Page 28 of The Lost Hours
I took the binder, its weight letting me think of possibilities. “I will—I promise.” I clutched the binder to my chest. “But you mentioned something earlier—something about your grandmother’s scrapbook?”
She straightened, and tilted her head to the side just like I’d seen Lucy do before she spoke. “Malily asked for it back, so I gave it to her. She said she didn’t care about the rest of it, but she wanted the scrapbook. Actually, it’s not even a scrapbook—it’s just pages that have been torn out. I’m not sure where the rest of it is.”
Her green eyes settled on me and I had to remind myself that she couldn’t see me squirm. “Well, this should be a great boost to my research. Thank you. And I promise to give you a report of anything I find.”
The door flew open and Mardi sauntered in, immediately zeroing in on Helen. She squatted down to scratch behind his ears. “I guess it’s time for bed, hmm?” She turned her face in my direction. “He sleeps at the foot of my bed, guarding me. Don’t think he’d do much to an intruder besides lick him to death, but I appreciate the thought.” She straightened and yawned. “Excuse me. I guess I’m more tired than I thought.” She yawned again as if to accentuate her point. “Tucker is probably still with the girls. If you take a right out of my room and go to the end of the hallway, their door is the last one on the left.” She grinned up at me. “Since they’re here so much, Malily allowed me to design a room for them—I went a little wild with the colors in there, too, but the girls seem to enjoy it. Just stick your head in and let Tucker know that you’re ready to leave. Unless you’d feel more comfortable if I took you myself.”
I resisted the temptation to take her up on her offer. “No, that’s all right. I’m sure I can find it,” I said, wondering briefly if anybody would notice if I just let myself out of the house and made my own way home.
As if reading my thoughts, Helen said, “Tucker would take the cart back to the tabby house anyway, so he might as well drop you off, too. And I’d feel better knowing you made it back safely.”
I felt my way down the dim hallway, avoiding antique tables with vases filled with fragrant flowers and looking for a light switch. I followed the thin glow of light from under a door and stood outside for a moment, listening to Sara’s voice.
I tapped on the door and pushed it open further, then peered inside. Sara and Lucy had matching pink lace-topped canopy beds but both girls were propped up on large pillows on one of them, sharing a book while Lucy read out loud. Tucker sat across the room in a stuffed rocking chair, his elbows on his knees and his fingers steepled as he silently regarded his daughters.
I saw the same bewildered expression that I’d seen at dinner, like that of a man meeting a stranger but recognizing something oddly familiar about them. No one looked up as I stood there and I had just decided to back out quietly and find my own way home when Sara looked at me and smiled.
“Hello, Miss Earlene. Did you come to tuck us in and say good night?”
Her smile was infectious and I smiled back. “Yes, among other things.” I set the notebook down outside the door and entered the room. The walls were painted a faint lavender, matching the lavender shag rug on the floor, and at the top near the ceiling cornice were handpainted nursery rhymes in gold sparkling paint. Helen’s artistic spirit could be seen everywhere, including the cobalt blue rocking chair shaped like a crown that Tucker sat in.
Tucker stood as I entered. “Are you ready to go home?”
“Yes, if it doesn’t inconvenience you at all.” I had trouble meeting his eyes, remembering what I’d thought when I’d first seen him, how fresh his grief was. Being near him felt like an intrusion, as if his dead wife was in the room and I’d interrupted them in conversation.
“Not at all. Let me tuck in the girls and I’ll be ready.”
Sara slid from the bed, her white cotton nightgown brushing the floor as she ran to me. “I want Miss Earlene to tuck me in.”
I reached down to pick her up, managing not to wince as my knee protested at the sudden weight. “I’ve never done it before, but you can teach me, all right?”
I carried Sara over to the other bed and set her down on the side of it.
“It’s easy. I taught Emily, too, and she does everything just like Mama did. We’ve been teaching Daddy, too.”
I glanced over at Tucker, who hadn’t moved from his spot but stood watching Sara and me closely, his hands tucked into his pockets.
“Okay,” I said, turning back to the little girl. “What do I do first?”
She lay down on her back, her head on the lace-covered pillow. “You tuck the sheets all the way around me so that they’re really, really tight. Like a mummy, except you leave my arms outside.”
She lifted her arms over her head and I did as she asked, not able to resist a quick tickle under her arm. She giggled. “Mama used to do that, too.”
I stilled, staring down at her.Mine did, too,I wanted to tell her.And so did my grandmother.It must have been when I was very young, before I’d grown too wild and my ambitions too elevated for me to take much notice of my grandmother’s quiet presence in my life.
“What’s next?” I asked quietly, watching her pale blue eyes that were so different from her father’s.
She pursed her lips for a moment as if she were thinking. “I say my prayers. Then you kiss me on the forehead and turn off the light.”
I sat down on the edge of the bed and folded my hands. “I’m ready.”
Sara clenched her eyes shut. “God bless Daddy, and Malily, and Lucy, and me, and Odella.” She opened her eye and looked at me for a moment before shutting it tightly again. “And Miss Earlene. God bless Mardi, and all of the horses, especially the mean one with the scar on his side. Please help Daddy fix him, too, so that he’s all better and doesn’t remember any of the bad stuff that happened to him before he came here.” She turned her head to face her sister, who was lying quietly on her side, watching us. “Did I forget anybody, Lucy?”
Lucy nodded her head solemnly and I heard Tucker let out a small breath. “You forgot Mama.”
“Oh, yes,” said Sara, squeezing her eyes shut again. “God bless Mama. Please help her find what she’s looking for.”
A heavy silence descended on the room and I was glad my head was bowed so I wouldn’t have to look at Tucker and he wouldn’t have to see my face as I tried to figure out what Sara meant.
