* * *

Joe and Jethro had finished digging the potatoes and Jethro was at the grinder in the shed sharpening the plow blades.

“You might as well empty the wash water, Joe,” Julie called from the porch. “It’s cold by now. I guess Mrs. Stuart decided not to do her wash today.”

Julie had taken the clothes from the lines as soon as they dried and was folding them on the porch. It had been a long, lonesome day for Joy. The kids would be home from school any time now, and she was on the front porch watching for them.

“They comin’.” Screen doors slammed as Joy raced through the house with the news. “They comin’ on the horse with Jack.”

Minutes later Jack’s horse, with Jason and Ruby May cradled in front of Jack and Jill holding on behind him, walked around the house and stopped. Jack held Jason’s arm while he slid off over the horse’s neck. Jason ran to the barn to see Sidney. Joy was at his heels.

Joe came around and lifted Jill from the horse. Jack, a foolish grin on his freckled face and holding the reins with his arms around Ruby May, announced that he’d give her a ride home.

“Well, get going and get back so you can do your chores.” Joe clapped the brown mare on the rump and she headed back down the lane.

“ ’Bye, Jill. See ya tomorrow,” Ruby May called.

“She wasn’t any fun at all,” Jill complained when she met Julie on the porch. “All she did at dinnertime and recess was talk about Jack as if he were somethin’ grand.”

“You might think he was grand, too, if he wasn’t your brother.”

“My drawers and stockings are dirty from that old horse. They hogged the horse blanket.”

“Your skirt is clean. Change clothes, honey, and help me sprinkle down the clothes. You can tell me about school.”

“It was all right.” Jill moved closer to Julie and whispered, “Is
she
still here?”

Julie nodded.

“Poot! Poot! Poot! I was hoping a tree had fallen on her or something.”

“How about if she sat down on a red anthill?”

Jill giggled. “Now, that would be a sight worth seeing.” Impulsively, Jill threw her arms around Julie. “I worry that you’ll go and leave us here with her,” she whispered.

“Don’t worry, honey. I promise I’ll never go off and leave you with Mrs. Stuart or anyone like her.” She kissed her sister on the cheek.

At supper, Jethro asked each of the children about school. Birdie appeared to be interested in what each of them had to say.

“Sammy Bowen brought a frog to school,” Jason said. “He kept it in his pocket until Miss Davis left the room, then he put it in her desk drawer.”

“What did she do when she found it?” Julie asked.

“Nothin’. She held it in her hand and rubbed its head. She likes frogs.”

“The boy should have been spanked.” Birdie put potatoes on Elsie’s plate, mashed them with her fork and dotted them with butter. “There, sugar. Eat now for Mommy.”

“I know a few kids who should be spanked,” Jill said and winced when the toe of a shoe connected with her leg under the table.

“It wasn’t a bit nice of that boy. Boys should learn to be respectful and protective of ladies.”

The family retreated into silence during the remainder of the meal.

Again, Birdie made a showing of helping to clear off the table.

“Mrs. Stuart, would you rather wash or dry?” Jill asked bluntly with a twisted little smile.

“I don’t know where things go, dear. I’ll just do this little bit that I know will help. Oh, there you are,” she said when Jethro came to the kitchen door. “I’ll help the girls and be out in just a minute.”

As soon as Jethro went to the front porch, Birdie and Elsie went out back to the outhouse.

“That’s the first time today she’s gone to the privy. I bet the chamber pot is full.”

“Is she waiting for one of us to empty it?”

“If she is, she’ll wait until it snows on the Fourth of July,” Julie said, causing Jill to giggle.

When Birdie and Elsie came back to the house, Birdie picked up the bundle of clothes that she had expected Julie to wash and took them to the room she now occupied. Then she and Elsie went to the front porch and sat down in the swing beside Jethro. Unusually quiet, Joy slid off his lap and went into the house.

Julie and Jill were finishing the kitchen chores when Jason came in.

“Are you looking for something to feed Sidney?” Julie asked.

“No. Joe fed him the corn bread you’d saved for him.”

Without saying more, Jason went through the kitchen and down the hall to look out the front door. A few minutes later, he scurried back through the kitchen and out to the barn.

Ordinarily the family would have gathered on the front porch during the twilight hours and everything that had happened on the first day at school would have been discussed.

Tonight Joe and Jack had not returned to the house after the evening meal. Jason was in the orchard with Sidney and Joy. Julie and Jill were in the kitchen. The front porch was occupied by Jethro, Birdie and Elsie.

It was almost eight o’clock when Julie lit the lamp and placed it on the table. She sat down to darn socks and Jill brought out a book to read.

“What did she do all day?” Jill asked.

“She set up the ironing board and ironed a few things she’d rinsed out in the wash dish. She spent the rest of the time in Papa’s room.”

“The brat, too?”

“Joy begged her to come and play. She refuses to have anything to do with her.”

“I wish Joy wouldn’t beg her.”

“Joy’s just a little girl, honey. She doesn’t understand why Elsie won’t play with her. Elsie is just a little girl, too. She’s being shaped by her mother’s influence.”

“Where did you learn all that?”

“It’s common horse sense.” Julie grinned at her sister and put her darning back in the basket. “I’ve got to get Joy and Jason in. The mosquitoes will eat them up.”

Later, after Jason had washed and been sent up to bed and Julie was washing Joy, Birdie and Elsie came into the kitchen, followed by Jethro.

“I don’t see how you girls can stand to stay in this hot kitchen.” Birdie smiled rather tightly and fanned herself and Elsie with a feathered fan. “Thank goodness our room is cooler.” She pumped a quantity of water into the tin sink with the hand pump before filling a glass for Elsie. “Say good night to the girls, sugar. Wake me in the morning, Julie, so I can help with breakfast.”

Julie looked from Birdie to her father, who stood behind Birdie, and nodded her head.

The pair went to their room and as soon as Birdie lit the lamp, the door closed.

Jethro stood for a moment looking from one daughter to the other, then, with sagging shoulders, went out onto the back porch.

Just as Julie lifted Joy down from the chair after running the wet cloth over her legs and feet, a piercing scream came from the bedroom. The door was thrown open and Birdie, yelling for Jethro and clutching Elsie, burst from the room.

“What’s the matter?” Jethro came hurrying in from the porch.

“Sn-ake! In there …under the pillow. Oh, God! It was two inches from Elsie.”

“A snake in the house?”

Jethro went into the bedroom and came out holding a green snake just below the head. The snake, about six inches long, was trying to curl itself around his hand.

“It’s just a harmless little old grass snake, Birdie. Nothing to be afraid of.”

“Oh … keep it away! How did it get in? Are there more?”

“I’ve never found one in the house,” Julie said. “I imagine it came in with the clothes she left lying on the porch.”

Jethro went to the porch and flung the snake out into the lilac bushes.

“Did you kill it?” Birdie asked when he returned.

“It’s gone.”

“I don’t know if I can sleep in there tonight.”

“I’ll come in and look around. Like Julie said, it probably got into the clothes you had on the porch and you carried it in.”

As soon as their father and Birdie went to the bedroom, Jill looked at Julie with a happy grin and mouthed, “Jason.”

“Why’s she scared?” Joy asked. “Jason—”

Julie clamped her hand over the child’s mouth and whispered in her ear.

“We’ll talk about it upstairs.”

After Joy was tucked into bed, Julie took the lamp and went into the boys’ room. Jason’s eyes were wide open and he was grinning.

“She yelled loud, didn’t she?”

“Jason Jones, you rascal! You put that snake in there, didn’t you?”

“You didn’t see me.”

“No, I didn’t, but I know you did. Papa better not find out.”

“I wish it’d been a great big rattler.”

“No, you don’t. You scared her good. That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it? Don’t do anything like that again, or Papa will catch on. Promise?”

“Promise, and … thanks for not telling.”

Julie’s fingers made a twisting movement against her lips. “My lips are locked.”

“You’re the best sister in the whole world.” Jason wound his arms around Julie’s neck. “If Papa marries her, will you stay here? You’ll not go off and leave us?”

Julie kissed him on the forehead. “If I go anywhere at all, you’ll go with me. That’s a promise.”

“Cross your heart?”

“Cross my heart, hope to die, poke a needle in my eye and cut my throat if I tell a lie. Satisfied?” She kissed him again. “Now, go to sleep.”

It was a promise Julie swore to keep should it become necessary for her to leave.

Chapter 21

W
HEN IS DOC GOING TO LIFT THE QUARANTINE
on Bloom’s place?” Chief Appleby dropped his lanky body down in the chair beside young Dr. Forbes’s desk.

“The boy is no longer contagious, but Doc is going to keep the quarantine on until next week.” Dr. Todd Forbes’s eyes held a roguish twinkle.

“Giving Mrs. Bloom an extended vacation, huh?”

“Something like that.”

“Any new cases of diphtheria?”

“None, thank God. Four is too many for this small town.” The young doctor leaned back in his chair. “Do you think Bloom could be our rapist?”

“No, but I could be wrong. In the first place, he’s dumb as a stump. In the second place, he’s usually drunk. Neither of the girls I’ve talked to have mentioned that they smelled liquor.”

“Logical reasoning.”

“I’d appreciate it if, while you’re visiting around, you would mention Springfield or the southern part of the state and see if anyone admits to having been there. Our fellow may have gone down there during the war and done the same thing he’s doing here.”

“Doc mentioned that you’re from down around Springfield.”

“The girl I was going to marry was raped and murdered while I was in France. I figure she knew who he was and he couldn’t let her live. The same could happen here.”

“And you’ve traced him to Fertile.”

“I wasn’t sure until Doc told me that two or three girls a year were showing up pregnant and being sent away. No telling how many he’s raped who didn’t get pregnant. I’ve been told that once a man starts raping and gets away with it, he doesn’t stop.”

“Anyone special you want me to nose around?”

Corbin pulled a paper from his shirt pocket and laid it on the desk. Dr. Forbes picked it up, scanned the names and then folded the paper and put it in his pocket.

“I’ve not had much experience in this sort of thing.”