Chapter 20 - This Old House Is Getting Old

Chapter 20 - This Old House Is Getting Old
A week had passed since their return, and Emmeline was still acclimating to Crowley House.
 As was Jack...things were somewhat different now, after his last mad dash across time, unsanctioned. Yeats had roundly chastised him for his recrudesce, and then after this excoriation, seemed to give up. He in fact, avoided Jack, and oddly, Aleister was giving him the same cool treatment. This was worse than any overt punishment.
'Al, a moment?' Jack had cornered Aleister at last out on the veranda where he sat with Alice in lap and coffee hard by. Jack joined him in the other chair and Alice leapt from Al's lap and tail high, stalked off the porch. The men watched her exit.
'I rather feel as though everyone here has Alice's opinion of my company,' Jack began.
Al frowned slightly but said nothing, just sipped his cool coffee.
'You know it wasn't I who instigated this last disappearance of Em...sending her off to Mexico with Daryl in the midst of revolution was not on my to-do list.' Jack tried a light touch.
Al sighed, leaning back in his chair. 'Of course not Jack, that's not it at all...' Aleister hadn't wanted to delve into Jack's...idiosycrasies right now.
He, himself had decided to give up along with Yeats at instilling any sense of prudence? --Responsibility? --Conscience? --in Jack.
 'You do realize that you were beyond all reach of any of us for nearly 3 entire months, Jack? If I had gone missing that long, how would you be taking it?' Al had heard the entire story from Em and actually it had been she and Daryl who had saved Jack's irritating arse...
Jack was quiet. Sighing at last, he spoke, '...Not well, Al. Not well at all.'
'Exactly!' Al huffed, figuring he had the right. He shook his head slowly, staring at the porch floorboards. 'If we had any sort of partnership, if you had any regard for our friedship at all...' Al ran out of steam; 'Oh, bugger it...you've heard it all before, Jack.' Aleister stood then. 'I'm off to town.
Diana and I are having dinner together. I'll be back late, if at all.'
Jack watched the doctor head to the barn and ready the trap for Boreson. He chewed the inside of his mouth in anxiety over Aleister's vilification. Of course Jack would be going crazy were Al to disappear for months... And the fact that it had not been Jack's intention to vanish for any length of time didn't really mitigate matters much.
Yeats had since vanished, himself, but that was Yeat's prerogative, being the Head. Although Jack acknowledged his friends' reasons for their actions, still he couldn't help feeling rather abandoned.
Even Emmeline seemed to have distanced herself from him somewhat of late...she would take herself off on her bike or ride Pancho into the hills for most of the day, return at dusk and spend time with him and Al, (if Al was about), cooking dinner together and dining with them, only to retire early to her Indigo lair. He hadn't been asked to join her.
Since her disappearance at the solstice, things weren't quite the same as before. Naturally, Jack knew she was upset by the whole thing, and especially losing three months' time...but he didn't know what it would take to restore the warm feelings they had between them before this latest debacle. Time, he hoped, would heal the rift.
Jack stared down the road watching Boreson's dust as Al departed for town. Soon they turned the corner and were gone from sight. He supposed Em might show up at some point ...he sighed, hanging his head. What was on her mind? Did she also blame him for her troubles? How could he penetrate her barriers? What did she require of him?
Quien sabe?
                          . . . .
Emmeline and Pancho were heading back to Crowley Place. It was nearing sunset. When she would head out upon her excursions she  wouldn't venture into town; certainly not eager to reacquaint herself with the migraine that was Pankhurst, but instead she would wander the back roads and trails that led to the river along the valley floor or up and into the hills...
She sneezed. Yes, it was spring alright. Pollen was wild about.
Earlier she'd tied her kerchief about her nose and mouth, looking a proper bandita, but it was just too hot for that precaution now. She had thought about visiting Jethro and Homer, but was oddly reluctant to do so now; not because she didn't wish to see her old pals, but she felt newly restrained by her committment to Jack. (Was she 'committed' to Jack? As in committed to an institution?) She sighed wearily...she had felt that Jack would wish to accompany her on such a jaunt and that he would feel slighted if she'd gone there alone. Em did not cotton to such restrictions, as Homer would put it.
Pancho was plodding abit but she knew when they were closer to home base he would pick up steam. As hungry as she was, she wasn't feeling all that steamed-up about returning to Crowley House however. Having had a few days upon which to ponder her situation, Emmeline found herself with mixed emotions.
She simply no longer felt at home in Pankhurst.
Having been removed from there for so long and undergone so much of late, both she and Pankhurst had changed; the past
was long gone. She was also starting to recall certain things about Jack's character that she had conveniently forgotten when away from his daily presence...headstrong, arrogant, a certain great part of him seemed to be removed from being able to relate to others. He was a law unto himself and had functioned as such for too long.
Much like Daryl, she decided, as she headed round the bend and could now view the town in the distance below. She pulled up to a halt, Pancho snorted and shook his head, eager for the barn and oats. Yes, they would both be taken care of here, but,
Em knew she'd have to reciprocate in kind. Oh, she'd been busy enough in the kitchen, cooking, cleaning, lending a hand to whatever would need doing about the house and grounds, but...
But she knew Jack would expect something more. Soon. Now, in fact. Her fault, she knew. How to put that genie back in the bottle? She loved Jack, still. But she knew she wasn't ready to live with him.
She sighed again, nudging Pancho into a walk. The odd thing was, she had to admit, having had this notion for a few days now...aside from Villa Encantata in Mexico, she felt more at home in San Francisco at Daryl's place now, rather than here. She knew, with the revolution ongoing, it wasn't safe to return south of the border. But...
...could she return, possibly, to Nob Hill House?
                           . . . .
The dusk closed round Crowley Place with a soft cloak of darkness pricked by a few diamond points of starfire as early
celestial bodies made their appearance upon the stage of night. Jack and Emmeline were doing dishes together in the kitchen. Em had wanted to talk to him and was ruminating anxiously over how she wished to broach certain subjects as she distractedly dried a dish.
'It looks pretty dry,' Jack noted.
'Hm? Ah, well, could use some rain, yes...'
'The dish. It's been dry for some time now,' Jack smiled wanly.
'Oh.' Em set put it away with the others. 'Well, I'm ready for a little after dinner brandy in the parlor, Jack, how about you?'
Jack agreed, surprised that Em would suggest not only brandy but a tete-a-tete with him alone. He knew Em enjoyed the taste of certain wines with dinner, but she was rarely much for strong spirits.
They repaired to the parlor, grown dark now, the curtains still open to the pallid indigo light outside. Em lighted a couple of candles whilst Jack poured two cut glass snifters of cognac for them. Emmeline had come to prefer the soft gold of candlelight
to the glare of electricity here at the house now. But it would come in handy in summer when candles burned hot.
'Cheers, Em,' Jack handed her a glass, sitting on the middle cushion of the sofa, whilst Emmeline was near the fireside on the end. Friendly, yet not insistent or crowding her space, he thought. She had seemed rather aloof of late and Jack was hoping to discern why. He put a tentative arm along the back of the sofa behind Em.
'Salud.' Em sipped slowly, wishing to make it last. She wasn't sure how to go about this... 'So, Jack...I've been thinking...'
'Yes?'
'About, about Daryl's house in San Francisco.'
'Have you?' This was a surprise to Jack.
'Well, haven't you? I mean, supposedly Daryl is still in Mexico, in the midst of revolucion! I just would feel more at ease if I knew how things are now, with the place...and Rosa and Manuel,of course. We all became rather close friends you know...'
'Is that's what's on your mind? Well, sure Em, we can go anytime you like.'
Hm. Emmeline wasn't so sure about this new 'we' stuff. Oh, how she longed for just afew days of peace and time to herself to think, on her own! At least with Daryl he pretty much left her to her own devices; just kept an eagle eye upon her from his aerie as it were...she now felt she could 'handle' Daryl, they could come to a mutual understanding. But, Jack...
Jack would never understand her need to be alone. This was a major consideration...and until life together with Jack was put into practice, it had not become a glaring problem. Until now.
Oh, dear...
 When she'd stayed here before, it hadn't been for long and she'd been so busy fixing up her room and all...but she did recall now that she'd had misgivings even then. How could she have forgotten...?
Best let him come then. 'Um, sure, Jack, we could, ah, take the train...'
'When would you wish to go Em?'
'Well, how about tomorrow?'
That soon? Jack wondered, but... 'Sure. Why not?' May as well get this little jaunt out of the way and then Em might feel more settled here, he decided. 'I'll see if Al could drive us to the station, or maybe even Casey...yes, that might be best. I'll just go call on him now then, shall I?'
Em agreed to let him go, Casey didn't live that far off Crowley Lane, and Em wanted to make a list of things she wanted to pick up when she was there. Such as her mandolin, for sure and certain! She felt more upbeat now than she had in days.
She wasn't back where she belonged, but it was a start.
She was headed in the right direction at least. And perhaps the train trip would give her time to speak to Jack about things.
Humming to herself, Emmeline headed upstairs to pack.
                       ......