Louisa and the Country Bachelor : A Louisa May Alcott Mystery (9781101547564) Read Online Free PDF

and so they were dependent on her father, in whose home they all lived.
    â€œHow is Cousin Frank?” I asked, wiping a spoon on my apron. Sylvie had washed them last, and she had not quite mastered that simple chore.
    Eliza clucked her tongue. “Frank was fixing the back porch and banged his thumb with the hammer this morning. I suspect he’s at home with his hand in an ice bucket. You did give me a fright,” she said, laughing. “They brought them Irish in to work on the railroad, and there’s been trouble in town ever since, what with the railroad work stopped.” She set out the coffee cups. “The Dutch begun the railroad here in Walpole, but the board voted to replace them because the Irish would work cheaper. There’s been Saturday-night fist-fights ever since.”
    Finished with setting the table, Eliza reached up to pull the linen window shade down. She had to stand on tiptoe to do it, so I helped. Our dining room window was directly opposite a neighbor’s window, and I saw two people sitting there, a man and a woman.
    â€œOur neighbors have returned,” I said. “Do you know them, Eliza?”
    â€œThat’s Mrs. Tupper and her invalid brother,” she said in a cold voice. “She’s a newcomer. Last year she married Mr. Tupper’s son—you know, the family that has the general store in the square. I heard they were in Boston, to the health clinic. You’ll meet Ida. Everyone does. Last month I saw her sitting in the garden with Frank. Her head was on his shoulder. Ah, men are silly.” Eliza clucked her tongue and drew the curtains shut with such vigor I thought they might come down. “There’s a son as well,” she said.
    Abba came downstairs first, still yawning and stretching, and almost bumped into a wall because she had thought she was still in her Beacon Hill house, where the rooms were arranged differently. Anna came down with circles under her eyes, for she hadn’t slept well. “How loud the frogs are!” she said. “They make my ears buzz.”
    Lizzie soon followed, humming a tune, and May came down with curling papers in her hair. Minutes later Sylvia and Father made their way to the breakfast table, where Eliza had spread out rolls and butter and boiled eggs.
    We chattered all at once and arrived at an agreement to have tea together at the Willis house that afternoon. Eliza rose—somewhat reluctantly, we all observed—after her second cup of coffee and returned home to her brood and to polish her silver teapot.
    â€œI suspect she has troubles at home,” Abba commented, watching her niece disappear around the corner.
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    IT WAS A hectic day of unpacking the trunks that had been delivered by Mr. Tupper for an added charge of a dime, and when teatime came we were all glad for a break. I led the way to Eliza’s house, marching in front and occasionally pointing out local landmarks such as the tin shop, the inn, and the tavern. Mostly, though, as I walked I composed my story in my head, hearing a conversation between Kate and Mr. Windsor that was heavy with secret longing.
    By the time we arrived at the house on the north side of Main Street I suppose my face might have looked a little startling to Eliza when she opened the door to me. She held a pot in her hands, a stew she had been simmering for supper later.
    â€œOh, Louisa, whatever is wrong?” she exclaimed, reminding me that when I composed in my head I often made strange faces, or so I have been told. “Has there been an accident in the village?”
    â€œI’m sorry, Eliza. I seem to be always taking you by surprise. I was simply thinking of a story,” I explained.
    â€œI see. Just a moment, dear friends,” Eliza said, fleeing down the hall. I heard her in the parlor, slamming drawers, drawing curtains, throwing balls and dolls into a box to stuff into the cupboard—doing those very things that