Amish House of Secrets (4 page)

Chapter 5.

And the light shineth in darkness;

and the darkness comprehended it not.

John 1:5

Emma lifted her hand and knocked on the door at the address that Crowley had given her. She hoped that the old lady was at home and more than that she hoped that the old lady still wanted the letters.

The door opened, and an elderly woman stepped toward them. She was small, neatly dressed and her white hair was caught up behind her head. “Hello.” She looked from Emma to Maureen and then her eyes fell to the box. She gasped, and her hands flew to her face. “Is that my box?”

Emma smiled. “Yes, it is if you’re Dorothy Welby.”

“Yes, I am. You found it in my house and brought it all this way?”

Before Emma could speak the lady said, “Please come in.”

Once they walked through the door Emma placed the box on a low side-table then the three of them sat in armchairs. “Thank you for bringing me my box. I was so upset when I realized that I’d left it behind. Tell me, how did you come by it?”

“I bought your house, in Lancaster County. My fiancé and I found the box on the upper level. I must apologize to you for opening it. We wanted to see if there was something of value in it to see if we should keep trying to get in contact with you. We did write to your post office box.”

“I never check my post office box.” She looked behind her at the box then looked at the ladies in front of her. “Your fiancé bought my house you say?”

Emma nodded.

Dorothy frowned. “Then I’ve some bad news for you. I got a call from my lawyer this morning, and he said that my house is still not sold. He said that the contract fell through. I’ll tell you the name of the buyer; I wrote it down.” Dorothy reached for a notepad on the small table beside her. She placed her reading glasses on her nose, lifted the notepad and held it close, in front of her. “The lawyer said that the buyer was William Joseph Jacobson, and the sale did not go through because of no funding.”

Emma felt sick to the stomach. “Fell through, why? How did if fall through?”

“You didn’t know?” Dorothy looked over the top of her glasses.

“No, we came up by train and left my fiancé back in Lancaster County working on the house.”

“Oh dear, I’m sorry to give you bad news my dear. Especially when you’ve delivered my box back to me. What work is he doing on the house? I hope he hasn’t spent too much money on it.”

Emma shrugged. “I’ll have to call him and see what’s happening.”

“Stay for morning tea, won’t you? Yes, you must.” Before they could say another word, Dorothy had disappeared into the kitchen.

Maureen whispered to Emma, “Don’t worry, put it out of your mind, and we’ll call Wil when we get back to the hotel.”

Emma nodded and did her best to push the whole thing out of her mind while they were with Dorothy.

They sat and drank tea with the elderly lady in the tiny living room of her house in the retirement village.

As Dorothy offered a plate of cookies to the ladies, she said, “I can’t tell you how much those letters mean to me. I’m so grateful to you both.” She looked at Emma. “I do hope I didn’t leave the house in too bad a state. It got too hard for me to clean, and the house was far too big for me.”

“It was fine. Wil, my fiancé, had planned to do a few things to it.” In an effort to drive the whole
haus
situation out of her mind, Emma asked, “If you don’t mind me asking, whatever happened to Harold? Did you marry him?” Emma’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh, I’m sorry, I did read one or two letters.”

The old lady sat back deeply into her chair. “He just disappeared, missing in action. His name never appeared as dead. They told me that he was missing presumed dead. Anyway, that’s what they said when I pressed them for an answer.”

“Have you done any recent checks on him since that time? Electoral roles, driver’s license and the like?” Maureen asked.

The old lady did not answer for a while. “No, and I’ll tell you why. He knew where to find me. We bought that house together as a promise that he’d come back to me. I waited and waited, and he never came back.” Dorothy inhaled deeply and let it out slowly as if trying to calm herself. “Do you know what it does to a person to wait like that?”

Emma and Maureen shook their heads under Dorothy’s green-eyed gaze.

“I don’t know which would be worse, to know that he was alive and never bothered to come back to me or to find out that he was killed in the war.”

“You lived in the same house all those years? The house in Lancaster County?” Maureen asked.

Dorothy shook her head. “We lived in Brooklyn. Our plan was that after the war we would get married and settle in that house in Lancaster. We bought the house and put it in my name in case he didn’t make it back from the war. I moved there not long after the war ended and I waited for him there.” Dorothy shook her finger at them. “Don’t think that we were rich or anything, having a big grand house like that. That old house needed work back then, all those years ago. Even so, I struggled with the upkeep for years, hoping that one day he’d come and find me there.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Emma said.

“All I have of him are the letters. I did have hope, but now I just have the letters.”

“Did he have any family?” Maureen asked.

Emma looked at Maureen and knew immediately that Maureen intended to find out what became of Dorothy’s love.

“He had a brother who died; that’s all.”

“Friends?”

“We only had each other. I did have a girlfriend back then, Josephine Cutter, but she disappeared suddenly as soon as the war ended. One day she was here and the next day she wasn’t. We were sharing a flat together and then I was left to pay the whole amount. I had to move.”

“That seems odd.”

“Yes, it was very odd. I called ‘round to see her parents and they said she’d moved away. They were always very nice to me, but that day they did not want to speak to me at all. They couldn’t wait for me to leave.”

“So, you lost your best friend and your fiancé?”

Dorothy nodded and looked up at the ceiling as if she was trying to fight back tears.

“Did you have far to travel to go and see your best friend’s parents that day?” Maureen asked

“Only ten minutes by bus.”

“Mrs. Welby, do you mind if Emma and I look into things for you to see if we can find your old friend and maybe what happened to Harold?”

“Oh dear, I don’t know what you’d find.” She looked over at the box. “Is it any trouble for you to look into things?”

“Not at all, we’d love to help,” Emma said.

“If he’s alive and has not tried to find me then please don’t tell me. I could not cope with the pain. Only tell me if you find a death record. I’d like to know how he died and where he died.”

Maureen and Emma agreed. Maureen noticed that there was a picture on the mantelpiece of a soldier in uniform.

“Is that him then?” Maureen said, standing to look closer at the photo.

The old lady stood up and walked over to the mantle and handed Maureen the photo. “That’s my Harold.”

“He looks a very nice man.” Maureen turned the photo to show Emma.

“Would you like to hear about him?” Without waiting for a response she said, “I will tell you about him. Sit back down, Maureen.”

Maureen obeyed.

Dorothy rubbed her face and looked as though she was deep in thought. “Harold…oh yes. He was lost at war, you know, my poor, poor Harold. I miss him so dearly,” she said with a croaky voice. “We met at a dance, before the war started. There were always dances back then, for the wealthy at least. But I got to go because my aunt was wealthy. My aunt’s husband, Roy, was a photographer and he got invited to the most fabulous events. I was allowed to go to a lot of them. What a time that was when dances were held every Saturday night.”

“How did you two find each other at the dance?” Emma had never been to a dance and wondered how
Englischers
socialized.

“I was standing against the wall while my aunt danced with a man she didn’t even know. I was dressed in a full skirt with petticoats, had on my first pair of stilettoes and stockings with the seams down the back.” Dorothy laughed. “I don’t even know if you can get stockings like that these days.”

“I don’t know if you can,” Emma said.

“Anyway, I thought I looked good and Harold must have thought so too. He was a handsome man and could have asked any girl to dance, but he asked me. I guess he saw me alone and thought I looked nice because he came up, and pulled me onto the dance floor; he didn’t even ask.” Dorothy’s eyes sparkled.

“It sounds romantic,” Maureen said.

“He just whisked me off my feet and pulled me to the floor amongst the other couples. I was shocked at first, too shocked to even speak to him. I remember my face was as bright as a beetroot. But when I saw his smile, I couldn’t help but feel happy. He had the most beautiful eyes, blue as the sky in the summertime.”

“When did you eventually speak to him?” Emma asked.

“We hadn’t even talked through the first few dances. But then a slower song came on, so he took my hand and walked me off the dance floor. It was more inappropriate to dance with a stranger to a slow song back then. Today everything is just willy-nilly, no one gives a hoot. But, back then, people had manners, and if you were a man, you courted a woman. Not like it is today at all. People jump into things so quickly today.”

Dorothy sipped her tea, and then looked at Emma and Maureen. “He would say to me;

Dorothy, Dorothy, Dorothy
,

How I love thee Dorothy.

You are a flower, a ray of sun,

and you make my world so much more fun.

You make my world seem new just by standing in my view
.”

Emma could feel herself about to giggle, and she daren’t look at Maureen in case she was about to laugh too.

“That’s lovely,” Maureen said. “You remembered that after all this time?”

“Yes. He wrote me lots of poetry. He said that he loved me, and I believed him. He meant the world to me for so long. He courted me like a full gentleman, and we did everything together after a time.”

Dorothy took a drink of water. “But then the war started and being of age, of course, he was drafted. Not even a second thought, he just left to serve his country. He told me how he loved and adored me, and even how the minute he got back he would carry me straight to the chapel and marry me. But he left. He left me alone to worry, for… who knew how long. Harold was mine, and I could not lose him.” The old lady looked across at Emma and Maureen. “War’s a terrible thing, isn’t it?”

Maureen and Emma nodded in agreement.

“While he was at war, I wrote him every day and nearly every week I got one back. Every day I worried that he would not come home and when the war ended, he did not come home. I enquired only to be told that he was missing in action. They had to tell me what that meant.”

“That’s awful for you,” Emma said.

“I still love him. If only the war hadn’t started, we would still be together.” The old lady cleared her throat. “Listen to me prattling on, thinking of only my woes. You’ve come all this way, all the way from Lancaster County. You ladies are welcome to stay here if you don’t mind sharing a room. I’ve only got one spare bedroom.”

“No, thank you. That’s very kind of you. We’re staying at a hotel nearby. Before we go, can you tell us all you know about Harold and your friend Josephine Cutter?” Maureen asked.

“Don’t try and find Josephine. I’m hurt that she just up and went away like that, and I see no reason to speak to her.”

“Tell us some background information about Josephine then, just so we get a broad picture of how things were back then.” Maureen smiled at Dorothy.

They stayed for a while longer at Dorothy’s house and when they got back to their hotel Maureen headed straight for the telephone in their room. She phoned Elsa-May and Ettie. “Elsa-May, can you have Ettie find out what she can about Harold Fielding and Josephine Cutter? They would’ve been born in the late or mid twenties. It seems that Harold has never been listed as killed in the war, he was listed as missing in action, but the old lady has not done any recent checks on him. Emma and I are hoping he’s surfaced somewhere.”

“Will do. Now who’s the woman you mentioned?” Elsa-May asked.

“Josephine Cutter, she’s an old friend of Dorothy who disappeared not long after the war ended. Josephine just up and disappeared; she was sharing a flat with Dorothy, and Dorothy was left to pay for the flat on her own. That was before Dorothy moved to Lancaster.”

“To Emma’s new house?” Elsa-May asked.

“Yes. Dorothy and Harold bought it together, but it was in Dorothy’s name in case he never made it back from the war.”

“He would have come there to find her then if he had survived the war,” Elsa-May said.

“Exactly, that’s why Mrs. Welby doesn’t want to know if he’s still alive. She said only tell her if he’s dead. She wants to know how and where he died.”