Work Text:
The alternative schooling Mrs. Minot had provided many children had proven quite effective and rather a success for the young minds she had taken into hand. Boys and girls had been turned into proper, capable young ladies and gentlemen who could be confident in their abilities mentally, physically, and socially due to Mrs. Minot’s kind, but firm teachings. Each grew in intelligence, grace, and kindness under her guidance.
Frank, who had waited a few years to attend college, as his mother wished, had graduated and was now working in engineering. Good old Number 11, the young man in question had, finally, got up the courage to ask his Annette’s father for her hand.
He had proposed when they continued the tradition of hanging mayflowers from doors.
Ralph elected to propose to sweet, pretty Merry as soon as was proper for her age. Her father, mother, and brothers had heartily given their consent. The dear artist had spent years waiting, both for Merry to grow up a little more and for him to feel worthy of her. It will, of course, be a long while before kind Ralph feels near worthy of his wonderful bride, but Merry can happily assure anyone of their blissful marriage.
Molly managed to become quite the little homemaker for her busy father and Boo. Suffice to say, Molly’s Men are rather enchanted by the lady and she is far more than content to keep house and maintain her gentlemen. Poor Grif was rejected rather immediately when he got up the courage to see if she would ‘have him’.
And then there was Jack.
Jack had turned 17 and turned a page on his childhood that lovely Jane was not to turn for a little while yet.
Alas, his Jill was what had caused him to grow rather soon.
Kind Jack was wandering about, quietly shaking his head at the other young men who doted upon and fairly fell over themselves about different ladies; Joe had fallen prey to a pretty lass from town recently. He wasn’t sure he was quite fond of the idea of turning into a ninny over a girl. Merry was beautiful and she had never bothered him a bit, even when he was a foolish, romantic little boy. Molly was charming, and Annette was lovely and Juliet and Susie dears, and neither did they prick his fancy, even with the draw of them being older than he. Such were his thoughts when he forced the stubborn gate to the Minots’ garden open and startled Janey from her perch at one of the little garden tables and upset the basket of sewing notions she was using to piece together a pretty quilt.
“Sorry, Jill,” he’d said amiably, hurrying to help her gather her things.
“For what, Jack?” she asked, raising her dark eyes to his with a sparkle in her expression, “It’s not your fault I was completely oblivious to the rest of the world. It’s just such a charming day that I could almost imagine the rejoicing the fairies may be doing, I couldn’t even focus on my piecing,” she told him with a sigh, indicating the few pieces she’d managed to sew.
He grinned and helped her back to her seat- it pained him, sometimes, that she could still experience twinges to her back if she didn’t take care. Her delicate fingers in his gave him pause and when she thanked him profusely, genuinely, with bright eyes and her usual enchanting smile, Jack felt as though the floor had been opened beneath him when his stomach gave a steep swoop.
Jill had, of course, always caused a queer sort of warmth to start at his toes and fill his whole being, but this was the first time he truly seemed to get what that could, potentially, mean. Jill, who had only the slightest notions of romance outside of fairies and loveliness.
At Jack’s pause, Jill furrowed her brow a bit. “Are you alright?” she asked, pressing his hand briefly in concern before releasing his fingers.
He nodded a little distractedly, blinking before he moved to go on. “I…suppose I’ll see you inside,” he mused a little quietly as he left the perplexed girl behind him and went in through the back door.
Jill, who was used to Jack’s flights of fancy when they were children, decided she ought not think anything of it and forced herself to work on her quilt once more.
Jack nearly ran over his little mother when he walked through the house, going towards the Bird Room.
“Jack, dear, is everything alright?” she asked as she put a letter from Frank back into its envelope and looked up at her younger son.
Jack blinked owlishly at her a minute before he hummed. “I’m not entirely sure,” he admitted, stroking his chin.
“May I be of any help?” she offered, following him into the Bird Room.
He made a noncommittal sound as he walked over to the window that peered over the garden and looked intently out of it, his light brow furrowed in a way that was unfamiliar to Jack’s brow.
Mrs. Minot made her way over to see what held his attention so, and hid a grin when she caught sight of their sweet Jane. When it became clear that Jack was trying to figure things for himself, the lady of the house moved quietly from the room before continuing through the house with purpose, Frank’s letter momentarily forgotten, to go find Mrs. Pecq.
Jack waited patiently a couple years of adventure and work for Jill to give any indication that her childhood feelings had deepened, but when they didn’t, he chose to go to college. He figured he could wait for her to catch up, or, he thought with a pained wince, not, while getting a degree, as his young dreams of working with Ed were dashed when the youth died so many years before.
Gypsy Jill, who had grown up so sheltered by her mother, Mrs. Minot, and protective Frank and Jack, missed Jack so much it ached when he was away at school. The boy, who worked himself so hard he couldn’t return home for more than brief visits, left a gaping wound in her that she couldn’t identify until he returned home at 24 to see his older brother wed Annette and display his new degree in economics and business- a “bully” of a subject that challenged and fascinated the boy. Her golden boy came quietly, early, and without warning, to the great joy of the Minot household.
Jill, back in her precious bird room, had been so overcome when he came quietly in and asked her, cool as can be, whether she wanted to go for a stroll up the hill and back, that she fairly threw herself into his arms with a joyous cry.
“Did you miss me, then, Jill?” he asked, voice muffled in her dark curls as he tried to keep from giving away how dearly he cared for her by holding her tighter to him than would be proper.
“Oh, did I ever?” she asked, breathing him in deeply. “You were gone much to long,” she informed him, backing away just barely to look up into his bright blue eyes. The warmth she found there made her chest ache a little as she felt the gape seal. “Oh,” she breathed, unable to look away from him.
What he saw bloom in her gaze gave him a thrill. “Now, then, dear Jill, about that walk?”
Jill’s expression softened and warmed to her Jack in a way that had never graced her features, not even, or perhaps especially, towards the gentlemen that had wished and attempted to use Jack’s absence to their advantage unsuccessfully and entirely outside of Jill’s understanding.
“Alright, darling Jack,” she said, releasing him only enough to latch her arm through his. “Let’s go for a stroll,” she said with a sigh and a grin she couldn’t erase from her features as warmth bubbled up inside of her.
It was not often after that one rarely saw Jack without Jill, the two danced exclusively and constantly with each other at Frank’s wedding, and Jack proposed to a Jill who had discovered just how much she adored him on the anniversary of the Catastrophe.
At 25, a few months after the proposal, Jane married John in a flurry of white lace and lily of the valley- their tribute to Ed- and people who loved the two dearly and not half so much as they loved each other