Little Men

"Farewell Appearance"

Chapter Six: The Curtain Rises Again

It was an accident how Bess ran into Jacob Davis.

She had been in the general store, picking up a Christmas gift, for her father, when she nearly knocked Jacob over with her baby carriage, erupting in a loud cry from nine month old Danny and Hannie. Danny went right back to sleep but the ever stubborn and feisty Miss Madison refused to return to her slumber. Jacob offered a ride back into Plumfield and one year six months after what would have been Dan and Bess' wedding anniversary and one year four months after Dan's death, Bess found herself enjoying the company of another man.

The twenty two year old Jacob Davis, a quiet and humble carpenter, who lived on the outskirts of Concord, spoke nervously to the beautiful and radiant Bess, his reddish brown hair pushed under a wide brimmed hat. His manner reminded Bess a little of her father and a little like Nat.

"I know your parents, Mrs. Madison. I did some work at their place a few years back." Jacob spoke quickly. He couldn't be any more different then Dan-perhaps that's what attracted Bess to him in the first place.

"Really? And please call me Bess. Actually I haven't decided whether to stay at Plumfield or move back home," Bess continued. "I think my parents would spoil Hannah Rose and Danny to much… I don't know why I'm telling you this."

Jacob laughed unsure of what to say. "I haven't seen you in town much."

"People like to talk." Bess reasoned. "Besides I haven't seen you in town much either."

"I don't stay in Concord. My family lives in Boston. But, I don't like big cities." Jacob's hazel eyes looked down at the floor. "I was sorry to hear about your husband."

Bess waved him off with the back of her hand, but responded with a simple, "Thank you." Within moments the buggy had approached the gates of Plumfield. As Jacob helped Bess down from the rig she couldn't help but let her eyes linger and meet his gaze. There was a sweet softness about Jacob that she saw in them. But as her eyes moved toward the sleeping faces of her husband's children, she couldn't help but feel ashamed.

There comes a time when a child realizes that her parents are only human and on occasion they make mistakes. Amy may have been harsh with Bess but she did it only to protect her. Now as a mother Bess realized just how far a mother would go to make sure that her children where loved and cared for. Thus she ignored Jacob at first, even when he began calling on her nearly once a week. Hannah and Danny didn't need to loose someone else in their lives, if Jacob and Bess proved incompatible after all. Besides even though she had vowed to move on, Dan still held the pieces of her heart.

But Jacob though gentle, was persistent and didn't give up until she accompanied him on a picnic on Walden Pond. She couldn't help but think of her Aunt Jo and Nick, and how hard it must have been for Jo to let go of Uncle Fritz-how in the end she eventually had to.

Ten months later, Bess turned the metal band gently around her finger. Tenderly she slipped the gold ring off her finger looking at it with despair. It was suppose to symbolize marriage-a marriage that hadn't even lasted more than four months. How cruel fate can be she thought to herself. Still, it was time to move on just as her aunts had done. She would marry Jacob-she cared for him and perhaps in time she'd love him as she'd love Dan. Bess walked away from the grave and behind her the ring sparkled in the sunlight.

Part II

The Setting: June of 1894

Bess became Mrs. Elizabeth Davis when the twins were over a year old. She herself was only nineteen. To honor Dan she had named their son after him but Daniel William Madison, Jr. would have no part of it and by age two he was calling Jacob, Papa. When Jacob and Bess' first child Emma, was born two years later, Danny renamed himself William Davis. However, Hannah refused to be called anything other then Hannah Rose Madison though loving her Jacob whom she called Father, dearly. As much as Dan had wanted to learn about his past, Hannie was just as fervent in her quest to learn about her absent birth father. At nineteen Hannie and her brother were older then their father ever got a chance to be.

"Is that when you went to London as a girl?" Hannah Rose's dearest companion and sister, fifteen year old Emma questioned their mother flipping through a few of Bess' paintings.

"No Emmy this one's from Paris, my favorite." Bess stated brushing the dust off the painting and mumbling something in French.

"Do you ever want to go back, mother?" Hannie questioned further. It was hard to picture her mother with a life before this one on their small modest farm, hardly more then a few miles away from where her mother and her grandmother and her great grandmother grew up; with six children, two younger sisters Sara and Grace following Emma at eleven and five respectfully and a newborn baby brother Henry Laurence underfoot, leaving hardly any time for painting or holidays in Europe.

"Maybe someday," Bess stated quickly as the she heard a cry from the bedroom. "Henry needs to be feed. Keep any that you'd like, put the rest in the trunk."

Hannah had her sights on college, she wanted to become a writer like her Great Aunt Jo. Being a young wife and mother was not something Hannie had any intention of being. She loved her mother but they couldn't have been anymore different, the tall athletic beauty with wavy almost black hair and her sparkling blue eyes, the only thing that allowed her to believe that she was in fact Bess Davis' child, stood in contrast to the delicate doll like features of her mother. Who'd rather play stickball then take courses of Latin and home etiquette from her Grandmother Amy. Danny always said that if she'd been born a boy Hannie would be a lawyer by now with her stubborn ways and constant need to win an argument.

"How are my girls?" Jacob questioned breaking Hannie's thoughts and kissing each on the forehead and dropping a few letters on the kitchen table. "I have a surprise for you." her father stated opening the door behind him to reveal Aunt Nan and Uncle Nat with little Luke Blake sucking his thumb and sleeping soundly in his father's arms.

Bess returned from the bedchamber stopping to kiss her husband home passionately. "How was South America?" she questioned her friends hugging them eagerly. The past year Nan and Nat had taken to traveling, offering services wherever they went, doing something a dear friend had so longed to do once, Bess felt that they were just running away. Running away from the death of their little girl.

Nan talked to her nieces tenderly, stopping at Hannah last. "Have you heard from that women's college yet?" Hannah Rose thought Aunt Nan and Uncle Nat couldn't have been more different. Nan was pushy and spontaneous and Nat was reserved and quiet. Different like how she envisioned Dan and Bess were. Different like Father and Mother are.

"Oh that!" Hannah stated running toward the table. By the time she shuffled though the stack of letters everyone's attention had already turned to Henry. Instead of finding an acceptance note she found a hastily scribbled letter addressed to a Mr. Daniel Madison care of Plumfield School, Concord Massachusetts; from a Mrs. Katherine Sullivan Thomas, Denver, Colorado. It had been years since her brother had used that name, though she herself always referred to him as Danny and it had been nearly two years since Danny attended Plumfield. Hannie looked around the room and opened the letter quickly.

May 3rd, 1894

Dearest Dan,

Hello little brother. It has taken me too long to find you. Please respond.

Yours,

Kate

A letter addressed to her long deceased father, was a much better find then an acceptance letter, Hannie raced to her room carrying the precious mail. She knew her father's history far too well, this letter must be from the family he had looked for all his life. Unfortunately, her mother didn't see that as clearly.

"You have no reason to believe that what this women says is true." Bess Davis stated as she juggled Henry on her knee while breaking up a fight between little Gracie and Sara.

"Your mother's right, Hannie." Nan Blake piped in.

"Hannah Rose, I'm done talking about his with you. You should be focusing on college, your already a year behind." Bess said sighing.

Hannie sighed as well in frustration. Her mother knew more then anyone why she stayed behind an extra year at Plumfield. Bess had been pregnant with Henry and Hannah knew her mother would need an extra hand around the homestead.

"He's my father!" Hannah yelled running out of the house. Bess never talked about Dan with her children or anyone else, it was like she locked that life far away. Still, she never knew how much that hurt her children to know nothing about their father. To them Dan was just some ghostly figure, a stranger really.

Little Henry started crying at his sister's anguish. "What am I going to do with her?" Bess stated to no one.

"Dan always wondered about his past. He would have wanted his daughter to know about him." Nat suddenly spoke up to no one, to his friend. Bess had made sure that her first husband was rarely mention and now after so long a wad of emotions began to fill up with in her. Bess looked to her husband for support.

"Do you want me to go after her?" Jacob replied touching his wife's shoulder and taking his son into his arms. There was no difference between Henry and Will, to Jacob, between Emma and Hannie, he had six children-he had fallen in love with the twins when he had fallen in love with their mother.

"No. She went to William's, he'll knock some sense into her." Bess stated returning back to what she was doing, back from the past to the present where she had made sure for the nineteen years that she stayed.