Читать книгу A Marriage in Middlebury - Anita Higman - Страница 17

Chapter 10

10

Sam sat on the steps of Middlebury Chapel and groaned. He couldn’t forget Edith’s comment. He had to be more swine than man for allowing Audrey to ask Charlotte to do the reception. When he told Audrey that he’d dated Charlotte in high school, he hadn’t mentioned the rest—the fact that he’d proposed to her as well. Since Audrey could be a rather skittish person at times, it didn’t feel right to cause her any undue stress. On the other hand, he doubted Audrey would have asked Charlotte to participate in the wedding had she known the whole story.

Stopping by the tearoom had been a disaster all the way around, but it had also been an experiment gone bad. Before he walked down the aisle with Audrey he’d wanted to make certain he could put his feelings for Charlotte safely back in the box where he’d kept them for years. But his little test had only made him more confused, and he’d hurt Charlotte in the process.

Sam lowered his head in his hands and didn’t move for what seemed like an hour. When he raised his head it felt as heavy as a brick. He looked at his watch. Audrey was late for their meeting with the pastor. Wasn’t it always the groom-to-be who was supposed to be late for everything wedding related?

A man in tattered clothes and a scruffy beard came over and without ceremony sat down next to him on the steps. “Hi.”

“Greetings.” The man took a sip from a bottle wrapped in a brown paper sack. He offered Sam a swig.

“No, thanks.”

“Sure.”

They both sat there and stared at a cat lumbering by. Finally, Sam asked the man, “Are you here for the pastor?”

“No, but he’s a friend of mine. He lets me sit on the steps.”

“It’s a good view.”

“I can see the town’s rose garden from here. I can hear Middlebury Creek flowing and the church bells ringing, of course.” The man grinned. “The pastor keeps a cot in the backroom of the chapel when I need it, but as often as I can I like to be outdoors. What do you do?”

“I’m a geologist. Well, I used to be. I’m taking some time off right now.”

The stranger brightened. “Me too.”

“You’re a former geologist?”

“No, the other part. I’m nothing right now.” The man tried to piece together his torn trousers, but they just fell apart again.

The homeless guy seemed to have all his faculties. Sound mind and body. How had he ended up on the street? “The good reverend doesn’t mind you swigging that beverage on the church steps?”

“Wouldn’t matter. It’s not liquor.” He held up his bottle. “It’s a special drink from the tea shop over there.” The man pointed across the square to The Rose Hill Cottage Tearoom.

Sam was having trouble believing the man. He must have looked pretty skeptical, since he held the bottle under Sam’s nose for a whiff.

After Sam inhaled from the bottle, he said, “I don’t really know. Maybe lavender?”

“That had to be a lucky guess. But it’s lavender mixed with Earl Grey. Charlotte says it’s the tea that defines me.” He chuckled.

Who was this guy? Semi-homeless and yet he appeared to be well-educated. He didn’t seem to be young, and yet he wasn’t old. He was covered with so much beard and long hair it was hard to even get a good look at him. “You know, if you’re only drinking tea, why do you hide it in a brown paper bag?”

“I’ve got to keep up appearances, don’t I?”

Sam laughed. “That’s funny, but maybe a little foolish too.”

The man looked him over. “You’ve never done anything foolish in your life?”

“Yeah.” Sam rested his arms around his knees. “Plenty of times.”

“When was the last time you did something foolish?”

“This morning.” Sam nodded slowly as he remembered Edith’s words.

The man took another sip of his tea. “So what did you do . . . if you don’t me asking?”

“Well, first, I allowed my fiancée to hire an old sweetheart of mine, Charlotte, to do our wedding reception without really thinking how it might hurt Charlotte’s feelings.”

“Do you still have feelings for her . . . this old flame of yours?”

“I thought I had things under control, but I didn’t.”

“Can’t put controls on love. All those old feelings came back to you like an old song you can’t get out of your head?”

“Yeah. The kind of song you don’t want to forget.” Sam listened to his own words. “I’m in some trouble here.” But the worst part was that someone could get hurt. If his own heart got bruised and broken, he could stand it, since he was no stranger to those feelings. But the idea of hurting either Audrey or Charlotte was unthinkable. He clawed his fingers through his hair.

“You know in a novel when the hero is flawed and he keeps ruining everything,” the man went on to say, “but somehow you still want to root for him because there’s this one thing about him you like? This one redeeming part of him that makes you cheer for him no matter what? Well, do you have that one thing?”

Sam racked his brain, searching for qualities in his character that would give anyone a reason to cheer him on. All his life he’d sought to be a good and honorable man, and yet he didn’t feel it. Not now. “No, I guess not.”

The man picked up a fallen leaf that had blown in from a nearby rose bush. “Only men of great character can admit failure.”

The man stroked the leaf against his palm. “In the tiniest way, leaves are the hero part of the plant. They take in carbon dioxide and light, and they create sugars, which allow the bush or whatever to grow. The whole process is pretty complex. Seems impossible, and yet . . . ”

“Well, I have more going for me than a leaf.” Sam chuckled. “I hope so anyway.”

The man gestured to the chapel behind them. “Well, you’ve come to the right place for hope.”

“But I didn’t come for counseling. I’m here because my fiancée wants to talk to the pastor about our upcoming wedding.”

The man seemed to study him. “And she’s not the woman you love?”

“Of course I love my fiancée.” Sam frowned. “But, I mean, do you think a man can love two women at the same time? I’m not sure I’ve heard of it. Maybe in the movies, but in real life . . .” He wished his father had been the kind of man he could have gone to for guidance. His father had not only been a man of few words, but the few he had never seemed to be all that wise. Or kind.

“I knew a man once who loved two women at the same time.”

“Who did you marry?”

The man grinned. “The friend ended up marrying the woman he loved the most.”

“Maybe my situation is more complicated.”

The man released the leaf in the breeze. “It isn’t complicated unless you and your fiancée have love confused with something else.”

Confused with something else? What could he mean? Maybe it was time to change the subject. “Seems to me, you’d get more handouts without that paper bag.”

The man pulled himself up off the steps. “I’m not a panhandler. I do little jobs for everything I eat . . . even for the cot the pastor gives me. He finds all kinds of janitorial and gardening work for me around the chapel.”

“I’ve offended you. I’m sorry.”

“No problem.” The man gave Sam a friendly smile and sat back down. “When you said your old sweetheart was Charlotte. Did you mean ‘the’ Charlotte at the tearoom?”

Back to that topic again. “Yes.”

The man held out his hands as if he were holding some invisible object. “It’s none of my business, but why did you let her go?”

“She let me go. And she would never tell me why. But something made her say no.”

“Hmm.” The man tugged on his long bushy beard. “That’s a curious thing for Charlotte to do if she loved you.”

“It was strange, since I think Charlotte did love me.” And still does. Sam reproached himself for saying some of his musings out loud.

“You both loved each other, and you didn’t fight for her?”

“I let her go.” He had thought of it so many times, countless times, wondering what he could have done differently. What he could have said to make her change her mind. But at eighteen, he had felt helpless, fighting an enemy he couldn’t see. Charlotte had been so adamant, so final in her answer, that any more verbal battles would have been cruel and selfish on his part. He looked at the man. He wasn’t going to ask for any more advice, but he knew his eyes told a different story.

The man stretched his legs out on the steps. “You’ll have to decide like my friend did. You’ll either have to put the puzzle away for good, or take it down from the shelf, and you and Charlotte can put it together. See what you have.”

Sam stiffened, but he wasn’t sure if it came from the ever increasing intrusiveness of the man’s comments, or that the concrete steps had given him a backache. Of course, there was a third option—that what the man said held too much truth for comfort.

“Yeah, I can see why any number of men in Middlebury would be enamored with Charlotte Rose Hill,” the man continued. “With that sweet personality and those enchanting hazel eyes.”

Sam bristled at the man’s remark. Seemed awfully intimate talk for someone who just loved her tea.

The man seemed to watch him as if gauging his reaction. “Charlotte also gives me little jobs so I don’t hungry,” he said. “And she brings me up to one of her front tables and sits me there like I’m somebody. Charlotte is a great heroine . . . in this little Middlebury hamlet.”

Yes, she is. A great heroine who once shattered his heart like his rock hammer on glass. “By the way, I forgot to introduce myself.”

“I’m used to it. Some people don’t think I have a name.” The man rose. “These steps will kill your back if you sit too long.”

“So, I noticed. I’m Sam Wilder.”

“Justin Yule.”

Sam got up from the steps, reached out to Justin, and gave his hand a healthy shake. “Good to meet you, Justin.”

The chapel door burst open and Pastor Wally strode out. “Good afternoon, gentlemen. Are you busy counseling my next client, Mr. Yule? If you keep doing this I’ll be out of a job.”

Justin grinned. “Just making the road smoother for you.”

Pastor Wally chuckled as he shook their hands. “Is your fiancée still coming, Sam?” He glanced at his watch.

“I think so.” Sam looked at his phone. “She hasn’t texted me saying otherwise. Maybe she’s been held up at the spa.”

Pastor Wally and Justin looked at Sam but didn’t say anything.

A new silver BMW pulled up in the chapel’s circle drive—Audrey’s car. “That’s my fiancée.”

“Nice car,” Wally said.

Sam stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Early wedding present.”

“Nice wedding present,” Justin said.

Audrey got out of the car and clippity-clopped toward them in her spiky shoes. She stood in front of the three of them, out of breath said, “Sorry I’m late. The girl at the salon put on too many coats.” She blew on her fingernails.

“No problem. I want you to meet my new friends, Pastor Wally Barns and Mr. Justin Yule.”

“I think they’re dry now.” Audrey shook hands with the pastor. “So, you’ll be the man marrying us. Important job.”

“Indeed.” The pastor smiled.

Then Audrey looked at Justin. She seemed surprised at his furry and threadbare appearance, but with little hesitation, she shook his hand.

When Audrey released Justin he backed away and for a moment he stared at his palm.

Sam said to Audrey, “Since Mr. Yule could use a job, and we need some help, I’m going to hire him to take charge of the greenhouse. It’s going to need a lot of work.”

Something unreadable lit Audrey’s face. “That sounds wonderful.” She turned her attention to Justin. “That is, if you would like to work on our estate.”

“I would enjoy working in a greenhouse.” Justin smiled at her.

“Great.” Sam was surprised to hear Audrey already including herself as co-owner of the Wilder estate, but he let it go. “Well, since everyone is in agreement, Justin, you may start tomorrow morning if you’d like. The pay will be generous, and there’s a comfortable apartment above the garage. All lodging and meals will be included.”

“I appreciate the work.” Justin’s behavior drifted even further into meekness. Or was it just a more quiet confidence? Sam couldn’t account for the sudden change in his temperament.

“Well, that worked out well,” the pastor said to Justin. “I’m glad you’ll have some work that’ll be steadier than mine.” He gestured toward the chapel door. “Now, if the happy couple is ready, we can go to my study.”

Sam opened the door for Audrey. He said good-bye to Justin, but as he turned to go, he noticed tears glistening in the man’s eyes. Perhaps all the talk of a wedding made Justin miss his wife—the woman he had loved the most.