A Bend in the Road Chapter Three

 Chapter Three

David McAllister

    "Sure is a pretty night, ain't it?" Sandy sighed contentedly as he settled down with his plate heaped high for the third time. Katherine had finished long ago and was amusing herself by watching him eat and wondering how much he possibly could hold.

    "Beautiful," she answered shortly. She could have said quite a bit more but didn't think that Sandy would really be up to any kind of conversation that didn't border on commonplace things. She found herself drifting away from her dinner companion, watching the young couples dancing to the tune of Pat McGillis's fiddle. She sighed longingly and glanced back at Sandy. He was groaning with satisfaction over a roast ear of corn which he had in his right hand, while reaching for a muffin with his left. It was impossible to wax romantic when accompanied by such a person.

    Anne was standing with Fred and Diana close by with little baby Fred in her arms. She glanced over at Katharine from time to time, rather nervously. She really wasn't certain whether she should impose upon Katherine and Sandy or otherwise let them alone. But fate provided a more pleasant alternative just at that very moment and Anne brightened as she saw the instrument of fate, as late as he was, wandering to the edge of the crowd. A few minutes more and she was on her way towards Katherine with the second of the "two eligible young men" in tow.

    "Forgive me for interrupting," she said, as a matter of principle, although she was fairly certain she hadn't interrupted anything but Sandy's muffin. "Katharine, this is David McAllister. He had hoped to meet you. David, this is Katharine Brooke of Kingsport."

    "A pleasure to meet you, Miss Brooke," the young man offered his hand and Katherine returned the greeting. Her heart gave a little flutter as she looked up at him and, for once, she didn't disdain the unusual feeling. She felt certain that in all her twenty-eight years she had never seen such a man. He was tall… very tall… perhaps around thirty years old, with dark wavy hair and the kindest blue eyes she had ever seen… smiling eyes in spite of the tinge of sadness somewhere in their depths. He seemed as if he had laughed a lot in his life but there was still an air of academic seriousness about him.

    Sandy looked up from his pie, his mouth still full, and frowned at David MacAllister. But he didn't say anything of course, his mouth being full, and instead, reached for a biscuit.

    "Do you dance, David?" Anne spoke up tactfully, glancing at Katherine with a secretive smile. "The music is so lovely tonight, I don't see how any could resist it."

    "Neither do I," David grinned. "May I have this dance, Miss Brooke?"

    Katharine started, a refusal on the tip of her tongue. But she swallowed it, bitter as it was, and, surprising herself, accepted. He took her hand and drew her into the circle. Katharine had never really danced before but that night she felt as if she could fly. Never before had she experienced such a moment. It was as if all else simply melted away and nothing existed. Nothing except she and David… and the music. A new world was opening up to the "spinsterly old schoolmar'm" that night. A world she had never dreamed even existed. A world filled with beauty and music, laughter and light.

    The dance ended, but they stayed for another. But it was getting crowded as more and more finished eating and joined the dancers. In the midst of a waltz, David and Katherine collided unexpectedly with Herb and Ruby and both couples withdrew from the dance, nearly weak with laughter, to collect themselves.

    "Whew!" David laughed. "I don't know about you, but this is all getting a little too crowded for me."

    "I've never really…" Katharine hesitated. "I'm not used to such crowds…"

    "Neither am I." David shook his head ruefully. "I'd rather just go for a walk. Would you… join me?"

    Katharine didn't answer, for she hardly knew what to say. But she rose and followed him away from the noisy clearing and out into the bright, pure moonlight.

    Both were silent for a long time. Katharine because she felt so completely beside herself, so entirely different than everything she had ever known that she felt rather afraid. David because he was thinking how lovely Katherine's dark tresses looked in the moonlight. So like… but no. He would not think of that again. It was past and behind him now.

    They walked until the music of the fiddle was but a distant sound. With a sigh, Katherine at last sat down on a tree stump, not caring to go any further. Why should she, when the view here was so intensely lovely that she couldn't draw her eyes from it? Seeing as there was only one stump, David contented himself with sitting on the ground by her side.

    "Did you see the moon tonight, Miss Brooke?" he said softly. "I've never seen such a moon before."

    Katharine looked accordingly and her heart gave a little thump. It was a great shining moon, almost blinding in its pure-white radiance. And all around it was a ring of light. Anne's words suddenly echoed through her mind.

    "It was thought in ancient times, that when a man and a woman sat under such a moon, they would be bonded together in love for eternity."

    She shivered suddenly, but not from the cold. A funny little feeling shot through her and she hazarded a sudden glance at the man at her side. He had suddenly dropped the sentimental mood and was being quite practical now.

    "Tell me, Miss Brooke, what exactly does your work involve? Anne has told me quite a bit about your excellent teaching…"

    Katharine stiffened. She didn't want to even think about teaching just then, let alone discuss it and thus spoil this lovely night. So she answered curtly, following it up by quickly asking him about his own work.

    "Me?" He shrugged and leaned back against the stump with a laugh. "I'm not anything interesting. Just your plain, ordinary, everyday farmer."

    "Is it really that bad?"

    "No… no, of course not. I love farming… love being with the animals and working out in God's beautiful creation."

    "What do you love most in life?" Katharine asked unexpectedly. Such a question was quite beyond her capabilities and it just came out without her intending it to.

    "I suppose… well, I guess I don't know. You know what I really would love is something I don't have."

    "And what is that?"

    He hesitated and Katherine began to hate herself for prying. What was wrong with her anyway?

    "A family," he said at last, softly. "A wife. Lots of little kids. Someone to talk to on rainy days. Someone to sit around the fire with at night. Someone to open presents with on Christmas." He stopped and grinned at her, ruefully. "Guess I shouldn't be boring you with my problems, eh?"

    "But I understand." Katherine answered, so quietly that he could barely hear her.

    "Shall we go back?" David stood and offered his hand. Katherine took it, shyly, as he helped her up and they walked slowly back together through the grove and the meadow.

    Katherine found herself never wanting that beautiful evening to end as they rejoined the group around the bonfire. It was such a wonderful feeling to return somewhere and immediately be surrounded by a group of laughing, chattering friends. It was even a more wonderful feeling to suddenly have a friendship with a young man… a young man who treated you differently than ever a man did before in your entire life. But Katherine was to find that even that could become more wonderful. As the group by the fireside began to thin, Anne expressed a wish to begin "wending their way homeward". For, of course, Anne could never say anything as commonplace as "It's time to leave."

    "Would you let me walk you home, Miss Brooke?"

    Katherine could scarcely believe that David would ask her that… for a man to walk a woman home meant that perhaps… perhaps he had more important intentions in mind than simply friendship. She found she could hardly answer… her mind was already drifting back to a night long ago when she had been a young girl. That was long before her hopes and dreams had crumbled, when she had been susceptible to all the hurt the cruel world had to offer. That was long before she had learned to build walls around her heart. She was only seventeen then, a lonely and dowdy orphan whom nobody wanted and nobody cared about.

    It had been Robert Ellis. He was the handsomest young man in Summerside. On occasion he had been rather friendly to the solitary orphan girl and her lonely heart had warmed to him. It wasn't long before she found herself in love… for the first, and what she later believed to be the last, time in her life. And one night after prayer meeting, he had approached her, rather shyly.

    "Miss Brooke? Could I walk you home?"… just like that. And her heart had completely melted. But her eager reply was cut short. Annabelle Pringle. The wealthiest and most popular girl in all of Summerside. She had set her cap for Robert Ellis and, when a Pringle took it into her head to get something, it was wise to get out of the way, for they usually got it.

    "Why, Robert! I'm surprised at you." she had stepped in between them, her dainty little face raised piquantly to his. "To ask to see Katherine home from prayer meeting when you know you had already asked me. Really, Robert, it is too much." She was taking his arm, towing him towards the door, while Katherine stood speechless, her face white and her heart already broken. "It is sweet of you, of course, to ask Katherine, but really, what would people say if they saw you together? A girl of such dreadful connections… an orphan!" she had glanced over her shoulder with a condescending little simper before walking off with Robert. Katherine didn't even notice the stricken glance he cast at her. She was blinded by tears. She never knew that Robert really hadn't asked Annabel Pringle… that she had made up the story. But he hadn't enough spine to stand up to her. The following year, Robert Ellis married Annabelle Pringle and Katherine began to build those walls around herself. It was just one in a long line of sorrows.

    But here she was… in this magical place of Avonlea… and another young man was asking to see her home. And there didn't seem to be an Annabelle Pringle anywhere in sight.

    So she accepted his offer. Sensing something about to happen, Anne wisely declined when he extended the offer to her and walked home with Diana and Fred.

    And so it happened that Katherine walked home with David McAllister, beneath that magical moon with the ring around it. They talked about commonplace enough things, laughing heartily all the while, but there was nothing commonplace about the feeling in Katherine's heart when he bid her good night at the Green Gables gate and sauntered off through the moonlight, whistling merrily. She watched him until he vanished from sight, with a peculiar smile on her lips. Perhaps this was just another work of the magic of Green Gables. How she dreaded the thought of returning to Kingsport!