Echo Mountain - Lauren Wolk Page 0,66
where it covered her leg.
I rushed to gather her up. “Help me!” I yelled when Esther stood back watching.
So Esther did help me, though with such a look of distaste that I wanted to slap her.
Cate was heavy despite how thin she was, but we managed to carry her back into the cabin while Captan danced along beside us, whining darkly.
She moaned a little as we laid her on the bed and covered her up. “There’s firewood in the yard, Esther. Go get some.”
Which she did while I ripped pages from the big book on the desk and shredded them on the hearth. I hoped they taught nothing more important than the benefits of fresh air and clean water, which I already knew.
When Esther came back, I twisted a whole page into a wick and lit it in the lantern, laying it gently on the hearth.
“Careful,” I said, as she reached out with a handful of twigs. “You’ll smother it. Just one at a time to start. Like this.” I laid a single twig across the bricks I’d pushed into place on either side of the flame. “It’s not like the oven at home.” Which could handle a heavy hand.
In this way, I taught my sister how to build a fire on a cold hearth.
Before long, we had a good blaze going, and I opened the cabin door just a crack so the smoke would rise straight up into the wide mouth of the chimney.
Then I fetched a clean nightdress from the wash line and took it inside to warm by the fire.
While Esther stood and watched, I went to Cate and pulled the blankets away from her leg.
The wound gaped like a terrible red mouth, but it wasn’t bleeding much anymore.
“The bath must have melted the honey, opened the cut. Maybe she fell. Maybe she fainted. We’ll know when she tells us,” I said. “But I don’t know why she let it get wet in the first place.”
Captan stood beside the bed and laid his head next to Cate’s.
“Why did you open the door if you’re trying to warm her up?” Esther said.
“To increase the draw, for the fire,” I replied. “The draft. The flow of air.”
“I don’t know what that means.” She sounded cranky and subdued at the same time.
“When the fire eats the air inside, the smoke comes back down the chimney instead of going up it.” My father had taught me that. I wondered why he hadn’t taught Esther, but I knew that it was easier to teach a thing to someone who wants to know it.
“I thought you said she was getting better.”
“She was. But she’s stubborn. And she’s used to doing for herself. And she didn’t wait for me to help with her bath.”
I pulled the blanket back over her leg. Then I fetched the deerskin coat from the trunk and laid that over her, too. It was so heavy that I knew it would keep her heat in where it belonged and make her feel safe, besides.
“Heat up some jerky. In that skillet, there. On the wall,” I told Esther. “Just lay it across the bricks.”
She did what I said without question, tending the fire and the jerky both. The smell of the venison softening made Captan go toward her and sit nearby.
“What an ugly dog,” Esther said.
“Oh, hush,” I said. “You’re a beauty, Captan. A beauty.”
At which Cate stirred.
She peered at me in confusion.
“Captan came down to fetch me,” I told her. “He had your doll in his mouth.”
She looked at me, blinking, slow to wake.
I said, “I don’t know why he came for me instead of Larkin.”
She closed her eyes again. “Larkin’s mother isn’t so fond of Captan.”
I pushed Cate’s hair away from her face. “How could she not be fond of a dog like that?”
“He was my son’s dog.” She closed her eyes again. “First mine, as a puppy, but he took to my son like a bird to the sky. So . . .”
“Shouldn’t that make her love Captan even more?”
Cate didn’t reply.
After a while, she opened her eyes again and said, “You must be a very strong girl, to carry me back in here.”
“Oh,” I said, realizing suddenly that Esther was still standing quietly by the fire where Cate couldn’t see her. “My sister came up with me.”
“And we should be getting back now,” Esther said. “Mother will be worried.”
Cate craned her neck around. “A sister?”
Esther came forward a bit, though she still kept her distance.
Cate stared at