Robin looked at her in horror.
“Do we scwam?” he asked, her pear poised in his hand.
“No, you don’t have to go to bed this time, but you must each do what I tell you right away. Robin, you may go out on the back steps and sit there till you finish your pear. Then go quietly into the kitchen and ask Hazel to wipe your face and hands with a wet towel. After that, you and Karen may go out to your sandbox. And play, but don’t make any noise, and be very careful about everything till Aunt Petra’s car goes away.”
Then she turned to the little girls.
“You three may clear off the table as quick as you can, and try and get everything into the kitchen and the table empty before she gets in. Then you go into the kitchen and wash the dishes. Karen, you can help, too, and all of you be quiet about it. Then Hazel and Heather can go upstairs and make all the beds, just as smoothly as you did your bunks, and if she isn’t gone yet, you can sit down and read. Tryon, suppose you open the door when she rings the bell the second time, that will give the girls time to get the last dish out. Be sure to shake hands and say, ‘Why, how are you, Aunt Petra?’ And don’t for anything call her Petunia! Take her into the little reception room, and tell her you will call me. Then skip out and warn Jerry in the garage. Now, scram! There goes the bell!”
They scrammed to good effect, so that by the time the second bell rang Robin was sitting calmly on the back steps licking his pear; the girls had hustled every dish from the table, wiped the table off, and departed to the dish washing.
Tryon came with all the grace and ease of Stanton to open the front door with a flourish. Jennifer, in the upper hall, giggled to herself over his effusive tone. Then as he came up grinning to inform her of her caller, she straightened out her smile and went promptly down, quiet and assured, and greeted Aunt Petra as if she had been a dear distant neighbor who had been absent on a long trip.
“Oh, Aunt Petra! So nice of you to come over. You’re looking awfully well. I hope you’ve had a pleasant summer!”
Aunt Petra’s rage rose and her eyes began to snap.
“Well, if I’m looking well it’s no thanks to you!” she retorted. “Such a summer as you’ve led us through! I thought I never would survive it. What in the world did you think you were doing, anyway, running off in that style?”
“Why, Aunt Petra, I’m sorry you have been sick. We certainly had no idea of troubling you. But we’ve had a delightful time, and all got quite rested. I felt that it was really essential for the children’s sake that we get entirely away from all reminders, and it’s really done us a lot of good!”
“But why did you have to do things in such a dramatic way, if you wanted to go away? You and your silly old Uncle Blake, as if the rest of us were a lot of snakes that you had to run away from!”
“Why, really, Aunt Petra, you don’t quite realize the things you all said made us feel we had better get away out of your sight. Can you imagine how my mother and father would have felt if they could have heard you plotting to separate us? That was enough to drive any family into exile. But now that it’s over, Aunt Petra, suppose we forget it all and be good friends. We’ll say no more about it.”
“Indeed!” said Aunt Petra. “You are still as impudent as ever, aren’t you? Well, I’ll say what I please about it as often as I choose. And to begin with, what do you think poor Peter Willis thinks of you?”
“Peter Willis?” said Jennifer, her eyes opening wide. “Why, I don’t know that it matters what Peter Willis thinks of me, does it? He is nothing to me. We used to be friends, that was all. I never liked him especially.”
“The very idea of your talking that way, Jennifer Graeme! When you know that he wants to marry you, and he offered to take you to Europe and get you out of all this trouble with the children! He told me himself that he offered to marry you at once!”
“Oh really, Aunt Petra? And did he tell you that I refused his offer? Well, I did. I told him that if I ever married anybody—which I didn’t expect then because I felt my duty was to my brothers and sisters—but if I ever should be married it would not be to him. Aunt Petra, I’d hate to tell you some of the things he said about my brothers and sisters! And I’m simply done with Peter even as a friend.”
“Jennifer Graeme, have you taken leave of your senses? To talk that way to a wealthy, good-looking fellow like Peter who adores the very ground you walk on? You needn’t think that you can string him along till you get ready to take him over. He’s much too high-spirited for that. You’ll lose him if you carry on like this!”
“Aunt Petra, he’s no loss whatsoever, and if he were the last man on earth I would never marry him.”
“So, you think you’ll be content to go unmarried all your days, do you? You’ll be sadly disappointed when you find no man wants you at all. You’ll get old and shriveled, and then what will become of you?”
“Why, Aunt Petra, you are old, but you’re not shriveled. I think you are rather pleasant to look at when you’re not scolding someone. I don’t see that you are very unhappy just because you haven’t any husband anymore. I certainly would rather go alone all my days than marry Peter Willis. However, I’ll tell you for your relief that I’m not going to go unmarried after all. I’m going to be married one of these days to a perfectly wonderful man!”
Aunt Petra rose in horror.
“Now, Jennifer Graeme, what on earth have you been doing this summer? What would your poor mother say if she knew that you had turned down a marvelous man and picked up some nobody out in the wilds? Oh, I just knew that Blakefield Graeme would regret the day he let you naughty children go off by yourselves. Who is the man you have engaged yourself to marry, Jennifer? As if you knew whether he was wonderful or not. Who is he? Somebody who will disgrace the family?”
“Oh no, Aunt Petra. He’s not like that. Why—he belongs to a royal family!”
“Royal family!” snorted Aunt Petra. “As if I’d believe that! You haven’t been over in Europe rampaging around, have you? And picked up some worthless second son, or some penniless count?”
“Oh no, Aunt Petra! Nothing like that. He’s a splendid man, and I mean it. He belongs to royalty. His Father is a King!”
“His father is a king!” screamed the outraged aunt. “What king?”
“The King of kings, Aunt Petra. I mean that he is a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, he is a child of the King, and that has come to mean to me the greatest thing of all, for I’ve taken Christ for my Savior, too. I am glad of this opportunity to talk with you, for I wanted to tell you that. And I thought you would like to know, too, about my engagement. I went away to get ready to be head of the house myself, but I’m happy to know that God as sent us somebody a great deal more worthy to be head of the house to us all. I hope you’ll like him when you see him, for everybody does.”
“No, I shall not like him!” stated Aunt Petra inexorably. “I shall never like him. Some poor whining illiterate missionary, I suppose, who is marrying you to feather his nest. Oh, what would your poor mother have said if she could have known about him?”
Suddenly Jennifer laughed. “Why, she did know about him, Aunt Petra. For, you see, we’ve been friends for a very long time, only I didn’t know until this summer that he loved me. But Mother would have been so glad to have me marry him. You see, she never quite liked Peter Willis, although she didn’t dream that anybody thought there was anything special between us. But I know she would be glad with me, and so would Daddy. And now, Aunt Petra, why don’t you take off your hat and stay to lunch with us? It won’t be very elaborate, of course, because Hazel and Heather are making it, but it will be very nice for you to stay and eat with us. Won’t you stay?”
“For pity’s sake, Hazel and Heather making lunch! Why, where are your wonderful servants, I should like to know? I don’t wonder they got other places if you sent them flying like that without any notice.”
“Well, you see, we’ve only just got here, and we haven’t fully made our plans, so I hav
en’t sent them word to come back yet. I’m not just sure how many of them I want back. Stanton, of course, was the best of the lot, but I found a letter here from him that his old mother is very sick with a lingering illness and he feels he should stay with her for the present. The chauffeur had a chance to get another job and I told him to take it. We don’t really need a chauffeur, anyway. Jack and Jerry and I can all drive, and it won’t be long before Tryon is driving, too. And as for the nurse, she was simply impossible. I don’t want her back. I’m not sure about the cook. She was rather grumpy at times. I may get her later, though. Just for the present I’ve engaged the gardener’s wife to clean for us, and we’re doing the cooking ourselves, as we have done all summer. I think it’s really good for us all!”
“Cooking! Well I guess you’ll need somebody to clean after you children have been cooking! I think you’re all stark staring crazy, and you need a nurse, every one of you, and especially your daft old uncle Blakefield!”
“Oh, we’re going to have a nurse,” Jennifer said, smiling. “My old nurse, Kirsty MacCarra. Do you remember her? We’ve been up visiting her a few days, and we’re bringing her down to stay. Her invalid sister has recently died so she is free to come again. Do you remember her?”
“Was she that odd foreign-sounding woman with such a thick speech like a crooked thistle? Mercy, I hope you won’t keep her! She was very religious, I remember, and she was a great stickler for having your bottles washed so clean she made all your mother’s cooks angry till they left.”
“Why, we all love her, Aunt Petra. We’re so delighted she would come. But aren’t you going to take off your hat and sit down till lunchtime?”
“No, I certainly am not. I should have indigestion if I did, eating things those wild young ones had cooked! And having to sit and listen to all the crazy things you are planning to do. I’m really sick at heart and I’ll have to go home. Royalty indeed! A pretty head of the house a man like that will make! And to think you chose him instead of Peter Willis! Now, I’m going home and I wash my hands of this family for good and all! If you are determined to go to destruction you’ll have to go, that’s all!”
Aunt Petra walked out the door with her head up and her chin in the air. But when Jennifer heard the wheels of her car going down the drive she sat down in a big chair and covered her face with her hands and laughed until the tears came.
“Poor Aunt Petra! And she didn’t know what it meant to be related to the royal family and be a subject of the King of kings!”
About the Author
GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL (1865–1947) is known as the pioneer of Christian romance. Grace wrote over one hundred faith-inspired books during her lifetime. When her first husband died, leaving her with two daughters to raise, writing became a way to make a living, but she always recognized storytelling as a way to share her faith in God. She has touched countless lives through the years and continues to touch lives today. Her books feature moving stories, delightful characters, and love in its purest form.
Also Available from Grace Livingston Hill
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Astra
Beauty for Ashes
Beloved Stranger
Blue Ruin
Brentwood
Chance of a Lifetime
Christmas Bride
Coming Through the Rye
Crimson Mountain
Crimson Roses
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Girl of the Woods
A Girl to Come Home To
Gold Shoe
Happiness Hill
Head of the House
Honor Girl
Job’s Niece
Kerry
Ladybird
Love Endures
Man of the Dessert
Matched Pearls
A New Name
Not Under the Law
Patricia
The Prodigal Girl
Rainbow Cottage
Ransom
Re-Creations
Sound of the Trumpet
Spice Box
Story of a Whim
Strange Proposal
Street of the City
The Substitute Guest
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Tomorrow About This Time
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White Flower
White Lady
Grace Livingston Hill, Head of the House
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