As Time Goes By (The Californians 2) Read online

  As Time Goes By

  Lori Wick

  10Prologue

  Santa Rosa, California December 1871

  Jeffrey Taylor tiptoed up the back stairway of his house in stocking feet. His parents and brothers were all asleep and he stepped carefully along the upstairs hall way to avoid the reliable creaks and groans of the hard wood floor.

  Once in his bedroom he lit the lantern and undressed for bed. The sights and sounds from the Christmas party he had just attended came back to him. Jeff knew every one there, had grown up with most of them. They had laughed, sang, played games, and eaten for hours. And then the hostess' face, Sylvia Weber, swam before his eyes.

  "What's the matter with you tonight, Jeff? You haven't been very attentive this evening." Her voice was irri tated and Jeff was quick to apologize.

  "I'm sorry, I must be a little tired."

  "I'll forgive you," Sylvia said with a teasing light in her eyes, "if you come over right now and have one of these desserts I made."

  Jeff had gone, telling himself to perk up, but Sylvia was right; he had been distracted the whole evening. It was almost a relief to leave.

  He lay in bed now, stretched out flat--almost six feet of him--hands pillowing his head. His body was ready for sleep, but his mind, full of the day's activities and conversations, was moving like a runaway stage. Earlier that day Jeff's father, Bill Taylor, had talked with him. Bill informed Jeff that Jake Bradford had been in to mention that his daughter Roberta was coming back to town and looking for a job.

  11

  Roberta Bradford, "Bobbie" to most, was the answer to his parents' prayers because she was an experienced shipping clerk and only needed the position temporarily until she got married.

  Jeff had known they were going to be needing some one at the shipping office, owned and operated by the Taylor family, because his mother, May, was taking some time off.

  Bill's consultation with Jeff about hiring Roberta was far more than just professional courtesy over the fact that they would all be working together. Bill told Jeff outright that if he didn't want Bobbie to work there, they would drop the whole idea. The reason for such words from father to son dated back five years.

  Finally allowing the years in his mind to fall away, Jeff let his thoughts slip back to the summer of 1866, the summer when Jeffrey Taylor's thoughtless actions hurt Bobbie Bradford enough to drive her from her family and home for over five years.

  Santa Rosa, California

  June 1866

  Seventeen-year-old Jeff Taylor was not hearing one word of Pastor Keller's sermon. While keeping his head totally still, he could shift his eyes until he had' a perfect view of Sylvia Weber's profile. Unfortunately he could also see Richard Black.

  How dare Sylvia sit with Richard in church when only last night she had let Jeff hold her hand! The sight of them made Jeff fume, but his anger didn't last. Sylvia smiled at him as soon as church was over, causing his

  irritation to immediately dissipate.

  "We're leaving, Jeff."

  The words, spoken by his mother, came much too soon for Jeff's tastes. Why, he had only had a few min utes to talk with his friends and no time to speak with Sylvia. She looked wonderful in a pale blue dress shot with flowers of dark blue, the perfect foil for her blonde hair and striking blue eyes.

  Jeff wore a brooding look as he climbed into his folks'

  20As Time Goes By 13

  wagon. He usually rode with Rigg, his 21-year-old brother, but today Rigg had stayed home with a summer cold.

  Actually Rigg was his half-brother--Marshall Riggs. Rigg had been a toddler when his father died and his mother married Bill Taylor. Bill and May had three more boys as the years went on: Jeffrey, Gilbert, who was 13, and Nathan, the youngest at ten.

  A huge lunch of fried chicken and dumplings was enough to take Jeff's mind from Sylvia for a few minutesm that and the job his mother had given him of taking some soup up to Rigg. Rigg wasn't really sick enough to stay in bed, but May had wanted him to and he had done so to please her.

  "Ready for something to eat?"

  "Sure." Rigg put aside his Bible and pushed up in bed. "Smells good."

  "Chicken soup." "How was church?" "31 right."

  "You wouldn't know it by your voice."

  "Sylvia sat with Richard."

  "So it's Sylvia this month." Rigg's voice was dry. "What's that supposed to mean?"

  "'Calm down, Jeff." The older man's voice was gentle. "I've just noticed that you don't stay interested in any one girl for very long."

  "'It's different with Sylvia." Jeff spoke adamantly, a little too adamantly.

  Rigg nodded sagely, wisely holding his peace. His food saved him from replying for a few minutes, and then he told Jeff that he needed to get some sleep so he could be at the store in the morning.

  Jeff nearly accused Rigg of being married to the store that bore his namemRiggs Mercantile. But the one time

  he had hinted at such a thing, Rigg gave him quite a tongue-lashing. He told Jeff flat-out that he wouldn't know a day of hard work if it bit him in the seat of the pants.

  Jeff had silently agreed with him but replied that these were his fun years. He would have to work the rest of his life, so why start now? Rigg, who had been working at the store since he was 14 and was in complete charge since he was 19, had Only shaken his head and walked away.

  Jeff consoled himself with the fact that he helped out at the shipping office from time to time. The fact that his ten-year-old and 13-year-old brothers did more work than he did was conveniently ignored as Jeff once again told himself that he would be working the rest of his life. At 17 you were supposed to enjoy life to its fullest.

  Jeff was just leaving Rigg's room when his mother called him from the kitchen.

  "You have a visitor, Jeffrey."

  Certain that Sylvia had come to apologize, Jeff flew down the stairs, only to find Pastor Keller waiting in the living room and talking with his father.

  "Hello, Jeff," the pastor greeted him. "Sorry to intrude on your Sunday afternoon, but I have something I'd like to discuss with you."

  "Sure." Jeff took a chair and gave the pastor his full attention.

  "We're planning an outing for the church. I think everyone will enjoy it. We're going boating at the lagoon."

  "Hey, that sounds great!"

  ''I was hoping you'd say that. We're planning a little something special for the young people, though, and here's where you come in. Right now there are 12 young

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  people from 15 to 17, six boys and six gifts. What I'd like to see you do is ask the six boys to invite the girls on this outing. We'll have a picnic and some games before the boating, which isn't scheduled until four in the afternoon. The date is three weeks from today."

  Pastor Keller held out a piece of paper to Jeff, who took it and read in silence.

  Jeffrey Taylor

  Tom Freemont

  Richard Black

  Deacon Briggs

  Dan Walton

  Jeremy Reeve

  Angie Stallsworth

  Sylvia Weber

  Roberta Bradford

  Kimberly Miller

  Dorothy Nelson

  Lydia Caminiti

  "You're one of the older boys, Jeff, and I think a leader. I was hoping you could talk to the other fellows and ask them if they'd be willing to invite a girl from the list."

  Pleased at being referred to as a leader, Jeff nodded and continued to listen.

  "If you think this is going to make anyone uncomfortable, we'll just drop the asking part and invite the young people as a whole."

  "No, this is great," Jeff answered from a purely
selfish standpoint, thinking how much fun it would be to attend an event and have Sylvia all to himself. "I'll talk to the others right away and let you know."

  "Thanks, Jeff. I knew I could count on you." Pastor Keller took his leave shortly after that and Jeff asked to borrow the wagon. Within two hours all six boys from the list were in the Taylors' yard demolishing a platter of cookies that May had delivered to them.

  "'So that's the story," Jeff explained. "These are the girls, and Pastor wants us to do the asking."

  "Who asks who?" Richard wanted to know.

  "That's what we have to decide," Jeff told him without much friendliness in his voice.

  "I'll ask Lydia," Jeremy offered, and the other boys, save Jeff and Richard, began to speak up. Within minutes it became apparent that two boys wanted to ask Sylvia and no one wanted to ask Roberta.

  "You told Pastor this was a great idea, Jeff; you ask four-eyes."

  "Hey, Richard, don't talk about Bobbie that way. She's really nice."

  "Then you ask her, Deacon," was Richard's surly reply. But Deacon wanted to ask Angie, and being one of the younger boys, he fell silent rather than stand up to Richard, who was almost as old as Jeff.

  "It looks like we tell Pastor Keller that it's not going to work out." Jeff voiced his solution even as he told himlf

  that he would just ask Sylvia on his own.

  "We could draw straws to see who asks Bobbie Bradford." This was Richard's suggestion, his voice betraying to everyone that he was sure it would never be him. The group fell silent for a moment, and each boy felt weighted down with guilt over the way they were talking about Bobbie.

  Deacon was rightmBobbie was a very nice girl but she wasn't at all attractive. She was the youngest girl on the list, not yet 15, and it appeared to anyone who cared to observe that Bobbie was never going to develop any female curves.

  She was about as straight up and down as a young girl could be, and even with her short height she appeared to be all arms and legs. Her eyesight was the next thing that

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  weighed on everyone's mind, as each young man pictured the wire-rimmed spectacles she wore on the bridge of her turned-up nose. They made her eyes look like those of an insect, or so the boys thought.

  And if those reasons weren't bad enough, Bobbie had the ugliest hair in town. A dirty blonde color, it refused to curl or lay straight, but fluffed out from around Bobie's head and shoulders like the wool on a sheep.

  The Bradford family was not what anyone could call affluent, but Mrs. Bradford was a whiz with a needle and thread, and most people never dreamed that Bobbie wore her mother's made-over dresses. Bobbie had a brother who was 13 and an older married sister, who was expecting her first baby.

  The family was well-liked at church and known for their hardworking, generous attitudes. Mr. Bradford did odd jobs around town and was the gravedigger for the church cemetery--not a glamorous position, but appreciated by most. Mrs. Bradford cleaned house for two of Santa Rosa's wealthier families, and had a small business of sewing and mending clothes in her home.

  But even though Bobbie's family were hard workers and she was a nice girl, none of the boys in the Taylor yard had the desire to ask her to the outing at the lagoon. The six talked a while longer, and though most of them were overwhelmed with shame, they agreed to draw straws. The fact that this went on in the barn, out of sight from Bill and May Taylor, said much.

  Jeff's brother Gilbert wandered into the barn, but he observed from a distance and was not one to talk about anything he had seen or heard.

  The youngest boy of the group, Tom Freemont, was elected to hold the straws. Within seconds Jeff stood

  with the long straw in this hand, trying to control the fury massing inside him.

  "Well, that was easy enough," Richard smiled with cruel contentment. "Since we both wanted to ask the same girl, this makes it quite simple."

  Jeff forced a smile onto his face. "That settles it all right."

  The group dispersed a few minutes later, most of the boys thinking what a good sport Jeff was. Jeff stayed in the barn for a long time trying to calm down. Gil, who had seen the others off and gotten three more cookies, came back into the barn. He flopped into a mound of hay and spoke.

  "You should have told Richard to shut up."

  "'I don't need you to tell me what I should have said!"

  "'You better hope Dad never finds out about those straws."

  "Well, he's not going to find out from me!" The full import of that statement made Gil come straight up out of the straw. "I never snitch, Jeff!" Gilbert's eyes flashed angry fire and Jeff looked down at his shoes. He knew he should apologize. He wanted to, but Gil stormed out and Jeff was left alone.

  23Two

  18

  '1Did all the boys leave?" May asked Jeff as soon as he

  walked in the kitchen.

  "They're gone."

  "Did they like the idea?"

  "Yeah."

  May was bent over a pot on the stove and missed the stormcloud on her son's face.

  "How did you work it out? Are you asking Sylvia?" "No, Richard is asking Sylvia. I'm asking Bobbie Brad ford." This announcement was enough to spin May around to face her son.

  "Why, Jeffrey!" May exclaimed in delight. "That's wonderful! Bobbie is the sweetest girl on earth." May went back to her cooking with a huge smile on her face.

  'Maybe Jeff is growing up after all,' she thought to herself. 'Seventeen is such a self-absorbed age. It's nice to see him thinking of someone besides himself for a change.'

  May was oblivious to the turmoil going on within her young son. Jeff sat a moment longer deciding what to do. If he went up to his room on a hot Sunday afternoon, his

  As Time Goes By 19

  mother would think he was ill. He couldn't go see Rigg because Rigg could read him like a book and would know instantly that something was wrong. If he went to find Gil, and Gil was still mad at him, his parents would want to know what they were quarreling about. Finally, with a small disgruntled sigh, Jeff went into the living room to hide behind a book.

  "I can never beat you in checkers, Bobbie," Angie Stallsworth complained as Bobble jumped Angie's last two checkers and still had four more of her own on the board.

  "That's all right, Angie, you can beat me in spelling any day of the week."

  Best friends, the girls were sitting at the Bradford kitchen table on Monday afternoon. School had only been out a month and they were already restless for something to do. Angie had come over wanting Bobbie to go for a walk along the creek, but Bobbie's mother was working and she had strict orders to stay home with her younger brother Troy.

  "What'll we do now?" Angie asked.

  "Wel-l-l-l," Bobbie drew out the word as she rose silently from the table. "We could head in to town and rob the bank. Gottcha!" Bobbie flung the half-closed door wide open to capture her brother, who was crouched there listening to the girls' conversation.

  "Troy Bradford, what were you doing back there?" Bobbie had her brother by the collar and stood looking down at him like an enraged warrior. She let go when she saw how red his face was. He scowled at her for embarrassing him. They apologized to each other and Bobbie spoke quietly.

  24Time Goes By 21

  "Why don't you get a cookie from the tin?" "Thanks." Troy retrieved his cookie and glanced at Angie before going outside. Bobbie felt sorry for him. She knew he had a crush on Angie. 'But then who wouldn't?' Bobbie thought with a twinge of envy.

  Angie was adorable with her dark curly hair and big dark eyes. She had a round little chin and a bright smile. And she was developing a figure--something Roberta Jean Bradford was sure would never happen in her own body.

  Her mother kept reminding her that she was not yet 15, but Bobbie knew girls who were younger and who had more of a figure than she did. So the words were no comfort.

  "Want to bake cookies?" Bobbie suggested. "It's too hot." 'q guess it is."

  "I never thought
I'd ever say this, but I miss school."

  "Me too." Bobbie agreed. "I miss seeing all the other kids."

  "All the other kids?" Angie questioned her. "Or just one in particular?"

  "Did you see that he was sitting with Sylvia on Sunday?"

  "'Yeah," Angie said with disgust. "Some guys. I mean, so what if she does have a great face and figure and gets good marks in school? What else has she got?"

  Bobbie dissolved into giggles at the comical look on Angie's face. But both girls sobered a moment later; they knew what the other girl didn't have: Sylvia Weber was not a nice person. On more than one occasion Angie or Bobbie had been at the receiving end of her vicious tongue.

  "I thought Jeff liked Sylvia," Bobbie commented suddenly.

  "I thought so too. At least Jeff and Sylvia deserve each other. He's sorta stuck on himself"

  "I've noticed." Bobble agreed quietly. She didn't like to criticize people, and in fact she went out of her way to say nice things about even the hardest to redeem. "But Jeff is one of the best-looking guys in school."

  "That's true. But never forget Bob---all men are fickle." The girls dissolved once again into shrieks of laughter because Angle herself was in love with a new boy every week.

  The afternoon went by in a lazy fashion and the gifts ended up playing a game with Troy and having a great time. They parted company just before supper and made plans to meet downtown the next day to browse in the store windows. But Angie was back at the Bradfords' an hour or so before bedtime.

  "Hello, Mr. Bradford," Angie said breathlessly when Bobbie's father opened the door. "I need to see Bobbie; can she come out for a minute?"

  Bobbie appeared at her father's elbow and Angie nearly dragged her from the house.

  "What is the matter with you, Ang?" Bobbie laughed as she was pulled along. Angie stopped under the tree in the yard.

  "The church is having an outing at the lagoon and Deacon Briggs just asked me!"

  The girls stared at each other for a full five seconds before they screamed in unison and threw their arms around each other.

  "I think he's liked you for a long time."

  "You do?" Angie's face flushed with pleasure.