Corner of the Housetop: Buried Secrets (20 page)

"Take Blueberry over and git him put away. And don' fergit to feed them."

Taking the lead, Derek said, "When are you going to stop reminding me to feed them? I've been doing it for what? A month now? I know when I have to feed them."

Squinting at him, Devon scowled darkly. "Don' git wise, boy. Just do as you're told."

"You and Jonathan." He rolled his eyes. "I won't ever be smart, or wise. I promise. I'll just go through life doing exactly what everyone tells me to do. How's that?"

"Now you're startin' to understand how things work in this world."

Snorting with laughter, Derek walked Blueberry back to the stables. As he dumped the oats in their troths, he felt a pang of guilt with Lady Sarah Mary-Ruth's glare. He'd slept through her exercise time, leaving the old mare locked up all day.

"I'll bring you out twice as long tomorrow. How's that sound?"

She snorted at him, her nostrils flaring angrily.

He nodded. "I thought you would say that."

"What are you doing?"

Looking over his shoulder, Derek almost laughed at what he saw. Abigail was peering around the edge of the stable door, her arm wrapped securely around her younger brother's throat. Stuck under her weight, the boy looked half-frightened, half-choked. His round cheeks were tinged red and his eyes were watery with suppressed tears.

"I was just going to take Lady out for her exercise."

"Is that the horse?"

"Yes. This one, here." Trying to look like he knew more than he did, Derek tried to pet the mare.

Lady Sarah Mary-Ruth shook her head at him, glaring down her long nose.

"I don't think she likes you." She tightened her grip on her brother, leaning farther around the corner. "Are you mean to her?"

"No. She's the one who's mean to me."

"She looks mean. I bet she eats little kids, huh?"

The boy looked terrified.

Laughing at the look on the boy's face, Derek said, "She doesn't eat kids. She eats oats and sugar."

Her eyes glowing with excitement, Abigail squeaked, "Like cookies?"

"Um, not really. Do you want to feed her?"

She nodded so hard she almost fell on her brother from dizziness. "Can I?"

"Sure. I'll get you a sugar cube." Opening a box on one of the shelves, he took out several squares of white sugar.

Abigail ran around her brother and took one from Derek.

Looking at the boy, Derek asked, "Do you want to give her one?"

Grabbing the door frame as though for protection, the boy shook his head furiously.

"He doesn't do
anything
." Climbing on the gate fearlessly, the little girl leaned forward, shoving her hand under Lady Sarah Mary-Ruth's mouth. She looked like she was trying to put the sugar cube up her nose.

"No, like this. You hold your hand flat and let her take it."

Lady Sarah Mary-Ruth seemed skeptical about putting her nose too close to the girl's hand, but when the smell of sugar became too tempting, she licked up the treat.

"Eww!"

Laughing, Derek gave one to Blueberry.

"It spit on my hand!" Turning around, she looked passed Derek. "Jonathan, I have horse spit on my hand!" She ran to him as he walked through the door, holding her hand out for him to see.

Squatting quickly, he put his hands on her shoulders and held her at arm's length before she could grab him. Jonathan smiled and said, "Do you? Wow."

"I gave the mean horse a sugar cube."

"Did you get to feed the horses, Bartholomew?"

The boy shook his head again.

Letting go of Abigail, Jonathan stood and picked Bartholomew up. He took a sugar cube from the open box and walked over to Blueberry. "This is a nice horse. Here you go." He put the sugar in Bartholomew's fat, little hand and held his wrist, gently pulling his hand out towards the horse's mouth.

His eyes growing wide in his pudgy face, Bartholomew froze as Blueberry's nose moved closer and closer to his hand. As soon as Blueberry took the sugar, he pulled his hand away and looked up at Jonathan.

"Did it spit on you?" Abigail asked, wrinkling her nose at him.

"Yeah," he answered softly.

"Eww!" she shrieked.

"All right, you two. You've fed the horses and now it's time to go in for your own lunch."

"Are you coming?"

Derek, who'd been opening Lady Sarah Mary-Ruth's gate, looked over at the little girl. "Me? Oh, no. I have work to do."

"I'll wait and eat with you."

"That's all right. I'm not going to eat for a while."

"I'm not hungry anyway." Crossing her arms stubbornly over her chest, she looked up at Jonathan. "You can go ahead. I'll go back when Derek does."

"Derek isn't going to the house."

"Why?"

"He lives out here, with the horses," Jonathan explained flatly. "He has his lunch out here, too."

"Oh." Abigail thought very hard for a moment. "Does he eat sugar cubes?"

Smirking, Jonathan said, "I don't think so, but it wouldn't surprise me."

Glaring at him, Derek went back to getting Lady Sarah Mary-Ruth ready to go out to the corral. He needed to find the longer exercise rope. It normally would have been by the door, but its hook was empty.

Looking at Derek, Abigail said loudly, "I like sugar, too."

Derek was unsure of what he should say to that, so he just smiled a little. "Well, I have to bring her out now, so you should probably go with Jonathan anyway."

"Can I ride her?"

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why?"

Derek sighed. Glancing at Jonathan, he would have sworn the man was enjoying watching him trying to get her to leave. It wasn't that he didn't like the little girl, he just had things he needed to do. And having her saying odd things to him in front of Jonathan was embarrassing him, though he couldn't say why.

After several, long seconds, Jonathan seemed to take pity on Derek and said, "Abby, let's go eat."

Dejected, Abigail sighed heavily. "All right. But can I come back out later?"

"We'll see. Right now we need to eat. Catherine came down for lunch and we don't want to keep her waiting."

"Catherine? Yay! Let's go!" Taking his free hand, she began trying to pulling Jonathan out of the stable.

As the three left, Bartholomew clinging to his neck and Abigail hanging off his arm, Jonathan suddenly looked very different.
He'd make a good father
, Derek thought. "He'd be a lot like his father, I bet. At least with his own kids."

No amount of touching family moments shared with his wife's siblings could convince Derek that Jonathan would show kindness to a stranger or anyone he wasn't directly responsible for in the first place.
He could never live up to his father,
Derek decided, after rethinking his statement.

Walking Lady Sarah Mary-Ruth out to the corral, he locked the gate, double-checking the latch, then walked back to the stable. Gathering the breakfast basket and plates, Derek left for the house. If everyone was eating he could easily sneak into the kitchen to get himself something for lunch.

Opening the door slowly and making sure no one was in the hall, Derek slipped inside and down the kitchen stairs. "I brought the dishes back."

Beth and Atty were sitting at the table, each looking distinctly worse for the wear.

"Are you all right?"

Standing up and taking the basket from him, Beth walked quickly across the room and set it by the basin. "Yes, I'm fine. It's just been a very busy week and then we had a large breakfast and lunch to make. That woman needs to send you in to help with meals."

Smirking, Derek said, "You mean that
kind, generous, good
woman?"

With a withering glare, Beth sank back into her chair by the hearth.

All Derek could do was laugh. "If you want I'll do the dishes for you when you bring them down. Just remember, I'm not here."

"You're sneaking around again?"

"Not sneaking. Cleaning. She's the one who keeps telling me to clean things. Well, she never told me to stop, did she?" When the woman was silent for a moment, he smiled at her.

Sighing and leaning back more, Atty looked towards the wall. Her hair was in an even worse state, her eyes dull. She looked like she needed sleep as much as Jonathan did. There were stains on her apron, and her dress was wrinkled and covered with small spots of dough and puffs of flour. The lines around her eyes stood out even more, making her age very obvious.

"Is there anything else you want me to do?"

"No, no. I'm sure you've been just as busy as we have."

"Not really. Not today, at least. Just the usual work with the horses." He suddenly thought of the clouds that were gathering in the sky as he'd walked across the yard. "Speaking of, I need to get Lady in before it rains."

"You left her out by herself?"

"She's fine."

"She'll be throwing a fit! You know how she is."

Walking towards the door, Derek tossed back, "Good. Maybe she'll work herself right into a heart attack and stop being a bother to everyone."

"Derek!"

"Sorry, sorry. I'm going. See?"

"You just better hope you get out there before Devon's finished his work," Beth called to him as he climbed the stairs. "If he finds that horse out there by herself, you know Mrs. Worthington will hear of it."

"I'll be back to clean up as soon as I get the horse in," he answered.

Ducking out the door and running behind the house and back over the lawn, Derek slowed when he saw Lady Sarah Mary-Ruth still in the corral, standing complacently by the back fence, her tail swinging contently back and forth as she chewed on a tuft of grass.

"I ran for that?" Strolling down the hill, he began to hum to himself. The overcast day promised rain for the night. He only hoped it would be clear in the morning for the ride to church. He knew only too well that rain didn't stop Mrs. Worthington from climbing into her blue carriage and making the long, wet, bumpy trek to town. And with all the extra people….

A flicker of hope lit in his chest. Maybe he would get to stay home. Smiling at the thought of an Anthony-free week, Derek said, "All right, God. You're supposed to answer prayers? Here's one for you. Make Mrs. Worthington let me stay home tomorrow."