Chapter 6 #4
She narrowed one eye at me as if she simply wanted to finish her sentence. “The point is, I wouldn’t be sad for the climb, even if I fell. Even if I were in pain for days afterward.”
Now that I understood. I’d climbed and fell from enough trees to agree with her. And if it meant a few days of pain for David after I left, well, that was part of the human experience, wasn’t it? I would miss him and Julia when we had to part ways as well.
I released her arm, gave her a salute, and grinned. “Here’s to the climb, then.”
The breeze kicked up again, making Julia’s curls dance. I spread my arms wide once more and let a whoop of joy leave my lips.
Miss Tate’s eyes flew open, and I hollered a second time.
Our eyes met, and on my third cry, she joined me.
Her voice was lovely, even lifted in a strange warbling exclamation of freedom.
In a fit of defiance, I unbuttoned my coat and let it fall to the ground.
Mama would be furious if I became ill, but I needed to be unshackled by the past six years, and dropping Mr. Green’s coat seemed fitting.
Julia stopped her whooping and looked at me in puzzlement. Then, with a shrug, she unbuttoned her own coat.
“No.” I leaned forward to stop her. David wouldn’t appreciate my terrible influence on his sister, and even though he’d said she was healthy, her pallor begged to differ.
But she shook her head and pulled away from me. After only a moment, her coat was at the base of the tree, the skin on her arms riddled with gooseflesh.
“Your brother is going to flay me alive,” I said.
“He would never,” Julia quipped, lifting her bare arms into the wind.
Just before I joined her, my eye caught hold of a small, circular red mark, only partially visible under her short sleeve as it lifted.
It wasn’t raised like a rash, thank goodness.
I would have felt terrible if she was sick and I was making her climb this tree.
It must be a birthmark, so high on her underarm it was most likely never visible.
Not until some wild woman had her raising her arms up in a tree, at any rate.
Julia shouted again, and I pulled my eyes away from her arm, shook my head with a laugh, and joined her.
Only after we’d laughed and howled and finished expressing our freedom did I dare look out at David again.
He was turned this way. Of course he was. We hadn’t exactly been quiet. He was too far away for me to catch the expression on his face, but his head was lifted, and I think, perhaps, he was looking at me as if I’d done something good.
m
My arm was once again wrapped around David’s as we made our way back to the cottage. It had been less than an hour since we’d first walked arm in arm, yet I was much more comfortable with him already.
Getting to know his sister would be a pleasure. It had been too long since I’d had a friend close to my age. Just knowing I was on the path to accomplishing the one task he’d asked of me made my spine relax and put a spring in my step that hadn’t been there when we’d left that morning.
David seemed more at ease as well. There was a nearly permanent crinkle to his eyes.
We walked at a leisurely pace, in no hurry to return to the cottage.
Soon, we fell behind Mama and Julia, pausing every once in a while to point out birds in the bushes or a rock that caught David’s eye.
He’d done that as a boy as well, always noticed the small things in life.
He bent over to pick up a white stone with a dark slash of black running through it and handed it to me.
I held it tightly in my fist, secretly grateful that he gave me something besides the flowers.
Those lilies would wither and die, but this stone I’d be able to keep long after Mama and I left Breckenridge.
His lips shifted to one side, and he nudged my shoulder with his own as if we were children. Having friends like him and Julia was something I could get used to.
Even if I shouldn’t.
He nudged me again, this time softer. “I’m glad you’re here, Anna Atwood. Now I don’t have to spend another year wondering where you are and if you’re well. And thanks to our engagement, I have an excuse to see you every day for the short time you’re in Breckenridge.”
I pressed my shoulder against his. “I’m glad too.” Even if my decision to come to Breckenridge had started out as a terrible one. David had given me a chance to regroup and make better plans. “I think your sister and I will become good friends.”
He chuckled. “I can’t remember the last time I saw her so unfettered.
Thank you.” He kicked another stone, and it skidded along the path in front of us.
“Some of Father’s tenants still ask about you, especially the Mortensens.
I’ll finally be able to give them an update.
You are going to make most of Breckenridge very happy just by being here. There will be a revolt when you leave.”
For some reason, moisture pricked my eyes.
The Mortensens hadn’t moved as I’d thought, and I would get a chance to see them.
Mama and I should have been living in a place like this rather than in Silverfork.
We’d been fading away there, and it hadn’t been until I was once again surrounded by people who saw me as a person of worth that I realized how drab I’d become.
Leaving Breckenridge wasn’t going to be easy for me. Nowhere else would I have friends like these. But there wouldn’t be work for me here. No one would hire David’s former fiancée.
“I’ve missed the Mortensens. I tried to visit when we first arrived here, but they weren’t home. It’s going to be harder to leave here than it was to leave Silverfork.”
David’s toe dragged against the dirt in the path, but he nodded. “We’ll find you a much better place to go. I’ve already started looking into a couple of options. If you would like to come to Tate Hall tomorrow, we can look over them.”
“That would be a good idea,” I said, even though I’d much rather spend time with him on walks than thinking of the future.
But perhaps if we found a place for Mama and me, I could enjoy our time in Breckenridge more because I wouldn’t have to worry about the future any longer.
We walked in a more subdued fashion for a few yards, no shoulders bumped, no rocks uprooted from their resting place.
I glanced over at David. “If we are discussing those plans, I shouldn’t bring Mama.”
“Julia would be there. She knows the truth and can act as chaperone, if your mother agrees.”
Julia wouldn’t have been a proper chaperone if we were in Town, or if I were overly concerned about my reputation, but I was fairly certain Mama wouldn’t object to my visiting.
The cottage came into view, and David stopped. My arm was remained entwined in his, so I was pulled to a stop as well. “Shall I send a carriage for you tomorrow?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No. I’d like to walk and visit with the Mortensens on my way.”
“And you don’t want me following behind you and waiting just around the bend while you speak with them?”
I laughed softly. It would be a strange thing for David to do now.
I couldn’t even imagine it. “No, if you follow behind me, I will make you come inside.” David seemed to weigh the decision.
But I would not have my first visit with the Mortensens overshadowed by a pretend engagement.
“Please don’t. I haven’t seen them in years and—”
“You don’t want me making things awkward?” he guessed.
I squeezed one eye shut and raised a shoulder. “Is that very terrible of me?”
David laughed. The sound of it was rich and rolled over me like a warm blanket after the fires had been put out. “I will not encroach upon your time with them. I want you to be happy while you are here.”
“I’m certain I will be. Thanks to you.”
“Thus far, I only remain more in your debt.” David nodded toward Julia, who was standing outside the cottage door, smiling at Mama. Julia’s dark hair lifted in the wind around her bonnet, and her cheeks were dotted with color. We joined them at the door, and I untangled my arm from David’s.
“I will see you tomorrow,” I said and then reached for Mama’s arm because mine felt suddenly bereft. I lifted my hand and showed him the stone before clenching it tightly in my fist. “Thank you for the gift.”
David smiled and then wrapped Julia’s arm around his and gave both Mama and me a short bow. “Until tomorrow.”
And when he led Julia to their carriage and helped her inside, I couldn’t help but wonder if he was looking forward to our time together as much as I was.
Losing him and Julia in a few short weeks was going to hurt more than I cared to admit.
I hoped Julia was right, that this would be one of those times the climb was worth the fall.