The Secret (13 page)

I am not keeping our walks a secret, exactly, Elizabeth thought. I just have not mentioned them.

Elizabeth knew that her mother would want to come on the walks—but that would ruin them. They would not be the same with her mother—not at all.

Anyway, Frank has never done anything improper, she thought. I have no reason to worry.

Now they had reached the clearing. Elizabeth sat down on her rock, the smaller one. But instead of sitting on his rock, Frank lingered behind her.

Elizabeth felt a gentle tug on her hair, and then felt it fall loose about her shoulders. She sighed. Frank had untied the ribbon from her hair.

She leaned back against him. Frank playfully draped the red ribbon across her throat. She giggled. He tugged on it lightly. She giggled again.

Then Elizabeth sat still, quivering with excitement, waiting to see what would happen next.

Behind her, just out of her sight, Frank held the two ends of the ribbon in his hands.

He wound each end around his index fingers.

Elizabeth sat in front of him, trusting her fate to him, completely in his power.

He smiled.

Then he tugged on the ribbon, preparing to strangle her.

A
twig cracked nearby. Frank froze.

Elizabeth's body tensed.

She heard the snap of another twig. Then the shuffle of someone moving through pine needles.

Someone was close by.

The ribbon fell from Frank's hand.

Elizabeth climbed to her feet and clutched at his arm, her eyes scanning the woods.

The shuffling noise moved closer. Then Elizabeth saw a stooped figure walking slowly and steadily their way.

A white-haired old woman, dressed all in black, hobbled through the pine needles, a cane poking the ground in front of her.

Elizabeth gasped. “Aggie!”

She grabbed Frank's hand and pulled him through the woods, back toward the house. She did not look
back, and she did not stop until they were safely in her yard.

“That was the old woman,” Elizabeth said, panting. “Old Aggie. She is still alive!”

“She appeared to be a harmless old woman,” Frank told her.

“No, she is not!” Elizabeth cried breathlessly. “Somehow I know she is
not
just a harmless old woman. There is something different about her …”

Frank took Elizabeth in his arms and held her tight. She closed her eyes and rested her head against his chest, catching her breath.

She felt safe now. I will always feel safe with Frank, she thought.

Calm at last, she lined her head and smiled. “It is too bad Old Aggie came along,” she whispered. “She spoiled such a lovely afternoon.”

Frank hesitated a second, then smiled.

He is embarrassed, Elizabeth thought fondly. He was going to kiss me. He was going to ask me to marry him, and he wanted to surprise me. But now he knows that I know.

Oh, well, she thought as she and Frank started back toward the house. He will ask me soon. And I will not disappoint him. I plan to say yes.

Elizabeth opened the back door, and she and Frank stepped into the kitchen. They found Kate stirring a pot of soup.

Kate glanced at her sister and Frank when they walked in. Elizabeth smiled at her and said, “How is the soup coming?”

Kate did not answer. Her mouth fell open, but no sound came out. She dropped the soup spoon and ran from the room.

Elizabeth stared after her» shocked. She suddenly felt aware of her hair hanging loose about her shoulders. She turned to Frank, who had a strange, thoughtful expression on his face.

“What could be the matter?” Elizabeth asked him. “Do you think Kate is all right?”

“I am sure she is fine,” Frank replied. “Perhaps she burned her hand on the pot.”

“I had better make sure she is not hurt,” said Elizabeth. She started to follow Kate, but Frank caught her by the wrist and held her back.

“Do not worry about her,” he said. “Your mother is upstairs. I am sure she is taking care of Kate.”

“I suppose you are right,” Elizabeth said doubtfully. She felt she should go after her sister, but Frank seemed to want her to stay with him.

The soup began to boil. Elizabeth picked up the spoon to stir it.

I cannot go running after Kate, she reasoned as she felt Frank run his hand through her hair. Someone has to stay here to watch the soup, after all. If it boils over, we will not have any supper tonight, and I am sure Kate does not want that.

A few weeks later Elizabeth paced the house impatiently, searching for Frank.

Where
is
he? she wondered. It was time for their walk, and she could not find him anywhere. She sighed and sat down on a chair in the parlor and picked up her knitting.

I might as well work on Kate's scarf while I am waiting for him, she thought. I might as well make myself useful, as Mother would say.

The back door slammed. Here he is at last, she thought.

She stood up, waiting to greet him. But it was not Frank who burst in to the parlor. It was Kate.

Kate's face was flushed, and she carried a basket of mulberries in her arms.

“Oh, Elizabeth!” she cried, letting the basket fall to the floor. She ran to her sister and threw her arms around her neck. “The most wonderful thing has happened!”

“What on earth is it?” asked Elizabeth. She had never seen Kate so excited.

“You will be so happy for me!” Kate gushed. She took Elizabeth's hands in hers, knitting and all, and danced her around the room. “Mother will play the organ, and you can decorate the cake!”

“The cake?” asked Elizabeth. “Kate, what are you
talking
about?”

“Haven't you guessed by now?” cried Kate. “Frank and I are going to be married!”

“M
arried!” Elizabeth uttered, unable to hide her shock. “You—and Frank?”

“What is all the commotion in there?” Simon and Mr. Fier came hurrying in from the front porch, and Mrs. Fier appeared on the stairs. “What is going on, girls?”

Elizabeth stood frozen in place, trying to stop her knees from shaking, while she watched Kate run into their mother's arms. “Mother! Frank has asked me to marry him!”

Elizabeth stood aside to watch the happy uproar that followed this announcement. Mrs. Fier's kind face lit up, and Mr. Fier clapped his hands delightedly.

Finally Elizabeth could not help herself. She could not keep the words from bursting from her lips. “It cannot be!” she cried in a trembling voice. “Frank loves
me!”

No one seemed to hear her.

Simon asked, “Where is Frank? I want to congratulate him.”

How can this be? thought Elizabeth. Is this really happening? Kate and Frank?

She wanted to scream. She wanted to fly out of the room. She wanted to disappear forever.

How can this be?
How can this be?

She uttered a sob of grief, of anger, of disbelief.

Kate and Frank?

Elizabeth remembered just then all the times that Kate had acted strangely around her and Frank. When Elizabeth told Kate that she liked Frank, and when Elizabeth and Frank had come in from the woods and found Kate stirring soup. Kate had seemed upset those times. Now it all made sense.

Kate had loved Frank all along.

And Kate had
stolen
Frank from her!

“How
could
you?” Elizabeth shrieked at the top of her lungs.

Her new outburst made everyone fall silent, and they all turned to stare at Elizabeth.

“How
could
you?” she raged at Kate again. “My own sister!”

“What?” Kate gaped at her, bewildered. “Lizzie—what are you talking about?”

“I—I—I—”

Elizabeth found herself speechless now.

Afraid of the intense anger she felt, afraid she might explode from rage, she tightened her fists around the knitting needles and ran from the room.

I must find Frank! I must find Frank!
she told herself as violent sobs escaped from her throat.

She pushed blindly through the kitchen, out the
back door, and into the woods. Behind her, she could hear Kate calling her name.

Elizabeth ignored her Frank was all that mattered. Kate could not be trusted.

“Frank!” she screamed. “Frank!”

Her feet padded over the brown carpet of pine needles. Sharp branches tore at her skirt, but she barely noticed.

Elizabeth had almost reached the clearing when she realized she was still clutching Kate's unfinished scarf and her knitting needles. She tossed them onto the ground and kept running.

“Frank!” she called.

Far behind her, she could still hear Kate's worried call: “Elizabeth! Elizabeth!”

Simon and his parents were left standing in the parlor in a daze. None of them understood what had just happened.

Wasn't Kate's announcement a joyful one?

At last Mrs. Fier said, “Simon, run after the girls and see what this is all about.”

Simon nodded and started after his sisters. He heard voices ringing through the woods. They were his sisters' voices.

No sign of Frank. Simon could not help wondering where Frank was all this time.

He tried to follow the voices, but they seemed to come from all directions in the thick woods, like birdcalls.

Then, suddenly, there was a bloodcurdling scream.

Simon froze. The woods fell silent.

Silent as death.

What was that? Where had it come from?

He ran in the direction of the scream. Soon he found himself in a clearing. He recognized it as the place where he and his sisters had played as children.

Simon's eyes frantically searched the clearing.

Who screamed? Why?

Behind the bigger of the two rocks he saw something dark. Simon squinted hard until it came into focus.

A pair of dainty black high-button boots.

He took a step closer, his heart beating wildly. The ground seemed to tilt under him.

Taking a deep breath, Simon peered behind the rock.

“Ohh.” He gripped the top of the rock as his eyes landed on Kate's body. She lay sprawled on her back, her light brown hair spread out around her head like a halo. Her pale blue eyes were open, reflecting the sky.

Simon gripped the rock till his hand hurt. “Kate?”

She did not answer. She stared up lifelessly, a knitting needle plunged through her heart.

E
lizabeth sat in the rocking chair by the fireplace. Her hair fell in tangles down her back. Her eyes, red-rimmed and bloodshot, stared out from her tear-stained face. She rocked back and forth, back and forth, hugging her knees under her torn blue dress.

“Kate was a liar,” Elizabeth murmured, rocking. “Kate was a liar. Kate was a liar.”

Mrs. Fier stood over the rocking chair, helplessly wringing her hands. Mr. Fier stared at his daughter in horror and disbelief.

Frank sat tensely on the couch, his eyes darting from face to face. Simon paced the room, lost in his own unhappy thoughts, not seeing anyone.