Miss Elva Read Online Free Page B

“I wasn’t thinking. You keep it, then.”
    “Me? What do I want with some broken old thing you found?”
    A gift too pretty for some, not fit for others. And only Elva remembered why she turned her face away.
    “Why are you back now?” Jane asked, tucked in the gloom of the ripe stables.
    “Heard my old man was dead. Figured there’d be a do.”
    “You won’t be welcome.”
    “So? I know what people think of me.”
    “I hope you stay.” Elva had spoken very quietly, so it was doubtful she’d been heard.
    “Well, don’t worry. I’ll stay long enough to make some money, get me out of Nova Scotia. Then the Major and I are gone for good.” Gil stooped to scratch his dog’s head. “He adopted me in Halifax. Figure he’ll look out for me at sea.”
    “Don’t you know about the strike?”
    “There’s always work.”
    “Not now. Unless you want to, scab.”
    He shrugged off the dirty word.
    “Jane wants to see blood,” Elva suddenly said, finding her voice, wanting Gil to see her.
    If Jane’s look could speak it’d say, Shut up!
    Gil took no offence and led them deep into the shed. Elva didn’t care for the smell of things.
    “Is that him?” Jane was whispering.
    Gil nodded at the short bundle on the work table. “What’s left of him.”
    Not much to see in the dusty, opaque gloom. Could have been anything wrapped up there. Bit of a disappointment.
    “Is John still the sexton?”
    Both of the girls nodded.
    “It’ll be okay if I sleep here tonight. John won’t mind. And when it’s dark, I’ll soak the old man in tar from the pond and light him. Ought to fire up like a torch, a human torch.”
    “You wouldn’t!” But Jane sounded hopeful.
    It was not lost to Elva that Jane was touching Gil’s arm.
    “Dom and Father Cértain have arranged—”
    “The bastard’s better off in the pond. Save Maman the cost of burying ’im.”
    You didn’t always think like that.
    “It’ll put off your mother, you coming back.” Jane’s eyes were riveted to the coal-dust-stained funeral shroud, as were Elva’s. The air was getting sweeter, sickly sweet.
    “Still down on her knees, praying for Dom to be pope?”
    Jane’s face clouded.
    Uh-oh. Foul mood acoming. Lately, all it took was saying stuff about Dom.
    “And my good brother obeys her in all things?”
    Jane shrugged.
    The air, thought Elva, so sweet, so thick.
    Gil patted the swathed corpse. “Too bad you’ll miss your own party, Pappa.”
    And Elva vomited quietly into her hands.
    “Elva, you thing!”
    The fresh air, the sound of water trickling into that fountain, was a godsend. Or was it that she had leanedher head against his shoulder when Gil picked her up and carried her outside that made her feel better?
    I always knew you’d come back.
    Jane followed. “You can’t stay in there and you can’t go to town. No one’s forgotten about the wreck. What your father did to himself, it’s bringing it all back.”
    “You mean, the lies?”
    Wiping her hands on the grass, Elva added that the striking men in town were scratching for a fight. Rilla said that’s what men do when they’re drunk and don’t have work. That’s why they threw stones at the guy fixing the clock.
    Gil chuckled. “Someone tried to fix that old relic?”
    “Some fool,” said Jane.
    “Who?”
    Elva shrugged. “Never saw him before. Black and starchy like an undertaker.”
    “And white,” added Jane.
    “White? Fixing the clock?”
    A bell pealed from somewhere inside the Brothers’ residence.
    “I gotta go.”
    “Where?”
    “Nothing,” he said, kind of confused, searching the direction of Demerett Bridge.
    They followed Gil, bending over to hide below the tombstones in case anyone was watching from the windows. At the gates, they parted.
    Rilla would be back from Raven River soon and supper still hadn’t been started. They both knew what Amos would be like should his meal be late.
    “I hate him,” Jane cursed quietly.
    So do I, thought Elva,