Page 18 of The Pursuit of Elena Bradford

18

Mr. Frazier was at his easel, but Elena wasn’t anywhere in sight. A lady Ivy hadn’t met sat on a bench beside the lake, her bonnet in her lap with the ribbons spread out just so as she posed for the artist.

Behind the woman, ducks floated calmly on the clear-blue water. The drooping branches of a few willows brushed the green lawn along the far side of the lake. Two trees with small white blossoms released a sweet scent into the air. Here and there some bushes were covered with clusters of pink blooms. Ivy had never seen any like them before, but she did know the hollyhocks that brightened the scene with their colorful flowers. The woman on the bench didn’t appear to share the peace of the scene as she fidgeted with her lace collar and then smoothed her hair.

“My dear Miss Madeline, if you can stay still a few moments longer, I only lack a few brushstrokes to capture your visage.” Mr. Frazier stepped away from his easel to speak to the woman. His smile seemed a little stiff.

“It’s been forever already. This bench is horribly uncomfort able.” Miss Madeline frowned at him and then looked over her shoulder. “And those horrid ducks keep quacking at me.”

“They must be attracted by your beauty.” The artist’s voice was smooth. “I’m sure they are harmless.”

When he moved back to his painting, he noticed Ivy there. “Miss Ivy, are you here to have your portrait done?”

“That would be lovely, but not today,” Ivy said. “I’m looking for Elena. Have you seen her?”

“She was here earlier. She brought a friend for me to do her portrait.” He pointed to a canvas leaning against a tree. “But they left to find some refreshments.”

“Oh.” Ivy should go back to look for them at the hotel. She’d promised her mother, but she could linger here a few minutes to watch Mr. Frazier paint.

Suddenly the woman by the lake shrieked and jumped up when a duck came out of the water beside her.

“Just shoo it back to the lake, Miss Madeline.” Mr. Frazier turned back toward the woman.

“It might peck me,” she screamed as she backed away from the duck.

The artist looked unsure of what to do as he held his palette in one hand and his brush in the other. He looked over at Ivy. “Miss Ivy, are you afraid of ducks?”

“No.” Ivy hesitated before she added, “I like ducks.” She didn’t want to make this Madeline feel bad since she obviously did not like ducks. The woman flapped her bonnet at the duck that appeared to be unbothered.

“Then could you go nicely ask the duck to leave Miss Madeline alone so I can finish her portrait?” He winked at Ivy. “Please?”

Miss Madeline swiped at the duck again with her bonnet and looked ready to climb up on the bench. The duck waddled closer as if it thought she might be throwing breadcrumbs.

The lady danced a few feet away and threw her reticule at the duck. Instead of scaring it away, the duck quacked louder. Several of its companions followed it out of the water onto the bank. The woman put her hand to her chest and appeared ready to faint.

Ivy lifted her skirts and ran toward them. She was almost sure Mr. Frazier chuckled as she went past him.

“They won’t hurt you,” Ivy assured the woman. “They must think you are feeding them.”

Miss Madeline’s eyes widened even more as she shook her head slightly. Ivy twisted her mouth to hide her smile as she shooed the ducks away from the woman. With disgusted quacks, they waddled away to slide smoothly out onto the lake’s surface.

All seemed well until the woman shrieked again and pointed to her bag on the ground. “My reticule.”

Ivy picked it up. “I fear it might have a bit of dirt on it.” Dirt seemed better to say than duck droppings as she held it out toward the woman.

“You cannot expect me to touch that. It’s—it’s got duck stuff on it.” The woman shrank back from Ivy. “This whole afternoon has been nothing but dreadful. Him thinking I can sit like a stone forever.” She glared at Mr. Frazier as she jammed her bonnet down on her head. “Ducks attacking me. And now my best reticule ruined.” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Ruined.”

“It will be fine once you clean it off,” Ivy said.

“I can’t.” Her voice was shaky as she swiped tears from her cheeks. “Would you do that for me?”

She sounded so pitiful that Ivy felt sorry for her. She went to the edge of the lake and wet her handkerchief to swipe away the worst of the duck droppings before she held it out to the woman again.

Without a word of thanks, the woman took it and held it at arm’s length as she started away.

When Ivy turned back to the lake to rinse out her hankie, she spotted several coins that must have fallen out of the reticule. One looked to be a half-dollar piece, along with several five-cent coins and pennies.

“Wait,” Ivy called to the woman. “You lost some coins.”

Madeline made a face as she looked back at Ivy. “Eww. If you want to pick them up out of duck dung, you can have them.”

An answer to prayer. Ivy could hardly believe it as she picked up the coins. The Lord blessed fully and greatly.

Madeline rushed by Kirby without even a peek toward him. These young women born to a life of privilege and ease were exasperating. He watched her out of sight before he turned back to his easel. She could have at least stopped long enough to give her portrait a look after he had performed the next thing to magic and made her look halfway attractive. A little fluff up of the hair and a few well-placed shadows to transform her weak chin line.

He sighed. Two portraits without the promise of so much as a coin for either of them. That wasn’t exactly true for the Vanessa portrait. He touched his pocket that felt nicely full of the banknotes and coins the general had stuffed in it.

The old codger wasn’t so bad even if he did appear to have designs on Elena. If Madeline Southworth had been lost as a potential marriage target, as it surely seemed she had with her hurry to leave the lake and him behind, there was still Elena. A much more inviting prospect than Miss Southworth. A man the age of General Dawson wouldn’t be able to knock him out of the picture. Plus, somehow he doubted he would have to save her from ducks.

Perhaps if he had put his paintbrush down to rescue Miss Madeline, he would have stayed in her good graces. But afraid of a duck. What could a duck do to her? There was the spoiling of her reticule. Kirby smiled as he remembered the woman’s face when she took her bag from Ivy. Now that would make a picture.

That duck might have done him a favor. He wasn’t sure any amount of money would be worth being tied to a woman like Madeline Southworth for life. If the duck wasn’t what had helped him escape such a fate, then pretty Miss Ivy had done so by showing up to chase away the duck. If she hadn’t, he supposed he would have had to put down his palette and go to the rescue. The woman might have ended up in his arms, full of gratitude.

A slight turn of events could make a lifetime of difference. The appearance of Elena’s little sister at that perfectly opportune moment might have been another of those slight turns he could use to his advantage.

At the lake’s edge, the girl presented a lovely picture. Afternoon sunlight glimmered on the water behind her while a slight breeze riffled the willows on the other side of the lake. But it was her smile that lit up the scene. She looked from the coins she’d picked up off the ground to the sky and suddenly whirled once around without so much as a glance down to be sure her skirt hem wouldn’t find some of the duck leavings. She looked the picture of joy.

“Miss Ivy,” he called to her. “Thank you for chasing away that army of ducks coming ashore to attack. I will be forever grateful, as I’m sure Miss Southworth will be as well when she recovers from her state of unease.”

“She did seem very upset.” The girl shoved the coins into a pocket on her full skirt and came toward him. “May I look at her portrait?”

“I wish you would. Miss Southworth showed no interest in seeing it.” He gestured toward the portrait with the paintbrush he still held.

She stepped over to the easel to study it for a long moment.

“You are very quiet. I’m not sure that is good.” He always felt a little nervous when a person assessed one of his paintings, even these sketches that he did so quickly and without great care.

“Oh, but it is. I am completely in awe of how you captured the lady’s face. And made her so pretty.” She looked a little shamefaced as she glanced over at him. “Not that the lady wasn’t attractive. I’m sure I didn’t see her at her best.” She turned back to the painting. “But you’ve made her lovely.”

“Ladies do prefer their portraits to compliment them.” He moved up beside Ivy and pointed his brush toward the bottom of the canvas. “What do you think? Should I paint a little duck here in the corner?”

“That’s wicked of you, Mr. Frazier.” Ivy put her fingers over her mouth, but that didn’t hide her giggle. “I really don’t think your Miss Madeline would like that very much.”

“Ahh, alas, I rather fear she’s far from my Miss Madeline.”

“Did you want her to be?”

“To be what?”

“Your Miss Madeline.” Ivy turned to look directly at him for a second before a flush bloomed in her cheeks. She dropped her gaze to the ground. “Do forgive me. I shouldn’t have asked that. I am not usually so nosy.”

“It could be that we could all get along better if we said what we think instead of beating about the bush, don’t you think?” Kirby smiled at her. She had such a youthful freshness that his fingers itched to capture her image.

“I don’t think Mother would agree.”

“And Elena?”

“Elena nearly always says what she thinks. Or at least she did before our father passed away.” Sadness flashed across her face. “That has changed so much.”

“I am sorry.”

She looked up and around. “I do need to find her. You said they went for refreshments. Did you mean Elena and Vanessa?”

“And General Dawson.”

“Poor Elena.” She frowned a little. “I tell her she should feign illness whenever he wants to dance, but she doesn’t. I suppose I don’t either, but I do try to grab another partner when I see him heading my way.”

“That bad, eh?”

“I shouldn’t have said that. The general can’t help being old.”

She looked chagrined as a blush colored her cheeks and made her face even more appealing as a subject for a painting. He touched her chin with his brush. “It looks as if I have no more willing customers this afternoon to sit for a portrait. Would you let me make a sketch of you? Not paint, but pen or charcoal. I can capture your beauty among the ducks.”

“But I’m not among ducks now.”

“A man has an imagination.”

“That does sound delightful, but my mother would not approve nor be willing to pay for such a drawing.”

“Worry not about payment. This will be a mere sketch.” He put down his palette and brush to pick up his sketchbook. “Something fun to draw.”

“I don’t know.” She sounded hesitant but at the same time interested.

“Come. Humor the artist in me. I’ll sit on the bench, and you can stand by the lake and perhaps entice the ducks back over to you.” He grabbed his charcoal pencil and chalk box. “I will not take no for an answer.”

“Then I suppose I can’t refuse.” She practically skipped back to the lakeside.

He followed her. He wasn’t sure how this would help him with Elena, but the girl had a special sparkle he wanted to capture on paper. And who knew? Perhaps someday he could sell the drawing if he was able to make the idea come to life.

She stood where he posed her with the willows in the background. “Perfect.” He took a seat on the bench.

“Will it bother your concentration if I ask you something?”

“Not at all. Ask away.” He made the first quick lines to position her on the paper.

“Have you ever been in love?”

That did make him look up from the sketch.

“Is that something I shouldn’t have asked?” She looked a little worried.

“Not at all. Just a question I wasn’t expecting.” He smiled to set her at ease and began drawing again. “I expected you might ask about how or why I draw.”

“I suppose those would be good questions. Elena says she can’t imagine not drawing things. That it seems to be part of her, a yearning inside to make pictures. Do you feel like that?”

“I do. Like now. Wanting to draw you among the ducks.”

“But no ducks are coming over to me.”

The ducks were on the far side of the lake now. “Don’t concern yourself. I can draw a duck without it posing for me.”

“All right.” She quietly kept the pose a moment before she went on. “Are you going to answer my question?”

“About being in love?” He stilled his pencil and looked up at her. “All right. Love has never taken a strong hold on me, but I am hopeful it will someday.”

“Aren’t you old to have never been in love?”

“I’m not all that old yet.” He laughed. “Love may still find me.”

“Do you think you will know when it does?”

“I’m sure I will.”

“But what if you didn’t know?” She sighed. “What if you thought you were but weren’t or thought you weren’t but were?”

“Now you are talking in riddles, Miss Ivy.”

“I guess so. But you say you’ve never been truly in love, but if you were, how would you know it was true?”

“Hmm.” He drew without saying anything for a moment before he went on. “I suppose if I thought about the other person all the time. If my heart felt lighter when I was with her. If I went all atremble inside when the person I loved touched me. If I didn’t think I could live without her.”

He wasn’t sure he should have answered her with such detail, but she obviously thought he was too old to hold any love interest for her. No one was near enough to overhear if the talk was inappropriate. And he was getting a great sketch. That was what could make him sometimes feel raw and trembly inside.

“All that sounds right.”

“If you know that, you must be in love, Miss Ivy.”

“Or, just as you with drawing a duck, girls can have imagination too.”

“And imagine a great many things, I am sure.” He looked up at her. “Almost finished. You are an excellent model.”

“You will let me see the finished sketch, won’t you?”

“Of course.”

She was quiet for several moments. When she spoke again, it wasn’t about love. “Do you know anyone who might be going to Lexington from here?”

“Are you trying to find a ride away from us?”

“I have a letter I need to send a friend there.”

“A special friend?”

She didn’t exactly answer him. “I promised him I would write, but I don’t know how to send a letter from here. Also, even if I did, Elena says the person who receives the mail has to pay for the delivery and what if they wouldn’t.”

“That is a dilemma.” Kirby quickly drew some ducks around Ivy’s skirt. “But I might be able to help you out. Dr. Graham is sending a servant to Lexington for supplies, and he has agreed to have the man pick up some things for me. I’m sure for a slight fee he would deliver your letter.”

A smile exploded on her face as she clapped her hands. “Oh, that is wonderful.”

Kirby had to laugh. If ducks had actually been around her, she would have scared them all back onto the lake. This girl had him laughing more than anyone had for years. She would make a delightful sister-in-law.