Ready or Not (Aggie's Inheritance) (6 page)

Answered by sudden disconnection, she set the phone back on the receiver and sighed. Aggie rubbed her temple. A headache threatened to explode behind her eyes. In desperation, she reached for the coffee pot.

* * *

Once again, Aggie collapsed in bed physically sapped. Every muscle in her body ached, and she realized she hadn
’
t been off her feet for more than ten minutes at a time all day. Her mind zipped from one thought to another at a dizzying speed. The silky cotton sheets smelled of fabric softener, and the open doors of her closet showed washed and pressed clothing hanging where Allie
’
s clothes hung that morning.

Doris left just after nine-thirty. Every scrap of clothing in the house was stain-treated, washed, dried, pressed, and put in their proper places. The towels in the bathrooms were luxuriously soft and neatly folded. Stacks of fresh sheets sat in baskets on the washer awaiting a massive bed-changing event. Somehow, she knew that had Doris not run out of time, every bed in the house would be sporting newly washed and dried sheets.

Nestled in her freshly made bed, Aggie recalled the highs and lows of her day. The children seemed to be settling into the change of routine. Whereas their life had once been well-ordered and structured, now an incredibly loose routine was the best she could manage.
“
Geraldine would be appalled,
”
Aggie muttered.

The thought of Geraldine Stuart brought a flush of anger to her face. Tavish, sobbing after the verbal assault by his grandmother over his inadequate mourning habits disturbed her so deeply that she
’
d called her lawyer and requested he return her call the first thing on Monday morning. This kind of emotional manipulation must cease.

Aggie recalled the antics of Cari and Lorna. She had always wondered why it was that no one ever mentioned the identical twins as
“
Lorna and Cari.
”
Lorna was a full fifteen minutes older, yet Cari took definite precedence. However, they spoke of Lorna as an appendage and rarely mentioned her without both names linked together. Now, she knew why. Cari had enough personality and spunk for five toddlers. Lorna was often lost in her twin
’
s shadow but was never absent from Cari
’
s mischief. Somehow, the younger twin had learned to invent more kinds of mayhem than a young child should be capable of, and she was an expert at getting her less adventuresome twin to share the blame of her little escapades.

The past week had been a trial for her. She was learning how to balance sympathy and discipline, and by Saturday, the children had discovered that their young aunt knew nothing about children and were taking great advantage of that fact. Cari seemed to know exactly how to get her way without being outwardly resistant, but Aggie was certain that abject defiance was just around the corner. She thought she wouldn
’
t care as long as she could learn to tell them apart. Anytime Cari wanted to exasperate her inexperienced new guardian, she suddenly became quiet and withdrawn, mimicking Lorna
’
s demeanor and mannerisms perfectly. The result was a complete inability for anyone, even for most of the family, to tell the girls apart.

Five-year-old Kenzie was a sweet, impish darling.
Apparently,
everyone
’
s favorite, Aggie had already lost her heart to the endearing little cutie. Thick red pigtails and a bridge of freckles across her nose set off her blue eyes. The result was an elfin beauty that called to mind County Kerry rather than Scotland
’
s moors.

Little Elspeth concerned her, though. Ellie was quiet, reserved, and almost unnaturally unemotional. Such a definitively placid child seemed strange. However, she was fiercely loyal, especially and quite naturally to her twin brother, Tavish. She expressed her love and affection through her actions, though often with an expressionless demeanor.

Physically, Ellie was the odd child when compared to her siblings. Nearly black curls tumbled down her back on the rare occasions that she let it down from one thick braid. Her eyes were a deep emerald green, and her pale face blushed prettily. To Aggie, Ellie looked like the picture of a stereotypical Diana Barry from
Anne of Green Gables
. However, no one would call Elspeth a beauty. She was attractive enough but too ordinary to be called beautiful.

Her close relationship with Tavish made it easy for her to understand his unspoken thoughts and actions. When he disappeared into his little sanctuary under the stairs and their siblings teased him, Ellie defended him. She could make everyone leave him alone without a frown or a raised voice. Aggie was impressed.

Laird, however, was quite the opposite of his younger bro
ther. He drove first-born, type-
A, brand-X Vannie crazy and was entirely oblivious to it. While Vannie tried to pick up the living room that evening, Laird tossed his dirty socks into the ceiling fan to
“
dust it.
”
Subsequently, dust flitted down to cover the freshly cleaned surfaces.

Vannie finally threw the dirty socks at Laird, trying to show her indignation. It didn
’
t work. Laird promptly tossed them into the fan again. Before long, all the little ones raced around the room trying to catch the balled up socks so they could toss them into the fan and watch it hurl them across the room. The children were so engrossed in their play that no one but Aggie saw Vannie race upstairs in tears.

The scene played again through Aggie
’
s mind, and her heart squeezed anew as she remembered it. She
’
d knocked gently and then opened Vannie
’
s door.
“
Sweetie? Do you want to talk about it?
”

Not sure how to handle her distraught niece, she
’
d kept talking, keeping her voice as light and conversational as she could manage.
“
What
’
s bothering you?
”
Vannie didn
’
t acknowledge the question. Instead, she sobbed and buried her face in her pillow. Aggie wasn
’
t certain if Vannie
’
s tears were from the frustration of her undone work, or if there was deeper pain surfacing. In desperation, Aggie finally said,
“
You just cry it out, and I
’
ll sit here until you are ready to talk about it.
”

Vannie
’
s response startled her.
“
He doesn
’
t care about
anything
! He is so laid back and irresponsible! He
’
s
just like Daddy
! If Daddy had been more careful and less immature they might be
alive
right now!
”
With that startling statement, Vannie dissolved into deeper and more heart wrenching sobs. Stunned, Aggie pulled Vannie to her and hugged her fiercely.

“
Vannie, listen to me. Your father didn
’
t do anything foolish or careless. The truck ahead of them had an accident. The most cautious driver couldn
’
t have avoided hitting him.
”
Looking deeply into the young girl
’
s eyes, Aggie continued.
“
They would
not have died
if it weren
’
t for the mix up at the hospital. They weren
’
t even in critical condition. They just lost a lot of blood, and the doctors ordered a transfusion as a precaution.

She swallowed her rising need to deal with her own grief and focused on talking about the accident.
“
You see, a bus had a terrible accident in the rain and dozens of people were arriving, one ambulance after another. They were short staffed due to the storm, and the nurse just made a mistake.
”

“
What kind of mistake?
”
Vannie
’
s wails sounded almost panicked.

“
Two nurses were there giving them blood, but when the ambulances started arriving, one went to help. The nurse that gave your parents their blood was tired, anxious to go help, and misread the bags or something. The hospital thinks the bags were actually mislabeled, but we don
’
t know. Anyway, your dad got your mom
’
s blood and vice versa. When you get the wrong kind of blood it can cause organ failure, and they
’
d lost so much blood already…
”

Finally, Vannie
’
s sobs quieted and she said,
“
No one ever really explained it. No one will talk about it. All we were told is that they died from complications from the accident.
”

She took a deep breath and continued,
“
I
overheard
Grandma Stuart say that Daddy had no business being out that late, and I thought she meant…
”

As she comforted her niece, Aggie wondered how a woman who loved her son as much as Geraldine Stuart obviously did could never say anything kind to or about him. Why couldn
’
t she simply keep silent when there
was
something unpleasant to say? A new resolve entered Aggie
’
s heart at that moment. She would heed her sister
’
s warnings. The children
’
s paternal grandparents could forget unsupervised visitation and have extremely limited access to the children. Geraldine was already criticizing her grandchildren, and it wouldn
’
t be long before they dreaded the sting of their grandmother
’
s tongue just as their father had.

Remembering the discussion, Aggie snuggled deeper into her artificially sunshine-scented sheets, and the tears flowed. The grief she
’
d worked so hard to stifle with Vannie overwhelmed her, sending her into recurring waves of sobs. The line between consciousness and sleep blurred with each dropping tear until she finally sank into a deep and dreamless sleep.

Sunday, March 3
^rd

As she cuddled with Ian and his bottle the next morning, Aggie fantasized about sleeping in and skipping church services that morning. The fact that she couldn
’
t fit everyone in her car tempted her to call the children and tell them not to dress for church. Just as she started to yell for the nearest child, the phone rang, st
artling both her and the baby. S
he soothed the baby with a quick hug and gave him back the bottle he
’
d dropped in his surprise, before snatching the phone from the charger.