The Secret Bliss of Calliope Ipswich (2 page)

*

“And I swear that little darlin’ Shay of your father and Kizzy’s just gets cuter every day!” Ellen Ackerman chirped.

“Oh
, I think so too,” her daughter, Sallie, agreed. “She looks so much like her mother, and Kizzy is just the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen!”

“Shay is an angel,” Calliope agreed, smiling at the thought of her sweet little sister, Shay.
Calliope giggled. “And she gets into more mischief even than I do!”

“Is she the pretty little dark-haired girl with the long, long rag curls?
I saw her walking a marmalade cat on a leash in town yesterday,” Callie Chesterfield said, smiling.

Calliope laughed
. “That would indeed be my little sister, Shay.”

Callie’s sister, Pauline, exclaimed, “I have never seen a cat that would take a leash
, not in my whole life!”

Calliope nodded to the two newcomers to
Meadowlark Lake and the sewing circle. “Molly is a very patient cat. She lets Shay dress her up in doll dresses, lead her around town on a leash, and all kinds of things most cats would never endure. You should see her when Shay is serving make-believe tea! Molly just sits right in her place at Shay’s little table and waits. Then when Shay fills Molly’s teacup with water, Molly just laps it up like she thinks she’s as human as Shay is.” She paused for a moment as the ladies of Mrs. Montrose’s sewing circle smiled and laughed with amusement. Then, sighing with satisfaction, Calliope added, “I can’t imagine life without her now…or Kizzy.”

“Yes.
Your father and Kizzy are a such a lovely couple,” Sallie Ackerman said.

Dora Montrose looked to Callie and Pauline then.
“And I see you girls have some younger siblin’s as well.”

Calliope smiled.
Mrs. Montrose, Winnie and Fox’s mother, was the most wonderful hostess. She always made sure everyone felt included in everything they attended, whether or not they were newcomers to Meadowlark Lake. Her heart warmed at remembering the first time she and her older sisters, Evangeline and Amoretta, attended Mrs. Montrose’s sewing circle. Amoretta had met Brake that very day! It was divine intervention at the very least.

“Yes,” Callie answered.

Callie was nineteen, one year older than Pauline, so it made sense she answered.

“We have one older brother, Tate
. He’s twenty-one. Then our sisters Eva and Lena are thirteen and eight, and our two little brothers, Willis and Albert, are seven and six.”

Looking to where Mrs. Chesterfield sat across the room, Dora Montrose exclaimed, “My goodness, Josephine!
With all that you must have pressin’ in havin’ so many children still at home, I’m quite flattered—rather honored—to have you takin’ time to come to my sewin’ circle today.”

In truth, Calliope thought that Josephine Chesterfield didn’t look like much fun.
Her dark eyebrows wore what looked to be a permanent pucker of worry and concern. Yet her blue eyes owned a softness—a kindness that was calming. Her raven hair had a sheen to it that was rare for a woman of her age, and coupled with the natural pink that still graced her cheeks, it gave her the look of health and vitality. Still, there was no countenance of great happiness or joy about her. But Calliope mused that with seven children—most of whom were still young—Mrs. Chesterfield was most likely perpetually tuckered out.

“Oh
, it’s me who is grateful to you, Mrs. Montrose, for the invitation to attend,” Mrs. Chesterfield said.

“Oh, do call me Dora, please,” Mrs. Montrose said, smiling.

Mrs. Chesterfield smiled at last then, and it brightened her face all the more, though Calliope noted it did little to ease the worried pucker of her brow.

Exhaling a heavy sigh, Calliope decided that Mrs. Chesterfield deserved to have something kind done for her.
She determined to mull the idea over and find some way to make the woman’s brow relax—at least, someday.

“So
you say you have an older brother, Callie, is that right?” Winnie Montrose inquired.

Calliope grinned with mild amusement and exchanged understanding glances with Blanche and Sallie.
Winnie Montrose was always in search of a handsome young man to flirt with. Not that Calliope, Blanche, and Sallie didn’t enjoy a bit of flirting with the eligible men of Meadowlark Lake, but Winnie wasn’t a bit clandestine about it. Whereas Calliope and her friends went about their flirting in a more proper manner, Winnie just said whatever came into her mind when she was talking to a young man. Therefore, Calliope and her friends knew it would not be long before Tate Chesterfield knew exactly who Winnie Montrose was.

“Yes
, Tate,” Callie answered.

“And
, yes, our brother Tate is a very eligible bachelor,” Pauline added.

“Pauline!” Mrs. Chesterfield scolded.

“I only told her what she wanted to know, didn’t I, Mother?” Pauline defended herself. Looking to Winnie, she asked, “Didn’t I?”

It was Mrs. Ackerman who laughed and said, “Yes, Pauline
, you only told us the answer to what we all were curious over.”

Everyone laughed, and though Pauline blushed, Calliope nodded to her with reassurance when their glances met.
Calliope fancied that Pauline and Callie both resembled their mother. She thought that it was easy to know what Josephine Chesterfield had looked like when she was near the ages her daughters were now, for they both boasted the same lovely raven hair, as well as their mother’s dark eyes.

“Oh, I’m so sorry to be late!” Evangeline Ipswich sighed as she hurried into Mrs. Montrose’s parlor.
“But I just had to stop and check the post. I’ve been waiting for a letter, and I was hoping it would arrive today.”

“And did it?” Calliope inquired of her oldest sister.

“It did!” Evangeline exclaimed.

“A letter from whom, Evangeline?” Mrs. Montrose asked.
“For you do seem quite delighted.”

“And I am!” Evangeline confirmed with enthusiasm.
“My dear friend Jennie and I have been corresponding more often of late, ever since she and her husband moved out west several months ago. Jennie has had some anxieties over the move, which is to be understood, our lovely west being so vastly different from Boston, and I have been trying to be very prompt in answering each of her letters. And so I do try to check in with Mr. Perry at the general store very often when I’m expecting a letter from Jennie.”

“Wouldn’t it be nice if all of us had as good and loyal a friend as you, Evangeline?” Mrs. Ackerman noted sincerely.

Calliope smiled as her older sister blushed, for she knew how truly uncomfortable Evangeline became whenever praise was offered to her.

“What did I miss?” Evangeline said, taking a seat next to Calliope on Mrs. Montrose’s sofa.

“Only that Callie and Pauline have a very handsome and eligible bachelor for an elder brother,” Winnie offered.

“Do tell
,” Evangeline giggled.

“How do you know ou
r brother is handsome?” Pauline teased Winnie.

“I can answer that,” Calliope interjected
, “for you and Callie are the image of your mother. And being that you are all so lovely, it only stands to reason that your brother is attractive as well. Isn’t that what you’re thinking, Winnie?”

All the ladies in the room smiled
, and Winnie’s smile was broadest. “Exactly!” Winnie confessed without pause. “You know me too well, Calliope Ipswich.”

“Well, our brother is a handsome young man,” Pauline confirmed.
“Yet Callie and I have decided that your own brother is quite the good-looking fellow himself.”

Everyone looked to Calliope—she knew they did—though she kept her attention on the stitching she was working on in her lap.
Still, the heat of her own blush caused her to feel as if her head might explode at any moment when she heard Winnie say, “Oh, Fox has almost always been the most handsome man in town. But he’s sweet as sugar on Calliope, and I know there won’t be any turnin’ his head.”

There was an uncomfortable silence for a few moments
, but Calliope thanked the heavens for her elder sister when Evangeline said, “My good friend Jennie told me in her letter I received today that…well, that she is expecting a baby. I’m quite overwhelmed with excitement for her!”

“As well you should be,” Mrs. Chesterfield exclaimed.

Thankful that Evangeline had guided the attention of the ladies in the room from the subject of Fox Montrose and his being sweet on Calliope
, she was likewise surprised that it was Mrs. Chesterfield who had been the first to respond to Evangeline’s announcement about her friend. Therefore, she glanced up and was somewhat astonished to see that Mrs. Chesterfield’s worried brow was relaxed—that she was smiling, her eyes atwinkle, as if she’d never before heard the wonderful news of a baby to be born.

“Any baby is such a blessing
, such a joy,” Josephine said, smiling. “I cannot wait until my own children are married and begin having families of their own. I miss babies so very much.”

“I do too,” Mrs. Ackerman announced.

“As do I,” Mrs. Montrose added. She looked up to Calliope and winked. “I hope I won’t have to wait too very much longer to see Fox and Winnie with spouses and babies.”

Again Calliope blushed, looking to Evangeline for saving.

“Yes,” Evangeline said, staring at her sister with understanding. “It’s one reason we’re all so glad to have Shay with us now. Though she’s not a baby, she is so wonderful—so young and fresh and, more often than not, wildly entertaining.”

“
Winnie did mention that she saw Shay walking her cat, of all things, through town just yesterday,” Blanche added.

Evangeline laughed, her ebony hair flouncing in its coif
, her dark green eyes sparkling with remembered amusement. “Why, just this morning at breakfast, Shay said…Shay said…” But giggles had overtaken the usually composed eldest Ipswich daughter.

Calliope began to giggle as well at the memory but managed to finish for her sister
. “Yes, just this morning at breakfast, Evangeline had agreed to read a book to Shay, and Shay picked a Christmas book. And Evangeline…” She paused to giggle to herself a moment and then continued, “And Evangeline read, ‘And they found the baby, lying in a manger.’ And Shay jumped up from her chair, looked more closely at the illustration in the book, and said, ‘But I don’t see a baby lion in the manger!’”

As Calliope erupted into laughter at the memory of confusion on Shay’s pretty little face, each and every other woman
, young or older, did too. There were several long minutes of ladies’ laughter echoing through the room before at long last tears of mirth had been dabbed from every eye and moist handkerchiefs returned to apron pockets.

“Oh, you
Ipswich girls are so good for my heart!” Mrs. Ackerman sighed as one last giggle escaped her before she returned to her stitching.

“Mine too,” Winnie Montrose agreed.
“Shay was certainly cut from the same cloth as Calliope, wasn’t she, Evangeline?”

Evangeline smiled lovingly at Calliope and confirmed, “That’s what Daddy has been saying for months now too.”

Calliope smiled. After all, it was a gift to be able to bring mirth and joy to people the way she and Shay seemed to do—albeit accidentally more often than not. Calliope knew she had misunderstood a thing or two herself of recent and caused just as many chuckles at her own home. But long ago Calliope had discovered that she liked to make people smile and feel happy, and she’d accepted that it was worth a few dents in her pride.

And so she smiled as she sat stitching on the special little dress she was making for Shay
, glad that the ladies’ hearts had been lightened—that Mrs. Chesterfield’s brows had not been puckered for quite a few minutes now. Smiling was so preferable to scowling, after all. At least in Calliope’s opinion.

*

“I thought spring would never come, Calliope,” Evangeline admitted as she and Calliope meandered home from Mrs. Montrose’s house late that afternoon. “And yet here it is, in all its hopeful glory! I don’t even mind the rain, for Kizzy says the lilacs will bloom soon, and you know how I adore lilacs.”

“I do too, Evie,” Calliope agreed.
“Though I do miss the daffodils and hyacinths. The earliest flowers of spring are some of my very favorites, you know.”

“Mine too,” Evangeline sighed.
“But, oh, doesn’t the warmth of the sun on your face feel divine?”

Calliope stopped walking when her sister did.
Glancing to see Evangeline’s eyes closed, her face tipped upward toward the warm sun of late afternoon and early evening, Calliope followed suit. Closing her eyes, she lifted her face to the sky and imagined that her cheeks were soaking up the yellow warmth of spring’s sunshine. In those moments, she was aware of other things—sensations other than the warmth of spring’s sky. In those moments there was the sweet scent of new, wild grasses, of burning applewood in someone’s cookstove. There was also the feel of the gentle breeze playing with her hair and caressing her cheeks and the lovely arias of returning birds who whistled sweet and lulling melodies.