After meeting far too many people to
remember, Mic's mother, Mary, took Mac by the arm and said, "Let me show
you the house, dear. How about we start at the top?" Mary showed her
around the upstairs bedrooms and soon was back downstairs. As she stepped into
the large the dining room, Mary said, "This is the original house, just
this room. It's nearly 200 years old, the rest of it was added on later in
stages."
"It's beautiful. How long has it been in
the family?"
"My parents bought it shortly before I
was born, just after my father retired from the Navy. I went to college just
down the road at Hood. Interestingly enough the woman whom the college is named
after used to own this house. It's said her ghost haunts the front
bedroom."
"Mum. There you are. I was wondering
where you and Sarah disappeared to." They both turned to look at Mic
standing in the doorway smiling at them. He knew his mother loved to show off
the house and he was glad that Mac took pleasure in listening to her.
"I was just showing Sarah the house.
Let's go, we should be getting back to the rest of the family." Mary led
the way across the foyer and back into the living room where the rest of the
family was talking.
Even after dinner, Mac was still having problems with remembering all of the
names of Mic's family and she didn't even want to think of how often she got
the twins mixed up. Mary and Jenny, Mic's aunt, walked up to Mac a short while
later.
"It’s nice to be back here at home, so
many good memories," said Mary nostalgically.
Mary and her sister-in-law looked at each
other and in unison said, "Hood girls are good girls."
Mac looked at their smiling faces and said,
"Should I ask?"
"Oh, that was the motto at Hood. It was
great. All the parents thought it was a bit different than what the girls
thought. That’s why I wouldn’t let my daughter come here," said Jenny.
"That and the middies," stated Mary
with a mischievous grin.
"The middies?" asked Mac.
"The midshipmen. My dear, the Naval
Academy is only 90 minutes away. Do you really think they wouldn’t know about a
private girl’s school in easy driving distance?" said Mary.
Mac just smiled as Aunt Jenny said,
"Rumor has it all middies know how to get to Hood and which dorms have the
best parties. You'll have to ask the next Academy man you see."
"Okay. I will," Mac responded
thinking about the look that she was sure to see on Harm's face.
"One time, on a dare, I drove down to
the Academy with some friends and we drove around and all we were allowed to do
was our head out the window and say, ‘Party at Shriner. Saturday night.’"
"Did it work?" questioned Mac with
a grin.
"Like magic. We had middies everywhere.
What a great weekend that was," Jenny said fondly.
"The middies would have been enough but
then Jen’s brother showed up as a surprise." Mary said trying to hide her
smile.
"Was that a bad thing?" asked Mac.
"Well two years later, I married
him." Mic’s mom smiled as she looked around the room and found her husband
watching her. Mac’s eyes followed hers and saw Mic standing next to his father.
She looked back and saw the happiness in Mary's eyes before she was stunned by
her next softly spoken comment. "I know you broke off the
engagement."
"You do?"
"Yes. Mic didn’t tell me, his brother
did. I had already planned on coming home to visit and I didn’t want to break
the plans just because you said no."
"I care for your son. I really do, but I
just don’t think it would work." Mac said apologetically.
"Well, dear, I know. I won't say he's
not hurt by your decision but if you led him on the hurt would be much
worse."
"Hey. It's snowing!" cried one of
the twins. Mac looked outside and realized that she really should get home. Mac
said her good-byes, insisting that she had to get home tonight to take care of
her dog. Mac soon pulled out of the drive and got back onto the main road. She
was a little worried about the road conditions but she didn’t think she would
have too much of a problem. Just as she was thinking this she spotted a detour
ahead and after being directed off the main road she was soon lost. She thought
that she would have seen more of the detour signs by now, she must have missed
them.
Mac tried to double back but suddenly her car
spun off the road and it ended in the ditch. She was unhurt but rather
surprised. She shut off the car then pulled out her cell phone to call for
help. She first tried Mic but the party must still be loud enough for him to
not hear the ringer. She would have tried Harm but she knew that he was out of
town. She really didn’t want to call the Roberts and so she reluctantly called
the Admiral.
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