The Endless Forest
Page 155

I’ll tell you once more. I don’t know a thing about what Harper got up to when he left here. If you say he went swimming, well, then most likely he did. Ain’t no concern of mine one way or the other, though I am sorry to hear he’s dead at such a young age.
Did you ask Levi Fiddler? I saw them talking more than once. Maybe he can tell you more.
V. Statement of Levi Fiddler,
free man of color, farmhand at the orchards My name is Levi Fiddler, and I work for Miss Callie. Yes, sir, I mean Mrs. Middleton. Been working in the Wilde’s orchard ever since I got my manumission papers. I do all the heavy work at the orchard, and the pressing, come fall.
Yes, sir, I knew Harper to talk to. He come by to call almost every day, and he took up whatever work there was to hand. I got the feeling he was lonely ever since the other servants went off with the Fochts.
That’s all I know to tell you. Can I get back to work now?
VI. Statement of Callie Middleton
I knew young Harper Washington through my half brother Nicholas. Harper was supposed to be looking after my brother.
I can’t deny he was a helpful and friendly young man, but he was far too green and flighty to be looking after a young boy like Nicholas. Now I ask you, Jim Bookman, what if my brother had gone down to the lake with Harper? I hate to think of it. And that Lorena was just as bad. I have been saying it all along that Nicholas should be with us, and he will be by the end of the day, that I promise you.
Chapter LIV
The day after Harper Washington was fished out of the lake was Sunday, and on Sundays everybody came home to Uphill House for dinner at midday. There were so many of them that they couldn’t fit around the dining room table, so the men set up trestle tables and benches in the open space between the house and the gardens, and the women spent all morning cooking. It was Birdie’s job to see to it that the little people all kept busy and out of the way, which was a lot better than scraping potatoes or cutting up onions.
Ever since she got out of bed Birdie had been wondering how she could get to Daniel and Martha before anybody else. She wanted to be the one to tell them about Harper Washington, because she was the only one who would tell them the whole story and not leave anything out. But the little people were everywhere and impossible to shake off, and so she had just about given up the idea when the Hidden Wolf folks showed up early to help.
Susanna and Annie had baked pies and Birdie’s ma came out to admire them. There was a lot of talk about dried currants and strawberry preserves, and then Birdie couldn’t hold back her question any longer.
“What about Daniel and Martha?” she asked. “Why didn’t they come down the mountain with you?”
Gabriel said, “You’ll understand when you’re newly wed yourself.”
The kind of answer that made Birdie hopping mad. She said, “You and Annie are newlyweds. And so are Callie and Ethan, but all of you are here.”
“Don’t begrudge them a few hours sleep,” Ma said. “They’ve had a very strenuous week.”
“That’s right,” Gabriel said, grinning. “They need their sleep.”
Then Annie had stepped on his foot, hard enough to make Gabriel squawk.
Blue-Jay said, “Let me at that other foot,” and with that the wrestling started.
It was the best chance she’d have. Birdie slipped away and headed down to the village at a trot.
It was a beautiful day, warm but not warm enough to raise a sweat unless you were working in the sun. She found a spot out of sight in the shadows next to the schoolhouse, because it wouldn’t do if some neighbor saw her. There would be questions about what she was doing sitting there on a Sunday, and didn’t she need to get home for dinner? She was better off where she was if she could just stay awake. That would be hard in such fine weather, because she hadn’t got enough sleep in the night.
Because of the dead boy in the lake, the little people had whispered among themselves. Because she saw that dead boy.
They were right, and they were wrong too. Birdie had seen more than a few dead people. Her aunt Many-Doves, for one. People as old as her grandfather Hawkeye, and as young as the little boy Friend Verena Henry had brought dead into the world. There was nothing to fear from dead people, but there was something about Harper that didn’t sit right.
She had begun to drift off despite her best intentions when she heard Daniel’s voice. He was laughing. He laughed a lot these last few weeks, and because he was laughing and happy, it seemed other people were happier. Birdie realized she herself was smiling to hear him.
She startled Martha, coming out of the shadows the way she did.
“Is there something wrong?” Daniel could always read her face, even when she least wanted him to.
And so she told them the whole story while they stood there, dumbfounded.
Martha said, “That’s terrible. Poor Nicholas, he must be very distraught.”
“He’s at Uphill House with Ethan and Callie,” Birdie said. “So you’ll be able to see for yourself.”
Daniel’s brow pulled down low. “So Callie fetched him from the Red Dog, then.”
“Last night,” Birdie said. “Now Lorena’s there all alone.”
“Then let’s knock on her door and invite her to Sunday dinner,” Daniel said. Martha’s face lit up at the idea, and Birdie had to wish she had thought of it first.
“Wait,” Birdie said. “There’s something else that’s bothering me.”