Free Dorothy Garlock by High on a Hill Page A

you have a patch?”
    “The bushes are in the woods.”
    “You picked them for me? How nice. Thank you so much. Won’t you come in, Tess?”
    “Maybe … for a little while.”
    Annabel waved her hand to Jack in the garden and led Tess to the house. The woman was visibly trembling. Annabel suspected that she was terribly shy. Trying to put her at ease, she chatted about the raspberries.
    “It must have taken you a long time to pick so many berries. Gracious! There’s enough here for a pie, if they last that long.”
    Tess followed Annabel into the house, afraid that she would say or do something stupid that might cause this friendly girl to tell her to leave.
    “Come in.” Annabel held the door open for Tess. “I’m so glad to have a visitor, and a woman at that.” Annabel hung her hat on the knob of a chair. “Sit down, Tess. Would you like a cool drink of water? It must be at least a mile over to your place.”
    “Thank you, ma’am.”
    “Oh, call me Annabel. Jack brought in a fresh bucket of water before we went to the garden.” With the dipper, Annabel poured water into a glass and set it on the table. “Let’s be selfish and treat ourselves to a bowl of berries. Dish them up, Tess, while I get the sugar and cream. I dipped the cream off the milk just this morning.”
    Annabel placed two bowls and two spoons on the table and turned her back to reach for the sugar but not before she noticed that Tess’s work-roughened hands were trembling.
    When they were seated at the table across from each other, Annabel smiled at the woman across from her as she put the first spoonful of berries in her mouth.
    “Oh, they are so good. It was so thoughtful of you to bring them.”
    “I couldn’t come empty-handed.”
    “Of course you could.” Annabel laughed. “But I’m glad you didn’t. Is the patch of berries far from here?”
    “Not far. It’s a little way behind our place.”
    “I’m so glad you came over. I hope we can be friends.”
    “I hope so too, ma’am.”
    “Annabel. Please call me Annabel. We’re too near the same age for you to call me ma’am.”
    “Oh, no. I’m old, ma’am … ah … Annabel.”
    “You can’t be much older than I am. I was twenty-one last Christmas day.”
    “I’ll be twenty-eight next Christmas day.” Tess smiled for the first time and Annabel realized that she was quite pretty.
    “Papa used to tell me that Santa Claus brought me and I’d wonder how he got down the chimney when we only had a stovepipe.” Annabel’s unfettered laughter rang, and Tess could only stare at her.
    “We have the same birthday, Tess. We can have a birthday party together … if we’re still here.”
    “Are you moving … so soon?” Tess’s eyes had hardly left Annabel’s face. It was such a pleasure to look at her. She smiled all the time.
    “I never know. My father … travels and sells things. He takes sudden notions to move.”
    “I hope you don’t.”
    Tess’s large amber eyes held a look of distress. Annabel noted the look and also the fact that she had a beautiful clear golden complexion that went perfectly with her hair and eyes. She was small and slim and sat with her shoulders back and her head erect as if she were listening for something. Her eyes left Annabel only occasionally to dart around the kitchen.
    “Did you know the Millers who lived here before we came?” Annabel asked.
    Tess shook her head. “I’ve not been here before. Marvin doesn’t like for me to go … places.”
    “Your husband?”
    Tess shook her head again, this time more definitely, and a look of distaste came over her face.
    “My brother.”
    “You’re not married?”
    The head shake again. “No. I’ll never marry!”
    “I want to someday. I’d like to have children … a whole bunch of them. I’m the only one my parents had. It was lonely growing up.”
    “Are the men here your brothers?”
    “Goodness, no. They work for my father, except for Jack. He’s just a boy. He’s