a word, as he was likely the shyest person you could find in Auburndale. This was the opinion held of Edward Taylor by the general populace in Auburndale. But Annabelle Ray held a different opinion, as likewise would anyone who ever took the time of day to talk to him.
Edward was in fact a dreamer, as some discovered. That evening, as he gazed at the stars wistfully with his hazel eyes, he was dreaming of a book he had read that evening. Though Edward had stopped his schooling at twelve to assist Matthew, with him not having much money to hire laborers for his fieldwork, he had never lost a love for learning that the schoolteacher in Auburndale had instilled in him. When Matthew could afford it, he brought books in town, and gave them to Edward, who drank up the knowledge as a parched field drinks in the rains. He also borrowed them from Annabelle, who met him when they were but children. In her childhood, Annabelle had not been as celebrated a beauty. She was a somewhat sickly child, and awkward to behold, all elbows and sharp knees. Her large blue-grey eyes seemed too hungry for a girl of six, and her hair, always hidden under a sunbonnet, did not have the sun-burnished tint that it attained in her maidenhood. When she first went to school, she was teased awfully by the boys who would one day become her suitors, and the other girls, mindful and envious of this odd interloper from the Rays into their midst who attracted so much teasing from the boys, joined in the ruckus. The only one who took her side was an oddly tall and quiet boy of nine, whose eager hazel eyes shone while he was quiet, and walked home with her to keep the other boys from heckling her, as his home bordered her family's fields.
Edward and Annabelle were friends from the start. Her frankness and honesty won Edward's heart from the very beginning, and Edward's gentle and thoughtful ways endeared him to Annabelle, who saw him as her truest friend. The two spent many a walk home from school together as they grew up, until Edward was kept home from school to help his father in the fields. Even then they continued to visit one another, and were the best of friends, whether they chattered about the apple orchard that Thomas Ray had been planning to plant for a good four years, or they were simply quietly laying in the fields between their father's properties, stargazing. As the years went by, the sharpness disappeared from Annabelle's frame, and her long curls, no longer hidden behind the sunbonnets of youth, took on tints of gold. When she donned long skirts, and put her hair up, at the age of fourteen, the boys and the men of Auburndale took notice, and overnight, seemingly, the young daughter of Thomas Ray bloomed into a maid.
Edward was among those who took note, though he did not vocalise it, nor did he press his point when he visited the Ray farm like many young men did. Had he been asked for his ideal of the perfect woman, her looks and virtues would have answered point to point with Annabelle's. Yet Edward was perfectly aware of his own situation and livelihood. Matthew Hodgeson would not live for another five years, and when he died, the responsibility of running the farm would be on his shoulders. Though he would have his own home and possess a piece of land, asking Annabelle for her hand was beyond imagining, for it would be like asking a princess of a grand kingdom to deign to marry a poor farmhand of a single acre.
However, at this moment, Edward was thinking more of the beauties of Auburndale and Annabelle Ray. Auburndale itself was situated on the eastern coast of Prince Edward Island, a mere mile away from the seashore. It had rich, fertile, rolling fields like any other town, but Edward loved its wide roads of red dirt, and the gold dunes that descended to the grey-blue waves that crashed up on the shore. Annabelle and he had spent many a rollicking afternoon on those dunes, gazing out at the horizon where the limitless ocean melded seamlessly into the misty cloudy sky. They often stayed there, sometimes in idle chatter, sometimes in silence, until the sun sank low into the clouds, gilding them gold and painting them crimson.
Annabelle was sitting on the porch of the Ray farm, watching Edward's figure, silhouetted against the dusky sky as he made his way through the fields to her home. At the sight of his familiar outline, her heart gave a queer little beat, and she smiled, for a familiar reason and a new reason. For years, Annabelle thought the world of the strange but gentle boy who befriended her when no one else would, and now, when she was nearly a woman, she saw his fortitude and kindness in a different light, in a way that brought a blush to her white maiden cheeks. She dare not say anything of the hope that slowly bloomed in her heart, as her parents were well meaning but also realistic P.E.I. farmers who did not think their only child and heir should be marrying adopted children of upstart farmers. Who was talking about marrying, anyway? Edward would scarce take a second look at her. Though Annabelle was aware she had a number of suitors, the ornate old mirror beside the grandfather clock in the parlor still reflected for her the awkward and stilted child of six, with sharp elbows and knees, and painfully hungry grey eyes, framed by straw-like hair. She was aware that Preston Payne, the most celebrated newcomer in Auburndale, was setting his cap for her with an unmistakable earnestness, but in her heart of hearts, not knowing exactly why, Annabelle felt that Preston cast a more favorable eye on her father's fields than on any of her virtues.
All unpleasant thoughts about Preston were dashed away when Edward approached the porch of the farm, and took Annabelle's hand as he had done many an evening when he came visiting, and greeted her with a smile of old. To him, Annabelle had never looked more enchanting, her golden hair bound in a braided bun at the nape of her neck, and her lithe form in a simple dress of white muslin. Her shy grey eyes peeped up at him through enchanting lashes, and he felt a lump in his throat when he greeted her.
Clearing his throat, he said, "Good evening, Annabelle. I brought this for you." He extended forward the book he held in his hands, something he had saved for to present to her.
Annabelle smiled impulsively and received her present from him with glee, looking up and meeting his eyes to thank him. For her part, Annabelle felt there was something new in Edward's gaze that she had dared not hope was ever there, and when their fingers brushed each other during the exchange, a maidenly blush rose to stain her cheeks.
"Thank you, Edward. That was kind." She managed to say.
For a moment, between the two old friends, there was something new and dangerously exciting. But then Edward sat down, and Annabelle's father, Tom Ray, came out before they could speak to greet Edward, for he liked the young man well enough, and Annabelle excused herself to bring him refreshments.
The rest of the evening proceeded very well as usual, and towards the end of the evening, Tom left the two young people behind on the porch. In the now sweet summer darkness, Edward watched the fireflies dance about the porch, and the beguiling scent of lilacs floated about them. Above them, the clear night sky boasted of stars and the slim silver crescent of a new moon shone through the trees, painting the leaves pale.
At a lull in the conversation, Annabelle turned her face towards the moon, and dreamily said, "What a beautiful night, Edward!" Edward was a lover of nature, and revered the beauty of sky, moon, earth and sea as much as Annabelle did, but at that moment, he had no eyes for anyone but the golden-haired creature who sat in the other chair on the porch. There was nothing for it now; he must tell her.
"Annabelle." Edward said. At the sound of his voice, with a strange note of urgency in it, Annabelle turned, her moonlight reverie broken.
"What is it, Edward?"
"Annabelle, I must leave for a month. Matthew has finally sold his cattle." Though small, the Hodgeson acres hosted some of the best cattle in P.E.I., and now, as Edward explained, he had managed to sell it to a man in Digby, Nova Scotia, and Matthew trusted no one but Edward to oversee their journey to the other tip of Nova Scotia. It would be a month-long journey, from the day of his leaving to his return. At his words, Annabelle felt a heavy weight in her stomach, as though something important had gone awry, but she could not name it. Instead, her gaze fell from his face, until sensing her distress, he picked up her hand again.
"Don't worry – the moon will wax and wane before you know it, and I will be back on P.E. Island soon. You will hardly miss me." Edward said earnestly, but in the pale moonlight, the strange look on Annabelle's face and her silence prompted him to add one last thought.
"Just wait for me, Annabelle." His voice sounded even strange to his ears, but her grey eyes brightened, and her hand squeezed his in response. When they parted, Edward started off across the fields with a lightness in his step that he had not felt for months, and Annabelle watched at the porch until his figure disappeared into the dark. Then she went to bed, and slept the sweet dream of a maiden promised.
The next week, Edward was off with the cattle of Matthew Hodgeson, and Annabelle bid him goodbye with an unmistakable look in her eyes. That evening, hearing of the departure of his other suitor, Preston Payne visited the Ray farm again in hopes of pressing his case. Annabelle received him cordially enough, and he sat down to court her in earnest, his dark blue eyes sparkling. Though she answered him without much enthusiasm, Preston nevertheless chose a lull in the conversation to ask for her hand, rather sure of himself. After all, Edward Taylor had finally gone away, and whom else would Annabelle marry, anyhow, if not him?
To his dismay, she firmly refused him, without giving a concrete answer. Her tone was nothing but apologetic and polite, but her grey eyes were distant and cool. Preston Payne swallowed his pride, bid her goodnight, and when he had gotten home, he decided that Annabelle Ray needed to learn a lesson.
With the help of his aunt, he spread it about through other sources – a milkmaid here, a cousin there – that Annabelle had turned down his offer of marriage. If his gentle wooing would not do it, then perhaps someone else would make her see the light. The entire village knew about it before two days had passed, and Annabelle found not a few reprimands, discreet and indiscreet alike, from the villagers of Auburndale, who unanimously thought she was a fool. Preston Payne, she was counseled, was a very smart and up-and-coming young man, whom she would do well to marry. Preston Payne was the most charming and intelligent fellow of her age to be found on this side of P.E.I. Preston Payne had money that even the only child of Thomas and Leslie Ray would envy. Preston Payne, Annabelle said wrathfully at dinner one evening, could apparently sing down the moon. She received plenty of advice from her fellow villagers, none of which was asked for or appreciated, but she turned them all away politely and firmly.
Preston Payne was often heard to declare that he would continue his efforts to win Annabelle's affection, though he danced merrily enough with the other girls at the summer dances, all of them more than eager to take Annabelle Ray's place. Annabelle heard of this and vexed with Preston, became more determined more than ever to rebuff his further advances. Only one person had bothered to chance a guess at why Annabelle had turned down Preston Payne. One evening, Leslie Ray entered her daughter's bedroom after yet another well-meaning caller had left, and found her daughter in near-tears.
"Anna, are you upset about what Mrs. Boulter came to say?" Leslie Ray asked, knowing full well that her daughter was. Annabelle composed herself, hearing her mother's voice, and turned to answer truthfully.
"Yes, mama. Everyone wants me to marry Preston Payne. And I don't want to." She shook her head.
Leslie Ray regarded her daughter with a mixture of pride and apprehension. Though she did not very much understand Annabelle's refusal, she knew that her daughter was a strong, smart girl who would be a woman would govern with common sense and wise decisions. Gently, she took her only child into her arms, and gave her a kiss on the forehead.
"Anna, dearest, do you love someone else?" At her question, Annabelle stiffened momentarily in her mother's arms, but fearing her response, said nothing. Her silence was all the answer Leslie Ray needed, and with a gentle squeeze of her daughter's hand and a little sigh, she left the room.
Annabelle went to sleep that night more calm and content than any night in the past week or any night in the month to come, soothed by her mother's unconditional love and unquestioning acceptance. It was the last good memory she was to have of their family together.
Two days later, news came to Auburndale of the failing of the Birchwood Bank, which had wiped out the lifetime savings of several Auburndale residents, one of them Thomas Ray. The news was taken very badly by Auburndale on the whole, as many had a small stake in the bank, but Thomas Ray, already harrowed by the work in the early planting season, died of a heart attack when he heard of it. In the following week, Leslie Ray took ill very seriously, and was laid to bed. Annabelle would look back upon that month as the most horrible month of her life. Beset on all sides by her mother's illness, her father's death and the failure of their bank, Annabelle found herself the only capable person in the Ray household of managing their affairs. To her neighbors' surprise and somewhat to her own as well, she rose to the occasion and managed her family's affairs quite tolerably. Unfortunately, no amount of economic management could deny the fact that they had suddenly become nearly penniless. Leslie Ray's illness took a large toll on her, and though she survived, the costs of the illness and the convalescence that her mother must take required them to sell the farm, with just enough left over to set them up somewhere else with perhaps a small home. They were taken in by Matthew Hodgeson, who helped Annabelle manage the selling of the farm, and the paying of the doctor's debts. The Ray fortune that Thomas Ray had worked hard for had disappeared with the failing of the bank, and the unfortunate illness of his wife.
Though she had refused his offer of marriage twice by this time, the people of Auburndale assumed that Preston Payne would certainly ask again and playing the grand part of Prince Charming, pluck her and her mother from the bosom of poverty. It was most certainly the thing to do, now that Annabelle Ray had been laid low and humble by the failing of her family's fortune. Surely now she saw the error of her ways, and Preston would take her back, and they would be married within the month. The gossip was so rampant that several local women began to take out their second-best dresses.
Just as all of Auburndale was on the verge of expecting a grand marriage announcement, the word got out somehow that Preston Payne was leaving town, without the slightest intention to marry Annabelle Ray. True to Annabelle's premonition, Preston's ardor for her faded with the loss of her fortune. How could they expect the nephew of Mrs. Gena Payne, it was heard, to marry a near-penniless pauper? Her upbringing was not to be faulted; she came from honorable and honest folk, and she was comely, yes, but she had nary a piece of land to her name. Annabelle had not even a certificate from Queen's or a B.A. from Redmond College to make her an attractive potential wife, so why would they expect him to marry her? He would go to Charlottetown, along with Mrs. Gena Payne, and there, they would seek a proper wife for Preston, who must be settled down soon now, you know. The people of Auburndale were scandalized and outraged by the Paynes, and thought that Annabelle Ray had been poorly used by this parvenu they embraced as the darling of the town. Preston Payne had been unmasked as the most gregarious and unprincipled ne'er-do-good they knew, and not a single well-meaning housewife who had counseled Annabelle to accept Preston's offer of marriage did not bitterly repent of her decision.
Two days before they were to part to New Brunswick, where Leslie Ray's relatives still lived, Edward Taylor returned to Matthew Hodgeson's farm, flushed after the success of a profitable sale. When he turned the horse up the lane to Matthew's farm, he was astonished to see Annabelle in the front yard, scattering corn to the chickens. When she saw him, Annabelle blushed hotly. She, for her part, had not forgotten that Edward would return, but secretly believed that like Preston and the other suitors, anything he may have felt for her would die as soon as he learned that her fortune was gone. Without a perfunctory greeting, Edward dismounted, and he took her hand in his road-dusty hand, and asked her to tell the whole story behind her creased brow and sad grey eyes. With difficulty, she stammered out the whole tale.
"And Mama and I are to leave in two days for New Brunswick, for Mama's brothers still live in St. John's. They will be able to provide for us, for a time, and perhaps I will work for someone to earn some income." Annabelle finished wretchedly.
Edward, having heard all of this, and read between the lines of Preston Payne's sudden departure, flushed in anger at the ill-treatment of Annabelle.
Misreading his anger, Annabelle bit her lip and rushed to speak. "I'm so sorry, Edward." She continued, before he could say anything. "I don't want to leave P.E.I., but we must take care of Mama, and there- there is nothing left for me here."
"Isn't there, sweet Annabelle?" Edward asked, the first words he had spoken since he had asked her to tell him the entire tale. Not daring to meet his eyes, Annabelle shook her head in silence.
"If you truly despair of leaving the Island, then do not. Marry me, Annabelle, and stay here with me." Edward heard himself say, in a voice that was not quite his. "I've loved you since we were children, and you have always been my friend. Let me help you now, and if you wish, you and your mother can stay in Auburndale, with Matthew and I."
Annabelle looked up at him, scarcely daring to hope that he was speaking the truth, but as she gazed into his eyes, she heard the unmistakable ring of sincerity in his voice, and tears swam in her grey eyes.
Without another word, Annabelle Ray buried her face and her tears in his shirt, still dusty and worn from the road, and minutes later, Edward Taylor led his bride-to-be into his home to announce the happy news to their parents.
A week later, they were married, and Leslie Ray and Annabelle Taylor were to stay permanently at Matthew Hodgeson's cottage. The affair was simple, but both bride and groom were the happiest to ever be seen in Auburndale. As for the people of Auburndale, though they were glad for a happy ending to the tragedy of the Ray family, they were however forever vexed that Preston Payne had played everyone for a fool, except Annabelle Ray.
6.5.2008.