The Roswell Legacy by Frances Statham (parable of the sower read online .TXT) 📗

Morrow then turned to Richard. “Andrew will probably have claimed Ginna’s trunks by now.”

“I’ll walk back downstairs with you,” Richard suggested.

Amid the flurry of good-byes, Lila held her cheek for Ginna to kiss. “Have a wonderful visit, my dear.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Montgomery. For everything.”

“Lila, I’ll ring you up tomorrow. There’s a wonderfully delicious champagne breakfast at the Union League Club on Sunday morning, given by Julia Atwilder. She’s sending around an invitation for you and Richard. I do hope you will be rested well enough by then to attend. Everyone’s looking forward to seeing you.”

Lila brightened. She loved parties and didn’t examine the excuses for them. She was vastly different from her friend, Ward McAllister, the social maven of New York, who saw no reason for honoring Columbus. “In a social way, Lila,” he had confided, “Columbus was an ordinary man.”

“I don’t care, Ward, since he won’t be at the exposition.”

Remembering that exchange, she smiled. “A good night’s sleep will work wonders, Morrow, as Richard has pointed out. We’ll look forward to the breakfast. But, tell me, what is this champagne watermelon that the club has started serving?”

Morrow laughed. “Oh, it’s all the rage right now, Lila. A watermelon is plugged, the center is scooped out, and an entire bottle of champagne is poured into it. Then it’s put on ice to chill. Quite delicious in this hot weather, if you’re careful not to partake too much.

“We really must go. Andrew is probably champing at the bit just like his horses. Ready, Ginna?”

She nodded. The bellman, waiting discreetly at the door, took her valise. And as she followed Morrow out of the suite, Ginna already loved her as a sister.

CHAPTER

24

Andrew Lachlan had been an apprentice architect under Louis Sullivan at the same time as Frank Lloyd Wright. But now the two were out on their own, having chosen to go separate ways, each in a slightly different direction.

The Lachlan house along the shore had been designed and built by Andrew to reflect his own style, one not quite so horizontal as Wright’s, but equally open to the sunlight with a spacious quality.

“What an unusual house,” Ginna exclaimed, seeing the burnt-clay two-and-a-half-story structure, with its curved arches reflecting the curve of the shoreline.

“Andrew designed it,” Morrow said with pride.

“I’ve never seen anything like it before. It’s magnificent.”

“It’s a welding of the Scottish moors and the western prairies,” Andrew explained in his rich voice with the slight Scottish burr. “Built with strong stone to stand against wind and rain.”

They stopped in the driveway, the setting sun behind them. Andrew climbed down to help his passengers out of the carriage.

“Come, Ginna. We’ll go inside while Andrew attends to the luggage. I’m anxious for you to see the interior of the house as well.”

Ginna followed Morrow as the carriage disappeared behind another curved archway. Even the landscaping was wedded to the house, as if the land and house were one. The white gingerbread trim and the green ivy that had enveloped the various country houses she had seen across the miles, from the window of the train, would never be at home here.

“This is Allie,” Morrow said, seeing her servant standing at the open door. “Allie, this is Mr. Jonathan’s fiancee, Miss Forsyte.”

“Good evenin’, ma’am. Welcome to Eagleroch.”

“Mommy, did you bring me anything?” David asked, rushing to greet his mother.

“I brought a beautiful visitor, son. She’s going to be your Aunt Ginna.”

The small boy resembled Nathan so much that, for a brief moment, Ginna was speechless. Recognizing the same frown of disappointment, she quickly said, “If you’re David, I have two presents for you—one from your grandmother Allison and one from me.”

“I’m David,” he assured her, brightening at the prospect of two presents. “Where are they?”

“David, let Aunt Ginna catch her breath first.”

Ginna laughed. “Just as soon as my bags are brought into the house, David, we’ll find your presents.”

There was a golden glow to the spacious living room that opened from the entrance hall. A row of windows, unusual in shape, provided a breathtaking view of the sparkling lake beyond. Like coastal houses along the seaboard, the living level was really the second floor, to allow for rise of storm tides or waves. The openness seemed to go on forever, with furniture grouped to delineate where walls might have been. One end of the room possessed an arched fireplace, filled with greenery, and to its side a large potted palm reaching toward the skylight.

“Would you like me to show you to your room now, Ginna? Supper won’t be long.”

“Yes, please.”

David followed them up the steps, as if afraid the bearer of gifts might vanish for good. He stood in the doorway watching Morrow walk into the guest bedroom. It, too, faced the lake, with a wonderful view from the same elongated windows flanked by blue-green draperies the color of the water beyond.

A breeze swept through the open windows and flapped the draperies with its force. Morrow immediately walked to one of the windows and half closed it. “If it gets too cool during the night,” she said, “the windows are quite easy to adjust.”

With her hand, she indicated the room to the right. “Your bath is on the other side. If you need anything, just ask Allie.”

“You’re so kind, Mrs. Lachlan—”

“Morrow,” she corrected again. “Remember, if we’re to be relatives, then we mustn’t be so formal.”

So Morrow had no inkling. Perhaps it was just as well.

“I want you to feel right at home here, Ginna. To see Chicago as I see it. It’s such a growing, exciting city. Yet there’s so much poverty here that it sometimes breaks my heart.”

“Mrs. Montgomery said that you work at a settlement house sometimes.”

“Yes, I do. And tomorrow is one of my days to work.” Impulsively, she said, “Would you like to go with me tomorrow? I really would like to show you what we’re doing—especially with the children.”

“Yes, I would like that.”

“Of course, if you’d