The Endless Forest
Page 162

When Nicholas was not off exploring with Adam and the rest of the little people, he followed Ethan around asking questions. Ethan had always been good with children and he had endless patience; he answered Nicholas calmly no matter how often the question had been asked and answered.
To Martha it seemed that Ethan was better with the boy than Callie, who was always on guard. The circles beneath her eyes darkened and the wit that had made her conversation so lively rarely showed itself. She had no interest in talking about the new house or the orchards or anything, really. Unlike Nicholas, who was eager to tell every detail.
To Daniel Martha said, “Nicholas can show you where the windows in his room will be. He wants a dog, and snowshoes, and a hammer of his own. And Callie promises him everything he asks for.”
In the first fragrant quiet after sunset they were sitting on the porch with a smokepot downwind to keep the blackfly at a distance. It would be Martha’s favorite time of all, if not for the blackfly. Even the pennyroyal ointment she had from Hannah only worked in part. When she grumbled Daniel threatened to tie her down and smear her from head to toe with bear grease, his own way of coping when he went into the bush.
Daniel said, “I was hoping Callie would calm down after a bit.”
“Is Ethan concerned?”
He looked at her, surprised. “I haven’t asked him, and neither should you. They’ll work things out between them.”
“Or they won’t.”
He didn’t protest. For a long minute his thoughts seemed very far away, and then he surprised her. “Have you heard Nicholas singing with Levi when he’s helping in the orchard?”
Martha sat up in her surprise. “Nicholas can sing?”
He pulled her back to rest against him. “Ma mentioned it to me. She said he has a pure tenor voice, clear as ice. According to Levi the boy can sing harmony to any tune, even ones he never heard before. It’s a natural talent, seems like. To make up for other things.”
It explained why Levi seemed less distant around the boy and less suspicious in general. When Callie’s father had been alive, there had always been singing in the orchard. It made Martha glad, and it made her deeply uneasy.
Daniel said, “Are you going to tell me what has got you so worried? Does it bother you that the boy can sing?”
“Yes,” Martha said. “My mother can sing, and so could Callie’s father. It was the only thing they had in common.”
“Were you doubting Jemima’s claims about the boy’s parentage?”
“I suppose I was,” Martha said. “The tighter Callie holds on to the boy, the more I want to draw away. What is she going to do when Jemima comes to claim him?”
“Maybe she won’t come back for him,” Daniel said. “Maybe she really did mean to dump him here for you and Callie to take care of.”
But Martha remembered the look on Jemima’s face when she spoke about the boy. The obvious pride, and something that was as much like love as Jemima could produce.
“She’s coming back,” Martha said. “Like a bad penny. I can feel it in my bones.”
Callie Wilde Middleton had just brought the workmen their dinner when she saw Lorena walking toward the cider house with a basket over her arm. Her pace was slow and she held herself like a queen, as if she owned everything she saw around herself. As if, Callie had heard said in the village, butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.
Lorena visited every day, and sometimes more than once. Callie had been ready to raise the subject to Levi when Ethan made a remark at supper that changed her mind.
“Did you notice Levi is smiling again?”
Callie had noticed. It was so unexpected that at first she had wondered if his bowels gripped him.
“I think he’s pleased about the way the orchard is coming back from the flood.”
Ethan had a look he used sometimes, not exactly sharp but certainly clear. As if he could see into a person’s head to the worst things hidden in the deepest corners.
“It might have to do with that,” Ethan said in his usual even way. “But I’m wondering if it has to do with Lorena. You don’t like that idea?”
Callie often found herself guessing at the answer Ethan wanted to hear from her, because he seldom gave her any obvious clues. His tone left Callie with only two choices: to say nothing at all, or to tell the truth, which must disappoint even Ethan.
The truth was that Callie didn’t want any outsiders talking to Levi. Not so long ago he had gone for weeks at a time talking to nobody but Callie herself. Now he spoke every day with Ethan, because, she had to remind herself, the marriage meant that Ethan was the legal owner of this land and everything on it, and as such, he was Levi’s employer. To Callie’s surprise and satisfaction, Ethan had paid Levi’s back wages—two years’ worth, since the last half-decent harvest—and had begun paying him every week on Friday, seeking him out wherever he was to put the money in his hand and spend a few minutes talking.
Levi was smiling these days, but it didn’t necessarily have to do with Lorena or with wages or even with the fact that for the first time they had the tools and supplies they needed. Callie believed that Levi was smiling about the Bleeding Heart tree, hidden away in the nursery. Callie found herself smiling too, when she thought of it.
Just yesterday she had gone at sunrise to see for herself, and found that she was afraid to even touch the green fruit no bigger than walnuts.
Levi said, “All we can do now is pray.”