The Librarian of Boone's Hollow - Kim Vogel Sawyer Page 0,59
could’ve reached the porch in three, maybe four good steps on her own, but she stayed slow and matched her steps to Nanny Fay’s. Sure looked funny, her fancy shoes up close to Nanny Fay’s lumpy, wrinkled bare feet. But if Adelaide thought so, she did a good job hiding it.
Nanny Fay grabbed the porch post and pulled herself up on the warped floorboards. Adelaide hopped up behind her, spry as a colt. Nanny Fay sat at one end of the thick length of smooth, weathered wood held up by four sturdy legs and patted the spot beside her. “There’s room for both of us. My Eagle, when he built somethin’, he made it to last. Bench has been here over twenty years, but it still sits as solid as the day he set it under the window. Come ahead. Set yourself down.”
Adelaide tucked her skirt underneath her and sat. She sure was a graceful thing. Reminded Nanny Fay of a swan. Or maybe a lily a-swaying in a light breeze. The girl put her hands in her lap and angled her face toward Nanny Fay. Her pink lips formed a little upward curve, and her eyes, brown as Eagle’s had been, didn’t hold nary a bit of fear. Curiosity, sure. Couldn’t blame her for that. But after being looked at with mistrust for so many years, having this sweet-faced girl sit right next to her made Nanny Fay want to laugh and dance with delight. Now wouldn’t that be a sight? Best get to business.
“So, you’re needin’ a place to stay, is that right?”
“Yes, ma’am.” The girl pushed that wavy curl of hair behind her ear again. “Miss West said you had a room I could rent, but she didn’t say how much it would cost.”
Nanny Fay fiddled with the brim of her bonnet. “I don’t rightly know. Never had a boarder before. I reckon meals an’ such is to come with it? Mebbe doin’ up your sheets when I do mine?”
“I’m happy to do my own laundry. I can even help with cooking. Well, with breakfast and supper at least. I’ll be on a route at noontime.”
The eagerness in her voice made joy sprout in Nanny Fay’s chest. Seemed as if this girl wanted to stay with her. Was even willing to bargain for the privilege. “Well, now, if you’re willin’ to put a hand to some o’ those chores, I wouldn’t feel right askin’ a heap o’ money from you. Would”—she licked her lips, thinking hard—“four bits a week be fair?”
Adelaide’s mouth fell open. “No, ma’am!”
Nanny Fay hung her head. She shouldn’t ought to be greedy. “All right. Two bits, then.”
The girl popped up off the bench like a striped chippy coming out of its hole. “I won’t take advantage of your hospitality. If you’re providing me with meals and a place to sleep, then I need to pay you at least two dollars a week. Anything less wouldn’t be fair to you.”
Tears burned Nanny Fay’s eyes. This girl was worried about being fair to her? She stood. “Honey, I’d be—how’d you say it?—takin’ advantage of you if I accepted all that money before you even seen where you’d be sleepin’. Mebbe we should go inside. Let you see what you’re gettin’ yourself in for. Would that be fair?”
Adelaide nodded.
Nanny Fay opened the door and left it wide for the girl to follow. She came on in, went as far as the braided rug in the middle of the sitting and cooking room, and stopped. Her brown eyes wide, she looked from one corner to another until she’d almost turned a circle. Seemed as if she was biting on her lip. Girl from the city probably lived in a big house with fancy furniture and lots of rooms. This old cabin was home, but it surely mustn’t seem like much to somebody from as far away as Georgetown.
Nanny Fay pointed to a door on the right. “That there’s the room you’d stay in.”
The girl lifted the crossbar and pushed the door open. She stepped inside, and the little sleeping room got the same going-over she’d gave the front room. Nanny Fay stayed in the doorway and watched her move from the iron bed to the rocking chair in the corner to the row of pegs pounded into the log wall to hold clothes. She dragged her finger over the top of the four-drawer chest next to the rocking chair, and Nanny Fay cringed.