5. Dulcie
DULCIE
D ulcie awoke in a cocoon of warmth and comfort after an amazing sleep. She honestly couldn’t remember the last time she’d woken up feeling so good.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to snuggle back in to get a few more minutes of precious sleep.
Until she realized that she wasn’t in the car.
Her eyes flew open to take in West Lawrence’s spare bedroom.
The pale, gray light of dawn glowed in from the two walls of windows, and she could see the wooded hillside through the sheers on the back wall.
The side windows showed her nothing but white—likely that snowy meadow she had seen on the way in.
Sitting up, she pulled the comforter around herself again and closed her eyes, pretending for just a moment that this was her regular life.
What if she and Delphine lived here? They would wake up every morning feeling warm and rested, and on a dairy farm, there would be plenty to eat all the time .
She grabbed her phone from the bedside table and tapped out a message to her little sister.
morning, d
i think i’m in heaven!
grandaddy was right about this place
i’ve already got a job
It had been forever since she had heard back from Delphine, but it felt nice to message her anyway, especially with good news.
And things felt like they were looking up a little for her. Everyone she had met since arriving in Vermont had been friendly, or at least decent. Even the grumpy mechanic didn’t seem to want to take advantage of her situation.
She sighed as she remembered that situation in cruel detail.
Not having a car was a serious problem—it meant she had neither transportation nor a temporary home. And finding a cheap car that ran was challenging. She would probably end up working this whole season just to buy another one and get back to where she started.
Though if she couldn’t find a cheap enough place to stay, she might not even be able to do that. It was entirely possible that she might end the season worse off than she started it.
I’ve got this, she told herself silently as she pictured her sister’s face. I’ll find a way because I always do.
With that in mind, she slipped out of bed, even though all she wanted was to curl up with Little Women and pretend to be a rich lady on vacation.
She popped into the bathroom to quickly wash up and dress. Then she headed out to the kitchen.
By now, the light outside the windows had turned rosy with the dawn. The apples, oranges, and bananas on the kitchen wallpaper looked even more cheerful than when she first saw them last night.
In spite of wolfing down all that stew right before bed, her stomach was already grumbling hopefully again.
West had told her she could help herself to anything she wanted, but she wasn’t sure he’d meant it, or that he was speaking for his wife.
What if she ate something, or too much of something, and his wife thought Dulcie was a pig and threw her out?
Though she doubted a man as nice as West would marry a truly mean woman, she couldn’t help noticing that he’d given her a pair of his own pajamas last night, not hers.
Pressing her lips together, she looked around.
There was a drip coffee maker on the counter. If she could find the coffee, then making a pot might be considered helpful.
The radio on the counter was too tempting to ignore. She slid the volume almost all the way down, hoping not to wake anyone, and turned it on.
An old-timey version of “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” played softly, and she smiled and hummed along as she searched for coffee.
The upper cupboard nearest to the sink housed several metal canisters. One held flour, and another sugar. On her third try she found the coffee grounds.
Once a pot was brewing, she raided the refrigerator for milk.
She intended to just put a little in her coffee and hope the others were up soon.
But then she remembered she was on a dairy farm, and ended up grabbing a mug and impulsively filling it almost to the brim from the big glass jar.
Before she could change her mind, she chugged it down.
The milk was creamy, sweet, and delicious, and she wondered at how being fresh made such a big difference.
“Good morning,” a familiar, bell-clear little voice said from the doorway. “You’re thirsty.”
Dulcie turned, wiping her mouth on her sleeve, to find Elizabeth observing her curiously.
“Good morning, Elizabeth,” Dulcie said. “How did you sleep?”
“I’m hungry,” Elizabeth said, cutting to the chase in a manner Dulcie thought was admirable. “Do you know how to make pancakes?”
Pancakes sounded incredible , and from her coffee search, Dulcie happened to know where a lot of the ingredients were.
“That sounds so good,” she said. “But won’t your mom want to decide what to eat for breakfast?”
“My mama doesn’t live here anymore,” Elizabeth said nonchalantly.
“Oh,” Dulcie said, stunned. “I’m, um, I’m sorry about that.”
The whole situation began to rearrange itself in her mind .
“Daddy likes pancakes,” Elizabeth went on, seemingly unaffected when it came to talk of her mother. “He likes them with a lot of syrup.”
Dulcie tried not to smile at the little girl’s unsubtle hints.
“I see,” she said. “Well, I think we can make pancakes. Do you want to help me?”
Elizabeth nodded her head up and down.
“Great,” Dulcie said. “Let’s wash our hands first. I always like to wash my hands before cooking.”
“You have to put my hair up,” Elizabeth told her. “We don’t want my sticky hands in it.”
“Okay,” Dulcie told her. “Do you have stuff to put it up with?”
“In the bathroom,” Elizabeth said.
The two of them padded out to the hall bath and found some hairbands in a little tin by the sink, along with a brush and comb in a cup.
“Brush gently ,” Elizabeth instructed.
Dulcie wet the brush a little and started working it through Elizabeth’s silky hair as gently as she could. Once it was untangled, she grabbed a hairband.
“I get two ponytails,” Elizabeth said firmly.
“Okay,” Dulcie said with a smile. Delphine used to love having two French braids, so ponytails would be easy compared to that.
She parted Elizabeth’s hair carefully and brushed one side into her palm, capturing it with the band, then did the other.
“Like that?” she asked.
Elizabeth nodded up and down, her ponytails emphatically echoing the movement.
“Great,” Dulcie said. “Let’s go make some pancakes.”
Elizabeth took off for the kitchen, leaving Dulcie to follow in her wake. When she arrived, Elizabeth was already pulling something out of a kitchen drawer.
“These are our aprons,” she said. “You can wear Daddy’s.”
Dulcie smiled, charmed that the two of them had matching aprons. Each was an emerald green, and Elizabeth and Daddy had been embroidered on the fronts.
“Grandma made these last Christmas,” Elizabeth explained, as she pulled hers on. “You have to tie it for me. I’m too little.”
“Sure,” Dulcie told her, placing the other apron on the counter so she could tie Elizabeth’s apron around her waist.
“Now do yours,” Elizabeth said.
Dulcie did as she was told before heading over to the cupboard for the flour and other ingredients.
“Where’s our recipe?” Elizabeth asked.
“We don’t need one,” Dulcie told her. “I know how to make pancakes.”
“How many cups and spoons?” Elizabeth asked suspiciously.
“The right amount,” Dulcie told her. “I just sort of know as I do it.”
She poked around in the cupboard for baking powder and found a few additions that she figured Elizabeth would like .
“Okay, let’s get started,” she said. “First, we need to turn the music up.”
“We do?” Elizabeth asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Dulcie told her. “You can’t make good pancakes unless you’re having fun. Everyone knows that.”
She bumped up the radio just a little bit, not wanting to wake West. “Jingle Bell Rock” was playing, so she grabbed a spatula from the counter on her way back to Elizabeth and lip-synced a little, remembering how much Delphine used to love it when she acted silly in the kitchen.
Elizabeth turned out to feel the same, and she threw her head back and laughed in delight.
“Your turn, Lizzy,” Dulcie told her, handing over the spatula.
“I’m not Lizzy,” Elizabeth said. “I’m Elizabeth.”
“But you need a nickname,” Dulcie said. “Everyone has a nickname.”
“Do you have a nickname?” Elizabeth asked.
“Dulcie is my nickname,” Dulcie told her, nodding. “My full name is Dulcinea.”
“That’s a good name for a princess,” Elizabeth decided.
“I guess,” Dulcie said, shrugging. “How about we call you Libby?”
“No,” Elizabeth said, but her eyes were sparkling.
“Betsy?” she tried.
“ No,” Elizabeth yelled, looking delighted.
“Bitsy?” Dulcie offered.
“Not, Bitsy,” Elizabeth laughed.
“What about Little Bit?” Dulcie asked.
“No, no, no,” Elizabeth said.
“Oh, fine,” Dulcie said, sighing in pretend frustration. “I was saving this one for a special occasion, but I guess you leave me no choice.”
“What is it?” Elizabeth asked.
“Lilibet,” Dulcie said, expecting to get a belly laugh out of the little girl before she yelled no again.
“Lilibet,” Elizabeth said thoughtfully. “Okay.”
“Okay?” Dulcie echoed, amazed.
“Yes,” Elizabeth replied.
“Okay, Lilibet ,” Dulcie said. “Let’s make some pancakes.”
They got started together on the task at hand. Dulcie added ingredients, but let the little girl do a lot of the stirring. After a few minutes, they had a nice batter prepared.
“Do you want these to be magical princess pancakes?” Dulcie asked. “Or regular ones.”
“Magic princess ones, please,” Elizabeth said.
“Excellent choice,” Dulcie told her. “Close your eyes, please.”
“Why?” Elizabeth asked.
“Because the magic won’t work if you watch,” Dulcie told her.
Elizabeth dutifully obeyed, putting her floury hands up to her eyes.
Dulcie dropped a tiny bit of red food coloring into the batter and added a generous handful of rainbow sprinkles.
“Keep your eyes closed,” she told Dulcie. “And give me your hand. ”
Elizabeth held out a hand and Dulcie put the mixing fork into it.
“Now stir gently,” she told her. “While I say the magic words.”
Keeping hold of Elizabeth’s hand, she helped her stir.
“ Abracadabra,” Dulcie said. “ Princess pancakes, appear. ”
“Can I open my eyes?” Elizabeth asked excitedly.
“Open your eyes,” Dulcie told her.
Elizabeth removed her other hand from her eyes and her mouth dropped open.
“Wow,” she breathed, looking down at the pink pancake batter with sprinkles.
“Great job, Lilibet,” Dulcie told her, offering her a high five.
“Who’s Lilibet?” a deep voice asked from the doorway.
Dulcie looked up to find West standing there, observing them with a bemused expression on his handsome face.
Her heart skipped a beat, for no reason she could understand.
“I’m Lilibet,” Elizabeth squeaked, before Dulcie could overthink it. “I am .”
Dulcie couldn’t help smiling as she gazed down at the funny little girl. Making pancakes with a little kid in a stranger’s kitchen was about a million miles from what she thought she might end up doing today.
But it was nice.