Bright Arrows

Chapter One Eden was sitting in the library of the old house where she had lived all her life. She was going over some papers in the big library desk. Her father had asked her to give special attention to them as soon as she would get home from his funeral service and be alone. She had eaten quietly and conscientiously of the delicious supper which the devoted sorrowing servants had lovingly prepared for her. She had tried to keep a cheerful face during their ministrations, and then had told them that she wouldn't need them any more tonight and they must go to their beds and rest, for they had had a hard day. They had blessed her for her thoughtfulness, and gone off to finish the few remaining household duties. Then they went silently to their rooms. At least they had seemed to go, though they had not all gone to sleep. One of them did not even go to her room, but was still alert for Eden's movements. The old nurse Janet, who had been a part of the household menage ever since Eden was born, did not even pretend to retire. She merely sat down in the servants' dining room and waited with a listening ear for her young lady. Her sharp bright eyes were hiding quick tears which she had not dared to shed before the others, and her kindly old lips that carried and would cherish to the end a Scotch accent from the old country, were quivering with pain for the young girl left so alone in a world that had always been so satisfyingly filled with the presence of a tender father. Tabor, too, was sitting in the upper hall within hearing. So Eden was not really alone. But Eden, having waited for this moment ever since her father had breathed his last on earth, thought she was alone now. She drew a sigh of relief, and went over to the desk, taking out the small key that hung on a slender chain concealed about her neck. It seemed almost as if her father had a rendezvous with her. She knew he had planned it during those last few days of his illness, after his accident, when he knew that his hours were numbered. It was the thought of this last farewell message from her father that had kept her up during the hard hours after he was gone. It was as if she were under orders, and had not time to mourn for him yet, because he had left her something to do. He had said it would be something that would make it easier for her to go on. Eden was very young to have to meet a crisis like this: the shock of an accident that resulted in the death of her only near and dear one, from whom she had almost never been separated. For she could scarcely remember her mother. Her father had been both mother and father to her. With old Janet to minister to her bodily needs, Eden had lived a happy carefree life. And so she sat alone, with old Janet out beyond the hall and pantry and kitchen, on sorrowful, unsuspected guard. Eden fitted the small key into the lock of the drawer to which her father had often directed her attention, turned it, opened the drawer. Catching her breath a little as one who understands a momentous thing is about to happen, she looked within. And there, right on the top, was a folded paper bearing her name, in her father's beloved hand. For an instant it almost seemed as if she were looking upon that dear dead countenance that they had just laid to rest in the old cemetery. And then she remembered what he had said to her about this moment, and how when she unlocked that drawer she would find his last words to say good-by and comfort her. She closed her eyes for a brief instant and then put out her hand for the paper and drew it toward her, handling it as one touches a very precious treasure. Softly, carefully, she unfolded it. It was not long, but very clearly written, somewhat like the letters he had written her during his few brief business absences from home, but her eyes lit with pleasure as she recognized the old sweet greeting, "Dear liHill, Grace L. is the author of 'Bright Arrows ', published 2006 under ISBN 9781416535959 and ISBN 1416535950.