“Why such a hurry to grow up?”

She tried Lily instead.

“How old do you think I’ll have to be?” she asked. Too late she realized that her sister was likely feeling very low herself. She had missed a lot of ice-out parties and now she was going to miss another one.

“Oh, someday,” she said easily. “When you’re old and gray and you have grandchildren of your own.”

In spite of herself, Birdie had to smile at such an odd idea. She decided she had been shirking the job of keeping Lily occupied and distracted, except she did seem to be in a better mood. It was right that she was at home, but Birdie did miss the long afternoons together.

“I think you and I are a great deal alike,” Lily said.

“And what am I like?”

Lily looked out the window and studied what she saw there for a moment. “Not easy. Certainly not complaisant. At odds with the world, and always fighting your way forward. Birdie, I am not scolding you. Those are good qualities in a woman who has dreams for herself. I wish the same for my daughter, though at times I’m sure I’ll wonder what I was thinking.”

Birdie sniffed, mollified. “How do you know it’s a girl?”

The question seemed to catch Lily by surprise. “I’m not sure. It just feels to me as if it must be.”

“Is it worth not going to the ice-out party?”

“I think so,” Lily said. “The ice-out party and much more. And you know, I like the idea of some time with just you and Ma and Curiosity.”

“That’s good,” Curiosity said as she came into the parlor. “’Cause that’s just what I had in mind.”

Curiosity said, “I been thinking about this all day, just the four of us. Here’s your mama with the tea.”

“Gingerbread,” Birdie breathed happily. “Oh, gingerbread.”

“We got to have a little party of our own, don’t we?” Curiosity leaned over and tugged on Birdie’s plait.

It took a moment to pass the teacups and plates, and then there was silence while proper attention was paid to the food. Birdie looked through her mother’s drawing exercises while she ate, and held each one up to make a comment or ask a question.

“You see,” Elizabeth said to her. “I am struggling, but I think I grasp the concept. Lily is a good teacher.”

Lily swallowed and said, “Ma, you’re the teacher. You and Daniel. I don’t have the patience.”

“You’re patient when you’re drawing,” Birdie said. “You concentrate so hard I think you wouldn’t notice if the roof fell in.”

“That’s different,” Curiosity said. “That’s Lily’s gift. Handed down from your daddy, Elizabeth.”

The silence that followed was so sharply defined, Elizabeth imagined she could hear the beat of her own heart. Everyone was looking at her. Birdie with some confusion, Lily with dawning surprise. Curiosity sat, her hands folded in front of her, nothing of fear or hope in her expression. Elizabeth had been waiting many years for Curiosity to raise this subject, but now that it was here she felt a trickle of fear at the back of her throat.

“What?” Birdie said, looking between them. “What?”

Elizabeth took a sip of tea to steady herself, and then she put the cup down on the table.

“Is it time?” She wanted to look away, but she forced herself to hold Curiosity’s gaze.

“I think so,” Curiosity said. “High time.”

“What are you talking about?” Birdie said, her voice rising. “Lily, what are they talking about? Time for what?”

Lily smiled at her. “Curiosity is going to tell us about Gabriel Oak. Isn’t that right, Curiosity?”

“Gabriel Oak?” Birdie’s forehead creased and for a moment she looked so much like her infant self, determined to make sense of the world, that Elizabeth’s heart ached. The story Curiosity wanted to tell them—needed to tell them—was one Birdie might not understand fully, but it was right that she was here. The four of them, together.

Elizabeth wondered if Curiosity’s choice of time and place had mostly to do with Lily, whose discontent over Daniel’s growing attachment to Martha Kirby she didn’t even attempt to hide. Her concern for her twin was such that she might do more harm than good, though she could not see that, just now. Why Gabriel Oak should be relevant was not at all clear, but Elizabeth had a strong feeling about this. Curiosity’s stories were carefully timed.

She cleared her throat. “Birdie, you must let Curiosity talk without interruption. She is going to tell us the story of why my mother left Paradise and went to England.”

“What does that have to do with Gabriel Oak?” Birdie said.

“Everything,” Curiosity said.

“Do you know this story already, Ma?” Birdie was looking at her sharply, her tone both surprised and offended at the idea that she had not been told something of such clear value.

“I think I do,” Elizabeth said. “Over the years, I think I have worked it out for myself. But I don’t know any of the details. We must let Curiosity tell us.”

Chapter XXIX

Curiosity began:

Back then things was a lot different.

Only a few families, and the wood come right down to the marsh in most places. In those days the Mohawk was still strong and the other tribes too, hadn’t none of them give up the fight. The only reason the settlement survived at all was Hawkeye. He was on good terms with the Mohawk and just about everybody else, except the Huron and they didn’t come this far south. Hawkeye had him a reputation. Those that didn’t like him were sore fearful of making him angry, and so the tribes made a circle around this little village, for a few years at least.