I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died by Amanda Flower

Author:Amanda Flower [Flower, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2023-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

Emily ran to catch up with her sister and put her arm around Miss Lavinia’s shoulders. At first Miss Lavinia tried to push her sister away, but then she stopped fighting and leaned into Emily. It was one of the few times I witnessed Emily caring for her younger sister and not the other way around. Emily was a little more than two years older than Miss Lavinia.

I walked a few paces behind the sisters. Their heads were bent together. Even though it was clear Miss Lavinia was still upset with her sister over not wanting her to marry, I knew they had a bond that could not be broken.

I could not help but wonder what it would have been like if I’d had a sister to lean on like that. Henry had been a good brother. Not good in the way he constantly found himself in trouble. But I knew if I ever needed help, he would have been the first person there. It was difficult to realize I didn’t have a person like that in my life any longer.

Matthew came to mind again. He wanted to be that for me.

Matthew had said he would wait as long as it took for me to decide if I wanted to marry him or not. But was that really fair? He needed to move on and start a life and family. It was wrong for me to string him along like this. I needed to tell him I could never marry him, even if I did not know how I truly felt.

The sisters went into the house through the front door, and I walked around to the entrance through the laundry shed like I always did. Before I reached the shed, Jeremiah came running from the barn. “Willa! Willa!”

I almost dropped the hamper. “Jeremiah, what is wrong?”

“It’s Cody. The police detective is questioning him.”

Fear spread through me.

“Why?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I can’t go over there.”

I knew what he meant. Because of his work with the Underground Railroad, Jeremiah avoided the police as much as possible. The less they knew about him, the better.

“Where are they?” I asked.

“I saw them in the orchard.”

I nodded and glanced at the house. I felt torn between running inside to tell Emily and running to Cody’s side to make sure he was all right. “Can you take this into the kitchen to Margaret? If she asks, tell her I will just be a moment.”

He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Margaret hates me.”

I thrust the hamper at him. “She does not. She’s just prickly in nature.”

He accepted the hamper but gave me a look that told me I was naive. Perhaps it was true.

“If you see Miss Dickinson, can you tell her what you told me?”

He nodded, and I ran toward the orchard.

The orchard was a stand of young apple and cherry trees in the middle of the Dickinsons’ large garden. It was Horace Church’s pride and joy. Most of the apple varieties he had created himself through selective breeding.

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