“Thank you, sweet Fiona,” Poppy said. “You’ve grown up since I saw you last. You’re becoming a great beauty like your sisters.”
Fiona beamed. “I am? Do you think I’ll be a lovely young lady like you and Jo?”
“I’ve no doubts,” Poppy said.
“For heaven’s sake, who cares?” Cymbeline jerked to her feet and went to stand by the fire. “All this talk of beauty is utterly boring.”
“I didn’t mean you weren’t pretty too,” Fiona said, looking stricken. “But you’re not all grown.”
“I know, goose,” Cymbeline’s eyes softened. “I didn’t take it that way.” In the firelight, her skin glowed with health and vitality. “As far as that goes, you all look beautiful.”
“I agree. And Josephine Barnes, you’re all sparkly and flushed.” Poppy narrowed her eyes. “I might even say you have the look of a girl in love. Your sisters have been telling me about your house guest. Have you been out with him?”
Just then, Phillip appeared in the doorway.
“There he is now. Phillip, come meet Poppy,” Fiona said.
He walked toward us, a strained look on his face. “I’m not presentable, as I’ve been working all day, but I’ll say hello.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Phillip,” Poppy said.
He bobbed his head. “You as well. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Poppy investigated him with her wise brown eyes, either unwilling or incapable of hiding her curiosity. I’d not written to her of his arrival, knowing that she would soon be home and I could tell her all about it in person. What would she think of my scandalous ways once I tol
d her my feelings? Falling for the friend of my former love? Not really, I reminded myself. He was a fraud. She didn’t yet know, though, unless my sisters had told her.
“I shouldn’t like to know what she’s told you,” Poppy said. “Jo and I have known each other since we were small girls. She knows everything about me. The good, bad, and embarrassing.”
“She knows all mine too,” I said.
“There aren’t any of Jo,” Poppy said. “Of all of us, she was always the good one.”
“We all know it wasn’t Cymbeline,” Fiona said, teasing.
“Fiona, you’re supposed to be on my side.” Cymbeline nudged her playfully on the shoulder.
“We had more than one scrape,” I said. “Mostly because of Flynn and Cym.”
“Vastly exaggerated for comic effect,” Cymbeline said.
“We had fun during our escapades,” Poppy said. “Even if there were a few times we got in trouble.”
“Phillip, come sit with us,” Fiona said. “There’s tea left.”
“I’d love to,” Phillip said. “However, I’m too dirty from working on the barn to sit with such fine young ladies. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll get cleaned up. I’ll see you all at dinner.”
Fiona grabbed a few of the tea sandwiches from the tray and put them on a plate for Phillip. “Take these for your room. You’re probably famished.”
“Thank you, Miss Fiona,” he said with a polite bow of his head. “You’re very thoughtful to think of it.”
She smiled up at him. “You’re welcome.”
He nodded at me and then headed toward the door. My hand impulsively waved, as if I had no control whatsoever.
Before dinner, all five of the Barnes girls gathered in the bedroom with Poppy. My littlest sisters had already had their meal and were in their flannel nightgowns cuddled under the covers in one of the twin bunk beds. Fiona was fixing Cymbeline’s hair at the dressing table. Poppy and I were side by side on the window seat. Addie and Delphia had been flooding a patient Poppy with questions for a quarter of an hour.
“Did you help make the animals feel better?” Addie asked. “Were they often sick?”