The Long Past & Other Stories by Ginn Hale

Author:Ginn Hale [Hale, Ginn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: historical, fantasy, weird west
ISBN: 9781935560524
Publisher: Blind Eye Books
Published: 2017-06-27T21:39:13+00:00

Epilogue

The ridingbird chicks stood about four feet and sported downy coats of fuzzy speckled feathers. The four of them raced across the garden to Toby and Susan as the two children tossed out handfuls of feed. Betty and Romeo looked on from the cover of the apple trees but didn’t rouse from their afternoon nap.

Watching from the porch of the Wilder House, Grover smiled as little Susan instructed Toby in throwing a lasso and catching the runningbirds’ legs. Her father, Frank, had become an expert during the month he’d looked after Betty and her family while Grover had been summoned, along with Lawrence, across the sea to Washington.

Neither of the children managed to snag a single one of the chicks, but the hatchling ridingbirds delighted in leaping after and pecking at the ropes as if hunting rattlesnakes.

Grover glanced across the small table to where Lawrence stretched in his chair, with his hat tipped low to shadow his face. Grover felt half-certain that he’d nodded off. He’d hardly slept last night. Neither of them had—and not for pleasurable reasons either. Lawrence still hadn’t received an official discharge from the Office of Theurgy and Magicum. The threat of being called back onto another battlefield haunted Lawrence. It’d made him anxious even when he settled down to draw in his sketchbook, and it woke him from Grover’s arms at night. Three months had already rolled by, and they didn’t know if Lawrence could consider himself free.

Very soon Grover needed to head back out to his cabin and prepare for winter. He’d already delayed a week. He supposed he’d wait longer if he had to. He wasn’t about to leave Lawrence. Together the two of them could get everything done that needed doing before the first heavy snow, Grover reasoned to himself, but he didn’t quite believe it.

He swatted a fat blackfly away from the dish of corn biscuits that Cora Cody had brought over to them.

Leaning against the porch rails, Frank and Cora took turns calling encouragements to the children and the ridingbird chicks. George Cody’s chair across from Grover’s stood empty. He’d volunteered to fetch the first edition of the New United America News, which would supposedly carry the most recent articles from both sides of the Inland Sea.

“You know Toby’s already asking about when he can go along with you and Lawrence to your place in the woods.” Cora glanced back at Grover.

“At this rate he’ll get there before we do,” Lawrence murmured from the shadow of his hat, but his comment didn’t carry past Grover to the other two.

“Clearly he hasn’t been informed of Susan’s plans for him yet.” Frank laughed. “She’s going to set up a bird ranch bigger than Uncle Grover’s. Toby’s going to be her foreman. And they’re going to trade with Chief Niwot just like her Uncle Grover does.”

“Really?” Cora smiled as she turned her attention back to the children. Both Cora’s and Frank’s expressions turned thoughtful as they studied the next generation playing so carelessly at the difficulties of a married couple working a ranch together.

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