Chapter Fourteen

Later in the evening, after the reception had broken up and the milking machine had been hauled off in the back of the bailiff’s buggy, Alec managed to escape to the barn to tend the sick cow. In all the to-do over bandaging Alec’s head and poking and prodding to make sure he was really all right, no one had cared very much what the bailiff took, and the vet had been and gone, leaving Molly feeling that humans might have their good points after all. Now, hoping to get a little peace and quiet himself, Alec sat down on the stool beside the cow, holding up the lantern and stroking her soft side.

As Alec sat in contemplation, the white bandage glimmering on his head, footsteps sounded behind him. It was Roger, holding another lantern and looking troubled. He stood a long moment, looking at his brother, before clearing his throat. At the sound, Alec glanced over.

“How’s the patient?” Roger inquired by way of breaking the ice.

The previous jagged tension between the two men seemed to have changed, replaced now by a mixture of careful civility and great awkwardness. Dressed in his old clothes, Roger no longer seemed the celebrated geologist, but more like a contrite younger brother who had got himself into trouble and was now wondering how to put things right.

“Oh, I think she’ll be fine. Doc Griffith’s got the swelling down and, uh...”

“I.. .wasn’t referring to the cow,” Roger broke in, shifting uneasily on his feet again.

“Me?” Alec exclaimed. “I’m as solid as a rock, Roger. You know all about rocks, don’t you?”

“Obviously not enough, Alec,” Roger replied diffidently. “You know, for a second there I...I thought I...” He swallowed, pausing emotionally. “You were nearly killed.”

“But then, thanks to you, I wasn’t,” Alec returned slowly.

The moment he had returned to consciousness, everyone had rushed to tell him how Roger had been the one to pull him from the water.

Roger put down the lantern as though he were having trouble holding it steady. He had had quite a bit of time to think about what had nearly happened at the river, and he’d grown shakier about it with each passing hour.

“It would’ve been my fault.” He ran his fingers distractedly through his hair. “I just don’t know what came over me. I...” He stumbled again, then asked simply, “Can you ever forgive me?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Alec spotted Andrew as he came into the barn and start pitching hay into a manger. He thought of all the sad consequences when members of a family don’t make up with each other. Slowly; he put down his lantern and rose to his feet.

“You’re my brother,” Alec said with a tremble in his voice. “You always will be.”

Alec put his arms around Roger and hugged him. Brothers and sisters were precious, no matter how annoying they might become at times. Roger looked Alec straight in the eye, then looked over at Andrew, as though he had just come to the same conclusion about sons.

Seeing the direction of Roger’s thoughts, Alec smiled, gave Molly a final pat and made his way back to the house, to leave Andrew alone with his father. Roger walked over to the hay pile, grabbed another pitchfork and started helping his son.

“I always hated this job when I was your age,” he said to Andrew, trying to make conversation—something he hadn’t had a lot of practice at with the boy.

“It isn’t very important, is it?” Andrew said, plunging his fork deep into the loose hay. Certainly not as important as the work of a famous geologist, he thought.

Roger smiled ruefully. “It is to the cows.”

For all his inner turmoil, Andrew couldn’t help grinning at this. Encouraged, Roger spoke again.

“Andrew, I’ve been thinking about my going back to Brazil.”

Andrew’s face closed up again, though he strove to be brave. His father was going to leave him again, and there didn’t seem to be a thing he could do about it.

“I understand why you have to go back. I’ll just miss you, that’s all.”

Roger shook his head. He had done more thinking that afternoon, it seemed, than he had since Andrew’s mother had died.

“I am not going to allow you to miss me any more, son,” he declared, tossing a huge forkful of hay.

Seeing the surprise and sudden, shining hope in Andrew’s face, Roger wondered how he could have been so blind for so long to the boy’s needs.

Once the process of forgiveness got started, it couldn’t stop until the whole family was included. The next day, all tidied up for dinner, Felix wandered into the sun room, where he whiled away the time by lining up his tin soldiers atop the little mahogany table. He knocked over a couple of battalion leaders, though, when Andrew walked in carrying, of all things, Grandpa King’s fishing basket. Andrew set the basket down on the table beside Felix.

“Where’d you get that?” Felix inquired, trying to decide whether or not he should start getting angry again.

“Took a while, but I found it downstream in the reeds. I want to show you something.”

Felix went pointedly back to his soldiers, supposing that Andrew had just started another collection of something or other to impress his father. And Felix sure wasn’t going to give Andrew the satisfaction of looking into a basket that he still stubbornly thought of as rightfully his own.

“No, thanks. I’ve seen enough of your dumb rocks.”

“Come on, Felix. Open it.”

Remembering his scuffle with Andrew, Felix wasn’t sure he should have any part of this. Both boys had been subdued since the incident on the bridge and had studiously avoided each other.

Now, though, Andrew was insisting that Felix look inside the basket. Curiosity fought with reluctance and finally won.

“All right,” Felix grumbled, reaching for the lid.

The basket looked little the worse for its watery adventure, and inside, it certainly held a surprise. The interior was full of new fishing lines, a float, flies, hooks and just about everything a boy would need for a happy afternoon on the riverbank. Felix’s eyes widened.

“What’s this?” he cried in astonishment.

Andrew grinned, delighted with the effect of the fishing gear. “Maybe you can take me fishing tomorrow and we can both use it.”

It took only a second for Felix to digest the full meaning of Andrew’s offer.

“Yeah,” he agreed, pleased with the idea that they might share the basket. He wasn’t a greedy boy. It had been the principle of the thing that had got him so riled up. And, oh, it felt so very good to be friends with his cousin once again!

The call to dinner interrupted further examination of the basket’s contents. Both boys, hungry as usual, dashed into the kitchen, where the rest of the family had seated themselves around the big kitchen table. Hetty, in the interests of health, spooned cauliflower onto Felix’s plate, completely ignoring his grimaces.

“Sara,” she said, turning towards her with the cauliflower spoon.

“Make sure you eat those vegetables, now,” Alec said to Felicity, winking.

“Sara, cauliflower—your favorite,” Hetty said, beginning to load the white vegetable onto Sara’s plate. Hetty had lots of ironclad opinions about what children should eat.

“Thank you,” Sara murmured, having no other choice.

Andrew had squeezed himself in beside his father. Now the two sat close, heads together, apparently conspiring happily about something.

“Are you sure about this, now?” Roger whispered, fending off the cauliflower bowl.

“Yes, Papa,” Andrew whispered back, nodding.

“All right.” Roger cleared his throat and tapped his glass with his spoon to get everyone’s attention. “Please, everyone, there’s something I’d like to say.”

Looking fondly at Andrew beside him, he placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder.

“Andrew and I have discussed something. We’ve decided I should accept the position offered me at Dalhousie University next fall.”

Olivia, Hetty, Alec and all the children responded with delight. They really didn’t like a member of their family away in Brazil any more than Andrew did.

“Oh, Roger!” laughed Olivia, clasping her hands together.

“Oh!” Hetty was so overwhelmed that she had to press a hand to her bosom to contain her joy. It would be wonderful to have Roger so nearby. And a member of a university faculty, too! That would certainly enhance the family’s prestige!

“I would like,” Roger announced, holding up his hand, “to thank all of you for the generosity...” he smiled at Janet, “...the friendship...” he said, turning to Hetty, and then looking at Alec “...and the leadership you’ve extended to Andrew over the past year.” Roger smiled warmly at his brother. “We all owe Alec a great deal. Please, raise your glasses in a toast to Alec!”

Just as all the glasses were halfway into the air and Alec beaming so broadly his face was fit to split, a clatter of steps was heard at the kitchen door.

“Alec! Alec!” an eager voice called out, and Amos Spry walked in, with young Stephen at his heels.

“Oh...” Amos faltered, coming to a dubious halt before the family scene. “I’m sorry I didn’t think you’d be having dinner yet. This’ll wait.”

He was about to hustle Stephen straight outside again when Alec beckoned expansively. Alec wouldn’t hear of a neighbor leaving the King house like that.

“Amos, come on in here.”

Amos paused at the door and turned back uncertainly, removing his own battered cap and the one Stephen wore. Then, straightening a little, he reached into his own pocket and handed Alec an envelope. A certain pride was stamped on Amos’s face.

“It’s not all of it, but it’s as much as I could get by without.”

Alec took the envelope slowly. He hadn’t expected to see any hard cash for weeks yet.

“You didn’t have to pay it back right away,” Alec said, knowing how much Amos must have scrambled to gather the money.

Amos ducked his head, keeping a wary eye on Hetty He knew very well what Hetty must have thought about the loan.

“Well, thanks to your help, over the past couple of weeks I’ve made more than enough from just half my crop. I’ll give you the rest at the end of the season.”

Alec could have been forgiven for a triumphant glance at his family, but he refrained. He was only happy that Amos Spry had found some luck at last.

“That’s good news, Amos. Thank you.”

Wonder of wonders, Hetty and Roger smiled at each other and Roger got up from the table to fetch two more glasses.

“No, no, no. It’s you I gotta thank,” Amos protested. “There’s few in Avonlea who’d do what you done, Alec.”

Sara Stanley had eyes only for the envelope in Alec’s hand. “Oh, good, Aunt Hetty,” she crowed. “Now we can get that milking machine back.”

Hetty’s hand flew up as if she were trying to wave the very idea away. Nervously, she glanced at Alec.

“Oh, well,” she mumbled, “I...I think we’ll let your Uncle Alec decide that, Sara.”

Having thus been reinstated as chief of farming operations, Alec grinned at Hetty while Roger handed two glasses of cordial to Amos and Stephen.

“Perhaps you’d like to join us in a toast,” he said to them.

“Oh...uh...”

“Raise your glasses,” Roger called out, lifting his own.

Amos was not exactly at home with toasts. He gulped hard, then managed to lift his glass, too.

“To Alec King,” Amos said, with a hearty sincerity felt all around the room. There could be no doubt that, in Amos’s mind, anyway, Alec King was one of the most special people on the whole Island.

Everyone, even Hetty, raised their glasses, too. And they all agreed with Amos’s opinion.

Alec looked at his neighbor and shook his head. “To Amos Spry,” he boomed, returning the compliment. All glasses were raised again.

“To your health,” Amos said, trying to keep the cordial from sloshing over the rim of the glass.

“Good health,” echoed Alec.

Everyone drank the toast heartily, only too glad to have real family harmony restored.

Harmony had its practical results, as well. Felix and Andrew exchanged a glance as they hurried through their meal. They wolfed down dessert too—apple pie left over from the reception. The minute they could be excused, they rushed off to the river, fishing poles in hand, the precious basket carried between them.

Felix found his favorite spot on the bank and prepared to introduce Andrew to the fine art of fishing—something he felt every King ought to know. As the basket stood open, revealing its treasures, it was almost as though Grandpa King himself were standing there, passing on a bit of wisdom that all boys, whether young or all grown up, had to learn. Andrew and Felix were certainly wiser now, even if at the expense of nearly bashing each other senseless on the bridge. How very much more pleasant, they were both thinking as they cast their lines out companionably in the afternoon sun, to share something precious than to sit all alone foolishly trying to keep it to oneself.

 

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