Blue Castle (Bedtime Story) Chapter 19

Inspired by L.M. Montgomery’s The Blue Castle, this session celebrates the courage to choose joy — even after years of silence and self-doubt. Join this meditation to reconnect with your inner strength and remember that it’s never too late to start anew. Like Valancy, you may find that your own “blue castle” has been waiting within you all along.

Transcript

Chapter 19 Of course,

The Stirlings had not left the poor maniac alone all this time or refrained from heroic efforts to rescue her perishing soul and reputation.

Uncle James,

Whose lawyer had helped him as little as his doctor,

Came one day,

Finding Valancy alone in the kitchen,

As he supposed,

Gave her a terrible talking-to,

Told her she was breaking her mother's heart and disgracing her family.

"'But why,

' said Valancy,

Not ceasing to scar her porridge spot decently,

"'I'm doing honest work for honest pay.

What is there in that,

That is disgraceful?

' "'Don't quibble,

Valancy,

' said Uncle James solemnly.

"'This is no fit place for you to be,

And you know it.

Why,

I'm told that the jail-bird Snaith is hanging around here every evening.

' "'Not every evening?

' said Valancy reflectively.

"'No,

Not quite every evening.

' "'It is insufferable,

' said Uncle James violently.

"'Valancy,

You must come home.

We won't judge you harshly.

I assure you we won't.

We will overlook all this.

' "'Thank you,

' said Valancy.

"'Have you no sense of shame?

' "'Oh yes,

But the things I am ashamed of—' "'Are not the things you are ashamed of,

' Valancy proceeded,

To rinse her discloth meticulously.

Still,

Was Uncle James patient.

He gripped the sides of his chair and crowned his teeth.

"'We know your mind isn't just right.

We'll make allowances.

But you must come home.

You shall not stay here with that drunken,

Blasphemous old scroundrel.

' "'Were you by any chance referring to me,

Mr.

Stirling?

' demanded roaring Abel,

Suddenly appearing in the doorway of the back veranda,

Where he had been smoking a peaceful pipe and listening to old James Stirling's tirade with huge enjoyment.

His red beard fairly bristled with indignation,

And his huge eyebrows quivered.

But cowardice was not among James Stirling's shortcomings.

"'I was,

And furthermore,

I want to tell you that you have acted an inquisitive part in luring this weak and unfortunate girl away from her home and friends,

And I will have you punished yet for it.

' James Stirling got no further.

Roaring Abel crossed the kitchen at the bound,

Caught him by his collar and his trousers,

And hurled him through the doorway and over the garden,

Paling with as little apparent effort as he might have employed in whisking a troublesome kitten out of the way.

"'The next time you come back here,

' he bellowed,

"'I'll throw you through the window,

And all the better,

If the window is shut.

Coming here,

Thinking yourself God to put the world to rights.

' Then she candidly and unashamedly owned to herself that she had seen few more satisfying sights than Uncle James' coat-tails flying out into the asparagus bed.

She had once been afraid of this man's judgment.

Now she saw clearly that he was nothing but a rather stupid little village tin guard.

Roaring Abel turned with his great broad laugh.

"'He'll think of that for years when he wakes up in the night.

The Almighty made a mistake in making so many Stirlings.

But since they are made,

You've got to reckon with them.

Too many to kill out.

But if they come here bothering you,

I'll shoo them off before a cat could lick its ear.

The next time they sent Dr.

Stolling,

Surely Roaring Abel would not throw him into asparagus beds.

Dr.

Stolling was not so sure of this and had no great liking for the task.

He did not believe Valancy Stirling was out of her mind.

She had always been queer.

He,

Dr.

Stolling,

Had never been able to understand her.

Therefore,

Beyond doubt,

She was queer.

She was only just a little queerer than usual now,

And Dr.

Stolling had his own reasons for disliking Roaring Abel.

When Dr.

Stolling had first come to Deerwood,

He had had a liking for long hikes around Mistamis and Muskoka.

On one of these occasions,

He had got lost and,

After much wandering,

Had fallen in with Roaring Abel with his gun over his shoulder.

Dr.

Stolling had contrived to ask his question in about the most idiotic manner possible.

He said,

''Can you tell me where I'm going?

How the devil should I know where you are going,

Gosling?

'' retorted Abel contemptuously.

Dr.

Stolling was so enraged that he could not speak for a moment or two,

And in that moment Abel had disappeared into the woods.

Dr.

Stolling had eventually found his way home,

But he had never hankered to encounter Abel Gay again.

Nevertheless,

He came now to do his duty.

Valancy greeted him with a sinking heart.

She had to own to herself that she was terribly afraid of Dr.

Stolling still.

She had a miserable conviction that if he shook his long bony finger at her and told her to go home,

She dared not to disobey.

''Mr.

Gay,

'' said Dr.

Stolling politely and condescendingly,

''may I see Mr.

Erling alone for a few minutes?

'' Roaring Abel was a little drunk,

Just drunk enough to be excessively polite and very cunning.

He had been on the point of going away when Dr.

Stolling arrived,

But now he sat down in a corner of the parlor and folded his arms.

''No,

No,

Mister,

'' he said solemnly,

''that wouldn't do,

Wouldn't do at all.

I've got the reputation of my household to keep up.

I've got to chaperone this young lady.

Can't have any sparking going on here behind my back.

'' Outraged,

Dr.

Stolling looked so terrible that Valancy wondered how Abel could endure his aspect.

But Abel was not worried at all.

''Do you know anything about it anyway?

'' he asked genuinely.

''About what?

'' ''Sparking,

'' said Abel coolly.

Poor Dr.

Stolling,

Who had never married because he believed in celibate clergy,

Would not notice this rivaled remark.

He turned his back on Abel and addressed himself to Valancy.

''Miss Terling,

I am here in response to your mother's wishes.

She begged me to come.

I am charged with some messages from her.

'' He wagged his forefinger.

''Do you hear them?

'' ''Yes,

'' said Valancy faintly,

Eyeing the forefinger.

It had a hypnotic effect on her.

''The first is this.

If you will leave this-this-'' ''House,

'' interjected roaring Abel.

''H-O-U-S-E.

Troubled with an impediment in your speech,

Ain't you,

Mister?

'' ''This place,

And return to your home.

Mr.

James Terling will himself pay for a good nurse to come here and wait on Miss Gaye.

'' Back of her terror Valancy smiled in secret.

Uncle James must indeed regard the matter as desperate when he would loosen his purse strings like that.

At any rate,

Her clan no longer despised her or ignored her.

She had become important to them.

''That is my business,

Mister,

'' said Abel.

''Miss Terling can go if she pleases,

Or stay if she pleases.

I made a fair bargain with her,

And she is free to conclude it,

When she likes.

She gives me meals that stick to my ribs.

She don't forget to put salt in the porridge.

She never slams doors,

And when she has nothing to say,

She don't talk.

That's uncanny in a woman.

You know,

Mister,

I am satisfied.

If she isn't,

She is free to go,

But no woman comes here in Jim Terling's pay.

If anyone does.

'' Abel's voice was uncanny.

''I'll spatter the road with her brains.

Tell him that with A.

Gaye's compliments.

'' ''Dr.

Stolling,

A nurse is not what Sissy needs,

'' said Valancy earnestly.

''She isn't so ill as that yet.

What she wants is companionship,

Somebody she knows and likes,

Just to live with her.

You can understand that,

I'm sure.

I understand that your motive is quite,

Hmm,

Commendable.

'' Dr.

Stolling felt that he was very broad-minded indeed.

Especially as in his secret soul,

He did not believe Valancy's motive was commendable.

He hadn't the least idea what she was up to,

But he was sure her motive was not commendable.

When he could not understand the thing,

He straightway commended it,

Simplicity itself.

''But your first duty is to your mother.

She needs you.

She implores you to come home.

She will forgive everything if you will come home.

'' ''That is a pretty little thought,

'' remarked Abel,

As he ground some tobacco up in his hand.

Dr.

Stolling ignored him.

''She entreats,

But I,

Miss Stirling.

'' Dr.

Stolling remembered that he was an ambassador of Jehovah.

''I command,

As your pastor and spiritual guide,

I command you to come home with me,

This very day.

Get your hat and coat and come now.

'' Dr.

Stolling shook his finger at Valancy,

Before that pitiless finger she drooped,

And wilted visibly.

''She's giving in,

'' thought roaring Abel.

''She'll go with him,

Be it all the power these preacher fellows have over a woman.

'' Valancy was on the point of obeying Dr.

Stolling.

She must go home with him and give up.

She would lapse back to Dost Stirling again,

And for a few remaining days or weeks be the coward,

Futile creature she had always been.

It was her fate,

Deprived by that relentless,

Uplifted forefinger.

She could no more escape from it than roaring Abel's,

From his predestination.

She eyed it,

As the fascinated bird's eye,

At the snake.

Another moment.

''Fear is the original sin,

'' Salenly said still,

Small voice away.

Back,

Back,

Back of Valancy's consciousness.

''Almost all the evil in the world has its origin in the fact that someone is afraid of something.

'' Valancy stood up.

She was still in the clutches of fear,

But her soul was her own again.

She would not be forced to.

''Dr.

Stolling,

'' she said slowly,

''I do not at present owe any duty to my mother.

She is quite well.

She has all the assistance and companionship she requires.

She does not need me at all.

I am needed here.

I am going to stay here.

'' ''There is a bunk for you,

'' said roaring Abel admiringly.

Dr.

Stolling dropped his forefinger.

One could not keep on shaking a finger forever.

''Miss Sterling,

Is there nothing that can influence you?

Do you remember your childhood days?

'' ''Perfectly,

And hate them.

Do you realize what people will say,

What they are saying?

'' ''I can imagine it,

'' said Valancy,

With a shrug of her shoulders.

She was suddenly free of fear again.

''I haven't listened to the gossip of deerwood tea parties and sewing circles.

Twenty years for nothing,

But Dr.

Stolling.

It doesn't matter in the least to me what they say.

Not in the least.

'' Dr.

Stolling went away then,

A girl who cared nothing for public opinion,

Or whom sacred family ties had no restraining influence,

Who hated her childhood memories.

Then Cousin Georgiana came on her own initiative,

For nobody would have thought it worth while to send her.

She found Valancy alone weeding the little vegetable garden she had planted,

And she made all the pleas she could think of.

Valancy heard her patiently.

''Cousin Georgiana wasn't such a bad old soul,

'' then she said.

''And now that you have got all that out of your system,

Cousin Georgiana,

Can you tell me how to make creamed codfish,

So that it will not be as thick as porridge and as salty as the Dead Sea?

'' ''We'll just have to wait,

'' said Uncle Benjamin.

''After all,

Sissy Gay can't live long.

Dr.

Marsh tells me she may drop off any day.

'' Miss Frederick wept.

It would really have been so much easier to bear if Valancy had died.

She could have worn mourning then.