Callie set her satchel on the back porch and stepped down to the yard. Good Lord, she could have gone in any direction. Instead of going after the child, she should be thinking about where she was going to spend the night now that she was cast out of the Powers’s household.
Callie struck off to the right of the house behind Hugh MacDuff’s potting shed. She was halfway up a small incline when she saw the handyman coming toward her. Quickly she explained what happened and wanted to cry at the miserable look on the older man’s face. “We have to find Mary, Mr. MacDuff. Where’s Lena?”
“She went that way,” he pointed to his right. “We knew something was wrong when the girl raced through the kitchen, screaming like a banshee. Lena will find her. She’s been calling her all the while.”
“But she won’t hear, Mr. MacDuff. Mary can’t hear! Anything could happen to her if she goes up to the bluff. It’s a sheer dropoff. She’s tired and upset. She doesn’t have her wits about her. We have to find her! Please, Mr. MacDuff, help me find her.”
“You can’t be climbing in your condition. Don’t worry, lass. Lena told me, and my mouth is clamped tight. Lena told me the missus would be tossing you out if she found out. Right she was. That confounded woman is always right. Here she comes now.”
Callie fell into the cook’s arms and sobbed. “What if something happens to Mary, Lena? I’ll never forgive myself. I don’t know where to go or what to do? Mrs. Powers said I had to be out of here in an hour.”
“When the missus says something like that, you best do as she says. If she sees you hanging about, she’ll set the law on you. Have you deported. She would do it too, isn’t that a fact, Lena?” Lena nodded her head, the gray corkscrew curls bobbing in her agitation.
The stout cook clapped both hands over her head. “Let me think a minute. Both of you be quiet and let me see if an idea pops into my head.” Hugh and Callie watched Lena with anxious faces. Lena could always be counted on to come up with the best solution to a problem.
Moments later Lena removed her hands from her head. “The only thing I can come up with is for Callie to remove herself immediately from here. Hugh, send her down to the rooming house in St. George and let her stay there for the time being until we can figure something better. We have a good two hours to look for the child. Hugh, you go down the street and see if you can’t get some of the other men to help you.”
MacDuff agreed, giving Callie directions to the rooming house. “Don’t you be worrying now. We’ll find the lass before dark.”
Callie didn’t like it, but Lena was right. For now it was the best solution. She could not call Byrch Kenyon. She wouldn’t call him, no matter what. From here on in she would manage her own problems.
“Go along now, child. MacDuff and I will go after Mary and bring her back.” Lena wrapped her arms around the trembling girl and kissed her on the cheek. “Don’t you be thinking dark thoughts now. Everything is going to turn out right.”
Blinking back her tears, Callie started down Todt Hill and began her trek into St. George to what Hugh called a clean and orderly rooming house.
All through the night Hugh MacDuff and the men on the hill searched for Mary Powers. They shouted and called her name to no avail. It was Hugh’s decision not to tell the others about Mary’s hearing problem. Best not to make known the Powers’s personal business, Lena warned.
It was past three in the morning when the men returned to the Powers’s kitchen with their lanterns swinging in the darkness like oversized fireflies. Lena poured coffee and drew Hugh aside out of the others’ hearing. “I spoke to Mrs. Powers around midnight, and she shouted at me through the door that she didn’t want to hear a word about Mary. Not a word, she said. I tried to talk to her through the door, but she refused to listen. I don’t even know if she heard me or not. She was screaming at me just the way the child used to. If only Mr. Powers were here. He would know what to do. Are you and the men going back out again?”
“I don’t think there’s much use. The child must be hiding, and if she can’t hear us call her name, there isn’t much point to a search now in the darkness. If the moon stayed out, I would consider it, but it’s dark as Hades out there. The men gave me their word they’d be here at sunrise to start out again,” Hugh said wearily. “I’m not as young as I used to be. Tramping and climbing that bluff is for the likes of someone a lot younger than me.”
“MacDuff, you don’t think. . . she wouldn’t. . . what I mean . . .”
“Did she go over the bluff? Is that what you’re trying to say? I don’t know. We won’t know till morning. Maybe you better have another try at the missus.”
“At three o’clock in the morning?” Lena’s tone was incredulous. “You didn’t hear her the last time I spoke to her. She meant it when she said she didn’t want to hear another word about Mary.”
“Then Miss Anne? Wake her and tell her about her little sister?”
“They should be told, but you know as well as I do that the Powerses aren’t like other people. All right, all right, I’ll wake Mrs. Powers,” Lena said. “But she isn’t going to speak to me, I just want you to know that.” Lena marched up the stairs to Anne Powers’s suite of rooms. She rapped sharply and waited. When there was no response, she rapped again. And then a third time. When there was still no response, she kicked angrily at the door with her foot. The loud sound was enough to wake the dead. “What is it?” came the muffled reply.
“It’s Lena, Mrs. Powers. It’s about Mary. I have to talk to you.”
“Tomorrow, Lena. Not one more word about that . . . that child. I will not be disturbed at this hour of the night. Handle the matter, whatever it is, and don’t bother me again. This is the second time I’ve had to speak to you, Lena. One more time is grounds for dismissal.”
Lena sighed wearily. She had come this far, she might as well go all the way. She was a good cook, and good cooks who knew their business could always get a job. “Mrs. Powers, Mary has been missing since this afternoon. Hugh and the other men on the hill have been looking for her, but we can’t find her.”
“That’s utter nonsense. The child is hiding. She does it all the time. She loves it when she’s the center of attention and is making trouble for everyone. Go to sleep and don’t bother me again. Go back to bed before you wake Miss Anne.”
Lena felt the urge to put her fist through the heavy door. Instead she turned on her heel and headed back to the kitchen. Hugh sat at the wooden table, his untouched cup of coffee in front of him.
Lena’s tone was cool, almost mocking, when she made her statement. “Mrs. Powers doesn’t wish to be bothered. She said Mary was hiding and liked to cause trouble. She doesn’t want to be disturbed again until morning. She told me to be quiet before I woke Miss Anne. I kicked the door.”
“Did you now. I always said you were a woman with her own mind,” Hugh said tiredly. “I probably would have knocked the door down myself.”
“I wanted to put my fist through it,” Lena admitted. “Hugh, do you think anything happened to the tyke? I’ve always had a special kind of feeling for little Mary. I can hardly believe she can’t hear, but it does explain so many things. I used to talk to her till I was blue in the face and she would just turn and smile at me. The times I wanted to take a stick to her. Now I’m glad I didn’t. You should have married, Hugh, and had children of your own. I know how you love Mary and Callie. I also know they are the children you never had. You didn’t fool me for one minute.”
Hugh swallowed his coffee. “Who would be wanting to marry the likes of a man like myself? Someone else’s children are less wearying and less trouble than one’s own. But right now I feel like Mary is my own. Callie too. We have to put our heads together and figure out what to do for the lass now that a baby is coming.”
“You’ll be acting like a grandfather next thing you know,” Lena said, trying for a light tone.
“’Spect you’re right. Time will tell. I’ll be getting some shuteye. The coffee was good,
Lena. The men said their thanks to me. Get some sleep, and we’ll give it another round at sunup.”
Lena washed and rinsed the cups and then dried them. She washed out the coffee pot and readied it for morning. Her kitchen set to rights, she went to her room and lay down fully clothed. Sunup would arrive shortly.
Hugh rubbed at his aching knee joints and leaned back in his bed. The moonlight was gone, and before long it was going to rain. His knees said so. If the poor child didn’t find some protection, she would get soaking wet. She must be cold and hungry by now. If there was only something he could do. He was realistic enough to know that dead of night was no time to search the woods and the bluff. A body could go right off without even knowing it until it was too late. Little girls who were upset and couldn’t hear could lose their bearings and plummet down to the bottom. The thought was so horrible Hugh dragged out his pipe and pretended to stuff it with tobacco. When he realized he was just fingering the pipe, he stuck it back into his pocket in disgust.
Callie was now another worry. Lord, what had he done wrong to have these problems foisted on him? He cared, he told himself, and the Almighty also chose those who cared to carry out his wishes. He believed this implicitly. What would become of the young girl from Ireland? Someone had to take care of her now that she was expecting a child. It wouldn’t be easy to find her any kind of job in her condition. What employer would put up with a servant who was sick half the time? Lena had told him on more than one occasion that she caught Callie vomiting and holding her stomach. He had to come up with some kind of solution and come up with it quick. Poor lass, she would have been better off to stay in Ireland. America wasn’t treating her too well, and now with a baby coming God alone knew what would happen to her.
What he needed was a couple of dollops of whiskey, for the ache in his knee. He’d long ago given up liniments and salve in favor of the whiskey bottle. Several mouthfuls later he was tempted to make the trek into St. George to tell Callie they hadn’t found Mary. Now what good would that do? It would only make her more anxious, more fretful. No, he would wait till he had something to report.
She was a bonny lass, Callie James was. A fitting bride and wife for young Rossiter Powers. A pity the boy wasn’t man enough to realize what he was losing. Tied to his Mamán’s apron strings with a knot in the middle of the string, Hugh thought sourly. The whole damn kit and kaboodle of the Powers family, with the exception of Mary, weren’t worth Callie’s little finger. He snorted angrily as he tried to shift to a more comfortable position on his narrow bed over the carriage house.
The minute the first drop of rain hit the roof Hugh was up like a streak of lightning. A few more minutes and it would be dawn. He felt damp and chilled. If he knew Lena, she would have a fire going in the kitchen and a pot of coffee bubbling on the stove.
As soon as Lena saw him, she wrung her hands and cried, “She didn’t come back at all during the night. I lay awake with my door open. I swear I didn’t get a wink of sleep. She’s lost to us, MacDuff, I can feel it in my bones.”
“The others will be here soon to start the search. Did you make plenty of coffee?”
“A whole pot. There’s plenty. Hugh, it’s raining hard, and it’s so damp and miserable out there. The child can get deathly ill from such a damp chill. Drink your coffee now. I can see Josh and Ian coming up the path.” Quickly she set out two more cups and poured the dark, fragrant brew. The men drank it gratefully and helped themselves to some of Lena’s homemade muffins that were full of wild blueberries she and Mary had picked the summer before. Her eyes filled with tears as she looked from face to face. How grim they looked. They must know as I do that something has happened, she thought. Poor child, to be so upset she ran away like that with no thought about anything. The screen door slammed a second time as Carl, Henry, and a man named Jack, along with his fourteen-year-old son Seth walked into the kitchen. They drank their coffee quickly and set out single file. Within seconds they were lost to Lena’s view with the low-lying mist and steady rain shrouding them. Never one to leave anything to chance, Lena blessed herself, not once but twice.
Chapter Eighteen
Mary awakened into her world of silence. At first she was frightened not to find herself home, safe, in her own bed. But then she remembered where she was and why. Her small face pinched with the pain of her insecurity, and she tried to snuggle back down into her nest of leaves and scrub. The wet, chilly air made her shiver miserably. She had to go home. Home to face her angry mother and accept her punishment. Mary still wasn’t quite certain of the details of yesterday afternoon. She only knew she’d attacked her mother and that she was losing Callie. She didn’t care about the punishment, she even believed she deserved it. She didn’t care about anything except Callie and being warm again.
Feeling small and frightened by the whipping of the wind and the rain that was beginning to fall in slanting sheets, Mary took cover beneath the protection of an oak tree, trying to orient herself, uncertain of which way was home. She’d never wandered so far from the house before, and everything appeared unfamiliar in the rain. She held out her arm and spun in a circle. When she stopped, she would go in the direction she pointed. Sooner or later she would find her way.
She must have slept the night. It was today, not yesterday. She didn’t remember what time she’d run from the house, but it must have been before dinner—her stomach was rumbling. Her thoughts were chaotic as she attempted to piece together yesterday’s events. “I didn’t say my prayers last night!” Since Callie’s arrival she and Mary made a practice of kneeling beside their beds and saying their prayers. Quickly Mary dropped to the ground, the wet seeping through her lisle stockings and the hem of her dress. “Please, God, take care of Callie. Let her miss me the way I miss her. I’m sorry I screamed at her. Please, let her love me again. Bless Papá and Rossiter and Lena and Mr. MacDuff. Bless the kittens, especially the littlest one because his legs aren’t so strong. Some day make me hear again if it isn’t too much trouble.” She was about to ask for her own blessing when she grudgingly added two additional requests. “Bless Anne and Mamán. Don’t forget what I said about Callie. Oh, yes, bless me and help me get back home, and I’d be obliged if You didn’t let me get sick. This is Mary Powers, Your loving child, God.” Mary blessed herself and immediately felt better. Everything was in His hands now.
Heading off in the direction she thought was home, Mary braced herself against the wind and the rain, her thoughts on Lena’s warm kitchen with the new kittens sleeping by the stove. Warm chocolate and honey buns would taste so good right now. She smacked her lips in anticipation.
The heavens opened up, and the rain came pelting down. Lightning flashed in the sky, and she could almost hear the sharp cracks of thunder. It seemed the trees were reaching out for her with bony fingers as they bent in the wind, the shadows beneath them darker and more terrifying. Was she going in the right direction? She didn’t think so; it seemed she had been climbing for too long a time. All she had to do was change direction, back up, move to the left, and she’d be going downhill. She knew her house was not at the highest point of Todt Hill, it was just below the crest. She didn’t hear the snap of the tree branches or the skittering of rocks and earth. She did feel the uncertainty of the ledge and the rumblings of the thunder in her stomach, like a big drum vibrating within her.
Frightened, Mary grasped at bushes and scrub, stripping their leaves, unable to get a handhold. The ledge began to crumble under her, mud sliding from beneath her feet. She felt herself slipping, sliding down the bluff. She was falling, falling . . . “Calllliiieee!”
It was mid-afternoon when the somber-faced search party filed up the path to the Powers’s kitchen. Hugh MacDuff carried Mary’s broken, battered body. Lena took one look at his burden and felt the floor sway under her feet. Ian Flannery and Josh helped her to her chair near the stove. “Give her here to me.” Lena reached out for Mary, cradling the little girl in her lap, tenderly brushing away the dirt and leav
es that clung to her face and hair. She rocked back and forth, crooning, crying. MacDuff angrily brushed at the tears streaming down his craggy face. “She was such a little one,” he murmured, “so frightened and lost. Aye, but she’s home now. Give her over to me, Lena, I’ll bring her up to her room and lay her in her bed.”
This time Lena didn’t bother knocking on Mrs. Powers’s door. She opened it and walked into the dimness. The curtains were still drawn, and sounds of quiet breathing came from the bed. Lena touched Anne’s shoulder, rousing her, speaking her name.
Anne awakened grudgingly. “How dare you, come into my room?” she croaked hoarsely. Lena’s eyes spied a packet of sleeping powders on the bedside table. “It’s barely daylight,” Anne complained. “If the house isn’t on fire, you’d better have a good explanation.” She struggled to a sitting position and was about to launch into further complaints when she noticed the expression on Lena’s face and was stilled. Something was wrong, terribly wrong.
Lena licked dry lips. How to say it, where were the words? How to soften the blow? “It’s Mary, ma’am.”
“I thought I told . . .” Seeing pity in Lena’s eyes, Anne straightened, locking her gaze with Lena’s. “What about Mary? Did she hurt herself?” A knot of apprehension lodged itself in her throat.
Lena clenched her hands, wringing them. Best to say it right out—“Mary is dead.” She waited for her words to sink in, waited for the reaction. None was forthcoming. The message was too far from the limits of comprehension. “Hugh MacDuff just brought the poor mite’s body home. She . . . she fell off the bluff. MacDuff says the ground was weakened by the rain and just pulled away from under her. We . . . we have her in her room. We didn’t know what to do.”
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