Chapter 13 #2
While the men carried her storage drawers in from the truck and delivered them to the dining hall, Elsa dropped off her satchel and made her way to the cottage. Barney kept close at her heels.
Maybe she ought to go faster. After all, if she was training her body, she should push herself to exertion. Not enough to break a sweat today, but enough to at least feel her muscles.
And, boy, did she feel them by the time she reached the cottage. She half smiled, half grimaced at Barney, who for some unknown reason looked at her adoringly. Elsa rubbed his head between his ears.
Tatiana greeted Elsa from the porch, waving as though to a long-lost friend. “Good morning, dear! How are you?”
Elsa climbed the steps and inhaled, filling her lungs with much cleaner air than she got in the city. “I feel fine,” she said and meant it. “Except for the news Luke shared with me about what the executor said. I’m so sorry. How are you holding up?”
“By the Lord’s strength. I’ve sent a letter to the Tarrytown Garden Association as well as the local conservancy asking if they’re hiring, but even if they are, that doesn’t solve where we are to make our home.”
“I’m glad you’ve taken that step,” Elsa said.
“It’s wise to explore your options while you wait to hear from the county on the matter.
” And if the county didn’t reply soon, Elsa had a mind to pay a visit in person to investigate.
If only phone service hadn’t been discontinued to the estate already, Tatiana would be able to make telephone calls, presumably getting her answers much faster.
“In the meantime, would you like to visit the hummingbirds?” The hope in Tatiana’s eyes was irresistible.
She needed a friend right now, and Elsa had all day to catalog and tag birds. “Lead the way.”
“Wonderful. Danielle is setting out food for George in little caches she’s set up for him, but she’ll come join us when she’s done.”
“I’d love to see her again.”
“Count on it. Her routines do not vary if she can help it.”
Letting Tatiana set the pace, Elsa enjoyed the stroll through the backyard and down a curving path she’d not explored before. Barney loped along at her side.
“Does Danielle look forward to the school year, then?” Elsa asked.
Wesley had mentioned his fall semester would begin September 29.
She wondered if the village school kept a similar calendar.
“She must be a good student. She knows so much about birds, and she seemed quite proud of a metaphor she used in conversation.”
“Did she? Oh good. We’ve been working on understanding nonliteral expressions.
” Tatiana smiled. “The bird study is all her own doing. But there is a difference between knowing about birds—the facts she so easily memorizes—and really knowing them. Their unique abilities, the marvelous way God created them. It reminds me of the difference between knowing what the Bible says about God and truly experiencing Him in one’s own life.
I’ll tell you something, dear. When I am lonely or afraid, knowing God is sovereign doesn’t make me feel better. ”
“No?” The observation surprised Elsa.
“I’m glad He is sovereign, and I do need to know that. But only when I invite Him to sit with me in my pain do I experience His presence, and that is a comfort I cannot describe.” Tatiana’s smile held a serenity Elsa envied.
What a radically different approach to God.
Elsa had prayed for healing, to be fixed, for the pain and exhaustion to be taken away.
But had she simply invited God to make His presence known to her in the midst of it?
She couldn’t recall ever doing so. She wasn’t asking God for comfort.
She asked Him for answers. And not getting the one she wanted made her want to push Him away, not bring Him close. She’d only realized it now.
“But you asked if Danielle looks forward to school,” Tatiana went on. “I doubt it. I’m not sure yet what to do this year.”
Elsa steered her thoughts back to the main conversation. “Does she not attend the village school?”
A breeze caught a tendril of Tatiana’s hair, and she hooked it behind her ear. “She tried when she was younger, but it didn’t go well. She became overwhelmed in the new environment, and the teacher declared her unteachable.”
Elsa struggled to put these pieces together. Danielle had already shown herself to have a keen mind and aptitude for learning. But both Tatiana and Linus’s card had also described her as atypical. She wondered how that would translate in a classroom if the child was agitated or afraid.
“Mrs. Van Tessel hired a private tutor to teach her at home,” Tatiana went on.
“Mrs. Morgan was a specialist with experience working with children like Danielle. She learned not just answers for tests, but how to engage more with the world around her. Now that Mrs. Van Tessel has passed away, however, I don’t have the resources to hire Mrs. Morgan on my own.
I’ll try to teach Danielle myself this fall.
We’ll see how it goes. We’re both still reeling from the loss of Mrs. Van Tessel.
She was so much more than an employer. The hole left by her absence is large enough to swallow us. ”
Elsa put her arm around the older woman. “What a special relationship you and Danielle must have had with her.”
“She was a special lady.” Tatiana sniffed, then brightened as they neared what appeared to be an untamed mass of vegetation.
“Here we are. Mrs. Van Tessel called this her secret garden because the master never came here. She loved this place, and so do I, though it’s getting away from me a bit now that the landscape crew had to find work elsewhere. Come, let’s sit and watch the show.”
Elsa sat with her on a weathered grey bench, close to where the grass met a riot of flora. Large patches of plants crowded together with overgrown shrubs. A trumpet vine–covered wooden arbor straddled a gurgling creek.
As if on cue, a male ruby-throated hummingbird arrived.
So did Danielle, who sat next to Elsa without a word.
Elsa greeted the girl, then watched the tiny bird dart with purpose from the red tubular blossoms of the trumpet vine to magenta bee balm, to bright orange azalea, and then to several varieties she didn’t know the names for.
“They always come at this time of morning,” Danielle commented. “They remember exactly which flowers they’ve already drained of nectar, and how long they take to fill up again.”
“And they don’t waste time on empty flowers, do they?” Elsa added. “With such tiny bodies, they are masters at efficiency. It takes a lot of energy to beat those wings between fifty and seventy times a second.”
“And their hearts beat at least a thousand times per minute when they’re flying.” Danielle spoke without looking at either adult. “They eat between five and eight times an hour. They don’t like to share food, either.”
Elsa smiled. “I think George might be jealous you know so much about hummers.”
“I know lots about hummingbirds,” Danielle said. “But I have never seen a rufous hummingbird or a blue-throated mountain-gem or calliope hummingbird, except in Birdie’s collection. Did you find them?”
Elsa told her she had. They’d been separated into different rooms according to their prominent colors.
“Birdie gave me a book about birds once.” Danielle still didn’t meet Elsa’s gaze.
“Do you mean the aviary?” Elsa figured Tatiana would have asked her about this before but couldn’t resist clarifying. “Is that the book of birds she gave you?”
Danielle started rocking. “No. I don’t want to talk about that. The topic we are talking about now is birds.” She swayed forward and backward, as though trying to soothe herself. The last thing Elsa had intended was to disquiet her.
“I already asked her about the aviary,” Tatiana murmured. “She doesn’t know where it is. I’m glad to have the provenance you dropped off Wednesday evening, though. Thank you for that.”
“Of course.” Elsa swallowed, thinking of what else she might say to interest Danielle. “I saw a Eurasian eagle-owl in Central Park last night.”
Danielle buried her fingers in Barney’s fur. “Bubo bubo. Native to Europe, Asia, and northern Africa.” She’d stopped rocking.
“Yes, but this one is special.” Elsa told them about Zeus and the small group of people who followed Elsa out of the park, listening to her as their guide.
“How wonderful!” Tatiana said.
“It was.” Elsa smiled at the memory.
A breeze stirred the petunias and rose of Sharon. The tall spires of purple salvia bowed. “Is serving as a bird-watching guide part of your duties at the museum?” Tatiana asked.
“Oh, no, my job keeps me securely in my office. Sending me here is an exception.” And Mr. Chapman thought she ought to be done by now.
He’d made it clear when he’d seen her picking up the storage trays that his patience for this project was running out.
The deceased Galapagos penguins from the zoological society still needed to be dissected, and Mr. Miller needed her to assist. At least they were waiting in preserving fluids so they wouldn’t decompose in the meantime.
A crow cawed as it settled onto a branch of a serviceberry tree, scaring a cedar waxwing away.
Danielle glanced at him and smiled. “Hello, George.” When he cocked his head at her, she laughed, as though he’d said something amusing that only she could hear. So musical was the sound that Elsa and Tatiana laughed with her.
“I’m glad I’ve caught you in a congenial mood.”
Elsa turned to find Guy Spalding striding toward them. Wearing another three-piece suit complete with homburg, he looked all business. Rising, she greeted him. “Those look familiar.” She nodded toward the file folders tucked beneath his arm.