Abigail’s first stop was the dress shop. Her wallpaper samples had finally arrived and she wanted to hold them up to her fabric choices to make certain everything was going to go together as well as she’d envisioned it.
As soon as they walked in the dress shop, she saw Hazel’s adopted daughter, Maggie, was there, playing on the floor with both a dog and a cat.
Sending a smile of greeting Hazel’s way, Abigail took a moment to introduce Jamie to Maggie, then left the two children to get acquainted while she turned to her business with Hazel.
Ten minutes later, she and Jamie were back out on the sidewalk. “Maggie is lucky,” Jamie said as they left. “She has both a cat and a dog.”
Abigail took his hand. “Have you ever had any pets?”
The boy shook his head forlornly. “No, ma’am. But I always wanted a dog.”
What would Seth think if she found a pet for Jamie? She grimaced as she thought of his probable reaction. She probably shouldn’t test those particulars waters. “Perhaps someday you’ll get your wish.” Then she gave his hand a squeeze. “But for now, I need to stop by the restaurant.” She gave him a conspiratorial smile. “And perhaps we can talk Daisy in to giving us a slice of her special pecan pie.”
“I like pie,” he said eagerly, his previous disappointment apparently forgotten.
She ruffled his hair. “Then by all means, let’s get some pie.”
* * *
Seth looked up when his office door opened. Jamie and Abigail entered, though Abigail had paused at the threshold.
“We’re back,” she said unnecessarily. “I need to check on some things in the kitchen so I’ll leave Jamie with you.”
She turned to the boy with a smile. “Thank you for keeping me company this morning.”
Jamie returned her smile, obviously enamored with the never-too-busy-to-play Abigail. “I had fun.”
She squeezed his shoulder, waved goodbye to Seth, then exited, closing the door behind her.
Which left him alone with Jamie. He leaned back in his chair. He probably should try to make conversation before going back to his work. “How did your walk through town go?”
“It was fun,” Jamie repeated as he came around to the side of the desk. The boy’s tone was enthusiastic and his expression animated. “We stopped at lots of places. I got to play with a cat and a dog. And we went to Miss Abigail’s friend’s restaurant and I had pecan pie. And there was a photography studio where the lady showed me how her camera works. Oh, and we went to a shop where they sell lots of different kinds of candy.” He held out a parchment-wrapped confection. “We brought you a piece of maple taffy.”
Seth accepted the slightly sticky gift, oddly touched. “Thank you.”
“And Miss Abigail took me by the stable so I could pet one of the horses.” His nephew eyed him hopefully. “Do you think I could learn to ride a horse while I’m here?”
“Perhaps.”
The answer, vague though it was, seemed to please the boy.
“It certainly sounds as if you’ve seen quite a bit of the town.” More than he himself had.
“What did you do this morning, Uncle Seth?”
Jamie’s question caught him off guard. Was the boy really interested or just being polite? “I checked with the builders this morning and helped with some of the work. For the last hour I’ve been checking material inventories and trying to figure out how we can get things done faster.”
“Wouldn’t that mean hiring more workmen?”
It was a reasonable question, especially coming from an eight-year-old. “It might. But having additional workers doesn’t always make things go faster.”
“Why not?”
The boy seemed genuinely interested, so Seth took the time to answer seriously. “Well, if you’re working in small spaces, then having extra people might actually slow things down because they would get in each other’s way. Or if the work needs to be done sequentially—that means in a certain order—then having extra workers might mean some folks are just sitting around while they wait for earlier jobs to get done.”
Jamie seemed to think about that a moment, then slowly nodded. “Like when Momma used to make bread. She couldn’t put it in the oven until the dough had risen, no matter how much you wanted to hurry it so you could have a piece.”
“That’s a very good analogy.” Apparently the boy had a good head on his shoulders. Seth glanced at the clock, then stood impulsively. “Mrs. Long will have lunch ready for us in about thirty minutes. In the meantime, would you like to see what the builders are working on?”
Jamie nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, sir!”
Seth put his hand on his nephew’s shoulder as they exited the room and was gratified when the boy looked up at him with shining eyes. He was also the tiniest bit worried that Jamie might want something that he wouldn’t be able to live up to.
* * *
When lunchtime rolled around, Seth tracked down Abigail in the nearly complete guest parlor and invited her to join him and Jamie in the dining room.
“So how did you two gentlemen spend your time since I left you?” she asked as they took their seats.
Jamie answered before Seth could. “Uncle Seth took me to see the workmen. And I got to help hammer a board in place.”
Seth hid a smile at the note of pride in Jamie’s voice.
“That sounds impressive.” Abigail shot him an approving glance that brought a different kind of smile to his face.
Then she turned back to Jamie. “Your uncle must trust you very much to let you help that way.”
Jamie’s chest poked out proudly as he nodded.
She leaned forward, laying her clasped hands on the table. “Is construction something you’re interested in doing when you grow up?”
“Building things is fun. But what I really want to do is be a blacksmith, like my dad.”
Strange, Seth hadn’t known that. In fact he’d never taken the time to learn anything about Jamie’s father. He would have guessed Sally would have married a gentleman of means.
Uncomfortable with the implications of both those thoughts, he was relieved when Della came by to take their orders.
When she departed, he decided to change the subject and turned to Abigail. “How is your library coming along?”
“There’s still work to be done, but I’ve gone ahead and opened it up to the public again.”
“You have a library?” Jamie asked this as if that was a very odd thing.
“I do. Do you like to read?”
He shrugged. “Sometimes. But it’s more fun to have someone read to me.”
Abigail grinned. “That can be fun sometimes, too. But what I really like is to curl up in a comfy chair, all by myself, open a book and just sink into the story.”
Seth had a sudden, clear image of how she’d look totally engrossed and it was a picture that appealed to him a great deal.
Jamie, however, had more trouble with the imagery. “What do you mean?”
“Well, when you’re reading a really good book, the world around you just sorts of disappears and suddenly it’s as if you’re living in the world the book is set in. You can see the images the writer is painting for you and the people in the book feel as real to you as the people you pass on the street. If something happens to one of them, it’s as if something happened to a friend.”
She smiled and spread her hands. “That’s what I mean about sinking into a book.”
“Oh.” Jamie pondered her explanation for a moment, then nodded. “That sounds nice.”
Della brought out their meals, heaping bowls of a savory beef stew along with a fresh loaf of a crusty yeast bread.
They said grace and then dug in.
“What kind of books do you like?” Abigail asked Jamie.
“I like adventure stories.”
Abigail leaned back, her eyes widening. “Me, too.”
Jamie frowned. “But you’re a girl.”
Seth hid a smile, anticipating what was coming.
She didn’t disappoint. “What?” There was a heavy note of disbelief in her voice. “You don’t think girls like adventures?”
The boy wrinkled his nose. “Girls usually like tea parties and silly stuff.”
She pointed her fork at him. “Tea parties are not silly, young man.” Then she lifted her chin. “I dare say you’d be surprised by how many girls like adventure stories. And I’m a librarian, so I should know.”
Giving in to her logic, Jamie nodded. “So what are some of your favorites?”
“I’ve always enjoyed Mark Twain and Jules Verne myself.”
“I know who Mark Twain is—he wrote about that jumping frog. But who is Jules Verne?”
Abigail leaned back in her seat, her expressive face reflecting a melodramatic air of shock that had Seth rolling his eyes.
“You don’t know Jules Verne?” she asked. “The man who wrote Around the World in Eighty Days, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth and more?”
Jamie shook his head. “But those all sound like grand adventure stories.”
“They are. But he’s not the only author to write of grand adventures. I remember when I was just a little older than you I read a book about a man who sailed away to faraway places and encountered all sorts of exotic animals—now there’s a story to capture your imagination”
“I haven’t read anything like that one, either.”
“Well, we’ll just have to remedy that. I’m planning to do a little organizing in my library this afternoon. Would you like to help me? I can point out some really good books to you while we work.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Seth decided Abigail had found her true calling as a librarian. She’d managed to not only capture Jamie’s interest, but also have him champing at the bit to get hold of one of her books. In fact, she’d come close to convincing him he needed to dive into one of those adventure stories himself.
Then Jamie turned to him. “You want to come with us, Uncle Seth?”
For a moment Seth was tempted. Just having Jamie invite him was enough to make him want to say yes. But there was work to be done and he had to keep his eyes on that deadline.
He shook his head, his regret genuine. “I’m afraid I have too many other things to take care of this afternoon. But thank you for the invitation.”
* * *
Abigail was disappointed at Seth’s response. He was getting better in his interactions with his nephew but he still had a long way to go.
During the rest of the meal, she continued to draw out both of them as much as possible. It was her belief that the more they knew about each other, the easier it would be to make those personal connections. And she knew that if she left it up to Seth to ask the right questions in the right way, it might never happen.
After the meal, Abigail led Jamie to the library. “Today I’m working on organizing the biographies,” she said as they stepped inside.
“What are biographies?”
“They are the stories of real people’s lives.” She lifted a slim book with a dark blue cover. “For instance, this one is about the life of George Washington, our country’s first president.” Then she picked up a gilt-edged book. “And this one is about Jean Laffite, the pirate.”
Jamie’s eyes widened. “A real-life pirate?”
She smiled, not surprised by which book he’d focused on. “Absolutely.” She held it out to him.
“Do you think I could read this one?”
“Of course. But why don’t you start with something a little simpler and work your way up to this one.”
They worked for about fifteen minutes with Jamie handing books to Abigail, and Abigail shelving them in their proper places. Finally she called a temporary halt.
“I need to figure out how I want to organize this next group.” She waved to a nearby table. “That’s where I have most of the adventure stories right now. Feel free to look through them and see if anything interests you.”
After that, Jamie spent as much time thumbing through books as helping her shelve them. As they worked, she drew him out about books he’d read in the past, discussing what aspects he liked and didn’t like about them.
Seth had said he didn’t have much time for pleasure reading. Did the man take time for any kind of pleasure in his life? He worked so hard, which he apparently saw as a virtue. But that wasn’t necessarily a positive thing, not if taken to the extreme. And it wasn’t a good example to be setting for Jamie.
Could she help him learn to strike a little balance in his life, for Jamie’s sake if not for his own?
One thing was certain, it was most definitely worth a try.