"Oh Scott it's lovely." Exclaimed Theresa when they passed through the copse of trees and entered the meadow.
"Yes it is, just like I told you. The creek is over there," he pointed with a raised basket, "and just as I promised there are a variety of butterflies about and a dragon fly or two near the creek I bet."
Theresa slowly took in the large meadow with her eyes; the meadow was decorated by a plethora of different flowers of all sizes and colours. Bending down Theresa sniffed at the flowers at her feet. "Mmm… that is a lovely scent. Oh Scott it was so wonderful of you to suggest we picnic here. Does this meadow belong to anyone?"
"Yes, it belongs to the Cartwright's. You remember me telling you about them owning it the other day?"
"Uhm, no… not really." Admitted Theresa.
"Well it's called Joe's meadow, named after the youngest Cartwright, Little Joe. Apparently his mother liked to bring him here on her way back from town so that she could enjoy the flowers and he could paddle with her in the creek. Poor Joe lost her a few years back when he was only 5 and so his father named the meadow after Joe and it's gonna be his to do with as he wants when he gets older."
"So no one minds people coming here then?"
"No, the Cartwright's don't usually care for people on their land, but townsfolk are allowed to come to the meadow and to visit the lake, provided they don't stay and camp without permission and that they respect the land and the horses and see that the cattle are not disturbed."
"That's very generous of the Cartwright's."
"Yes it is, it wasn't always so, but things have become a bit more relaxed of late. Well…..shall we find someone to lay the blanket down for our picnic then?"
"Yes." Theresa looked around the meadow as they walked, "Oh what about over there," Theresa said pointing with her right hand.
"By the rocks? No we should stay away from rocks and the creeks edge too. This time of year in the middle of the day rocks can hide rattle snakes and so I'd rather we find someone away from them and down by the creek is wet and we'll liable to get splashed by the beavers or something. What about over there under that tree?"
Theresa followed Scott's arm direction and spotted the tree with its branches creating almost a full natural canopy. "OK, why not."
They trooped across the meadow until they reached the foot of the tree and then after checking for ants and garter snakes, they decided the area was suitable and lay the picnic blanket down on the ground.
The sun was warm and the tree canopy was lighter in places allowing the fractured sun to be cast across the two young people as they sat down and arranged the picnic baskets between them.
"Well I don't know about you, Miss Theresa but I'm ready for lunch, how about you?"
"Yes I am hungry too. Shall I unpack everything?"
"Yes, you unpack your basket and I'll do mine and we can see what a feast we have to enjoy."
Both teenagers opened their baskets and began pulling out various packages wrapped in waxed paper which they placed on the blanket.
Theresa's contained the gammon sandwiches she had made, as well as some cookies made by Theresa and some apples and apricots packed by her aunt.
When everything was unpacked from both baskets, there were, gammon sandwiches, fried chicken, biscuits, honey oat cookies, two slices of fruit cake, made by Scott's mother and a bottle of lemonade and a bottle of elderflower wine.
"Wow, what a feast," said Scott his mouth watering at the sight of the selection in front of him.
Whilst they ate and drank, the teenagers talked about their hopes and plans for the future.
Scott was regaling Theresa of his plans to manage the hotel eventually and Theresa told him that she hoped to marry and have at least 5 children, but not for a while yet.
For the moment, Theresa was content to help out her uncle in the store and to try and expand things in the mercantile until she could go back home to her parents. She told him of her ideas again for the private dressing area and a few others that she hoped to convince her uncle to try out.
"Wow, you really do have a lot of plans. I'm just hoping to work my way up to head porter and then maybe assistant manager like Mr. Forrester." Scott said wiping his mouth with a napkin before cleaning the juices of the fried chicken from his hands.
"Yes, I suppose I do have a lot of plans. Uncle Sam has the store setup pretty well, but I've had a few ideas and Uncle Sam did like the idea of the dressing area out in the back room. He also said that if I was to continue to work there that he'd listen to any other ideas I want to tell him about."
"You are lucky; my boss says I'm just to turn up and do as I'm told and that it's his job to make suggestions about whether or not things should be changed."
"Doesn't he listen to you?"
"Well…. no not really. Oh he's fair and all that when allocating the work, but he says that I'm too young and don't have enough experience to make suggestions yet."
"Oh that's silly, if you have any ideas how to improve things, surely he should listen?"
Scott sighed, "Yeah, maybe but he didn't the last time I suggested something and well, I don't want to make him mad….. I need this job and it pays pretty well, especially when we get to keep the tips…."
Scott worried his bottom lip with his teeth, he wanted to give Theresa the gift he'd purchased for her with the large tip he'd earned for collecting the things for Mr. Buckley, but he wasn't sure whether he should right now.
"Scott, are you worried about something?"
"Huh?"
"I said are you worried about something? You're biting your lip."
"Oh, yeah I was….." Scott reached into his jacket pocket for the small box he'd put there this morning. "Uhm… Miss Theresa…I brought you this," he said holding it out for the girl.
Theresa accepted the small box and looked at it quizzically. "What is it?"
"It's nothing much, I just thought you'd like it. Go on then, open it."
Theresa used both hands to pry the box open and found a small silver hairpin inside, the head of which was decorated with a purple and yellow butterfly. "Oh, Scott it's very beautiful. Thank you… but I can't accept it."
The boy's face fell crestfallen. "Why….why not?"
Theresa replaced the lid on the box carefully and he held the box out and tears filled her eyes, "Scott, I think you are a very nice boy…." Sniff… "but….oh…. I'm so sorry…. I never meant to make you…." She dropped the box and got to her feet and took off running towards the creek, embarrassed.
"Theresa! wait….. wait!" Scott got to his feet and he ran to catch up with the girl.
Theresa found herself at the edge of the creek near a tree with branches overhanging the water and she sank down to her knees and started sobbing.
Scott was beside her within a minute and he fell onto his knees as well and gently touched her on the shoulder. "Miss Theresa, please don't cry. I never meant to upset you."
"It's …. not…" sniff, "you're ….fault," sniff… "Oh….. I'm….so…sorry…."
Scott gently reached out to turn the young girls head around, "You're sorry? Sorry for what?"
"Oh…Scott….. I like you very much… but…. but…..as ….friend…..I only….wanted…you to be….my friend….."
"So did I….. want to be friends I mean. Have I done something to make you not want to be my friend? If so please tell me what…I...I didn't mean to upset you."
"But the gift… it must of cost…..you….a lot…of money…" sniffed Theresa in between sniffing back her sobs.
Scott shrugged and used his right hand to hand the girl beside him his clean white handkerchief, "It's nothing…. I just thought it was pretty and you'd like it. If you don't like it I can take it back."
Theresa wiped at her eyes, "No it's not that I ….don't….like it….. I think….. its… very beautiful….." Theresa looked sadly at the boy's face. "I'm not in love with you Scott and I don't think I will ever be…. not like that anyway…."
"Oh…. "
"Do, you hate me for leading you on; I didn't mean to deceive you?"
"Is there someone else you are sweet on then?" Scott asked quietly.
"No… no there's no one else." Admitted Theresa earnestly, yes she knew that Jake had appeared to be upset that she was going on a picnic with Scott and she couldn't deny that her heart started pounding whenever she was near him. But they hadn't gone further than talking at the store whilst she was working and she wasn't sure what it meant anyway that her heart behaved like that but it wasn't love, not yet anyway. And after all she had agreed to go one a picnic with Scott and not Jake, hadn't she.
"Do you want me to take you home, now?" Scott asked softly.
Theresa looked at the young boy, "No. Do you want to go home then?"
"No. Miss Theresa…."
"Oh, please, Scott, drop the miss, we are on our own and I want you to call me by my name, will you do that for me please?"
Scott nodded, "Sure. Theresa… I really like you…. but if you don't want to court, can we still be friends."
Theresa wiped her eyes with the handkerchief and smiled weakly, "Really? Can we still be friends?"
Scott shrugged his shoulders and grinned, "I don't see why not. You like me and I like you and I'd rather still like to see you as a friend, if that's OK of course."
Theresa blurted out a laugh, "Yes….yes… I'd like very much to stay friends."
"Well then, that's settled. Why don't we go back and finish our picnic?"
"OK."
Scott scrambled to his feet and brushed down his pants then he held out his hand for Theresa. She took it and he helped her stand.
"Come on, I'm still hungry."
Theresa laughed and the two friends made their way back to the blanket.
When they sat back down Theresa picked up the box and held it out for Scott, "Here, you better take this back." She said.
Scott shook his head, "No, you keep it please."
"I can't take it."
"Yes you can, you like it don't you?"
"Well, yes I do, you know I told you that it was beautiful."
"Well I want you to have it. Please accept it. Friends can give friends gifts you know."
"But, Scott…"
"Please. Please just accept it and I promise that I won't think you've accepted it because we're courting or anything. I brought it for you Theresa and I don't want to take it back."
"Well …. OK…if you really want me to….. thank you very much for the beautiful gift."
Scott smiled and he reached for a gammon sandwich, "You're welcome. Now let's eat and then if you want, we can take a walk along the creeks edge and I'll show you where the beavers keep trying to dam up the creek."
Theresa selected her own sandwich, "Yes, I'd like to see the beavers," she replied before biting into the sandwich.
15 minutes later and after they each taken a long drink, the food that hadn't been eaten was packed away into the picnic baskets and taken with the blanket back to the surrey, before Scott lead the way back across the meadow to the creek.
The tensions of earlier had melted away and the two young teenagers were at ease with each other again.
Scott walked the creek side of the couple and pointed out the different types of fish they could see and the locations of the beaver lodges, which were stationed along the opposite bank.
"I can't see any entrances, how to they get in?"
"They're underwater, the beavers build these out of mud and twigs and such and they like to keep the entrances hidden, so they make them under water and they swim into them. Hey look over there," Scott pointed and Theresa gasped when she saw two beaver heads break the surface of the water.
The teenagers stopped for a while, watching the beavers swimming about and playing with each other.
"I didn't know they played like that," Theresa admitted.
"Yes, even the older one's do. Haven't you seen beavers before?" Scott asked.
"No, aren't they playful?" she said laughing as one beaver dived then came up underneath the other who squeaked and the dived himself.
"Yes, they are. Do you want to see if they've tried to build a dam further down?"
"Oh, yes, let's go and see."
They left the beavers to their playful exploits and they walked further down the creek bank.
"There, see, they've almost completed the dam again." Scott said pointing at the pile of logs, twigs and mud that the beavers had piled across the creek.
The dam was almost completed but water was still flowing over and down the middle. As they watched they saw some more beavers pushing logs with their heads over to the dam.
"We need to break it up."
"But why? Won't they be mad?"
"Yes they'll probably be pretty angry with us I expect, but we can't let them divert the water flow or it will back up and flood part of the meadow."
"Oh, do people do this often? Break up the dams, I mean."
"Yes, the beavers don't like it and they very quickly build them up again but everyone has to do their bit when they can. This creek flows a long way and cattle depend on it. You remember the Cartwright's allow people to come here if they don't cause a problem to the cattle don't you?"
"Yes you said that earlier."
"Well…. part of that is doing the neighbourly thing and if you see something that can cause a problem for the horses or cattle then you try and stop it. The beavers will try again probably further downstream. Wait here whilst I get a stick to clean the dam with."
Scott left Theresa watching the beavers whilst he went and picked up a long thin but sturdy branch and then walked past her making as much noise as possible to scare the beavers away and when that didn't have much effect, he started slapping the stick in the water at the same time.
This got the beavers attention and they swam away. Normally Scott would have been happy to wade into the creek and manually clear the dam, but today he was still in his Sunday best so he stood as near as he dared to the creeks edge and used the branch to dig away at the dam. Eventually his efforts were rewarded and the dam broke away and bits of it floated downstream.
"What a shame, the beavers must have worked hard on building that."
"Yep, but still it had to be done. Come on there's something else I want you to see."
Scott threw the branch into the meadow and he grabbed Theresa's hand and pulled her quickly downstream where he had spotted some stepping stones that made a path across the creek to the opposite side. "I'll go first and then you follow," he said, "Watch your step they can be slippery sometimes."
There were eight stepping stones and Scott made it to the middle and turned somewhat cockily and bade Theresa to start walking across, it was when he turned back to face the other bank that he lost his footing on the stone and he fell sideways into the cold water.
"Scott!" Theresa yelled.
The water was only a foot deep at that point but Scott had fallen awkwardly and ended up face first in the water. Turning himself over quickly he sat in the water, "Ah hell these are my best Sunday clothes." He exclaimed angrily.
Seeing the boy wasn't hurt, Theresa started laughing, "Oh Scott, you sure are a sight."
"You think this is funny?" he retorted angrily. "Ma's gonna kill me."
Theresa looked a little contrite but she was still having problems disguising her mirth.
Scott scowled and tried to get to his feet only to slip on the loose stones in the creek bed, falling backwards this time and now he was completely soaked as his head went under the water. He came up spluttering, "Shit! Now I'm completely soaked."
Theresa couldn't contain her laughter and she doubled over laughing at the creek bank not having tried to step out onto the stepping stones yet.
"Don't laugh at me! It's not funny."
Theresa heard the anger in the young boy's voice and she immediately stopped laughing. "I'm…. sorry Scott…. It's just you did look so very funny."
"Well I don't think it's funny at all. What do you think your Uncle will say when I take you home like this eh? And my Ma's gonna hit the roof when she sees me like this."
Whilst he spoke he crawled his way across the creek bed to the edge of the bank. "Help me out will you so I don't fall back in."
"Yes, OK," Theresa bent down and held out her hand for Scott to take and felt herself jerked off her feet and she flew through the air and splashed down in the cold water next to Scott.
She coughed and spluttered and then turned to face the now grinning 16 year old boy. "What the hell did you do that for?"
"Well you thought it was funny when I fell in so I thought I'd see how you like it." He said smirking.
Theresa wiped her long now wet hair back from her face and then slapped her hands down on the water. "Just look at my dress! How could you? Ooooohhh." She yelled.
"Hey, fair's fair, now you know how I feel." Scott held onto the bank as he got to his feet and then he held out his hand, "Here, grab on and I'll help you out."
"No, don't bother, I'll get out myself!" she retorted angrily.
"Suit yourself." Scott scrambled up the bank and watched the girl try and climb out of the creek herself, the trouble was that as she was wearing two petticoats as well as her pantaloons and the weight of the wet clothing that was now clinging to her legs made it difficult.
She managed to make it to the water's edge but was struggling to climb out. Scott let her struggle for a few minutes before he strode back to the creek and bent down and offered his hand again. "Please let me help you."
"Oh ….alright!" Theresa clasped the boys hand and with his help she was able to climb out of the creek. "It's colder that I thought it would be," she said rubbing her arms.
"Yes it is," Scott looked at his watch, it read half past 4. "Come on we'd better start walking back."
Both of them squeezed out as much of the water from their clothing that they could whilst wearing it and then they slowly walked back the way that they had come.
"I'll make a fire to dry us out a bit," said Scott when they were back where they'd picnicked earlier. He left Theresa looking for some small rocks to make a fire pit with whilst he routed around for some dry twigs. Finding plenty he returned and then set about clearing a space and then putting the stones around it, before lighting the fire by rubbing two twigs together. Soon he had a decent fire going and they sat around it trying to get warmer and dry their clothing.
"Gosh I'm cold," Theresa said. The sun had lowered a little in the sky since the picnic and the wind had picked up a little but if they had been dry it probably wouldn't have bothered either of them.
"I'll uh, go and get the blanket," Scott said disappearing off to the surrey and returning minutes later with the blanket that he draped around Theresa as she huddle around the fire.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome. Feeling warmer?"
"Yes thank you. I'm sorry for laughing at you when you feel in the creek."
"Yeah… well I'm sorry I got mad at you and pulled you in too. Still friends?"
Theresa smiled at Scott, "yes, still friends."
"We need to think about starting back soon," Scott said a few minutes later whilst warming his hands by the fire.
"Oh, what time is it?"
"Uh, well the last time I looked it was half past 4." Scott removed his watch from his pocket and opened it. It still said half past 4. The journey back to town would take around 40 minutes if they drove as carefully as they did on the way to the meadow.
What Scott hadn't reckoned on though was that there was dirt as well as water in the mechanism so by the time he had fallen in the creek it was already past 5.
"Shit!" Scott shook his watch. "Damn it, the damn watch had stopped. Theresa we need to get going, I've no idea what the time is and if we're late back your Uncle will be mad."
They stood up and kicked out the fire, before stamping down on the pile of earth covering the pile of twigs to ensure that the fire was out and then they walked quickly back to the surrey. Scott helped Theresa up into the front seat unconsciously and then he hitched up the horses, climbed up himself and within a minute they had turned back towards the main trail.