by Delia Parr
Eventually, just when she was ready to admit that he was leaving for good, the tiny speck in the sky grew larger and larger, and before she knew it, he landed right down on her shoulder. Relieved, she nudged him gently with her cheek. “You did very well today, my friend, and I suspect you’ve worked up a bit of an appetite.” She took a seat on the trunk of a tree that must have been downed by lightning while she was away.
She polished off a number of molasses cookies, and Bird ate all of the crumbs she laid out for him, too. Still hungry, she offered Bird a piece of two sugar cookies before munching them down as well. “The last time I had a special moment with cookies just like these was the day I introduced my new granddaughters to the idea that once in a while, it was perfectly fine to have nothing but sweets for a meal. I wish they were here, but I’m glad you’re still here with me today.”
When she was finished with her treats, she brushed the sugar from her hands. Before she realized it, Bird had flown off again. And then again and again, soaring lower and lower each time. She grew exhausted just watching him circle and soar about. Afraid that he had pushed himself too hard on his first day out, she scooped him up the first time he landed next to her and put him back into his basket, even though he offered a bit of a protest.
“If you can fly for me like that another time or two, then I won’t have to worry that you’re strong enough to fly off for good and take care of yourself properly.” She refused to consider that Thomas had been right to complain that her attachment to Bird was the only reason she had yet to set him free.
Ready for her next mission, she carried the basket and the canvas bag with her as she retraced her steps halfway back home again before veering off to follow a narrower path to visit Samuel.
Unfortunately, because the trees on either side of this path were big and packed closer together, the sun had not evaporated the water left by a recent rain. To avoid puddles of water and thick mud, she had to step from one tiny island of dry dirt to another all the way to Samuel’s cabin.
She set the basket off to the side and warned Bird to behave and be quiet. She was about to knock on the door when it swung partway open.
Will poked his head out and offered her a grin, along with a full view of the spyglass he was holding. But his gaze was clearly focused on the canvas bags she was carrying. “Me and Mister Fancy were out taking care of Bella when I saw you comin’,” he whispered.
She cocked her head and frowned. “Then perhaps you might have met me along the way and offered to carry my bag,” she said, following Will’s lead and keeping her voice low.
“Had to get back here right quick and warn Mister Samuel you was comin’. That stuff you got in the bag. That for us?”
“It is, but I’d rather not open it up out here. Is there a reason why we’re both whispering?”
“Mister Samuel’s sleepin’, and since he ain’t been sleepin’ too well lately—”
“Hard for a man to sleep day or night with all the commotion around this place,” Samuel bellowed. “Come on in, Widow Cade. William, you need to get yourself right back out to that meadow and help Fancy repair that fence instead of wasting time fooling around with that spyglass of yours. See that you give it over to Fancy for now. When you two get back, I’ll consider the idea of sharin’ whatever it is Widow Cade’s brought along with her. Now scoot!”
“Yes, sir.” With his cheeks flaming, Will stepped out of the cabin and took one last longing look at the treats sticking up from the top of Martha’s bag before he charged off into the woods.
Chuckling, Martha let herself inside and closed the door behind her. “A fence? That sounds permanent,” she suggested as she made her way over to Samuel, who was sitting in one of the two chairs in front of the warming stove.
“Are you gonna keep chatterin’, or can you hold off until you pick out one of those cinnamon rolls from the treats you brought with you?”
“Apparently I need to take care of your sweet tooth before I try to have a conversation,” she teased and set her bag on the floor. She was not surprised that he knew what was in her bag. He might be blind, but like his hearing, his sense of smell was well beyond normal. Seated next to him, she sorted through the bag to get to the pan of cinnamon rolls on the bottom and studied him out of the corner of her eye.
He might be just a bit thinner than before, but his clothes were clean and his beard was neatly trimmed. He was not wearing his arm in a sling anymore, either, another good sign. With no tell-tale bruises on his face, she felt reassured that he had not been out and about by himself, bumping into trees or bushes again.
Pleased that he was faring well, she went right to work. When she finally found the pan she wanted, she gently separated a double roll and placed her hand beneath his before laying the sweet into his palm.
“Nice and sticky,” he remarked and gobbled the entire roll down in a few quick bites. Swiping at the crumbs on his beard without actually seeing that they were there, he patted his stomach. “Wouldn’t hurt to have another. Once Fancy and that young’un get a crack at these, won’t have much of a chance of more.”
She nudged the bag close enough to his leg that he could feel it. “I’ve brought plenty, but you might want to keep some of these aside for yourself.”
He grinned. “You tryin’ to sweeten me up for any good reason?”
“No, I’m just trying to thank you for letting Will help me with Bella,” she said as she tore another pair of cinnamon rolls from the pan.
He shrugged. “Didn’t do more than what I wanted to do.”
“Here. Two more and that should do you for now,” she said and placed the sweets into his palm again. While he munched away, she licked the sugar from her fingers and waited until he was nearly finished before she tried to get an answer to her earlier question. “That fence you mentioned earlier. If that’s for Bella, it sounds as if you’re actually going to let the boy keep the horse. Is that right? Or am I jumping to that conclusion simply because it would make life so much simpler for me if you did?”
He polished off the rest of the cinnamon roll and wiped his hands on his trousers. “About that horse of yours . . . maybe . . . maybe it’s time to admit that it was a mistake to get involved with that horse in the first place. I mean to say—”
“Don’t bother yourself about changing your mind,” she said and groaned in spite of herself. “I was surprised you even let him keep Bella on a temporary basis. I’m just being resentful, I suppose, because now I have to take responsibility for something I never asked for in the first place. I’ll stop at Thomas’s on the way home and let them know to get a stall in their stable ready for her. After that, I’m not quite sure what I’ll do, but once—”
“But for once, you might think about listenin’ instead of chatterin’,” he snapped. “You gonna let me talk or not? ’Cause if you’re not, you might as well hand me another something sweet to eat before you head out the door.”
Startled by the brusque tone to his voice, she folded her hands on her lap. “I’m listening.”
He cleared his throat. “Like I was sayin’, takin’ that horse turned out to be a mistake, but I’m not talkin’ ’bout lettin’ William take it from you. There’s no easy way for me to admit this to you, but the mistake I made was givin’ the horse to you the way I did. Without askin’ you first if you wanted it. After all you done for me, I just wanted to do somethin’ special for you. Just didn’t turn out so good, and I’m real, real sorry about that and hope you won’t be so mad you won’t wanna come back and visit me from time to time.”
Stunned and in total disbelief, she turned and stared at him. “You? You’re the one who left Bella at the confectionery door with an anonymous note claiming she was payment for a reward you owed to me? You did that?”
“Don’t be daft. I couldn’t do that on my own. Not with these useless eyes of mine. Fancy helped me. He even used the spyglass tryin’ to keep a watch on you and the horse, just like he does for Cassie, but you can’t b
lame him for anythin’. It was all my idea. He just helped make it happen. Said she was a right pretty horse, not like that ugly one you had before. I don’t suppose it occurred to either of us that the horse might not take to women so good, but bein’ seafarin’ men, I guess we didn’t know as much about horses as we should have ’fore we got one for you.”
The image of these two retired seamen, one of whom was blind, negotiating to buy a horse created one giggle and then another and another that burst out of her lips in one giant guffaw. “I’m . . . sorry. I—I . . . I don’t mean to laugh at you, but thinking about the two of you trying to choose a horse for me is a bit like having me pick out a sailing ship for you. Whatever possessed you to do such a thing?”
“You never took nothin’ from me, all the time you spent tryin’ to come up with one remedy or another when my eyes was failin’ me. I had a debt I wanted to repay,” he argued gruffly.
She took his hand. “You’ve repaid me ten times over with your friendship, Samuel. That’s all I’ve ever wanted and far more than I ever expected, and if you think I’d want to end our friendship because you made one little mistake, then you’re wrong.”
He cocked his head. “Little mistake?”
She laughed until she had tears in her eyes. “You made a whopper of a mistake with Bella, didn’t you?”
His chest rumbled when he laughed. “’Bout the biggest one I’ll ever admit to makin’.” When their laughter was spent, he tugged on her hand. “Don’t have much right to ask a favor of you, but I’m askin’ anyway considerin’ we’re friends.”
She let go of his hand and reached down into the bag again. “I’ll give you one more cinnamon roll. Just one.”
“It’s not about my sweet tooth. It’s about William.”
She let go of the pan of cinnamon rolls and sat up straight again. “What about him?”
“He don’t know yet, but I’m gonna let him keep the horse. So far, he don’t have a clue that it was me and Fancy that got Bella to you in the first place, and I’d be beholden to you if we could keep it that way.”
Recognizing how important it was for him to save face with the boy he had adopted, she nodded and then voiced her approval. “I think I can do that. On one condition.”
“I shudda known you wouldn’t make this easy. Go ahead. Name your price.”
“It’s not so hard. You just have to promise me that the next time you even form the thought that you’d like to give me something in return for whatever I do for you, you’ll let it go and remember that all I want is your friendship.”
He snorted. “You sure ’bout that? I’ve given you nothin’ but trouble so far. Can’t see that changin’ much from now on, neither.”
“That’s not true. You’re my friend. If I ever need help, I know I can always depend on you, can’t I?”
“’Course you can.”
She grinned, took one more cinnamon roll out of the bag, and handed it to him. The morning she had claimed for herself could not have turned out any better. Bird had had a chance to fly again, Bella’s future was now set, and Martha did not have to worry that Samuel would ever make the same kind of mistake where she was concerned again.
She headed back to town and prayed the work she had waiting for her in town would also turn out to be less than she expected it to be. Maybe if it did, she could use all of her energy to climb out from despair and find hope again that she and Thomas would still have a future together.
31
The rest of the afternoon did not turn out to be as good as Martha had hoped. It turned out even better. Not a single person had come to summon her away the entire afternoon.
Not one!
After an early supper, Martha headed upstairs to finally unpack her travel bag and settle properly back in her room again. She found Bird asleep on her pillow and decided to leave him there for now.
It was easy to believe that there had not been a teeming woman ready to deliver today, but Martha found it impossible to believe there was not a single soul in Trinity who had not been feeling poorly enough to need her help.
Well, there had been one. Apparently Cassie had complained most of the morning about a toothache, but Jane had given her a clove or two to chew on. By the time Martha returned from Samuel’s, just in time for dinner, the girl’s tooth was feeling just fine and Cassie was back to her usual happy self.
She took her soiled clothes out of her travel bag and shook her head as she tried to think of a reason why the afternoon had been so quiet. It was possible that some folks did not seek her out because of the hot, humid weather. They’d had fewer customers than usual at the confectionery, too.
Considering the night air was still steamy, that made some sense to her, and she piled her soiled clothes in the corner, where they would stay until tomorrow. If Jane was not doing laundry, Martha intended to do it herself, since she had only one clean gown left to wear. Besides, getting wet while she was scrubbing her clothes clean was not a bad way to cool off.
She stopped for a moment to mop her brow before she removed her notes from the travel bag and slipped the bag under her cot, right next to her birthing stool. She was still searching her mind for an explanation for the quiet afternoon, though. There were lots of things changing in Trinity these days, but she was confident that gossipmongers had not given up their self-appointed roles as the town’s network of news and keepers of people’s comings and goings.
Unless the hot, humid weather had made the spread of gossipmongers’ news as sluggish as the folks who did venture out to shop around town today.
She then opened up the trunk at the foot of her bed. She retrieved her grandmother’s diary, which was actually a box filled with the records Grandmother Poore had kept of every birth in and around Trinity since the town’s beginning. After adding her own notes from her recent trip, she left the remaining notes right where they were and returned the box to the trunk.
With lots more work ahead of her, in part because she had let things pile up, she pulled out her record book, where she kept a listing of her rewards. She spent a little more than an hour recording what she had done recently, when she had done it, and what reward she expected to be given for her work, leaving the furthest column blank until she received it. By the time she was done, her hand was tired from all that writing, and she made a mental note to never, ever let so many notes pile up again.
She was ready to store the record book away again when she realized she had forgotten to make one important entry about a reward she had recently received. When she found the one she wanted, she smiled:
16 June Thursday Bella, white mare Left anonymously
With a flourish, she crossed of left anonymously and wrote, Given by Samuel Meeks in error and given back to him. “And happily so,” she murmured and closed the book. She was all set to close the trunk when there was a knock at her door.
“Martha?”
“I’m coming, Jane,” she replied, then closed the trunk lid and opened the door. “I suppose I’m being called away this late now, when I’ve been waiting all day?”
Jane’s eyes were twinkling. “You’re needed, but only downstairs. Cassie begged me to ask you to join us downstairs in the sitting room. I know you’re probably too busy or tired enough to want to go to bed, but—”
“I just finished up doing what I truly had to do. I can always do the rest tomorrow. Just give me a few minutes to freshen up a bit first.”
Jane grinned and handed her an old cotton nightdress that was so big she could have wrapped it around her twice. “Since we’re all wearing something a little unusual, you might want to remove your gown and some of your petticoats and change into this. I’ll tell her you’ll be down soon,” she said and was halfway down the back staircase before Martha had a chance to ask her what exactly they were doing in the sitting room.
Completely intrigued, Martha got as far as the kitchen in less than ten minutes. She was as surprised to find the air so much cooler downstairs, almost as much as sh
e was intrigued by the oddly pitched voices coming from the sitting room.
The voices got louder and stranger the closer she got to the sitting room.
She opened the door very slowly, took one look inside, and clapped her hand to her mouth to keep a cackle from bursting free. Jane and Cassie and Fern and Ivy were all inside, as she expected, but what they were doing together stretched well beyond the realm of her imagination.
Totally absorbed in what they were doing, they took no note that she was even there. She did not need anyone to explain that they were in the midst of a rather unusual play, and they were indeed wearing costumes, of a sort.
All of the furniture normally in the sitting room had been pushed to the walls. Four wooden chairs were lined up side by side in the center of the room. Cassie was standing on the first chair, with the other three stretched ahead of her. She was wearing one of Ivy’s better gowns, her mother’s only Sunday bonnet, and a ruby necklace that Martha recognized as one of the pieces of Fern’s valuable jewelry she had left.
Fern stood next to Cassie. She was dressed in a feathered cap and a man’s robe, the source of which further defied Martha’s imagination, and she was holding out one of her rolling pins like a sword. For her part, Ivy held on to a ribbon that was tied to Cassie’s wrist. Her costume consisted of a pair of burlap bags held together with string, to resemble a long jacket. Jane stood an arm’s length away like a soldier on guard, if you imagined the broom she was holding against her shoulder was a rifle of some kind.
“Surrender your jewels, or I’ll have one of my crew take them before you walk the plank,” Fern commanded in a ridiculously low voice.