Sara's Homecoming by Heather Conkie

Author:Heather Conkie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: road to avonlea, heather conkie, conkie
Publisher: Davenport Press

Chapter Eleven

Peter Craig mopped his brow and continued chopping wood in front of the shed behind Rose Cottage. He couldn’t fathom how anyone could stand cooking on a wood-stove in weather like this, but Miss King had demanded more wood, and who was he to say she was as crazy as a bedbug? He looked up and noticed Nanny Louisa as she crossed the lawn, heading to the outdoor privy.

Hetty watched her as well from the kitchen window, her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed with annoyance. A smell of burning sausages brought her back to earth with a bang and she rushed to turn them in the pan.

“Something burning?” Olivia asked innocently as she entered the kitchen.

“I don’t know how many more mornings I will be able to listen to her go on about boiling the blasted water thoroughly before I make tea. As if there were a chance in creation that the water in Montreal could possibly be any purer than here.”

Olivia hid a smile. “Now Hetty, you’ve been awfully good with her the last few days, I hope you won’t ruin it all with a few hasty words. Where is she now, anyway?”

“She’s in the privy out back. I hope she falls in,” Hetty said vehemently as she tossed another piece of kindling into the wood-stove.

Suddenly there was a great banging and yelling coming from the yard. The two women looked at each other and then stuck their heads’ out the door.

The banging was coming from the direction of the privy. It fairly rocked with the commotion. The little hook had fallen down into the eye on the outside of the door. Nanny Louisa had got herself locked in!

“Help me! Somebody let me out of here!” came her muffled cry as she pounded to get out.

Peter watched with great amusement as Hetty and Olivia came running from the house.

“How could anyone but a fool get themselves locked in an outhouse?” Hetty asked as she flicked the hook out of its catch.

Nanny Louisa was mortified as she came out, red-faced and indignant.

“A young girl of Sara’s station ought not to be subjected to such primitive conditions if she is ever to come here again. And neither should I!”

“The outdoor privy has been good enough for three generations of Kings,” said Hetty through clenched teeth. “I see no reason why we should replace it now.”

Olivia glared at Hetty and looked pointedly at Louisa. Hetty immediately pasted a conciliatory smile on her face. “But of course, when I see it from your point of view, Louisa, yes, why...a child of Sara’s present stature deserves better, certainly. Now please come in and have some breakfast. I’ve made those wheatcakes you enjoyed so much yesterday. And sausages.”

Louisa J. Banks was not so easily fooled. “I couldn’t eat a thing! I’m much too upset! And I’ll tell you one thing, Hetty King, the facilities must be upgraded if Sara is ever to visit again, let alone live here! And I know that’s what’s on your mind.

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