her hand on the childâs shoulder. âYou want a cookie, sweetie? Or some bread and butter?â
The little girl didnât answer.
âIs that the childâs name or the motherâs?â I asked Edward.
âOh, youâre good.â He shook his head. âYouâre good, Samuel. I wouldnât have expected it.â
âAre you going to answer my question?â
âThe motherâs, of course.â He looked at Julia and shook his head again. âThe girlâs name is Katie.â He turned toward the child rather sternly. âDidnât I tell you to be quiet, kid? And Iâd come and get you when I was good and ready?â
âHow old is she, Edward? Do you even know?â
âI expect she could tell you that herself. Six or seven, I guess. Thereabouts. Little, though, isnât she? Kind of like her mom. Delicate. With those sweet eyes. Right?â
Whatever he meant by such words, it disgusted me. âShut up. Did you feed her anything all this way?â
âSure. A few times. What do you take me for? A heathen?â
I tried to set her down in a chair, but she still didnât want to let go. âI donât know, Edward. Right now, I really donât.â
âWell, I can tell you I was glad to find you not so much the saint as you claim. Sly old devil, Samuel. Back in Pennsylvania. Trudy told me all about it.â
âWhat are you talking about?â
He looked at Julia again, his smile barely hidden. âSo sorry, Missus,â he said. âBut these things catch up to a man. Katie here is his. Thatâs exactly what Iâm told. And your little girl is almost this size, isnât she? You must have been sitting at homeââ
âShut up, Edward!â I handed the child into Juliaâs arms.
âWhat are you gonna do, Sammy?â he taunted. âThrow me out? Throw your girl out too? Huh?â
âSheâs notââ I saw the girl shiver. She was starting to cry. âEdward, we can discuss this outside. Let the poor kidââ
âYou mean you donât want your wife to hear?â
âThereâs nothing Iâd hide from Juli. Nothing. Our kids are the only ones Iâve got. But this is not something we need to fight over in front of a scared little girl!â
âVery good, Samuel.â He sat down, smirking up at me. âWe donât have to fight. Wouldnât mind a bite to eat, to tell you the truth. Got any bacon?â
THREE
Julia
We didnât have bacon, and I was glad. Samuelâs brother or not, Edward was a skunk, and I didnât feel like giving him what he asked for. I couldnât imagine this poor child suddenly separated from her mother and carried across five states by this crude man. Was he even telling the truth about it? What kind of a mother would allow such a thing?
He wasnât telling the truth about Samuel, no matter what he wanted me to believe. Heâd devised some sort of plan to make trouble, though I couldnât imagine why. Didnât he know Samuel would have welcomed him, just for a normal visit, if heâd only been decent?
I sliced what was left of the bread and went quietly to the basement for the butter in the cool pit. We had eggs left in there too. I could fry them up and serve someapplesauce, home-canned from the pantry. The little girl was sure to like that. At least I hoped so.
By the time I got back upstairs, Robert had come in from the barn. Samuel sent him to bed too. He didnât seem to want the kids around Edward, and I couldnât blame him, the way that man talked.
âJulia, you are a sight to behold,â Edward said when I was cracking the eggs. âMother said you were something to look at, and she was right.â
Samuel was sitting at the table now with the little girl beside him. I saw how he tensed hearing a remark like that, but I didnât say anything. And I wondered if Samuel