Joseph looked over his daughter’s head at her. He found himself smiling. She was very obviously a woman accustomed to managing girls.
But Lizzie looked up, pale and frightened.
“Mother said I was never to leave the house and garden and that I must never walk fast,” she said. “And Miss Edwards said…”
But she paused in the middle of the sentence, and before Joseph could speak, she grinned—an expression he saw far too rarely on her face. It made her look downright mischievous.
“But Miss Edwards is gone. Papa sent her away this morning and gave her money for six months.”
“Your mother was a wise lady,” Miss Martin told her. “You should indeed remain at home unless you are accompanied by someone you trust. And you should always walk with caution when you are alone. But today you are with your papa, whom you trust more than anyone else you have known, I daresay, and you are certainly not alone. If you hold your papa’s arm and take mine too, we will be cautiousforyou and see that you come to no harm. I believe your papa trusts me.”
“Certainly I do,” he said, still smiling at her over Lizzie’s head.
“Shall we try it?” she asked.
Lizzie reached out a hand, and Miss Martin drew it through her arm. And they walked sedately onward in a tight line until Joseph realized Miss Martin was increasing the pace. He grinned and increased it even more. Lizzie, clinging tight, chuckled suddenly and then shrieked with laughter.
“We really arewalking,” she cried.
He felt the ache of unshed tears in his throat.
“And so we are,” he said. “Perhaps we should run?”
They did so for a very short distance before slowing to a walk again and then stopping altogether. They were all laughing by then, and Lizzie was panting too.
He met Miss Martin’s eyes over the top of Lizzie’s head again. She was flushed and bright-eyed. Her slightly faded cotton dress was creased and the brim of her straw hat—the same one she had worn to the garden party—had blown out of shape. One errant lock of her hair hung loose about her shoulders. Her face was glistening with moisture.
Suddenly she looked very pretty indeed.
“Oh, listen!” Lizzie said suddenly, her head bent forward, her body very still. “Listen to the birds.”
They all listened intently, and indeed, there must have been a vast choir of them hidden among the leaves and branches of the trees, all singing their hearts out. It was a lovely summer sound, so easily missed when there was so much else to occupy the eyes or the mind.
Miss Martin was the first to move. She released Lizzie’s arm and stepped in front of her.
“Lizzie,” she said, “lift your face to the sun. Here, let me fold back this wide brim on your bonnet so that you can feel the lovely heat on your cheeks and eyelids. Breathe it in as you listen to the birds.”
“But Mother said—” Lizzie began.
“And she was very wise,” Miss Martin told her, folding back the soft brim to expose his daughter’s pale, thin face and her blind eyes. “No lady exposes her complexion to the sun long enough to bronze or burn her skin. But it is actually good to do so for a few minutes at a time. The warmth of the sun on the face is very good for the spirits.”
Ah, why had he never thought of that for himself?
Thus permitted, Lizzie tipped back her head so that the light and heat were full on her face. Her lips parted after a few moments and she slid her hand free of Joseph’s arm and held up her hands to the sun, palms out.
“Oh,” she said on a long sigh while Joseph felt that ache in his throat again.
She stood like that for some time until with sudden fright she pawed at the air with one hand.
“Papa?”
“I am right here, sweetheart,” he said, but he did not reach for her as he would normally have done. “I am not going to leave you. Neither is Miss Martin.”
“The sundoesfeel good,” she said, and, still holding up her hands, she turned to her right and then kept turning very slowly until she was facing almost in the direction from which she had started. The sun’s warm rays must have been her guide.
She laughed with the sheer carefree happiness of any child.
“Perhaps now,” Miss Martin said, “we should return to the blanket and have some tea. It is never good to overdo any exercise—and I am hungry.”
