PART 2
“Bess was the one that shied away at the thought of bein’ ‘airlifted’ down from the loft. I agreed right away, no questions asked,” Nan reminded a bit proudly, pointing her fork at Emil.
“Yes, now that you mention it, that does seem much more in Bess’ character,” Emil teased, causing laughter to erupt from around the table.
Bess dropped her fork and glared at Emil, pretending to be offended. “I didn’t exactly see you willing to catch that disgusting green thing for Nan,” she retorted, playfully.
“I didn’t hear ya scream,” he defended himself. “ If I had, I would have gone and gotten it for you,” Emil smirked back, giving her a small look of triumph.
“Males,” Bess shook her head. “You’re all the same.” Again, laughter spread as she pretended to sigh with distress.
The teasing and playful bickering continued on for awhile longer until Bess and Nan retreated up to their room.
“You’d never guess that you almost didn’t stay when ya first came,” Nan sighed, remembering back to that day.
“Yes, sometimes I still wonder what compelled me to stay,” Bess replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes as she closed the door. “Why, Plumfield is filled with the biggest bunch of goof off’s that I’ve seen in my entire life.”
Nan smiled and rolled over on her bed. That familiar gleam came back into her eyes. “Oh, we all know what compelled you to stay.”
“Oh, you do, do you? And what might that be?”
“Nope, not tellin’.”
“Naaaan!” Bess drug out the ‘a’, plopping on the bed beside her.
“No! Nooo! Stop, pulease!” Nan begged through her fits of laughter.
“Will you tell me? I mean, if I stop?” She was going to get it out of Nan, if it took her until next year.
Nan barely nodded.
“Alright, what?” Bess pulled away, letting her be.
“Dan.”
She threw her head back, rolling her eyes. “Well, I guess that’s one place you and Nat didn’t exactly fail. Or, at least not long term,” as she finished the sentence, her voice grew quiet.
Nan’s jaw dropped, but then she replied softly, “the only time, hmm? Why, there have been lots of times when. Like that time we…Uh, there was that other time we… What is the one thing that you’re talkin’ about?” She finally demanded.
“Matchmaking.”
“Matchmaking? Now that’s one thing we’d failed at each and every attempt of.”
Bess shook her head. “Not one.”
“Not one?” Nan dipped her brows in confusion.
“Yes, one.”
“Which one is that?”
“The ‘secret’ letters that Dan and I ‘wrote’,” Bess crossed her arms, and looked over at Nan with an eyebrow raised.
Nan hummed, looking up at the ceiling. “Hum, de, dum, de, dum….” She twiddled her thumbs.
“You know what?” Bess broke the momentary silence.
“What?”
“I think we should do this more often.”
“Yeah, we should,” Nan nodded her head in agreement.
Bess rolled over on her back, studying the ceiling. “I miss having you to talk with, Nan,” she confided, biting her lip.
She rolled over and joined Bess in looking at the ceiling. “I miss you, too. I loved the thrill of bein’ by myself, but… I missed you, too.”
Silence settled over, as both girls lay, thinking of things.
“So, are you and Dan officially courtin’?” Nan finally broke the silence as she looked at Bess with her twinkling blue eyes.
Bess rolled over and laughed, knowing how curious Nan was. “Well….”
“Do you think that you’re ready to call on Dr. Pierce this afternoon?” Jo asked the next morning, sipping coffee with Nan.
She and Bess had both slept late, because of being up till the early hours of the morning the night before.
“I…I don’t think so. I’m still exhausted from my trip and there’s so much to catch up on with everyone. Maybe tomorrow,” Nan brought the warm mug to her lips, not meeting Jo’s gaze.
The answer caught Jo a little off guard, but she managed to swallow that down. “Oh, well, alright. Tomorrow then.”
But it happened again…And again. Somehow, Nan seemed to be constantly catching up, a little too busy and a little too tired.
Jo, being Jo, picked up on it and began to worry. Of course, she spoke to Asia.
“Asia, I’m concerned about Nan. Has she been acting a little strange to you lately?” Jo furrowed her brows, having a hope that she was just imagining things.
“Yes, now that you mention it, I do think maybe she’s been a little strange over the last few days,” Asia gave a long sigh, uncovering the risen bread dough. “Maybe she’s just a little nervous.”
“Do you think something’s wrong? She just doesn’t seem to be her usual self. But I’ve only noticed it when I suggest going to see him. Maybe something happened between them?”
“Could be,” Asia had noticed Nan’s resistance on more than one occasion but didn’t exactly know what to make of it.
“Should we talk to her?” Jo questioned, sneaking a warm sugar cookie from the batch lying on the counter to cool.
Asia stopped to think for a minute. “Maybe you should. But I’d wait a day or two, longer. Could be she just had a bad case of the jitters. If things don’t change, then talk to her about it.”
“Oh, Asia, I’m so worried about her. Do you think there’s something she’s not telling us?” Jo cupped her cheeks in her hands.
“I really don’t know, Jo. I suppose only time will tell.”
It happened again.
Jo put her foot down and decided to confront the problem. Something was wrong and she was going to find out what it was.
Cornering Nan in the parlor, she said, “Nan, I think we need to talk,” Jo took a seat and patted the place beside her.
Nan’s gaze darted wildly around the room, looking at anything and everything except the women sitting at the other end of the settee.
“Uh, what about, Mrs. Jo? The weather is just lovely today. December is definitely on its way.” She hesitantly took a seat not daring to look at Jo, fearing it would give her clear away.
“Yes, it is a lovely afternoon, but that’s not wh-”
“Everythin’s so wonderful. The trees are almost completely bare and the weather is so cold. Penny just loves it. I stopped down to see her and she was kickin’ up her he—”
“Nan,” Jo broke in gently, disturbing her endless chatter. Looking up, Nan closed her mouth.
“I know what you’re doing, and it breaks my heart to see you this way,” Jo reached over and rested her hand on Nan’s. Her eyes were filled with sincere concern as she looked over at ‘her’ girl—‘her’ hurting girl.
“Y-you do?” Nan asked quietly, swallowing slowly. A bright flush stole across her cheeks.
Jo nodded and reached up to touch her cheek. “Yes, I do and you can’t go on like this. You need to speak with him. You must speak with him, Nan. It can’t go on like this.”
“I-I know, I-I’ll do that tomorrow,” she shook her head vigorously in assurance.
Jo shook her head firmly. “No, you’re going to see him tonight . I’ve already told Dr. Pierce that we’ll be stopping by shortly after dinner.”
Nan turned away, biting her lip as she gazed at her hands.
“You’ll have much more pain knowing that you never amends than you do now. Asia can tell you that, as can I,” she squeezed Nan’s shoulder gently.
“Laurie and John Brooke, Laurie’s tutor, had invited Meg and I to the opera with them. We were thrilled and excepted right away, with no second thoughts,” Jo smiled, suddenly remembering the bright flush that had stolen across Meg’s cheeks on that night long ago.
Staring blankly at the wall, Nan kept her head high and shoulders squared as well as her back straight.
“But then there was Amy to deal with,” she stated flatly. “Her temper was worse as a child than it is now. I reminded her many times that there were only four tickets; being Amy, she grumped and refused to listen. Looking back on that, I come to realize that she hasn’t changed much since then…”
Of course, Jo was teasing–-or was she?
“We left, leaving Amy at home for Marmee to deal with. When we got home later that night, I had great plans of working on my story, but when I went to do so, it was no where to be found! All over I looked, until I remembered Amy. She had taken my story and thrown it for kindling in her fireplace as a way to get back at me for not taking her to the opera.”
Nan suddenly gasped loudly, bringing a hand to cover her mouth. “Your story? Mrs. Amy burned your story in the fireplace?” She forgot her momentary rebellion and turned around.
“I swore I would never forgive her. A few days later while ice-skating with Laurie, she fell through the ice. I was so afraid she would die without me having asked her forgiveness. Oh, if she had…” Jo sniffed, trying to keep her tears in check. “Nan, don’t do the same thing to yourself,” she advised, although it came out much more like a plea.
Nan’s shoulders fell as tears began to slowly run down her cheeks. Seeing the battle of wills, Jo moved over and pulled her into a tight embrace.
Nan resisted at first, but was soon trembling with muffled sobs.
“Why didn’t I just write and try to fix this up? Why couldn’t I just swallow my fear and…And…Oh, I’ve been so wrong,” she cried burying her face in Jo’s arms.
“Shh, Nan. It’s all right… Don’t worry.” Jo tried to comfort, kissing the top of her head as tears began to slowly spill down her own cheeks.
For the next while, both Nan and Jo sat, crying.
PART 3
