Horizons

Paul said somewhere along the way you have lost me. She said, if you wish to play the part of a fool that is immaterial to me.  She is serving him notice that if  Miss Williams is that foolish to allow such a valuable prize as you to escape her, she wouldn’t allow that to happen to her.  Mrs. Chesnut said, she thinks she has gone too far, this man is engaged to Miss Williams. Miss Chesnut said, you could have fooled me since she has yet to see her with this gentlemen, since she has been here.  She must be a ghost or a hidden mist like the fog in the morning that the wind blows away or the sun dissipates. Miss Chestnut said there’s one attribute that you like that I haven’t mentioned, you like your women aggressive, that’s why she is going to ask you to take me for a walk in the garden.  Mrs. Chesnut said she didn’t know if that would be in good taste.  Fiddle Dee Miss Chesnut said, he is a grown man and he can make his own decisions.

Paul got up from the dining room table and asked Miss Chesnut if she would like to take a stroll outside in the garden with this old man, she stood up and took his arm and said, sir, a man’s age is always judged by his manors and not by his years.  Mr. Chesnut seemed to find some humor in his niece’s statement, he said, that girl is really something, you have to say that she has a mind of her own.  They walked outside to the gazebo, where they sat so they could talk in private.  Miss Chesnut instantly moved closer to Paul and said, it’s starting to get cool out here in the evenings.  She told him that she would sit closer to him to help keep him warm in the chill of the evening.  Miss Chesnut looked at Paul when she said that she had researched him well and she was pleased with what she had learned about him.  She didn’t tell him before, but she knew that he was married in New York and that both he and his wife were Catholic.  When you marry you marry for life since there are no divorces allowed in your church.  My uncle never knew that about you since he isn’t Catholic himself.  She said, she had been trained well in the religious faith when she had been a child.

Paul asked her it you’re so well trained in your religion than why did you expose yourself to me today down at the river?  She said, you rode up on me, she didn’t go there to meet him and he could have rode away.  However, instead you choose to use your binoculars on me while I was swimming in the river.  Paul asked her how she knew that he had been using his binoculars?  She informed him that she had seen the reflection of the sun off of his lenses, so what was point of hiding anything any longer.  Besides in this way there won’t be anything about me that you don’t already know about.  Miss Chesnut said you and your fiancée have in all probability been swimming together for some time.  So now that you have seen me nude, Miss Williams and I will be starting out together on a level-playing field.

Paul said, he should really put her over his knees and paddle her buttocks for her because of the way that she has been talking to him.  She looked at Paul and said, you won’t do that because you’re aggressive in the same way that I am.  Besides he didn’t give a damn what the world thought or what they had to say about him.  She was only concerned about the children that she would bring into this world and not the other people that are already here.  She knew herself and she also knew that she could bring the best of herself out for him if she had the opportunity.  She was much like him, she made things happen and she wasn’t a taker or a user.  She reached over and kissed Paul on the lips and it wasn’t a fatherly kiss, he could feel himself responding to her advances.  Paul said, he thinks that it’s time for him to return to the Chesnut’s home.  Miss Chesnut asked Paul, if he was afraid that if he remained here with her too much longer that he would forget about Miss Kate completely?  She told him that she knew him well, she knew that he had responded to her and that he wasn’t thinking of her as his daughter.  Paul said, now you’re even starting to shock me and that isn’t too easily done.  She said, she told him that she was aggressive and that when she saw something that she really wanted she reacted.  If you remain here tonight she would most certainly attempt to sleep with him if he would allow her to and then he would never ever leave her after that experience.

Paul said, maybe he should move into Charleston.  Miss Chesnut said it didn’t matter to her where he moved; that she would find him again unless he marries Miss Kate.  Paul said, you make it sound like a threat.  She said, it was, and if you want me to, she personally would inform Miss Williams that she should be on her guard and defend you if she knows what was good for her.  Miss Chesnut said, if she wished to fight, she also knows how to do that herself.  By the way, stop calling me by my last name and begin calling me by my first name which is Patricia or better yet call me Pat.