Box Set: The ArringtonTrilogy (51 page)

“She is not mean, and you are going back. And
when Father learns how badly you behaved and that you didn’t mind
Miss Weatherbee, you’re going to get a lashing,” he said.

“Oh, you wouldn’t tell on him, would you?” I
gasped. Just the thought of Ayden being struck with a strap made me
feel ill.

“No, I won’t say anything. But Father is sure
to find out.”

Heath left Ayden and me standing there. In
Ayden’s eyes, I saw the hostility he kept towards his brother.

“No need to worry. He said he wouldn’t tell,”
I assured him.

“Who does he think he is, anyways? He isn’t
as perfect as he wants everyone to believe,” Ayden mumbled. Then
his expression of anger faded into amusement. “Do you want to hear
a secret, a secret about Heath?” Ayden whispered.

I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to know anything
bad about him, and I couldn’t even imagine what secret Heath would
keep. Ayden noticed my reluctance, and before I could object, he
revealed something that if I truly believed, left me with immense
doubt of Heath’s character and profoundly disenchanted.

That night at supper, I didn’t look at Heath;
I just couldn’t. When I thought he was looking my way, I would
shift my eyes down to my plate. I had suddenly realized Heath was
years older than me. He had his mind set on being a successful
doctor and his heart set on the most intelligent and beautiful
woman that crossed his path. Ayden had revealed a side of Heath I
had both feared and longed for. It had me confused and battling
with myself since the moment I first laid eyes on him.

If Heath were aware of my conflict, if he
noticed my dejection on that first evening back from school, he
didn’t acknowledge it. Just as we began to eat, Opal and Edward
made each of the boys recite one important lesson Miss Weatherbee
had taught. Heath was first, and he cited a quote from Abraham
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Then Edward looked to Ayden, who had
lowered his head to avoid his father’s mandate.

“Ayden, your father asked you to recite a
lesson,” Opal said.

Heath swallowed hard, knowing what was about
to happen. Obviously, this had happened before. We all waited for
Ayden to obey, but he objected with his silence.

“Ayden Alexander Dalton, you rise from your
seat and recite a lesson Miss Weatherbee gave you,” his father
commanded.

Ayden stood and put his napkin on the table,
his head still bowed to the floor. I believed he was about to admit
he misbehaved, but instead, he lifted his head and revealed a smile
full of vice. “Father, I am sorry. I cannot recite a lesson given
by Miss Weatherbee because she was too busy.”

I sat on the edge of my seat, afraid of what
Ayden was about to say. From the dark, malevolent look in his
midnight-blue eyes, I knew he was going to throw Heath to the
wolves.

“Too busy? What does that mean?” Opal
asked.

His father’s eyes narrowed and Heath turned
white as a ghost.

“It means Miss Weatherbee, our teacher, was
too busy letting Heath kiss her.”

Momma gasped, Opal sat back in shock, and
Ayden stood self-righteous at his brother’s wrongdoing. Heath could
have protected himself; he could have lied. He should have lied. I
closed my eyes as Edward stormed over to Heath, grabbed him by the
collar, and slapped him across the face with his free hand. Heath
fell backwards and into the wall then slumped to the floor. Daddy
jumped up and ran to stop Edward from hitting Heath again.

“Don’t do this to him,” Daddy pleaded,
holding Edward back.

Momma began to sob. Opal said nothing as she
came to wipe the blood from Heath’s lip. I glared at Ayden with
eyes so full of disgust it made him wince then he stumbled over
Heath and ran out.

Momma lifted me by the arm and insisted we
go. I looked at Heath one more time. He sat motionless and stunned.
He had obviously been shot in the heart by his brother’s hostile
betrayal.

Lying in bed, I cried quietly. I cried for
Heath, for his physical and emotional pain. I cried for Ayden, who
let the darkness into his soul too often and betrayed his own flesh
and blood to save himself, and most of all, I cried for me. The
tears that soaked my pillow were for my broken heart. Little did I
realize my heart would be broken and shattered into a hundred
pieces more than once in a lifetime.

_______________

The weeks to come changed the dynamics of our
tight-knit lighthouse family. The very next day, after the
unpleasant school incident, Edward and Opal took Heath and Ayden
back to the mainland to have an emergency meeting with the town
school board, and from what I was told, Miss Weatherbee was
immediately dismissed from her position, and the search began for a
new school master. Apparently, the school was lucky to have had a
teacher in the first place. She was the only one out of dozens to
accept the position. Miss Weatherbee, from what I heard, was only
fifteen, the same age as Heath.

Edward put Heath on a strict punishment. From
sun up to sun down, Heath was to work on building a new barn. He
had no assistance; no one was allowed to talk to him. From what I
observed, even Edward wasn’t speaking to his son. Heath refused to
talk to Ayden, and Opal was caught in the middle. She was
distraught and sickened over what her family was going through. And
the worst change of all, the thing that left my heart aching, was
that Heath refused to look at me, as well. He didn’t say hello when
I was near the barn; he turned away from me when I was at the well
retrieving a bucket of water to do the dishes. Heath was hurting
more than anyone realized. He didn’t seem like a guilty boy who
stole secret kisses from an attractive girl; he was unashamed and
very, very angry.

While a new teacher was sought after, Momma
insisted the boys learn their studies with me. After the barn was
complete, Ayden and Heath came to our house and took their lessons
from Momma. I worried that Ayden would be less than respectful,
that he wouldn’t obey her, but surprisingly he did. In fact, he
left Momma proud of how quickly he was learning. He was always
eager to do his arithmetic or to recite a passage from his reader.
Ayden always sat on his stool, giving Momma his undivided
attention. Heath, on the other hand, had lost his passion for
learning. Of course, he did as Momma instructed; he was at all
times respectful and did his work as he was told. His grades were
excellent, as usual. But the sparkle in his brilliant blue eyes had
vanished, and I seemed to be the only one to notice.

Each day after lessons, Ayden would go off
and help Edward with duties around the island, while Heath walked
away without word, went back to his house, and hid away in his
room. No one seemed to care; no one was aware that he continued to
suffer, and it disturbed me greatly. Daddy would not have allowed
me to stay so disheartened. He would have come and talked to me and
made me see that it was all going to get better, and that I should
no longer pity myself.

On one sunny, brisk, fall day, I went to
Heath. He was up in the observation tower, gazing out at the
picturesque, infinite ocean. It had been so long since we talked;
it felt awkward to approach him. At first, he didn’t realize I was
there he was so deep in thought. Then as I came to stand beside
him, he turned and looked at me. His eyes were full of tears; he
wore his broken heart on his sleeve.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he muttered, and he
wiped the tears with the back of his hand.

“Why not? I’m your friend.”

“I don’t have any friends,” he said, then
looked away.

I reached for his hand, but he snatched it
away. I gulped hard, afraid he would yell at me, and then I reached
for it again. This time, to my surprise, Heath didn’t object to my
touch. We stood hand-in-hand, without word. My presence was helping
him; it allowed him to finally let his guard down. Through his
hand, I felt the sadness he had bottled up for all these weeks. I
felt his anguish. Then, I did as Daddy would, and told him to stop
crying.

“I can’t, Lillian; I can’t stop crying.”

As each of his tears slowly fell, they
glistened in the sun.

“Don’t you hate me? Don’t you hate me the way
the others do?” he groaned. I didn’t hate him; in fact, through his
suffering, I loved him even more.

“I could never hate you, Heath Dalton.”

“Miss Weatherbee—” he said softly, then
turned and looked into my eyes.

I knew he was about to reveal what happened;
he was going to tell me about the kiss. I wasn’t sure I was ready,
and my stomach turned into a giant knot. But I was there to help,
as any good friend would be.

“She was out back, fetching some water from
the well. I went to help her pull the bucket up, and she lost her
balance and fell back into me. We landed on the ground,” Heath
said, then took a long breath. I saw how difficult it was for him,
how embarrassing it was. “Ayden saw me on top of her, but it was
all due to the fall. I didn’t kiss her, Lillian. I would never do
such a thing.”

I moved in and allowed him to lean on my
shoulder. Heath was much older than I and stood a foot taller. He
always had the right words to say; the poise and dignity he carried
with such self-assurance seemed years beyond his age. However, on
that day, I was the one with the sensibility to see him through his
angst. Heath had fallen victim to wrong conclusions. Heath had lost
his parents’ respect and been hurt beyond words by Ayden’s
acrimonious disloyalty to the sanctity of their brotherhood. I
didn’t understand why Heath would take the blame for something he
didn’t do.

Heath knew what I was thinking. “They should
never have believed such a thing. Don’t they know me better? I
should have told them right away what happened; I realize that now,
but I didn’t ever think—” He stopped and stood back, then lowered
his head. Of course, Heath didn’t think Ayden would actually do it.
Neither Heath nor I would have ever believed Ayden would sacrifice
his own brother for his own pleasure. I knew Ayden was envious of
Heath, but never believed he only possessed pure jealousy. We both
knew now, though the truth came too late.

“You have to go tell them; you have to let
them know you didn’t do what you were accused of, Heath,” I
insisted.

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” he replied, with
such sorrow in his voice it made my heart sting. I knew then that
Heath wasn’t about to try undoing what had already been done.

I would not stand by and allow Ayden to
destroy Heath, if it weren’t already too late. I left Heath alone
in the tower to seek justice. At first, I was going to Ayden to
lash out at him; I was going to demand he confess his terrible
untruth and have him apologize to Heath. But as I made my way down
the long flight of iron stairs, I realized it probably would do no
good. So I decided to go to Daddy. He was fair. Daddy would never
want anyone to be unjustly convicted. Daddy would make things right
again.

He was sitting in the rocker by the fire,
smoking a pipe and reading the newspaper when I came in. I had
passed Momma in the vegetable garden so I knew I would be alone
with Daddy.

“Can I talk to you, Daddy?” I asked. He put
the paper down on his lap and motioned for me to come over. I knelt
down, my eyes so full of sadness they had already begun to well up
with tears.

“What is wrong, my darling?” he asked,
stroking the top of my head. My words came out like water from
behind a broken dam. With a heavy voice, I told Daddy about Ayden’s
lie and Heath’s broken spirit. I gave him the details, the account
of what really happened.

“Are you certain?” Daddy asked, sitting up
with an expression of momentous concern.

“I am, Daddy.”

In a moment, Daddy was off to see Edward. I
waited in my room, on pins and needles. Whatever would happen would
be monumental. Ayden’s lie had caused Miss Weatherbee to lose her
job and be disgraced by the community, created an arduous
responsibility for the school board that trusted the eyewitness
account, made his parents distrust their much-loved son, and worst
of all, had taken innocence away from the brother he without doubt
should have loved, admired, and remained steadfastly loyal to.

Edward, when forced to, often showed a side
of himself that his sons feared. His gentle, good-natured
character, just like Daddy, if pushed to the limit, would be taken
over by fury and rage. As much as I wanted Heath to have his
parents’ respect and approval returned, as much as what Ayden had
done appalled me, I couldn’t bear to listen to Ayden’s punishment.
His wailing from the whipping could be heard all the way up to my
room. I covered my ears with my pillow and curled up on my bed.
Then Momma bolted in.

“What’s happened?” she cried, her eyes full
of terror.

“Ayden wasn’t telling the truth. Heath never
kissed the teacher,” I explained over all the commotion
outside.

Momma rushed to my side and held me close.
She was trembling and frightened even more than I. As she rocked
me, she mumbled over and over, “Please, God, please, make it
stop.”

Then, out of nowhere, Daddy appeared and
hurried to Momma, pulling her into his embrace. She wasn’t aware
that he was comforting her; she kept sobbing and her eyes glazed
over with intense fear. I would have thought Daddy would rush to my
side, but instead he hushed Momma like she was the child. And when
the wailing from outside finally stopped, Momma collapsed in
Daddy’s arms, then he swept her up and carried her off.

I sat in disbelief, confused and troubled. I
didn’t know how to make sense of what was happening around me.
Everything felt unstable. Would anything ever be as it was? Would
Ayden ask for Heath’s forgiveness, and would Heath accept? Could
their relationship ever be the same? Would Opal and Edward let this
pass? And would Momma be able to recover from the ordeal?