Chapter XL
A day after the Canadian troops captured Dieppe and on the same day when the Allied troops were about to enter Belgium, Hester arranged for herself, Selwyn and Poppy to have some time spent just in their own company at the old House of Dreams.
Ken was at his office whilst Rilla decided with Nan and Faith to go together for a day to Charlottetown to have some "girls' time" as they called it. Daria was also at her own office that day and before the already arranged meeting of Hester's group in the Rainbow Valley, Hester still had the whole of three hours to spend with her two siblings on that nice and warm morning of early September.
"I can't believe that our small Susan is in love." Selwyn said whilst he was hopping Poppy up and down on his knee as she was giggling in joy "And with her brother Will's best friend's brother at that!" he smiled softly at Hester who came back from the kitchen with a tray overfilled with cookies and three cups full of lemonade.
"I've seen both Susan and Flynn together on several occasions, on their apparent 'friendly' terms, of course." she said cheerfully as she sat down and took Poppy in her arms as her little sister outstretched her little arms asking for a cookie of her own "I think they're very suited for each other, even though they are quite young to be in love to be honest, with Susan being only fifteen and Jeremiah seventeen."
Selwyn took a sip from his cup and then grinned at his sister as he put his knees together comfortably on the sofa "Well, Walt was fifteen as well when he started following every step of Cornelia's feet." he said and made Hester chuckle "Now they're happily married, seven years after it has all started." he said with a soft look in his eyes that was almost resembling the one he always had before the year of 1939.
Hester gazed up at him with a sudden warmth spreading over her chest. She has noticed that ever since her brother came back home, day after day, conversation after conversation, dinner after dinner, his eyes were beginning to gradually out cloud of their gloominess and secrets of the war. This was exactly why Vance was in a dilemma over whether she should maybe in a few more weeks tell him of her own feelings for him, if she was brave enough that is. Hester advised her to wait still, it would be like a punch in the stomach for him if he didn't share her feeling even though Hester herself was suspecting that he might be considering Vance of a bit more than just his best friend whom she already was anyway. Time had to be respected, though, both Hester and Vance were aware of that at least.
"That's true." Hester agreed whilst keeping an eye on Poppy and whether she wasn't swallowing her cookie too fast "Cornelia is very anxious to start her life with Walt after his two years of Redmond."
"I know, Vance told me." Selwyn said with another sip of lemonade, his gaze not quite meeting Hester's, making her heart skip a beat in a sudden wave of excitement and fear that encapsulated her "But Cornelia will be occupied enough with her nursing at the Bright River Hospital during that time and after Walt's graduation as well, I'm sure." he said, smiling up at Hester who grinned back at him.
Poppy finished her cookie whilst happily grabbing the cup of lemonade in her chubby hands "Not so fast you little beast!" Hester laughed merrily whilst helping her little sister to hold her cup as she was hungrily drinking from it.
Selwyn observed them both with something of a twinkle in his eyes, or rather his one eye, and saw something that Marshall Douglas saw as well all of those four months earlier "You were born to be a mother, dearest sister." he said softly to Hester who looked up at him with an almost distracted look in her hazel eyes.
"We'll see about that." she said just as softly, quietly and put the cup of Poppy's back on the tray, letting her sister stand on her own on the floor and wobble off to once Hester's own, old dollhouse in the corner of the room.
Selwyn's grin disappeared and he sat up nearer to Hester, not saying a word but simply looking into her eyes. He took her hand in his gently then "He'll come back, Hester." he whispered as if it was a secret only he knew.
She looked up into his eyes, the same shade as her own, frowning slightly "You don't know that, Selwyn. No one does." she whispered back.
"I do know." he smiled lightly at her "Goodness knows but Seb was a horrid mistake of a man for treating you like he did," he squeezed her hand then as Hester's eyes filled with soft, warm tears "-and Phillip, I know he is one of your dearest friends, but God help him, he was a fool to ever stop chasing after you." Selwyn smiled at his sister with his own eyes filled with pride and a temporary state of joy.
Hester smiled back at him, wiping away her tears "That's exactly what Marshall says." she replied with a widening grin as she touched the soft piece of paper she had in the pocket of her dress "But he always adds on that with the mistakes both of them did he achieved "something he never thought was possible to achieve by his heart"." when both Selwyn and Hester grinned at each other then, Hester chuckled sweetly "Somehow I managed to turn him from a very prosy man into one who tries to speak the language of love."
That made Selwyn laugh as well as he put his arm around Hester's shoulder and kissed her cheek gently "He's a lucky man." he said to her kindly "He knows it well enough himself, I can see that. This is why he will come back to you."
Hester's smile disappeared suddenly as she looked up into her brother's eyes again "How do you know that?" she asked him almost in disbelief over her own brother thinking in that way about soldiers at the war.
Selwyn smiled softly at her, putting his mouth closer to her ear in that funny way Hester knew well from their childhood years "It's a secret I have kept in my soul for a long time and it alone concerns your ear to hear it."
Hester's jaw almost dropped as she heard her brother speak the way he used to all those years ago. She smiled at him happily and kissed his nose "Well then, I will keep it hidden well inside my heart." she whispered back and they both grinned at each other before Poppy started to stumble on Selwyn's feet.
He took her on his lap and kissed her red locks "Hester," he said suddenly and Hester turned her head curiously into the direction of his voice "-I was to ask you that ever since I came back but somehow didn't know when or how…"
"Yes?" she said, interestingly.
"I remember you telling me how you and Marshall fell in love with each other," he said with a soft grin on his pale face "-and I know that on the day when you both saw each other again when he came back to Canada in April, you were playing this one piano piece…"
"Do you want me to play it for you?" she asked him eagerly.
"Yes, please." he smiled at her and then put Poppy's head against his chest as she was clearly at the loss of her toddler-energy.
Hester smiled readily and jumped from her seat effortlessly. She made her way to the piano of her own standing against the wall with a true grace of a musician unafraid of the story music can tell. Selwyn smiled at that picture already. "It was Beethoven's Sonata No. 1 in F-minor Op. 2 No., Prestissimo. My favourite piece for the piano." she said dreamily, opening the case and preparing her fingers to do their magic as Selwyn observed her with fascination "Marshall came in when I was still playing it, my favourite part at that." she chuckled quietly, looking at the keys wonderingly "He came from my left, from behind as if he was my shadow. I saw him from the corner of my eye and stopped playing but the music was somehow still in my mind and my ears…" and off she started playing Beethoven with a certain man and a hope in Selwyn's secret about him, in her own heart.
As the Germans were surrendering at Bologne, Hester was again walking alongside the shore towards the old Lighthouse. This time, though, she walked enveloped in her ancient grey jumper and the longest dress she possessed in her wardrobe. Next to her walked Lily, her eyes closed to the wind and her mind clearly somewhere else. On Hester's right, though, were Marion and Vance, focused on their pathways ahead and both with the same frowns on their foreheads both caused by the contagious feeling of love.
"How was your work today, Lily?" Hester asked the redheaded girl with a little pat on the arm.
Lily, as if awoken from a deep dream of her own looked at Hester and after a second she smiled at her and the two girls walking beside her "It was very busy, being the local law advisor is quite a challenge after all." she replied but a certain voice of the old Lily could be clearly heard through it which made Hester's heart jump a little.
"We're so proud of you, dear." Marion said to her sister with tears in her eyes already and a smile on her lips too "And I know that you're only saying that it's busy but you enjoy it because of that."
Lily, Hester and Vance looked at Marion then as her voice was plainly trying to say something else yet exactly that at the same time. Lily put her hand past the girls and stopped them all from walking. She came in front of Marion and took her hands in her own "Yes, I agree with you, Marion." she said seriously "Now, will you tell us why is it that your heart can hardly beat?"
Marion was slightly taken aback by this and she looked at all the girls, or rather young women, standing in front of her with her eyes simply filling more and more fully with fresh tears. Hester instinctively put her arms around her shaking shoulders and kissed her cheek, patiently waiting for her to speak up. "Harry left for the front today." Marion whispered finally, giving in for the salty liquid running down her flushed cheeks.
It was as if the weather itself was controlled by Marion's heart. The sky was entirely white and full of clouds, the moisture could be felt in the air and it was only God's will when it would start to pour down on the Earth beneath Him. Despite that, though, the girls didn't care about the weather at all and instead crowded around Marion, trying to find an arm, a palm or a finger to touch and comfort.
"Why didn't you tell us at once?" Lily asked her almost in disbelief.
"I just thought that once I'll say it out loud, it will become a reality." Marion answered wiping away the tears from her cheeks, trying her best to catch a breath.
"Darling, but you can't think about the dangers that can meet him there all the time." Hester said to her tenderly "If I'd be thinking about Marshall being so close to danger all the time I wouldn't be able to live at all. I do think about him constantly, like you I'm sure, but not about the dangers around him. " she smiled knowingly at Marion who managed to smile back through her red eyes.
"We're here for you, dear." Vance said to Marion, squeezing her hand whilst grinning positively at her.
Marion glanced back and forth at all of her bosom friends standing beside her and she smiled finally, even though a few more tears dropped down on her cheeks "What would I do without you, my girls?" she said to them and they all smiled back at her and at each other "Of course, you're all right but it's never been easy for me not to worry even when I know myself I shouldn't, or at least not as much as I do."
"We know." Lily said with a soft grin at her younger sister "But Marion that's why you have to talk to us about the things that worry you."
She looked up at them again and smiled now a bit bashfully, her cheeks reddening slightly "I…" she started "-it might seem very silly but… I do worry about Harry, extremely indeed but there's also something else that I've been worried about and now I know it is something that won't happen." her eyes were somehow shadowed again.
"What is it, dear?" Hester asked her caringly.
Marion looked up at her and her cheeks were still reddening. She sighed heavily "After our marriage and before Harry had gone to the training camp only two days after it," she started "-I… thought and prayed as well… that I would become pregnant and at least have a part of him always with me even if he'll… if he… won't come back." she finished in a whisper and tightened her lips as if forbidding herself to sob again.
That was something Hester didn't think Marion would say or think about. That was the moment when Hester had nothing but to realise that one of her dearest friends is most definitely now on the other side of growing up, the side which Hester was still an alien to. She couldn't help but to also have a few tears of her own in her eyes yet she smiled at Marion gently "Oh, Marion…" she said.
"I'm not pregnant, though." Marion added swiftly, smiling bravely through her tears.
"Sweet little sister of mine," Lily caught Marion's hands in hers "-please don't fall into this trap of regrets, sorrows, worries, negatives and false hope. I've gone through it all way too many times. Please, listen to my advice and live by it: carpe diem, because you don't know how much your life can change within just an hour's time."
By this time all four girls were smiling at each other with tears either in their eyes or already running down their cheeks. It was this moment when they all felt that life was simple even though it never quite was or is or ever could be. However, that one moment was simple and beautiful because of that.
Marion didn't have to reply, she simply nodded and smiled even more widely seconds before the skies opened up as the countless clouds above started to pour down their souls onto the world beneath them, including Hester and her friends. They all started to laugh, and their hands linked together as if to represent forever between their own souls. Hester had another epiphany then, even though they were all twenty years old or above, they could always still feel like children, if they only let themselves to be free enough.