PART 4
Nat crossed his arms over his knees, burying his face. He felt terrible. All he had wanted was to surprise Mrs. Jo with a birthday picnic, and she’d run off into the house, crying.
“I knew it wouldn’t work. I just knew it.” He mumbled, feeling tears of utter failure burning at the back of his eyes.
“Nat?”
He immediently straightened, hastily wiping under his eyes to make sure there were no tears.
“Yeah?”
“Are ya okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Nat tried to sound convincing.
“Are ya sure?” Nick walked up and hesitantly took a seat beside him.
“I said I was fine,” he said again.
Nick shrugged and clapped his hands on his knees. “Okay, I’s just makin’ sure you were all right. Got worried about ya when I couldn’t find ya after ya ran into the woods.”
Nat didn’t say anything. His shoulders fell, as another burdening wave of failure settled over him.
After a few minutes, Nick spoke. “Well, since ya’re all right, I best be gettin’ on with the rest of my work. See ya, ‘round, Nat,” he patted Nat’s shoulder reassuringly as he turned to walk away.
“Nick?” Nat suddenly called, turning around.
Nick stopped, and turned around to look at him. “Yeah?”
With teary eyes, he asked, choking, “what did I do wrong?”
After a quiet, rather tense dinner, everyone retired to their rooms.
“What is wrong with Aunt Jo? Did you see the hurt look on Nat’s face when she ran into the house?” Bess asked, collapsing heavily on her bed. “He worked so hard to plan this for her…”
Nan frowned, rolling over on her bed. “I don’t know. She’s been actin’ kinda weird lately, and I don’t this it’s ‘cause she’s a year older. Somethin’s really wrong with her,” she ‘diagnosed’.
“Why did she act as though we had done something terrible when we brought her the breakfast tray?” Bess was discouraged, and hurt – although, probably nothing like Nat was.
“She shoulda just told us she didn’t want anythin’. How were we supposed to know she didn’t want anythin’?” Nan pointed out, mildly miffed.
Bess dipped her brows, staring out the window in thought. “I don’t think…I don’t think…” She let her sentence fall, not quite knowing how to explain whatever it was she was trying to explain.
“You don’t think what ?”
“I don’t think, that she…That she didn’t want us to do something for her, I think it was more like, like, she trying to fight – to keep away something. And then when we surprised her with the picnic, it…It…Scared her. Like she wanted us to do something, but she was frightened and didn’t want to hurt our feelings with telling us not to. But when we did , it just… Do you get what I mean?” Bess asked, seeing Nan’s perplexed look.
“I don’t get anythin’ ya just said—”
“I knew it didn’t make sense,” she dropped her hands in frustration.
“Well, if ya’d let me talk, I’ll take a guess at what you said. What you’re tryin’ to say is that Mrs. Jo thought she could handle us doing something for her birthday, but when it happened, she got scared and ran away from it?”
Bess looked up. “Yes,” she nodded her head. “Yes, that’s it. That’s what I meant.”
Nan smiled, but then frowned. “Now we just have to figure out what it was that she’s scared and running away from.”
With a sigh, both girls set to thinking.
Jo, exhausted from lack of sleep and crying, wearily climbed from her bed and walked to the window. She pushed away the lace window treatment and looked out, her gaze resting on the barn.
Nick’s light was out, which meant he was sleeping, as well as the rest of Plumfield was.
Penny… She murmured, thinking. Her gaze quickly went back to empty side of the bed. Fritz… This will be the first time he doesn’t know I’m sneaking out, Jo swallowed, quickly blinking away her tears.
Without another thought, she pulled on her robe and quietly padded down the stairs. Jo hurried through the yard for the barn.
After bridling Penny, she led her out, climbed aboard, and headed for the boulder by the creek.
Nick rolled over, slowly blinking his eyes. Something had roused him from his sleep, but he didn’t know what it was. Outside, it was something outside…That he wasn’t used to hearing the middle of the night.
Getting up from the bed, he walked over to the window, gazing out just in time to see someone cantering into the woods on Penny.
“Good gosh, somebody’s stealin’ Penny,” with a sudden burst of adrenaline, he jerked on his boots and coat, wasting not time.
After throwing a bridle on Marty, he pressed the gelding into a gallop and followed the path where the thief had just ridden. He wasn’t going to let that person steal Jo’s horse…
After they got into the woods, Nick pulled Marty back to a quiet trot, seeing Penny up ahead.
But the thief was no longer riding her.
Musta stopped to get some water… He thought, slowly urging Marty forward.
Penny swished her tail, grazing peacefully in a small patch of winter grass near the big boulder by the creek.
“Boulder by the creek… Penny grazed,” Jo’s words wafted through his mind as he saw the copper mare grazing.
“That’s gotta mean…” He pulled his gaze up to the big boulder, seeing Jo’s silhouette against the bright moon. Cautiously, he slipped from Marty’s back and slapped his reins around a bush before quietly walked forward.
This seems like a good time ta talk to ‘er. He walked forward. Okay, so maybe it doesn’t, but when is it ever going to be a good time to talk to Jo about something like this?
Taking a deep breath, Nick straightened his hat and walked forward.
PART 5
