Chapter XVIII

"Hester?" Ken stuck out his head from behind his daughter's bedroom's door. He looked directly into Hester's expectant eyes, distracted from her contagious focus of playing her cello, her bow put nervously on her knee.

"Yes, daddy?" she asked while putting her bow on the notes stand carefully, thinking that he had something important to tell her "Did something happen?" her voice sounded slightly alarmed.

"No, no…" he shook his head and came into the room quietly, his voice muted as well "Not exactly... But it's just that a certain Jo Reed nee Meredith is asking whether she could take a walk with you... now." he raised both of his eyebrows at Hester who was his mirror at that moment.

"Jo?" she asked in a shocked surprise "But… why would she want to take a walk with me?"

Ken shrugged helplessly "No idea, dearest, but I suppose you'll have to go and see for yourself."

Hester nodded along and when Ken closed the door behind him and went downstairs again, she started to put away her cello, notes and her notes stand very attentively as always but quickly enough. Her mind was quite blank for she had absolutely no idea why Jo would want to take a walk with her and most importantly talk to her, to Hester Ford whom she always disliked and was never afraid to show it either!

Hester put on a yellow jumper on her blouse and grabbed her old beret and a scarf from her wardrobe. While coming downstairs her black braid danced up and down without her realising, she was so deep in thought. She was now in the living room and there truly was no one else but Jo Meredith sitting on the couch between Rilla and Ken. Both of Hester's parents evidently tried their best to talk to her and possibly ask her about what made her come to the House of Dreams so suddenly but Hester could see very clearly that they didn't get any answer from the stubborn Jo.

Jo's face lit up slightly as she saw her cousin appearing in the room and she stood up abruptly but with no shadow of a grin on her face "Hello, Hester." she said casually although her voice sounded differently to what Hester was accustomed to.

"Hello, Jo." she replied politely, smiling kindly at her older cousin with interest in her eyes "I heard you wanted me to…" she started but Jo interrupted her quickly.

"Will you? Please?" she gave her an expectant look, almost a glare Hester thought.

"I will." Hester said, matching Jo's firm tone all of a sudden "Shall we go, then?" she waved at the door and Jo turned to the door wordlessly, walking down the stairs of the verandah and clearly waiting for Hester to follow her.

Hester glanced at her parents who raised their eyebrows once again and shrugged in the perfect unison "I'll wait with dinner for you, darling." Rilla assured her daughter with a gentle smile.

"Thank you, mum." Hester smiled back at her and reached for the doorknob "Wish me luck." she said quietly enough so that Jo couldn't hear her and so Hester came out of the house, catching up to Jo who was already walking on the lane leading to the old Lighthouse.

Jo most definitely looked different on that day. She usually dressed in the highest and newest of fashion possible and even with rationing she would always find a way of either trading or sewing her own clothes to match those she'd find in the magazines. She always used to wear a lot of make-up and the brightest red lipstick Hester and all of the members of her Group had ever seen anyone wearing. Jo's hair was always put into rolls and pinned up, just like she'd seen Vivian Leigh doing. High heels were as necessary as hair on Jo's head, but that's needless to mention.

But on that day all of her usual standards were changed into the quite contrary ones which surprised Hester immensely. Jo looked… normal. She wore a plain blue dress she could have bought seven years earlier, her brown hair was plainly lying down on her shoulders under the old grey hat, the coat she wore belonged to her mother and so which Nan must have bought around ten years before, and because it was opened it revealed Jo's not-so-flat-now stomach. Jo's brown eyes were very different to the ones Hester always remembered as well. She looked simply miserable and her eyes were a definition of that word exactly.

"Are you alright, Jo?" Hester asked her softly, both of them already walking together in silence for a few moments.

Jo turned her face to Hester, looked down at her for she was several inches taller than her, and gulped loudly "Of course I'm not alright." she breathed out heatedly but this time Hester wasn't sure whether Jo was angry at her or at her own self "I will never be again!" she clasped her hands together and started rubbing them against each other nervously.

Hester looked up at her cousin and hesitantly decided to touch Jo's hands and put them gently into her own "Jo, please tell me what you wanted to talk to me about? And just tell me… everything. Please." she said softly and when Jo looked down at Hester once more her eyes were as kind as never before that day, which made Hester's heart jump a little.

Jo nodded "Yes, of course." she said more calmly and then withdrew her hands awkwardly from Hester's "Well," she looked at the lane in front of her and then back at her companion "-I wanted to speak to you because you see, Hester, you are the only person who is on neither sides of my situation and who is just the kindest person I know." she smiled gently at Hester who frowned a little despite herself.

"Jo, you never even… liked me." she said in confusion.

Jo looked into Hester's eyes for a moment and then sighed deeply. Now it was her turn to take Hester's hands in her own and give them a light squeeze "I…" she started and then sighed again before meeting her eyes "No, you're right of course. I never liked you… But it was only because you are just so perfect, Hester, just such a perfect person!" she let go of her hands once more and her eyes turned wet all of a sudden. Hester watched her as if she was witnessing a true revelation of her life which Jo Reed truly was, as always.

"I'm not a perfect…" Hester started.

"Yes, you are, that's my point!" Jo exclaimed suddenly before settling herself down with another deep sigh "You are kind, talented as hell, sweet, polite, extremely smart, you're your parents' pride…" a few tears started to roll down Jo's cheeks and that was when Hester stopped both of them from walking and now stood in front of Jo, squeezing her shoulders gently so that Jo would look in her eyes again.

"Jo, your parents love you." she assured her softly.

"They say that they do but I see a different feeling in their eyes whenever I stand up and my belly becomes visible to them again." she said hopelessly, her hand on her rounded stomach at which Hester looked down for a moment too "They are disgusted with me, everyone is."

"That's not true at all, Jo." Hester said calmly, looking straight into her cousin's eyes "It's not like that at all. Of course, you did your mistakes, everyone did and does and will do. Myself included." she grinned slightly at Jo's wet face "But, dear, please don't think that your parents or your family don't love you because you're going to have a baby outside of marriage. That's simply not possible."

"How do you know that?" Jo asked her suddenly.

"Jo, don't you know that?" Hester asked without hesitation "Deep down in your heart?" she put her hand above Jo's left breast where her heart surely was for it was beating fastly when Hester put her hand on it.

Jo looked down into Hester's eyes once more, biting her upper lip and then nodded slowly "I… I think… Maybe?" she said.

Hester chuckled softly "They do love you, we all do. I do." she said surely and squeezed her hands in her own "Your parents aren't arguing with you anymore, are they?" she asked her kindly.

Jo shook her head "No, we all just accepted the fact that in February my bump will be gone and something will come out of it instead." she said and when Hester started to chuckle again, Jo joined her "We did quarrel. They couldn't understand why I did it in the first place, without marrying first but it's ridiculous because they do know why." she said decidedly.

"They do?" Hester asked, surprised.

"Of course!" Jo said as if it was obvious "I always lived in a moment! Didn't I refuse Marshall's proposal even though I thought he was the one for me? Of course, he wasn't, now I know but still it was something the whole Glen and Four Winds were talking about for a whole month!" she chuckled quietly at that "Didn't I marry Hawk? Even though I didn't really love him?" she shrugged and then sighed "Well, I did love him but just not enough to marry him. I did marry him because it gave me and him comfort when he was going off to the front."

"I think that if my Seb were to ask me to marry him before he'd be going to the front I would have said 'yes' too." Hester said absent-mindedly before she realised that she said that aloud and she blushed heavily but smiled at Jo to continue.

Jo smiled back at her cousin and Hester just then realised how beautiful she truly was, without all of her makeup and high heels, and also how similar in expressions Jo's face was to her own mother's face "Yes, many people do that." she continued "I was sad that he died. I think that if he survived… we would be happy together, maybe." she said, her eyes turning a bit gloomy but then she shrugged the feeling off and grinned at Hester again "But then Cal came along and he was so adventurous and poetic at the same time and quite frankly all I ever wanted in a man." her eyes spoke dreams and liveliness until she was brought down to earth again and her smile weakened "And when he was going off to war and we both didn't want to marry yet, well…" she shrugged again "We lived in a moment."

"'Carpe diem' so they say." Hester added, nodding along although her cheeks were turning slightly pink.

"Yes, yes." Jo agreed "I know it was wrong. I knew that it was wrong as soon as the day after and so the day when Cal was on a ship to England." she patted her stomach tenderly "A day after I told my parents and we talked about it all again, they told me that they still do love me after all I've done and…" all of a sudden tears started to roll down her cheeks again like small waterfalls and Hester embraced her tightly.

"Didn't I tell you that, Jo?" she asked her softly, her lips in a dent of Jo's shoulder.

"Yes, you did." she weeped into Hester's hair "I just don't know how is that possible that they still really love me."

"They do because you're their daughter and they're your parents." Hester whispered and then pulled away, looking into Jo's eyes again "I'm pretty sure you'll know what it means for yourself in a couple of months." she smiled gently at her and then caressed Jo's stomach gingerly.

Jo looked down at her bump and smiled herself "Yes, I suppose I will know what it means pretty soon." she agreed.

"Are you better now?" Hester asked her caringly.

"Yes, thank you." Jo replied nicely "Hester?"

"Yes, Jo?" she asked, her eyebrow raised questioningly "What is it?"

"The reason I came today, apart from this whole scene." she waved her hand and both she and Hester laughed "Is because I wanted to apologise for everything unkind I did you. I didn't mean it. Well, I did but I don't now." she nodded to reassure Hester of that "I'm a different person now. I have to be." she patted her own stomach gently "Will you forgive me?"

"There's nothing to forgive." Hester said with a smile.

Jo's face lit up immediately and she kissed Hester's cheek "You're the kindest!" she whispered joyfully "Will you… Do you want to be my friend after all?" she asked sheepishly.

"I think that I already am, Jo." Hester smiled at her cousin sweetly "And I do want to be."

"Thank you." Jo whispered gently and then grinned while wiping her tears off from her cheeks "I just wanted to explain something more."

"Yes?" Hester asked curiously.

"The reason why I was so cold towards you is that I just envied you." Jo said sorrowfully "You didn't have to do anything for other people to like you and I always had to do something unusual to gain other's sympathy towards me... That is the reason."

Hester looked into Jo's eyes for a longer moment and then grinned wholeheartedly "It doesn't take a lot for the right people to like you, Jo." she said gently "And I like you a lot, now."

Jo smiled gratefully at her new and very first true friend and took her hand in her own, resuming their walk "I like you even more, Hester Ford." she said to her kindly and then looked at the lane again.

"What is it?" Hester encouraged her and Jo looked at her again.

"There's one more thing." she said finally.

"Yes?" Hester asked, the corner of her lip curving up.

"I am engaged to Cal now." Jo announced rather dryly.

"Why, Jo?" Hester asked her in surprise "You said that you didn't love him enough to marry him!"

"I don't know if I don't." she said honestly "I will know once he comes back from the front. Besides, Hester, I need to marry him for the baby's sake if not for our family's." she put her hand protectively over her round stomach.

Hester touched it too and then looked up to Jo again "Jo, nobody from our family takes notice of what other people say." Hester said decidedly although she did hear other women in town talking about "the Reverend's granddaughter's scandal" one day, but Hester knew that John Meredith did love his granddaughter as much as he did the day she was born and so she simply ignored the two women talking on that day.

"That's what is right, Hester." Jo said firmly "It is, you and I know that well enough and I decided. Not only did I change but I also decided to finally start doing things that are right. Something what I always should have been doing anyway." she said with a hint of regret in her voice.

"It's wonderful that you changed for the better." Hester touched her arm gently "It's something the world should do itself if not more. And if you truly are certain about engagement to Cal then that's how it will be."

"We both decided that it is right and... Cal is even excited about it." Jo's eyes danced merrily for a second and Hester smiled at the sight of Jo's dark eyes twinkling even if just for a moment "So yes, I am engaged to Cal Sutton."

"Congratulations then, Jo." Hester said joyfully.

"Thanks." she replied with a faint smile and then put her arm into Hester's "Today's been one of the best days for me since forever, you know that, Hester?" she asked her companion softly.

Hester looked up into Jo's eyes and all she could see was something she always wanted to see there and that was truth and kindness. Hester's heart filled with an enormous amount of joy and so she squeezed Jo's hand once again and smiled radiantly at her "I know, Jo. It was the same for me." she said "And there are many more to come."