PART 1
“Hurry up,” Nat whispered, calling to Emil and Tommy who were just ambling into the barn. Pushing them a little faster, he peered around the corner to make sure no one was coming and then quietly followed them up the ladder into the loft.
“About time you two got here,” Nan rolled her eyes as she twisted a piece of straw between her fingers. “Thought we were gonna have to wait ‘till Christmas.”
“Yeah, well you didn’t—”
“Shh!” Nat pressed a finger firmly to his lip, quieting everyone. “Listen, if we don’t want Mrs. Jo to find out about this, then you’re gonna have to be quiet.”
“Quit poking me, Emil,” Tommy wailed in a loud whisper.
“Then get off my leg,” Emil argued.
“I’m not on your leg!” Tommy replied, louder than he should have.
“Oh yes you are!” Emil shot back, pushing him over.
“Quit it, Tommy an’ Emil.” Dan ordered. He narrowed his eyes and glared at both of them. “If ya want to be apart of this, then ya gotta keep your mouths closed and let Nat do the talkin’.”
Tommy squirmed, swallowing nervously. “I uh, uh, okay,” he replied in a squeaky voice, shaking his head quickly.
Emil growled and crossed his arms, obviously displeased but remained quiet.
“Alright, now we ken get started.”
“It’s about time,” Nan mumbled, rolling her eyes again.
Dan shot her a warning glare.
“Fine, sorry.” She shrugged, closing her mouth.
“ Now, has anybody come up with anythin’ that we can do for Mrs. Jo?” Nat started, looking over the small group.
All heads shook, indicating that they hadn’t thought of anything.
“Okay, this is gonna be harder than I thought,” he mumbled, looking down at the floor. “We’ve only got four days until her birthday. Doesn’t anybody have any ideas?”
“How could anybody think of anythin’ when we got a big, huge test we’ve been thinkin’ about?” Nan asked, giving him an annoyed look.
“Got that right. You’d think Franz would go a little easy since we just did those boring book reports.” Emil agreed, rolling his eyes.
Nat sighed and dropped his head to his knees. “I knew this wasn’t gonna work.”
Bess smoothed her skirt and folded her hands in her lap. “Come on, you all. We didn’t come here to talk about school assignments. We came to talk about Aunt Jo’s birthday,” she reminded firmly.
A half smile spread across Dan’s face. “Yeah, if ya don’t want to help, then leave and go talk about whatever it is that ya want to talk—”
“Asia’s callin’ us in for dinner. We gotta go or we’ll be late and Mrs. Jo’ll be mad. Then we’d have to tell her all about this, and it wouldn’t be a surprise anymore.” Nan jumped up from the hay bale, brushing off her sleeves.
“Like that would blow anythin’. All we’ve managed to talk about it Tommy takin’ up too much of the hay bale and an assignment Franz gave us,” Dan commented, looking accusingly at Nan, Emil and Tommy.
“We’ll think of somethin’. Don’t worry.” He assured Nat confidently, climbing down after him.
“Your turn, Mrs. Jo.” Emil turned, looking at Jo. Everyone was sitting around the parlor, except for Rob who was already in bed. The flames burning in the fireplace cast golden flickers across the anxious expressions on the faces gazing at her from around the room.
“Yeah, your turn, Mrs. Jo,” Dan repeated after Emil. Jo laughed a little hesitantly.
“Well, I don’t really know what to tell about,” she discouraged, shrugging her shoulders.
“Oh, Aunt Jo. You have to have at least one thing to tell about. You’re always telling us stories of things you did when you were a child. Surely you have more,” Bess smiled encouragingly from the settee across the room.
“Yeah, you’re always tellin’ us stuff like that. Just tell us one of those stories,” Nan piped up in agreement.
“Well…” She licked her lips and looked down at her fingers. “Well…I suppose there was one time…” Jo lifted her eyebrows, gazing around the room.
“It was around my birthday, last year…” Her sentence fell, realizing that had been her last birthday with Fritz.
“I-um…I don’t think…” Jo started to protest, but pleas rang out from the group sitting around the room.
“All, all right, um…Oh, oh, yes, okay,” she swallowed, twitching her hands as perspiration began to form on her brow.
One person noticed her sudden uneasiness, and Nick, being Nick, was concerned but didn’t say anything.
“Some-sometimes in the night, I’d go out and take Penny for a ride in the woods. We’d go find the big boulder by the creek and sit to watch the stars. Well, at least I would sit to watch the stars. Penny grazed.”
Everyone laughed, interrupting her story. Jo smile, then continued on when it fell silent again.
“It was so peaceful there down by the lake. The perfect place to go when I needed time alone to think. Somehow, unknown to me, Fritz knew each time I slipped out,” she looked down at her hands, remembering.
“Anyway, my birthday was fastly approaching and poor Fritz was having an intolerable time finding what to give me. I insisted that it wasn’t necessary, but of course, he wouldn’t have any of that. Then remembering my midnight rides he arranged to surprise me with one on the eve of my birthday.”
“How could it be a midnight ride? If ya rode out at midnight, it wouldn’t be you’re birthday,” Tommy intervened with his usual questions.
“Oh, silly, is wasn’t exactly a midnight ride. That’s just what they’re called,” Bess informed him.
“Oh…” Tommy nodded his head in understanding. “I get it now.”
“He sure surprised me! A horseback ride was the thing farthest from my mind when he announced it was time to give me my gift. I had an absolutely wonderful time, although I’m not sure I can say the same for him,” Jo chuckled, smiling at the memories.
“Poor Fritz didn’t have an easy time with horses but he took me out anyway. In the first ten minutes, he nearly fell off three times but he hung in there. Not too long after, Marty began to settle, and Fritz relax, but both were short lived. On the way back, Marty got impatient and pitched him right into a puddle of mud,” she laughed at the remembrance of his astonished look--one she would never forget. But soon after he’d been thrown, the astonished look has gone and laughter had filled his twinkling eyes.
Nick smiled, shifting to a more comfortable way to lean against the settee with his back.
“You two were so loud! I’m surprised you didn’t wake up the whole house,” Asia smiled at her, rocking gently.
Small ripples of laughter spread trough the room at the thought of kind, serious, soft-spoken Mr. Fritz being thrown into a mud puddle.
“I didn’t know Mr. Fritz, but somethin’ tells me it wasn’t in character for him to be thrown into a mud puddle,” Nick grinned, running a hand through his hair.
Jo began to laugh, but then suddenly stopped; a frown soon replacing the smile. It took a moment for everyone to notice but when they did the laughter died, leaving the room quiet except for the occasional sound of the crackling fire.
“It-It’s getting late. We’ll continue this another night. Up to bed, children,” Jo stood up and began to herd them from the room. Mumbles and curious whispers were shared, but no one argued with the order.
Nick frowned, wondering if it was something that he’d said. But before anything could be said, he noticed Jo heading up to her room in a hurry. A sinking feeling coursed through his veins.
What had he done now…?
PART 2
