What would she look like now?
Who would she look like?
What was she like?
Where was she?
“We call him Shifless ‘cause my papa said so,” the voice revealed sweetly.
Again, Elizabeth whirled about on her mare, searching. At last she spotted the small girl perched precariously upon a windowsill on the second story, and her heart leapt within her breast.
As tiny as she was, the tree limbs had completely concealed her from view until now. As Elizabeth stared, bewitched, her heartbeat accelerated, beating into her throat. In that instant she felt near to bursting with pride... and so many other emotions, she couldn’t begin to understand them all. As she watched, the child rocked forward, coming alarmingly close to losing her balance, and Elizabeth’s breath snagged. She froze in the saddle, wholly terrified that the child would fall to her death right before her eyes.
“Well... you seeee...” The girl shrugged matter-of-factly. “He usa be called Smiley,” she said smartly, “but my papa said he was too shifless to smile.” She proffered a dainty upturned hand, pausing, as though remembering, and then her expression screwed pitifully. “My papa’s gone now,” she revealed, with the innocent bluntness only a child could possess. “He went to heaven in the war.”
Elizabeth was too shaken by the child’s near fall, and too taken aback by her revelation, to reply. She wasn’t even aware that Cutter was no longer beside her on his horse until she spotted him on the trellis, climbing swiftly upward as though he were born to it.
“Who are you?” the little girl asked bravely, tilting forward a little to see better.
Elizabeth cried out in panic, finally discovering her voice. “Please—sit back for me!” she instructed, on the brink of hysteria. Immediately she slid from Cocoa’s back to the ground, hurrying forward, until she stood just below the child’s window, looking up. She struggled to focus her vision.
All at once she was stricken dumb, blinded to everything but the child above her. The most beautiful, if somewhat blurry, little face looked down at her where she stood... small, pert nose, it seemed—like Katherine’s, she thought with melancholy. Dark hair, a mass of ringlets—perhaps her father’s? And the eyes? At this distance, she couldn’t tell.
As Elizabeth stared, transfixed, hot tears pricked at her own eyes. Her throat constricted.
“My name is Katie Lizabeth,” the child declared impulsively, her voice precious.
And again Elizabeth’s heart leapt. A sob escaped her tightening throat as she whispered the name reverently. Katie Elizabeth. Katherine hadn’t forgotten her, after all. Against her will, her vision began to cloud. It had never bothered her much that her vision wasn’t perfect, but at the moment, she loathed that fault in herself.
Elizabeth gulped down the knot that rose in her throat. “Katie Elizabeth?” Elizabeth repeated hoarsely.
The child nodded once, with fervor, smiling. “What’s your name?” she asked boldly.
“My name?” Elizabeth’s voice broke with emotion. “My name... is... is Elizabeth, too,” she answered slowly, her eyes stinging and raw.
“Oh,” Katie replied thoughtfully. She wrinkled her nose prettily, considering that fact a moment. “Well...” She wagged a finger down at Elizabeth brashly. “But I bet you din’t know I hadda aunt named Lizabeth, and she’s coming to get me—my grandpapa says so.” Suddenly her eyes widened. “Oh! Are you my aunt?” she asked hopefully. And then, with a bit of skepticism, she added, “You’re not my aunt, are you?”
Elizabeth’s heart welled with emotion. Yes! she wanted to shout. Yes! Oh, yes! “Well,” she began slowly, her stomach fluttering wildly. She attempted a tremulous smile. “Yes,” she said, at last, choking back her tears. And then, with more force, she repeated, “Yes, Katie, I am.”
With a shriek of delight, Katie surged forward, clapping her hands, and kicking the brick at her feet.
“No, Katie! Sit back before you fall! Where’s your grandfather?”
“Don’ worry,” she boasted to Elizabeth, “I never fall!” But in that moment, Cutter caught her attention. She peered down at him curiously, teetering further.
Elizabeth bit her lip as she watched Cutter quicken his pace, only to slip when a rotten slat gave way. Feeling blindly with the toe of his boot, he regained his footing and began the climb once more. Silently Elizabeth urged him to hurry.
“Is that my uncle climbin’ up the house?” Katie wanted to know. “I climbed up and up, before, but my mama spanked my butt,” she said gravely, nodding. And then her eyes widened in speculation. “I bet you’re gonna spank his! Aren’t ya?”
Elizabeth heard Cutter’s soft chuckle, but had no idea how to respond, even had she been able to. Her thoughts were focused only on Cutter’s ascent. The higher he climbed, the slower he seemed to move, the more the trellis swayed.
“I bet you din’t know that I was this many!” Katie exclaimed suddenly, meeting Elizabeth’s gaze once more. She held up what appeared to be five fingers, and then struggled to get down the fifth. Failing miserably in the endeavor, she thrust her thumb down forcefully with her other hand, releasing the sill in the process... losing her balance.
“Katie!” Elizabeth shrieked, but just as the child toppled forward, Cutter reached her, placing a steadying hand to her small chest.
“Easy there, little gal,” Elizabeth heard him say.
“Oh, but I never fall!” Katie exclaimed indignantly. “I never do!” she insisted at the rise of Cutter’s brow.
