A Winter Away by Elizabeth Fair

Author:Elizabeth Fair [Fair, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Dean Street Press
Published: 2017-03-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

“. . . And we never thought about the hens! There she was, stumping about in the orchard, trying to round them up by herself in the dark. And I walked all the way to Glaine and back, looking for her!”

“How frightful,” said Ensie.

“Oh well, it was worse for Cousin Alice. She’d forgotten to shut up the hens at tea time, so it was ‘all her fault.’”

“I don’t see that it was.”

“Of course it wasn’t! I mean that Miss Conway implied that she’d had to go out, broken ankle and all, to remedy Cousin Alice’s neglect. She remembered them as soon as Don left and went to see if they’d been shut up—instead of asking us. Some of them had gone to roost in the trees, stupid creatures, and she was out there for hours. At least, it seemed like hours.”

“While you were looking for her?”

“Yes, and before that. Wondering where she was, wondering what to do, and then setting out on the search—it seemed to go on and on. But the worst time was when we got back and found her. I am thankful—truly thankful,” said Maud, “that Cousin Alice got back just before I did. You see, I’d done this awful thing. Goodness knows what would have happened if Cousin Alice hadn’t been there to be reproached for not shutting up the hens. It did at least take Con’s mind off the pie.”

“What happened to the pie?”

“I left it in the oven and it was burnt to a cinder.”

Ensie looked shocked. “How could you?” she exclaimed.

“But, Ensie, anybody could. In times of crisis one doesn’t think of pies.”

“I should have thought of it, if I’d put it in the oven. But then I’m really interested in cooking.”

Maud sat up and gazed at Ensie, who blushed becomingly.

“Don says my cooking is delicious,” she confided. “And I tell him it’s because I’m interested enough to take trouble. He’s coming to supper again on Monday night.”

“Oh,” said Maud. She saw the Good Cook Ensie as her own creation, and felt quite awestruck.

“What a pity Miss Conway didn’t ask Don to help her,” Ensie remarked. “But I suppose she didn’t think about the hens till after he’d left.”

“I suppose not,” said Maud.

She realized that Ensie herself would be incapable of thinking about hens while Don was present, but she could not believe he had the same effect on Miss Conway. Still, it would be unkind to tease Ensie, who was now putting on her scarf and coat and showing a touching anxiety about her appearance. “Does my hair look all right?” she asked, frowning at her face in the looking glass. Maud assured her that it did, and watched with interest while Ensie applied a layer of pale lipstick and then wiped most of it off. Ensie’s bedroom, usually so tidy, was littered with scarves, jerseys and skirts which had been considered and rejected, and her best hat had been taken out of its box and laid on the bed in readiness.

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