Kit's Law Read Online Free Page A

you is goin’,” said Nan, starting back up Fox Point. “S’posin’ I got to drag you there. She’s a bit like meself, is Kit,” she added to Aunt Drucie. “Won’t go nowhere.”
    “Sure, it’ll be fun for you, maid,” Aunt Drucie puffed, patting my arm. “The fun we use to have on bonfire nights, hey, Lizzy?”
    “We use to have the fun then, for sure,” said Nan, breathing hard. They stopped talking, saving their strength for the last part of the hill. Finally we were at the top of Fox Point, out of sight of Haire’s Hollow, and with thick evergreens lining both sides of the road. A muddied, leaf-strewn path led off the road to Aunt Drucie’s small, two-roomed house, wedged amongst an entangled growth of lichen-flowing spruce trees.
    “I swear to God, it gets harder and harder to get home every day,” groaned Aunt Drucie, giving way to a yawn and trudging wearily onto her path. “See you at the card game, tonight, maid.”
    “What about me fish?” asked Nan.
    “Your fish! My, my, I forgot I was luggin’ it,” said Aunt Drucie, unflapping the box and hooking her finger through the gill of a cod. “Here,” she said, hoisting out the fish for herself and passing the box over to me. “You carry it for your grandmother.”
    “Here, give me, she’ll get it on her good dress,” Nan said, nudging me to one side and taking the box from Aunt Drucie and tucking it under her arm.
    “Sure, she’s goin’ on thirteen and you still treats her like a youngster,” Aunt Drucie grumbled.
    “I s’pose, maid,” said Nan. “That’s probably ’cuz Jose never ever grow’d up, and I keeps thinkin’ the same of Kit as I do of her, don’t I, me darlin’?” she asked, chucking me under the chin.
    I grinned, and started down the road besides Nan.
    “See you at the card game,” Nan called after Aunt Drucie.
    “Aye, see ye in a bit,” called back Aunt Drucie.
    Another hundred yards and me and Nan come clear of the trees, the wind hitting us bold in the face, looking down over the sea, a mile wide and forty miles long, flanked high on each side by hills of green forested wood, patched red and yellow by the fall air. A short distance ahead was the turnaround, where the road come to an end in a wide circle, and down over its edge, on the seaward side, was our grey, weathered house, shining silver in the sun, and squat against the side of the hill. The mouth of a gully, just off from our front door, was steeped in shadow, and disappeared down the sharp incline of the bank onto the beach below.
    Nan and I walked in silence, her brewing over May Eveleigh’s and Jimmy Randall’s proud ways, and me stewing over having to go back to Haire’s Hollow and stand around a bonfire all evening, listening to Margaret Eveleigh and her best friends squeal and laugh foolishly over the slightest thing. Perhaps, I could talk Nan over. I liked it when I could stay home, and have the house to myself, and sit quietly in the rocking chair next to the stove, listening, as my own fire crackled its way up the chimney.
    Josie come bounding up over the gully to greet us, hair streaming onto the wind, and squelching any thoughts of a quiet evening alone, even if I were allowed to stay. Usually when there was something taking place, like garden parties or Guy Fawkes Night, she would be gone with her men friends by now, no matter how hard Nan fought to keep her home. Seeing my cat, Pirate, shoot out from beneath the house and scoot down the gully past Josie, I made to run after him.
    “Where you goin’, hey? Where you goin’?” Josie demanded in her rough, bark-like tone, grabbing hold of my arm as I darted past her.
    “Get away,” I yelled, hitting at her hand and scrabbling to get away.
    “Get away, you get away,” she barked, yanking on my arm.
    “Stop it, stop it!” Nan ordered, slicing her hand between the hold Josie had on my arm. “And for the love of the Lord, Jose, go comb out that maggoty head of hair, and you, Miss