Daniel stretched out his now lean legs that were clad in knickerbockers and laughed, for that particular afternoon Daniel and Cecily were joined by a new companion, one with laughing blue eyes, red hair and a sweet, enigmatic smile. Daniel, always eager to try something new, began to learn to sign with Felicity and soon the whole King clan was learning. Alice had just finished her lesson with Felicity that day and Cecily and Daniel sought to improve her communication skills. She was showing progress that the Matron of the Carmody orphanage was pleased to see. Hesitant about the lessons at first, the Matron was surprised to see Alice learn to communicate so quickly. The little girl had had her own way of interacting with others that only the Matron, Alice’s sisters and brother, and a few other children at the orphanage could understand, but she would often become frustrated and tearful. Her innate happiness seemed to deepen and radiate the more she learned and the more time she spent with Felicity and the Kings. Alice’s cheeks were as apple red as her dress as she danced about the garden, excitedly signing to Cecily and Daniel who responded in sign and out loud, amused by her enthusiasm.
Cecily turned her head when she heard horse hooves at the front of the house. A few moments later, Felicity was walking toward them holding the hand of a tall, slender, girl with curly red hair. Chloe was twelve and the oldest of the Halloway children, with a very pretty ivory white face and deep grey eyes, whom Rachel Lynde had taken an immediate fancy to. She had come from the orphanage with the Matron, Mrs. Baxter, as it was nearing time to return to Carmody for supper. Felicity heard light, tinkling piano music and knew that ten-year-old Christian was practising in the parlour, delighting the Kings with her musical gift. Felicity could see her gold and silver head swaying back and forth on the piano bench. Cecily volunteered to fetch Christian, who had Cecily’s sweet, patient temperament and had come to regard the older girl as a sister. Felicity and Chloe began playing with Alice, Chloe protecting the little girl fiercely from any perceived danger. Christian emerged, following Cecily adoringly. Mrs. Baxter gathered the three girls together and told them to wait a moment before they were to leave.
“If you like, we’d be pleased to have you and the children for supper sometime,” Felicity was saying. “They really adore it out here.”
Mrs. Baxter smiled. “Yes, it’s a rare treat for them,” she agreed. “They have all become very fond of you and your family, Felicity.”
“Well, we absolutely adore them. And little Amelia and Benjamin too.”
“Yes,” she replied. Her face grew serious and Felicity knew that there was a purpose for the interview other than discussing the children. “Alice has shown mountains of progress with you, Felicity. I want you to know that I don’t want to rush you, dear, but when are you planning to open your school?”
“Well, I’ve thought a lot about that lately. It’ll be quite a few months yet before I’m certified. I hope to start taking pupils by January. My aunt Hetty has told me that I can conduct classes in the Avonlea School, but there is the issue of boarding my students. Avonlea is a bit of an out-of-the-way place for a school for deaf children.” Felicity’s brow wrinkled.
“Oh, I don’t think it’s any more out-of-the-way than a Foundling Home,” Mrs. Baxter responded.
Felicity smiled wanly. “What I’m wanting to know is...well...it’s clear that you and your husband would like to adopt Alice.”
“We do hope,” she responded.
“And I’m sure you’d both make excellent parents, but I have a concern about the other children.”
“I know. I couldn’t bear to separate them. Gus and I couldn’t adopt them all now, although we very much want to.”
“Six children and a school are a lot to take on all at once.”
“It is,” Felicity agreed. “I’m going to Halifax tomorrow to visit my husband. We’ll talk it over and tell you what we decide.”
“Thank you, Felicity,” Mrs. Baxter said and began walking in the direction of shouts that were interspersed with squeals of childish laughter.
* * *
Felicity had asked Cecily to stay with her at her new home until Gus returned, which would be very soon. Cecily had gone to bed early and Felicity, suffering from a fit of insomnia, paced until her back ached. She sat at the mahogany desk in the parlour and began jotting notes to herself. She sat back and looked around the room. There were five bedrooms in the home, she thought to herself. She would only be able to take on eight students. She rolled through the plan she had with Gus. It would be impossible to purchase the Lloyd mansion, even with the tuition from seven students added to the price of her home. Felicity desperately wanted to teach the five other deaf children at the orphanage but knew she hadn’t the room or the resources. Her pride wouldn’t allow her to ask the town of Avonlea to pitch in with a new venture and, as much as she loved her parents, she couldn’t ask them to make up the difference. She and Gus wanted to do this themselves.
It hurt her to think of the Halloway children denied a home after they had been through so much in their young lives. Aching, cool tears rolled down her cheeks when she imagined Benjamin’s toothless grin and Amelia’s wild, fiery red locks. A wave of fierce determination washed over Felicity. “I’m not going to give up,” she said out loud. “Not the children, or my school.”
* * *
Captain Ames, upon learning that his friend Gus Pike was to be in Halifax for several months, graciously offered his home to him, decreeing that no friend and former shipmate of his would stay in an Army barracks. Captain Ames had offered his sea experience to the Royal Navy as soon as war was declared, and instead of putting him to sea, the Navy had situated him in an administrative position. He yearned for the sea, but was glad to stay in his cozy home with his wife and now had two small, nut-brown haired children running about the home that Felicity and Felix found themselves in when they arrived in Halifax. Felicity had asked Felix to accompany her at the last minute, as Alec was called away to an agricultural meeting in Moncton and wasn’t able to travel with his daughter. Felicity thought that Charlotte Ames still flirted with Gus abominably, but now it amused rather than angered her. Charlotte was surprised to see the jovial, rather naïve boy Felix had been on their last visit to be replaced by a soft-spoken, quiet young man who went about every task with deliberation that bordered on trepidation. Even Gus, though he could not see the changed expression in Felix’s eyes, sensed the moment that he was in Felix’s presence that there was something different about him. “Failix,” he said, shaking his hand. “It’s good to have you back with us.” Felix replied with a trivial observation that it was good to be back.
Felicity had thought it would be fun to bring one of the Halloway children along, and eight-year-old Amelia was with them as well. Charlotte pounced on the little girl the moment she was in the door and presented her with a golden haired doll and Amelia proceeded to thank her rapturously.
The evening of their arrival in Ames’, Felicity was brushing her hair in front of the mirror of the oak vanity in their room. “Gus,” she said. “We need to talk.”
“I should say we do,” he replied in his distinctive voice and slowly walked toward his wife, never needing an aid when she was near. He could always find his way to her. “You told me in your letters about Failix bein’ changed. It’s hard on a fella, comin’ back from this war, and I don’t just know that from wire reports. You can tell when a man’s been to Europe and come home. There’s a feelin’ about them; it’s the same feelin’ Failix has. There ain’t anywhere they belong now.”
“Felix belongs in Avonlea, Gus,” Felicity told him sternly. “In Avonlea, with his family. I know what’s happened to some of those men. I know that some come back and they can’t even speak or acknowledge who their own parents are. I don’t even want to imagine that happening to Felix. He’s so lucky that he came home in one piece and we’re all very grateful.”
Gus was silent for a moment. “I can’t see Failix, but I know where he is inside. I’ve been there too, after the sinking. It’s like you’re walkin’ through nothin’ but darkness and can’t ever find your way out. After a time, you don’t want to. You want to be a ghost too.”
Felicity listened to Gus speak. She felt a pain inside her as she realised how far away from them Felix had become. “But he had seemed too eager to start living his life again,” she protested.
“He feels he can’t,” Gus replied simply. Felicity bowed her head. “Now don’t you go lettin’ yourself get down about it. Failix needs you to be strong. He needs time. I know Failix. He takes things to heart so and feels deep, like all you Kangs. But he’s strong and it’s his strength that’ll get him though this; that’ll get us all through this.” He lowered himself so that he was eye-level with Felicity. She put her arms around him and leaned her head on his shoulder.
“Gus,” she said, after a long silence. “We need to talk about our school. I’m afraid that...well...things just aren’t going as we planned. I think sometimes that I was too idealistic, too--”
“Failicity,” Gus said. “You could always do anythin’ you put your mind to. You’ve never given up before, and I won’t allow you to even consider it now.”
“But Gus, it is so ambitious. I’m not even a proper teacher and I don’t have anywhere to board the pupils. And then there’s Alice and the other children. The Lloyd place would be so perfect, but the price that the Presbyterian Board is asking is ridiculously high. I don’t know what they intend to do with it. It’s just--it’s just sitting there.” Felicity slammed her brush down on the vanity. “I was thinking,” she said in a calmer voice. “I’ve spoken with Aunt Hetty about this. I was thinking that, after a time, we could also begin accepting blind students.”
Great Aunt Eliza would have squealed with delight to see that her opinions on the perceptive skills of men were evident in Gus’s next question. “Are you goin’ to learn Braille then? How long would that take?”
“Not long at all. I was thinking of you, silly.”
“Me?” Gus asked incredulously. “A teacher?”
“Yes. Aunt Hetty and I both agree that you would make a splendid one...but only if you really want to.”
Gus smiled. “I do. I mean I never considered teachin’, you know. I guess I always thought Miss Kang was the best there was. But I’d like to do it, Failicity. If you think I could.”
“There aren’t any doubts in my mind…if we can open the school.” Felicity walked over to a drawer in the cherry armoire and removed a book. “I’ve been reading this in my spare time. It’s by Miss Anne Sullivan, and she writes about teaching the blind and deaf. I wonder…I wonder if I wrote to her…if she would be able to give me some advice.”
“Nothin’s ever stopped you before, Failicity Kang Pike. Nothin’ ever will.”
* * *
On their last day in Halifax, Felicity, Felix and Amelia met Gus at the gardens in Halifax. The day was warm, and they sat together with a picnic near a pond. Felix stared out onto the pond, barely speaking. Gus made him smile a few times, but Felix felt as though he were partly faking it. Amelia played by the pond, carefully feeding crusts of bread to the ducks that gathered on the bank. The day was unusually warm, and Felix removed the jacket of his suit and told Felicity he was going to walk a bit. He slung the jacket over his shoulder and walked away from them.
He wandered around the gardens, the warm sun falling on him and the breeze bringing him gently sweet fragrances of flowers. Warm pink and ivory petals were falling from the flowering, warmly scented flowering trees as the wind blew, all at once, covering the park in a shower of silken petals. Like snow in May. It was winter again and the battlefield was covered in an eerily beautiful blanket of early snow, silver in the moonlight. The barbed wire sparkled with frost and looked delicate and fairylike. Snow fell around him, lacy flakes stark against the barren scenery.
“Where’d you get that, soldier?” A man asked Felix, referring to his arm in the sling. The citizens of Halifax were used to seeing young men in bandages and casts, so much so that the mere sight of a white bandage was almost a badge that young men wore to indicate that they had gone to war.
“Uh-at Meuse-Argonne,” he replied, his experience abroad giving him the ability to pronounce French names in the strikingly perfect, lilting accent that neither Hetty King nor Clive Pettibone could ever instil in him.
Felix walked past a large hedge but didn’t notice a dark-haired girl walking on the other side. She wore a light blue hat and a sweet muslin dress of the same hue. She walked to the spring garden, where tulips were budded and she could see their colours peeking through the filmy green of the buds. She walked on and came upon a brick path that led through a neatly planted garden. On the other side of a raised patch of flowers, Felix was staring at the flowers and staring at nothing. She walked in his direction, never seeing him and Felix never seeing her, walked on himself and they continued in a circle around the garden. The silken petals continued to fall on both of them.
Izzy turned out of the garden when she saw a young man sitting in a wheelchair near the pond. He had been a soldier and was injured. A bandage was wrapped around his head and his leg was in a cast. He smiled when he saw Izzy and they began talking.
Felix walked out of an opening to the garden, which was near the pond. It was then that he saw Izzy and the young man. Felix could see that he was tall and had dark hair. He thought at first that it was Arthur, but knew it wasn’t the instant he saw him and his bandages. He watched Izzy and the young man for quite a while.
It was because of years of separation and the effects of the war that Felix didn’t recognise his cousin Andrew King. Andrew had been a student at Dalhousie before the war, and had made fast friends with Morgan and then with Izzy. At twenty-three, he still possessed the same reddish brown hair, twisted smile and had grown to resemble his Aunt Ruth. The combination of his King good looks and brains made the Dalhousie girls consider him quite a “catch.” Shy and bookish, he felt uncomfortable talking to girls, but he was never tongue-tied around Izzy. He had become a third brother to Izzy, and she a needed sister to Andrew. She smiled at Andrew as Felix slowly backed away from the scene.
Dora Keith walked over to Izzy and Andrew as soon as she saw them, with a light air in her step. Izzy asked Andrew to walk around the park with them, but he replied that he would rather sit for a while. Even though he was disappointed to miss any amount of time in the presence of Miss Dora Keith, he was feeling tired that day. His leg, which the doctors in London had told him would take several months to heal, was paining him, and he didn’t feel up to a walk.
“I feel so awful for Andrew,” Izzy told her friend as they walked together. “I’m so tired of the war.”
“Izzy, you don’t mean that,” Dora replied.
“I do. Father and Arthur can’t even have a civil conversation anymore. We never see Morgan. If it weren’t for Muriel, I think I’d go crazy.”
Dora put an arm around Izzy. “Miss King says that this war is a trial that we have to get through and things will be better for the fighting of it. Everything will work out, Izzy. You’ll see.”
Felix King walked slowly around the gardens, wanting to find Felicity so that they could return to the Island. The image of Izzy and the soldier was branded into his mind. He scanned the gardens for Felicity, but didn’t see her or Gus or Amelia. The search for his sister’s light brown head absorbed all of his attention, so much so that he ran right into a young man, slightly taller than himself, who wore a grey suit.
“Sorry,” Felix said, not looking at him.
“Felix King!” he said in a jovial tone.
“Arthur,” Felix said. “Hello.”
“What are you doing in Halifax, Felix?”
“Uh--I’m just here--I’m here with Felicity,” he replied.
“Well you should have let us know you were in town, then. Would you be able to stop by at all?”
“Uh-no-um...Felicity and I are leaving this afternoon,” he told him quietly and was inwardly glad. He’d always liked Arthur, but the buoyancy that sometimes bordered on flippancy that was occasionally present in his voice was getting on Felix’s nerves. His heart increased beating and he felt a queer sensation in his stomach when he thought of seeing Izzy, speaking with her, knowing she belonged to someone else. Felix rarely spoke above a whisper now, and Arthur, noticing the change, thought he could guess the reason.
“Have you seen my sister?” he asked, his eyes attempting to detect any change in Felix’s expression.
“No,” Felix lied. “I-I haven’t.”
Arthur decided not to push the subject any further. “Well,” he said, with a pathetic imitation of breeziness in his voice. “Come calling when you’re in town again. And say hello to your family.” Arthur thought it was odd that Felix would behave so indifferently in regard to the subject of his sister. He then thought that it was probably none of his business and nodded to Felix, adjusted a grey fedora that didn’t need adjusting, and set out to find Izzy.
Izzy and Dora had situated themselves by the pond again and were talking to Andrew. Izzy looked up when she saw her brother approach them. “Iz, I hate to take you away, but it’s nearly two.”
“It’s all right,” she replied, and stood up, placing her hat back on her head.
“Hello, Andrew, Dora,” Arthur said.
“Hello,” Andrew and Dora replied in unison.
Izzy said good-bye to her friends and took her brother’s arm as they walked away. “Are you speaking to me?” he asked. “I’ve been an awful pain lately. I am sorry.”
“It’s not all your fault. Father’s just…well he’s just Father.”
“Well, I shouldn’t have become so angry with him. Of course, it is human nature to be driven by aggression. That is, of course, if you subscribe to the theories of Dr. Freud.”
“Which I don’t,” Izzy replied firmly, but with laughter in her voice. “Now there is a crackpot.”
Arthur laughed. “Did you have a nice afternoon?”
“Yes,” Izzy responded. “Andrew’s feeling a lot better. I should write and tell Cecily.”
Arthur thought a moment before he said anything. He couldn’t decide if he should tell Izzy that he had seen Felix. He decided that even if there was no longer anything between his sister and Felix King, she had been his best friend, and she would want to know. “I shouldn’t think you’d need to write. This place was crawling with Kings this afternoon.”
“What?”
“I saw Felix King earlier, but I’m sure he’s left by now.”
“Felix King was here?”
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