Down Jasper Lane (Amherst Island Trilogy)

Jed scowled. “And who needs to be original with dog names?”

“I was just teasing,” she said quietly. She didn’t want Jed scowling at her again. “What do you think I should name this one?” The puppy had wriggled out of her arms and was now prancing around the kitchen, sniffing at everything.

Jed looked like he was just going to shrug again, but then he crouched down so he could examine the puppy who had run underneath the table. “Patch, maybe? She’s got a big white patch over her eye there.”

“Patch,” Ellen repeated thoughtfully, liking it.

“Or Piddle. Because that’s what she’s just done.”

Ellen let out a cry of alarm at the spreading puddle under the table. “Oh dear—”

Jed laughed and stood up again. “Should have bought you a hair ribbon or something, I suppose.”

Ellen stood up as well, throwing a now sodden dish cloth into the big stone sink. “Oh no, Jed! I’m glad you gave me Patch.”

He arched an eyebrow. “Patch, is it?”

“Yes. Patch.” She smiled, and he smiled back, and Ellen’s heart suddenly gave a queer little lurch. Then she heard Aunt Rose call from the parlor.

“Ellen! Come quickly for the cake!” And with a self

-conscious little laugh, Ellen scooped Patch up into her arms and hurried back into the parlor.

Later, sitting in the kitchen with Patch curled up asleep at her feet, Ellen clasped her hands round her knees and looked at her aunt with shining eyes. “I’ve never had a party before. And so many presents! It was the most wonderful thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Rose chuckled. “Well, thirteen is quite an important birthday, isn’t it?”

“True enough,” Dyle agreed. He came into the kitchen and took a seat across from Ellen, filling his pipe with thoughtful deliberation. “You don’t turn thirteen every day.”

“Indeed not,” Rose agreed.

“I didn’t even think you knew it was my birthday,” Ellen confessed. “Jed must have told you—”

“Oh, it wasn’t Jed,” Rose said with a laugh. “I don’t know if I’ve ever got two words out of him, together. No, it was Lucas. He was quite concerned, you know, said you simply must have a cake.” Rose turned to her with a smile, and after a second’s pause Ellen smiled back. Yet she could not ignore the odd sliver of disappointment that needled her soul. Why should it matter whether it was Jed or Lucas who told her aunt about her birthday?

She reached down to caress Patch’s ears, and the little dog gave a shuddering sigh of contentment, even in her sleep. A sudden and alarming new thought occurred to her. “But I won’t be here, after Christmas, or maybe this year. And I don’t think Aunt Ruth and Uncle Hamish will look kindly upon a dog.”

“So they won’t,” Rose agreed cheerfully, “but we can keep Patch for you, Ellen. Besides, you’ll be back. We’ll all make sure of that.”

Hope fluttered inside her once more, growing stronger. “I will?”

“Of course you will,” Dyle said. “I told you, we need you to keep us right on track. On the straight and narrow, Ellen, the straight and narrow.”

“We need Ellen for more than that,” Rose said and reached across to draw Ellen into a quick but tight hug. “We need Ellen just because she’s Ellen.”

And despite the strange disappointment that still flickered inside her, Ellen didn’t think she’d ever heard such kindly and wonderful words.

THREE

By the last day of school before Christmas, the snow was knee-deep and still falling thickly. This was unusual for the island, which generally enjoyed milder temperatures than the mainland, and farmers were kept busy shoveling snow off their roofs to keep the shingles from buckling, and paths clear to their barns.

Ellen, however, loved the snow. She loved the way it cloaked the island, so the trees and bushes and fences were just soft shapes under the pillowy whiteness. She loved the ice-encased branches silhouetted against a bright, blue sky and the way the lake became a flat, endless stretch of snow.

She spent hours at her window with her sketchbook, her pencil racing across the page, as she struggled to capture a world made beautiful by cold.

Rose had written Ruth as promised, and there hadn’t been a reply yet, which had left Ellen feeling alarmed but Rose had seemed confident. “Silence is as good as a yes,” she said with a wink. “We’ve got you now, so you’re staying.”

Ellen was greatly looking forward to Christmas. Back in Springburn, Christmas had just been another day in the year; Da might have managed to bring home some sweets but not much else. When Ellen had been little, her mam had made a special meal, and had put a few presents in Ellen’s stocking, perhaps even an orange. Yet those days seemed so distant Ellen felt as if they’d happened to another person, a different Ellen, a sadder and smaller one. Surely she was different now.