Page 68 of The Giver of Stars
Good citizens of Baileyville – please be
aware of the moral danger
posed by the Packhorse Library.
All right-minded citizens are
advised to decline its use.
Meeting hall, Tuesday 6 p.m.
OUR TOWN’S MORAL RECTITUDE
IS AT STAKE.
‘Moral rectitude. From a man who smashed a girl’s face halfway across his dining table.’ Margery shook her head.
‘What are we going to do?’
‘Go to the meeting, I guess. We’re right-minded citizens after all.’ Margery looked sanguine. But Alice noted the way her hand closed around the leaflet, and a tendon ran tight along her neck. ‘And I’m not letting that old –’
The door flew open. It was Bryn, his cheeks pink and his breath heavy from running.
‘Miss O’Hare? Miss O’Hare? Beth’s took a fall on some ice and broke her arm up real bad.’
They bolted from the library and followed him up the snow-covered road, where they were met by the bulky figureof Dan Meakins, the local blacksmith, carrying a whey-faced Beth across his chest. She was clutching her arm and there were vivid dark shadows under each eye, as if she hadn’t slept for a week.
‘Horse went down on a patch of ice just by the gravel pit,’ Dan Meakins said. ‘Checked him over and I think he’s okay. But it looks like her arm took the full force of it.’
Margery stepped closer to peer at Beth’s arm and her heart sank. It was already swollen and dark red three inches above the wrist.
‘You’re making a fuss,’ said Beth, through clenched teeth.
‘Alice, fetch Fred. We need to get her to the doctor at Chalk Ridge.’
An hour later the three of them stood in the little treatment room at Dr Garnett’s as he carefully set the injured arm between two splints, humming quietly as he bound it. Beth sat with her eyes closed and her jaw tight, determined not to let the pain show, consistent with her upbringing as the sole girl in a family of brothers.
‘I can still ride, though, right?’ said Beth, when the doctor had finished. She held her arm in front of her as he looped the sling around her neck and tied it carefully.
‘Absolutely not. Young lady, you need to spend at least six weeks resting it. No riding, no lifting things, no banging it against anything.’
‘But I have to ride. How else am I supposed to get the books out?’
‘I don’t know if you heard about our little library, Doctor –’ Margery began.
‘Oh, we’ve all heard about your library.’ He allowed himself a wry smile. ‘Miss Pinker, at the moment the fracture appears clean, and I’m confident it should mend well. But Icannot stress enough how important it is to protect it from further injury. If an infection were to set in, then we could face having to amputate.’
‘Amputate?’
Alice felt something wash over her, revulsion or fear, she wasn’t sure. Beth was suddenly wide-eyed, her previous composure evaporated.
‘We’ll manage, Beth.’ Margery sounded more convincing than she felt. ‘You just listen to the doctor.’
Fred drove as swiftly as he could but by the time they arrived back the meeting had already been going almost half an hour. Alice and Margery crept in at the back of the meeting hall, Alice tipping her hat low over her brow and pulling her hair loose around her face to try to hide the worst of the bruises. Fred followed just behind her, as he had done the whole day, like some kind of guard. The door closed softly behind them. Van Cleve was in such full flow that nobody even stopped to look when they entered.
‘Don’t get me wrong. I amallfor books and learning. My own son Bennett here was valedictorian at the school, as some of you may remember. But there are good books and there are books that plant the wrong kinds of ideas, books that spread untruths and impure thoughts. Books that can, if left unmonitored, causedivisionsin society. And I fear we may have been lax in letting such books loose in our community without applying sufficientvigilanceto protect our young and most vulnerable minds.’
Margery scanned the assembled heads, noting who was there, and who was nodding along. It was hard to tell from behind.
