“I am going to the store.”
“Alone? Do you understand the money part of it all and do you have any?”
“I have a little. I want to see if the store man can get us some books.”
“Can you wait to do that for just a little while? I will get up soon and we can go together.”
“Okay.”
The moment he left she rolled over and closed her eyes. For a few minutes she enjoyed it, but then a nagging thought kept her from falling asleep. Noah was a child. A child would not understand that a little while could be a few hours. He would probably be back in a few minutes. Sighing, she got out of bed and rubbed her hands over her face. She promised herself a nice long nap in the afternoon.
Getting dressed, she washed her face and tied back her hair. After donning her shoes and gathering up little money she had, she trudged down the stairs. She found Noah in the kitchen eating a lovely cooked breakfast. Mabel served her a big cup of coffee the moment she sat down at the table then proceeded to cook her a breakfast. After some coffee, Abbie woke up enough to wonder where the woman got the food.
“Have some supplies come in?” she asked.
“They did. Two full wagons, so your lieutenant brought us over some.”
“That was good of him. I hope they could spare it.”
“I didn’t ask, which was a bit rude of me, but I was not about to do anything to make him take it back.”
“Probably wise.”
“I did make him a nice breakfast from it though.”
Abbie smiled and then proceeded to eat the plateful Mabel set in front of her. She was just wondering if Matthew would come back, when he appeared at the back door and rapped on it. Mabel gave him a gesture to come in and he did, then took a seat opposite her. He looked well rested she thought a little sourly and then felt guilty for the thought.
“Ye are up far earlier than I expected.” He looked at her face. “Earlier than ye wanted to, I suspect.”
“Was that a polite way of telling me I look exhausted?”
He smiled. “My poor attempt at it, aye. Julia?”
“Yes, Julia. She is taking it very hard. It wakes her up in the night.”
“And then wakes ye.” He glanced at Noah who was concentrating on his food. “But I suspicion it was not Julia’s grief that woke ye up this morning.”
“I didn’t wake her up. I was just looking at her to see if she would wake up and then she opened her eyes.”
Abbie could tell that the way Matthew had a hasty drink of the coffee Mabel set in front of him that he was fighting to hide a grin. “Noah wants to go to the store to see if he can get Mr. Darby to get some children’s books in.”
“Ah. Read all the ones ye have, eh?”
“Yes,” said Noah.
“Weel, I can have a look through town and see what I can find if you want.”
“That would be helpful, but I don’t think we ought to just steal from anyone who left them behind.”
“Nay, it isn’t stealing, it is borrowing. We will put them back when they are done.”
She rolled her eyes and pushed her empty plate aside. Seeing that Noah was done she added his empty plate to hers and carried them to the sink. Then she sat back down to finish her coffee. When she finished her coffee she looked at Noah.
“We can go now.”
The boy jumped out of his seat and waited with obvious impatience for her to join him, but Abbie looked at Matthew. “Perhaps I will see you later.”
“I think that is a real possibility.”
