Chapter 10 - Sybling Rivalry

Caleb and Kit come head to head for the last time as Caleb and Elizabeth's affections grow and Mr. Meyer's visitors increase.

 

          With the family once again restricted to the property, Caleb began to spend more and more time with Elizabeth.  He still, however, kept his growing feelings to himself.  She seemed to have feelings toward him, as well.  She spoke softly and gently to him and was much more careful to be “lady-like” when she was in his presence.  She sat with him in the sitting room for hours at a time helping him learn to read and write, and seemed almost sad and a bit disappointed when he had to leave her. 

Mrs. Meyers even seemed to notice the growing attachment they had for each other.  She allowed them more opportunities to be alone, all the time still slipping in regularly to check up on them.  Mr. Meyers, however, was never aware of this.  He kept busy in his study and with his frequent visits to town.  Had he known, however, he may not have been so relaxed about their spending time together.

          Caleb wondered what Mr. Meyers did in town.  Perhaps his trouble had not slowed or come to an end.  Is this why he still keeps his family confined to their home? he thought.  Months passed and other than the occasional run in with his brother, everything remained calm and quiet on the property.  Caleb no longer made trips to town and visitors to the Meyers place were rare.  The family remained cut off from the rest of the world, by Mr. Meyers’ instruction.  What was he so afraid of?  Was he protecting his family from harm or was he protecting them from his secret?

          Another year passed.

One morning, while Caleb was walking down the hall from his bedroom, he heard a small muffled whimper.  He followed the sounds to a room at the front of the house, overlooking the large front yard.  This was the room where Mrs. Meyers often retired to in the afternoons to practice her stitching or read a book.  She also most often held Dianna and the twin boys’ lessons in this room.  The door was standing ajar and Caleb peaked in.  Mrs. Meyers sat in the window seat with her legs pulled up against her body like a small child might do.  She wiped tears from her eyes with a handkerchief and stared out the window.  Not knowing her dilemma and not wanting to overstep his bounds in anyway, Caleb tip toed away from the door and down the stairs without a word.  He wondered, however, if it could be result of her family’s unfortunate entrapment in their home.  It seemed to him as though the spirits of all the family members were down.  They all seemed to be suffering from a considerable amount of misery being forced to remain confined to what had become their prison.  Mr. Meyers had remained busy and was not able to take notice of the pain he was causing his family. 

The only member who seemed to remain happy was Elizabeth, who was growing more and more fond of Caleb.  Caleb, being sixteen, and Elizabeth, twelve, still kept their feelings to themselves as best they could.  Mrs. Meyers, and anyone else who would have paid much attention to them, could see how they felt, despite the efforts on both their parts to keep it secret.

 

          One fall afternoon, while Mr. Meyers and Samuel had gone into town, Mrs. Meyers had set out to give the younger boys their lessons upstairs, and Elizabeth sat in the sitting room downstairs giving lessons to Dianna. 

Caleb was headed through the kitchen to the back door when he heard shuffling and footsteps in the back stairwell.  He stepped to the entrance of the enclosure expecting to see Mary or one of the other hired lady’s on the stairs, but instead caught a quick glimpse of a pair of dusty worn men’s boots and brown trousers disappear around the bend in the stairs.  He followed behind, careful not to make any noise.  As he approached the bend he pulled his gun from inside his coat.  He held it out in front of him and peaked around the corner.  The same dusty boots and trousers vanished through the doorway leading into the tiny second floor servant’s quarters.

          Caleb continued to follow the footsteps until he came out into the home’s main second floor hallway.  Kit crouched in front of the door to Mr. Meyers’ study and appeared to be trying to pick the lock.

         Caleb stepped up quick behind him, careful not to make too much noise and disrupt Mrs. Meyers and the children just a few doors down.  He grabbed Kit by the collar and spoke low and quiet into his ear, “What are you doing here?”

          Kit was startled and surprised at being caught.  He leapt up and shoved Caleb back.  Caleb lost his grip on Kit’s collar and almost toppled over, but caught himself against the wall.  Kit clomped on the wooden floor as he ran full force down the hall and stairs.

          Caleb took after him.  He could hear the door of the room where Mrs. Meyers was open behind him as he flew down the stairs.

          “Caleb?  Is everything alright?” She called out to him.

          “Everything is fine,” he called back over his shoulder, out of breath.

          He chased Kit out the front door of the house, across the yard, and into the barn.  Once in the barn, Caleb lost sight of his brother.  He stopped and looked around but Kit was nowhere to be seen.  As he started to wonder how he could have disappeared so quickly, he was struck in the back of the head with a sharp pain.  He hit his knees as Kit leapt down on him from the loft overhead. 

          The gun flew out of Caleb’s hand and slid under the door of a nearby horse’s stall.  The already startled horse stomped the ground and kicked the gun further out of reach.

          Caleb and Kit rolled around in the dirt of the barn floor, kicking and punching at each other blindly.  Caleb took a hard hit to his jaw and another to his ribs, while offering a few blows of his own to his brother.  Finally he managed to throw his legs and body over Kit and sat up.  Kit laid face down and Caleb sat in the middle of this back.

          Caleb grabbed Kit by the hair and held his head up.  “What were you doing in the house?” he demanded.

          Kit began to laugh, while panting from the struggle with his brother. 

          Caleb shoved Kit’s face into the manure covered floor.  He bent down and spoke into his brother’s ear, “I am not the boy you used to beat up on as a child.” 

He pulled Kit’s head up by the hair again.  Kit gasped from air and spit the dirt away from his mouth.

“I had better not ever see you in the house again for any purpose other than taking your meals,” Caleb continued.  “And if you ever hurt my family, I will kill you.”

Kit began to laugh.  “Your family?” Kit asked.  He began to laugh harder.  

Caleb felt overwhelmed with anger like he had never felt before.  It started at the top of his head and radiated down to his toes.  He rose up and flipped Kit over, then sat back down in his stomach and began punching him in the face and chest with surprising strength.

Kit flailed his arms and kicked trying to get away.  He reached up and put a dirty hand on Caleb’s face and tried to push him away but it did not phase his attacker.

Finally, Caleb grew tired and Kit managed to break loose.  He shoved Caleb off of him and ran through the barn, disappearing through the back door. 

Caleb laid on his back on the ground for a moment, panting.  Warm tears streamed down his face.  He pulled himself to his feet, dusted his pants off, and then retrieved his gun from the stable before leaving the barn and heading back to the house.

Elizabeth and Mrs. Meyers stood on the porch waiting for him, concern drawn on their faces. 

“Are you sure everything is alright?” Mrs. Meyers asked.

“Yes, everything is fine,” Caleb answered thinking quickly to find an excuse for what had just occurred.  “Someone must have left a door open.  A feral cat got into the house.  But I took care of it.”

Mrs. Meyers gave him a look as though she did not believe him, but was not prepared to argue the facts with him either.  She nodded.  “Alright.  Just as long as you are well.”

 

A couple of days later, Caleb was once again had another confrontation by his brother. 

          Caleb stepped out of the house onto the porch.  A cool wind blew across the yard indicating another winter was on its way.  Kit stood in the doorway of the barn watching the house.  Seeing him, Caleb stepped off the porch and walked toward his brother.  He decided to put an end to the trouble with Kit before he could do something to harm the family.  As he approached, Kit stepped back into the barn, Caleb following him all the way to the back. 

As he stepped out the back doors, Kit stopped and turned toward him.  He sneered at Caleb and remarked, “I told ya I’d get ya.”  He reached into his worn coat and pulled out a gun. 

In the past couple of years, Caleb had become a quick draw with a weapon.  With the many confrontations he found himself in, he had begun to practice his marksmanship at every available opportunity. 

He drew his weapon and shot Kit in the arm before he had time to aim.  Kit’s revolver flew from his hand and dropped to the ground.  A look of shock and disbelief spread across his face.  He lunged at Caleb and began beating him with his good arm. 

Caleb dropped his gun and stumbled back against the barn wall. 

Kit, noticing the gun right away, dropped to the ground and grabbed for it, but Caleb regained his balance and kicked it away.  He scooped it up and turned, putting it on his brother.

Caleb now stood between Kit and his gun.  He backed up and picked up Kit’s revolver never letting him out of his sight.  Caleb now had two guns and Kit stood unarmed.  He stood a moment watching Caleb, then broke and ran around the side of the barn and out of sight.

 

The next day, Caleb stepped into the sitting room and took a seat on the couch.  Elizabeth looked up from her book as he settled down into the seat.  She closed the book in her lap and swung her feet out of the window seat.

“Are you ready for your day’s lesson?” she asked him in a soft sweet voice.  Her eyes sparkled.

“Yes,” he answered, a crooked grin spreading across his face.

She rose to her feet and moved gracefully across the room to a bookcase.  She looked over the titles.

“Well, we finished the last book,” she informed him.  “Which would you like to read now?”

She looked back at him.  He shrugged his shoulders.  Elizabeth turned back to the bookshelf and looked it over another moment before pulling a brown leather bound book down from a shelf above her head.  She stepped over to the couch and sat down next to Caleb, so close she was almost sitting in his lap.  She handed him the book and smoothed out her skirt as she settled in next to him.

Caleb ran his fingers over the gold inlayed title and read out loud, “The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling”.

Mrs. Meyers stepped into the room carrying a silver platter with a pitcher of fresh squeezed lemonade and two glasses.  She sate the platter down on a table next to the couch and poured the yellow liquid into the glasses.  She smiled sweet, with knowing in her eyes and swished back out of the room without a word.

Elizabeth waited for her mother to leave the room, then reached a light hand up the Caleb’s face and ran the tips of her fingers over the bruise on his cheek.  He sat and stared into her sparkling blue eyes.

“Does it hurt?” she asked.

“Not anymore.”

“How did you…” she stopped mid-sentence when something behind him, caught her attention.

Elizabeth jumped to her feet. “Caleb!”  She screamed hysterically.

He sprang to his feet and spun on his heels to see what she was looking at.

In the doorway stood Kit, a gun raised and aimed in his direction, ready to open fire on him.

“Elizabeth, get out of here!” he screamed back to her grabbing his own gun and pointing it at Kit.  Both stood still, neither making a move to fire on the other.

Mr. Meyers, who had been working in his study, ran down the stairs with Samuel close behind, both with shotguns in hand.  They both took aim at the intruder.  With so many guns pointed in his direction, Kit dropped his and backed toward the front door of the house. 

“Get off my land!  If I ever see you again, I’ll kill you!” Mr. Meyers demanded.

Kit turned and ran off the porch and away from the Meyers’ home.

Elizabeth ran up and grabbed hold of Caleb around the waist with both arms.  He put an arm over her and tried to console her as she trembled and sobbed into his chest.

Mrs. Meyers burst through the door leading into the sitting room from the back of the house.  Elizabeth let go of Caleb and ran to her mother’s side.

“Oh mother!  That dreadful boy tried to shoot Caleb!”

Mr. Meyers had stepped off the stairs and picked up the gun Kit had brandished.  He examined it a moment, then handed it to Samuel and motioned for Caleb and Samuel to follow him outside.

They followed him out into the yard, away from the house.  Then Mr. Meyers turned to Caleb.  “What was that about?”

“I do not know,” Caleb replied.

“Can you think of any reason why Kit would have acted that way?”  Mr. Meyers examined Caleb’s face.

A knot formed in Caleb’s throat and he wondered if Mr. Meyers would be able to read through his lie. 

“No sir,” he told the man.  “No reason that I have been aware of.”

“Do you know how he may have gotten the gun?”  He took the gun back from Samuel and showed it to Caleb.  Caleb recognized it as one of the guns Mr. Meyers kept in his study.  “Was he in the house?”

Caleb stared down at the gun and thought a moment.  He thought of the incident a few days before in which he had caught Kit in the house trying to break into Mr. Meyers’ study.  Should he tell Mr. Meyers?  Would he be in trouble for not bringing it up sooner?  Had Mrs. Meyers or Elizabeth seen Kit in the house that day and said something to him? 

He swallowed hard and answered, “I don’t know.  I don’t think so.  I didn’t catch him in the house, but I don’t know if maybe he managed to sneak either.  Perhaps he snuck away from his dinner one evening.”  Caleb felt sick to his stomach and his heart pounded as he was sure he was caught lying.

Mr. Meyers looked at him as if somewhat suspicious of the boy’s answer, but did not question him any further.  “Well, alright.  Just notify me immediately if you ever see him near here again.  Shoot him if necessary.”

“I will,” Caleb assured Mr. Meyers.

This was the last the Meyers family saw of Kit.  A new hand was soon hired to take his place.

 

          As winter grew closer, Mr. Meyer’s trips into Boston grew less frequent.  At the same time visitors to the Meyers home became more and more frequent. 

One afternoon, as Caleb and Elizabeth sat on a rug by the fireplace in the sitting room, there was a heavy knock on the front door.  Caleb answered the door.  Standing on the porch was a tall thin man in his early to mid-twenties with short dark hair, dark eyes, and a thin dark mustache. 

“I’m here to see Mr. Meyers,” the man told him.

“Alright.  Wait here and I’ll retrieve him from his study,” Caleb informed.

As he was about to close the door, Elizabeth pushed past him and pulled it back.  “Hello, Jim!”  She greeted him with a toothy grin.  “My father is upstairs in his study.  You can go ahead and go up if you’d like.”

The man took off his flat brimmed hat and stepped inside the house.  He bent in a slight bow to Elizabeth who giggled and blushed.  She stood like a little child, perched on the balls of her feet with her hands held behind her.  She wrapped one foot around the other and bounced a little.

“Thank you, ma’am.”  He winked at her and then started up the stairs.

Elizabeth looked up at Caleb, her eyes twinkling with a wild fire lit behind them.  “He sure is handsome,” she remarked.

Caleb was surprised, both at the fact that Elizabeth knew her father’s visitor and at her sudden flirtatious manner toward him.

“Jim works for my father,” she informed him.  “He used to be a hand like you were when he first started here when I was just a small child.  Now he is my father’s apprentice.  He mostly handles the affairs of his business in town.  It has been a long while since he’s been out to the house.”

She bounced back to their place by the fireplace and flopped back down onto the floor.  Caleb took his place beside her. 

“I’m inclined to be jealous,” he commented with a smirk.

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye with a mischievous smile.  “Oh, and why is that?”

“I thought I was the only one you behaved in such a way toward.”

She plopped the book back in his lap.

“Back to reading,” she informed him with a giggle.

Several days later another young man came up to the house to visit Mr. Meyers.  This time Mr. Meyers and Caleb were standing on the front porch of the house looking out over the new fallen snow when the man came riding up the road toward them.  Mr. Meyers cut his conversation with Caleb short and met the man in the yard, several yards away from the house.  The young man appeared to be about 17 years old.  He was thin, of average height, and had blonde hair that stuck out like straw under his hat.  Caleb thought he looked much like a scarecrow sitting atop his horse.

He dismounted and tied his horse to a nearby tree; then he and Mr. Meyers walked down the hill and disappeared beyond the parameter of the yard.  They were only gone for about twenty minutes when they reappeared walking back up the hill.  The boy mounted his horse, shook Mr. Meyers hand and exchanged a couple of more words, and rode off back down the road.

These visitors were typical of those who began to frequent the Meyers home.  They were never coming to see the family.  They were there to see Mr. Meyers.  All of Mr. Meyers’ visitors were men not much more than twenty years old.  As soon as they would arrive Mr. Meyers would escort them to his study and speak with them behind closed doors or they would walk out away from the house and family to talk.  The visits were always short and Mr. Meyers nearly always disappeared into his study for several hours afterwards.  He did not discuss the visits with his wife and family, and always remained somewhat mysterious.  Caleb noticed even the family seemed to grow rather suspicious of his actions, though no one ever spoke of it.