Lillian laughed. “Yes, a little.”

  I drank from my own glass. If it tasted sour to Lillian, I could only marvel at its sweetness.

  “You must be thirsty after the ride in that dreadful car. Doesn’t it make the most awful noise?”

  “Motorcars scare me,” I said.

  “Me too. Wesley thinks it’s silly. I suppose it is, but I’m quite sure I’ll fall out one of these days and be killed by those hideous tires.”

  The woman who must be Mollie appeared with a tray of sandwiches, cut into squares and piled on top of one another. In addition, a bowl of perfectly red strawberries, hulled and cut in halves. A small pitcher held cream.

  I was curious to get a good look at Mollie, as I’d never met her, only heard Dax talk about her. Plump and pretty, she wore a black skirt, a white blouse, and a full apron, as well as a cap over her black-and-white curls.

  “Mollie, thank you,” Lillian said.

  “You’re welcome, Miss Lillian.” She peered at me with dark-blue eyes.

  “This is Luci and Sadie,” Lillian said.

  “Welcome,” Mollie said. “I’ll be happy to show you to your rooms after lunch.”

  I thanked her and prompted Sadie to as well with a tap of my boot against hers.

  Sadie’s eyes hadn’t left the plate of sandwiches. “Thank you.”

  “The child’s hungry,” Molly said. “Enjoy your lunch. I’ll be back later.” She hustled away, disappearing into the house.

  I helped Sadie to two sandwiches and took two for myself. Lillian scooped a generous portion of hulled strawberries into one of the smaller bowls and poured cream over them, then set it in front of Sadie. “Mollie says strawberries will make our cheeks pink.”

  Was that true? A smaller version of the ones in front of me grew wild in the forest. Only a few times had I come upon them before the birds had eaten them up and left only the stems as evidence.

  “Use your spoon,” I said to Sadie, afraid she’d grab a strawberry from the bowl with her hands.

  She nodded and picked up the small spoon and carefully placed it under a strawberry slice. “They smell good.” She placed the berry in her mouth and chewed. “It . . . it tastes like love.”

  Lillian laughed. “I’ve never thought about what love tastes like, but I know strawberries and cream are one of my favorite combinations.”

  Aware of my roughened hands next to Lillian’s smooth, white ones, I lifted a sandwich to my mouth and took as refined a bite as I could muster. My stomach was so empty I could have gorged on the entire mound.

  Lillian had taken one square for herself and several strawberries.

  We ate in silence for a few minutes. I had to agree with Sadie that the strawberries and cream tasted like love or heaven.

  Sadie polished off both sandwiches, as well as her strawberries. She put her hand over her stomach. “It’s so full in there.”

  “Good.” Lillian poked her fork into a slice of strawberry.

  “Will we truly stay in there?” Sadie pointed at the house.

  “For a few weeks,” Lillian said. “Then you’ll go to live by the sea.”

  “Will you come too?” Sadie asked.

  “I’d like to, but I’m waiting for something.” Lillian’s lively eyes dulled.

  “For what?” Sadie asked.

  “For Roland Harris to ask to marry me.”

  Sadie blinked and looked over at me, then back at Lillian. “Will he?”

  “I’m not sure. He hasn’t much money, and he’s afraid I wouldn’t be happy.”

  Sadie wrinkled her nose. “But you want to marry him.”

  “That’s correct, Miss Sadie,” Lillian said. “Would you like to run over to the pond and look for the swans? There are a pair who take a swim every afternoon around this time.” She pointed toward the water. “Oh yes, do you see them there coming out from behind the bush?”

  Indeed there was a pair of elegant white swans, swimming in tandem.

  “May I, Sister?”

  “Yes, but don’t go in the water.” I felt the need to say this, given that at home she swam or waded in the creek whenever she wanted.

  “I won’t.” Sadie got up from the table and ran toward the pond.

  “Does Wesley know of your feelings for Roland?”

  “Yes, he’s encouraging of the relationship. The two of them built identical cottages on Wesley’s property. He’s told me in confidence that he’d like me to return with them as Roland’s wife. Which is all I want. Roland loves me, but he’s not sure he’s enough. He insists he cannot marry me without having a more secure future.”

  “You’re certain of him, though?”

  “Yes, he’s hardworking and clever. I have no doubt he’ll provide a good life for me. Perhaps not opulent like this one, but I don’t care. I’d follow Roland around the earth if he asked.” Lillian rested her chin in one hand and stared out toward the pond. “He doesn’t understand that I’d rather be poor and married to him than rich and married to anyone else. My brother has offered him a loan so that he can open a shop in Castaway, but he refuses. Who am I to question him? I have nothing to offer to the marriage. My father didn’t leave me anything in his will. I’m penniless and without one worthy skill. For heaven’s sake, I don’t even know how to make a cup of tea.”

  “It’s not hard. All you need is boiled water and some tea leaves.”

  A faint smile lifted her mouth. “If I marry Roland, you’ll have to instruct me in all household matters.”

  “If I can be of service to you, I’d be happy to.” I said this with humility, as I wasn’t sure I was familiar with the ways of the elite when it came to running households.

  “Do you think I’m silly? To assume that love is more important than security?”

  “Will he provide you a home and enough to eat?” I asked.

  “Yes. I have no doubt.”

  “And you’re willing to sacrifice if you have to?”

  “I believe so, yes.”

  “If it hadn’t been for Wesley finding us and asking Dax to help, I’m certain Sadie would have perished. If I’d lost her too, I would have lost the will to fight. In the end, love is the only thing that keeps us from succumbing to the hardness of life. As long as there’s a person we love, there’s a reason to keep fighting.”

  18

  Wesley

  * * *

  “Where are we going?” Roland asked as I turned onto the main road.

  “We’re going over to Rochester to see about a ring and to have a business agreement put together by my attorney and then to the bank to set up an account for you.”

  “A ring for Luci?”

  “And a ring for my sister.”

  Roland sighed and lifted his face to the sky. “Wes, I don’t know.”

  “It’ll be rolled into the loan. Do you really want to propose to Lillian without a ring?”

  “I don’t, no.”

  “If we leave here next week without her, both of your hearts will be broken. I won’t have it. And if I give a ring to Luci, you have to do the same.”

  Roland didn’t talk for the rest of the drive, staring out at the scenery with a brooding expression on his face. The car was too loud to talk on the road anyway. I hoped he’d come to his senses by the time we reached Rochester.

  I parked in the lot behind a jewelry store that I’d been to once before to buy a trinket for my sister’s sweet sixteen birthday. After killing the engine, I turned to him. “What will it be?”

  “Your sister told me she’d rather be married to me than to anyone else, rich or poor.”

  “What’s the problem, then?”

  “My pride.”

  “Listen here. Through nothing but luck, I’m rich,” I said. “The same goes for your circumstances. Or Luci’s or Lillian’s, for that matter. We can’t control these things. What we can do, however, is take opportunities that are presented to us. I’m offering you a chance to change the course of your life. You’d be a fool not to accept.”

  “I already told you I’d take the loan. But a ring? I don’t know, it’s such a personal thing. To take money from the brother of the woman I want to marry seems wrong.”

  “Please, Roland. Do it for her. Imagine her face when you ask her.”

  He closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. “All right, fine.”

  I punched his shoulder. “Good man.”

  Later that afternoon, I emerged from Dax’s shop with a child-size table and two chairs. When we’d arrived home from Rochester, I’d spotted Sadie playing under one of the oaks with two of Lillian’s old dolls and the homemade one she called Sugar. She’d had a blanket spread out with the dolls propped up against the trunk of the tree.

  I’d remembered a child’s table that had once been in Lillian’s room. June had found it, as well as a child’s tea set, and had brought them down for me. I spent an hour or so cleaning them up and then set them under the tree. Gus was asleep on the blanket, and I’d just placed the child’s tea set on the table when Mollie came marching across the lawn carrying a plate of cookies. “Have you gone soft?” She set the cookies on the table.

  “I’m hoping to win her heart.” I placed each of the dolls in a chair.

  “I don’t think there’s any question of that.” Mollie folded her arms across her chest and glared at me with a mixture of indulgence and impatience. “You’ll be a good father to her, but careful not to spoil her.”

  “Thank you, Mollie. I’ll try. I have Dax to model myself after.”

  “She’s a sweet little girl. Didn’t even fuss when I combed out her tangles. They’ve had it hard.”

  “Those days are over.” I took the box with the ring out of my jacket pocket to show Mollie. The diamond sparkled in the sun.

  “It’s nice,” Mollie said and looked away, but not before I saw the glisten of tears in her eyes.

  “I’m going to give it to her tonight. Roland has one for Lillian.”

  “You’ll have her marrying Roland, then?”

  “That’s what they both want.”

  She gestured toward the vegetable gardens, where Dax was kneeling over beans. “Do you really think Lillian can be a poor man’s wife? She doesn’t know the first thing about how to live.”

  “They won’t be poor. I’ll make sure of it. I’ve got plans for the future. Roland will prosper.”

  “Just because you want something doesn’t mean it will happen. There’s God and free will to contend with.”

  “I’m not worried.” I grinned at her. “Love will win in the end.”

  “What’s your plan? Are you going to leave before your mother’s return?” The strain in her voice caused me to look at her more carefully. Was it nervousness I saw in her eyes?

  “Why do you ask?”

  “It would be best if you did.”

  “Mollie, I don’t care if she approves of my choice of a wife, and she has no hold over Lillian either. What business is it of hers?”

  She unfolded her arms and looked out toward the pond. “There are things you don’t know. Things that passed between your mother and father. As much as it pains me, I think it’s best if you go before she arrives.”

  I tilted my head, studying her. “What’s this really about?”

  She sniffed and ran her hands down the front of her apron. “I’ve only just gotten you all back, and now you’re going to leave.”

  “You just said you wanted me to go.”

  “Only because of your mother.”

  “Mollie, come with us. I’ll build you and Dax a cottage near ours. You can help with the babies that will surely come. You can make sure Lillian keeps her family fed. Dax can make a garden and sell his vegetables in town.”

  “You have it all worked out, don’t you?”

  “I do. Will you bring up some champagne from the cellar? We’re going to celebrate tonight.”

  She made a harumph sound and turned on her heel and stomped across the yard. The back door slammed behind her.

  “Come on, Gus. Let’s find Sadie.”

  He jumped to his feet and headed toward the side of the house. The dog knew where she was without a search. Such a clever pooch. I found Sadie on the swing, holding on to the rope with both hands while lying back with her face toward the sky and her skinny legs dangling. She had on a new dress and shoes. Her hair was fixed in two braids. A straw hat hung from a string around her neck, nearly touching the ground.

  “Sadie Bug,” I said. “What’re you doing?”

  She straightened. The hat fell behind her shoulders. “Hi, Wesley. I was counting the leaves of the tree.”

  “How many are there?”

  “I only got to eleven and then I had to start over because that’s as far as I can count. Sister hasn’t taught me what comes next.”

  I crossed over to the swing. Dax had put this up for Lillian and me years ago. He’d cut a hole on each side of a wide piece of wood and strung rope through them and then looped it up and over a thick branch. “Would you like a push?”

  “Yes, please. I can’t get very far on my own.”

  “Hold on tight. I don’t want you falling off and breaking an arm. Your sister wouldn’t like that.”

  She squeezed her hands around both ends of the rope. I gave the swing a gentle nudge. She squealed as she crested upward and then back to me. I gave her a more robust push the second time around. We continued this for a few minutes. Above us a bird chirped as if happy to see a child swinging on his or her favorite tree.

  After a few minutes of this, I told her I had a surprise for her in the back. “Would you like to see it?”

  “Yes.”

  I chuckled at the enthusiasm in her voice and took hold of the swing to stop any further momentum and waited for her to hop to the ground.

  “We’ll head around the side of the house. Mollie doesn’t like it when we come in from outside only to run right back out again.” I gestured toward the pathway made of flat rocks that led to the backyard. “Stay on the stone pathway so we don’t hurt any of Dax’s flowers.” Batches of daisies, lilies, and foxglove grew on either side.

  “I already know that. Dax told me himself.”

  She ran across the grass until she reached the stone pathway, then turned back toward me, gesturing impatiently for me to follow. “Come on, Wesley. I’ll show you what to do.”

  To do? I jogged over to her. “Are we playing a game?”

  Her eyebrows rose slightly, as if it should be obvious. “Yes. You can’t step on any of the cracks. Otherwise, a wicked witch will come and snatch you away.”

  “Lead the way.”

  Sadie jumped from one stepping-stone to another, careful not to land on any of the cracks. The thyme that grew between the rocks would be grateful, I supposed, not to be trampled upon. The flowers rustled from the breeze made by her swirling skirt.

  I stepped carefully as instructed, amused as she leapt over the last rock and into the grass. The moment she spotted the table, she screamed and ran toward the tree.

  I quickly followed. “Do you like it? It used to be Lillian’s, and I had June bring it down from the attic.”

  “Wesley, I love it.” She hurled herself against my legs, wrapping her arms around me. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” I blinked to keep my eyes dry.

  She looked up at me. “I don’t want to go back home. What will we have to do to stay with you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “No one ever gave us anything that Sister didn’t have to work for.”

  “Not this time.”

  She sucked her bottom lip under the top one and watched me with those big blue eyes. “Will Pa come find us?”

  “No. He doesn’t know where you are.”

  She appeared to contemplate this for a moment, and satisfied with the answer, she moved on to the next topic. “Will you come to a tea party with me and the dolls?”

  “I’ve never been to a doll tea party.”

  She slipped her hand into mine and smiled up at me. “I hadn’t either. Until you brought me here.”

  “Show me the way.”

  Still holding my hand, she led me over to the table. “You’ll have to sit on the ground. But the dolls don’t mind.”

  I did as she asked, stretching my long legs out to one side. “Would you like a cookie?” I asked.

  “Am I allowed?”

  “Mollie brought them for you. She likes for children to have a cookie in the afternoons.” I offered her one from the plate.

  She took the smallest one. “I’ll save the bigger one for you.” She bit into her sugar cookie. “It’s like eating a cloud.”

  I tried one for myself. The buttery-sweet cookie melted in my mouth. “Etta knows how to make a cookie. French, you know.”

  Sadie didn’t answer, too busy eating.

  I ate the rest of my cookie, then reclined on my elbows with my legs stretched out in front of me.

  She let out a joyful sigh and plopped near me, imitating my stance. “My stomach feels so good here.”

  “Mine too. Roland and I have been bachelors, and neither one of us can cook.” I yawned. The warm afternoon made me sleepy. I lay on my back. Leaves fluttered from their branches, reminding me of the counting lesson. “After eleven comes twelve, then thirteen. Can you remember those?”

  “What do they look like?” She lay on her back and looked up too.

  “Like ten, only with a two instead of a zero and a three instead of a zero.”

  She pointed up at one of the branches and began counting under her breath. “One, two, three.” When she reached number thirteen, she asked what was next.

  “Fourteen,” I said sleepily. “Then fifteen.”

  19

  Luci

  * * *

  For the first time in nearly six years, I was spending the afternoon without my sister. Mollie had whisked her away after lunch, promising to show Sadie the room where she was to sleep and to supervise a bath. To my surprise, Sadie had gone without a fuss, excited to see her room and to have a bath. As for me, I was in the hands of Lillian.

  First she showed me into a bedroom on the second floor of the house. A bed larger than I’d ever seen took up much of the room. The dresser had a washbasin and jug set on top of an oval doily.