Martha’s smile was cold. “I wondered what you were angling for.”

“Yes,” Jemima said. “I sent your brother to school so you could get to know him and see that he is no threat to you or your sister. Will you take him in, or not?”

“You can leave now,” Martha said. “And I’ll send word to you tomorrow.”

She went into the house and closed the door behind herself.

“We have to leave today,” Focht said to Daniel. “Within the hour we’ll be gone. I’ve paid Mrs. LeBlanc in advance for room and board for the boy and two servants. If you take him in, send Lorena back to Boston if you want, but leave Harper. Nicholas should have someone familiar nearby.”

Daniel counted to three and then he turned to look at Jemima. He said, “You don’t fool me, you know. As sure as you’re standing there smug and superior, I know you have got some scheme going. I don’t know what it is you want, but you can be sure I’ll figure that out soon enough. There’s one more thing I can promise you. Nobody will take revenge on that boy. That’s not the way we think, but you wouldn’t understand that. Now you are trespassing on Hidden Wolf. Get gone, and don’t come back here uninvited.”

Jemima’s jaw tightened and her eyes narrowed. He might have been able to drive her further, all the way to that place where she could no longer conceal her real motivations, but Focht put a hand on her shoulder.

Finally she drew in a deep breath, and turned her back on Daniel. He stood and watched them go, and then waited until he had mastered his breathing and his temper both. Then he went in to see what he could do for Martha.

Chapter XLVIII

Sunday mornings toward the end of the school year, Birdie was preoccupied with what she considered a great responsibility: One way or another, they had to come up with a prank before class let out for the summer.

The students had been talking about it among themselves for a long time, because while it could be great fun, it was never easy. Daniel had rules: Nobody could get hurt. No property could be destroyed, and no student held up to mockery or ridicule.

The teacher was another matter entirely; even Daniel understood that much. He had come up with pranks in his own time, some of which were still talked about. It was hard being the youngest of Nathaniel Bonner’s children.

On Sunday morning Birdie called a meeting in Curiosity’s hay barn right after breakfast and chores. Of the boys, Nathan, Henry, and Adam were there, and of the girls, Isabel, Mariah, and Amelie. The youngest three had to be distracted somehow, but fate had provided: This morning Callie and Ethan had come to spend the day. Ethan had understood right away what was going on, and drawn the littlest of the little people into a game of hide-and-seek.

Now Birdie explained her plan, and then she explained it again.

“Wait,” Isabel said. “Whose chickens are we going to use? Who has four chickens all the same color we can borrow?”

“We don’t need four chickens,” Adam explained. “Haven’t you been listening? We need three. We number them one, three, and four, and we let them out in school.”

The boys put back their heads and laughed, so delighted were they with this plan. Birdie thought it was a good prank, maybe her best yet, and their reaction put her in a fine mood.

The girls were excited too, but they had a more practical approach to these things.

Mariah said, “Maybe Aunt Lily can make us the signs to pin to their backs.”

“I suppose we could ask her,” Birdie said. “But I’d worry about her saying something to Daniel.”

They all considered this for a moment and decided that it was true; they couldn’t really tell any grown-up about this before the fact. They talked too much among themselves and anyway, Daniel would be on the lookout for hints. He knew something would happen, and he knew Birdie would be at the middle of it.

“How hard can it be to make some signs?” Nathan said. “All we need is paper and ink. I can do that part.”

“But what if it rains,” Amelie said, “and the ink runs?”

“Never mind the ink and the rain,” Henry said. “We don’t even have chickens yet.”

“We could pay,” Mariah said. “I’ve got five pennies. We could rent them.”

Nathan held out his hands as if to offer a question. “Who ever heard of renting out chickens?”

“Biddy Ratz rents out George. I had to fetch him for Curiosity just a few days ago,” Adam said.

Isabel said, “But a goose is another matter entirely.”

“You know anybody who’s got two geese look exactly the same? And why did Curiosity rent a goose in the first place?” Nathan was getting cranky.

“Slugs,” said the others in unison.

“George is mighty fond of slugs and they’ve been a plague in the garden, that’s what Curiosity says,” said Henry. “And she don’t much like geese so she just borrows Biddy’s now and then.”

Birdie already knew where she would get the hens, but the discussion had run away and she couldn’t see a way to reel it back in. And besides, it made her laugh.

“What about Missy and Ma’am and Mimi?” Isabel said.

Finally, Birdie thought.

“Curiosity would skin us alive,” said Henry.

“She likes those chickens better than she likes us.” Mariah wrinkled her nose.

It was an exaggeration, but not much of one. Curiosity had a flock of eight hens and one rooster that she wouldn’t let anybody else care for. In the evening she went herself to make sure they were snug in the henhouse before full dark, and if she heard them fussing in the night she’d go out with a stave in case she needed to beat back a sassy wolf or a wolverine looking for a way in.