Chapter Five
Haven Point, Maine
JULIA
At first, it was just a small dark shape, interrupting the surface of the water.
Only when it got closer did they recognize the delicate head and slender neck of a deer.
The girls hid when it got close (because you know how deer are), but they watched through the bushes as the deer emerged from the water, sniffed around, chewed on some plants, then dozed for a bit before swimming away again.
It was wonderful to learn that deer could swim, but to discover that they did so with no evident purpose? That was beyond anything!
FROM LIBERTY ISLAND, BY MISS CRANE
Julia entered her aunt’s house without knocking. Anna peered out of the kitchen. “Julia!”
“I am petitioning as a refugee.”
“Oh, dear.” Anna approached and gave her a stout hug. “What is happening at Fourwinds?”
“Mother is tense. Lillian is questioning her every move. William is wearing his best lord-of-the-manor ways, and poor Pauline seems overwhelmed. Oh, and Louisa is helping in the kitchen, and getting much reverence and glorification.” Julia half laughed, half groaned.
“I imagine that rankles.”
“Not really,” Julia said, waving that away. “I think I was still in hot water from the suffrage parade. Then I got mad at William for making poor Mrs. Powell travel up here, and snapped at Mother, too. It was not well received.”
“You’re welcome to take refuge,” Anna replied. “Care for some tea?”
Julia accepted gratefully. Anna returned to the kitchen, and Julia sat on the window seat and looked out at the water.
She was ashamed that she had not thought to wonder about the location of the wedding until Pauline’s mother arrived that morning, pale and exhausted.
Julia went looking for Louisa, who, having arrived several days before, likely had a better sense of things.
She finally hunted her down in the pantry.
“Why are William and Pauline marrying here, rather than near her home in Virginia?”
Louisa, a touch of apprehension in her eyes, leaned out of the pantry, looked around for servants, then ducked back in and pulled the door closed.
“I gather it is what your brother wanted.” She spoke in a low voice. “He said Pauline would love the Maine coast, and he’d pay her mother’s way.”
“That beast!” Julia said, fury rising.
“After seeing Mrs. Powell, I cannot disagree that it was selfish. But your mother is short on help and overwhelmed, so it would not be wise to go off half-cocked.”
Too late. Julia was full-cocked. She stalked off and found her brother in his room, putting on his collar.
“How could you make that poor woman come all the way up here, William? Have you seen her? She looks positively ill!”
William did not even turn from his mirror. “I didn’t make anyone do anything,” he said, in that maddeningly composed way of his. “Mrs. Powell had first-class tickets all the way.”
“I wonder, William,” Julia said, mimicking her brother’s slow and deliberate tone. “If Pauline’s mother had offered you first-class passage to Virginia, would you have gone, so Pauline might have married out of her own home?”
Collar in place, William finally turned to Julia.
“I do not see why I should entertain this hypothetical. She did not.” William reached for his waistcoat. “And I daresay she could not have done so. This allowed us to be married in some comfort with friends present.”
“Your friends, William!” Julia’s anger bubbled up again. “I see what’s afoot here. He who pays the piper calls the tune.”
“You are aware, I assume, that not everyone wishes to be a ‘New Woman’?” William snarled, his face reddening. He was so proud of what he considered his manly self-control, Julia felt some pleasure at forcing him to drop the mask.
When he spoke again, however, he had reverted to his air of long-suffering condescension. “I hardly think this discussion is fruitful now.”
He left the room without another word. Julia, blood still boiling, marched off to find her mother, who was at her dressing table, pinning up her hair.
“How could you let William drag poor Mrs. Powell up from Virginia?”
With what looked like maximum restraint, Mother turned to face Julia. “We are down two servants with a houseful of guests and a wedding tomorrow, Julia. If you do not mind, I would prefer to stick to problems that are not too late to address.”
“Can I just ask you this? Did you at least suggest to William that it might be easier for Pauline’s family if they married in Virginia?”
“Pauline wanted to get married here, too.”
“Because she is powerless to say otherwise!”
“Again, Julia, what good does this do now?”
Julia turned on her heels and walked out, disgusted.
When Anna returned to the living room with the tea, Julia resisted the temptation to tell her about the argument that morning. Though far more modern than Mother, Anna’s sororal loyalty was positively Victorian.
Even without fully unburdening herself, it was a nice reprieve from the tension at home, and Julia enjoyed sitting in the cozy old cottage with an aunt who had never showed her anything but perfect acceptance.
She was tempted to skip the rehearsal entirely, but Julia knew that would solve nothing. And since the only thing worse than truancy would be arriving in her current disheveled state, she eventually returned to Fourwinds to dress.
The rehearsal went smoothly, and while Julia’s two-hour absence might not have made hearts grow fonder, the edge was off, at least. On the way to the post-rehearsal clambake, Julia filled Louisa in on the various conflagrations since they met in the pantry.
“William evidently thinks it’s very cutting and clever to say that not everyone wants to be a ‘New Woman.’ Has he only just learned the phrase? It’s been bandied about for more than a quarter century!”
“Perhaps it took that long to penetrate the walls of the Somerset Club,” Louisa said. “You know how hard it is to get into that place.”
Julia laughed, grateful for the tonic of Louisa’s wit.
Guests from out of town had already arrived at the beach.
Julia spotted Michael and his family and headed in their direction.
Robert and Margaret had come, along with two of Michael’s brothers and their wives.
Knowing Mother was overburdened, they had chosen to stay in a hotel in Portland.
Julia chatted happily with them until Father beckoned them to meet Mrs. Powell.
“We don’t leave until Tuesday,” Michael said. “Time for a sail on Monday?”
“Absolutely!” Julia said.
“Good. I want to see Liberty Island from the eyes of a defender rather than the invader.”
Julia moved to the bonfire, where William and his friends had gathered.
Bull Trumbull, one of William’s cronies, who had inherited a fortune and was evidently making the spending of it his life’s work, was extolling Pauline’s virtues to a few friends who had not yet had the pleasure of meeting her. He glanced at Julia as she approached.
“So, Miss Demarest. Where’s that friend of yours who was here a couple of summers back?” Bull asked.
“Miss Ellis? She is in New York.”
“Now there’s a ‘New Woman’ I might like,” Bull said, his voice thick with champagne and meaning. He and William had obviously been talking. “Not to get leg-shackled to, of course. But she seems like a game one.”
“Game, Mr. Trumbull?” Julia looked up at him innocently. “What do you mean by that?”
“Up for some fun.” Bull smirked.
“Doesn’t everyone like to have fun?”
“Julia…” William said, in a tone of warning and frustration.
Julia smiled brightly at Bull. “Miss Ellis is working for women’s suffrage.” She hoped to irritate him, but unfortunately, Bull did not bite.
“Oh, a man-hater now?” He shrugged. “Shame.”
The conversation soon shifted to one of Julia’s least favorite subjects, the Great Causeway Controversy.
Julia had given Mina a full tour when she visited two years ago.
When they reached the footbridge that led to the mainland, Julia explained that some residents were agitating for a causeway.
The connection to the mainland was underwater except during low tide.
Even then, it made for a squishy walk, and some also wanted to have their motorcars on Haven Point.
The causeway idea, however, was meeting with much resistance.
Mina had burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Julia asked.
“It’s just that, of course there’s resistance! Don’t you see? This is a fortress.” She made a sweeping gesture toward Haven Point and then toward the high tide rushing under the footbridge. “And this is a moat! I’m surprised nobody has proposed a drawbridge.”
Julia laughed, too. “Keep out the barbarians!”
“Exactly. It’s a fortified village. A citadel.”
Julia, depressed by the fact that William and his friends could spend hours on such a petty issue, escaped and headed down the beach toward an empty picnic table.
The sun set on the other side of the peninsula, but as it did, it painted pink and mauve onto the sky and water on the east side.
It was like hearing the muted strains of a distant orchestra.
By the time Maudie appeared, Julia was in a better humor.
“What are you doing here by yourself?” Maude asked.
“I thought my family would disapprove of my killing my brother the night before his wedding.”
“Brothers…” Maudie sighed as she plopped down on the opposite bench.
“The worst.”
As if summoned, Maudie’s older brother Owen appeared, greeted Julia with a warm hug, then sat beside his sister.
“Did Maudie tell you about the tourists on Gunnison Island?”
Julia looked at Maudie, who grimaced.
“Some fans of the books put two and two together,” Owen said. “They figured out that Gunnison was the likely inspiration for Liberty Island, and people have been sailing over, ignoring the NO TRESPASSING sign, and tramping about.”
“We should get the catapult working again,” Maudie said.