Chapter Eleven
"Hey, watch it!" Nick laughed as Michelle, with the help of Audra, threw a handful of snow at him. They, along with Heath and Victoria, had all traveled to the family lodge and were now having some fun in the field next to it. Nick had just had some water from the nearby pond thrown on him. "Are you gonna help!" Nick yelled, looking towards his brother, Heath, who was sitting on the porch talking to Victoria.
"Nope!" Heath called back. "You're doing just fine. Besides, I've had my bath for the day!" Naturally that got the girls laughing harder than they were already.
"Too bad Jarrod's work load picked up." Heath said as he looked at Victoria. "He's missing out on all the fun."
"It's life, I suppose." Victoria answered as she kept her eyes on Nick, and Michelle; Audra had slipped away from the fun while her middle son and Michelle kept the water fight up. The water continued flying and Nick, more than once, got Michelle just as bad as she was getting him. It was a good thing they'd all brought plenty of dry clothes. If it wasn't for the fact that she felt strongly there was something not quite right, Victoria would have been just fine. Only she did, and it was not helping her to relax as she'd like to have done. It wouldn't have been so bad if she could put her fingers on it… words or actions that would explain those feelings. As it was, nothing in anything she'd heard or seen had given her just cause for the troubled feeling she had.
As she thought on it more, Victoria felt a small bolt of lightning go through when she suddenly remembered seeing Jarrod off at the train. Due to the fact she had to go into town anyway, it was something she'd completely overlooked, thinking it was simply connected to the fact that he was again missing out on the family outing.
"You're working too much, Jarrod." Victoria stood next to Jarrod trying to convince him to put the work on hold, and make the trip to the lodge with them instead. "From everything you'd told me, none of that work has an urgent date on them. Why not come with us? I'm sure your brothers, sister and Shelly would like it very much."
"Don't tempt me." Jarrod thought as he gave his mother the best smile he could muster. "If I wasn't going to finish the work, I never should have taken it on." Jarrod answered as a fleeting look of one carrying a heavy load flashed across his eyes; then he started climbing onto the train. "I hope all of you, including Shelly, has a good time." He then disappeared into the carriage.
If Victoria's feelings were right, Jarrod wasn't simply upset about missing the family outing; there was something else, and that worried her.
"Mother?" Heath, who had just asked his stepmother a question, grew concerned when he could see she had not really been listening. "What's wrong?"
"It's been a long time since we went on a family outing, and we didn't have everyone with us." Victoria answered and added, "I'm sorry. What were you saying?"
With Eugene moving to England and Jarrod being busier than he'd been in a long time, Heath didn't question her answer as they resumed their conversation.
~oOo~
"I don't ever remember standing outside my parents' home stargazing. If I did it at all, I had to climb out my window and sit on the roof." Michelle, who was leaning against the railing that surrounded the Barkley lodge, said as Nick walked up beside her. Victoria and Audra were inside the lodge while Heath had gone out onto the back porch to relax and smoke a cigarette.
"Are you serious?" Nick had a hard time imagining anyone stopping their own child from star gazing.
"Very serious," Michelle let out a sad chuckle. "Father was very strict and I had to be in the house before dark." Her voice then grew angry. "He treated me like a china doll, something that had to be handled with care or else I might break! And, when it came to emotions?" she sighed and threw a glance towards Nick, remembering how she'd told him how unemotional her father was when it came to showing affection to her. "I never heard him say he loved me, not even once. My mother said he didn't say it because he was showing me. But do you know what?" She asked as she straightened up and turned to face Nick.
"What?" Nick asked as curiosity filled him from top to bottom.
"He never showed it either." Michelle answered quietly.
Nick lifted his hands up and took a hold of Michelle's face, tilting it upwards. "You're father doesn't know what he lost." He then lowered his head and started kissing Michelle.
Michelle, who had been told by her father all her life that letting a man kiss you before you were married made you a loose woman, turned her ears off and held onto Nick, as their kiss deepened. However, after a few minutes, she let go, took a step back and, smiling at Nick, nodded towards the house. "I think we best go inside before your mother comes hunting us up." Nick assumed she was afraid they'd go farther than a kiss if they didn't; therefore, he didn't argue as she headed for the front door. Once inside he headed for the kitchen, asking his mother, sister and Michele what they would like for a light snack, only to have Michelle thank him politely and ask the Barkleys if she could simply be excused to bed. "I'd simply like to lie down and relax while I do some thinking."
"Of course, my dear, go right ahead." Victoria said. Neither Nick nor Audra argued, as Michelle left the living room and headed towards the room she was using. Soon Nick and Audra were playing a game chess while Victoria kept her nose in a good book, anything to shake the feeling of unease that continued to plague her.
