Chapter 242 – A Stormy Morning
Tuesday morning, most of Saratoga woke to severe thunderstorms. It was raining hard with loud claps of thunder and lots of lightning. James and Margaret were the first ones to take a few extra moments to wake up. Finally rising for the day, James went to have breakfast and then donned a raincoat before heading to his office. Just because it was raining, it didn't put a stop to the work on the ranch. Animals still needed to be fed and stalls still needed to be mucked out. The only thing was that they would be put back in stalls for the time being.
The next person to wander into the kitchen was Trish followed shortly by John. John was headed down to workout. Trish motioned for Margaret to stay seated and she would get her own breakfast. Trish poured herself a cup of coffee and put two waffles in the toaster for herself. While she waited for the toaster she got the butter and syrup and set them at the island. She then looked at Margaret over her coffee mug.
"What Patricia?" Margaret asked.
"Nothing." Trish said. "I am not awake yet. I woke up, about three with the thunder and had a hard time getting back to sleep. I was just thinking of what needs to be done today."
"Not much." Margaret said. "I was thinking of making some beef stew for lunch. I think I have stew meat in the freezer or we can make a different kind of soup. I just thought that it would be nice on this cool rainy day."
"That sounds good." Trish said. "What else needs to be done for tomorrow?"
"There isn't much." Margaret said. "The pork is done for the pulled pork. The meatballs are ready and we just have to put them in the crockpot tomorrow. Same with the little smokies sausages. The rest will be a matter of setting it out. We can make up the trays of meat, cheese, veggies, fruit and desserts today if we want."
"Do we need things in town?" Trish asked.
Gran got up and opened the fridge.
"I wouldn't mind getting a few things." Gran said. "But they could wait until Thursday or Friday."
"Let's see what the kids are up to, but otherwise why don't you and I run in right away this morning." Trish said.
"We can do that." Gran said. "I pulled the stew meat from the freezer, it is thawing in the back sink. As long as we have it going by ten it will be done by lunch."
"Sounds good." Trish said. "Can always make some biscuits to go with them. If we are running late, we can always ask Frank or Father Mark to start the stew. They are both more than capable in the kitchen."
"Nathan and Elizabeth could do it as well." Gran said. "But hopefully we will be back."
"We can talk to the kids when they come up." Trish said.
By this time, Trish had gotten her waffles and was seated enjoying them. She looked over the list of things that Margaret had made. She added a couple of things. She knew that her husband was coming later that afternoon or evening depending on the weather.
"What were you thinking for supper?" Trish asked.
"I have two roasts that we can throw in the slow cookers later." Gran said. "I was thinking of starting them and then adding the baby potatoes, pearl onions and baby carrots that we pick up."
"If we are going to do beef stew for lunch." Trish said. "Maybe we do something different for supper. What if we picked up some more ground beef and made a meatloaf and then roasted baby potatoes with sauteed onions and carrots."
"That would work." Gran said. "We could do two pans of mini meatloaves, so it wouldn't take as long. That would give us plenty if someone wanted a second or we might even have leftovers. I have three pans so we could get enough and just do all three pans if we wanted."
"Let's do that." Trish said. "The guys might eat more than one and like you said we can always do leftovers which I am assuming will be Thursday night and depending supplemented with a casserole like last time."
"That sounds great." Gran said. "So you staying through Thursday night?"
"Doug asked me to stay and watch him jump if I could." Trish said. "I called my mother yesterday and she is sending some more clothes with James this afternoon. I might head back Sunday and then drive up with James on Thursday before the show. I was going to talk to him about it tonight when he got here. As long as you don't mind."
"I told you that you are more than welcome to stay as long as you want." Gran said. "We have plenty of room and I like having you here."
Trish smiled.
"This is a weird month for me." Trish said. "The only piano students I have are all up here. I have no performances scheduled or summer sessions, so if I wasn't here, I would just be in my studio all day. I can do most of that stuff from up here, as long as you don't mind me using the piano and maybe spending a little time working on some things."
"Then why don't you stay." Gran said. "Not only because I like having another adult in the house, but you can work with the girls and I think JP could really use the encouragement with his music. He was struggling before. As you know he never really told his parents about it and then with the blow up with them, I think it would be good for him to focus on his music a bit. I know that it has centered him in the past. The piano is there for everyone and do what you need."
"I can do that." Trish said. "Let's get things going today and see what the rest of the week brings. I know that tomorrow is going to be busy. It looks like it might be overcast in the morning tomorrow, but it is supposed to clear off and warm up. It also looks like that there will be a good window for James to come up this afternoon. I can always have him bring more stuff next week when he comes up. I can also pick up some stuff in town if needed."
"Good." Gran said. "Let's double check what we need and then once the kids start to get up we can head into town. I will let Chris and Katie know that you and I are headed into town in case something happens."
"Don't worry about me." Trish said. "I will be fine and I can protect you if need be."
"I am not going to even ask." Gran said.
John wandered up, grabbed a large mug of coffee and a banana before heading to the office. He had let them know that Peter was on his way and they would be working in the office until lunch.
… … … …
Ironically it was Doug that was the first one up that morning. He woke just a few minutes before the alarm. He got up, looked over at Jack and Father Mark and shook his head. He headed to the bathroom and then started to get ready for the day which woke Nathan and Frank. Doug immediately indicated to them to be quiet and pointed to Jack and Father Mark. Both Frank and Nathan nodded their heads. Lee didn't even move as the three got ready for the day.
When they were ready, they left but Doug stopped to knock on the girls door. He was informed that they would be up in a few minutes. He was glad that they were up and followed Nathan and Frank upstairs.
When Frank and Nathan walked into the kitchen, Gran looked at them.
"Doug and the twins will be up in a moment." Nathan said.
"What about JP?" Gran asked.
"Him and Father Mark are still sleeping." Frank said. "Along with Lee."
"I don't know what happened last night." Nathan said. "But Father Mark prayed and wept kneeling next to his bed for at least an hour last night after he had been speaking with Jack. Then Jack crawled into bed, about three. It looked like he had been crying as well. He looked not only physically drained, but mentally exhausted as well. Like I said, I don't know what happened, but I figured I would let the two of them sleep as long as they wanted. Especially with the rain. Jack won't be on the track this morning and depending on the rain, this afternoon might even be questionable."
"So what is the plan?" Trish asked.
"I figure we will go check on the horses." Nathan said. "Then Doug and I can take the girls over to the arena so they can get a lesson in. We might take Athena and Ghost, but we only need some flat work so it would be fine to not ride. But I think that it is important for the girls to ride. They have started to bond with the horses, but I don't know how the horses will respond to them with the jumps yet."
"Especially if they want to ride Bubbles and Squeak at the show here next week as they have said." Doug said.
"That is fine." Trish said. "Margaret and I were going to run into town quickly. We are leaving shortly. We plan on being back by ten, but if we are not back by nine forty-five, can someone get the meat browning for the beef stew that we are making for lunch."
"I can do that." Frank said. "I am not a huge fan of the rain, so I planned on staying up here."
"That is fine." Gran said. "Feel free to use the library. John is in the office and Peter is on his way as well. John said they had work to do, so I would leave them alone for the morning."
"That is fine." Frank said. "I was going to go through some emails and maybe write a couple of letters this morning. I will just keep an eye on things."
"Make yourself at home." Gran said.
As they were speaking, the girls came up and Peter arrived. Peter asked for a carafe of coffee and then headed to the office when Trish said she would send it down when it was ready. The rest made their breakfast. Most chose waffles and fruit. Gran went to the closet and pulled out a bunch of rain ponchos for everyone as it was still raining pretty good. Gran and Trish left as the group was eating. When they were done, Nathan, Doug, Maddie and Missy went to deal with the horses.
Twenty minutes after Gran and Trish left and five minutes after the group to the stable left, Elizabeth and Lee wandered upstairs. Frank quickly filled them in on what the plan was. They agreed to be quiet and let Jack and Father Mark sleep as long as they needed. Elizabeth was concerned, but she also knew that Father Mark had pushed Jack to speak last night. She had caught part of their conversation before she shut her door and put her headphones on.
"After breakfast." Elizabeth said. "I was going to start some laundry. Do you guys have things that need to be washed?"
"I have stuff." Frank said.
"I do as well." Lee said.
"Can you please put it in the laundry room and I will deal with things." Elizabeth said. "If Gran and Trish headed to town, the least we can do is make sure that things around here get done. I need to vacuum my room and I was going to clean the bathroom. I will hold off on the vacuuming until later."
"Our bathroom could probably use a cleaning as well." Lee said.
"That shouldn't be a problem." Elizabeth said. "I will leave the bucket of cleaning supplies in your bathroom, then when I am done."
"Thank you." Lee said. "I will take care of it and I will also bring the hamper from our room down to the laundry room. I think it has stuff from all of us. Jack pulled it out of the closet and I think we have all just been throwing our clothes in it. We can deal with who has what later. We have mostly been sharing everything anyway."
"That is fine." Elizabeth said. "If I get loads washed and dried, maybe you could help me fold them."
"We can do that." Frank said.
After the three had finished breakfast and made sure that John and Peter didn't need anything, they headed downstairs. Elizabeth immediately went and got the cleaning supplies for the bathroom that were kept in the laundry room. She then took the basket of dirty clothes from her room to the laundry room where she found Frank and Lee sorting out what was in the large hamper from the boys room. Lee had also stopped and grabbed the hamper from the girls room. Elizabeth sorted that when she was done with her stuff. She started two loads in the washers and saw that they had at least two more. There might be a third of towels if they could see about filling out the load.
Frank and Lee headed upstairs with their laptops after the laundry room. Elizabeth headed back to clean her bathroom and strip her bed. She straightened up her room after she cleaned the bathroom. She then took the sheets to the laundry room and saw that she would have plenty for a fifth load. She looked at where the washers were and set an alarm on her phone to come down and change them. She then went to get her laptop, book and journal before heading upstairs as well.
… … … …
Nathan, Doug, Missy and Maddie got to the stable and noticed that nothing had been done. Nathan was upset, but just blew out a harsh breath.
"Missy and Maddie can muck." Doug said. "We will pull the horses out and brush them down. Let's feed Bubbles and Squeak first and pull them out last."
"Okay." Nathan said.
Maddie and Missy set about feeding Bubbles and Squeak. Doug fed the rest of the horses. Nathan found the shovels and wheelbarrow. He then pulled out Rocky and started brushing him down. Maddie was first back, so mucked out his stall. They went down the line and the girls had no problem mucking while the guys brushed and tended to the horses. When it was only Bubbles and Squeak left, the girls took over grooming the horses while Nathan and Doug mucked out.
Instead of putting Bubbles and Squeak back in their stalls, they left them clipped in the walkway while the girls changed and Nathan got the trailer. Once they had them loaded, they made sure to give all the other horses a treat before heading over to the arena.
While Nathan drove them over, Doug sent a few messages. One was to Ed about what they found in the barn and the second was to security letting them know about moving the horses. After a moment, Doug sent a quick message to Jack letting him know as well. Not only about the stable, but that they were at the arena with Bubbles and Squeak.
Doug wasn't surprised when there was no response from Jack, so he sent a message to Manny who quickly texted back that no one was riding until at least mid afternoon depending on when the rain stopped. By the time they pulled up to the small arena, the rain had slowed to a drizzle but it threatened more storms. He quickly checked the radar and saw there was supposed to be a nice break in the weather by mid-afternoon. Doug was glad that it looked like his dad was going to get to fly up there with the break in the weather.
… … … …
Before Elizabeth went down to change the laundry, she went and checked with John if he had laundry that needed to be done or if he needed anything else. He sent Peter to bring his laundry down and let Elizabeth know that he was fine with just the coffee. He did ask if Jack was up and Elizabeth let him know that as of yet, she hadn't seen or heard him. John just nodded and Elizabeth left. She wondered if John was upset or if he needed to talk to Jack. When Elizabeth got downstairs, Peter was just dumping out John's basket of clothes.
"Thank you." Elizabeth said. "This will round out the other loads well."
"You are welcome." Peter said. "And thank you for doing it. John can forget to do laundry, glad the housekeeper always checks."
"He has so many other things to worry about." Elizabeth said.
Peter nodded and left. Elizabeth emptied the washers, started the dryers and then started two more loads in the washers. She washed her hands and was heading back up when she ran into Father Mark. He was still rubbing his eyes.
"Hold up a moment." Elizabeth said.
Father Mark nodded and Elizabeth quickly went to her room and grabbed her red eye reducing eye drops. She handed the bottle to Father Mark.
"Sorry." Elizabeth said. "But it looks like you could use these."
"Thanks." Father Mark said. "It was a rough night."
"That is okay." Elizabeth said.
She then filled him in on what everyone was up to. Father Mark looked at his watch and couldn't remember the last time he had slept past nine in the morning. As they went upstairs, Elizabeth filled Father Mark in on a little that was going on in that morning. He wasn't surprised that Trish and Gran had headed into town nor that they had asked someone to potentially start lunch. Beef stew sounded good to Father Mark since it was still raining a bit. It had slowed to a drizzle but was starting to pick up a bit. It was definitely a day to stay inside and curl up with a book with the fireplace going.
Father Mark poured himself some coffee and grabbed some fruit to eat. If they were having beef stew for lunch, which was one of his favorites, he didn't want to eat too much at the moment since it was almost nine thirty.
"Are you feeling better?" Frank asked. "Nathan mentioned that you had an intense prayer session last night."
"I am sorry did I wake him?" Father Mark asked.
"He didn't say." Frank said.
"Nathan told me he was a light sleeper." Elizabeth said. "But he can also easily go back to sleep after being woken up. He might have heard you, rolled over to see what it was and then went back to sleep when he saw it was just you praying. I woke him with a nightmare on our first night here. He thought he had heard something and when he realized it was me, he woke Jack and they woke Gran. They wanted to check on me, but they didn't want to startle me or scare me by coming into my room. As far as I know, Nathan had said that he went right back to sleep after he left me with Jack and Gran."
"Good to know." Father Mark said. "Jack and I had an intense conversation and then when I got to our room last night, I felt the overwhelming need to pray so I did. I don't even remember crawling back into bed."
"As far as I know." Frank said. "Nathan said you crawled into bed and didn't move all night. Same with Jack. I guess he woke up when Jack crawled into bed around three this morning."
"Wow." Father Mark said. "I didn't even hear him crawl into the bunk above me."
"You must have been really out." Frank said.
"I guess." Father Mark said.
"So are you feeling better?" Frank asked.
"Yes." Father Mark said. "I can't tell you why I was praying last night, but I definitely feel rested and better this morning. I am not saying that everything is great, because I know what I was praying about last night and it is going to take time to see those things through, but I slept well after that. Also thank you all for letting me sleep in."
"You obviously needed it." Frank said. "But it was Nathan and Doug who didn't want to wake you."
They were each sitting at the table with laptops and doing their own thing. Elizabeth had alarms set for the laundry and was waiting for the dryers to get done so she could switch loads again. At nine forty-five, Frank went and started getting things ready for lunch. He looked over the recipe that Gran had left and then went to grab the stew meat. He started browning it in small batches in two skillets. As they were getting done, he transferred them to a plate. Gran and Trish had left everything ready for Frank in case they didn't get back.