Home of the Gray Dog - Segment 04

Chapter 16

At Samantha’s innocent question, Edith tried to think of a way to answer her without seeming to pry into the younger woman’s personal business. Finally, she decided just to say what was on her mind. “Samantha, we are all worried about you. Walker asked me to find out what was wrong. I told him if he or Jack did something to upset you, they’ve got to fix it. You must know we all love and care for you.”

         Samantha had come back into the room from the kitchen wheeling a small tea cart. Edith noticed when she made this comment that Samantha looked more sad than angry. Walker’s mother, a single woman who had only experienced romance once, long ago, suddenly had a small glimmer of what might be upsetting the younger woman. Samantha walked to the window and looked out at the snow-covered ground below.

         “Edith, I’m going to be 43 next week. Did you know that?” The words were soft and almost whispered, but Edith could still hear them from across the room.

         “Yes, dear, I know. On March 12th, isn’t it?” Edith waited for Samantha to continue.

         “Forty-three. My younger, married sisters already have five children.” Samantha turned from staring out the window to face her friend. “Do you realize I’m older than they are and still unmarried without children?”

         “Samantha, you’re still young enough to have children. I know there are plenty of men who would marry you in a heartbeat if you gave them the littlest bit of encouragement.” Edith patted the empty spot on the sofa beside her. “Come on, let’s have our tea and see if we can get you cheered up.”

         Samantha slowly walked over and sat down, giving Edith a small woebegone smile. “You must think I’m silly, letting something like a birthday get me down.” She attempted a bigger smile, failing miserably. “I don’t want just any man, Edith. He doesn’t even think of me in a romantic way, so it’s no use even hoping for marriage and children. It’s helped to talk with you, though, but let’s change the subject, okay? How are the plans for the orphanage coming along?”

         Realizing that Samantha had firmly shut down that subject, and rightly guessing who the obtuse man was, Edith spent the next hour filling Samantha in on what the others had accomplished so far in their many meetings.

         Meanwhile, one flight up in Walker’s apartment, he was standing by the big table at the window, looking over Felix’s shoulder. Felix sketched madly, putting his ideas on paper as image after image came to him. Walker started laughing in excitement at what he was seeing.

         In the first drawing, round circles represented the various trees behind the mansion. Around and between the circles, Felix had drawn an odd-shaped building. Almost, but not quite, it was a U or open O with the left side straight between two trees, the middle rounded at the bottom around another tree, and the longer right side curved back to almost reach the straighter left side. The large center area containing even more trees seemed protected from the outside with a gate across the opening between the two sides.

         “Walker, the enclosed area would be a safe place for the younger children to play in.” Felix flipped over the second drawing, this one with rooms hastily diagrammed. “I think two stories would be best, don’t you?” Walker nodded, never taking his eyes off the design in front of him. “Do you plan on having the staff living there or off-site?”

         “We’ll need rooms for them if they want and more bungalows if not.” Walker couldn’t stop grinning at seeing his dream for Hannah’s home coming to life in front of him. “Keep going, Felix. Oh,” he stopped short. “We’ll also need classrooms for the kids or maybe even a small school nearby.”

         At that, Felix got up from his chair and joked, “Looks like I might have to move here permanently.”

         Walker looked at him, thinking over what Felix had said. “Why not? You can always run your San Francisco business long distance, couldn’t you? If you need to go back there now and then, you can always use my plane.”

         “Are you serious?” Felix couldn’t believe what Walker was offering. Although he was a very successful architect with many wealthy clients, Felix never felt comfortable in a big city. To live here, out in the country and away from the noise and pollution of San Francisco, seemed like a dream come true.

         “I’m most definitely serious, Felix.” Walker went to the small bar in the living room and filled two Waterford crystal glasses with his precious 100-year-old Napoleon brandy. “You can design a home where you and Valentine can live, making it exactly how you would want it.” He handed one of the filled glasses to Felix, who stood stunned and speechless.

         He looked at Felix to see his reaction when he continued, “I’m thinking of seeing if Delia would bring her children here permanently and join the staff of the orphanage.” He turned away so Felix wouldn’t see his big grin. “Of course, if you’d prefer not to live here or think I shouldn’t ask Delia, I’d understand.”

         “No, no, I think those are great ideas, fantastic ideas, in fact.” Without thinking, Felix took a large gulp of his brandy, coughing and sputtering from the heat entering his throat and nose. Once he recovered, he held out his hand to Walker. The two men shook hands, having finalized Felix moving permanently from San Francisco.

         Walker sat down on one of his sofas to finish his drink while Felix returned to the table to create more designs. Life is good, Walker thought, stretching out his long legs in pure contentment. If Edith can find out what’s bothering Sam, life would be perfect.

Chapter 17

Later that afternoon, Walker invited Delia to his apartment for a quiet conversation. Upon arriving, she wheeled herself over to the living room’s large window. In front of it was the table where Felix has left his drawings for the orphanage.

         She picked up the original one showing the outline of the building among the various trees and spread it out on her lap. Looking up at Walker who was standing next to her, she said with delight in her voice, “I didn’t realize Felix had gotten this far in his designs. Have you already picked out a building site?”

         “Yes, we’ve pretty much decided on the area out back of the mansion.” Walker pulled up a chair to sit beside Delia. “It’s close enough so my guests here can walk over easily but far enough away that the noise kids make won’t bother those not used to children.” He smiled as he pulled out a sketch from the pile in front of them. “Felix even started designing some larger bungalows than what we have now. That’s in case some of the adults working at the orphanage might want to live in them. What do you think of his ideas for them?”

         Delia put the original drawing back on the table and took the one Walker handed her. “Walker, anyone would want to live in such a home.” She pointed out something on the paper. “Is that a stone fireplace? It looks like it takes up a complete wall.”

         “Well, Felix thought a fireplace would be a nice touch for these long winter nights.” Walker could see Delia was examining the drawing closely now. “Check out the number of bedrooms.” Deciding it was time to make his offer, he watched her closely as he continued. “There would be enough for you and your two children in one of these.”

         Delia turned to Walker, a questioning look on her face. “I don’t understand, Walker.”

         “Delia, when the orphanage finally opens, I could use your expertise. Any future legal problems regarding the kids would be your responsibility.” Walker stood at this point. “It would be helpful to have you living here, and I know Ron would welcome having one of his staff on site, too.” Walker knew no such thing about Ron Hanson, Delia’s boss, but hoped to convince him if Delia decided to stay permanently at the mansion.

         For an added incentive for her to agree, Walker next said, “We also decided the orphanage needs a school, something I’ve wanted to have for Sue Beth and Joshua anyway. Your two children would also benefit from this after my recruiters find excellent teachers for this school. Gideon and Catherine, right?”

         All Delia could do was nod, dazed at this sudden turn of events. She’d come here expecting a heated battle before returning home, angry and powerless against Walker’s money and influence. Before she met him, Walker had only been some rich man who wanted an orphanage built with his name on it. He would make a token gesture to show how generous to the underprivileged he was and build a home unsuited for children. She thought she would have to fight him every step of the way to protect their rights.

         Instead, Walker had proven to be open to all her ideas and now even offered her the chance to bring her children to the peace and safety of the countryside. Still in shock and unable to tell him she was willing to start a new life here, she listened as he added one more comment.

         “Felix already has told me he and Valentine will be moving here as soon as Karla’s crew finish building his bungalow, maybe by the end of next month.” Walker looked at Delia when he said this and saw her dazed look disappear. Even before she said anything, he knew that soon her two children would be arriving to join her.

         Walker’s extended family of children was slowly growing, and the middle-aged bachelor knew nothing would destroy his happiness. Of course, as usual, Walker was wrong. It could.

Chapter 18

The evening of March 12 saw a slow stream of people heading for the corridor outside the main kitchen. Elderly guests in their Sunday best headed down the newly constructed stairs to the caverns below the mansion. Walker and his friends located these three limestone caverns months earlier after deciphering fragile 19th century blueprints. Jason Edgeworth, the mansion’s original owner, had drawn them and left them in an old roll-top desk. Walker eventually discovered the blueprints and desk in a previously hidden room on the mansion’s third floor.

         Since then, workers cleared the three large areas of debris and small animal bones, scraping the floors clean to make them safer to walk on. Electricians next installed indirect lighting that shone down unobtrusively from the high ceilings. This evening would mark the official opening of the caverns to the mansion’s guests and staff. It also was Samantha’s birthday party, something Walker had been planning for weeks.

         He now stood at the bottom of the stairs to welcome everyone. Walker wore an expensive Armani suit, which was quite a change from the casual clothes his friends usually saw him in. Jack was next to him, also dressed elegantly for the occasion.

         Delia came slowly down the stairs toward the two friends. She was holding firmly onto Felix’s arm since she only recently had moved from wheelchair to cane. For tonight, she even had given up the cane, depending on Felix for balance.

         “Guys, doesn’t Delia look lovely tonight?” he asked, guiding her off the last step and over toward where Walker and Jack waited. Delia did look beautiful in a long black gown that covered the healed scars on her legs.

         She graciously accepted the compliments from the men, and then looked around her. “Where is the guest of honor?” Although the cavern near the stairs was filling up with people, Samantha still hadn’t arrived. What Delia did see were tables at both ends of the large area covered with food brought down by the kitchen staff. Chef Geoffrey had been busy for days preparing for this evening and had truly outdone himself. Delia knew the plentiful and delicious food wouldn’t last long once people started eating, but everyone for now was waiting for Samantha to come down the stairs and start the party.

         Walker answered her question. “Joshua is her date tonight, and he was having problems with his tie.” He chuckled at the thought of Joshua’s frustration with the unfamiliar scrap of cloth. He’d gone through the same situation when he was about that age. “Samantha is helping him with it, and they should be down soon.”

         Right after he said this, all the conversations around him suddenly stopped. The four friends automatically turned toward the stairway along with the rest of the people in the room. The first person they saw was the young boy, smiling as he walked with Samantha down the long stairway. Joshua, who had recently celebrated his ninth birthday, seemed to have grown inches in recent months and was almost as tall as the woman next to him. He proudly wore his first grown-up suit and held his left arm bent in the proper position for a lady to rest her hand on. Walker could see faint drops of nervous perspiration on his ward’s forehead and walked toward the couple when they finally entered the cavern.

         “Joshua, I thank you for escorting Samantha here tonight.” He shook the boy’s free hand, like two adult men would do. When he finally looked at Samantha, words failed him. Walker remembered her date last year with Colin Edgeworth. How she had looked in a certain teal-blue dress was the subject of many of his dreams since that evening. Tonight, though, he knew this new image of her would haunt his nights.

         Seeing Walker unable to find the words, Jack finally said, “Samantha, you look charming tonight.” He glanced at Walker, who could only nod his head in agreement.

         Once again, Samantha wore her long red hair piled high on her head to show off her slender neck. Tonight, instead of the usual studs she wore in her ears during the day, long crystal chandelier earrings dangled and swayed to every movement of her head. Her sleeveless dress of dark-red Chinese silk had threads of gold, which glittered when the lights hit them. The form-fitting dress hugged the many curves of her body to just below her hips. There, a slit on one side of the material opened in a provocative fashion. It began high on her left thigh and went down to the floor, exposing one of her shapely legs when she walked. Other than the earrings, Samantha wore no jewelry to spoil the exotic effect of the outfit.

         “Thank you, Jack. Walker, do you like it, too? Edith helped me pick out the dress.” Walker heard Samantha’s amused voice say this while he tried frantically to come up with a similar compliment. Everything he thought of seemed trite and insignificant. The seconds ticked by while his friends waited for how he’d answer her question, and still no perfect words came to him. The sound of the orchestra starting to play a Strauss waltz coming into the cavern saved him from further embarrassing silence.

         Annoyed at Walker for not saying anything and trying not to show it, Samantha looked at her escort for the evening. “Joshua, I think you have the first dance. Shall we?” Without waiting for the boy to answer, she headed for the long corridor on the left of the cavern. It led to the second and largest of the three caverns. The corridor’s ceiling no longer was low like it was the first time Jack walked through. Even the tallest of the party guests would not have to duck.

         Samantha and Joshua soon left the corridor to enter the second cavern. The changes made since the last time she’d been in it were amazing. The limestone floor was flat with no sign of the dangerous stalagmites originally found there. Couples already filled the huge area, some dancing to the Strauss waltz and others just walking around admiring the beauty of the cavern.

         Looking around her, she didn’t notice her friends coming up behind her. A deep baritone voice spoke softly to her. “Wait until you see what we’ve done to the waterfall and pool cavern.” Walker had finally found his voice.

Chapter 19

Samantha turned to face Walker. “Please say you haven’t ruined the perfect feeling of that place.” Her eyes pleaded with him as she said, “The fairies there wouldn’t like it.” Not known for whimsical ideations, Samantha felt rather foolish saying this, but Walker understood what she meant. The third cavern with its spectacular waterfall and pool was special to him, too. It was there he had seen Samantha sitting alone by the pool with her guard down for once. She was singing “Greensleeves” accompanied by the fairy-like music of the falling water, her bare feet in the water.

         “Don’t worry, Sam.” Walker ignored everyone around them to cup Samantha’s face in his two hands. “I would never do anything to spoil it. Your fairies are safe.” They stood like that, blue eyes giving a promise to hazel ones. A cough for attention from Joshua ended this silent moment.

         When Walker removed his hands, Joshua received a smack on his shoulder from Jack. The older man whispered so only Joshua could hear, “I really have to give you a lesson on timing, kid.” He said this in a friendly but exasperated manner, although Joshua didn’t understand what he had done wrong.

         To cover his confusion, the young boy asked, “Samantha, would you dance with me? You did promise me the first dance.” He held out his hand for her to take, and the two of them headed to the middle of the cavern’s floor. The orchestra at the far end had just started playing a slow dance. When Joshua put his arm around Samantha’s waist and took her other hand in his, she looked over to where Walker was silently watching them.

         After a few minutes, she saw Walker come to a decision and walk out onto the dance floor. He reached them and tapped Joshua on his shoulder. “May I cut in?” Joshua released Samantha, and Walker moved effortlessly to take his place. The slow dance ended, and the orchestra went straight into playing another Strauss waltz.

         Swaying to the music of “The Blue Danube,” Walker silently held Samantha close to him as they made a slow turn around the room. To those watching, these two people, the tall man holding the exotic-looking woman in the circle of his arms, seemed to move as one. Too soon, the music ended, and the spell was broken.

         Still without speaking a word to her, Walker escorted Samantha back to the table reserved for the guest of honor. His hand on the small of her back guided her through the people still on the dance floor. At the table, they could see many of their friends waiting to start the festivities. Joshua had joined Mike and the two little girls after they all promised earlier in the day to be on their best behavior. Sitting next to the children, Edith had watched in silent joy the whole time Walker danced with Samantha.

         It was her dream that her son would come to see the young woman as more than a friend. Would tonight be the night it finally happened? Similar thoughts to that of the devoted mother were going through the minds of the couple’s friends.

         Walker and Samantha walked slowly toward them, unaware of the hopes their dance had caused in those around them.

Chapter 20

For the next few hours, Walker tried unsuccessfully to have another dance with Samantha. The many men who also wanted to dance with her, however, stopped him at every turn. Only the fragrance of the food brought in by others finally tempted these men away from the dance floor. Seeing Samantha coming back to the table alone, Walker decided this would be his chance to have a quiet conversation with her.

         Before she could sit down, he stood and took hold of her hand. “Come on, Sam. I’ve got to show you what we’ve done before someone else wants to dance with you.” Without giving her a chance to object, Walker practically dragged Samantha out of the cavern and down the long corridor back to the front area.

         That room, now filled with people talking and eating, was not Walker’s final destination. He quickly made his way through the crowd with Samantha laughing and trying to keep up with his long strides. When he reached the entrance to the corridor on the other side of the room, he stopped. “Okay, Sam, close your eyes.”

         “I won’t be able to see where I’m walking if I do,” she argued, but more than willing to humor him. “You’ll not let me walk into anything and hurt myself, will you?”

         “I’d never let anything hurt you. Just trust me, please.” Seeing she had closed her eyes, Walker started walking through the corridor close beside Samantha, steering her with one hand on her shoulder and the other on her waist. He was very careful to keep her away from the sides of the long pathway until finally they came to the end of the corridor.

         “Okay, you can open your eyes now.” Walker took his hands away from her, and Samantha moved further out into the third and smallest cavern. Leaving him by the corridor’s entrance, Samantha walked to the middle of the room. The pool and waterfall were to her right, the limestone ledges carved by decades of seeping water from the ground above to her left. The ground below her high-heeled shoes was level now and safe to walk on, even if a person went barefoot.

         Caught up in the mystical feeling she always got when in this room, she forgot for the moment that she wasn’t alone. Samantha slipped off her shoes, in preparation for putting her bare feet into the tempting water of the pool. Just as she was starting to raise the hem of her dress to remove her nylons, she remembered Walker was there standing silently behind her. She whirled around, blushing at Walker catching her daydreaming once again.

         “It’s okay, Sam,” he said softly, coming toward the embarrassed woman. “You can take them off. I won’t look.”

         “No, no, that’s all right.” Samantha backed away, unable to look him in the face. She found her discarded shoes and stepped back into them. “You’ve left this place just as it should be, and I thank you for that.” She started back toward the corridor’s entrance. “We should be returning to the party, don’t you think?”

         Samantha stopped at hearing Walker’s next words. “Not before you open your birthday present from me.” Earlier in the day, the guests and staff had enjoyed watching Samantha open all their gifts. With so many wonderful presents from all her friends, she hadn’t even noticed there was none from Walker. Now, she turned to see him holding a small jeweler’s box covered in black velvet.

         He came toward her and handed her the box. Upon opening it, Samantha gasped at seeing an exquisite pair of diamond and emerald earrings. A circle of perfect diamonds on each earring surrounded the twin Marquis shaped gems.

         “Do you like them?” asked Walker, unsure how to take her continued silence. He got his answer when Samantha nodded silently and moved to give him a kiss of thanks on his cheek. Surprised by this unexpected action, Walker turned his head to speak, only to find his mouth meeting hers. Time seemed to stop for the two of them.

Continued in next segment.

Home of the Gray Dog - Segment 05  (18+) Chapters 21 through 25 #1131306 by J. A. Buxton