Chapter 4 #2
“I’m happy to know you. My name is Tatiana Petrovic, and you must call me Tatiana. I’ve been the gardener here for many years, along with my husband, God rest him.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Elsa said.
“Thank you. He was the real talent with landscaping. Mrs. Van Tessel was good enough to let us stay on, even after his passing.”
“You’re clearly an expert at it yourself.” A variety of plants filled each bed. Some of them she recognized: lavender, roses, lilies, asters. Dwarf lilac shrubs nestled between white and blue hydrangeas.
“How on earth do you keep up with all of this?” Elsa asked.
Tatiana smiled again. “Up until very recently, I had a crew of gardeners working under me. They’ve all gone now, seeking employment elsewhere.”
“Are you able to stay?” Elsa prompted. “Even with the upcoming changes?”
A shadow passed over the older woman’s face.
“You mean when the land goes to the county? I confess I am still getting used to that idea, and I don’t know fully what that will mean for us.
The will clearly states we can live here.
‘In perpetuity,’ I believe it says. And I cannot imagine leaving.
This was never my property, but I was a steward of it for decades, and I feel tied to the land.
Neither Danielle nor I wish to go elsewhere, and Mrs. Van Tessel knew that.
She was so good to allow us to keep the cottage and live there as long as we want. ”
Troubled by the ambiguity in their situation, Elsa looked out at the river, framed by the wisteria-draped pergolas.
A light breeze bent the fountain grass at the edge of the pool.
“I can’t imagine any other place could quite compare.
The grounds will still need to be taken care of, no matter who’s in charge of it.
Whoever that is would be fortunate to have you on staff. ”
“Thank you, dear. Now, speaking of home, may I offer you a cup of tea? I’m finished here for now, and my cottage is a short walk. If you have the time, I’d love to have you.”
Elsa accepted the invitation, adding that she ought to be back at her task by a quarter past four. Sharing a pot of tea with Tatiana would be a lovely way to spend her break. With the estate so nearly abandoned now, no wonder the woman was eager for company.
Tatiana must have noticed Elsa’s limp along the way, but she didn’t say so. The woman had her own stiffness in her knees to contend with, which made their pace relaxed by mutual, unspoken consent.
When they reached the cottage, the level of disrepair brought a twist to Elsa’s gut.
The structure must have been charming once, but the front porch sagged, the steps were cracked, and the door didn’t close properly, leaving a gap for the wind and rain to reach through.
Shingles were missing from the sway-backed roof.
In a corner of one window, a rag had been stuffed between the pane and its frame.
“Danielle, we have company,” Tatiana said. “I have invited Elsa to share a cup of tea. Say hello to our guest.”
“Hello.” From where she sat on the porch, the girl glanced up, then back down to the buttons she was arranging on a tray.
“It’s good to see you again, Danielle.”
“It’s such a fine day, why don’t we take our tea outside?” Tatiana asked. “I’ll just be a few moments, dear.”
Elsa agreed and sat in a rocker on the porch, watching Danielle.
Rows of buttons lined the tray, all of them grouped by color.
Then the child tipped one end of the tray so they all slid into a jumble.
With impressive speed, Danielle then began ordering the buttons again.
This time by size, from largest to smallest. She had a knack for classification. A passion for it, too, it seemed.
“You’re being watched,” Elsa said quietly, “and not just by me. Corvus brachyrhynchos.” An American crow had landed on the porch railing a few feet away, his shining black eyes fixed on Danielle.
“His name is George. He gave me this one.” She held up a silver button, then put it back into its place.
Elsa blinked. “He brought you the button?”
“He brings me many things. He’s my friend. I feed him peanuts and corn and seeds, and he brings me presents. Once he brought me a little bone that must have belonged to a mouse. I didn’t keep that one. But he brings me many things.”
“Really! How fascinating! Corvids are very smart. I’ve heard about crows bringing gifts to people before, but I haven’t seen it happen myself. What else has George brought you?”
Danielle started over again with the buttons.
As she described the trinkets George had brought her, another pattern emerged on the tray, according to material: wood, shell, and metal.
While her hands were busy, she said far more to Elsa than she had on their first meeting.
If she liked talking about birds, Elsa was delighted to comply.
“Have you heard about bowerbirds?” she asked the child.
“Bowerbirds?” Danielle held Elsa’s gaze for the first time since they’d met. A light spray of freckles dusted her nose.
“Satin bowerbirds in the rainforests of Australia. Ptilonorhynchus violaceus.” Elsa said the Latin again, slower this time, then waited while Danielle repeated it.
“For some reason we still don’t understand, they love the color blue and decorate their bowers with it.
A bower isn’t a nest, but rather a place for courtship and mating.
They build their structures with twigs, then add whatever blue things they can find to it. ”
“Flowers can be blue. Berries can be blue, too.”
“That’s right. Some have even used berry juice to paint their twigs blue. Can you guess what else they use?”
“Feathers can be blue.”
Elsa confirmed it was true. “Plus bits of glass, beads, indigo-dyed fabric—anything blue, they want to have it.”
Danielle’s smile changed her entire countenance, rounding her cheeks and sparking her eyes. It was the purest, least self-conscious smile Elsa had ever seen. “Miss Birdie has a blue room.”
“I’m sure she does. She has a room for every color of the rainbow, doesn’t she?”
“Only Miss Birdie doesn’t decorate with flowers or berries,” Danielle added. “Mostly feathers. And wallpaper. And paint, if you count the ceiling.”
Elsa tilted her head. “You’ve been inside?” It struck her as curious that the gardener’s daughter should have visited the mansion, but then, Birdie seemed to have a special fondness for both Tatiana and Danielle.
Instead of answering the question, Danielle shifted her gaze to George as he flapped away. “Is the Ptilonorhynchus violaceus related to the Corvus brachyrhynchos?”
“Closely,” Elsa confirmed.
“Here we are!” Tatiana pushed open the door with her hip and backed out of the cottage, a tray full of tea service in her hands. “There’s a table in the shade over there.” She nodded toward a multitrunk ash tree.
Elsa rose and offered to take the tray from her hostess.
“Not today, dear.” The older woman smiled. “The first time, you’re our guest. The next time you come, you’re family, and at that point you can help as much as you like. For now, it’s my pleasure to serve you. Danielle, would you care for tea?”
The girl shook her head, clearly content to stay where she was.
Tatiana nodded. “As I thought.”
“Nice chatting with you, Danielle,” Elsa said. “Next time you see George, tell him I said hello.”
“He doesn’t know your name yet. That won’t mean anything to him. If you see him again, I’ll introduce you properly.”
“I look forward to it.” Swallowing a chuckle, Elsa followed Tatiana to the wooden picnic table and helped her spread a floral tablecloth over the boards. Then Tatiana insisted on pouring the steaming brew for both of them. “This flavor—rose—is my favorite. I hope you like it, too.”
Elsa tasted it. “It’s heavenly.”
“That it is. All of this is my little slice of heaven right here. Especially when the weather is so fine.”
Elsa glanced at the ramshackle cottage behind Tatiana. “Did the will say anything about repairing the cottage?”
“Oh my, no.” Tatiana settled her cup back into its saucer.
“Mr. Spalding explained that there was no cash appropriated for such a thing. There are debts to pay, through no fault of Mrs. Van Tessel’s.
She inherited them when the master died.
Completely blindsided by all of it, she was.
” She paused, rolling her lips between her teeth for a moment.
“How I do go on. You must forgive me, dear, if I rattle overlong. It’s such a treat to have someone to talk to.
Not that I would share freely with just anyone.
But I have a gift for discerning character, if I do say so myself, and I feel instinctively that I can trust you. ”
Elsa smiled at the compliment. “Do you know, when I’m alone, I sometimes talk to birds, whether they’re living or not? It’s a pleasure to chat with both you and your daughter.”
Tatiana squeezed Elsa’s hand. “Then I hope you’ll come visit us whenever it’s convenient for you.”
“I will.” She drank from the teacup again, savoring the flavor. “Speaking of the Van Tessels’ relatives, do you know if Birdie and Linus had children?”
A sigh lifted Tatiana’s shoulders and released them. “Not that I was ever aware of. But Mrs. Van Tessel’s maternal instinct was obvious in the way she treated me and Danielle.”
“How so?”
Tatiana glanced to Danielle, who remained absorbed with the buttons.
She lowered her voice. “Danielle didn’t speak to anyone other than me until she was three years old, and many labeled her a moron, but Mrs. Van Tessel insisted otherwise.
She told me to have patience. To take heart that Danielle would speak to others when she was ready.
And in the meantime, Mrs. Van Tessel took her into the house and showed her all the birds and all the art on the walls, talking to her as though she were as intelligent as any other child.
Danielle opened up to her—verbally—long before she would interact with anyone else.
When she was four, she finally spoke to others, as well. ”
“So she has been inside the house. Danielle mentioned the blue room.”
“Yes. My husband passed away when Danielle was only two years old, so being able to trust her into Mrs. Van Tessel’s care while I worked outside was a great gift to me.”
“It sounds like it was a gift to everyone concerned.”
“I believe you’re right. Otherwise, Mrs. Van Tessel would not have willed to Danielle the aviary book they had often looked through.”
Elsa nearly dropped her teacup. “An aviary?”
Tatiana nodded. “A medieval manuscript is an odd gift for a twelve-year-old daughter of a servant, I know. But it’s true. Mr. Van Tessel was quite a collector, and not only of birds and paintings. The aviary he acquired has been dated to the fourteenth century.”
“What a treasure! Is this the same aviary Mr. Spalding is looking for?”
Tatiana shrugged. “Likely so. The Van Tessels only ever owned one, and it’s missing.”
Dismay fanned through Elsa. She hadn’t given much thought to Mr. Spalding’s search for the medieval manuscript.
But that was before she knew it had been willed to the Petrovics.
No wonder he wanted to locate the book for them.
The price it would fetch would be exponentially more than the cost of rebuilding their cottage.
They could live anywhere they wanted, regardless of what the county might say about keeping them on. The aviary would secure their future.
If only they could find it.
“Do you think it has been stolen?” Elsa asked.
“I don’t know about that. We just don’t know where it is. It used to be kept in a glass-enclosed bookcase in the library, but Mr. Spalding said it wasn’t there when he looked.”
The Petrovics had so little. They deserved to have what Birdie intended to be theirs. “I’ll be searching through the house for field notes anyway,” Elsa told her. “Mr. Spalding already asked me to look for the aviary while I’m at it, and now I know why. I’m happy to help if I can.”
Beaming, Tatiana thanked her. “Now, enough about that. Tell me, dear, what made you so interested in birds in the first place?”
Checking her watch, Elsa gave her the short version of the story.
During lonely months of being bedridden with polio, Elsa had watched the birds outside her window.
Their songs and flight—captivating to a girl who didn’t know if she’d ever walk again—had inspired the passion for ornithology that led to her job at the American Museum of Natural History.
“And now you work with birds every day,” Tatiana said. “How wonderful.”
A tapping sounded, and Elsa looked up to find a red-bellied woodpecker drilling into the ash tree’s diamond-patterned bark. After a few moments, he flew away, and she watched him go with a smile. It had been the living, breathing, singing, soaring birds that had attracted her from so early an age.
Elsa thanked Tatiana for the lovely time and assured her she’d visit her and Danielle again. For now, duty called. A mansion full of dead birds awaited her.