Chapter 12
It was rather exciting to have the plans for her house ready. Considering how much time and effort Michael was putting into the project and how much they were working on it together, Emily suspected that it would be their house. That was the next logical step. After all, they were courting.
Every time she thought about it, she felt her cheeks heat up as the blush overcame her. She was being courted by a kind, caring, thoughtful, intelligent man, and she couldn’t be happier.
Miraculously, Uncle Felix seemed to have found a way to behave.
He was helping Michael to find out who was behind the ore theft at the smelter, and to Emily’s surprise, it seemed that Felix was doing his part without complaint.
He was trying his best, and in return, Michael allowed him to run a little betting group on the side.
They had started training homing pigeons and were planning races with them where they would take the birds out into the wilderness, release them, and see which bird made it home first. It seemed harmless enough to take small wagers on which bird would win, and Emily was hopeful that her uncle couldn’t get himself into trouble by doing that.
They were out there now—Felix, Tim, Carl, Bruno, and a couple of others—training their birds. Tim still had Critter with him, and the little creature seemed quite taken with him. They’d tried to set him free a few times and he just kept coming back.
“Emily, hold the pole up straight, would you?” Michael called.
They watched as Felix let go of his bird, and it flew off into the sky in a flurry of feathers. It went up and up and then flew away. Felix let out a cry.
“I guess it wasn’t supposed to do that?” Michael asked with a chuckle.
Emily shrugged. “I have no idea how to train a pigeon to do anything.”
“Me neither,” Michael said. “But I do know how to stake out the foundations for our house, and that requires that you hold the pole upright.” He spoke kindly, but she could hear that he was growing impatient with her.
“Sorry,” she said and chuckled, holding the pole up straight.
There was a piece of string tied to the pole, and Michael pulled it taut on his end and tied it to his pole. Then he hammered her pole into the ground.
They stepped back and reviewed their handiwork.
“That will do it,” Michael said. “The building crew can start on it next week. It’s the wonderful thing about this part of Texas—we don’t get snow often, and the ground is rarely so frozen we can’t dig. And winter is really mild this year.”
Emily nodded. “After DC’s winters, this is nothing. I almost expect to see flowers popping up out of the soil because this is more spring weather.”
“It is,” Michael agreed, putting his arm around her shoulders. “Let’s get back. I’m sure you have work to do too.”
It was a week into December, and Emily had decided to close the school until after the new year. That way the children would get a break, and so would she. She still had some grading to do, and several of the children had questions about the small winter holiday project they had to complete.
“I can find something to keep me occupied,” she said with a grin.
Michael leaned in and kissed her briefly. Wolf whistles filled the air. Emily had forgotten that Carl and Tim were in the group of pigeon trainers. Of course the two boys would tease her. She swallowed the blush until she and Michael crossed the creek and went back to the tent camp.
Christmas was certainly in the air in the camp. Tents had sprouted wreaths made out of dried twigs, and decorations hung from the tent poles all over. There were strings of colored paper, cut-out snowmen, and a few little fir trees in pots outside the tents.
Folks were bringing the spirit of the holidays to the camp.
“Well, I have to go,” Michael said with a sigh. “The work doesn’t stop.”
“I know,” Emily said. “Are you any closer to finding out who is doing the stealing?”
Michael nodded. “I’m expecting Robert to be ready to make an arrest any day now.”
“Really?” Emily asked.
He nodded. “But don’t tell anyone, okay?”
“My lips are sealed,” Emily said.
Michael smiled and walked off in the direction of the smelter.
Left alone, Emily realized that she didn’t really have anything pressing to do. It was an odd sensation, and one that she wasn’t used to at all. What would she do with her time? She could go back and watch the pigeon training, but that didn’t particularly appeal.
“Emily!”
Lizzy came trotting up to her with a huge smile on her face. “I have it on good authority that there are some excellent pine cones in the copse of trees across the creek. Do you feel like collecting them with me? We want to turn them into decorations around the camp for Christmas.”
Lizzy’s dark eyes were sparkling with excitement, and Emily smiled at the woman’s enthusiasm.
“Okay,” she said with a nod. “I’m game.”
Lizzy beamed even wider and handed Emily a basket.
So, Emily found herself walking back across the creek to the other side, basket in hand.
The pigeon trainers were trying again to get their birds to do something.
Emily watched them giving the birds some seed and then trying to make them fly from one person with seed in their palm to another.
It wasn’t going well. The pigeons seemed a lot more intent on sitting in one place and eating than moving around as told.
Lizzy shook her head, making her long dark braid swish from side to side down her back.
“They’re never going to make those birds do anything.
They have to get chicks and train them. These birds don’t understand what they’re being asked to do.
And having a raccoon on Tim’s shoulder isn’t helping.
Raccoons eat pigeons, you know. The birds are terrified. ”
The raccoon was learning more than the birds were.
He was standing on his hind legs and spinning in a circle while Tim held his finger above Critter’s head and turned it.
Then he stopped, and Critter went back to all fours and scampered up Tim’s leg to peals of laughter. The boy stroked his fur lovingly.
“He seems really attached to Critter,” Emily said.
Lizzy nodded. “We had a dog when my father was alive. She was my father’s dog, Lupi, and she followed him all over.
She died peacefully in her sleep one night when her muzzle was white, and she was quite blind.
Lupi had a good life. I think Tim was always just a little jealous of the relationship our father had with her.
She was his constant companion. So, now he’s got that with Critter. The little thing loves him.”
“At least we found a way to get some schoolwork done,” Emily said.
After weeks of fighting having the animal in her classroom, Emily eventually had Troy make a cage for Critter in the class.
It was full of snuggly blankets and things for the little creature to burrow into, and the children had turned the little raccoon into their class mascot, bringing him worms and insects.
She frowned. “Wait. Your father called the dog Lupi, as in Lupi Lupo?”
Lizzy nodded. “He wasn’t really good with names. I’m just glad that our mother was alive to name me and Tim. Otherwise we might have been something like Lili and Lo Lupo.” She chuckled.
They walked in silence for a while as they headed to the copse of trees.
The pigeon trainers looked to be packing up and heading back to the camp with the birds in wooden cages.
Critter scampered off. Tim dropped the cage with the pigeon in it and ran after the little raccoon.
Meanwhile, the cage broke open and the bird flitted out.
Emily and Lizzy were almost at the forest, but the noise made them turn their heads and watch the chaos that ensued while Carl and Bruno tried to get Tim’s pigeon back into the cage. The bird was having none of that, and with a flap of its wings, it soared into the air.
“Oh dear,” Emily said. “I don’t think that was supposed to happen.”
“I’m going to bet you’re right,” Lizzy said.
“Ah, you’ll want my uncle for that,” Emily said. “I don’t make bets.”
“Me neither,” Lizzy admitted. “Do you think we should help them?”
Emily cocked her head to one side. “There’s not much point unless you can fly after that pigeon.”
They headed into the forest. It wasn’t particularly large and was full of silver birch, pine trees, firs, cypress, and other tall trees that Emily couldn’t identify since they had lost their leaves.
It wasn’t a large forest, and they could walk the whole way through it in about thirty minutes.
It was lovely to walk in one again though.
Emily had been missing trees. Texas wasn’t a highly wooded state, and she missed the vast expanses of trees that she was used to seeing just outside of DC.
The hills and mountains were covered in them, and every street had trees lining it.
Here, every street had dust and scrubby grass, and she was more likely to see a cactus than a tree. This forest was a gem.
The smell of pine sap and rich earth filled the air as they stepped Into the forest, and the light dappled green through the leaves. There was a little breeze blowing, and it was a cool day, but Emily wasn’t cold. She realized that she missed the East Coast’s freezing temperatures and snow.
“Are you okay?” Lizzy asked.
Emily nodded. “I’ve realized that I’m missing being cold and covered in snow. Isn’t that silly?”
Lizzy stared at her with wide eyes. “It doesn’t snow here often, but when it does, it’s truly freezing. There haven’t even been a lot of clouds this year though.”
“The weather is a strange thing,” Emily agreed. Gosh, it was difficult to speak to Lizzy. They were getting better at talking, but there was still this awkwardness between them.
“I have to be honest,” Lizzy said. “I invited you to come with me because …” she sighed. “You like Michael, don’t you?”