The girl who would wear green

Chapter Nineteen

And so it happened. They packed up and returned home a day or so later. Essie was quite sorry to leave her Gran, but she had promised to come and visit her again soon. There was so much they had to catch up on, and Essie couldn't wait.
When the girls returned to school a few days later, there had been some changes. Hallie didn't say a word to Essie. In fact Hallie looked lost, and rather confused.
The first thing they learned was that Hallie's mother was no longer head of the Parent and Teachers' committee, she had resigned to take lessons in making cakes and sweets.
Miranda had announced her intentions to start a sweet shop filled with desserts, lollies and cakes and her speciality would be lots of free tastings.
Then the startling news came that Hallie's dad had resigned as head of the Council, he wanted to be a store Santa Claus instead.
He'd bought the only department store in the village and spent his days in that store, dressed in Santa costume and ringing his bell shouting "Merry Christmas everyone!" Even though it was not quite Christmas yet, he was handing out gifts to everyone he saw and saying "Ho Ho Ho" every time he did.
The whole village was agog with the news, and no one could believe their eyes! It caused a lot of astonishment, especially when Bryce Donald decided the costume and the bell and the gifts were not enough and he bought a specially built sleigh and purchased two reindeer to pull it as well, and went from house to house in the poorer part of town, delivering gifts and offering to help the very people he had once wanted to hurt.
He was the talk of the town and just about everyone had received at least one gift from him. He laughed and told jokes and said "Ho Ho Ho" to everyone he could, much to Hallie's embarrassment.
She'd tried to ask her mum to stop her dad from being such a fool, and her mum had laughed and laughed and told Hallie it was all so much fun and she really should just join in. Poor Hallie, it was going to take her a while to get used to her new parents.
One day, Essie went to the library as she still did often, to find a new book or to say Hi to Sue or any of the other friends she'd made there.
She now followed her interest in the history of the Country when she visited her Grandmother. Esmeralda's research room was where they both studied and read the many books and maps together. Esmeralda had so much information and Essie had been helping getting it all sorted into the correct order, as Esmeralda was hoping to put another book together.
Essie loved reading all she could, she was developing a big interest in history and what happened so many years ago. Because really, what happened years ago was part of everything that happened now.
Sue was working behind the Library counter as usual. But, standing in front of Sue was a man who looked vaguely familiar to Essie. He had several pieces of paper in his hand, and a huge bouquet of flowers, both of which he was trying to give to Sue.
Sue was looking rather flustered and embarrassed. "Not now!" she spoke quite sharply to the man "go away and stop bothering me." The man pushed the flowers towards Sue, and the pieces of paper saying "But I love you so much Sue, just read my poems about you please, and take the flowers".

Essie stood watching with interest. Who was this man?
Sue looked past the man and with a desperate look, said to Essie "Can you please come and help me insideforamomentEssie?" Somewhatpuzzled,EssiefollowedSueintotheroombehindthecounter.
Sue closed the door, and then said to Essie, "That man is driving me mad. I need to do something to get away from him, or get him away from me."
"Who is he?" Asked Essie "and what can I do to help?"
"He says he's a Lord, Lord Leopold or something. I ask you Essie, why would a Lord be chasing me? I have seen him here once or twice before, but I've never done anything to encourage him at all! I don't believe a word of it, and he won't go away, he's here every day with flowers and poems. Can you please stay with me, we'll pretend you need help with schoolwork and he'll go away eventually if I ignore him."
It was like a lightbulb moment. Suddenly Essie knew. She'd concentrated her thoughts that day on Santa Claus and his party she knew, but someone else had come along into her thoughts as well, Saint Valentine.
Oh, no, poor Sue, Lord Leopold had taken Saint Valentine as his guide.
Now she thought about it, the man did look something like the picture of Lord Leopold, if a bit older now. The hair and beard were grey rather than brown, but his eyes were still quite dark and fierce, even if they seemed to be focused only on Sue. No wonder Sue was all flustered.
Sue might be heading to her fifties (Essie was guessing but she felt this could be right) but she certainly wasn't ready for someone Lord Leopold's age yet. Why he must be over 60 now, really quite old.
Essie and Sue left the room and both of them walked quickly around the counter to the school reference section at the back of the library. Sue had to tell Lord Leopold that she was too busy for anything at all, and that she had to help Essie with her project. They left Lord Leopold, with his flowers and papers at the desk, looking quite dejected.
When Essie left the library, Lord Leopold had gone. But Essie was quite certain that he would be back tomorrow, because she was certain that Saint Valentine was a man who would not be denied in love.