Page 75 of The Giver of Stars
‘Three families who wouldn’t let me so much as hand over a book unless we read Bible stories, one slammed door up by those new houses near Hoffman, but Mrs Cotter seems to have come back round now she understands we’re not trying to tempt her into the ways of the flesh, and Doreen Abney says can she have the magazine with the recipe for the rabbit pie as she forgot to write it out two weeks ago.’ Kathleen’s saddlebag landed with a thump on the desk. She turned to look at Alice and rubbed dirt from her hands.
‘Oh, and Mr Van Cleve stopped me in the street to tell me that we were an abomination and the sooner we were gone from this town the better.’
‘I’ll show him abomination,’ said Beth, darkly.
By mid-March, Beth had returned to work full-time, but nobody had the heart to tell Kathleen she was no longer needed. Mrs Brady, who was a fair woman if a little unbending,had declined to draw Izzy’s wage since she had gone, and Margery simply handed the little brown paper packet directly to Kathleen. It was something of a relief, as she had been paying her out of her own pocket with the few savings she had hidden since her father’s death. Twice Kathleen’s mother-in-law had come by the library to bring her children and show them what their mama was engaged in, her voice filled with pride. The children were great favourites among the women, who showed them the newest books and let them sit on the mule, and there was something in Kathleen’s slow smile, and the genuine warmth of her mother-in-law towards her, that made everyone feel a little better.
Realizing Alice would not be budged on the matter of returning to the house, Mr Van Cleve had taken a new tack, insisting she leave town, that she wasn’t wanted here, pulling alongside her in his car as she headed out on her early-morning rounds so that Spirit’s eyes rolled white and she pranced sideways to get away from the man bellowing out of the driver’s window.
‘You got no way to support yourself. And that library’s going to be finished in a matter of weeks. I’ve heard it from the governor’s office himself. You ain’t coming back to the house, then you’d best find somewhere else. Somewhere back in England.’
She had learned to ride with her face fixed straight ahead, as if she couldn’t hear him, and this would enrage him more so that he would invariably end up shouting halfway down the road, while Bennett slunk down in the passenger seat.
‘You ain’t even all that pretty any more!’
‘Do you think Margery is really okay with me staying at the cabin?’ she would ask Fred afterwards. ‘I don’t want tobe in the way. But he’s right. I don’t have anywhere else to go.’
Fred would bite his lip, as if he wanted to say something he couldn’t.
‘I think Margery likes having you around. Like all of us,’ he would answer carefully.
She had started to notice new things about Fred: the confident way his hands rested on horses, the fluidity in the way he moved, not like Bennett who, despite his athleticism, had always seemed uncomfortable, restrained by his own muscles, as if movement could only burst out of him sporadically. She found excuses to stay late in the cabin, helping Sophia, who kept her lips pursed. She knew. Oh, they all knew.
‘You like him, don’t you?’ Sophia asked her outright, one night.
‘Me? Fred? Oh, my. I –’ she stammered.
‘He’s a good man.’ Sophia said it with the emphasis ongood, as if she were comparing him to someone else.
‘Were you ever married, Sophia?’
‘Me, no.’ Sophia raised a thread to her teeth and bit it through neatly. And just at the point when Alice wondered if she had, yet again, been too direct, she added, ‘Loved a man once. Benjamin. A miner. He was best friends with William. We knew each other since we were children.’ She held her stitching up to the lamp. ‘But he’s dead now.’
‘Did he … die in the mines?’
‘No. Some men shot him. He was minding his business, just walking home from work.’
‘Oh, Sophia. I’m so sorry.’
Sophia’s expression was unreadable, as if she had had years of practice in hiding what she felt. ‘I couldn’t stay here for a long time. Took myself off to Louisville and put allmy heart into working at the coloured library there. Built something of a life, though I missed him every day. When I heard William had suffered his accident, I prayed to God not to make me come back here. But, you know, He has His ways.’
‘Is it still difficult?’
‘It was at first. But … things change. Ben died fourteen years ago now. The world moves on.’
‘Do you think … you’ll ever meet anyone else?’
‘Oh, no. That ship has sailed. Besides, I don’t fit nowhere. Too educated for most of the men around here. My brother would say too opinionated.’ Sophia laughed.
‘That sounds familiar,’ said Alice, and sighed.
‘I got William for company. We get by. And I’m hopeful. Things are good.’ She smiled. ‘Got to count your blessings. I enjoy my job. I got friends here now.’
‘That’s a little how I feel, too.’
Almost on impulse, Sophia reached out a slim hand and squeezed Alice’s. Alice squeezed back, struck by the unexpected comfort of a human touch. They held each other’s grip tightly and then, almost reluctantly, released it.
‘I do think he’s kind,’ said Alice, after a moment. ‘And … quite handsome.’
