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Authors: Mariah Stewart

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Wonderful You (23 page)

BOOK: Wonderful You
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Y
ou know, we’ll never get anywhere as long as you refuse to paddle.” Ben sat on one seat of the canoe, Zoey on the other.

She leaned over the edge of the aluminum vessel, her fingers skimming the surface of the water like a dragonfly. It was peaceful on the river. It had been years since she had let it just take her. She liked the feeling of drifting. Especially since the other occupant of the canoe had her total attention.

“Zoey”—he leaned forward—“don’t you want to catch up to the others?”

“Nope.” She grinned lazily. “No place I want to go to, no place I’d rather be.”

He looked around slowly, deliberately, as if studying his surroundings.

“I think that’s the tree where Nick and I used to have a tire hanging from a rope. We’d swing out over the river, then jump in.” He pointed to a tall maple tree that stood up on the rise that formed a stony bank off to their left.

“Two down.” She told him, her eyes closed and her face tilted up to catch the sun.

“What?”

“Two trees down.”

He glanced up at the maple as they drifted under its canopy.

“I could have sworn…

“That tree was smaller back then,” she told him, then pointed up ahead and said, “There’s the tree you’re looking for.”

“I don’t remember it being that big.” He frowned.

“And seventeen years ago, it wasn’t. You’ve been away a long time, Ben,” she reminded him.

“I guess I have.” He studied the tree as they approached, then pointed upward. “It’s still there. The tire swing. Just where we left it, I imagine.”

“I’m certain you’re right. I doubt anyone has jumped from that rope since you left.”

“I’m sure that Nick—”

“Never touched it.” She shook her head. “There were a lot of things that you guys used to do together, that Nick stopped doing after you left.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No. He waited for you to come back. He always thought you would.”

“I guess he didn’t expect it would take so long.”

“None of us did,” she said softly.

“Least of all me,” Ben replied.

“Was it that difficult, then, to come back here?”

“I was a very confused boy when I left here, Zoey. I guess in my min
d I had built things up to…
well, to be more difficult, more complicated than they really were. But once I was here, it was as if I had not left. Seeing your mother, seeing Nick, you

I really feel as if I’ve come home.”

“You have, Ben. This is your home.”

She stretched her bare feet toward him in the body of the canoe and he reached out to tweak her toes.

“You’re right. It is.” With his oar, he pushed off away from the tip of a rock that stuck out through the water like a raised fist. “And it’s good to be home, Zoey.”

“It’s good to have you home.” She sat forward as if to say something, when she was interrupted by the whoops and hollers from the passing canoe, manned by Nick and India. Corri hung all but completely over the side as she dove for something in the water and Nick grabbed the waistband of her jeans to pull her back in.

“We’re ’sploring. Want to come?” Corri called to them.

“ ’Sploring what?” Zoey called back.

“The river,” a wide-eyed Corri told them as Nick and India paddled to close the gap between the two canoes. “Nick says that there was a battle up there”—she pointed toward the far shore—“and that soldiers are buried there.”

“Remember, buddy?” Nick asked Ben. “We used to camp there and sit up half the night watching for ghosts.”

“Ghosts!” Corri exclaimed. “Did you ever see one?”

“Only in our imaginations.” Ben laughed.

“And there was plenty of fodder for our active little minds, growing up in these parts,” Nick grinned. “Remember all the days we set out,
positive
that today would be the day we’d find the highwayman’s buried loot.”

“We dug holes from here almost to Kennett Square.” Ben laughed again, and this time, Zoey and Nick laughed with him.

“I remember one time you told me if I dug up the loot, that you’d give me a quarter,” Zoey chimed in, grumbling with reproach. “A whole
quarter
for digging up Fitzpatrick’s ill-earned treasure.”

“Who was Fitzpatrick?” India asked.

“James Fitzpatrick was a blacksmith who used to haunt the taverns down around what is now Kennett,” Nick told her.

Zoey tried to recall the local legend. “Wasn’t he a member of the Continental army?”

“British army, I thought,” Ben said.

“Actually, he fought on both sides at different times. He fought with the patriots for a while, but thought he
was being mistreated, so he deserted and joined the Brits.” Nick placed his paddle across his knees and leaned on it. “But he’s best remembered for his exploits as a highwayman. He was, so the story goes, a master of disguise. One of his favorite ploys was to don one of his many disguises, seat himself in one of the local taverns, and join in the gossip about the exploits of ‘that rogue Fitzpatrick.’ Then he’d jump up, pull off his disguise, and proceed to rob the very fellows he’d been drinking and chatting with.”

“And, of course, local legend would have had it that he buried his loot somewhere around here.” India nodded.

“Of course. But I can assure you that it’s not on Enright property,” Nick told her, “because at one time or another, Ben and I sifted through every inch of it.”

“What happened to the highwayman?” India asked.

“He was hanged down in Chester City,” Zoey said.

“Now if we float down river just a little farther, we can drag the canoes out and leave them on the shore, walk a ways, and we’ll come to an old Quaker meeting house where the American and the British troops skirmished outside while the meeting was in worship on the inside. Must have made for a heck of service.”

“Most of the soldiers who dropped there that day were buried right there in the meeting cemetery,” Zoey added.

“So.” Nick turned to India and asked, “Shall we go in search of the highwayman’s treasure, or shall we hike out to the old meeting house?”

“Actually, I would like to do both”—India glanced at her watch—“but I don’t think we really have time to do either. Corri has school tomorrow, and I’d like to be back in Devlin’s Light in time for dinner.”

Corri made a face. “I want to see where the ghosts are.”

“Next time, sweetie,” Zoey told her. “Next time you come for a visit, you and I will go off on a trek and we won’t come back till we have seen at least one ghost.”

“Yay!” Corri yelled and started to jump up.

“No! Co
rri
! We don’t stand up in a canoe!” Nick cautioned as the canoe tipped
perilously
to one side. Corri giggled, oblivious to the fact that she almost got the coldest bath of her life, and shot back to the middle of the canoe floor. Nick rolled his eyes to the sky and told Zoey and Ben, “How would you guys like to row back with Corri in your canoe?”

“Nah,” Ben told him. “There’s enough deadweight in this canoe as it is.”

“Who are you calling deadweight?” Zoey leaned forward.

“Well, there’s two of us here, an
d only one of us is paddling…

“I’ll show you paddling.” Zoey sat up and squared her shoulders, and dug into the water with her paddle, turning the canoe around in a circle.

“Ah, Zoey, we’re going round and round in a circle,” Ben noted.

“Shut up and row.” She glanced over her shoulder at her brother and called, “Last one home is a rotten egg.”

“If we can’t go look for ghosts and we can’t go look for loot,” Zoey heard Corri ask as the canoe pulled away, “can I go for a ride in Ben’s car when we get back? He said if it was a nice day, he would take me for a ride in his car. With the top off.”

“Sure,” Nick told her as he pushed his canoe past his sister’s, “as long as we don’t have to wait too long for them to catch up.”

“Catch up?” Zoey croaked. “Catch up? You may not realize it, my beloved big brother, but you are messing with the paddleboat champ of Brady’s Mill.”

“Oh, well, then. Did you hear that, India?” Nick called loudly enough to be heard in the next boat. “The
paddleboat champ of Brady’s Mill
.

“Ummm. I suppose we should give up without a fight, Nick,” India called over her shoulder. “How could we hope to beat the
paddleboat
champ of
Brady’s Mill?

“Wow. Next time we issue a challenge, I guess we’d better find out who the competition is, wouldn’t you say, India?”

Laughing, a full five feet behind the other canoe, Ben rose to the challenge. “Dig, Zoey.”

“I’m digging, I’m digging!” She laughed, though they both knew that India and Nick would not be beaten at rowing. At least not on this day.

“Next time,” Ben told Nick good-naturedly.

“Never,” India told him. “Nick rows the bay every morning for a workout. He’s unbeatable.”

“Maybe
I’l
l be a sport, though”—Nick grinned— “and we’ll give you a handicap.”

“We’ll take it.” Ben winked at India as they lifted the canoe and started up the incline from the river.

“What’s a ‘handicap’?” Corri skipped alongside of India and tried to keep up. Before India could answer, Corri asked, “And Indy, Ben didn’t make us wait. So can I have a ride in his car?”

“That’s up to Ben.”

“Can we still go, Ben? Please?”

“Sure.”

“Oh, boy, wait till I tell Ollie,” she scampered ahead.

“Who’s Ollie?” Ben laughed.

“Her best friend back in Devlin’s Light,” India told him as they reached the garage and leaned the canoes up against the outside wall.

“Indy, why don’t you go inside and start getting your things and Cor
ri
’s ready, while I hose down the canoes?” Nick asked.

“Good idea. Corri can go for a short ride with Ben while I do that and see if Aunt August is almost ready to leave.” India nodded and set off for the house.

“Can Zoey come?” Corri asked Ben.

“Well, there’s really only room for two people,” Ben told her.

“Oh
…” Corri
seemed disappointed.

“It’s okay, Corri. I can take Zoey another time. If she wants to go someplace with me sometime.” Ben turned
to her and asked, “Do you think you might want to go someplace with me sometime, Zoey?”

“Odds are that I could be persuaded.” She nodded.

“Well, then, Miss Corri, you’re on. Let’s do it.” He held her hand out to the little girl and they raced to the spot where he had parked his sports car earlier that day. In anticipation of the event, he had left the top down. Corri climbed in and fastened her seat belt.

While they were too far away for their voices to be heard in the garage, Zoey was certain that Cor
ri
’s mouth was moving the entire time.

“She’ll talk Ben to death, you know,” Nick told his sister, and they both laughed.

“What a shame to lose your friend after finding him again after so long.” She grinned.

“Yeah. Isn’t that something? Ben turning up again after all this time?” Nick untangled a length of dark green garden hose. “I still can’t believe it.”

“Ummm.” Zoey nodded happily.

Nick glanced at Zoey, wondering if he should ignore the obvious. Nah.

“So,” he said meaningfully.


‘So’ what?”

“So what’s up with you and Ben?”

“Don’t know yet.”

“Really?”

“Really.” She sat down on the concrete apron of the driveway and asked, “What are you getting at?”

“There’s a current.”

“There’s always been a current.”

Nick frowned. “The last time we saw Ben, we were kids. Kids don’t make currents.” He sprayed one side of the canoe and turned the water off and said meaningfully, “Last night, there was current. Today there was current. I could feel it.”

“Good.” She grinned happily.

“I don’t know about that.” He shook his head.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that as soon as his leg is better, he’ll be off to
Monte Carlo or Monza or Silverstone or wherever the next Grand Prix will be run.”

She sat and pondered this.

“No, he won’t,” she announced. “He won’t leave.”

“Zoey, don’t delude yourself. This is Ben’s life. He was just reaching a point in his career where he was about to make his mark before he had the accident.” He sprayed the other side of the canoe, then turned it to dry in the sun. “If he can go back to it, he will. And besides, he told me that once he retires, he’s planning on going into business with a friend of his back in England, Zoe. Ben has no plans to move back to the States. He’s here to help Delaney out on a temporary basis, but as soon as he can, he’ll be going back to the life he’s made for himself in England.”

BOOK: Wonderful You
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