A Glimpse of the Dream (3 page)

“About my parents?”

“Yeah.”

“I miss them, but when I think about them, I don’t feel like I have to cry as bad as I did before.”

“That’s good.”

“What about you? Are you still sad when you think about your mom?”

His head turned away, and I think he was trying to hide tears. “She left me, and I don’t know why, so it’s still as hard now as it was then.”

I reached for his hand, and his closed tightly around mine. “I’m sorry she left you, Kane, but in some ways I’m not.”

His head jerked to me with tears in his eyes. “Why did you say that?” He sounded mad.

“Because if she hadn’t, we probably wouldn’t be as close as we are.”

I watched as his anger faded and a little smile curved his mouth. “Looking at it that way, I’m glad for it too.”

Mr. Clancy was sitting in the kitchen having tea when I came home from one of my walks on the beach. Kane was off at the boatyard, shadowing Mr. Miller to learn about boat building, a dream of his. He had invited me to join him, but the few times I had previously, I could tell he felt as if he needed to entertain me. He didn’t, of course, but that was Kane’s way. Mr. Miller was willing to apprentice Kane, so he needed to focus on that, not me.

“Teagan, would you like a cup of tea?”

I never drank tea. My parents had been coffee drinkers, but I was willing to give it a try. It smelled good. “Okay.”

With the skill of someone who did it often, he poured the fragrant liquid into a china cup. “Milk? Sugar?”

“I’ve never had tea,” I confessed.

“Have a touch of sugar.”

Seemed like a good plan to me. “Okay.”

He smiled at me as he prepared my tea and then studied me as I took my first sip. It was delicious. His smile turned even wider. “Good, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“It’s a special brew I get from Harrods in London.”

“Tea all the way from London. Fancy.”

Mr. Clancy winked.

“Can I ask you something?” I asked.

“Sure.”

“How long have you worked here?”

“I grew up here. My father used to be the butler when Mrs. Marks’s father was alive. As I do now, he lived here with my mother and me.”

“You’ve lived here your whole life?” I liked the thought of that, being connected to the same place through your entire life’s journey.

“Yes. Back in the day, the house was filled with people—immediate and extended family. Almost every room was occupied, but it didn’t feel crammed, just the opposite, in fact. Mrs. Marks had two brothers who were significantly older than her, but we all played together when we were kids. Some of my fondest memories are the days the four of us had our adventures.”

“Where are her brothers now?”

“They died in World War II. I remember when the telegram came for Robert, the younger of the two. I’d never seen her father cry, but he cried that day. Only two weeks later, a telegram came for Gerald. The house had always been one of laughter, but after their deaths, a solemnity settled over it and never really lifted until Kane’s arrival.”

I wanted so badly to know more about Kane, but I didn’t know if I had a right to ask. Mr. Clancy obviously had no trouble reading my thoughts.

“Kane’s mother worked here. Rebecca kept the house—cleaning, doing the linens. When she learned she was pregnant, she was thrilled and terrified because she was a single woman who needed her job. But there had never been a question that we would all help with Kane so that she could have both. I remember the first day she brought him here. Even as an infant, his eyes were the exact shade of blue they are now. Watching him grow, hearing laughter in the house again, brought life back into this old place.

“Rebecca leaving took me completely by surprise, because she adored Kane. But she had been a rolling stone in her youth. She had dreams of leaving this town and making a name for herself. I’d thought she had moved past that, but clearly I was wrong. I didn’t know her as well as Mrs. Marks had, though I always had the sense that Rebecca’s decision to leave surprised even her.”

I heard the anger and censure in his tone, and I had to agree. Leaving your child was wrong.

“And now you’re here. I’m sorry for the circumstances that brought you to us, but I love watching as you and Kane take up where Mrs. Marks and I left off.”

Touched, I couldn’t form any words in reply, so I offered a weak smile and took a sip of my tea.

“Kane Doyle, that’s it, you creep. I am getting you back. That is the last toad you will be putting in my bed.” I heard him laughing, even though I didn’t know where he was hiding in the massive house. I had been living at Raven’s Peak for seven months and for four of those I had found toads in my bed, usually in the early evening when I liked to come to my room and read before dinner. I had named all of them—I was up to Kane 102.

I really didn’t mind the toads, and I didn’t think Kane was a creep for doing it either. I didn’t know how I would have gotten through those months without him. He had the uncanny ability to know when I wasn’t happy, when a memory of my parents came out of nowhere. He was always there at my side. Most times he did no more than offer a shoulder, but he was always there.

Even still, I had to get him back for the toads. In the four months since he started with his gross joke, I’d attempted to get even with him: spraying all his clothes with perfume and adding hot sauce to the ketchup, knowing how much he loved that on his fries, but my efforts didn’t deter him. It was time to kick it up. Running to the kitchen, I saw Mrs. T behind the stove creating something wonderful as usual. “Mrs. T, I was wondering if I could help you with making a special dinner for Kane tonight.”

Her old gray eyes twinkled at me. She knew that Kane and I dedicated our lives to getting the better of each other. “How special, dear?”

“Well, you know how he loves his potpie. I was thinking we could try a different kind of potpie with worms. Is there a way to do that without harming the worms?”

Her cackle of laughter filled the kitchen. “That is really gross.”

“I know. It’s awesome.”

“Worms in my kitchen? You do ask a lot of me. You found another toad, I’m guessing.”

“Yep.”

“Very well, get me the worms, and I’ll whip them up into a pie of sorts. No harm will come to them.”

“You’re the best.” And then I hurried off to do just that.

At dinner, we all sat in the kitchen like we always did. Mrs. Marks preferred its coziness over the cavernous space—that’s what Kane called it—that was the dining room. The staff usually ate with us.

“That smells delicious, Mrs. T. You seem to have outdone yourself,” Mrs. Marks said. And then she winked, so she knew about the joke we were playing on Kane. It was not surprising, because she knew everything. Mrs. T looked as if she had just sucked on a lemon, and Mr. Clancy was careful to keep his focus away from Kane.

“God, I’m hungry.”

“You’re always hungry, Kane. It’s amazing you’re not the size of a barn with the amount of food you eat,” I said.

His eyes narrowed at me and I just knew he was plotting again. “Jealous.”

I was, of course, since I didn’t eat like that and yet I was a little round. Didn’t seem fair. Instead of answering him, I just stuck out my tongue. I couldn’t wait to see his expression when he saw all those worms squirming around in his dinner.

Mrs. T placed Kane’s pie in front of him. It was like a ritual, the way Kane ate a potpie. He always pulled the top crust off to eat the insides before eating the crust with melted butter. Trying not to grin was hard as I watched Kane dig in and saw the anticipation on his face. It took a minute, once he removed the top crust, to understand. His eyes grew wide and he jumped back from the table.

“You better run, dear,” Mrs. Marks said as Kane’s gaze met mine. I ran right out of the kitchen, down the hall, and through the front door. I didn’t get far before I felt his arms around me. He pulled me to the ground, wrestling me until he was on top. I tried to knock him off, but he was stronger and bigger.

“Good one, Teagan.” I didn’t even get to gloat before he smashed a fist full of mud in my face. “That’s a good look for you.”

After our showers, Kane and I walked down to the docks. He loved looking at the boats and I loved looking at the water.

“I can’t wait to build my own boat one day,” he said as we sat side by side on the pier, our feet dangling.

“Do you see it in your head—the boat you want?”

“Yeah. And I’d like to do it in teak. I’ll drive it all over, from here down the coast.” Peering at me from the corner of his eyes he said, “You can come with me if you want.”

“I want.”

He seemed to like that answer. His lips turned up at the sides.

“What are you going to call your boat?”

“I don’t know, but the name of a boat is very important. It has to be meaningful, special, because the boat is like a part of you. I’ll figure it out.”

In the next second, Kane jumped up and started jogging down to the end of the pier where an older man was trying to carry too much at once.

“Let me help you with that, Mr. Miller.”

“Thank you, Kane. You’re a good boy.”

Kane flashed him a smile in reply. He did that a lot, offering a hand when someone needed it. He didn’t even need to be asked. Mrs. Marks said he had a big heart. They loved him, Mrs. Marks and the others. I envied the closeness they had with each other. They would do anything for him, and he would do anything for them. He had a family again and, even though I felt like an outsider sometimes, I didn’t begrudge him what he had found.

I had been searching for Kane for almost an hour, retracing my steps because I couldn’t find him. When I circled back around to the beach, he was there, but he wasn’t alone. Camille Bowen had joined him. Had they just been to the island? Kane and I often spoke of that island and how we would explore it together. Had he forgotten that promise because his interest in Camille was stronger than his friendship with me?

She was trying to hold his hand, and the fact that she was even reaching for it made it seem like they had held hands before. Were they dating? Had they dated? Remembering my first day of school, seeing the two of them talking, I couldn’t deny they had looked good together: friendly and comfortable. Maybe they were an item, and I had misunderstood him that day. Maybe it wasn’t disinterest in taking her for ice cream in general, just that day in particular, since he had already made plans with me.