The Ranch Girls and Their Great Adventure Part 22

"I am no good for work today, Olive. The truth is I want to say something to you and I don't know whether I have the right.

"Olive!"

For an instant Olive changed color. Then she answered.

"I can hardly imagine anything you haven't the right to say to me, Bryan. You often talk of your grat.i.tude for what I have done for you.

But I wonder if you know what you have done for me? I have never had so kind a friend except Jack. It is always difficult for me to think of her as Lady Kent."

"But I am not your friend," Bryan returned brusquely, "and it is about that and about Lady Jack I want to talk to you. The truth is it's absurd to call a man your friend when he loves you. Of course I feel I am not all of a man these days and I have not much money and my art may never come to anything."

"Any more disqualifications, Bryan?" Olive asked softly. Perhaps she was not altogether surprised at what she was at present hearing.

"Oh yes, a great many," Captain MacDonnell returned, "only I think I won't tell you about them just now."

"And what has Jack to do with what you wish to say to me?" Olive asked, and this time spoke more seriously.

"Oh, she has nothing at all to do with it now," Captain MacDonnell returned. "Only once upon a time before I met you, I used to think Lady Jack was the most attractive woman I had ever known. I used also to believe that as long as Frank had gotten ahead of me I never wished to marry. But I suppose the real fact was that I wanted one of what Lady Jack told me you called yourselves? The Ranch Girls, wasn't it? Only I had not seen the real one in those days."

"Look here, Bryan, you need not think I ever forget you are an Irishman," Olive laughed. "Yet I think I like your flattery."

However, Captain MacDonnell was waiting for another kind of answer, and after a little Olive gave him the one he desired.

So began for Olive, what still remains, in spite of all the other adventures in life, the great adventure of marriage.

CHAPTER XVIII

"UNDER TWO FLAGS"

ON an afternoon in summer nearly a year later, two flags might be seen flying from the towers of Kent House.

Over the English meadows the wind blew softly, but strongly enough to whip the flags out straight so that from some distance one could see the British Lion and the Stars and Stripes.

Since Olive's engagement to Captain MacDonnell, the United States had entered the war and was now one of the great Allies.

Inside Kent House there was a peculiar atmosphere of excitement and expectancy.

The house was filled with flowers from the big garden, a profusion of roses and the simpler flowers for which England is famous, wall flowers, daisies, sweet-peas and canterbury bells, named in honor of the great Cathedral at Canterbury.

In the dining room, which opened just back of the library, the table was already laid for dinner.

Evidently there was to be a gala occasion, and yet this was unusual, for since the war began there had been few entertainments at Kent House or in any great English home.

Nevertheless Lady Kent herself presently came into the dining room and looked with the deepest interest at the beautiful table, touching things here and there and making slight alterations in the arrangement of the flowers.

The table was in white except for a stripe of rose-colored satin through the center and a bowl of pink roses.

Jack had on a house dress of some soft white material, as she was not wearing mourning and had not worn it after Vive's death. There was too much black being used in the world.

She was standing still for a moment, frowning slightly, but with interest, not dissatisfaction, when another person entered and came up beside her.

"I have been taking a long walk, Jack, trying to get rid of my restlessness and to make the time pa.s.s more swiftly. I wish you had been with me. But how beautiful your place is! I don't see how you have managed to keep things in such splendid condition with so many of your men at the front. I have been talking to some real English dairymaids down in the left paddock. They made me think of the stories and nursery rhymes we used to read when we were children. Then England seemed as far away from the old Wyoming ranch as the planet Mars. However, I am the last one of the Ranch Girls to visit you in England. Ralph's work has made our coming to you impossible before and now the war has brought us to this side of the world, for how long none of us can say. Have you heard anything from Frieda?"

Lady Kent shook her head slowly.

She was watching Jean and at the same time thinking how pretty and untroubled she looked. Jean's marriage to Ralph Merritt seemed to have turned out an unqualified success. Ralph had come to be known as a leading American engineer, but now had given up all the other work he had been engaged in to offer his services as an engineer to France. And Jean had left her little girl at home with Jim and Ruth at the Rainbow Ranch so that she could be nearer her husband.

"I wish Frieda had not gone to London today. Suppose something happens and she is not back in time for our dinner! Then everything will be disarranged. We cannot have our dinner party tomorrow, for by that time we will have separated again. Tomorrows are uncertain quant.i.ties these days, aren't they?" And Jean's expression changed for an instant.

But Jack answered her quickly. This was to be Ralph Merritt's last night in England for an indefinite time, as he was leaving for France the next day, while Jean was to remain with Lord and Lady Kent.

"Oh, Frieda will be here on time; I don't think we need worry. You see, she is to go to his office and get hold of the Professor, else, Frieda says, if he chances to be especially interested in his work, he will forget all about our plan, and of course to have one of the eight of us missing tonight would ruin everything." Again Jack glanced about her dinner table, which was laid for eight covers. "Still, I think Frieda does Henry an injustice, for, in spite of the absorbing scientific work he is doing, he is far less absent-minded than he used to be. And I never saw a more attentive husband. Since Frieda's baby came I believe he regards her as more wonderful than ever."

As she finished speaking Jack laughed and Jean slipped her arm about her as they walked out of the dining room. Jean was thinking of another baby, who had gone away before the new one came and of Jack's inexhaustible courage. They had not realized in the old Rainbow Ranch days that she had so much spiritual as well as physical courage.

"Well, I am glad Frieda has your old nurse for her baby, Jack, and is living here with you, for I cannot take her seriously as a mother, never having been able to realize thoroughly that she is properly and sedately married. However, we at least have our guests of honor safe."

Lady Kent nodded in response.

"Yes, I have just seen Olive. She and Bryan are both resting, so as to get the most out of their wedding dinner tonight. It was wise of them to come up so early from London this morning. I declare, Jean, it is one of the most beautiful things that ever happened for Olive and Bryan to have married.

"Just from a selfish standpoint you can't imagine what it will mean to have Olive living so near me. I have so missed my family!"

Smiling Jean shook her brown head thoughtfully.

"At present there is not much danger of your missing your family for some time to come, dear. You and Frank will probably grow exceedingly tired of them. Now I must go upstairs to rest for a while myself. I don't wish to have Ralph decide tonight that he is the least fortunate of the four husbands."

Jean Merritt went on ahead, Jack seeing her disappear, and then stopping for a moment to speak to her butler.

Although it was to be only a family party tonight, she was taking far more interest in the arrangements for her dinner than she had ever been known to do before for the most formal occasions.

But then this dinner was to be unusual, since it was the first time the four old-time Ranch Girls had ever been her own and her husband's guests at Kent House. Moreover, their husbands were also with them, even Olive and Captain MacDonnell, who had been married only a few weeks.

Nearly a year had pa.s.sed since Olive's and Captain MacDonnell's engagement, although the wedding had not taken place until the present summer. The scene of the marriage was the Rainbow Ranch, with only Jim and Ruth, their children, and a few friends present, since the rest of the family were in Europe. But immediately after the ceremony Olive and Bryan had decided to risk the dangers of sailing for home and had landed safely in England only the day before.

Having spent the night in London, they had come directly to Kent House, knowing that Jack planned a family party in their honor.

A good many months before, Frieda and her Professor had arrived at Kent House, so that Frieda's baby might be born with Frieda in her sister's care. Moreover, the Professor was working harder than ever, since his own country had entered the war, to accomplish certain scientific discoveries which should counteract the German terrorism.

A little more than an hour later Lady Kent was slowly getting ready for dinner. She wished to be dressed first and downstairs ready to receive her family.

Nevertheless she was frowning and looking slightly disturbed.

She had left word that she was to be informed as soon as her sister, Mrs. Russell, returned from London. In the meantime she knew a train had arrived from town, yet no word came to her.