rated *
This is a prequel to The Rival and The Mystery of the Ballerina. I thought it would be nice to take a look at how Trixie and Jim break up, and it wasn’t for lack of trying that they broke up too. I hope you enjoy this.
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
by Laws
Twenty-year-old Trixie Belden sighed as she opened her eyes. A quick glance at the small clock on the bedside table told her it was 6am. On the other side of her came Honey’s regular breathing, also telling Trixie that her best friend was still asleep. Quietly, so as not to wake her slumbering friend, Trixie pushed back the covers and slipped out of the large bed that she shared with Honey whenever she stayed at the Manor House, and padded on silent feet to the large window in the room. The sun was just beginning to rise, the pale rays streaming down over the distant Catskills, and illuminating the garden below Honey’s bedroom window. Trixie normally loved to drink in the sight of the sunrise, but this morning her thoughts were on a different subject. Jim Frayne.
Honey’s adopted brother and Trixie had been in an on-off relationship since she was sixteen. The past four years had been tempestuous to say the least. When they were apart, they wanted to be together and when together, the spent the main part of their time together fighting. This was because both Trixie and Jim were stubborn and liable to fly off the handle at a moment's notice. At first Trixie thought that things would improve, after all they were only young, but now after four years with no change, Trixie held little hope that their relationship would improve. It made her sad, because she loved Jim a lot. Trixie mentally shook her head, trying to collect her thoughts together.
Despite the almost shy way the sun had risen, it looked very much like it was going to be a hot summer’s day. Trixie debated with herself about having a shower, but remember that Honey had organised for the two girls and the rest of the Bob-Whites to go for an early morning ride and breakfast by the lake. The odds were on that not long after breakfast, if not before, someone would end up in the lake, whether they liked it or not.
“Earth to Trixie!” Honey’s voice interrupted Trixie’s reverie.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Hon. How long have you been trying to get my attention?”
“A couple of minutes,” Honey replied, pushing back her long honey brown hair from her face. “What were you thinking about anyway?”
“Not much. Well, whether I was going to have a shower or what,” Trixie replied.
Honey looked appraisingly at her best friend. There were dark circles under her eyes, an obvious sign that she hadn’t been getting much sleep at night. Honey had been watching Trixie for a while before she had tried to get her attention, and suspected that Trixie had been thinking about her relationship with Jim. She knew that there had been a lot of tension between her best friend and brother for the past couple of weeks, and was hoping that they could sort it out.
“And what did you decide?’ Honey asked gently.
“That…that I think I will wait. I’m going to go and help Regan get the horses ready.”
Trixie dressed herself and took off out of the house.
Ten minutes later, Trixie entered the stall where her horse Susie was quartered. The offered apple was gratefully accepted, and while Susie was munching away, Trixie brushed the little black mare, and saddled her. The whole time she was working, Trixie was preoccupied with her relationship with Jim.
“What am I going to do, Susie?” she asked the little black mare.
“With who?” Bill Regan’s deep voice asked, startling Trixie.
“Jim,” Trixie answered quietly.
The red-haired groom was a good friend of the Bob-Whites, and Trixie had no problems with confiding in Dan’s uncle. Anything that was discussed, Trixie knew would be kept in the strictest confidence.
“All we seem to do is fight, Regan.”
Regan looked at the pretty young blonde woman in front of him. He had watched Trixie mature over the past six years. Though still short tempered at times, she had learnt not to jump to conclusions like she use to do when she was younger. When she had left Sleepyside to join the New York Police Force, she had been innocent in a way. That innocence had long been left behind her, and in its place was a cynicism, an almost instinctive mistrust in what people told her, that had allowed her to be a brilliant police officer, though a compassionate at the same time. Thus far, her policing career had been outstanding, and her work had been noticed. Unfortunately, that had put a huge burden on the relationship between Trixie and Jim that had started showing signs of trouble not long after it started.
“The only person who can decide what to do is you, Trixie,” he told her, choosing his words carefully. “I know you and Jim love each other a lot and would do anything for each other, but, Trixie, it has to be the right kind of love. Look into your heart, Trixie. You know the answer, I know you do, and that’s where it lays,” he finished softly. Putting his hand on her shoulder briefly, he smiled and walked away to organise the rest of the horses for the others to ride.
Several hours later, Trixie, her older brothers Mart and Brian, along with Honey, Jim, Dan and Di, all sprawled across the deck at the boathouse, talking idly about matters and letting their huge breakfast digest.
Mart had been in heaven when Celia had come down with a batter to cook hotcakes, eggs, and bacon. This had all been washed down with fresh orange juice. Trixie tried to join in the conversation, but since she couldn’t really get her mind off her problems, was content to just enjoy the closeness of the bonds of her friends.
“Hey, Trixie!” a chorus of voices broke her reverie
“Huh?” She suddenly found herself in the water. “Thanks,” she commented dryly, and then reached to pull in Dan who was the closest to the water's edge.
Jim picked up Honey and threw her in, which caused Brian and Mart to throw him into the water. Only Di, Mart and Brian stood on the deck dry now. Di took one look at the boys, and jumped in on her own accord. That left Brian and Mart. The two brothers wrestled to get the other in first, but fell in. Laughing heartily, the seven friends clambered back onto the deck.
“So what were you thinking about?” Di asked playfully, missing Honey’s warning look.
“I…” Trixie started to say, but Mart butted in.
“My illustrious detective sibling appears to have been engaging in the vice of wool gathering,” he announced grandly.
Normally Trixie would have laughed off Mart’s comments, but today he had gotten so far from the truth that Trixie lost her temper.
“Oh, go stick your head in a dictionary and shut it hard,” she retorted, eyes flashing. “I’m going to help, Moms,” she announced abruptly and walked off
“What the...?” Mart asked, surprised at Trixie’s outburst.
“She’s having a bit of a hard time at the moment, Mart,” Honey murmured, putting a restraining hand on Brian’s arm, who was just about to take off after his sister. “Just let her go, Bri.”
“Maybe I should go and talk to her,” Jim piped up suddenly.
Honey shook her head.
“No, Jim, in case you haven’t noticed, the problem is you,” she told Jim directly.
“Oh,” he murmured and fell silent as they watched Trixie’s back disappear down the path toward Crabapple Farm.
Trixie spent the rest of the morning picking tomatoes with her mother, then they spent afternoon canning them. It wasn’t until the sun was starting to dip below the horizon that Trixie found time to sit down and think about her problems. Taking a large glass of milk, and a couple of Moms yummy chunk choc biscuits, Trixie made her way out onto the back patio and sat down on the glider. Rocking gently, she stared out at the garden before her, not really seeing it.
She thought about what Regan had said to her early that morning. She knew Jim wasn’t really happy either. Her mind thought over the last argument they had. It had been the week before she had come down to stay with Honey and Jim had come to visit her in her tiny flat in New York. She was telling Jim about solving her latest case, and he had hit the roof over what he saw as inappropriate risks. She had screamed at him that she wasn’t thirteen years old anymore, and that she had been trained and knew exactly what she was doing. They had ended up apologising profusely to one another and making up, but it still frustrated her that he smothered her like he did. He still treated her as if she were the same Trixie he had met when she was thirteen. She felt like screaming, I’m twenty years old. I live by myself in New York and I am still alive, but she couldn’t.
Regan had told her that to love someone was one thing, but it had to be the right kind of love. Right kind of love… She shook her head as someone walked in front of her.
Jim was standing there with that same crooked smile that had always tugged at her heartstrings.
“It’s never going to work, is it?” she said with tears in her eyes.
“We can make it work…” Jim’s voice trailed off as Trixie shook her head.
“I can’t do it anymore, Jim. I’m sick of fighting all the time. Admit it, Jim, you’re not happy either.”
Jim came up the steps and sat down beside her on the glider.
“Well, no, but…”
“No buts, Jim. We’ve given it a pretty good go, I think. Four years, if we are still fighting now…I don’t want to end up hating you, Jim.”
“I know,” he agreed.
They sat in companionable silence for a while.
“You know Honey will be upset, don’t you?”
“She’ll get over it,” Trixie told him, “Besides, your sister knows a lot more than you think. Despite the fact she is your sister, she’s still my best friend, and we don’t have secrets.” She amended, “ Well, except for certain things that you really shouldn’t know about your brother.”
“Oh.” More silence. “I hate to do this, but Mother and Dad will be wondering where I am. They were expecting me back ages ago.”
“I’m sure Honey has filled them in on what is happening,” Trixie told him gently.
“True,” Jim agreed.
“I’m glad we talked, Jim. Friends?”
“Me too. Yes, friends always, though I suspect we will be in-laws soon,” Jim answered.
Trixie just laughed lightly and watched Jim walk away. As he left she called out to him
“Oh, and Jim?”
“Yes?”
“I do love you, you know.”
“I know. I love you, too,” Jim replied
Trixie hadn’t lied. Regan was right, it had to be the right kind of love, and she loved Jim as a brother.
The End
I hope you enjoyed reading this. Again and huge thanks to Trace, who has taken time out from looking after her precious Rose to read over this for me. I owe you heaps.
As normal, the characters of Trixie, Jim, the Bobwhites and the rest of the cast are the property of Random House publishing, and I am not making any profit from this.