“Yes. I know that feeling.”
“Well, it felt like that for a long time, and I was just so scared, like something horrible was about to happen. But I wasn’t awake. And then there was a little golden flame in the darkness, and I thought of the candle and the flame, and Eldred…”
Ruby paused.
“Then what happened, Ruby?” I asked.
When she started speaking again, her voice was full of wonder.
“My mother was there, Ruth. My mother! She was calling me and telling me to come back to her, and I opened my eyes and she was there, with that beautiful smile I have in my memory, and she held out her arms to me and hugged me and I was so happy, Ruth. I finally had my mother back, just for a moment.”
We started crying again. Then laughing, because we were crying again.
“Honestly,” Ruby said. “I haven’t cried this much since Wynken tore the heads off my dolls when I was eight. But the thing is, she made me feel safe, Ruth. And even though it was just a dream, I feel like we’re going to be okay. It was like she was promising me that.”
I was too tired to worry anymore. I hoped that Ruby was right. I closed my eyes and fell instantly asleep.
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
RESCUE
Someone was calling us, over and over again.
“Ruth! Ruby! Ruth! Ruby!”
I opened my eyes. The root cellar was no longer completely dark. I could see Ruby lying beside me. I turned my head. A sliver of light was coming from the blocked tunnel, at the top, where I’d started to pull the rocks away in the middle of the night.
And someone was on the other side, calling us: a woman with a hoarse voice, as if she’d been calling us for a long time.
“Ruth! Ruby! Are you in there?”
I struggled to my feet.
“We’re here!” I yelled. “We’re okay!”
By now Ruby was at my side.
“Nan?” she called out, as if she didn’t believe it.
“Thank the Lord,” said Nan, for it was definitely her, and then she called out to someone else.
“George! Doll! They’re here. They’re alive.”
And then other people were calling out and talking all at once, and Aunt Doll’s voice rose above them all.
“I’m glad you’re alive because I’m going to skin the two of you as soon as I can get my hands on you!”
Ruby and I looked at each other and began to laugh.
“Ruby,” called out her dad. “You need to start moving the rocks on your side and we’ll do it from out here and we’ll meet in the middle. Mother, Doll, there isn’t room for all of us. Let me and Eldred do it.”
There were some complaints, and then the women’s voices faded away and I could hear rocks being thrown aside.
“You all right, Ruby?” came Eldred’s quiet voice.
“Yes!” she said.
“And Ruth?”
“I’m fine, Eldred,” I replied.
Then we set to and pulled down as many rocks as we could. When the hole was big enough, Doll came back and insisted that the men hand in some water and a bag of muffins for us.
“They need to drink. And eat,” she said. “They’ll be dehydrated and half-starved by now.”
That first drink of water was as sweet as anything I’ve ever tasted. And the muffins were just as good. Doll was still scolding, but her voice drifted away and we could hear them moving rocks again.
Finally the gap was big enough that we could see Eldred and Uncle George, their faces covered with dirt.
“Let me look at them,” called Aunt Doll, who came in brandishing a flashlight.
We looked even worse than they did. Ruby’s face was streaked with grime and dried blood and I’m sure mine was just as dirty.
Aunt Doll gave a sharp intake of breath. “Well,” she said, “you’re both a sight. If it wasn’t for Mildred, we’d never have found you.” She turned away, her voice breaking.
I looked at Ruby. “Mildred?” I mouthed.
“Nan,” she said.
And then Eldred and Uncle George went back to pulling away the rocks.
It took another half an hour to make a gap big enough for us to squeeze through.
Ruby and I handed our knapsacks through and then climbed over. Ruby went first, and by the time I got to the other side, Uncle George was hugging her so hard she finally started laughing and broke away, saying she couldn’t breathe.
Then he turned to me and before I knew it I was enveloped in a bear hug.
It was the strangest feeling. I was being hugged for the first time by my birth father.
“Ruth,” he said. “Thank God you’re safe,” and then he pulled back and looked at me.
I could feel this big emotion coming from him in waves. With tears in his eyes, he enfolded me in another hug.
He knew. I don’t know how he knew, but he knew. I pulled back and looked up into his face with a tentative smile.
“You two scared me to death,” he said. Then he led us outside and there were hugs and tears from Aunt Doll, and hugs and grins from Eldred, and then to my surprise, a bony hug from Nan. She smelled of salt air and wool. As she held me, she caught her breath a couple of times and I realized she was crying. I pulled back and looked up into her face, whose harsh lines were shattered by her tears.
“I thought I’d lost you,” was all she could say.
“No,” I said. “You found us.” And I hugged her again. And for just a moment, I felt a knot inside me untangle and let go. Meg and Molly were dead. My mother would never hold me like this. But Nan was alive. And Ruby was alive. And Aunt Doll and Uncle George were alive. And my dad and Gwen. And they loved me. And I loved them.
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
REST IN PEACE
Even before her tears were dry, Aunt Doll started scolding us.
“You never should have come here; you should have known better; nothing good ever came from going to Slippers Cove! And Eldred, you’ve done nothing but encourage them in all their nonsense.”
Eldred looked a little sheepish, but winked at me when Aunt Doll turned to Ruby.
“I blame you more than Ruth because you should have known better, and she’s from Ontario, so she doesn’t know anything—” At this, Uncle George began to laugh.
“Come on, Doll,” he said. “Let’s get them home safe first, and then we can lecture them the rest of the day.”
She scowled at him.
“But how did you find us so fast?” said Ruby. “And what are you doing here, Dad?”
“I called him last night when you two didn’t come home,” put in Aunt Doll. “He drove half the night in the rain to get here. Eldred said you might have come looking for Slippers Cove, but we didn’t know how to find you, and that’s when Mildred arrived at the door, saying you were in Slippers Cove and we had to go by boat because there’d been a landslide. I thought she was mad, but Eldred convinced me to listen to her. So we called Ed Dunphy and he agreed to take us out in his boat at dawn. And Mildred led us right here. Ed couldn’t see the opening in the cliffs. None of us could, but Mildred kept insisting we go forward and suddenly there it was, the way in. And well, here we are.”
I looked at Nan. She had regained most of her usual dour expression, but now it was mixed with an air of self-satisfaction.
“I could see it,” she said. “That’s all. I could see it.”
“But how did you climb up here over the landslide?” I asked.
“Well, it’s the oddest thing,” said Aunt Doll, “but you’ll have to see for yourself.”
They moved aside so we could see down into Slippers Cove.
“It’s uncanny,” said Aunt Doll. “The whole thing is uncanny.”
The landslide had swept down the hill, carrying rocks, trees and earth with it. But it had veered off to the left below the root cellar, blocked by a huge boulder. On the right, the footpath down to the harbor was completely clear of debris. Behind us the path and the hillside were gone, leaving no
thing but a sheer mass of rubble, impossible to climb. But the way down to the water was open.
“Almost as if the landslide knew what it was doing,” said Eldred in a dreamy voice. “Leaving us a path clear to climb up and find you.”
The sun was sparkling on the calm water. A fishing boat floated sedately in the middle of the harbor, and a rowboat was pulled up on a little rocky beach.
“So it was a landslide, not an earthquake?” I asked.
“Earthquake? What earthquake?” said Aunt Doll. “Isn’t a landslide good enough for you?”
“It’s just that the earth kept shaking underneath us and I thought—”
“It must have been the vibrations from all the rocks falling down the hillside,” said Uncle George. “Let’s get you home,” he said, throwing one arm around Ruby’s shoulder. “And Doll can cook us all a proper breakfast.”
“More than they deserve,” said Aunt Doll, but I could tell she wasn’t really mad anymore.
“Wait a minute,” I said. “Ruby and I have to do something first.”
Nan gave us a sharp look, but Aunt Doll just shrugged her shoulders. “Be quick.”
The grown-ups turned away. Eldred pointed out something to them up the hill and they stood for a moment, looking at the landslide and talking.
I bent down and started fishing through my knapsack. Ruby stood watching me.
I found my sketchbook and pulled out some of the flower specimens I had picked in the woods. I stood up and drew Ruby back into the entrance of the root cellar.
“We may never be back to Slippers Cove,” I said quietly. “I want to leave something in memory of Caitlin and Catriona and Michael, and all the rest of them who died here.”
Ruby nodded.
I knelt down and laid two yellow lady slippers and one delicate pink twinflower across the threshold.
“Rest in peace,” I said. And we stood there in silence, for just a moment, thinking about them.
“We’ll never forget you,” said Ruby.
CHAPTER SIXTY
GOING HOME
Ed Dunphy was waiting for us in his fishing boat. He was about Uncle George’s age, with a wide, weather-beaten face and blue eyes. Ruby threw herself into his arms in a big hug. He grinned and looked embarrassed, giving me a shy nod.
“Thank you for rescuing us,” she said.
“Oh, it wasn’t me,” he answered. “Thank your Nan. She led me here like she’d been here a hundred times before.”
“I’ve never been here,” said Nan stiffly.
“Well, I’ve sailed past here many times and never knew about that opening. You’ll see, it’s as narrow as can be, but the water’s deep, and it was nothing to slip in once I knew it was there. This’ll be the talk of Buckle for many a day, Mrs. Peddle, you’ll see. They’ll be calling you a witch!” And he laughed.
Ruby and I looked at each other and it was all we could do not to burst out laughing. I could see Uncle George and Aunt Doll exchanging glances too, trying unsuccessfully not to smile.
“They already call me a witch,” said Nan. “I’ve got the Sight, that’s all. Nothing to be ashamed of. I see things other people don’t.” She squared her shoulders and moved toward the wheel. “Will you be needing me to get you out of here, Ed Dunphy, or do you think you can manage that by yourself?”
He grinned, and started the boat.
Ruby and I looked back as the boat headed toward the narrow opening. The cliffs reared up on all three sides of the harbor, and the root cellar stood high and lonely off to one side. The rubble from the landslide lay in a tumble down the hill. The sky arced above, a brilliant blue.
Ruby slipped her hand into mine.
“It’s the saddest place in the world,” said Aunt Doll, who had come to stand beside us. “Like a tomb. All those poor people, gone.”
“But it’s beautiful, just the same,” said Ruby.
The boat was chugging toward the opening between the cliffs, and it was so narrow we could almost stretch out our hands and touch the rock on either side.
“It’s very deep here,” said Aunt Doll. “I’ve never seen anything like this. A real hidden harbor.”
The boat passed through, and we looked way up to the stretch of blue sky high above, where a number of gannets swooped and settled on an outcropping of rock.
“They must have nests up there,” said Ruby, shading her eyes to see. “That might be how we could find it again, by following the gannets.”
“I don’t think you’ll be wanting to come back,” said Aunt Doll.
I was silent, looking at Ruby.
“Maybe someday,” she said.
“Not if I can help it,” said Aunt Doll grimly. “Now let me look at that cut on your head, Ruby Peddle.”
Aunt Doll moistened a handkerchief and wiped away the blood on Ruby’s forehead. A bluish bump had come up.
“You’ll live,” she said after she cleaned the wound. “The cut’s not too bad. I don’t think you need stitches. What do you say, Mildred?”
Nan took a look. “That will close up nicely by itself, I’d say. Just put a cold compress on it for now.”
Aunt Doll wet the handkerchief again and Ruby dutifully held it to her forehead.
The trip home took a couple of hours. It was a glorious ride for me. It was my first time out in a boat on the Newfoundland coast, and the view was breathtaking. High cliffs on one side, punctuated by little coves here and there, with meadows stretching back into the barrens. Open water on the other side, going on forever, blue-gray, with little waves dancing away from the boat. It was still fairly calm, but the wind had picked up a bit. Seagulls followed us, shrieking.
Aunt Doll brought out blankets to wrap around us, and a couple of thermoses of hot tea and some sandwiches. So we ended up having a picnic on the boat.
Uncle George spent most of the time talking to Ed, while Eldred and Nan sat together, not talking much. Aunt Doll, exhausted by a sleepless night and all her worry, ended up going down into the cabin and lying down. Ruby and I sat huddled together under our blankets, lulled by the waves and the fresh air into a kind of dream-like state.
When we got to Buckle, a little crowd of people was at the wharf to greet us. They fussed over Ruby and me and congratulated the grown-ups on finding us safe.
Doll flushed. “You can’t keep a secret in Buckle,” she said.
Ruby and I looked at each other, thinking how wrong she was. There were too many secrets in Buckle. Way too many.
Suddenly I remembered my last vision, with Meg telling me to “bring it into the light.” I wondered if that was what she meant. Bring all the secrets into the light.
Nan took hold of my shoulder with a bony grip and bent down to speak to me so that no one else would hear.
“You and Ruby come and see me later. I need to tell you something. Bring the wooden box. The one with the silver knots on it.”
I looked at her in surprise.
“You know about the box?”
“Yes. Just bring it.” Then she turned away and started toward her house. A couple of women went after her, wanting to hear the story.
We wound our way home. Suddenly I felt too tired to take another step. A few people accompanied us, talking all the way to Uncle George and Aunt Doll, trying to get the story out of them. I swayed, and Uncle George reached out an arm to steady me.
“We need to get these children to bed,” he said to the neighbors. “We’ll tell you all about it later.”
Then they fell away and we finally made it home. It occurred to me that Eldred must have slipped away at the wharf, because I hadn’t seen him once we got on dry land again.
Ruby and I went upstairs and were about to crawl into bed in our clothes when Aunt Doll bustled in and made us change into pajamas.
“You’re that damp,” she said. “You’ll be lucky if you don’t catch your deaths.” When we were changed, she tucked us both into our beds and kissed us. “Don’t ever do that again,” she said. “I’ve aged ten
years.” Then she gathered up our dirty clothes and left the room.
As soon as Aunt Doll closed the door, I felt everything drop away, like I was slowly floating down on a current of wind, like the gannets above the cliffs in Slippers Cove, and I fell instantly, deliciously, to sleep.
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
CINNAMON BUNS
When we woke up, it was lunchtime, but Aunt Doll insisted on cooking us a full breakfast.
“I promised George,” she said, and he grinned as she heaped fried eggs, home fries, bacon and mountains of toast onto our plates.
“Now,” said Aunt Doll, after we’d cleaned our plates and washed it all down with several cups of strong tea creamy with condensed milk, “I’ll say no more about last night. You know you were foolish, and I trust you never to do it again. Eldred’s filled your heads with all kinds of nonsense and I want to hear no more of it, do you understand?”
“But—” protested Ruby.
“Okay,” I interrupted, giving Ruby a quick kick under the table. “You’re right, Aunt Doll. We just got carried away.”
“Very good,” she said, standing up and starting to clear the plates.
Uncle George watched her for a moment, then turned to us.
“I’m going to stay for the weekend,” he said. “I’ve called Wendy and she was so relieved to hear that you were okay, Ruby. She and the boys send their love.”
Ruby opened her mouth, and I gave her another kick under the table.
“Oh, uh. That’s nice,” she said.
I stood up and started helping Aunt Doll.
“No, you never mind about these,” she said. “I’ll do them. You two go on upstairs and do something nice and quiet that can’t get you into any more trouble. Read a book. Or have another nap.”
We nodded our heads obediently and went out.
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