The Endless Forest
Page 156

They waited, watching her face. For a moment Birdie was thankful that her people were the way they were. Mostly grown-ups couldn’t be bothered with children who didn’t know their place.
Birdie said, “When they pulled Harper out of the lake he was dressed. Shirt and breeches.”
“Shoes?” Martha asked.
“I don’t think he owned a pair,” Birdie told them. “I never saw him wearing shoes. But I did see him swimming once—” She broke off, her determination to tell this story suddenly deserting her.
Martha smiled at her. “Go on, Birdie. No one is going to scold you.”
“Maybe you won’t,” Birdie said, a little grumpily. “But other people will.”
“Don’t be a coward,” said Daniel.
Birdie knew he was baiting her, but she couldn’t help herself; she rose to it.
“I did see Harper swimming in the lake and more than once. But I never once saw him swimming in shirt and breeks. He shucked his clothes every time.”
Daniel bent over to look her in the eye. “Have you been swimming this early in the season?”
“No,” Birdie said on a sigh of relief.
“All right, then.” Daniel tugged at her earlobe. “I’m glad to hear that your common sense hasn’t deserted you.”
“You swim in cold water all year,” Birdie said.
“And so could you, if you cared to come up to Lake in the Clouds. Now, let me think a while about Harper. I need to talk to Hannah.”
“But not with the boy nearby,” Martha said.
Daniel nodded, but Birdie had the sense her brother was too far away in his thoughts, and hadn’t heard Martha at all.
When the first round of roughhousing was done, the men carried Lily and her chaise longue outside and set her down in the shade of Elizabeth’s fruit trees. Curiosity was waiting for her there, where they were surrounded on three sides by tables, two long and one short.
“Like Caesar looking over his troops,” Lily said of her situation. No hint of boredom or irritation in her voice. In fact, she was in a teasing mood. Elizabeth knew there was reason for her good cheer and even a cautious optimism, but worry still had a strong hold on her own heart.
Curiosity squinted up from the rocker Nathaniel had brought out for her. She reached out and took Elizabeth’s wrist. Her touch was very cool and dry.
She said, “You set too. All those young women in the kitchen, no need for you to be running around. You will just trip over each other’s feet.”
“She’s right, Ma,” Lily said. “Sit with us. Dinner’s almost ready anyway. I wonder where Daniel and Martha have got to.”
Just then Simon came out of the house with another rocker.
“I see I have been outmaneuvered again.” Elizabeth sighed and sat down. “It’s just as well. My feet are sore.”
“They must be fallen off your legs for you to admit something like that,” Curiosity said. “Girls! We need a basin of hot water and some Epsom salts for your grandmama.”
“No, we don’t,” Elizabeth raised her voice. And to Curiosity: “That can wait until after dinner.”
Curiosity grumbled, but she let it go.
“It is so good to be out of doors,” Lily said. She stretched a little and yawned too. Then she seemed to remember herself and covered her mouth with one hand.
“Pardon me,” she said. “Too long out of proper company.”
“There’s company, and there’s family,” Curiosity said. “Yawn if you’ve got a mind to.”
Elizabeth watched the little people running back and forth with dishes and bowls, every one of them looking determined. Luke had probably offered some kind of prize for the chld who could cause the least disturbance and provide the most help.
She said, “Where is Birdie?”
Lily scanned the scene. “Not here, Ma.”
“She’ll be close by.” Elizabeth said this out loud for her own benefit.
Curiosity made a harrumphing noise.
“Do you have reason to believe otherwise?” Elizabeth asked.
“No, but I know the girl,” Curiosity said. “And I gave up trying to keep track of her long ago. As you will too, someday.”
“Never,” Elizabeth said easily, and they laughed at that, all three of them.
“Oh,” Lily said. “Ma, the boys have got the bagattaway sticks out already.”
Before Elizabeth could get to her feet to set things right Ethan was there in the middle of a crowd of children whose expressions ranged from guilty to insulted. In the end they went stomping off to put the long sticks away.
It was a familiar scene and a very rewarding one, watching the children she had raised taking up the care of the children they had brought into the world. Elizabeth felt the familiar but unwelcome prick of tears behind her eyes.
“Look at the family you made for yourself,” Curiosity said. “I can still close my eyes and see the day you got here. You were the brightest light, Elizabeth. You lit up the room and you still do. Lily, you just about the age your ma was when she come to Paradise.”
Elizabeth managed a smile.
“See how it is? Folks almost never change. Thirty years on and your mama still cain’t take a compliment. Look at her blush.”
Lily said, “I see. But that’s because she’s happy, Curiosity. She’s so happy she’s going to start weeping any second.” This last bit came with a cheeky grin, and that was what Elizabeth needed. She sat up straighter.