Josh tied the ribbon under his daughter’s chin. “There! Now you look like Abbie again.” He grinned and tweaked her nose before his smoldering gaze fell again on Meagan.
“Abbie again…Abbie again…” The little girl danced about the room, basking in her father’s approval. She stopped in front of Meagan. “I have lots of bonnets,” she told her. “I’ll show them to you if you like.”
“I’d like that very much.” Meagan smiled, aware that the child had made the first gesture of acceptance. She looked at Phoebe, expecting approval, but there was only a little worried frown that creased Phoebe’s forehead.
It was obvious to Phoebe that Josh Daniels could not keep his eyes off his indentured servant, just as it was obvious that Meagan was unaware of the explosiveness of the problem.
The Carmichaels spent the night, using the trundle on the daybed. The morning mist had not yet faded when they made their farewells.
“If you need us, let us know,” Phoebe said as she impulsively embraced Meagan. “We’ll find some way to come to you.”
And before Meagan could ask what she meant, the woman allowed her husband to help her into their buggy. As they were leaving, Meagan stared after them, wondering what had prompted the woman’s words.
It wasn’t long before Abbie had reestablished her place in her own home and Meagan found herself hardpressed to keep up with the little girl.
“My mama never made me tell her where I was going,” she protested as Meagan brought her in from an impromptu trip to the barn.
“Abbie, you need to tell someone. Your father worries when he comes in and doesn’t know where you are. He is working the fields all alone right now, and if you refuse to tell me where you are going, I am going to go back into the fields to help him and you’ll have to come along, whether you want to or not.”
“Well, I don’t want to go with you,” Abbie protested. “And I don’t want to tell you where I go. My mama never made me do anything like that.”
“Your mama never made you do anything you didn’t want to do.” Josh’s voice boomed. “But your mama isn’t here. Meagan and I are. And you’re gonna tell one of us where you’re going, or you are not going to go.”
Abbie put her hands on her hips, a vision of indignation, but there was no submission in her father’s face. He wasn’t going to change his mind no matter what she tried. Abbie surrendered to authority. “I’ll tell you or Meagan, but then I’m going to go where I like,” she asserted.
“Only if you have permission,” her father reminded her.
The little girl turned on her heel and marched out the door. She hadn’t left the porch when her father called after her, “Abbie! Where are you going?”
“I’m going back to the barn.”
“Do you have permission?”
She stopped.
“You know where I want to go,” she fired defiantly.
“And you know you’re supposed to ask for permission,” he said again.
“My mama never had to answer to anybody when she wanted to go somewhere,” Abbie shouted at her father.
Angered at the defiance in his daughter, Josh spoke rashly. “Maybe if she had she wouldn’t be dead now.”
His words brought a simultaneous gasp from the lips of both his daughter and Meagan. Before he had a chance to utter another sound, Abbie ran back through the door of the house and burrowed herself into her bed behind the curtain.
Josh did not try to talk to her. He looked at Meagan and shrugged before returning to the fields. It was Meagan who went to the child.
“I guess you pretty much had the run of the place when your mama was alive,” Meagan remarked as she took her place on the side of the bed.
“Mama knew I wouldn’t get into any trouble.” Abbie sniffled into her pillow.
“Your father knows you aren’t going to get into any trouble,” Meagan told her. “It’s just that he wants to know where you are. I don’t think he really knew how much freedom your mother was giving you around here. I tell him where I’m going so he won’t worry, and he does the same for me.”
The little girl lifted her head and looked at the young woman. “Is that because you love him?” she asked.
Meagan was taken aback. Loving Josh Daniels was the last thing in the world she would ever dare admit to, even if it was true, which of course it was not. It would be foolhardy to love someone who could never love you back.
“That’s because it’s the best way to do things when people live out here,” she said. “What if there was a fire, or an Indian attack, and your father didn’t have any idea where you were?”
“He never knew where my mama went, or what she was doing, and nothing bad ever happened.” Abbie sat up and crossed her arms over her chest.
Meagan stood up, her back toward the girl as she straightened some of the articles on the chest of drawers. “Well, that’s not quite the way I’d look at it.”
Realizing her mistake, Abbie was about to try to retract her words, but the look on Meagan’s face told her she wouldn’t get away with it.
“All right.” Abbie scuffed her foot under the rag rug beside the bed, “I’ll tell you or Papa where I’m going. But I’m not going to like it.”
“Abbie, life is just full of things we don’t like,” Meagan told her. “It’s all part of growing up.”
Abbie jumped off the bed and looked down her body at the distance to her feet. “Do you think I’m growing up?” she asked.
“I think you’re growing up faster than you know,” Meagan told her.
“My grandma called me her baby all the time,” Abbie admitted. “It didn’t make me feel grown-up.”
“I think grandmas are allowed to say things like that because they are so much older than everybody else,” Meagan confided. “I guess everyone seems like a baby to them.”
Abbie’s face brightened. “I guess I can be Grandma’s baby as long as I can be grown-up here at home.” She gave an assertive nod as she threw back the curtains and headed once more for the door.
“Abbie,” Meagan called out, “just remember, you have to earn the right to be treated like an adult, and the first thing you must remember to do is—”
“Tell you where I’m going.” Abbie finished the sentence for her and sighed a deep sigh. “I’m going to the barn to look for baby kittens. The cat has babies every spring and fall.” The little girl stopped, a new thought springing to her mind. “Do you know where they are?”
Meagan wiped her hands on her apron. “As a matter of fact, I do. There are five and they’re about a month old. If you like, we can bring one into the house and keep it for your very own.”
Abbie flew across the floor and grabbed Meagan’s hand. “Come on,” she urged. “Let’s go now! Why didn’t you tell me you knew there were kittens? If you had, we wouldn’t have had all this trouble.”
Meagan stifled a laugh. “Why didn’t you tell me kittens were what you were looking for?”
“I thought if I told you, you wouldn’t let me go. My mama always said kittens were dirty, sneaky little things and she didn’t want me to play with them. One time when I showed her where they were she took the kittens out of the barn and put them in a bucket of water.”
Meagan