But they soon discovered that the earth knew the date on the calendar even if the sky had forgotten, because the ground was chill, even beneath their blanket. It wasn’t long before Royal rose and extended his hand to Peggy.
“Are you ready?” he asked her.
She smiled at him as she stood up.
“Are we leaving?” Hannah asked as she struggled to her feet, with Gray’s help.
“No need if you don’t want to. Thought we’d go for a stroll,” Royal said. “You coming, or staying?” he asked Gray.
“Oh, coming, of course,” Hannah said at once, brushing crumbs from her gown and readying to go, alarmed at Peggy’s slight frown, and so more determined than ever to walk with them.
“Then, best put these things away,” Royal said on a sigh, bending to pack up the remains of their lunch.
“Oh. Have you changed your mind? Are we going then?” Hannah asked, disappointed and embarrassed, understanding, for the first time, how awkward a chore it was to be a chaperon.
“Then, yes. Now, no,” Royal said, as he lifted the basket, and Gray grinned at him. “Have to put these things back in the buggy before the critters find them.”
“The woods are full of creatures just waiting to share our lunch,” Gray explained, slipping a bit of bread into his pocket. “Come on. I’ll show you.”
“But they…” Hannah protested, struggling to free her hand from his light clasp, looking over her shoulder as she saw Peggy and Royal strolling off down a path in the opposite direction, “are going that way.”
He stood still. “Yes, they are,” he said seriously. “And I think you should let them. Listen. Royal’s serious about that girl. You don’t have to believe me,” he said in exasperation as she craned her neck to see the tall cowboy and her friend Peggy, hand in hand, disappearing around a curve in the path. “Just use your head. Do you think he’s the sort of man to throw her down on the ground and have his way with her?”
She spun around to stare at him for his plain speaking.
“Well, he’s not,” Gray said. “He just wants to get to know her, and maybe steal a kiss or two. She doesn’t have a home here, and he’s a long way from his, so they can’t sit out on a back porch. She won’t see him at night, anyway. And we’re not in New York, so he can’t take her to a ballgame or a zoo, or for a boat ride. Lord! I don’t know how they do it in the East, but around here we expect a couple to have a little privacy before they make up their minds for certain. He’s dead serious, that I promise you.
“And he’s got money,” he said, as he began to walk alongside the streambed with her, “and he’s a hard worker and very smart, if not formally educated. He’ll devote his life to her, and that’s one worthwhile life, believe me, if he decides to ask for her. Any reason why he shouldn’t that you know?” he asked suddenly. “He is my best friend, and smitten hard. A man doesn’t think too well in that condition. I’d hate to see him hurt.”
“Why…of course not!” she cried, stopping to confront him. “He’d be lucky if she had him. Peggy’s honest, kind, wise, and good. But, she has no money at all, and an enormous family to support.”
“Good,” Gray said, taking her arm, “he’ll love that, because he’s got no family at all.”
“But surely it’s too soon…” Hannah protested. “They scarcely know each other.”
“Yes,” he said patiently, “which is why we’re giving them this time together, isn’t it?”
They walked in silence for a while. The rushing stream glinted in the bright afternoon light, the path they took was covered with the first of the fallen aspen leaves, gold and bronze, laying like scattered handfuls of loose coins on the ground before them. Gray suddenly stopped, held a finger to his lips, and knelt down on one knee, holding out a bit of bread he’d brought with him. Hannah watched and waited, and then had to clasp her hands together in order not to clap them in delight when she saw a small brown creature, no higher than a leaf, separate itself from a tumble of leaves to come out and stand on its tiny hind legs before them. It held its paws together as if to pray for guidance about what to do as it eyed the bit of bread. Then, in a flash, it decided. It raced forward, took the crumb, and skittered away even faster than it had come, tail high.
“Chipmunk,” Gray said, looking back over his shoulder, and seeing her entranced expression, smiled and said, “Come on. Hunker down. You try it next.”
“There’s two!” she breathed a moment later.
A moment after that, there was another, and soon it wasn’t necessary to whisper about how many there were. Because soon after that, she found that though they startled when they first heard human laughter, they learned to ignore it, if the bread crumb was big enough.
“All done, all gone, go back to gainful employment, varmints,” Gray said at last, dusting the last of the bread from his palms. Then looking at Hannah’s face, he laughed and said, “Oh no, we’re not going back to get them another crumb. They have to take care of themselves out here all winter, a treat’s a treat, but it would be no kindness to get them used to waiting for handouts when the snow is four feet deep.”
He stood and gave her both hands to help her up. In the moment when she rose, her numbed knees caused her to lose her footing, and so she accidentally measured her length against him. She pulled back from him as quickly as thechipmunks had at first. He smiled down at her, and she spoke up hastily, for though flustered, she was too aware of the nature of that newly lazy smile beneath his flaxen mustache. “Four feet? Does it snow that much here, then?” she asked quickly.
“Then, yes,” he said slowly, gazing at her mouth.
“No,” she said at once, and then, not knowing what to say in light of what she saw in his eyes, she dared in her panic to put her gloved hand to his lips. “No, it would be a mistake,” she said.
He took her hand and kissed it lightly, and then tucked it entirely in his, “Feels damned stupid to kiss a glove,” he commented, before he asked, “Why would it be a mistake?”
Now that they were talking about it, she relaxed. Once a man got to talking, she knew, the immediate danger was past.
“Because I’m from the theater,” she jested, “where only the villain wears a mustache.”
