Amy's Story
Chapter 5:
The next morning when Colonel Porter came to breakfast, he found his brother-in-law staring intently at him. The blond man looked back at him quizzically.
"Is there something amiss, Thaddeus?" he asked.
"No, not at all. I was just thinking that perhaps there will be two weddings this season. You seemed quite taken with Mrs. Muir last night. You never left her side, after all."
Porter was even more puzzled. "I did? I really have no recollection of the evening. Who is this Mrs. Muir? How much did I have to drink?"
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A few days later, Mrs. Whitman met Carolyn at the greengrocer's in town. After the usual greetings, the older woman steered Mrs. Muir to a corner of the store. "I am so glad that we bumped into each other, dear. I wanted to speak to you about Amy. You see, I don't need as much help as Barbara did in the house and Amy is quite bored, which is making her miserable. She wanted to know if you needed any help at Gull Cottage. She is quite capable of performing small household tasks and even if it were just a few hours a day, it would mean so much to her to be doing something useful."
"I certainly can understand that." replied Carolyn. "I'd have to talk to Martha, of course. You see the men keep their bedrooms reasonably clean and Red already helps with the heavy work and now with Hannibal, she doesn't have to do all the cooking. But I would imagine that we could find some things for Amy to do. Perhaps the Trustees could be persuaded to give her a small salary as well."
"Oh, that would be marvelous! Please let me know if it can all be arranged."
"Of course, Mrs. Whitman. And don't forget Thanksgiving dinner next week."
"We wouldn't miss it for the world, and please, won't you call me Agnes?"
That evening after the dinner dishes were cleaned and put back on the shelf, Carolyn sat down with Martha over a last cup of coffee and detailed her discussion with Mrs. Whitman. Gull Cottage's Housekeeper/Cook thought for a few moments, emitting a few "Hmmm"s and "Ummm"s along the way. Finally she nodded her head.
"Yes, I believe I can find things for Amy to do. I can always use a hand with the laundry, there's plenty of little knick-knacks that need dusting and she'd probably like helping out with the horses. And when the weather warms up, another pair of hands in the vegetable garden is always appreciated."
Two days later Amy arrived at 9 am to begin work. She was so happy that she couldn't stop hugging and kissing Carolyn and Martha. Being the day before Thanksgiving, Red was giving all the rooms a very serious sweeping, so Amy was set to work washing and drying the sturdier serving platters and bowls. When that was finished with no broken crockery, Martha gave her the water glasses and the cut-glass pitcher to clean. Soon enough it was time for lunch and Amy sat down with the rest of the household before leaving for home. It had been an entirely successful morning for her and both she and Martha were well-pleased.
Over the course of the next weeks, Amy would take over all the scrubbing of the bed linens, Mrs. Muir's aprons, and the dishtowels. She and Red would pin them up on the line outside of the house's back door while Martha took over with the men's clothes. The next day would be ironing day, which Martha did on the big butcher-block table in the center of the kitchen. She had three irons heating on the stove to deal with all that needed to be worked on. Red would hand them over to her or put them back on the stove while Amy held the longer pieces that Martha was working on, off the floor. Then Red and Amy would work together to fold the sheets and the blankets.
Amy also took it upon herself to clean all the windows, a job which she had perfected at her sister's house. While it was too cold to do the outside of the windows, by the time she finished with the inside, the glass was so clean that Carolyn was afraid that someone would put a hand through a pane.
The young woman enjoyed her time working so much that she would stay later and later and find herself little tasks to do, as well as enjoying the opportunity to be with Red. Very soon, she would arrive at the house at 9 in the morning and stay until it was nearly dark. If the weather was fair, she walked home herself, but if it wasn't, Martha would send Red to walk with her. Naturally, their friendship grew, but Red was hesitant to think of it as more than that. He would only take her hand to help her over a rough, icy, or wet patch of road and never considered giving her a kiss. Amy, on the other hand, kept hoping that one day a bit of romance would come into their friendship.
After a few days, Martha felt that Amy was able to do her cleaning tasks without any supervision, so it was not long before she found herself in the parlor waxing the wood of the sofa. Martha had given her a cloth dampened with lemon oil and told her when the cloth ran dry to come back to have her put some more on it. She warned Amy not to get any of the oil on the fabric of the sofa and Amy was very, very careful about it. It was a nice sunny day, and the sun through the window warmed her back as she worked on the wood of the sofa. It was one of the first times she had been in the parlor all by herself and she suddenly stopped and looked around. She looked at the portrait of Captain Gregg last. Quietly, she called out, "Hello Captain. Are you there?" The room was silent, but Amy had the feeling that she was not alone. Again she called out looking at the captain's portrait over the fireplace, "I think you are here Captain."
Slowly, as not to upset her, the spirit of Gull Cottage materialized.
"How do you do? I am Captain Daniel Gregg, at your service. It's very nice to have you here helping out with the seamen."
Amy stared , her mouth hanging open. The man that had materialized in front of her was even more handsome than his portrait. She didn't believe in ghosts, at least she thought she didn't. The only ghost that she knew of was the Holy Ghost. And, she recalled, all the pictures she had seen did not look like this sea captain in front of her. She shook her head as if that would make the vision go away. Yet she knew that there was another soul in the room with her. She didn't know whether to be frightened or not. The man in front of her didn't look frightening. It was just that he had appeared out of thin air.
He began to explain; "You see, Gull Cottage was my home when I died. I did my best to make sure that it would become a safe place for men of the sea to live out the last few years of their life in peace and comfort. I'm happy that you are here to help them. And I'm also happy that you are able to enjoy being here."
Amy finally worked up the courage to speak to the spirit in front of her. "You don't mind me being here?"
"Of course not ," the captain replied. "I am happy that we are able to provide you with something industrious to do, something that is worthwhile and helps everyone."
Amy was about to respond but she heard footsteps coming up to the front door. Several of the men had been out looking for a Christmas tree and pine branches to decorate the house with now that Thanksgiving was past, and Christmas was right around the corner. Amy held her finger up in front of her mouth, indicating it was wise to be silent. Captain Gregg also lifted his finger to his mouth, nodded and quietly disappeared. In but a moment Sock, Charlie and Peter came into the parlor. Each had a large bundle of branches in their arms which they deposited on the floor in front of the fireplace.
"You're going to make a mess with all those needles! " said Amy. "And then Martha is going to get all upset at us." Sock laughed and said, "You are right, Miss Amy." Turning to the other men he indicated that they should go out again. Before Amy could go and inform Martha, the three were back with a tarpaulin and quickly gathered up the branches and put them on top of it. "There," said Sock , "Now you don't have to worry about any extra cleaning."
Amy nodded and took a deep breath a fresh scent of the pine. It was going to be a very good Christmas.