Spring Love Blossoms
At
The House of Four Seasons
by Atonia
Part 2
The next day Toni and Bud went to Salem to a nursery she’d found online to look for trees. Bud had cut a little branch off one of their trees so she could make sure she found the same thing to replace the three that had been cut down. This was important to Toni, she didn’t know exactly why or understand, but she knew the trees needed replanting.
The nurseryman took them around showing them different trees until Bud brought out the branch he’d cut.
“Ah well,” the nurseryman scratched his head, “didn’t know o’these kind growing around here. I might have to order…well wait a minute.” He walked up the hillside and motioned for them to follow him.
“Don’t rightly know where these came from, let me see that branch…well what do you know, how many did you need three? Looks like that’s what I got. Heh, heh I’d forgot about these trees. I’ll get ‘em balled up and delivered for ya if you’d like.”
Toni winced, “Anyway they could be put in the back of a Jeep Cherokee?”
“Could be done I reckon, might mess up your vehicle.”
“I don’t mind we can put down some plastic or something. I’d really like to take them today if possible.”
“If you come back in a couple of hours I’ll have them ready to load.”
“That okay with you, Toni?” Bud asked.
“Yes, we can go get some lunch while we wait,” she was relieved, no way could they be delivered to the house.
“Bud you see that little coffee shop on the corner, we could get a sandwich there.” Bud found a place to park along the side street that led down to the wharf.
“This is where it all started Bud,” Toni told him about meeting Andy here. “He was my guide to the house and he explained a lot about the house and what to expect. I never knew I was renting a magical house.”
“You weren’t planning to come for a season then?”
“Oh no, I was looking for a place I could write for a year, that was all. I didn’t know about the magic until I got to the house and Andy began explaining.”
Bud went up the the counter and placed their order and walked over to the table and sat down. “Don’t you wonder how Andy could be here in this place?”
“I do now, yes, now that I know what’s allowed. At that time no one could leave and I didn’t for a year.”
“I guess it’s good magic whatever it is, being here in this town where the witch trials took place; makes you wonder.”
“Terry and I came down here for Halloween, they really go all out, we saw a vampire running up the street complete with black cape and a red silk lining. He was part of one of the shows they put on. Still it was kind of eerie.”
“This whole town gives me the creeps, I don’t like the dark houses…something about this place,” he shrugged his shoulders.
“It really doesn’t bother me, I wouldn’t want to live here but it’s part of our history. We were going to the Witch museum but the line was so long we gave up, plus it was raining hard that day.”
“Have you ever tried to find out about the house, when it started or anything?”
“No, how would you know where to look? It’s not found on any map. Terry had a map of the area, our road is not on it. There’s only the old wooden sign with the arrow and I don’t know if it’s visible to anybody but us.”
“That guy that brought you and John back saw it didn’t he?”
“No I did and told him where to turn.”
“I noticed a little book store down the street, let’s have a look through it before we leave. Might be something there about the area.”
“You’re really interested in the origins of the house aren’t you?”
“Yeah, something unexplained you know, I like to try and figure things out.”
Toni smiled and sipped her coffee, she should have known that about him, he was after all officer Bud White. He’d wanted to be a detective but had been grossly misused. Their sandwiches arrived and they ate their lunch. Later they found several books in the book store to take back home and read.
The trees were balled and netted and just fit in the back of her Jeep Cherokee; with the hatch open and tied down they made their way back to the house. Bud parked as close as he could to the planting area and manhandled the trees out of the vehicle. Tomorrow he would plant. Toni’s anxiousness about the trees had spread to him. It was the right thing to do, replace what had been taken from the property.
Bud reparked the jeep in the garage and shut the door, he stood looking at the house and gardens that surrounded it and thought it was like a sanctuary, a place where nothing bad happened, nothing there to hurt you or bother you like wild animals might do, only birds and fish and insects. No intruders to worry about, it was a safe haven.
He thought about what Toni had told him about coming here in the first place, maybe she needed that safe haven. Somehow the house knew she needed its protection and it’s magic. Magic, he smiled…it needed a bit of investigation.
Later that evening they were piled up on the sofa in the living room, Millie joined them finding a little space to curl up and be close. Bud had the big book on the witch trials and Toni had three others she was skimming trough prior to reading.
“Did you know there were men accused and executed for witchcraft?” Bud asked.
“No, I will admit I haven’t really looked into the trials.” Toni punched a pillow behind her back.
Bud read slowly but injested what he read. Toni was a fast reader and only picked up certain bits of information.
“I wonder what ever happened to the people who were accused and aquitted?” Toni asked
“Like Captain John Alden? I dunno looks like a case of mass hysteria to me.”
“John Alden, hmm his name appears in two of these books, he was taken to Boston and escaped.”
“But they caught him.”
John Alden, oh that his name should be spoken here again. ( House of Four Seasons)
“Oh here he is , he was a sea captain, and it says he traded with the indians and lay with squaws and had many papooses.”
“That’s only heresay, one of the girls that accused him said that. They took his sword away from him because the girls claimed he tortured them with it.”
Toni looked away imagining a tall captain, perhaps resembling her captain. “I wonder what he looked like, he probably had all the girls after him, probably turned them down and they went after him accusing him of witchcraft.”
Bud looked up, ”Probably had a peg leg and no teeth.”
Toni grinned, “I don’t believe that, no I think he was a handsome devil otherwise they wouldn’t have bothered with him.”
“Witches don’t have to be handsome.”
“But he was acquitted right? So he wasn’t a witch.”
“I doubt any of them were witches, like I said mass hysteria. Probably to cover up a little screwing around. Somebody probably got caught and made up a story and it spread, infecting the whole town.”
But Toni was off, he was already becoming one of her stories, handsome sea captain…John Alden. She was flipping through a book with some old photographs, “Bud look I’ve seen this, this view.” She handed him the book.
“Yeah from the cliff a little farther down from the walk down to the beach. Who took it?”
“Um…Peter Aldridge, 1888. He was here…can’t tell what season. I’ve got to read this one cover to cover.”
Bud however was tired of reading and pulled her foot into his lap and began running his hand up her calf, he soon had her attention and the book went to the coffee table. “Are you distracting me?” she asked.
“I hope so,” he replied his hands now on her thighs, kneading and rubbing. Toni got on her knees and eased herself down on top of him sending Millie back to the hearthrug. Bud had her bottom in his hands, “I think we ought to go upstairs,” he said softly.
“I think so too,” she lowered her lips to his.
The next morning Bud went down to plant the trees. Toni went with him but he assured her he could handle it. And indeed as he began to dig the roots of the old tree stumps came up easily, it was just a matter of pulling them out of the soil. Soon he had the three trees planted back in the rows where he’d removed the stumps. It would take years for them to reach the height of some of the towering evergreens.
“What do you want to do with the stumps?” he asked Toni.
“Burn them, we’ll have a bonfire this evening on the cliff.”
Back on the terrace with a glass of tea Toni read the following from the book she was reading:
The accusers' knowledge of Alden's involvement with Maine and the Indians was affirmed during the hearing when an accuser cried out, "There stands Alden , a bold fellow with his Hat on before the Judges, he sells Powder and Shot to the Indians and French, and lies with the Indian Squaes, and has Indian Papooses." Thus it was also suspected that Alden's relationship with the Indians extended beyond commercial trade. This was not the first time gossip was given substantial weight during the witchcraft trials.”
“What are you trying to make out of this Toni?” Bud asked.
“I don’t know Bud, but he was along this coastline. He might have had a house here, maybe.”
“Here on this spot? I think you’re making things up.”
Toni smiled, “probably,” but something was tugging at her, “perhaps his Indian maiden lived here with her papooses.”
“Speculation,” he grinned.
“There is no proof and probably never will be, it could all have been gossip like you said earlier…could have been.” His name having been spoken seemed to hang in the air around her. “I would think he would have needed a safe place now and again, especially if he was trading with the enemy.”
“From what I read he was one of the elite of his time, well known in Boston and New York. I’m not sure he would have had an Indian woman set up in a house out here. Somebody would know and there would be talk, talk he couldn’t afford to let happen, he had a wife and probably kids in Maine.”
“But this is a magical place, Maximus said the magic started at the beginning of time, it’s ancient and it’s the magic of love. Whatever happened here would go no further, you see what I’m saying?”
Bud smiled and patted her hand, “I understand kitten, there’s no proof but if that’s what you want to believe…”
“I think I do,” she winked at him and picked up her tea glass.