Down Jasper Lane (Amherst Island Trilogy)

“How delightful,” Rose murmured, giving Ellen a sideways smile. “Let’s go into the kitchen, dear. Not you lot,” she admonished her children, “I’m sure Ellen has had quite enough of you. Upstairs, then. You can keep out of mischief before bedtime, can’t you?”

Ellen doubted that very much, but the children trooped upstairs obediently.

“Let me put Andrew in his cradle,” Rose said, “and then we can talk properly. He’s exhausted, poor lamb, but his fever’s down, thank heaven.”

While Rose went upstairs, Ellen set out a plate for her, and put the kettle to boil on the range. She felt she needed to prove how useful she could be, although why, she wasn’t sure. Didn’t she want to be sent back to Seaton as soon as possible? At least there she could go to school and not work like a maid.

Yet the cheerful jumble of the McCafferty house, as overwhelming as it was to a child who’d grown up in a sickroom, had a certain odd appeal. She realized she wasn’t homesick for Seaton; she’d been too busy all evening even to think of it. And she didn’t want to be sent away again. Ever since arriving in America she’d felt one rejection after another: Aunt Ruth, the schoolchildren, her own father. Swallowing past the tightness in her throat, she turned towards her aunt as she came into the kitchen.

“There. Peace for a moment, anyway.” Rose sat down at the table, looking at the plate of pie and potatoes in surprised delight. “You are a treasure! How did you know I’d be famished?”

Ellen shrugged, discomfited. “It’s late. Will Uncle Dyle be coming back for supper?”

Rose smiled. “Eventually. I’m afraid farming doesn’t come easily to my Dyle, but he does try his best and I love him for it. I’ll make up a plate for him when I’m finished.”

“I can do it—” Ellen began.

“Nonsense,” Rose said, smiling. “You’ve been run off your feet since the moment you arrived, I shouldn’t wonder. Come sit down and tell me all about yourself. I’m so glad Aunt Ruth let you come.”

“But I thought you asked her to come,” Ellen said uncertainly, and Rose gave a vigorous shake of her head.

“Well, one has to be clever with Ruth, you know?” she said, her eyes sparkling. “I might have suggested she come, because I knew to ask her for you outright would set her firmly against it. But she certainly couldn’t be bothered to come herself, could she? Ruth is always so busy. So I hoped she’d think to send you.”

Ellen digested this information silently. “Are the children very ill, then?” she asked.

Rose gave a little laugh. “You saw them yourself. They were ill, and when I wrote it seemed a good idea to mention it. And I do find it hard to cope with all of them, that I confess. But no, my dear, I didn’t send for you to be our skivvy.” Rose’s smile was gentle. “I simply wanted to see you. You are quite the image of Douglas, do you know that?”

Ellen couldn’t quite meet her aunt’s gaze. “I suppose.”

“I’m sorry he left the way he did,” Rose said quietly. “My brother was always a dreamer, like my Dyle.” She shook her head. “It’s not always easy to live with someone like that.”

“I didn’t get a choice,” Ellen said, the words slipping out before she could stop them. “He didn’t give me one.” She stared down at her lap, blinking hard, felt the heat rush to her face.

“Oh, my dear child.” Ellen stiffened in surprise as she felt her aunt’s arms come around her and she pulled her into a sudden and tight embrace. “I’m so sorry for what you have endured. But always know you have a home and a family here.”

Ellen pressed her hot cheek against her aunt’s shoulder, emotion sweeping through her in a wave of suppressed sorrow and a new tide of hope. A home and a family? She had thought such things out of her reach. Even now she could not truly believe in them. Hadn’t Aunt Rose wanted her here just to be useful?

Ellen sniffed and drew back, blinking back the tears that she did not want her aunt to see. “Thank you, Aunt Rose,” she murmured. She could not manage anything else.

Rose smiled in understanding. “I do hope Ruth will let you stay through the year. You’ll do well at the island school, I should think.”

“School?” Ellen repeated, and her startled gaze met her aunt’s knowing one. “But I thought...”

Rose laid a hand on her arm. “I can tell what you thought, simply by all the work you’ve already done,” she said gently. “But you must put those old ideas quite out of your head. You’re family, Ellen, I do mean that, and that’s why we want you here.”

“But...”

“I had to tell Ruth something,” Rose said mischievously, and as a loud crash sounded from upstairs she nodded cheerfully. “Ah. They’re ready for bed.”

She walked briskly out of the kitchen, and Ellen, a tender new hope blossoming inside her, looked around her new home in cautious wonder.

PART TWO

ONE

The next few weeks seemed to Ellen the sweetest she’d known since her arrival in America. Every morning she walked to school with Sarah, Caro and Peter; Jasper Lane was ablaze with turning leaves, a tunnel of crimson and yellow and gold. At the end of the lane, Jed and his younger brother Lucas joined them.

If Jed hadn’t informed her in his surly way that Lucas was his brother, Ellen would have never known. The two were as different as could be, in both looks and demeanor. Lucas had light brown hair and blue eyes and a ready, easy smile Ellen preferred to Jed’s usual frown. Lucas also approached school with the same kind of eager anticipation Ellen felt, unlike Jed who carried his slate and satchel of books with an air of grim resignation.