Amy's Story

Chapter 3:

It wasn't long before Carolyn Muir was back at Gull Cottage. Peter and Joe had picked up the mail along with the shopping and she placed the few envelopes on her desk while she hung up her cloak and jacket and donned her large nurse's apron. She glanced quickly at letters while gathering up her tools and report book, deciding that there would be time enough to open them later. They were probably all bills anyway.

"Good morning, again, Madam," Captain Gregg announced as way of greeting. "I trust your visit to the good vicar was uneventful?"

"Yes and no. The Reverend and Mrs. Whitfield are both well and they report that their children and grandchildren are well. However, the Reverend's youngest sister is going to take up residence with them and she is…shall I say…limited?"

The spirit paced up and down the room, hands behind his back. "Ahhh, I see. Like Seaman Secor?"

"No. Amy is Mongoloid, but from the way the Reverend described her, they have similar abilities."

"Well, perhaps they shall strike up a friendship?" the Captain suggested, smiling. "It would probably do them both good to have someone that they can be at ease with, without being treated as a young child in a shop of fine glass and china."

Carolyn whirled around, her own smile playing about her lips. "Why Captain Gregg, you are indeed an old soft-heart!"

He appeared to stand up straighter and made a grumbling sound while his forehead creased in mock anger. "Indeed not Mrs. Muir! I merely pointed out that anyone is more comfortable around those that he shares some traits with." He turned to her desk to hide the smile forming on his handsome face while he inspected the mail. "Oh!" he said suddenly, holding a refined and expensive envelope in his hand.

"What is that?" asked Carolyn.

Captain Gregg put the envelope down on the edge of the desk. "It is for you, my dear. I certainly shan't open it. Although, I must say that I am curious about who your correspondent might be. It would look like he has fine taste in writing paper."

"Curious, Captain? I think you're jealous," she replied as she smiled a naughty little smile at him and picked up the envelope and opened it. She read the contents quickly and then laughed. "You needn't worry. It is most certainly not a billet doux."

"Of course, not that it would matter," he mumbled under his breath. "You should have a living, breathing man court you."

Not hearing him, Carolyn continued, "It is an invitation to an engagement party for Phyllida Grover and our builder's son, Allan Albert Cooper. It will be a week from this Saturday evening, and I must go. We owe Mr. Cooper so much for the care he has taken with Gull Cottage."

"Yes, of course. Although Adolphus Adam Cooper has the unfortunate family habit of naming all his children so that they have the same initials as he, (as a young man, I knew his father, Alfred Arthur Cooper), it is an important social event. The Grover's are quite prominent in town, as you might have discovered. And they don't shy away from reminding the general populace of it." He sat down in the wooden chair by the desk and crossing his long legs, was ready to detail the history of the Grover clan when Mrs. Muir stopped him .
"I'm sorry, Captain. I'm sure I would find their family history very interesting and useful, but I have to go check on the men. Perhaps tonight we could return to the topic."

"Over a glass of madeira? Excellent idea!"

Carolyn spent the rest of the morning seeing to all of the men of the home. Every day she took a look at the stump of Nate Douglas' leg. As the oldest of the men, she knew that it was supremely important that the skin covering the stump not be broken down by the cup of his peg-leg, so she checked daily for any redness. Once a month, they re-lined the peg-leg cup and she and Martha had knitted a good number of stump socks from the softest wool they could get. She was quite proud that Nate's leg was well tended for. Charlie Fish's heart wasn't so efficient anymore, so he needed to not strain himself and yet remain active. She kept Tincture of Digitalis locked up for him if he started to notice any heart flutters, but also keeping on a low-salt diet (which benefited all of the men anyway) was also important. In any event, Charlie's life-long companion, Peter Cannon always keep a close watch. Red Secor had really improved his ability to keep to his diabetic diet since he'd been at the Home. The other men made sure that when they went into town, Red kept away from sweets and Martha, bless her heart, had turned her culinary skills to inventing little desserts just for him that gave him something safe to look forward to. They also kept him busy and moving as he helped Martha with the cleaning and laundry which seemed to help him as well. Once a week, Carolyn checked his urine for the tell-tale smell of acetone and also checked his feet for problems as well.

Peter, "Sock" Demetriou, Sam Tudor, Joe Costa and Hannibal Booth were all in good health, although Carolyn felt that Hannibal could stand to lose a few pounds. It was an occupational hazard of being a cook, she thought; Martha was quite plump herself. In any event, those four men needed less care, and she would usually just sit and chat with them during her day to see how they were getting on. Sam Tudor's nightmares had faded away, thanks to the Captain's intervention a few months ago, but it was his nature to be less outgoing than the others. Carolyn suspected that his personality might be more prone to melancholia than typical and she always made sure to engage him and involve him as much as possible. Sock, in particular was always keen to engage him in conversation and during the warmer weather Sam always enjoyed joining in Joe's fishing expeditions. However, now that the Maine winter was upon them, they had to find other pursuits. Peter had discovered a few sugar maple trees on the hill behind Gull Cottage and had organized a "tapping" party to collect and boil down the sap into maple syrup. After it had been bottle and sealed, there was a sharp discussion about keeping the entire supply for the Home or selling the majority of it to supplement the Home's funds. Because the boiling process significantly reduces the sap when it's made into syrup, it was decided that there wasn't a sufficient amount to sell, but by unanimous vote, it was finally decided by the men to gift small amounts of the precious liquid to the Home's Board of Trustees as Christmas presents. In short order, they would prepare small bottles for Reverend Whitman, Captain Samuel Biggs, Dr. Everly, Justice of the Peace Josiah Turner and Adolphus Adam Cooper, who had renovated Gull Cottage for them.

Soon they would start planning the Thanksgiving festivities with Christmas and New Year's right around the corner. Carolyn and the Trustees were satisfied that there would be plenty to keep the men occupied until January, but the depth of the winter would require some extreme creativity on their parts.

After lunch, Carolyn recorded her notes of her physical examinations and her interactions with the men. She also recorded notable happenings in the Home and around town, so it became a sort of diary. On this day, she recorded the discussion with the Reverend about his sister and noted the coming Cooper-Grover engagement party. Then she pulled out her ledger book and began to work on the bills. She and Martha were careful about what they spent. Daniel Gregg's estate was ample and well-invested, but not limitless. The Trustees never questioned her expenditures and often donated items for the men. Still, she felt it best to be frugal wherever possible. The men were not the sort to look for luxuries and were happy to have warm bunks and wholesome food. The "extras" they spent on were subscriptions to a variety of newspapers and magazines, which were in great demand among the men, as were books. The weekly visits to the Schooner Bay Lending Library had already exhausted its small holdings and now they were traveling over to the slightly larger Keystone to rummage through its library. The Trustees authorized the purchase of two books a month to build up a library of Gull Cottage's own. The men would choose democratically every month, and by natural consent Nate, as the eldest would get to read the books first. The only routine expense that really worried Carolyn with the bill for the coal to heat the house and the water heater. Even using the fireplaces, it took a lot of fuel to run Gull Cottage. Perhaps if she and Martha sewed heavier drapes and A.A. Cooper came in and looked for drafts, they could reduce the amount of coal used. She would also see if Captain Gregg had any ideas about warming his home.

She found that he was not in the mood that evening when they sat down with their glasses of madeira, to discuss the heating of Gull Cottage. Daniel Gregg was in quite a mood, in fact.

"I forbid you to go to that engagement party next week, Madam! Had I recalled the family connections of the Grovers, I would have informed you immediately about the unsuitability of attending!"

"Captain, what has gotten into you? Why, just this morning you were telling me of the importance of Phyllida Grover's family in Schooner Bay. And in any event, her fiancé is Mr. Cooper's oldest son, so I must go!" Carolyn remonstrated.

The Captain calmed down a bit. "My deal lady, let me tell you about the scandalous relations of the Grover family and you will understand immediately. In fact, I would advise you to relate to Mr. Cooper what a poor decision it is to join his family with theirs!"

Carolyn gasped. "I can't do that! Not only do I not know either family well, but it is also not my place. If the Grover family is as disreputable as you say, the whole town would know about it and treat them as pariahs, not as town royalty."

"They have hidden the truth, Madam," the Captain growled. "The pusillanimous pufferfish that taints the Grover family is a man I knew well – Captain Horatio Figg. I was a young officer serving on his ship as we made our way to Mexico as part of the force gathering there for the Battle of Vera Cruz. Figg's sister is Phyllida's mother. The crew detested his incompetent hide. We used to say, 'You can't give a Figg because no one would take him,' and when someone would comment that he had been lost at sea, we would reply, 'He was always lost at sea!'"

"But the books and papers all said that he was lost at sea during the battle and that he was a hero." Carolyn answered.

"Hardly!" the Captain sneered. "He wasn't lost at sea at all. We mutinied! He begged for his life like mewling infant and in a moment of soft-heartedness, we put him ashore on a small island in the Caribbean. Then we went to do our duty in the Battle of Vera Cruz….without that pest and coward. Just because he never returned home with his ship most certainly does not make him a hero!"

"And what does this have to do with this engagement party?"

"My dear, Figg's sister Fortuna and her little lump of a husband, Thaddeus Markham Grover have lived off of the so-called life and death of Figg. They would never have become so wealthy and well-known had they not promoted him as a hero extraordinaire. And Albert Allan Cooper would never have had the opportunity to become acquainted with Miss Grover, because they never would have occupied the same social circles. It is all a sham, I tell you. Everything that the Grover family has accumulated is built on a lie."

"I am afraid it is your word against everyone else's, Captain," Carolyn replied, not liking this side of him at all. "You clearly didn't like him. I think that you are upset that the town doesn't see things your way, regardless of where the truth really lies. I most certainly must attend. I'm sorry that it upsets you but at the very least, please understand that whatever Horatio Figg did or did not do to you and the rest of the crew, has nothing to do with the engagement of Miss Grover and Mr. Cooper."

With that, the spirit of Gull Cottage dematerialized with a grunt, leaving a half-empty glass of madeira behind.