Page 26 of The Pursuit of Elena Bradford

26

“Cinderella?” Elena looked up at Andrew with sad eyes. “That’s what we called Vanessa when she came to the dance.” Her voice sounded faint.

Andrew kicked himself. Why in the world had he suggested that name for the cat? How could he have let it slip his mind that they had talked about the mystery lady being like Cinderella? Even the cat gave him an accusing look.

“Forgive me.” He squatted down in front of Elena. “That was thoughtless of me. The smudge on the cat’s face made me think it had been nosing around in a fireplace’s cinders.”

He supposed he could blame his lack of tact on very little sleep. He’d gotten up at first light to watch for Elena in case she went out to the gardens as she had promised before the tragic happening at the dance. He hadn’t slept well. He kept seeing the lifeless woman on the dance floor and worried that his asking about her father had upset her enough to add to her heart failure, if that was what had taken her from life.

Not really her father. No matter that Dr. Graham said Andrew might be wrong, he wasn’t. Judge Hasting didn’t have a daughter. Of that, Andrew was certain. But he shouldn’t have confronted the woman about it. What difference did it make if she wanted to pretend to be someone she wasn’t? She wasn’t doing any harm. Simply having a great time dancing. If Dr. Graham didn’t get paid for her stay, he’d hardly notice with all his other paying guests.

But why had she come? And how could someone with so much energy for dancing die so suddenly? Could she really have been poisoned? Intentionally? The doctor should have been able to tell that, and he said not. Then again, he wouldn’t want word of a murder at his resort to get around. The Springs was a place for healing, not dying.

All those impossible-to-answer questions about the woman had spun through his mind all the night through. They might never know her story now. Perhaps that would be for the best.

He had pushed all that aside when he went out on the veranda to watch for Elena. The sun had yet to rise, but light crawled over the horizon to push back the gray of night while he waited.

He wasn’t sure she would go out to the gardens after last night. She and her sister might stay in their room trying to make sense of it all. Not that there was any sense to be made of the woman’s death.

A guest for a day.

But Elena had come out of the hotel, and he followed her. She looked so lovely there among the hollyhocks, and then the cat had wound past him as it made its way to her. He, too, wanted to make his way to Elena. Something about her drew him.

Now he had carelessly made her sad. He touched the cat’s head. At least it accepted his touch without spitting at him.

Elena accepted his apology too. “The name is perfect. I was calling her Princess. And Cinderella was a princess.”

“After she married Prince Charming.”

“Do you think Vanessa was searching for a Prince Charming at the dance last night?”

“Since she gave her first and last dance to General Dawson, I somehow doubt it, but that’s something we will never know.” He sat down on the walkway. The rocks were damp with dew, but his trousers would dry.

“I could move over and make room on the bench.”

“This is fine. I wouldn’t want to disturb Princess Cat.” He smiled at her. The truth was he liked sitting where he could see her face. “She looks very settled in your lap. You must have a way with cats.”

“I have a garden cat at home.”

“I suppose this is a garden cat too.” Andrew could hear the rumble of the cat’s purr as Elena stroked it.

After a moment, she said, “Did you note her eyes?”

“The cat’s?” When she nodded, he peered closer at the cat. “They are a very vivid blue.”

“The same color as Vanessa’s eyes.”

“And as your sister’s eyes.”

“But more like Vanessa’s.” She looked down at the cat. “Did you know there were cats here at the Springs?”

“I hadn’t seen any, but it’s not surprising. Cats are pretty much everywhere.”

“Do you like cats?”

Andrew shrugged. “We have several barn cats at the farm.” He smiled as he remembered one of them. “When I was eleven or twelve, a cat made friends with one of our horses. That cat would crawl up on the stall door and perch there. Grandfather said the cat and the horse were talking. I asked him what they were saying.”

“Did your grandfather know?”

“He claimed to.” Andrew shook his head. “Sometimes he would say they were discussing the weather. Other times, the horse would be asking the cat to go for a ride or the cat would be wondering if the horse had seen any mice. Silly things.”

“Did the cat ever go for a ride?”

“I asked Grandfather that once, and he was sure it did but only during the secret midnight hours when no one would see.” Andrew laughed. He hadn’t thought about that for a long time.

“Your grandfather sounds nice. Is he still living?”

“Very much so. Still riding horses.”

“In the secret midnight hours?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised.” When she smiled at him, a little thrill swept through him. He could talk to her the way he’d never been able to talk to any girl before. Not even Gloria.

“The midnight hour wasn’t so good last night.” Her smile disappeared as she looked down at the cat. “After you went to get the doctor, Vanessa said something before she died.”

“Oh?”

Elena nodded. “She said, ‘No one will ever know.’”

“What?”

“I asked her that, but her answer was little more than a breath of air. It might have been ‘why’ or maybe ‘who.’” Elena kept stroking the cat. “She sounded so sad.”

“But she chose to claim a name that wasn’t true,” Andrew said.

“Why would she? What secret could she have been guarding?”

“As she said, that’s something we may never know.”

“It’s all so odd.” Elena sighed. “She seemed such a sweet person and took such joy in everything we did yesterday. With no sign of illness.”

“You or your sister had never met her before?”

“No, but sometimes you can feel an instant bond with someone.”

“True.” Wasn’t he sitting there feeling that kind of connection with her? He’d danced with her at Dr. Graham’s insistence that first night at the Springs and then more willingly on other nights. He’d enjoyed those dances and their ballroom chatter but finding her among the roses the day before had made him see her in a different light. Now just looking at her with the first rays of the sun lighting up her face made his heart feel warm somehow.

He wanted to know more about her. He’d heard a rumor that her mother was here to find her a husband. As if Elena couldn’t attract suitors on her own. That couldn’t be true. She radiated an inner beauty. Maybe there was some broken heart in her past as there was in his. If so, that hadn’t become part of the stories going around about her.

A person couldn’t pay attention to rumors at a place like this, where some liked to watch and whisper behind their hands about others. In that kind of gossip fest, the truth could sometimes be hard to discern. Who knew what they might be saying about him? A man whose fiancée had left him days before they were to marry. With his best friend.

That was the truth, but not one he had to wallow in. It was past time for him to stop thinking about Gloria. She was gone, no longer part of his life. His grandfather was right to insist on him coming here where he could meet new people. Like Elena.

And whether she had known Vanessa long or not, the woman’s death was a shock to her. A shock to all of them. It would be all the talk on this day.

“I should go back to the hotel. I shouldn’t have left Ivy alone to tell Mother about Vanessa.” Elena looked worried. “Do you think someone could have given her...” She didn’t finish her thought, as if it was too horrible to consider.

“It seems unlikely. Nobody here even knew her. Why would anyone want to hurt her?”

“Sometimes things aren’t what they seem. If the judge she claimed for a father didn’t have a daughter, Vanessa obviously wasn’t what or who she wanted us to believe.”

“So it seems.” Andrew wished Elena would look up at him, but she kept her eyes on the cat.

“Are we all just pretending? Playing a game here in this beau tiful place?” She didn’t give him time to answer before she asked another question. “Do you believe?”

“Believe?” Andrew frowned a little.

“In the Lord. That he watches over us?” She looked up then at the sunrise. “That he sends us blessings each and every day?”

“I think on some days we have to keep our eyes open to see those blessings. This might be one of those times.”

“But he sent this cat. I’ve been here a few weeks now without seeing a cat anywhere. Then this morning when I needed a reason to smile, this cat comes out of the hollyhocks to look at me with eyes the same blue as Vanessa’s. It’s like the Lord sent the cat as a gift.” She stared down at the cat in her lap.

If she got comfort from that thought, Andrew didn’t want to spoil it for her, even if he couldn’t fully embrace her idea of the Lord sending the cat. Then again, all at once, something that happened last summer after Gloria left him came to mind. He was so full of resentment at the time that he had waved away his grandfather’s words that it was proof the Lord still had blessings for him. But now, with Elena suggesting the cat was a gift, he wondered if his grandfather was right.

Before he could decide if he should tell her about it, she murmured, “You probably think that’s a foolish thought.”

“No, no,” he said quickly. “It’s a nice thought. In fact, something similar may have happened during a bad time for me.”

“Oh?” She kept her head down.

He hesitated. He didn’t like talking about Gloria’s betrayal, but he took a breath and let the words out into the air between them. “I was supposed to get married last year, but a few days before the wedding, my intended left with another man.”

“That had to be terrible for you.” Her gaze flew up to his face then.

“I’m not telling you this to get your sympathy, but you talking about the cat being a gift from the Lord made me remember something that happened then. Grandfather has this rosebush that he planted the first year after my grandmother died. It never has more than one or two blooms even though Grandfather treats it with special care. But a few days after everything fell apart for me, Grandfather asked me to go check on the roses. When I did, I had a hard time believing my eyes. That bush, the one that blooms so scantily every year, had a dozen blooms. Maybe more.”

“That had to be a good sight.” She shut her eyes. “I’m picturing pink roses.”

“They were white with a pink tint. My grandmother’s favorite. I think Grandfather knew the bush had bloomed, but he wanted me to be surprised by the sight.”

“Were you?” She opened her eyes and studied him.

“I was. My grandfather and I had often talked about how the bush was such a stingy bloomer.”

“A stingy bloomer.” She looked thoughtful. “I wonder if a person can be a stingy bloomer. Never mind that.” She shook her head. “Did it make you feel better to see the rosebush with all the blooms?”

“Did it make you feel better to see the cat?”

“It did.” A smile touched her lips and then was gone as she gave him a sympathetic look. “But as sad as I am about Vanessa’s death, I hardly knew her. Your loss had to be so much more upsetting. Your whole life must have felt in shambles.”

“True, but that didn’t mean I shouldn’t have noted the wonder of that rosebush blooming as it never had before. Instead of clinging to my misery, I should have embraced what my grandfather was trying to tell me.”

“What was that?”

“He wanted me to think about the roses as a message that my life would flower again.”

“What a nice thought. And that your life wouldn’t be a stingy bloomer.” She looked over at the hollyhocks. “Maybe in time, it will bloom in many colors.”

“How about you, Elena? What are you hoping for?”

“I don’t know.” The question seemed to puzzle her for a moment, but then she went on. “The best. I’m simply hoping for the best.”

“The best? The best of what?”

“The best cat to purr in my lap.” Her smile was quick this time when she looked straight at him. “A friend when I need one. And here you are.”

“A friend.”

He echoed her words and then surprised himself by reaching out his hand to her. Without hesitation, she took it. At her touch, a jolt went through him. Her eyes widened a bit as if she might have felt the same. He tightened his fingers around hers. She didn’t pull away.

A bee buzzed past his head to one of the hollyhock flowers. A mockingbird began singing in a tree not far from them. The cat stood up and bumped its head into their hands. Andrew let go and laughed as the cat glared at him. It did have the bluest eyes.

The cat worked its paws up and down in Elena’s lap as it looked up at her. Elena’s cheeks flushed. Whether with pleasure or not, he couldn’t be sure as she dropped her gaze back to the cat.

She picked up the cat and gently put it down on the path. “Goodbye, Princess Cinderella, I hope I see you again.” She brushed off her skirt and reached to put on her bonnet. As she tied the ribbons below her chin, she peeked out from under the bonnet’s brim with a surprising shyness. “Both of you.”

He scrambled to his feet. His sudden movements made the cat disappear into the hollyhocks. He stepped in front of Elena before she could disappear as well. “I will find you again later.”

“More hide-and-seek?” She smiled again. “Perhaps I will be the one seeking you next time.”

“That would be even better.” He moved off the path then to let her pass. He watched her move away and wasn’t surprised when she stopped beside a rosebush to sniff the fragrance of one of the blooms.

The cat came back out of the flowers then to wind its way around his legs before it ran off as if it had just spotted a mouse. The cat with eyes the color of Vanessa’s. Yesterday, she had embraced all life offered here at the Springs. What a sorrow that she would never feel the morning sunshine on her face again.

That sunshine felt especially good to him right now as he stepped out of the shadow of his lost love. As he started back toward the hotel, he smiled and flexed his fingers when he remembered holding Elena’s hand. He would have every chance to see her again and again in the days ahead.

At the hotel, he stopped on the veranda to watch a coach come up the driveway. Maybe it would bring someone who knew the mystery woman. She wouldn’t stay a mystery. Someone was sure to know who she was and why she had come to Graham Springs. Perhaps the more important thing to know was why she died.

While questions about the woman played through his mind, the private coach came to a stop and the driver jumped down to open the door for his passengers to alight.

A lady climbed out, her head lowered and her face not visible under her straw bonnet. Another woman alone, it seemed, when the coach driver shut the door behind her. He fervently hoped she would have a more fortunate stay than the lone woman who had come yesterday morning.

He watched her speak to the driver. Something was familiar about the woman. His heart lurched as she turned to look up at the hotel entrance.

“Gloria.”

He breathed out her name in little more than a whisper. She couldn’t have heard him, but she looked up at him and smiled as though they had just parted yesterday.