CHAPTER THREE

Eloise is back in the woods. The same woods that she ran through when she was sixteen. This time though, she is wearing the same dress that she went to Stanley’s house in. In the distance, she can see a figure running in the woods, fast as lightning and headed towards her. Eloise turns on her heels and runs away but she just cannot move as fast as she ought to. She looks back to see that the undiscernible figure is getting closer but when she looks forward again, she finds herself at a precipice.

Eloise awakes with a jerk. Her heart is still beating fast as though she is in danger. She clutches her chest and tries to calm herself by taking in deep breaths. She has not had this kind of vivid dream about those woods in a long while. Not since a few weeks after she arrived in New York when she still lived in the tenement. She had managed to push the memories away and save herself from the torture of the nightmares. Now, it seems that something is triggering their return. Eloise knows what that something is; Stanley and his family who so desperately want to know about her past.

Eloise walks into the shared living room the next morning feeling like a zombie. She has barely slept a wink since her nightmare and feels like she could pass out at any minute.

“You look like you slept well,” Fay says when she sees Eloise. Fay is knitting what looks like a scarf but could be anything. Fay is not very skilled at knitting but she never lets that stop her. 

“I couldn’t sleep.”

“You know,” Fay says as she drops the pin and thread. “It has been three days since you met the Bradhsaws on Long Island and you still haven’t told me how it went. I am starting to think that maybe it went terribly.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Eloise says dismissively.

It takes a little more convincing before Eloise cracks and tells Fay about the line of questioning that caused her to fall out offrom grace with the Bradshaws. Fay listens intently, not saying a word but chipping in the occasional ‘hmm’.

“You know what? I do find it a tad odd that nobody knows where you are from,” Fay says when Eloise finishes her narration. “It did cause Eliza and me a bit of concern when you were about to move in but I said it was fine because I already knew you from work. Of course, it has not come up since then but it would be good to know.”

“I’m just not ready to talk about it.”

Eliza walks in in that moment. Eloise sighs when their attention is directed from the discussion they are having to the letters in Eliza’s hands. Eloise is shocked when Eliza hands a sealed letter to her.

“This is for you,” she says.

“Me?” Eloise rarely ever receives mail. Therefore, she collects the folded piece of paper with a bit of apprehension. Eloise opens the paper as though something inside of it would jump out and bite her while Fay and Eliza also watch, both of them wondering who could have written to Eloise.

Eloise’s first thought is that it is from Phyllis Bradshaw warning her to stay away from her son or even from Stanley himself informing her that the courtship is over. But as she opens and reads the content of the letter as fast as she can, her apprehension does not ease. Instead, it increases ten-fold and morphs into fear.

“Oh no,” she says.

“What is it, Eloise?” Fay asks. “What is wrong?”

“Something terrible has happened to my father.” Eloise clutches her chest as she speaks as if the feel of her hand would ease the pain in her chest as it does physical pain on her skin.

Fay would have taken the situation to poke at Eloise and ask her if she really has a father that they have never heard of but the situation seems serious and she does not want to be insensitive. “What happened to him?’ she asks instead. 

“My father has suffered a stroke, and he needs me. I have to go home.” Eloise begins to look around the room frantically as if searching for something that she can pick quickly and be on her way. 

“Okay.” Fay says as she grabs Eloise, trying to get her to be calm. “Eloise, you need to take deep breaths.” Eloise obeys the instruction and breathes in as deeply as she can. “First, you cannot just up and leave. You need to prepare for the trip, inform your job, inform Stanley.”

Eloise nods. “Yes, you are right.” Eloise frees herself from Fay’s hold and turns around to head to her room to begin packing.

“Where is home?” Eliza asks, startling her.

“Blue Creek,” Eloise says the words as though they have been fighting to be free of the hold of her throat for six years. “Blue Creek, Montana.”

The next few days are spent by Eloise trying to put all of our affairs in order as fast as possible. First, she tells her boss who asks her to take as much time as she need to take care of her father. She packs her bag before she decides to go to talk to Stanley. When she arrives at the Bradshaw house, it is the housekeeper who answers the door. The housekeeper who had welcomed her in the past with so much vigor wears an expression of surprise and Eloise cannot help but wonder if she had assumed that she would not be seeing her again.

“Ms. Eloise,” the housekeeper says. “Hello.”

“Hello, Mildred.” Eloise says. “Is Mr. Stanley here?”

“Yes, he is.” Mildred steps out of the way so that Eloise can walk in then she leads her through the house and takes her towards a side door. Eloise walks through the house with caution, praying that she does not run into any of Phyllis, Charlotte or James. Thankfully, she does not.

Stanley is on the field at the back of the building with a few of his friends that she recognizes. They are around their horses and they are smoking and talking about something very loudly. As soon as Stanley spots Eloise approaching them, he leaves his friends and heads towards her so that he meets her halfway with a smile on his face.

“Eloise, this is a pleasant surprise.” He pulls her into a hug. Eloise’s body is stiff because of the combined effect of his friends’ stares and the gravity of the news that she has. “I have not seen you in a while. Do you want to go inside?”

“I am not here for a visit.” Eloise attempts to keep the urgency out of her voice but she fails. “I am afraid I do not have such luxury.” 

“What is wrong?” Stanley’s eyebrows are furrowed and he looks directly into her eyes with a pointed stare, as if waiting for an explanation.

“It is my father.” Eloise swallows. No matter how many people she tells, it does not become easier to tell the next person. “He is not well.”

“Oh, my love,” he says. “What do you need?”

“I have to go home to see him.”

He nods. “I understand that.” She watches as his expression changes from that of worry and concern to one of curiosity. “Where is home?”

That question does not come as a surprise to Eloise. She has imagined that he would ask her that even before she got there but she already made up her mind that she would not hide that from him, not anymore. “Blue Creek, Montana.”

Stanley heaves a sigh of relief as though he had not expected that she would tell him of her destination so easily. “I’ll get us on the next train to Montana. We’ll get there in as short time as possible.”

“Us?” Eloise asks.

“I’m coming with you,” Stanley says in a straightforward tone.

“No,” Eloise says quickly. “You cannot.”

“Why not? You will need support and I am willing to provide it.”

“But I am not willing to take it,” she says. “I cannot just rip out of your life and have you follow me to Montana without a second thought. Please, Stanley.”

“You cannot seriously be pushing me out of your life.”

“I am not pushing you out of my life.” Eloise holds Stanley’s hands in hers. “I need you in my life like I need air. This is just something that I need to do on my own. You must understand.”

Stanley continues to look at her for several seconds, his expression unreadable. Eloise cannot help but wonder if this means that he is trying to understand her or he is pushing her away in his mind.

“Fine,” he says. “But when you return you better be ready to tell me everything I want to know. Everything.”

Eloise nods and smiles at her. He smiles in return and squeezes her hands. With that, she turns around and leaves, ready to go to Blue Creek. Even though she does not know when she will return, she knows one thing she can count on when she does is Stanley’s love.