The Winter Road Page 7

  He went up to the kitchen and stood at the window eating a cinnamon bun from a batch Mrs. Bowen had brought over that morning. After three cups of syrupy coffee at the post office, Will Robb had wanted to move the party back to Daniel’s house, where there were chairs to sit on. Only his brother Winston’s determination to stay where he could greet old friends had stopped him.

  Houses around here seemed to be no more than semiprivate. The doorbell rang at least twice a day because someone from down the road or across town or from miles away wanted to welcome Daniel’s nephew. Everyone who came by expected to be invited in. They expected to be given a snack. And they took the opportunity to look around, as if they thought he might have redecorated or something.

  Which was exactly what he needed to do.

  He washed off the sticky cinnamon sugar and went to the desk in the living room. He found red and blue pens, and paper—just the usual letter-size sheets, but he taped several pieces together on the wall over the desk to make one large writing surface. There was a family Bible in the downstairs bedroom, like the one Julia had mentioned her husband reading. He checked the front pages. In various handwriting, with various inks, there was a record of Rutherford births, marriages and deaths.

  He printed them onto the paper on the wall, drawing boxes around names, then lines that connected them horizontally and vertically. There were a lot of early deaths in the old days. Young women whose names were often followed by those of infants. Men who were hardly more than boys from 1914 to 1918 and then again from 1939 to 1945.

  When the chart was done he piled genealogy books and family photo albums on the desk under it. It looked productive enough for a few days’ research.

  EMILY FOUND HER MOTHER upstairs, digging around in her bedroom closet.

  “Ready?” They had been invited to Aunt Edith’s for tea that afternoon. It was five days since the wedding, more than enough time, Edith had insisted, for Julia to recuperate and show interest in her niece.

  Julia backed out of the closet empty-handed, clothes clinging to her, pulling at her hair. She batted them out of her way, frustrated, and ran her hands over her head before starting downstairs. “I’m not going.”

  “Susannah’s hoping to see you.”

  “I don’t want to go.” Her voice became louder and flatter. “I go and I go and I go.” In the kitchen she began sorting through her library books, banging them on the table as if they made her angry, too.

  “But you don’t go.”

  “You don’t see everything. She calls it tea but it might be lemonade. Nitter, natter, chitchat.”

  “Mom, that’s mean—”

  “It’s a waste of time.”

  “It isn’t a waste of time, because when you go you make Aunt Edith feel good.”

  Julia snorted. “When she leaves me alone she makes me feel good.”

  Emily leaned against the counter, suddenly tired. “Is this about the book? Because we don’t have money to buy a copy right now?”

  Her mother looked offended. She pulled a chair back, dragging all four legs hard across the floor, and plopped herself into it. She stared at the table and Emily stared at the floor and neither one of them spoke for several minutes.

  Quietly, as if it was an explanation, Julia said, “I don’t want to go to Edith’s.”

  “I picked up on that.” Emily pushed away from the counter. “It’s all right. They’ll understand.”

  They wouldn’t, really. Emily wasn’t sure she did, either.

  AUNT EDITH HAD brought out a trunk of baby clothes: doll-size nighties with ties at the back and a band of pastel embroidery across the front, snowy-white undershirts, footed sleepers and tiny ribboned dresses. Most of them were piled on Susannah’s lap, but Edith caressed one, a rose-pink dress.

  “Sorry I’m late. I’ve come alone, I’m afraid.”

  “And we’re very glad to have you.” Edith looked closely at her niece. “Oh, dear. Had a tiff, did you? Not over this little tea party, I hope. Am I imagining it, or is your mother more of a hermit every day?”

  “Of course she isn’t,” Susannah said. “Aunt Julia needs room, that’s all. But, Em, tell her I’m going to drop in on her one of these days.”

  Edith held up the pink dress. “Remember this, Emily?”

  “I don’t think so. It looks too big for a kitten. Sue must have outgrown it before I was born.”

  “Come to think of it, she wore it to your mother’s wedding. With white tights and pink satin slippers. She was my only girl, so I’ve kept it all these years hoping one day to see a granddaughter wear it.”

  When Edith turned away to rest the dress in the trunk, Emily spoke in her cousin’s ear. “Is your mom still hoping you’ll move back home?”

  “Alex has been out on Dad’s tractor every day. It’s given her hope.”

  “What are you two whispering about?” Edith sounded pleased. “You always did that. Always planning something. Conspiring in a corner and the next thing we’d know the poor dogs were hitched to a toboggan and up-ending you into the ditch! Think of that, Susannah. Your child will be alone. Who will she plan and scheme with?”

  “I’ve seen a baby or two in Drumheller.”

  “Not family. Not little ones she can disappear into the woods with and do whatever you did all day, no television dictating to you.”

  Emily put an arm around her aunt. “It’s a bad old world, isn’t it? Too many miles between everybody.”

  “I suppose I’m being awful.”

  “No, Mom,” Susannah said quickly. “I wish we lived closer to home, too. But we’ll be here for a long time yet. Alex wants to stay for the Fair.”

  Edith perked up. “Lovely! Oh, he’ll enjoy it. The tractor pull, especially, don’t you think? You know, Susannah, Alex is growing on me, he really is. He’s so enthusiastic. So easy to entertain.”

  The Fair was a month away. Emily tried to hide her pleasure at the thought Sue might stay that long. Liz had told her the family’s opinions and wants could be overwhelming at times.

  “Aunt Edith, would it be all right if I invited Matthew to the barbecue?” Edith and Will had organized one last family get-together before Liz’s parents flew back to White Rock.

  “Daniel’s nephew? Certainly! I should have thought of it myself. Will ran into him at the post office this morning—well, you know about that, Emily. He said they had a such a good gossip after you left. I don’t know what you were talking about the other day. According to Will, Matthew is very nice. You’d think he grew up here.”

  “They have nice men in other parts of the world, too, Mom.”

  Edith flushed. “You know that isn’t what I meant.” She scooped the heap of baby clothes into the trunk and closed the lid. “Speaking of nice men, Emily, did you know John Ramsey’s coming home?”

  “I heard. In a couple of weeks, for a visit.”

  “Did you hear the whole story?”

  “Mom, don’t.”

  “She’s going to hear sooner or later. Later wouldn’t be good, would it? If she walked into the grocery store and saw them shopping, how would she feel then?”

  “I guess he isn’t coming alone,” Emily said.

  “He’s bringing a woman. Someone said it’s his fiancée.”

  “We broke up when we were eighteen, Aunt Edith.”

  “It seems like yesterday, doesn’t it?”

  “It seems like a hundred years ago.”

  “Brave girl.” Edith squeezed Emily’s hand. “I’ll get some snacks ready while you two visit.” She avoided looking at her daughter. “Dear Susannah is always hungry.”

  Susannah waited until she was gone. “You look upset, Em. I hope it isn’t all that talk about John.”

  “It isn’t John at all. Mom’s in a bit of a state and I don’t know why. You and Aunt Edith seem to be feeling some tension, too.”

  “We’re both doing what we do, that’s all.”

  Emily smiled. It didn’t take much to get Aunt Edith and Susannah goin
g. “Your poor mom.”

  “Poor Mom!”

  “She really does miss you.”

  “Isn’t it her job to get over it?”

  “Ouch. Something tells me eighteen years from now you’ll think back to this moment.”

  “But my baby will already live in the badlands. He’ll have no reason to move away.” There was a touch of sadness in Susannah’s smile. Her voice changed, putting the subject away. “Now tell me about Matthew Rutherford.”

  “What about him?”

  “He’s been here four days and you’ve seen him every one of them.”

  “Accidentally today.”

  “A happy accident?”

  Emily smiled and nodded. “He’s so easy to talk to, Sue, so interested in what I’ve got to say, even when it’s boring. Yesterday we walked along talking and the next thing I knew an hour had gone by.”

  “That sounds nice. Be careful, though.”

  “Of?”

  “I don’t know.” Susannah seemed to be choosing her words. “I guess I mean, in case his interest gets the better of you.”

  “Are you seeing a big bad wolf, Sue? I’m kind of old to worry about that.”

  “Not a wolf, and not a little girl in the woods. But you’re usually the listener around here. I don’t want you to mistake his listening for—”

  “For genuine interest in me?” Emily had to interrupt. Susannah’s suggestion stung.

  “I’m putting this badly.”

  Emily couldn’t believe she had almost snapped at her swollen-footed, seven-and-a-half-month pregnant cousin. “I’ll keep it in mind. But I’m all grown up. I can handle being hurt, and if Matthew wants to lead me down the garden path while he’s here I wouldn’t be unwilling.”

  Susannah looked surprised, maybe even just this side of shocked. That was the trouble with being the youngest.

  “You’ve been hurt a couple of times.”

  “Who hasn’t? Both times I had a choice and I didn’t choose the guy. Anyway, it isn’t an issue with Matthew. He’ll be gone soon.” She was aware of a sinking feeling as she said it. “In the meantime, what’s wrong with enjoying his company? He’s different. Surprising. I was planning to make raspberry jam this week. I like making jam, but hanging around with Matthew is better.”

  The afternoon was all downhill after that. Uncle Will, Martin and Alex came back from changing the bearing on the combine in time to hear the end of the conversation and of course the teasing began right on schedule.

  Not from Alex. He just checked his wife’s feet and went into the house for some cooling peppermint lotion, but Martin went on about seizing the opportunity, the day and the bull by the horns until Susannah told him, firmly, to shut up. They spent the next half hour making him feel better while Emily tried to batten down her unreasonable envy that Susannah not only had a gorgeous man in her life, but a gorgeous man who liked to rub her tired feet.

  CHAPTER SIX

  MATTHEW PUT ASIDE the file he’d been reading and answered the telephone. “Hey. What have you got?”

  He listened. No arrests, no aliases. A couple of speeding tickets, one driving under the limit.

  “The paleontologist? What about him?… On a regular basis? Good to know. Talk to you later.”

  He checked his watch. Time for a quick breakfast and a shower before picking up Emily.

  THE CAT PREFERRED dealing with the world at foot level, but this morning it let Emily pick it up and hold it in her arms. She didn’t often try because it seemed to think the use of claws was a necessity that far off the ground.

  “Today’s going to be very busy.” She rubbed under its chin. “Pine Point in the morning, vacuuming for Grandma in the afternoon. I don’t know when I’m going to read that pile of library books.”

  She grimaced at a sharp jab and quickly set the cat down. “That’s what we should call you. Dagger. All right, let’s find you some breakfast.”

  The cat leapt to the steps and waited for her to open the door, then trotted to the cupboard where the pet food was kept. Emily’s mother was at the table paging through a cookbook. Billowing steam filled the air above the stove.

  “Mom, the kettle.”

  Julia looked up, unfocused and blinking. “Oh!” She hurried to switch off the stove, gasping as she touched the handle and moved the kettle to a cold burner.

  Emily shook dry food into a dish on the floor, spilling half of it when the cat pushed its way in before she was done. By the time she’d swept and put the broom away her mother still hadn’t budged from the stove or poured the boiled water into the teapot.

  “Are you sure you won’t come to Pine Point this morning? Some fresh air and sunshine would do you good.”

  “Do you damage, too.”

  So that was how things were going to be.

  Movement outside the front window caught Emily’s eye. Hamish had pulled himself up and was walking stiffly toward the driveway.

  “That must be Matthew now.”

  “All of a sudden it’s always Matthew.”

  “I thought you liked him.”

  “I like him once a week.”

  Emily smiled. “Things will get back to normal in a few days.” Her mother looked so dejected. “Hamish misses you.”

  Julia half turned. “He does?”

  “You’ve hardly left the house except for the wedding. Why don’t you pick some lettuce before the heat makes any more of it go to seed? Then you could spend time with him.”

  “I didn’t know he missed me.” The thought quickly took root. Julia collected her hat, gloves and garden trug and went outside, calling for the dog.

  Emily followed as far as the step. “Do you have a key to let yourself back in? I should lock the door.”

  Hamish looked almost sprightly greeting Julia. The two of them headed off, giving no sign they had heard Emily’s voice.

  She tried to pull the storm door shut. As usual its edges had expanded in the humidity, and it stuck. She kept pulling until she heard it click into place. Looking locked would have to do.

  WHILE HAMISH FOLLOWED Julia into the garden, his tail wagging gently, Emily settled into the passenger seat of Matthew’s car. It had the cleanest interior she’d ever seen, especially so soon after a long drive. Usually she could tell something about people from the inside of their cars—like whether they ate fast food while driving or what kind of dog they had. She supposed she could tell that Matthew was neat.

  “Your mother doesn’t want to come with us?”

  “I couldn’t persuade her. A quiet morning is probably best for her, anyway.”

  His hand rested on the gearshift. “You said you’re going to your grandmother’s this afternoon. Is a quiet morning best for you?”

  The thoughtful tone touched her. “A morning in town is best for me.” She handed him a small manila envelope. “My grandmother had a few pictures you might be able to use. She doesn’t think Daniel has the same ones.”

  Matthew thanked her and promised to return the photographs after making copies, but he didn’t open the envelope. When he reached over the seat to put it in the back she saw past the unfastened first button of his shirt to a shadowed collarbone and the rise of chest muscle. She turned to look out the window instead, at the sprawling caragana bushes and the weeds sprouting at the edge of the driveway.

  “I’d better get busy or this place will be a jungle.”

  He did up his seat belt again and backed out to the road. “Don’t you have someone to help you?”

  “Sometimes Uncle Will or one of my cousins comes by to cut grass or prune branches.”

  The car moved along Robbs’ Road, slowly at first and then gathering speed.

  “Careful, Matthew.”

  He touched the brakes lightly, almost bringing the car to a stop. “Of what? I don’t see anything.”

  She pointed at the road ahead, at small, dark, nearly motionless blobs. “Toads. And frogs.”

  He looked at her in disbelief. “You’re joking, right
?”

  “Well, you don’t want to squish them, do you?”

  “How about flies and grasshoppers? Should I be careful of those, too?”

  She smiled. “I do have a soft spot for grasshoppers. There’s a book at school I always read to the grade ones. The main character is a grasshopper. An endearing grasshopper.”

  “I must have missed that one.” Matthew let the car ease forward. He steered left first, then back to the center of the road, where he paused while a bigger toad hopped out of the way. He angled left again, then right. “Do we do this all the way to Pine Point?”

  “Just on this stretch of road, because of the creek.”

  “I can avoid them with the front tires, Emily, but I have no idea what the back ones are doing.”

  “You’re trying. That’s the main thing.”

  After a quick, puzzled glance in her direction he kept his eyes on the road. “If you need help with the yard, aren’t there teenagers looking for after-school work, or retired farmers who want a part-time job?”

  “A hired man, you mean? That involves wages, Matthew.”

  They were on the creek road now, headed toward town.

  “You know, despite being from the city, and a big, eastern city at that, you’re just as—how shall I put this?—just as inquisitive as anyone from around here.”

  A quick, sheepish smile relaxed his face. “I’m only a couple of generations away from Three Creeks, remember.”

  Two whole lifetimes. Long enough to make him a different kind of person. She didn’t want him to fit a more familiar pattern.

  Although if he did, it might help her deal with him sensibly, until he went back to Ottawa. This morning she hadn’t been sensible at all. They weren’t going on a date. She was only helping him get a better feel for his family history. Even so, she had spent almost an hour in front of her mirror, holding up outfit after outfit, thinking of the response he’d had to the blue dress.