Chapter 230 – Father Mark Gets Jack to Open Up
Jack turned red and ducked his head. Jack had to get out and take a walk around for a moment. Not only was he uncomfortable with the topic he was also debating how much to tell Father Mark about the conversation with Elizabeth.
"You two are going to have to talk about that at some point." Father Mark pointed out. "It is probably better to talk about things at least a little before you get to the wedding night."
"I guess." Jack said. "I just don't even know where to start. I also know that I am going to have to be extra sensitive to her."
"Is there any particular reason why?" Father Mark asked.
"Something happened to her when she was thirteen and at camp." Jack said. "One of the older boys there took advantage of her."
"She told you this?" Father Mark asked.
"Yes." Jack said. "She told Nathan and I the day after we arrived here. It was after the Lacy incident. She asked if I had been with anyone. I explained to her that I had made a vow to remain pure until I was married. I explained it was a gift to my future wife. She told me that she wished she could give me the same, but that it had been taken from her. I initially got upset thinking Charlie had done something to her, but she talked to us about the incident when she was at camp.
At first I was angry, but then I calmed myself down. I kept telling myself that it didn't matter and it wasn't something she meant to give away and that she was sorry for what happened. There was a part of me that wanted to know who the guy was, but there wasn't much she could remember about him. She did eventually tell me his first name. I told her it didn't matter. I loved her and what he did wasn't going to change that."
"Very good of you." Father Mark said. "But I can see it in your eye that you didn't drop it."
"I might have given the information to Devin to have him look into." Jack said. "So far he hasn't told me anything."
"What are you going to do with the information if Devin finds something?" Father Mark asked.
"I don't know." Jack said.
"I suggest you figure that out." Father Mark said. "Otherwise don't get it from him."
"Understood." Jack said.
"I will also be having a conversation with him in that regard." Father Mark said.
"I assumed so." Jack said.
"I know that there is more." Father Mark said. "Talk to me. We have plenty of time. I know that you won't talk to anyone else. So we are going to sit here and talk. I already sent a message to Gran. She said that they were going to work on wedding planning."
"Good." Jack said. "If we can meet your conditions, six weeks will come fast."
"It will." Father Mark said. "However there is a lot that needs to get done, so it is probably good that the ladies are doing some planning."
"Elizabeth and I talked a little about what we wanted." Jack said. "I told her I want to wear my kilt and tartan vest. I think she knows that I am going to have Doug, Lee and Nathan stand up with me. I was thinking of asking Frank to do the readings."
"That sounds good." Father Mark said. "Who do you think Elizabeth will have to stand up with her?"
"Right now." Jack said. "I don't know. I would think Caitlin, since they have seemed to hit it off. Maybe security Katie. Maybe the twins and Becky. I don't know. Cody will probably be the ring bearer. I have no idea for the flower girl."
"Just so you know." Father Mark said. "You don't need all those. Just you, Elizabeth, two witnesses and me."
"I know." Jack said. "But I also know that I will not deny Elizabeth the wedding that she wants since she has agreed to give the two things that I want – in the Catholic Church and me wearing my kilt."
"Nice compromise." Father Mark said. "So how are you dealing with the other news?"
"It is still hard to wrap my head around." Jack said. "It might make sense why I have always been fascinated with twins, but it is still so hard to think that my parents would just abandon her. I would still want to know why and what happened to her."
"That is only natural." Father Mark said. "How have your other emotions been?"
"Up and down." Jack said.
Father Mark and Jack talked about things. By the time that they headed back to the house Jack was feeling better about things.
After both Doug and Nathan had ridden Bubbles and felt that he was good, they took a small break and while Lee and Peter got Squeak warmed up. Doug and Nathan talked about what they felt when riding Bubbles and where they felt he needed work. They both agreed that he was still pretty green, but that the girls would be able to handle him.
When they brought Squeak over, Nathan rode him first. He had the same problems with commands that Bubbles had and Nathan quickly realized that the guy might have sold them as fully trained, but they were not what would be described as finished horses. Nathan was almost a little hesitant to put two ten and half year olds on the horse, but he had seen that the girls were good and knew what they were doing. They would still have to watch them and be super careful. Nathan was going to write out a longer report to Marco and Andy about the horses. Nathan was also worried about Wex. If the guy thought that Bubbles and Squeak were trained, Nathan was afraid that Wex would be even more green being younger.
Once the guys were done with the horses, they turned them out with Wex in one of the paddocks. The guys stood there watching the horse for a bit when they heard Jack and Father Mark pull up.
"Have a nice afternoon?" Doug asked, without taking his eyes off the horses.
"We actually did." Jack said. "It was nice to be able to talk about some things and not have to worry about getting interrupted."
"Where did you go?" Nathan asked.
"In the thicket over by the thoroughbred stable." Father Mark said.
"How is Midnight?" Lee asked.
"Better." Jack said. "He was still feeling the effects of the tranquilizers. There are no hot spots and no tender points. I am going to ride him tomorrow."
Doug whipped his head around.
"Seriously!?" Doug said.
"Not at full speed." Jack said. "But he is my horse and I am not putting another rider on him until I make sure he is good. I am going to a hood on him and at least some form of blinker cups. I don't know about full or half cups. I was thinking at least cheater cups or maybe quarter cups. All I know is that I am going to run him with blinkers. I don't feel that I have any other choice. I would like him to not use them, but right now we can't get away without them. I also am going to seriously fight any push to geld him."
"Take a breath." Nathan said. "We will stand with you in the fight to not geld him. Maybe some chamomile or even some lemon balm. Within a week of racing you would need to avoid valerian and devil's claw, but could be used post race."
"I will talk to Katie about that." Jack said.
"I think that herbs are a good idea." Doug said. "But Nathan is right, we are going to have to see how long we would need to hold off before a race or even what we can give him up to race day."
"Maybe you can call Winnie." Jack teased.
Doug shot Jack a dirty look so he dropped it. Jack had wanted to tease Doug some more, but he also knew when to back off. Jack took a deep breath and looked at his friends.
"Before we head to the house." Jack said. "There is something that you need to know. … Um … Elizabeth and I have set a tentative wedding date. It will be dependent on getting everything done and Father Mark, here signing off. However, this information is not to be shared with anyone outside of this group. I will talk to my grandfathers and Bill later. People will be told as they need. It will not be shared publicly."
"We get it." Lee said. "Just tell us."
"August seventeenth." Jack said. "We don't have a time, unless the ladies decide this afternoon."
"Awesome." Doug said.
"That is great." Nathan said.
The guys gave Jack a high five or hug.
"When I have details to share I will." Jack said. "Elizabeth and I did agree that I was going to wear my kilt. So the guys in the wedding party will probably be wearing them as well."
"Cool." Peter said.
"Until I have a chance to sit down and go over details with Elizabeth." Jack said. "I don't know anything else. Now let's head to the house and maybe cool off in the pool before music."
"I like that idea." Doug said.
The guys headed to the house to change and jump in the pool for a bit.
By the time that Cody woke up from his nap, the ladies had made some headway on the planning for the wedding. Elizabeth was going to have to sit down with Jack and make some final decisions, but they had choices for him to pick from. For flowers they had lilies, primroses and daisies. They had also decided no matter the flowers, they would also use shamrocks. They narrowed down a couple choices of colors to use. They had also come up with a few sample menus for Jack to look at and help pick or make changes. The biggest thing was that they had ordered the dress that Elizabeth loved and also a veil to go with it.
Elizabeth was happy with the choices that they had made and was actually getting excited about the wedding, despite all the turmoil with her family and Rosemary. Elizabeth actually took a few minutes to pray that Rosie would come around and be able to be at the wedding. But she also knew that she wasn't going to accept anything less than a real friendship from Rosie.
When the guys got to the back deck, the girls were laying out in the sun. Elizabeth, Caitlin, Trish, Abigail and Gran were still looking through all the bridal magazines, even though they had narrowed down all the big choices. They were having fun looking at all the dresses and talking about what they liked and didn't like about each of them.
As Jack walked up to the discussion, he just shook his head. He was happy that Elizabeth appeared to be smiling and enjoying herself.
"I see you ladies have made some headway on the wedding." Jack said.
"Yes." Gran said. "You will have to sit down with Elizabeth and make some choices either tonight or tomorrow so we can start booking things."
"We can do that." Jack said. "Us guys are going to quickly change and then jump in the pool for a bit."
"I might join you." Elizabeth said.
"I brought my suit as well." Caitlin said.
"You are free to go, girls." Gran said.
"Thank you all for your help." Elizabeth said. "I had been feeling overwhelmed about the wedding, but it is definitely better. I realize that it takes all of us to make things work.
As Jack and his group headed downstairs, Trish started to pick up the magazines that she had brought. Once they were stacked, in the bag and set aside, Trish turned to Abigail and Margaret.
"That went better than I thought." Trish said. "I thought that she would have been a bit more indecisive. I was also surprised that her and Jack had actually talked about what they wanted for the wedding. When Doug was first telling me about Elizabeth, he described her as more timid and quiet. That is not what I have seen."
"I think Doug was right." Abigail said. "She was much more quiet and timid before. I think it was something about Rosemary challenging her and not supporting her snapped something in her and she found her voice. I mean, Jack had been slowly getting her to open up, but that outburst at Rosemary gave her the confidence to use her voice. I am, however, not surprised that Jack and Elizabeth have talked about what they want."
"I agree with Abigail." Gran said. "Seeing Jack stand up to his parents and us supporting him, helped her to see that if you stood up for yourself that people would support you. I don't think that she has ever had that. I think that she had lost her voice because from what I have gathered, she was never listened to and always put down by her family. She was told what to do and not asked what she wanted.
We all know that children need direction, but we are also supposed to be teaching them to be independent. I am sure that was not what her parents were teaching her. From what I gathered, her parents expected her to go from their home to her husband's house. I am also positive that if it hadn't been Charlie Kensington, it would have been someone else like them."
"I can see that." Trish said. "I agree that something changed with Rosemary. Honestly, I am glad that she was removed from here. I was hesitant to have her around the girls. The ride up here was uncomfortable. Rosemary kept trying to tell the girls that they need makeovers and how they should get their hair done and what make up that they should wear. She suggested that she take them shopping. She was talking to them like they were sixteen and not ten. When I tried to step in and let her know that the girls were only ten, she waved me off. She actually said, 'ten, sixteen, it doesn't matter when you are pretty. Either way you get what you want'. I couldn't believe it.
At that point, I motioned for the girls that they had their reading that needed to be completed. Rosemary wasn't happy when the girls put their headphones on and were paying more attention to their Ipads. I tried to talk to her and she got all huffy and said I was rude and she was only trying to show the girls a little bit of fun. We all know that the girls could be spoiled if I would allow it. I have no doubt that my mother would spoil them with every new toy, gadget or fashion trend if I would allow it. I know that she wasn't happy when James and I put limits on what she could get the girls. We talked to all the grandparents, aunts and uncles and told them that we wanted the girls to earn what they have not been given everything. Are there times, I let them go crazy and have fun shopping? Yes, but even then they know there are limits and have never gone too crazy."
"I get what you mean." Abigail said. "I mean Bill and I have nowhere near the money that you guys do, but I can see how easy it would be to spoil the children if you weren't careful. I know that Bill and I have to think about that whenever we get the kids to get things. We want them to respect what they have and learn that things aren't just handed to them. It was hard, especially when Becky and Cody first came to us, knowing what they had been through."
"I think every parent struggles to know the balance between being spoiled and not." Gran said. "It is harder for parents with means. However, I think we have all done a pretty good job with this group in the house. I have no doubt that they have learned that you need to work for what you have and they will pass that on to their children."