“It’s the Montgomery side, I’m sure,” Mrs. Simpson said.
Maud scraped at the tree. How dare they speak about Father when he wasn’t here to defend himself! She was both a Montgomery and a Macneill, which was why she would not lower herself by marching over to those women and telling them to mind their own business. No. She would pretend to ignore them.
“You certainly got out quickly,” a familiar voice said.
Maud opened her eyes and sighed. “That heat was unbearable, Pensie. I couldn’t stand it any longer.”
“That’s not a dignified way to behave,” Pensie said, in a perfect imitation of Maud’s grandmother, right down to the very stern look, but they couldn’t keep straight faces for very long and started giggling.
Close cousins who lived only a few minutes’ walk from each other, Maud and Pensie had been friends their whole lives, sometimes writing letters more than twice a day, which Maud kept in the small trunk at the foot of her bed. But since Maud had been away, and Pensie was no longer attending school, the letters were becoming less frequent. They rarely quarreled, but Maud wondered if anything was wrong. Just now, though, Pensie was behaving the same as she always had. Everything would go back to normal now that she was back, Maud reassured herself.
“I was beginning to think that the reverend was going to keep us cooped up in that heat all day.” Maud looked past her cousin’s shoulder to see Mollie smiling at her as she walked up toward them. “Oh, look—there’s Mollie,” and she smiled back. She and Mollie had been sitting together at school since they were eight years old; right before Maud had been sent to Malpeque, they’d made a solemn vow of friendship. Mollie’s real name was Amanda, but they had nicknamed each other last fall when they formed a secret club with Jack Laird and the Baptist minister’s stepson, Nate Spurr. Maud was Pollie and Jack and Nate were Snap and Snip.
“Maudie!” Mollie cried out and reached around Pensie to give Maud a hug. Maud hugged her friend back, and tried to suppress a stab of jealousy when she felt the small bustle at the back of Mollie’s summer dress. Maud had read in the Young Ladies’ Journal that the big bustle—a separate piece of clothing that attached to one’s waistband from the back, giving it extra flare—had become stylish again. Maud would have loved to have one on her dress, but according to Grandma, bustles were wasteful—“all that material.”
“When are you going to give up those juvenile nicknames?” Pensie said, when they had pulled apart.
Mollie puffed under her plush hat.
Ever since Pensie had started wearing a corset the previous year, she had begun to put on airs like she knew everything. It was confusing because sometimes Pensie seemed like the girl Maud grew up with, and then other times it was as if she was entering into that great divide where all she cared about was finding a husband. But it was too hot for quarrels.
“Never!” Maud said. “We love them, don’t we, Mollie?” In response, Mollie hugged her again, even more fiercely. Maud couldn’t help but wonder if Mollie was doing it more for Pensie’s benefit than hers.
“Why don’t I have a nickname?” Maud’s cousin Lu said, coming up behind Mollie.
“You do, my dear cousin. Your full name is Lucy and I call you Lu,” Maud said.
Lu beamed.
“Did you see Jack Laird?” Mollie asked, taking Maud’s hand. Pensie frowned down at their hands, and Maud discreetly let go. It was too hot to hold hands anyway. “He looks nice today.”
“Amanda Macneill,” Pensie said, using Mollie’s given name. “You’re terrible.”
“You’re not much better,” Maud teased. “Your mother informed Grandma when she last came for tea that Quill Rollings is calling.”
Pensie flushed. “He was asking after Mother.”
Maud and Mollie exchanged a smile.
“I don’t know why you all care,” Lu said. Being only almost-twelve, Lu didn’t find boys all that interesting.
Mollie tried to smoothly change the subject. “The new teacher is so lovely. She has big plans for our class and is nothing like that stuck-up Miss Robinson. Oh, I’m sorry Maud…”
Heat tickled Maud’s cheeks—and it wasn’t from the weather.
“It will be all right, Maudie,” Pensie said, putting her arm around Maud’s shoulders. This time Mollie frowned, but Maud didn’t move. “I suspect the school board would not have hired her if they didn’t think her suitable.”
But they had hired the last one too.
“Mother is giving me the signal,” Lu said and waved goodbye. “I’ll see you this afternoon.”
“Good, now I can give you this.” Mollie opened her Bible and pulled out a folded piece of paper—a letter! This must have been the “news” she was talking about.
Pensie moved over to Maud’s left to block any possible prying eyes. “You need to be careful,” she whispered. Maud suppressed the urge to sigh. She wished her old friend could just be curious about the letter’s contents, and not so proper.
“That’s why I waited for Lu to go,” Mollie said.
They all loved Lu, but she was known to accidentally allow things to slip, and then her father would tell Maud’s grandparents. Uncle John Franklin was her mother’s older brother, but he treated Maud like she was a poor country cousin, dependent upon them for the rest of her life. During family gatherings he either ignored her, or insulted her. Neither was tolerable. But seeing the familiar handwriting of the sender, Maud forgot all about that and was overcome with a fluttery feeling. Thank goodness Mollie had waited.
Maud shoved the letter into her Bible.
More people were beginning to head home for Sunday dinner. Uncle John Franklin, Lu, and the rest of the family would be over at the homestead soon enough and then the long, dull afternoon would begin.
“Maud,” Grandma called from the church steps, Grandfather plodding down behind her. “Don’t be too long.”
“Yes, Grandma,” Maud said.
“That’s what I’m talking about. I’m just as curious as you are about that letter, but you need to be careful that your grandmother doesn’t see it, Maudie,” Pensie said. “I already had to be away from you this summer. I would hate for you to be sent away again.”
Pensie had missed her! Maud embraced her. “I don’t want to be away from you ever again. I promise to be careful,” she said.