Page 36 of The Giver of Stars
The girl looked at him, just to check for her father’s approval.
‘Go on.’
‘I made a pie.’
‘You made a pie? By yourself?’
‘From a recipe. In thatCountry Homemagazine you left us. A peach pie. I would offer you a slice but we ate it all.’
Millie giggled. ‘Daddy ate three bits.’
‘I was hunting up in North Ridge and she got the old range going and everything. And I walked in the door and there was a smell like …’ He lifted his nose and closed his eyes, recalling the scent. His face briefly lost its habitual hardness. ‘I walked in and there she was, with it all laid out on the table. She had followed every one of those instructions to a T.’
‘I did burn the edges a little.’
‘Well, your mama always did the same.’
The three of them sat in silence for a moment.
‘A peach pie,’ said Alice. ‘I’m not sure we can keep up with you, young Mae. What can I leave you girls this week?’
‘DidBlack Beautycome in yet?’
‘It did! And I remembered what you said about wanting it so I brought it with me. How about that? Now, the words in this one are a little longer, so you may find it a little harder. And it’s sad in places.’
Jim Horner’s expression changed.
‘I mean for the horses. There are some sad bits for the horses. The horses talk. It’s not easy to explain.’
‘Maybe I can read to you, Daddy.’
‘My eyes ain’t too good,’ he explained. ‘Can’t seem to aim the way I used to. But we get by.’
‘I can see that.’ Alice sat in the centre of the little cabin that had once spooked her so much. Mae, although only eleven, appeared to have taken charge of it, sweeping and organizing so that where it had once seemed bleak and dark, there was now a distinct homeliness, with a bowl of apples in the centre of the table and a quilt across the chair. She packed up her books and confirmed that everyone was happy with what she had brought. Millie hugged her around her neck and she held her fiercely. It was some time since anybody had pulled her close and it provoked strange, conflicting feelings.
‘It’s a whole seven days till we see you again,’ the girl announced solemnly. Her hair smelt of wood smoke and something sweet that existed only in the forest. Alice breathed it in.
‘It certainly is. And I can’t wait to see how much you’ve read in the meantime.’
‘Millie! This one’s got drawings in it too!’ Mae called, from the floor. Millie released Alice and hunkered down by her sister. Alice watched them for a moment, then made her way to the door, shrugging on her coat, a once fashionable tweed blazer that was now scuffed with moss and mud and sprouted messy threads where it had caught on bushes and branches. The mountain had grown distinctly colder these last days, as if winter were settling into its foundations.
‘Miss Alice?’
‘Yes?’
The girls were bent overBlack Beauty, Millie’s finger tracing the words as her sister read aloud.
Jim looked behind him, as if making sure their focus was elsewhere. ‘I wanted to apologize.’
Alice, who had been tying her scarf, stopped.
‘After my wife passed I was not myself for a while. Felt like the sky was falling in, you know? And I was not …hospitablewhen you first came by. But these last couple of months, seeing the girls stop crying for their mama, giving them something to look forward to every week, it’s – it’s … Well, I just wanted to say it’s much appreciated.’
Alice held her hands in front of her. ‘Mr Horner, I can honestly tell you that I look forward to seeing your girls just as much as they look forward to my visits.’
‘Well, it’s good for them to see a lady. I didn’t realize till my Betsy was gone how much a child misses the more … feminine side of things.’ He scratched his head. ‘They talk about you, you know, how you speak and all. Mae there says she wants to be a librarian.’
‘She does?’
