Cradle to Grave Read Online Free PDF Page B

returning to the other Sisters.”
    Mouse bowed her head obediently, but she shot a quick glance at Rees from blue eyes sparkling with hope.
    As her footsteps receded down the stairs, Herman said, “Thank you both for coming. You have eased her heart.”
    â€œI don’t know how much we will be able to achieve,” Rees said, turning to look at the Elder. He nodded.
    â€œWe do not expect you to succeed in removing the children from their mother. That is a problem for the World outside. We invited you here to ease Sister Hannah, whose adjustment to Mount Unity has not been an easy one. And Elder Hitchens from Zion assured me you knew and understood some of our ways”—his gaze involuntarily touched Lydia—“and have acted on behalf of our community in the past.”
    â€œI didn’t lie to Mouse,” Rees said, annoyance sharpening his tone. “I will speak to the constable and to the selectmen for her, whether they listen or no.”
    â€œOf course,” Herman said. “A promise is a bond.” He gestured to the stairs, too polite to tell his guests to leave, but suggesting it just the same.
    Rees helped Lydia into her cloak. They did not speak as they descended the stairs and went out into the cold air. “I had hoped they would invite us to stay,” Rees said as they crossed the snowy road to the buggy.
    â€œI’m glad they didn’t,” Lydia said. She took Rees’s arm and turned her anxious face up to his. “Oh Will, I don’t think Mouse is happy here.”
    Rees looked into Lydia’s upturned face. He wished he could offer her comfort, but he couldn’t. He thought the same.
    *   *   *
    They returned to the tavern for an early dinner. It was not quite noon but it had been a difficult morning. The bowl of hot stew and slice of fresh-baked bread put the color back into Lydia’s cheeks. “Surely the town fathers would have taken those children away if Mrs. Whitney were truly unfit,” she said for perhaps the third time.
    Rees nodded and glanced pointedly at the crowded tables around them. The innkeeper sat at his checkerboard, well within earshot. Rees knew the old man was listening: there was something about his tense shoulders, despite his apparent focus on his game.
    â€œPerhaps,” he said. “Are you ready to leave?”
    Lydia daintily ate her last bit of buttered bread and assented.
    Rees put the rest of the loaf in his pocket with the last bit of cheese and a bottle of small beer, in case he felt hungry later. Then he approached Mr. Randall to ask for directions to the Whitney farm. The innkeeper straightened up and regarded Rees and Lydia.
    â€œAre you kin to Maggie Whitney?” he asked.
    â€œNo,” Rees said vaguely. “A friend of a friend. We just thought we’d look in on her.” He didn’t know how the town might feel about Mouse and her attempt to remove the Whitney children but found Mr. Randall’s interest unsettling.
    Mr. Randall nodded, looking around at the customers filing in, and said, “Come to the lobby.” Rees grasped Lydia’s arm and they followed the man out of the commons room.
    The lobby was a small cramped box with a desk and stairs at the back leading to the upper floors. Mr. Randall could still see into the commons room but now had created some privacy. “Maggie could use a friend or two,” he said, looking at Rees and Lydia with more warmth. “Go north on the road just outside. Follow it maybe ten miles out, turn right on the first road you come to. First drive on your right is the Tucker drive.”
    â€œTucker?”
    â€œSorry. It’s Maggie’s. Old habits: the farm belonged to her aunt, Olive Tucker. If you reach a large farm, you’ve gone too far. And if you miss that first right, and reach a log church, you’re on the wrong road.”
    â€œThank you,” Rees said, feeling faintly