Fire Along the Sky
Page 25

“She looks well fed,” Hannah said, offering that small comfort.
Curiosity snorted. “Don't talk to me about food,” she said. “The girl need a kind word now and then as much as she need food.” She paused and then said: “Tell me now, don't Martha remind you of her daddy? Not just the color of her hair, but the way she go at the world. He had an affectionate heart as a boy, a forgiving nature if there ever was one.”
She was talking about Liam Kirby, but neither of them said the name out loud. Hannah said, “Let's hope she got his stamina too, because she is going to need it.”
“He surely was tough as old leather, even as a boy.” Curiosity laughed softly. “Wouldn't have lived through the beatings Billy dished out otherwise. My, those was hard days.”
Now that the subject had been raised, Hannah decided she would not turn away from it. “Do you ever get news of Liam?”
Curiosity raised her apron to wipe her face. “Not a word in all the years.” She sent Hannah a probing look. “You relieved, or disappointed?”
Hannah sat down on a stool opposite Curiosity. “I hardly know. Numb, I suppose would be the right word. I hadn't thought of him in such a long time until I saw the girl. His daughter. If he is alive he should know about her.”
There was a longer silence while each of them sorted through memories too obvious or painful to share. Curiosity seemed to come to some conclusion because she straightened and looked Hannah directly in the eye.
“Did you notice anything unusual about Jemima?”
The question took Hannah by surprise. She considered carefully. “It seems to me that some of the fight has gone out of her.”
Curiosity snorted a soft laugh. “I suppose it might look that way, but truth be told, she got me worried. That girl has got something cooking, you wait and see.”
She set the rocker moving with a twitch of her foot.
“I hope you're wrong,” Hannah said. “But you could always smell trouble on the wind.”
“And there's more, while we're at it,” Curiosity said. “While you was out with the doctor your daddy came looking for Lily with some news she didn't like much.”
“Ah. About Daniel, and Blue-Jay. They're going with Luke.” Hannah stopped herself before she could say anything more; it would do no good, and the words couldn't be taken back.
“We all knew the day was coming, but Lily just didn't want to see it.” Curiosity spread out her hands on her lap. “You know they quarrel something awful, those two—”
“They always have,” Hannah agreed.
“That's most usually the case with twins when they get to a particular age. But Lily and Daniel ain't never been apart for long, not really. She don't know what to do with the idea of him going off to war without her.”
“How angry is she?” Hannah asked. “Should I go find her?”
“Won't do no good,” Curiosity said. “She went up the mountain and hid herself. I expect we won't see her again for a good while.”
With more energy Curiosity said, “I'm going to make some cake to send along with those boys. It ain't much, but I got to do something.”
She pushed herself out of the rocker so hard that it thumped back and forth and sent the cat running for a safer corner.
“What is it?” Hannah asked, though she knew very well.
Curiosity gave her a grim smile. “I am mad enough to spit nails, and there ain't no use in pretending otherwise. What is the Almighty thinking, letting me live long enough to see more boys go off to war? I don't know as I can stand it, Hannah. The waiting and wondering and imagining. Sending off letters that never get where they supposed to be. Waiting for word that won't come no matter how hard I bargain with the Lord. I'm likely to turn into a bitter old woman if anything should happen to either of those boys, and that's one thing I promised myself I would never be. I'd rather die. Sometimes I'm just weary of it all.”
With her fury drained away Curiosity seemed almost to wilt and collapse inward. She sat down again, heavily.
Hannah let out the breath she had been holding. Now was the time to say things that were meant to be a comfort, to recite the facts they both knew to be true: Daniel and Blue-Jay would make the best of warriors; they were both excellent marksmen and woodsmen; they would look out for each other as no one else could. But truths like these were too fragile to bear the weight of fear.
Instead of talking, Hannah did something else, something harder for her. She knelt in front of Curiosity and put her arms around the woman's thin shoulders.
“We'll bear it because we have to,” she said.
Curiosity pulled away with a sigh and wiped her face with the back of her hand.
“Did my father say when—”
“Tomorrow, at first light.”
“Then we know when Lily will be back,” Hannah said. “She won't let Daniel go without trying to talk him out of it again. What I'm less sure about is Jennet, and how she'll react.”
Curiosity was rattling cake pans with a vengeance, but she paused to look at Hannah over her shoulder.
“She ain't going back to Montreal?”
“She says not,” Hannah said. “But I expect Luke could change her mind.”
Curiosity snorted softly. “Those two put me in mind of porcupines in mating season. They don't exactly mean to hurt each other but they don't seem to know how to get the business done without some bloodshed neither.”