The Charm String
When Catherine Prynn went to visit her cousin Felicity Wicklow in Puritan Falls, Massachusetts, along with her luggage, she brought with her a notions box filled with buttons. On the train ride from Plymouth, Catherine looked through the large assortment that her mother had collected over the years, and her excitement grew.
Like most girls of thirteen, her thoughts had lately turned to romance and marriage, and while she wouldn't be expected to marry for several years yet, she eyed the eligible young men in Plymouth as potential husbands. In short, Catherine was becoming a woman; it was time then for her to begin a charm string.
When the train pulled into the Puritan Falls station, Catherine's aunt and uncle were there to greet her. From the depot, it was a short trip to their home on Danvers Street.
"Felicity's friends are already here," Aunt Rebecca told her niece. "And your cousin Betty will be arriving from Salem later this afternoon, after she finishes her chores."
Of the several girls who were attending Felicity's stringing party, Catherine was the youngest and the only one who had yet to begin her charm string. Even though she was a novice at the craft, she already had an impressive number of buttons to string and to trade with the other girls. This was important since custom dictated that young women could not purchase the buttons for their strings; buttons could only be given by friends and family members or traded with another stringer.
To make the task even more difficult, no two buttons on the string could be alike. Collecting nine hundred and ninety-nine different buttons often proved to be a daunting task; thus, many a charm string was never finished. Catherine was determined she would complete hers so that her future husband could give her the one-thousandth button.
Felicity and her friends, who were in the Wicklows' parlor already sorting out their button collections and trading duplicates, welcomed the young girl from Plymouth.
"We can't wait to see what you've got!" Felicity exclaimed, urging her cousin to spill her buttons out onto the carpet.
It was only after the girls had divided the pile among themselves—and set aside a portion for Betty—that Catherine began the actual work on her charm string.
"The first thing you have to do," Felicity instructed, "is find a nice strong, oversized button that will serve as a touch button to anchor all the others."
Once an adequate button was found, Catherine attached it to one end of a sturdy string.
"You've put the first button on," one of her cousin's friends giggled. "I wonder who will put the last one on!"
"Do you have anyone in mind yet?" Felicity asked.
"There are a number of good-looking boys in Plymouth," Catherine admitted with a blush, "but no one in particular has caught my eye."
During the next few hours, the girls gossiped while they strung their buttons on their charm strings. News of who was getting betrothed, who had gotten married and who was expecting a child was interspersed with reminiscences attached to a particular button: "This one is from my mother's wedding dress." "This is from my favorite pinafore when I was a child." "This is from my father's old suit."
There were also triggers to memories that were not so pleasant: a black button from a widow's mourning dress, a blue one from the rompers of a child who had died at a young age and a gold one off the uniform of a grandfather who had been killed at the battle of Gettysburg.
Of all the girls, Catherine took the longest time to string her buttons. This was only natural since she had to work each one down the entire fifteen-foot length of her string whereas the other girls had already completed lengths that varied in size from four to twelve feet.
Cousin Betty had the most enviable charm string, not only because of its length but also because her great grandfather had been a sea captain who brought back goods from the Indies and the Orient, including garments with buttons made of materials not available in New England. Betty was kind enough to give her cousin a button made of jade, which Catherine added to those of glass, pearl, porcelain, metal and vegetable ivory.
When supper time came, the girls finally put aside their charm strings. Catherine examined hers and was delighted to see that it already measured more than twenty-two inches, and she still had a few dozen buttons that she would string when she returned to Plymouth.
* * *
Catherine Prynn was seventeen when she added the nine-hundredth button on her charm string. At over ten feet long and weighing several pounds, it was an impressive accomplishment. Of course, she still needed to add ninety-nine buttons, but since she had yet to find the man of her dreams, she still had time to finish the string—at least that's what she thought one Christmas Eve morning as she boarded another train for Puritan Falls.
A year earlier Felicity had married and was now living in her own home. Unlike Catherine, she did not have any faith in the alleged powers of a charm string and had stopped stringing buttons right after meeting her future husband. The incomplete string did not seem to have any adverse effects since Felicity had done extremely well for herself.
Her husband, Emmett Wallingford, was a young man of wealth who, although he had grown up in New York, was a descendent, on his mother's side, of Stephen Prescott, the founder of Puritan Falls. Emmett had left New York to study law at Harvard, and after graduation he decided to remain in New England. The fact that he met and fell in love with Felicity on a weekend trip to the town his ancestor had founded had much to do with his decision.
This time when Catherine got off the train in Puritan Falls, it was an expensive carriage that waited to take her to her cousin's home.
"Mrs. Wallingford sends her apologies for not being here to welcome you personally," the driver informed her. "But she was detained."
"That's quite all right."
When the carriage pulled up in front of Felicity's house, Catherine stared open-mouthed at the magnificent building. It was one of the finest homes in Puritan Falls, and far grander than any house in Plymouth. A butler answered the door, but Felicity, in a rush to see her cousin, swept past him.
"Catherine, darling!" she cried, throwing her arms around the younger woman. "I'm so glad you could make it."
As the mistress of the house hugged her guest, she whispered in the girl's ear, "There is someone I want you to meet."
Catherine smiled weakly. At only seventeen she had already grown bored with matchmakers. Still, she tried to remember her manners as Felicity took her by the arm and led her into the parlor.
"Emmett, dear, you remember my cousin Catherine Prynn, don't you?"
"Indeed, I do," her husband replied, graciously kissing the cousin's hand. "What man could forget such a fair face?"
The sound of laughter from behind her made Catherine turn around. She was surprised to find a good-looking young man who apparently found Emmett's chivalry humorous.
"Let me introduce myself," he said with a boyish wink. "I am David, the youngest of the Wallingford offspring. I did not have the pleasure of meeting you because I was away in Europe when my brother was married."
David did not bend over and kiss her hand but instead leaned forward and kissed first one cheek and then the other, explaining, "That is how they greet people in France."
"That may be true, but here in Massachusetts, we simply say hello."
"Hello, Miss Prynn."
"Hello, Mr. Wallingford."
The introductions having been made, the four young people began enjoying their holiday. There were the usual activities that accompanied a Christmas celebration: decorating the tree, singing carols, opening presents, parlor games, going to church and overeating at the holiday feast. No sooner was Christmas behind them than New Years approached and with it more celebrations, including a large formal party on New Year's Eve.
During these many fun-filled activities, Catherine was repeatedly paired with David Wallingford. The two became so close that by the time she returned to Plymouth, she was already in love with her cousin's brother-in-law.
* * *
When Catherine journeyed to Puritan Falls the following Thanksgiving, both cousins had good news to tell. Felicity was expecting a child, and Catherine was engaged to be married.
"You and David must have the wedding here in Puritan Falls," Felicity insisted, and her cousin readily agreed.
Since Catherine was to be married in July, she left Plymouth in April and moved in with her cousin in order to help with preparations for the wedding and reception, as well as to be there when the baby was born in May.
"Are you sure you should be walking around?" Catherine asked, as the seamstress pinned the pattern for the wedding dress over her petticoat. "You're going to have that baby any day now."
"My doctor says walking is good for me, as long as I avoid the stairs," Felicity replied, as she plopped onto the bed to watch the seamstress at work. "Besides, my mother always said moderate exercise will make the labor less painful."
In order to take her mind off the impending ordeal, the expectant mother began nosing through her cousin's suitcase.
"What's this?" Felicity asked, reaching down under the clothing. "Your charm string! I remember when you came to my parents' house and my friends and I helped you start this. Just look how long it is now!"
"And it's not finished yet. I still need another twenty-three buttons."
Felicity got up from the bed—no easy task, given her advanced pregnancy—and walked out of the room. She returned ten minutes later with her own, unfinished charm string in her hands.
"I'm sure we can find a few buttons here you don't have."
"Surely, you don't intend to destroy your charm string?"
"Why not? I won't be needing it anymore."
The pregnant woman borrowed the seamstress' sewing scissors and cut the thread mid-length. Hundreds of buttons slid off the string and onto Catherine's bed. When the fitting for the dress was done, all three women—Catherine, Felicity and the seamstress—sorted through them.
Catherine was able to use eighteen of the buttons from her Felicity's string and to trade for the remaining five with the seamstress. Thus, more than five years after anchoring the first button on the string, she finally placed number nine hundred and ninety-nine.
That weekend when David came up from New York she proudly showed him the charm string.
"Don't tell me you actually believe that old story about it ensuring a happy marriage?" he laughed. "It's just a bunch of buttons."
Still, he knew tradition was important to his wife, and he did not want to disappoint her. The night before their wedding he gave her a small velvet jeweler's box tied with a white satin bow.
"What's this?" she laughed. "You're not supposed to give me the ring until the ceremony."
"Open it and see."
Catherine lifted the lid, and her eyes widened at the sight of the half-carat heart-shaped diamond.
"It's beautiful!" she exclaimed, unsure if the jewel was for a pendant or a pin.
"Is that an acceptable button to finish your charm string?" her fiancé laughed.
Catherine thought he was joking until she picked the diamond up and saw the shank on the back.
"Surely, this is far too expensive a jewel to put on a charm string!"
"Nonsense! Nothing is too good to make my bride happy. Besides, the thousandth button ought to be more special than the other nine hundred and ninety-nine."
* * *
Whether she could attribute it to the completed charm string or not, Catherine was blessed with a happy marriage. Although she would have preferred remaining in Massachusetts, she didn't regret moving to New York. As long as she was with David, she was happy.
With her twentieth birthday just weeks away, Catherine learned she was with child. The pregnancy brought her even closer to her husband as the couple shared their plans and dreams for the future with each other.
"When the baby is old enough to travel, we'll take a grand tour of Europe. You haven't been abroad yet, and I want to show you the sights of Paris, London and Vienna."
"I can't wait. And after we get back home, I'd like to spend some time with my cousin and your brother in Puritan Falls. I haven't even seen their last child yet."
"If you'd like we could visit them before we go abroad."
Catherine smiled and kissed his cheek. He was always so good to her.
As her delivery date neared, however, she grew increasingly tired and weak. David insisted she remain in bed. He even hired a nurse to watch over his wife's health.
Emily Coogan was a moderately attractive woman who nursed the young and elderly alike. She did not do so out of compassion but out of necessity: she needed to support herself and her widowed mother.
When she moved into the servants' wing of the Wallingford mansion, the nurse put on a false smile to cover the envy she felt toward her patient.
Why was she blessed with having a rich, handsome husband? Emily thought as she looked down at Catherine lying on the bed. It's not fair that I have to clean up after sick and dying people while she lives like a queen.
Fair or not, fate had put Catherine in silks and diamonds and Emily in the midst of bedpans and soiled linens. It was no surprise then that on a cool autumn day, when Catherine's water broke and she went into labor, Emily performed her duties dispassionately, feeling no pity for the other woman's agony.
"It's a girl," the doctor announced to the pacing father after the delivery was over. "A fine, healthy girl."
"Wonderful! And is my wife all right?" David asked anxiously.
"She's weak, but she ought to recover. Right now she's resting peacefully."
Emily, meanwhile, was caring for the infant. Again, she felt her envy rise. Why did Catherine have a beautiful baby while she was doomed to remain a childless spinster?
That night as the nurse lay awake on a cot in the nursery, she remembered what her father had told her not long before he died: God helps them that help themselves. Maybe it was time she help herself to some of what Catherine had.
When everyone in the house was sound asleep, Emily quietly tiptoed into her patient's room and put a pillow over the new mother's face. Too weak to struggle against the stronger woman, Catherine was easily suffocated.
* * *
David was devastated by the loss of his beloved wife. Even the joy of having a healthy child did little to ease his heartbreak. He never had the slightest inkling that Nurse Coogan had had a hand in Catherine's death since so many women died in childbirth.
On the day of Catherine's funeral, the grieving widower stood near his wife's casket, staring at her face, wanting to commit every detail to memory. A friend suggested David place a Bible in her hands.
"No," he replied. "I believe there's something else she'd cherish more."
The other mourners watched silently as David placed the cumbersome charm string in the coffin. While the bulk of it was tucked between the folds of Catherine's dress and the lining of the casket, he put the end with the heart-shaped diamond button in his wife's hands.
Remembering the day he gave her the one-thousandth button was more than the widower could bear. He dropped to his knees beside his wife's body and wept. Nurse Coogan stepped forward to comfort him.
"There, now, Mr. Wallingford," she said softly. "Your wife wouldn't want you to grieve so. You've got to be strong—for her and your daughter."
Although her voice and manner were coated with sympathy and compassion, her eyes stared covetously at the diamond button.
By late afternoon most of the Wallingfords' friends, family and neighbors had the opportunity to pay their respects to the dead woman and offer their condolences to her husband. After one final, tearful farewell to the departed, the mourners left the room and walked from the house to their carriages for the trip to the cemetery. Once everyone was out of the house, the minister closed the lid on Catherine's casket.
"Aren't you coming with us?" David asked as Emily began walking upstairs to the nursery.
"I thought I'd be of more use if I stayed here and looked after the baby."
The widower nodded in gratitude.
"Thank you. I don't know what I'd do without you."
The conniving nurse waited upstairs until the master of the house went out the front door. Then she returned to the first floor parlor where the coffin was waiting for the gravediggers to come and collect it. Emily cautiously inched open the parlor door to see if the minister was still inside the room. He wasn't. She quickly ran to the casket, opened the lid and greedily snatched the diamond button from Catherine's charm string.
* * *
From the window in his study, David watched the little girl playing outside on the lawn. She was getting big, he realized. She had been walking for months already and was beginning to talk. As always his heart was warmed by his daughter's resemblance to his late wife.
How Catherine would have adored her! he thought wistfully.
His eyes shifted from the child to the woman beside her. Emily Coogan had proved to be a godsend, looking after his daughter as though she were her own. But she wasn't.
Recently his brother Emmett hinted that it might be time for him to remarry. He saw the sense in this; after all, the child needed a mother. The only problem was that David didn't want a wife. He was still very much in love with Catherine and believed that no one would ever be able to replace her.
Still, because of his business dealings, he was not able to spend as much time with the little girl as he would have liked. It wasn't fair that she should be raised by servants, no matter how good they were at their jobs.
Even if I wanted to find a stepmother for my daughter, I wouldn't know who to marry, he thought with exasperation. Nearly all the women I know already have husbands, and I don't have the time or the inclination to join the New York social scene in hopes of snaring an eligible debutant or a young widow.
As David watched the toddler run into her nurse's arms and get swallowed up in an affectionate hug, the answer suddenly became obvious to him. The little girl already loved Emily like a mother. He was also aware that the nurse was in love with him. While she had never spoken of her feelings, David knew she had them.
Yes, he thought with a sense of relief, I'll do what's best for my daughter and marry Nurse Coogan. She's a sensible young woman. I'm sure she'll see the advantages in such a union.
As he had expected, Emily readily agreed to his proposal, even with the understanding that it would be a marriage in name only, strictly for the sake of his motherless daughter.
Although David would have liked a simple exchange of vows in front of a judge, he agreed to a small church ceremony to make Emily happy. No guests were invited to the service, but the bride wore a new dress and carried a bouquet of flowers.
The groom arrived at noon and took his position at the altar. There was none of the joy, anticipation and excitement of his first wedding. It was simply a formality, like the reading of a will or the signing of a business contract.
At ten minutes past the hour, the bride appeared at the door. While Emily was an attractive woman, David's heart did not race as it had when he saw Catherine walking down the aisle on her father's arm. In fact, after his new bride walked through the door, he turned his attention to the minister. It wasn't until the couple was to exchange vows that he faced his wife-to-be.
Emily smiled at him, her eyes filled with love and hope. David wished he could return her affections, but he couldn't. Instead, he dropped his eyes in guilt. It was at that point he finally saw the pendant the bride wore around her neck.
"Where did you get that necklace?" he asked, rudely speaking over the minister's words.
Her hand went to her throat, fearing she had made a fatal mistake. She had believed David would not recognize a button from his wife's charm string, not realizing he was the one who had given it to her.
"It b-belonged to my m-mother," she stammered her lie.
David reached for the necklace and turned it over, revealing the silver button shank that was still attached.
"This was Catherine's. I gave it to her the night before we were married."
The sudden look of fury on David's handsome face caused the nurse to tremble with fear.
"I put the charm string in her casket, to be buried with her. You had to have stolen it right after I left for the cemetery."
"You must understand why I did it. You were going to bury an expensive piece of jewelry in the ground. To a poor girl like me, it seemed like such a wasteful thing to do."
David tugged on the heart-shaped diamond, and the inexpensive chain Emily had put it on immediately broke.
"You can put your Bible away, Father," he announced coldly to the stunned minister. "There'll be no wedding today."
* * *
Emily lay on a cot in the dingy spare bedroom of her mother's attic apartment, staring up at the stains on the ceiling. It was not how she'd imagined the day would end.
"If I hadn't put on that damned necklace, I'd be sleeping in the Wallingford mansion right now. What a fool I was!"
Her silent tears gave way to loud sobs, and her mother, sleeping in the room next door, pounded on the wall.
"Stop that caterwauling, damn it! I can't get any sleep."
Emily reached for her stiff, unbleached cotton handkerchief, a far cry from the lace embroidered ones Catherine had owned. She wiped her tears and blew her nose but could not stop weeping.
Suddenly she felt a heavy weight pressing down on her neck, and she couldn't breathe. Her hands went up to her throat where she felt the buttons of Catherine's charm string.
Her brain reeled.
It's impossible! I didn't take the whole chain, just the diamond button at the end.
Impossible or not, the charm string grew tighter and Emily Coogan's life soon slipped away, just as Catherine's was extinguished when her nurse smothered her with a pillow.
The following morning, the old woman found her daughter dead, hanging by her torn bed sheets, from a rafter in the attic bedroom. Everyone assumed that she killed herself in a fit of despondency brought about by being jilted and fired by David Wallingford. No one guessed the truth of what actually happened: Catherine Prynn had finally gotten revenge on the woman who took her life and then attempted to steal her husband and child.
I began a charm string back in the late 1800s, but Salem found it and thought it was a cat toy.
