A Spy Among the Girls (8 page)

“Hey, Peter,” said Josh. “Tomorrow's Valentine's Day, you know it?”

“Uh-huh,” said Peter. “We're having pink-and-red cupcakes at school.”

“Good for you,” said Josh. “I've got a problem, though. I bought a box of chocolates for Beth, and Mom doesn't want me to go over there. I'll give you a quarter to deliver it for me.”

Peter shook his head. “Mom doesn't want
me
over there either.”

“But
your
delivering the candy wouldn't be the same thing as
my
delivering it,” Josh said. “Mom wouldn't get mad if you just did what I asked you to do.”

“She'd get mad no matter who did it,” said Peter.

“Tell you what,” Josh went on. “All you have to do is take the box over to the Malloys’ and leave it on their porch, between the front door and the storm door. You don't even have to ring the bell or anything. Just leave it, okay? And I'll give you a quarter.”

“Okay,” said Peter.

He went downstairs and put on his coat and cap, pulled a mitten out of each pocket, then took the yellow box with the big red ribbon and looked it over. There was a handmade card in a handmade envelope taped to the box. It had pieces of red and pink and sil
ver tissue paper pasted on it in unusual shapes, Beth's name in gold, and little red sparkles all over the envelope. Peter shook the box. He smelled it.

“Go, Peter!” Josh commanded.

Still studying the box in his hands, Peter slowly went down the front steps and across the road to the swinging bridge.

Eleven
Gift

B
eth had baked two chocolate hearts, one for Josh and one for her father. Coach Malloy had eaten his, but Beth was going to wait until after dark, when no one would see her, then leave Josh's heart on his front porch and ring the bell.

“This is
boring
!” Caroline complained to her sisters as the girls sprawled on Eddie's bed, resting their chins on their hands. “If we can't have anything to do with the Hatfords again, we might as well go back to Ohio. I mean, what have we ever found to do in Buckman that's as exciting as hanging out with the boys?”

“That's the problem with us,” Eddie told them as they looked out the window toward the Hatfords’ house. “There's lots to do in Buckman—we just haven't gotten involved.”

“
I'v
e
been involved! I had a part in the community
play!” Caroline said, failing to mention that she was sick the night of the performance. “But I
still
think doing stuff with the Hatfords—doing things
to
the Hatfords—has been the most fun of all.”

“So do I,” said Beth in a soft voice, a dreamy voice— and, Caroline noticed, a decidedly sad voice. “But there's got to be more than just leaving a chocolate heart on Josh's porch. I'm going to find a way to be with him if I have to run away to do it.”

Both Caroline and Eddie turned and stared at Beth.

“You wouldn't!” said Eddie. “Run away from home over a boy? Over a
Hatford
?”

“Over Josh, I would,” Beth said determinedly.

“But where would you go?” asked Caroline. Oh, this was wonderful! Beth was actually talking about forsaking her family and home for the boy she loved! How Caroline wished it were
she
who was thinking of running away—
she
who would do something really romantic! She just
had
to make Wally Hatford fall in love with her, if even for five minutes. “Where would you
live
?” she questioned.

Now it was Beth's turn to stare. “Live? Why, right here, of course! I didn't mean I would run away
to
somewhere. I just meant run off for the day to be with Josh for a while.”

“Hey!” said Eddie. “Do you see what I see?”

Beth and Caroline looked toward the window again.

“Somebody's coming across the swinging bridge,” said Beth. “It looks like…like…”

“Peter!” said Caroline. “No one in Buckman takes as long to cross that bridge as Peter Hatford.”

“Or finds so many excuses to stop.” Eddie laughed.

They studied the young boy standing at the cable handrail, watching the water flow under the bridge.

“What's he got under his arm?” mused Beth.

“Looks like a book. A dictionary?” Caroline guessed.

“It's not a dictionary, it's a box,” said Eddie, craning her neck and staring hard out the window.

Down below, Peter started forward again. Yes, it
was
a box, Caroline decided. A yellow box. Peter was holding it in both hands now and studying it as he crossed the halfway point on the bridge and kept coming. Now she saw him hold the box up to his ear and shake it.

“You know what I think he's got? A box of Whitman's chocolates,” Eddie said, beginning to smile. “Doesn't it look like it's wrapped in cellophane? And isn't that a wide red ribbon across the front?”

“Beth, I'll bet it's for you!” Caroline cried excitedly. “I'll bet Josh sent it over here with Peter.”

They watched in fascination as Peter held the box to his face and appeared to be sniffing it. Yes, it
was
a box of Whitman's chocolates. The girls would recognize one of them anywhere. Caroline had seen rows and rows of them in the drugstore.

“They're chocolates, all right,” Beth said.

“Or they
were
—what will be left of them if Peter doesn't stop shaking them.” Eddie laughed as Peter shook the box still again.

Peter came off the bridge at last, but he took only two steps up the long hill to their house before he
stopped, looked over his shoulder, then sat down on a large rock there on the bank.

“
Now
what?” Beth wondered aloud, then gasped as she watched Peter pull off the ribbon and work his finger under the cellophane in one corner.

“He's
opening
it!” Caroline shrieked. “He's going to eat your candy, Beth!”

“I don't believe this,” murmured Eddie.

“
I
believe it!” said Caroline.

Peter was holding his mitten in his mouth while his finger probed around under the cellophane, trying to lift a corner of the lid. But it didn't seem to be working, and so, with a shrug, Peter dropped both his mittens on the ground and gently tore all the cellophane off the yellow box. The girls stared in fascination.

They watched as Peter opened the lid. They saw him study the diagram on the inside. They saw him lift up the cardboard over the first layer of chocolates to peer at the candy beneath. And finally his hand roamed around the top, started to descend over a chocolate, paused, then plucked a piece out of the box and popped it into his mouth.

“My candy!” Beth wailed, laughing nonetheless.

“At least, we
think
it's your candy,” said Caroline. Who was to say it might not be for
her
?—a box of Whitman's chocolates from Wally?

Peter seemed to be having a marvelous time. He probably had selected a nougat, Caroline decided, since those were usually the largest pieces of all and his jaws were still moving up and down.

“You'd better get up here, Peter.” Eddie laughed. “If Josh sees what you're doing, you're dead, kid.”

Any minute now, the girls expected Peter to close the lid of the box. Any minute they expected to see him get to his feet and bring the candy on up to the house.

To their surprise, however, Peter pondered the diagram under the lid again, and once more his hand hovered over the layer of chocolates.

“
Look
at him!” cried Eddie.

Peter picked up another chocolate, looked it over, then put it back in the box and traded it for something else.

“Oh, gross!” cried Caroline.

The second chocolate went into his mouth.

“If you're lucky, Beth, you may get a piece or two before they're gone,” Eddie told her.

It appeared as though Peter had barely swallowed the second piece before he selected a third, and then, to their horror, the Malloy girls watched as he poked his finger first in one chocolate, shook his head, then another, shook his head, and finally, finding a candy to his liking, popped it into his mouth and sat tapping both feet on the ground.

But it was when he began nibbling a corner off first one piece of candy, then another, that Eddie said, “Somebody ought to go out there and stop him.”

“Maybe it's his own candy,” said Caroline. “Maybe somebody gave him a box and he's just sitting out there enjoying it.”

“On
our
side of the river?” said Eddie. “Come on.

Put on your jackets and let's go pretend we're just out walking.”

The girls clattered downstairs, took their jackets off the pegs by the back door, and headed down the hill toward the swinging bridge.

Peter was holding a large chocolate out in front of him, examining it from all sides, when the Malloy girls suddenly appeared in front of him.

Caroline saw him freeze. The chocolate dropped from his fingers back into the box and he sat like a statue on the rock. A thin trickle of marshmallow creme oozed out one side of his mouth.

“Hi, Peter,” Beth called. “Looks like you're having a picnic.”

“All by yourself,” added Caroline.

“It looks to me like you're celebrating Valentine's Day a day early,” said Eddie.

Without taking his eyes off the girls, Peter scrunched up the cellophane. His fingers raked up all the empty paper cups and he thrust them under him, there on the rock.

The girls took a step closer. The marshmallow creme slid down Peter's chin and onto his jacket.

“Yum! Whitman's chocolates!” said Eddie. “Who gave you the candy, Peter? Your girlfriend?”

Peter swallowed and thrust the box toward Beth, and as soon as it was safely in her hands, he leaped off the rock and went racing back across the swinging bridge.

The girls looked down at the box, then at the cello
phane on the ground. There was a card taped to the cellophane. On it someone had drawn a beautiful heart, decorated with little pieces of pink and red tissue paper and covered with red sparkles. In the middle were the initials
J+ B.

Twelve
Like Two Hot Coals

“S
o how long does it take to drop a box of chocolates on a porch?” Josh murmured to Wally as they sat in front of the TV.

Not this long,” Wally said. “We saw him cross the bridge, though. We know where he was headed, right?”

“You don't suppose Caroline got to him first and took the chocolates herself, do you?” Josh asked warily. Wally shrugged. “Anything is possible with Caroline.”

They looked up to see Jake observing them from the doorway. “So, what are you guys doing?” he asked.

“What's up?”

“What do you mean?” said Josh. “We're watching TV.

” “With the Mute button on? What's happening, anyway?”

“Waiting for Peter, that's all,” Josh said. “I sent him on a little errand.”

Jake came over and sat down. “Waiting for Peter to do what?” And when he got no answer, he grinned. “Waiting for Peter to deliver a valentine, maybe? You might as well tell me, because I'll find out somehow.”

“Waiting for Peter to deliver a two-pound box of Whitman's chocolates to Beth Malloy,” said Wally, answering for Josh.

Jake stared at his twin. “Are you crazy? After all we've done to drive the Malloys out of Buckman, you're giving Beth a valentine?
Chocolates?
Do you want them to stay here forever?”

“I wouldn't mind,” said Josh truthfully.

Jake clutched at his head. “What's
happening
to us? We're all going soft, that's what! Beth's your
girl
friend, Josh! Who are you kidding?”

“She is
not
!” said Josh. “You wanted me to spy, didn't you? I can't very well spy if they won't have anything to do with us. If Valentine's Day comes and goes and Beth doesn't get a present from me, do you think she'll tell me anything anymore?”

“Yeah? So what's she told you so far that we didn't know already?” said Jake. “I'll bet she's given
you
a valentine too, hasn't she? Baked some fancy cookies or something?”

“No, she hasn't, but if she does, I'll just throw them out,” Josh said.

There were footsteps on the porch, and the front door opened a crack. Wally and his brothers stopped
talking and watched as the door opened wider still and Peter slid noiselessly inside. He was tiptoeing across the hall, trying to get upstairs without being seen.