Till Morning in the Land of Nod.
—Robert Louis Stevenson
Calum and Amy came back to the island that day with the news of their marriage. Georgina went to bed that night thinking things in her life would be better with Amy around.
But the reality was that Calum and Amy were newlyweds. She saw little of Amy after that first day, and when she did, she was always with Calum.
Georgina was happy for Amy and Calum, but watching them almost tore her heart out. They were so in love. They touched. They kissed. They were a couple. In fact they were never alone.
Watching them just made Georgina more aware of the fact that she was all alone. Very much alone. Loneliness was an ache deep inside her.
As the days went on it became harder. She would catch Eachann looking at her with the same uncomfortable tenseness that she had whenever Amy and Calum were with them.
Eachann had spent more time with his children. He’d even talked to them about the tricks they had played on her and made them apologize and promise to behave. They had, too.
He included Graham in most of his daily activities. He took him to the stable, taught him to ride, and had him helping with the chores.
But Kirsty was left with Georgina. They were getting along somewhat better, but only because every time she started to misbehave, Georgina called her on it. So far, it worked.
So as the days passed their life took on more of a routine. As the weather grew colder and the nights longer, they all spent more time together.
Just that night they were all sitting around a toasty fire. The frost was high and cold and the first snow had come and gone the week before.
Eachann was teaching Graham to play chess. But Graham was hiding Eachann’s chess pieces in his pockets when his father wasn’t looking.
When Eachann finally caught on, he gave his son a stern look. “Hand them over.”
Graham had begun to empty his pockets into his father’s big hand. There were chess pieces, string, rocks, a moonsnail and an earth star, two-dried up worms, seashells and a sticky peppermint, small pieces of paper and some keys and old buttons.
He was still emptying his pockets when Georgina looked at Eachann and smiled. “You can tell he’s your son.”
Calum burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Graham asked, as he added a twig shaped like a fork to the pile in his father’s hand.
“You have a lot of things in your pockets, son.”
“I know,” Graham said perfectly seriously. “I’m saving them for parts.”
Eachann laughed along with everyone else and ruffled the boy’s red hair.
Amy and Calum exchanged a kiss, and when Georgina looked away it was straight into Eachann’s serious gaze. The look he gave her warmed her all over, held hers intently as if he were trying to gauge her thoughts.
She turned away, afraid he might actually be able to see what she was thinking, that she didn’t want him to stop looking at her, that she didn’t want him to treat her like his children’s nursemaid.
She felt awkward and out of place, scared because she so desperately wanted to walk over to him, to touch him, to trace his jaw with her hand, and to have him hold her.
But she just sat there, looking calm on the outside and feeling anything but calm on the inside.
The weather grew wild that night too. The wind blew and rattled the windows. There was thunder and hail and enough racket to scare the fur off a rabbit.
It was late when Georgina finally went to bed. She’d been in the kitchen, eating some of David’s sweet potato pie. She was carrying it and a fork to bed with her.
She heard the sound of crying before she even realized what it was. She stopped in the upstairs hallway and listened, then followed the muffled sound.
It was coming from Kirsty’s room.
She stood outside the door, then slowly turned the knob and opened it. The room was dark and it took a moment or two for her eyes to adjust. She tiptoed inside and moved silently to the bed.
