Free The Family Greene by Ann Rinaldi Page A

beautiful, in their large tester bed.
    To the side, in a white, lace-trimmed cradle, lay the baby. From somewhere, some servant had hastily procured a pink bow and tacked it on the cradle. Another girl, but so tiny you would not believe she could manage to breathe. Yet she did.
    "Mama?" I whispered.
    The violet eyes looked up at me. "Cornelia," she said.
    I could think of nothing to say. My mouth was dry. I needed some water. And then Pa came back in.
    "What do I say?" I asked him.
    "Nothing. Just hold her hand for a moment or two. Then go to your room. I'll be along when she falls asleep."
    ***
    I HAD CHANGED my clothes by the time Pa came knocking at my door. He came in, leaving the door half open, and leaned against the doorjamb, looking at me. I sat in a chair, my bloodstained dress and apron on the floor next to me.
    I had changed into a calico he'd given me last Christmas. Did he notice? Did he care? "Is Mama all right?" I asked.
    "She's been brought awfully low, but she will recover. With rest."
    "And the baby?"
    "Seven months. Dr. Kinney says she won't make it through the night."
    The calm with which he said this shocked me. I think he too was in shock.
    "Is it my fault, then?" I asked.
    He shook his head no. "We don't play that game in this house. I've told you that before. In the army, Washington never laid blame when a battle was lost. He gathered his officers and made plans for the next one. But I would like to know why you were running from her. That would be a help right now."
    Sarcasm. With Pa, it was on the way to anger. I must be careful. "I didn't go to school this morning," I said quietly, "and Mama was after me for it. And so I was hiding from her."
    "Why didn't you go to school?"
    There was nothing for it but to tell. "I don't like Mr. Miller."
    "You don't like Mr. Miller," he repeated flatly.
    "No, sir."
    "Why?"
    Well, there was no telling
this,
now or ever. What could I say? That one day I'd left my notebook in the classroom and gone back for it and found Mr. Miller, all of twenty-five, sitting behind his desk and Mama standing in front, leaning over it, and then him, of a sudden, standing up, taking her by the shoulders, and kissing her.
    "I will have an answer," Pa said. "Can you give me a good reason for this?"
    Tears came down and I swallowed them back. "Please, Pa, I can't. Please, you can punish me all you want. I can't."
    He scowled. Pa scowling was not a thing you wanted to see.
    "Has he done something to offend you? Has he acted unseemly toward you? You know what I mean, Cornelia. We've spoken of this."
    "No, sir." I started to cry.
    He let me cry for a minute, then took out his handkerchief and reached out his arm to me. I went to him, and he gave me the handkerchief and enfolded me in his arms.
    "My pa beat me," he said with no emotion in his voice. "When I came home from sneaking away to go to dances, he'd beat me bad. Quakers don't dance, you see, Cornelia, and I loved to dance. One time I fooled him. I put some wooden shingles inside my pants."
    My sobbing subsided somewhat. I looked up at him. "You are a good pa," I said.
    He rested his chin on top of my head. "Mayhap I should have let the others go for a ride this afternoon with Mr. Miller," he said. "Only I wanted to take you and George and Martha and Nat on a trip soon. To see the land I purchased on the southern end of Cumberland Island. It's a long trip. We've got to take a sailing ship about a hundred miles on the Saint Marys River, then go by horseback to where my land lies."
    "Oh! When can we go, Pa?"
    He scowled down at me. "Not for a while now. Not until I'm sure your mother is well."
    I nodded respectfully. "Is this where you're going to build the house you call Dungeness?"
    "Yes."
    "And you've got the plans all drawn up for it?"
    "Yes."
    "Mr. Miller told us you'll never live there."
    "He did, did he?"
    "I shouldn't tell tales out of school, Pa, but yes."
    He released me, but not without a mild shake. "No, you shouldn't. I don't