A Mischief in the Snow Part 12

He went and knelt before the perplexed woman, holding out his hands. She stared briefly into his eyes, as she'd done with the attorney. Then she looked down to her feet, and he took it upon himself to unlace her boots. She waited like a child, and finally stood to allow him to take her cloak.

"Would you like something to drink?" he asked. "Are you hungry?" She shook her head to this, but then said her first words since she'd entered the house.

"May I have a cup of tea?"

"Of course. Rowe, what do you suppose Lem and Reed are doing upstairs?" The minister wondered himself, and left them.

"Now," said Longfellow, "there is the can of tea, Miss Knowles, and here is the pot. I presume you know what to do with them. I will watch, and talk with you a little, if I may. It was a long walk here, was it not? Are you tired? Would you prefer to lie down upstairs?"

"I often walk," Magdalene answered. Longfellow decided that she had received much benefit from it. "I am not tired." Neither was she bent or weak, he saw. In body, she seemed a healthy woman.

"There," said Diana, rising wearily to her feet. "At least all of it is covered. I'll take the teapot, Richard, and see to Miss Knowles."

Amazed, her brother allowed her to take the vessel he still held. It appeared that Diana's brief encounter with motherhood had changed her significantly-and her time as a nurse, he reminded himself with a twinge. Having something of importance to do now might be balm for her own bruised spirit.

Looking through a window at the snow, he observed that the light was nearly gone. Considering the worsening weather, he then asked himself if the constable would appear, after all.

He soon had his answer.

Chapter 18.

POUNDING RATHER THAN knocking, John Dudley startled them all. Orpheus let out a volley of growls; Longfellow lunged for the door, and let the constable in. knocking, John Dudley startled them all. Orpheus let out a volley of growls; Longfellow lunged for the door, and let the constable in.

For once, he was nearly sober. Still, when Dudley caught sight of a body lying by the fire, he became less sure of himself. His eyes went to the ceiling as he heard boots creaking across the floorboards.

"The boy's up there?" he asked Longfellow.

"With Moses Reed, and Reverend Rowe. I presume they are asking him questions of their own."

Dudley grumbled, and looked for the way out of the kitchen.

"Not so fast," Longfellow ordered. "First, I need your help with Mrs. Knowles. From Boar Island. One of your near neighbors, I think."

"How is she she here?" Dudley blurted. here?" Dudley blurted.

"There's been an accident. Now, she needs to be taken up to a bed. If you'll lift an end of that blanket, I'll take the other. Careful, man! She's been badly burned."

"How?"

"It appears she fell, or stepped too near the flames at one of her own hearths. An old story, I'm afraid. Perhaps Magdalene Knowles, standing behind you, will be able to tell us more. Or Lem, more likely. Lift-gently, now!"

Together, they took the old woman, who moaned at the inevitable jostling, across the kitchen and up the stairs. Once they'd reached the upper hall, the two took their burden to the middle bedroom where they found a good fire prepared.

Lem and Moses Reed sat on the bed, their heads close together. The minister, meanwhile, used the opportunity to look around him. Longfellow reminded himself that this was Mrs. Willett's winter bedroom, which she currently occupied. A strong reaction to its invasion nearly overwhelmed him, until he heard his sister behind him.

Diana expressed her own shock at the fact that the bedclothes had not been folded back. She prepared the bed in her own way; then they eased the light body onto the smooth sheets, and it was covered.

Catherine's white eyes seemed to have darkened. Longfellow concluded that Charlotte must have opened her store of opium gum kept for emergencies. In another moment, Mrs. Knowles sighed. Her features relaxed, and it appeared she might be dreaming.

Charlotte and Magdalene entered, making the place altogether too crowded.

"We'll withdraw, gentlemen, and go below," Longfellow said firmly.

"But I shall stay," Moses Reed countered. "For reasons you'll understand shortly. It is of some importance, sir," he added, as if begging a favor.

"Of course," Longfellow a.s.sented. "The rest of us will go, then. We still have much to discuss. Now, perhaps, more than before."

"You come with me, young man," the constable said gruffly, taking Lem's arm and pulling him out before the others.

"I'm glad that's over," said Diana as she went to shut the door. "These two ladies will benefit from quiet as much as anything else," she added significantly to Reed, who bowed his head and waited.

Taking a cup from the tray Charlotte had carried up with her, Diana seemed about to offer its contents to her patient. Then her green eyes widened, and she herself took on an ill appearance.

"Her lips!" she whispered desperately. "They're blue, the way it was with Charlie!"

Her friend reached to take her trembling hand. The color of life had begun to ebb from Catherine's face, and Charlotte doubted it would rise again. Magdalene moved forward to stand over the person she knew best in the world. It seemed she meant to speak. Instead, she bent to kiss the brow of the woman so long her mistress, her caretaker, perhaps even her friend.

When she turned away at last, the younger of the island's women looked directly into the face of Moses Reed, for he'd come to stand quietly beside her. Magdalene seemed to feel some new confusion. Charlotte supposed her reaction was quite different from their earlier awareness of one another, in the corner downstairs. Were they, in fact, acquainted, as she'd first a.s.sumed? Magdalene's expression dimmed, and she went to sit in one of the room's two chairs, choosing the one most distant from the rest.

"It cannot be long," said the lawyer. "Mrs. Knowles? Is there anything you wish to tell us? Anything of importance?" They saw a flutter of her eyelids, a slight roll of her head. "It may make a great difference."

The old woman's eyes focused, one of her arms moved, and then Charlotte imagined the claw beneath fresh bandages would have pointed to her, had it been free. Carefully, she sat on the edge of the bed and leaned closer. On his own side, Moses Reed did the same.

Catherine's mouth began to move. "Pushed!" she finally expelled in a gasp. Charlotte sat back, struck as much by the thought as by the fetid breath that had delivered it. "Pushed," Mrs. Knowles insisted once more.

"No!" Reed exclaimed. It seemed he'd not received the information he'd hoped for. And yet, was it entirely unexpected? Charlotte considered a new suspicion, while they waited to hear more.

"Who?" Reed finally asked, after many seconds had gone by. During that time Catherine seemed to have retreated into dreams. Then, marshaling the last of her strength, she attempted to speak again.

"You, madam, you... find out if the boy was..."

It was nearly too much; she clenched her body in a final attempt.

"If... the boy..." A bubble of red came to her lips, then another, and another, until they appeared to be a rosy cl.u.s.ter of honeycomb.

"What does it mean?" asked Charlotte. "Find out what? And which boy?" It was no use asking further.

Moses Reed regarded her soberly. "A dying wish, Mrs. Willett. Did you know her well?"

"I saw Mrs. Knowles two days ago, for the first time in many years. For the third time, I think, in all my life!"

"You must have made an impression," he replied.

"Do you suppose she could could have been pushed, as she said?" have been pushed, as she said?"

"Many things could have happened. That, I think, is only one possibility. She could as easily have been in a delirium at the end, due to the opium. Perhaps she only stumbled at the side of her hearth. Her eyes were clouded, and perhaps she could not see something at her feet. The fire could have taken her with no further help. I've observed the results of such a thing before."

It was, Charlotte agreed silently, an all too common occurrence.

"However," the attorney went on, "as Mrs. Knowles believed believed she was pushed, she may have supposed Lem was behind her, though she could not be sure. I find his involvement difficult to imagine. Do you know of any reason he might have done such a thing?" she was pushed, she may have supposed Lem was behind her, though she could not be sure. I find his involvement difficult to imagine. Do you know of any reason he might have done such a thing?"

"None! She must must have been mistaken!" have been mistaken!"

"Or, she could have meant someone else. But who?" he asked, looking away suddenly.

"No one else was there, that we know of. Except, of course-"

She, too, then looked to Magdalene, who sat quietly. Diana stood at her side, staring from a window. Neither seemed aware of what had just occurred.

"Let's not speculate," Reed said swiftly. "Let us, instead, ask both of them what, exactly, they saw today. Lem, I think, will go back with Mr. Longfellow this evening. If I'm offered a bed there myself, I'll have a chance to ask your young man a few things more. You may find an opportunity to question Miss Knowles, if she is to stay here."

"It would be quieter for her, I suppose."

"Given time to recover, she may recall something. She's not entirely without sense."

"Do you know her, Mr. Reed?"

"We have met before."

"What you suggest does seem the best plan."

"I would also ask that you say nothing to any of the others yet, about what Mrs. Knowles may have felt, or imagined. At least until we've obtained more facts."

"Yes, I agree."

"If you'd like, I'll see to moving her into an unheated room."

"The one at the top of the stairs is the coolest."

"I'll go down and speak with Mr. Longfellow."

Moses Reed moved away from the bed, but went first to the north window where he spoke to the two women.

"Her suffering was brief. It is over."

Diana nodded, but made no other reply.

"Miss Knowles? Mrs. Willett will care for you here, tonight. Have no fear. Rest. Later, you may begin to think of what you would like to do."

Magdalene, too, said nothing.

The lawyer sighed. "Mrs. Montagu, if you and your brother have no objection, I would prefer to stay near Lem, this evening."

"I'm sure that will be fine." Diana rose. Giving no more than a glance to the woman she'd tended, she made her way to the door. "A word, Charlotte?" she called back.

Pa.s.sing them in the hall a moment later, Moses Reed went quietly down the stairs.

"You know," Diana then said, "that my ears are nearly as good as your own, Charlotte. And the room is not a large one."

"You heard?"

"Most, I think. At least at the end, when I held my breath. I listened for Magdalene's, too. Either she is very cold, or she didn't understand. Or perhaps her hearing is not as acute as ours. But I rather think it is the first."

"Mrs. Knowles has told me that Magdalene was born a natural child."

"Do you mean to say that her father-?"

"No, not that. She has always had an affliction. Magdalene is not as we are, as you've probably seen; there are things she's unable to grasp. She is, in some ways, simple."

"Well, do be careful. The old woman may have been right in blaming someone." someone."

"What would you have me do?"

"Be safe. Lock your bedroom door tonight."

For the first time, it occurred to Charlotte that she would offer Magdalene the far room, while Catherine would soon lie in the first along the hall. That left her own bed, here. More than one life had ended in it, she told herself. Those of her parents, in fact. And before that? It was not sensible to be squeamish about such things. Most slept in beds pa.s.sed down to them.

"I'll give Magdalene something to help her sleep," Charlotte decided, suspecting that she herself would choose the kitchen, after all. "If she'll agree to it."

"Good. Take none yourself."

"But I really can't imagine-"

"Well, I can. We'll need further proof, of course, before accusing anyone. But not that kind of proof!"

"Go and sleep well, yourself. You and Cicero will have your hands full."

"Rowe and that awful constable can't stay for long.

The snow shows no sign of letting up, and you know what that can mean. May the Lord protect anyone out on the roads on a night like this!"

Had she known that one traveler, in particular, was not far away on the road from Boston, Diana would have prayed all the harder.

Chapter 19.

EDMUND MONTAGU REINED in his horse for perhaps the hundredth time, wondering how he had ever gotten himself into such a situation. in his horse for perhaps the hundredth time, wondering how he had ever gotten himself into such a situation.