Thus, on the morning after Liam Kirby had been tried and sentenced in the parlor, Elizabeth was not at first surprised to wake to Curiosity's knock at her door. Plagued by uneasy dreams, she had not slept well and she was glad to let herself be coddled a bit.

"Dr. Todd ain't come back yet," Curiosity said directly, handing Elizabeth a cup.

"He must have had more business to deal with than he expected," Elizabeth murmured. Of all people, she was least comfortable discussing Richard with Curiosity.

"Business, huh." Curiosity shook her head, the tower of her head cloth wobbling a bit with the strength of the motion. "Business waiting for him here, too."

Elizabeth raised a brow, waited.

"Didn't you hear Nathaniel yesterday?"

Bent over her teacup, Elizabeth searched quickly for an answer which would satisfy, but Curiosity seemed not to need one.

"Otter got himself shot and the doctor gone. I was thinking I might just go up there myself, see if they need any help with looking after that wound."

"Oh, yes," Elizabeth agreed, suddenly quite awake. "That's an excellent idea. You could take up some of that poultice you made for Nathaniel's shoulder." She stopped suddenly. Curiosity was looking at her in a way which said more than words could.

"I was thinking I might stop and look at that schoolhouse of yours first. And that maybe you might come along, keep me company." She paused. "It's a long way for an old woman like me up Hidden Wolf."

Many logical replies to this unusual request for Elizabeth's company on an outing went through her head. All of them were familiar to Curiosity. There was something going on, and Elizabeth wasn't sure what it was.

"Father wouldn't like it."

Her lips pursed, Curiosity considered Elizabeth.

"You real worried about keeping your daddy happy these days."

Elizabeth thought hard and came to the conclusion that silence was the only viable strategy. But Curiosity had decided to open this subject, and she wasn't so easily dissuaded.

"You think I ain't seen you, bitin' your lip when the judge talk. Trying to look like you agree when you don't. Settin' your face in a smile when Richard Todd come by making sweet. You got them fooled, all right. But let me tell you, that smile about as believable as teats on a bull. Now you telling me you don't want to go up to Lake in the Clouds when I can see you ready to jump out the window to get there."

Curiosity tapped her foot, once, twice, while Elizabeth squirmed.

"What if I told you a little bird come by this morning and asked me to come up to the lake, and that little bird asked me to bring you along."

Elizabeth felt herself flush. "What did he say exactly?"

""What he?" Curiosity said. "I never said nothing about no he." Unexpectedly, she grinned. "There something you wantin' to tell me?"

It was a temptation. Elizabeth thought that she could trust Curiosity; she was sure of it. But to admit that she was carefully, knowingly, willfully deceiving her father was more than she could do.

"Not yet," Elizabeth said apologetically. "Not quite yet."

Curiosity shook her head slowly, a finger against her mouth. "You know what you're doin', child?"

Suddenly Elizabeth wasn't sure at all. She felt herself very close to tears. "Yes," she said finally.

"Well," said Curiosity, without a smile now. "I believe that you do."

There was a tap at her door, and the judge's voice through it, solicitous: "Are you coming to services this morning, daughter? The Witherspoons have invited us to dine with them afterward."

Elizabeth met Curiosity's eye and her raised brow. "You gonna disappoint that bird?"

There was another tap. "Daughter?"

"Please make my excuses, Father," Elizabeth called to the judge. "I was thinking of a walk."

* * *

They found the schoolhouse just as she had imagined it. It was full of sunlight and smelled of freshly cut timber and strong soap. In the main room there were six six—paned window sashes, two on each wall. From the far side there was a stretch of clear spring sky and the glint of yellow—green on the willows that bordered the lake; from the door there were the deep shadows of the forest. Against the drab green of the hemlock, the delicate branches of a stand of red osier glowed bright in the sun.

"Falling—Day has been here with her girls," observed Curiosity approvingly. "Not a muddy footprint to be seen." Her footsteps sounded through the room. "My, look at this. A study? And a view of the lake from the window. This is prettier than many a cabin in Paradise, Elizabeth."

Elizabeth was silent, because she was afraid that if she spoke she would be overcome by emotion. She walked through the classroom again, the floorboards solid underfoot, to stand in the study. The small window above the desk gave her a view of the little marsh that stood between the clearing and the lake, where the heads of trumpet weed and cinnamon fern were beginning to unfurl themselves.

She turned around to smile at Curiosity. "We'll need curtains."

"My, yes," she agreed. "And a hook rug or two, I'd say."

"I want to go to Lake in the Clouds now," Elizabeth said and she found herself thankful once again, this time for Curiosity's silent acceptance.

* * *

He was gone off into the bush to hunt. Of course. He had told her that in her father's parlor crowded with people, but somehow she hadn't heard it, or hadn't believed him. Elizabeth tried to pay attention to what it was Hawkeye was telling her, but somehow all she could hear was a three—beat refrain that echoed in her head without pause: how could he, how could he, how could he.