The girls did have their midnight picnic—spoiled somewhat by the fact that the boys found out about it and barged in halfway through. The other girls were less bothered by this than Jane was, leading her to suspect that they were starting to discover that mysterious fascination members of the opposite gender hold for each other. In fact, certain hints dropped by Min caused her to believe that the boys' discovery of their picnic wasn't quite the coincidence one might have expected.
Jane sighed. After her experience with Colby, she had no interest in the April love of boys and girls. She would just as soon wait until she was old enough to really care about someone before falling in love. These silly infatuations just ended in one or the other party getting hurt.
Watching Min and Polly giggle, and the boys preen themselves, she couldn't help but feel distant from these friends, the friends of her youth. Though Jane couldn't articulate what separated them, the truth was that the long, lonely weeks of vigil by Aunt Irene's sickbed, her struggle against death, had matured and shaped her into more of a woman.
Out of all her friends, only Jody, whose life had been so bleak and hard before the Island, could understand a little of Jane's feelings. She too was supremely indifferent to the flirtations going on around her. Though she was undoubtedly the prettiest girl in Lantern Corners, she cared very little for her looks.
"I wish I was tall and slim, with rippling golden hair and eyes like blueberries, and a rosebud mouth, like princesses in fairy tales," she confided wistfully to Jane as they sat a little ways away from the others, watching the waves roll into shore under the moon. "I want a fairy-tale romance … someday. Not right now, and not for a while. I'm too happy just living. But someday … someday I want a Prince Charming to come sweep me off my feet. Not some kind of half-romance that dies before it even gets started."
"I prefer to keep both my feet firmly on the ground, when I fall in love," said Practical Jane. "I want there to be respect, and friendship, and just enough romance to keep things interesting. In about ten years or so."
Polly's high-pitched, artificial-sounding giggle floated down to them, and both girls sighed.
Thankfully, none of the elders ever found out about the midnight picnic, though parents surely had their suspicions when all the youngsters were heavy-eyed and groggy the next day. By then, however, excitement over Miss Justina's wedding to Step-a-yard was riding high, and children and adults alike were lured into it. Jane and Jody had to spend one afternoon calming Miss Justina down; she had become convinced that she was committing a dreadful sin by breaking her vow to always stay faithful to the memory of her dead lover.
"I swore I'd never marry any man but him," she sniffed, holding a delicate lace handkerchief to her eyes. "It's very wrong to break a solemn vow, girls, the minister said so. It's in the Holy Scriptures."
"But Aunt Justina," Jody pleaded, "If the minister thought you were doing something wrong, he wouldn't have agreed to perform the ceremony, would he?"
"Maybe he doesn't know that it was a vow. He probably thinks it was just a whim. But I swore, I really did!"
"Think of how sad it would make Alec Jacks to know you were throwing away your happiness for him," Jane said, taking Miss Justina's thin, withered hand in her own. "When you made that vow, what you were really doing was vowing to be faithful to his memory. And you will be, still … you'll never forget him, even if you marry Step-a-yard. Remembering him doesn't mean never moving ahead with your life. I'm sure he wouldn't have wanted that at all."
"Do you really think so?"
"I do," Jane said firmly, and Jody nodded vigorously in agreement.
"Well, when you put it like that … if you think I'm still holding true to the spirit of the vow …"
"All this fuss over a dead lover," Miss Violet sniffed, entering the parlor. "You ought to be more worried about your living sister, whom you are leaving all alone for someone who has never made anything more of himself than a hired man!"
Miss Justina rose to her feet with awful dignity. "Sister, I cannot sit here and let you insult my fiancé," she said coldly. "Allow me to leave."
With that, she swept majestically out of the room, leaving Jane torn between exasperation and amusement. They had overcome one stumbling block … now they had to placate Miss Violet. Really, why couldn't people just let themselves be happy once in a while!
"You won't be all alone, Auntie," Jody protested. "I'll still be here,"
"You are a great comfort, child, but I would not dream of holding you back from a career. You must go on and further your education, and then I truly will be alone."
"Miss Justina and Step-a-yard will be right next door," Jane soothed. "It will be just like having them here, except you'll be free to do things your way now. You could keep the rubber plant in the back hall all the time …"
"You can open the windows at night …" Jody chimed in.
"You can take as much cream as you want with tea without anyone complaining …"
Miss Violet was silent for a moment. Then she said, "No doubt it will be very pleasant to be able to have things as I like, but, but," her eyes filled with tears, "it sounds dreadfully boring."
Miss Justina had returned, unseen by any of them. "Oh sister!" she cried, rushing over and putting her arms around Miss Violet. "I promise, I will come by every day. After all, when my husband" (this said with a maidenly blush) "is working, I will be alone too. I will come over, and we will knit, and everything will be just like it used to be."
"Besides," Jody added, "I don't care about a career, really I don't. I've never been so happy in all my life as I have been here. I don't want to leave you, ever."
With that, all three burst into tears and hugged each other, and Jane slipped out, knowing everything would be just fine.
And none too soon, either! The wedding was scheduled for tomorrow. Jane hoped they could get through it without any more crises … and hopefully with less tears. She wouldn't count on that last part, though.
She enjoyed the walk home with the sun shining comfortingly on her bare head; her feet, free from the restraints of shoes, scuffed through the dust of the road pleasantly. She was humming a little song to herself, not really thinking about anything or anyone in particular, when she heard her name called.
"Jane! Jane Stuart!"
Jane focused her gaze down the road. Someone … no, several someones … were running toward her, calling her name. They didn't look like any of her Lantern Corners friends, but who …?
Then the loudest broke free from the pack and Jane recognized her with surprise. "Eden!"
Eden Westin dashed the last few steps and drew to a stop before Jane, gasping and panting for breath. "Gosh, it's hot," were the first words she uttered. "It's a lousy day for running."
"What are you doing here?" Jane asked, flinging her arms around her friend.
Eden grinned and proceeded to tell as the rest of the family tumbled up behind her. "You've talked so much about this wonderful Island of yours that we convinced Mother and Father to take our summer vacation here. We're not staying at Lantern Corners, of course, but our guest house is only a few miles away."
"We can come see you every day!" Tracy shouted boisterously. He turned a somersault in the middle of the road and came up grinning. "Aren't you glad?"
"Delighted," Jane said frankly. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Colby hadn't run with his younger siblings, but he strolled to the group now, looking far more cool and composed than his breathless sister. "Eden thought it would be more fun to surprise you."
Jane ran her eyes over the group. Eden, Colby, Tracy, Marilyn, and Edwin. "Where's Abbie?"
Eden and Colby rolled their eyes in unison. "Back at the guest house," Eden said. "She's the only one who didn't want to come. She said she's far too old to come play with us."
"She didn't want to come at all," Colby emphasized. "She wanted to go to someplace more glamorous, where she could see cinema stars, or at least rich boys who might take a fancy to her. She wanted to go to the south of France, and when Mother and Father said that was far too expensive, pouted the entire way here."
"Poor Abbie," Jane laughed. "We've no rich young men around here, but there is plenty to do, if one wants."
"We were just at your house," Tracy informed her. "Say, it's swell, Jane. I like it even better than your house in Toronto."
"Your parents told us we could find you down this way," Eden filled in. "They said you were helping someone plan a wedding?"
Jane explained about Miss Justina and Step-a-yard. The Toronto youngsters didn't find this October romance anywhere near as interesting as Jane herself did, but Colby did grin.
"And Abbie thought there would be no romance here."
"You may come to the wedding tomorrow, if you like," Jane offered. "We don't bother with things like invitations here. Everyone who wants to celebrate just comes."
"But we don't even know them," Eden said. "And we don't have a gift for them."
"You are friends of mine," Jane said with an airy wave of her hand. "That makes you welcome anywhere." She realized how boastful her words sounded and hastened to explain. "I mean … it's such a small community, that friends of anyone's are always welcome anywhere. And you don't have to worry about a gift. We girls are decorating the church tomorrow morning, and you can help with that, if you want to contribute something. Plus I have to spend the rest of today baking desserts for the reception afterward, and you can help me."
"I'll lick the bowl!" little Edwin piped up.
Jane swooped down and hugged him, wondering once again what it would be like to have a little brother or sister of her own to hug and love. "That will be an enormous help."
Colby scooped Marilyn up and settled her on his shoulders. "We'll all help. After all, what else are friends for?" He winked at Jane.
Jane grinned back, thinking how nice it was that they were here … and that Colby had apparently gotten over his crush on her for good and for all.
It was so much more pleasant to just be friends.
