A SECOND SPRING

AT

The House of Four Seasons

by Atonia Walpole

Part 1:

It had been a cold, blustery winter in Boston but every once in awhile a day would come that held a promise of spring. Toni Stanley stood on her porch drinking a cup of tea and enjoying one of those days when the sky was azure and the clouds nonexistent. Millie, her cat companion, found a spot of sunshine on the doormat and stretched appreciatively.

Her thoughts turned to the House of Four Seasons where she had spent the past year. It was a year of emotional upheaval and a year of discovery about herself and about love. The house was hers now, ownership having passed into her hands in the fall when Maximus was there to guide her and help her to understand what she possessed. It was a magical place ruled by love and its many faces. She smiled and thought about the messenger who had brought her the official papers for the house.  Maximus seemed to think she would be back in spring. What did he know? He was very wise.

She passed through Salem and took the coast road, following it, not really knowing where Andy had led her when she first visited the house. There would be a sign somewhere to guide her this time. She trusted the magic. The sign came in the form of an old, weathered board along the highway with an arrow pointing up a gravel lane.

Toni parked her vehicle down near the garage. She would put it inside later. Right now she wanted to see the house. She took Millie inside her carrier up to the front door, smiling at the wreath of pansies. A touch told her they were real and she wondered for a moment how that could be, but then this was magic, the house was magic. She had a warm, welcomed feel when she walked inside. The house had Spring cleaned and freshened. It smelled of the white lilies on the round table between the bow windows, beeswax and fresh air. It had arranged itself as it was when she first came, no dining room bumped out from the hallway. It had, however, added a kitchen table again, this time a well-scrubbed antique with two mismatched chairs. She smiled. This was for her the kind of thing she loved.

She ran upstairs to her bedroom and walked around, touching things, remembering the men who had shared it with her. John, Jack and Max had all slept in that bed with her but Maximus had not. They had always gone to his room. She walked over and opened the French doors to the balcony. The air was cool and crisp, the ocean stretching out to the horizon, gray-green and windswept.

The house was full of memories but they were good memories. The tears and frustrations she’d experienced the past spring after John Biebe left were gone. She only remembered the love they had shared. Back out in the hallway she looked at the four closed bedroom doors and tried the knobs. They were all empty and waiting. One she knew would soon be filled with whatever the house felt Spring needed to feel at home.

She went down the stairs and outside to explore the grounds. Gone were Jack Aubrey’s English rose garden, Max Skinner’s tennis court and swimming pool. Everything had returned to its original state. She walked to the edge of the bluff and looked out to the sea, remembering Aubrey’s ship as it sailed away, wondering if he still had that jade pendant she had given him. Feeling the chill in the air, she walked back to the house where a pot of tea and plate of sandwiches awaited her.

As the afternoon wore on it became cloudy and windy so she took a cup of cocoa upstairs to her bedroom and turned on the DVD player. She watched her movie and enjoyed a nap with Millie curled up against her legs. Later she was awakened by noises across the hall so she got up and tried the knob. The house wasn’t finished and would not let her in. She placed her hand on the door, remembering whose bedroom it had been, all pine and warm and cozy. She sighed and went downstairs to see what the house had prepared for her dinner.

The next morning the sun came shining into her bedroom and she sat up in bed smelling coffee. The house had provided a tray on the table by the sofa. She got up and helped herself, smiling at the memory of Max passed out on the couch. Taking her cup across the hall, she tried the knob; all seemed quiet beyond the door.

She took a deep breath, remembering how the room always reflected the man who would be occupying it. She smelled a touch of grass, leather, and a clean fresh scent, outdoorsy. The room surprised her. It was very simple with a large, soft, comfortable- looking bed, handmade quilts and unadorned oak furniture from the 1800’s, a plain faded wallpaper and white net curtains. The window looked out over the fields and pasturelands that were part of the property. She touched the soft quilts and smiled, closing the door quietly behind her. Somehow she didn’t think he was quite as simple as his room suggested.

Dressed in jeans and a fleece pullover, she left the house that morning and went for a walk up the dirt road toward the stables. She peeked in, noticing fresh hay had been laid down in the stalls, the water troughs were full and buckets of oats stood at the ready. Toni was beginning to get excited. Would he be coming today? She continued her walk up the road and stopped, looking toward the field where last fall Maximus had made his appearance. Farther on she came to the turn off where she and Max had ridden that last day down to the stream for their picnic. She realized looking around that she and John had ridden his snowmobile over fields and pastures and didn’t stick to the road as she had thought before. It certainly had been a wonderful year of discovery.

Toni had no idea how Spring would arrive but she had a good idea he would be on horseback.  Why because he was to bring something that belonged to her, something Maximus had given her. The soft sound of a horse neighing brought her head around and up the road, just clearing a rise, came Spring leading a horse.  Toni broke out into a wide smile and began running to meet him.

Part 2 – Spring Arrives

He saw her running to meet him and he turned to the horse he was leading, “You best behave, your mistress is coming.” Calla neighed her welcome.

He dismounted and waited, holding the reins of the two horses. She was breathless, her cheeks red and her dark greenish-brown eyes sparkling. “Cort, I’m so glad you’re here!”

“Not half as glad as I am to be here.” He caught her with his free arm around the waist and hugged her to him for a moment. “Seems like I’m always bringin’ you somethin’.”

“Oh, Cort, you brought Calla! Thank you!” She kissed him on the cheek, taking the reins to her horse and going over to say hello.

Cort watched her greeting her horse and smiled, looking down at his reins in his hands. She sure was a pretty thing. He remembered her well from the last time he was here in the Fall when he brought her the papers on the house. Their eyes had met briefly and something had passed between them. Of course, he thought he might have been mistaken.

Having greeted her horse, she turned back to Cort, shading her eyes in the sun. “Shall we ride back to the house?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he replied in his soft southern drawl.

Toni kept stealing glances at him on the way back to the stables. He was dressed in his preacher’s suit, complete with collar, but instead of dusty and dirty as he was in his movie he was clean and she thought he looked handsome and quite sharply dressed. She wondered a bit about the collar.

They reached the stables and dismounted. Cort took the reins and led the horses to their stalls. Removing their saddles, he tossed her a brush. “Wanna help?”

“Yes, thank you. Such beautiful animals,” she remarked, running her hand down Calla’s nose. They worked in silence mostly and when they were finished with the horses he came around as she was putting away her brush.

“I would have done that but since you were here it only took half the time.”

“Oh, I don’t mind at all,” she turned, giving him a smile and walking out of the stable with him.

He was giving her quick glances. “I didn’t realize how small you are.”

“Oh, well, you were on horseback.”

“How’ve you been?”

“Good. I went home after Maximus left and caught up on my real life for awhile. Spent the holidays with my family in Virginia. I quit my job and decided to take a few months and decide what I want to do with my life. I’ll have to do something or I will be homeless by the end of the summer.” She flashed him a smile.

“You’ll never be homeless. You have this place.”

“True, but it comes with its seasons, you know. I might not always want that.” They reached the house and went in through the back door.

“I smell coffee.” Cort raised his head as he came through the door.

“Coffee and doughnuts, yum. I could never eat these at home.”

“Why not? Doughnuts are good.”

“They’d make me fat,” she grinned, selecting a custard-filled one with chocolate on top.

“You’re a good size,” he said and dunked his doughnut in his coffee, taking a bite.

“You noticed?”

He turned his head with a little smile and looked over the kitchen island. “I don’t miss much.”

She reached over, brushing his sleeve. “You’re getting sugar on your coat.”

“I should go and change out of this outfit anyway.” He straightened up.

“Do you, um…wear a collar all the time?”

He met her eyes quickly. “No.” His look said a lot, although he had said nothing at all.

Toni finished her doughnut while Cort went to change clothes. Going over to the sink to wash her hands she thought about his room, simple, clean, uncluttered. She shook her head. The house had missed the uncluttered part. Toni thought he was a very cluttered man.

He came back down and into the kitchen in a pair of jeans and a black pullover jersey, still wearing his leather boots.

“Did you find your room satisfactory?” she asked.

“Yeah, it’s fine…thanks for inviting me.”

Toni looked at him over her coffee cup as he sat down across the table from her, remnants of his movie still floating around in her mind. He had been so tortured and mistreated she half expected to see scars but none were visible. “It was you that invited yourself though you may not realize it. Maximus did.”

“I wouldn’t do that…I didn’t.” He had a half smile on his face and his eyes sincere.

“I didn’t forget,” she said, looking into her coffee cup.

“I’m glad you didn’t. I thought maybe I had imagined it…well, that you…that there might be something.”

Toni put her cup down and reached across, touching his hand, “you didn’t imagine it. I felt it, too, or I wouldn’t have asked you to come.”

He smiled then and it was as though the sun had come up anew in her kitchen. He was light, a warm light. She wanted to get up and go around and hug him, holding his face to her breast and kiss the top of his head. She didn’t remember getting up.

ON TO PART 3

BACK TO FALL, PART 1

BACK TO SUMMER, PART 1

BACK TO SPRING, PART 1

BACK TO WINTER

BACK TO BEGINNINGS

BACK TO LIBRISCROWE