CHAPTER
nine
Anna and Daisy stood in the middle of Dolly’s attic, amazed by what they saw. It was a real treasure trove, with everything neatly stacked and arranged: old trunks that must have been a hundred years old, headboards and footboards and rocking chairs, a cradle and crib, wooden toys and dolls with china faces, grand old ball gowns that looked like something out of a movie, even a Confederate uniform and rifle.
“Dang!” Daisy exclaimed.
Their morning work done, Anna and Daisy had asked Dolly if they could explore her attic and look for clues about the pirate Chauvin and his bride. Now Daisy was sitting on the floor, looking through a small trunk filled with letters and pictures. Anna was wandering around the attic, trying to decide where to start, when the door to a large cedar wardrobe screeched open.
“Did you see that?” Anna pointed to the open door.
“Maybe it’s Catherine’s ghost,” Daisy said with a grin.
Anna reached into the wardrobe, took out an emerald ball gown, and held it in front of her. “How do I look?”
“Like Scarlett O’Hara. If we dig around up here long enough, we might find Rhett.” She walked over to the cradle and rocked it. Lowering her voice, she asked Anna, “Why you reckon Si and Dolly never had kids? They’d be such great parents.”
Anna put the dress back and glanced at the attic steps to make sure no one was coming. Then she went to Daisy and whispered, “Jesse and I went walking on Saturday and followed a trail way back in the woods. It led to Dolly’s family cemetery. Right next to Si and Dolly’s headstone, there was a grave with a little marble lamb at the head and fresh flowers on it.”
Daisy stared down at the cradle and ran her hand over the empty blanket inside it. “So sad. Such a sweet lady.” Then she looked at Anna. “You and Jesse slippin’ off to the woods now?”
Anna shook her head. “I wish. We just went for a walk—but he held my hand the whole way. And we actually talked, hallelujah.”
“You do realize you’re datin’ your husband, right? I thought we were gonna take that bull by the horns.”
“I know! It’s ridiculous! But Jesse’s trying so hard. I’m just doing my best to let him find his way back.”
Daisy giggled. “Maybe you need to leave him a trail o’ satin and lace.”
“Stop!”
They laughed together as they renewed their search in the attic.
“Hey, look at this.” Daisy held up a yellowed photograph. “Si and Dolly’s wedding picture.”
“Wasn’t she pretty?” Anna said.
“They’re strange, ain’t they—old pictures? When this one was taken, Si and Dolly were younger than we are now. They didn’t have no idea they were gonna suffer heartbreak together, or live through a Great Depression and two wars, or open up their home to people like us. They were just happy and excited to be together—same as Charlie and me, same as you and Jesse.”
Anna nodded but couldn’t find her voice.
Daisy laid her hand over Anna’s. “Be about it, Anna. Be about it.”
“Dolly’s gonna strangle us!”
“No, she won’t—she’ll think it’s fun!”
Anna still wasn’t sure she wanted to go along with Daisy’s latest adventure. She’d said the attic was making them sad, and they needed something fun to bring them out of the “mully-grubs,” as she called it. She had talked Anna into putting on the green ball gown and coming downstairs to sit for a portrait.
“Hey, Dolly!” Daisy called toward the kitchen. “Come in here and see Scarlett O’Hara!”
“What?” Dolly called back, just before she hurried into the front parlor and saw Anna standing there in the ball gown. “Oh, honey, you look beautiful!”
“Are you sure you don’t mind?” Anna was still afraid she had overstepped her bounds.
“I pushed her into it, Dolly,” Daisy said. “I thought it would be fun to draw Anna’s portrait in the ball gown—you know, as a little present for Jesse.”
Anna was so busy fussing with a brooch on the gown that she paid no attention to the look that passed between her friends.
“Why, I can’t think of a better activity for us on a rainy afternoon,” Dolly said. “But if we’re gonna do it, let’s do it up right. Y’all pick a spot for the portrait and I’ll be right back.”
“What about the music room?” Anna suggested. Daisy followed her there and was directing Anna through different poses by the piano when Dolly returned with an armload of supplies—combs, brushes, jewelry, and long black lace gloves.
“Man, Dolly, those are beautiful!” Daisy said as she gently picked up the gloves.
“Wanna try ’em on?” Dolly asked.
“I doubt they’d look right with my overalls.”
“Well, we’ll be gettin’ rid of them overalls one o’ these days, I imagine, so go ahead.”
Daisy carefully slipped the gloves onto her hands and pulled them up her arms. “Do I look like Princess Elizabeth? Because I feel like Princess Elizabeth.”
“Absolutely,” Anna said, attempting a curtsy in the ball gown.
“Daisy, honey, you are hidin’ your light under a bushel,” Dolly said. “Any girl who can pull off lace gloves with overalls is a force to be reckoned with, but we’ll deal with that later. Let’s us get this portrait a-goin’. Come sit right here, Anna.”
Anna sat down on a velvet pouf in the music room, and Dolly began brushing her long auburn hair and pinning it up, then added a delicate pearl tiara. The necklace she had chosen for Anna was a short strand of tiny pearls with a small emerald pendant. Once Anna had on the lace gloves, Daisy and Dolly stepped back to admire her.
“You look better than Princess Elizabeth,” Daisy said.
Anna laughed. “I feel like I’m playing dress up.”
“Why should kids have all the fun?” Daisy said. “Hey, stand there by the piano and kinda rest your right hand on it. Yeah, just like that.” She took out her sketchpad and went to work. “You have to promise to let me give this to Jesse. I cannot wait to see the look on his face.”
“What on earth are you talking about?” Anna shook her head.
“You’ll see. Now be still.”
“Here he comes!” Daisy had kept watch as the rain finally let up, and Anna helped Dolly cook supper for her boarders.
“Dolly, should I be worried about another woman who’s this excited to see my husband?” Anna asked as she checked on a pot roast in the oven.
“I’d keep an eye on her,” Dolly said. “I’ve always thought she was a floozy.”
“Y’all just wait—you’ll see,” Daisy said. “I gotta go.”
Dolly winked at Anna. “Come on—let’s go get us a good view.” They hurried upstairs and slipped out onto the upper porch just in time to see Daisy strolling nonchalantly across the yard.
“Hey, Jesse.” She threw up her hand as he got out of his truck, but kept walking down the driveway.
“Hey,” he said as he headed for the porch.
“What’s she up to?” Anna whispered to Dolly on their perch high above.
Just then they heard Daisy call out. “Say, Jesse, wait up. I got somethin’ here you might like to have, now that I think about it.”
He turned back and met Daisy by his truck.
“Me and Anna were rummagin’ around Dolly’s attic durin’ the rain today, and I talked her into lettin’ me draw her in one o’ the fancy dresses up there. Turned out pretty nice. Why don’t you take it?”
“Thanks,” he said, taking the portrait from Daisy. He didn’t take his eyes off of it.
“If you don’t like it, you don’t have to keep it—you won’t hurt my feelin’s,” Daisy said.
“N-no—she’s—beautiful. Your picture’s beautiful.”
“You mean it?” Daisy asked, as if she were concerned about the quality of her work. “Because I just got these colored pencils, and I wasn’t sure I got the right shade o’ green for her eyes. You really think I came close?”
“Remind me never to play poker with her,” Dolly whispered to Anna.
“They’re . . . they’re perfect,” Jesse said.
“Well, I gotta go,” Daisy said. “Y’all have a good night.”
She was near the end of the driveway before Jesse seemed to remember himself and called out, “Bye, Daisy! And thank you!”
“C’mon!” Dolly said to Anna. “Let’s not get caught. I’ll go to the kitchen and you go meet that husband.”
Anna paused at the screen door and watched Jesse. He had taken a seat on the front steps and was staring at her portrait, running a finger lightly over the image of her cheek and then her throat. How strange it was to feel like an intruder, watching her own husband absorbed in her image, showing her likeness the affection he could not bring himself to offer in the flesh. She would spare him—not his pride but his wounded spirit, bruised from the sense of utter failure and helplessness that had engulfed him when their farm and all the dreams it held fell apart.
She walked back to the dining room and called his name as she moved toward the front door, giving him ample warning. “Jesse? Is that you?”
He stood up and quickly turned around as she stepped onto the porch. She had taken off her finery but left her hair up, as Dolly had styled it.
“Hey,” he said, still holding the drawing.
“Hey.” She smiled back. “I see Daisy showed you what she got me into this afternoon.”
“What?” He was looking at her just as he had looked at the drawing.
“The drawing,” she said, pointing to it.
“Oh! Yeah. She gave it to me. It’s beautiful.”
“Daisy’s really talented.”
“That’s not what I meant. I meant you’re beautiful.” He came to her, cupped her face in his hand, and kissed her. And then he whispered, “You always have been.”