Page 40 of The Pursuit of Elena Bradford

40

June became July and then August. Each day better than the last as Elena met Andrew every morning at dawn somewhere on the grounds. They spent the day together, and Andrew even convinced her to drink at least one glass of the spring water each day. A small glass.

At night, they danced until the wee hours of the morning. Not always with one another, for changing partners was part of the dances at the Springs. But Andrew always found Elena for the last dance.

The first week in August, Elena, her mother, and Ivy went home. General Dawson followed them to buy their house, which let them settle their debts. He met the boys, who didn’t have to be told to call him sir. They just did from the first.

Elena’s mother stopped wearing black but continued with purples and browns. Although her smile came easy whenever the general was around, she wouldn’t agree to marry him until a full year passed after Elena’s father’s death. But the promise was made.

They went back to the Springs for the last week of the summer season, taking the twins with them. General Dawson even convinced Jacob’s parents to let him go along. Ivy danced on air and never stopped smiling except when she went by Vanessa’s grave.

No family showed up looking for the mystery lady. Carson Sanderson was arrested in New Orleans for mistreating a woman there. The other man, the servant, was not found.

Elena no longer felt fated to belong in a spinster’s corner. She had found a man to make her consider marriage. More than consider it. To desire and hope for a life with him. She loved Andrew the way she had never thought she would love anyone.

Andrew’s melancholy disappeared like mist in the morning. Dr. Graham gave the credit to his spring water. Elena gave the credit to love.

After the summer season ended at the Springs, Elena visited his grandfather’s horse farm and learned to ride, much to the envy of her little brothers. But Grandfather Scott said that next summer the twins could come work for him and Andrew to learn more about horses.

In January, Elena’s mother and General Dawson married, and they packed up to move to his grand house in Madison County. When the general found Elena walking sadly among her father’s roses before they moved, he offered to have someone dig up the rosebushes to take with them, but the January ground was frozen. She feared transplanting them in such cold weather would kill them. Besides, the roses seemed to need to stay where her father had planted them with such care. She did catch her cat, Willow, to take along.

As for the cat Princess, it had disappeared as completely as Cinderella in the fairy tale when the clock struck midnight. She and Andrew searched for the cat at the Springs without success. Others did claim to sometimes see a gray cat near Vanessa’s grave, but no matter how Elena watched for a silvery cat with vivid blue eyes, she never saw it again.

In June, Elena became Mrs. Andrew Harper in an outdoor wedding near Grandfather Scott’s rose garden where Andrew had planted a yellow rosebush like the one he had called Elena’s rose on that morning he had found her sketching. In spite of being so newly planted, it was in full bloom on their wedding day.

After the wedding, General Dawson gave her a package from Kirby, saying it was a wedding gift. He had long before sent the general the two paintings he owed him. One of a buffalo and the other of a canyon that seemed to have no bottom.

Elena wondered as she undid the parcel if it would be the portrait he’d done of her, but instead it was a painting of a cluster of yellow flowers growing up out of ground so dry that cracks showed in the bare dirt around the plant. But the flowers bloomed profusely.

The letter inside had only one line.

I told you there would be flowers.

Andrew looked a little worried when she laughed and read Kirby’s message aloud. “Do you wish you were there to paint those flowers?”

“No, Andrew.” She stepped into his embrace. “My dance will always be with you.”

“And mine with you.” He kissed her.

“I think I hear music.” She smiled up at him.

“So do I. Beautiful music.”

And their forever dance began.