Corner of the Housetop: Buried Secrets (37 page)

Derek couldn't help but laugh. "Really?"

Nodding gloomily, Gabriel said, "I think he meant literally."

Still laughing, Derek climbed into the carriage and looked out the window at the beach again. The breakers were choppy and the water grayish-blue. Looking upwards, he saw a mass of dark clouds moving in from over the ocean.
Storm's coming
, he thought.
At least we're sure to be back before it hits.

In the week that followed the first lesson, Gabriel taught Derek each letter and several words by groups of five or six. When Friday came, he could read, with effort, things like, "The boy and his dog walked to town." Such simple reading from the letter book bored him, but held his interest in its promise to lead him to greater things in each of the red books and, eventually, any book he might choose to pick up.

On the Monday following Derek's final letter lesson, Gabriel strode into the stables, not with pen and marked drills, as was usual, but with the larger of the two red books under his arm.

"Ready?"

"I get to use that one now?" Derek asked, his brush strokes down Lady Sarah Mary-Ruth's side slowing, then stopping all together.

"You're done the other one," Gabriel said matter-of-factly.

Derek couldn't help but grin. "If you wanna head up, I'll be along as soon as I put her away."

Gabriel climbed to the loft quickly, a week's worth of practice ascending and descending the ladder with his hands all but full bringing him to nearly Derek's skill in the maneuver.

When he finished, Derek followed.

"Here you go," Gabriel said, holding the book out to him. It was opened to the first page. "See how much of that first one you can read. Just read straight through as best you can, and I'll mark down where you have problems, then we'll go over it."

Derek nodded, taking the book as he sat down. When he found the beginning of the passage he started to read shakily.

"'The first meeting of the cou-counk '"

Gabriel leaned over and looked at the page Derek was reading from. "Council. The second 'c' sounds like an 's,' not a 'k.'"

"Well, that's weird."

Gabriel shrugged and went back to twirling a leaf between his fingers while he listened.

Looking back at the book, Derek continued to read: "'The first meeting of the council was held on the third day of the month….'"

When Derek finished reading the passage out of the red book, he set it down and leaned against the large tree behind him. "All done, right?" he asked.

After a second, Gabriel nodded and started pulling his shoes off.

Standing, Derek pulled off his shirt, the tempting call of the rushing water sounding in his ears.

Gabriel had promised they could finish studying early and go for a swim if Derek didn't have more than five problems reading the passage. In anticipation, they had taken the book down the path to the river while Mrs. Worthington had everyone else preoccupied with planning Gabriel's birthday party. After the walk down, they'd settled in a shady place on the far side of the bank. It was a mossy ledge raised several feet from the river bank, and one from which a daring leap could land someone on top of the huge boulder that loomed over the swimming hole.

"You're doing really good," Gabriel commented, unbuttoning his own shirt and tossing it over a low branch.

Grinning, Derek replied, "I'd say it's 'cause I have a good teacher, but I don't lie." Not waiting for Gabriel, he ran to the edge of the bank, then leapt across to the top of the huge rock and jumped off into the pool far below.

It had been nearly a week and a half since the reading lessons out of the red book began, and Derek, despite his jest, was pleased with how they were going. Gabriel proved to be a better teacher than he'd expected. True, Derek wasn't very near reading the Bible, but he could go over selected passages out of the reader and answer questions about them with little difficulty. Gabriel reminded him the previous day that the red book was only a second grade level, but second grade was much better than illiterate.

Once Gabriel finished undressing and jumped in the water, he swam over to Derek and started splashing him. "If it wasn't for me, you'd still be stuttering through Bible verses from memory," he challenged.

Laughing, Derek pounced on Gabriel, pushing him under. After a moment, he let him up, then dodged an attempt at a retaliatory dunking. He swam to the bank and started scaling the boulder with Gabriel in pursuit. When he reached the top, Derek said, "Gabe, don't do anything "

Before he could finish, Gabriel pushed him off the rock. Derek plunged into the water, then kicked his way to the surface. He drew breath just as Gabriel splashed into the water beside him.

The two struggled for dominance for nearly an hour before calling a draw and crawling onto the muddy bank, both laughing and out of breath.

"You wanna climb up there," Derek said, pointing to the boulder, "and toss down my things?"

"Yeah," Gabriel gasped. "Just as soon as you toss down mine."

"All right. Give me a second."

"All right."

When his breathing slowed, Derek sat up and looked around at the bushes, pleased to see that they were thick with fat berries. The season had finally come in. Pushing himself up, Derek walked to the nearest bush and, forgetting to wipe off his muddy hands, started pulling off the dark bulbs and popping them into his mouth. "Blackberries are in," he called to Gabriel around a mouthful.

In a moment, Gabriel was on his feet, feasting alongside Derek.

When they'd had their fill, the two climbed to the top of the boulder and jumped to the upper bank where their books and clothes still lay.

Dressing lazily, Derek looked down the river as far as he could see. Several hundred feet beyond the abandoned beaver dam it took a sharp turn to the right. If a person followed it, it would lead him to the bridge by the Village.

I haven't been in a while. Maybe I could find some more books
, Derek mused. As tempting as a trip his Village was, the dream in which he was chased and caught by the night creatures had returned several times over the previous weeks and the thought of venturing so far into the woods alone did not settle well in his mind.

Derek shivered and shook the thought from his head. Looking back at Gabriel, he said, "About ready to go? It'll be lunch soon."

"Yeah. Just getting my shoes the rest of the way on. Don't forget your book."

Picking it up, Derek looked back down at the bushes. Even at the distance, he could see clumps of black amid the leafy brambles. "We should come down and get some blackberries tomorrow and have Beth make us muffins."

"There were some decent ones at the path upstream. We could get some from there on our way back." Gabriel buttoned his shirt and started down the bank, holding a tree branch so he wouldn't slip on the steep slope.

Derek felt tempted to push him and watch him slide into the river, but decided against it for today. That would just lead them to stay another hour and he couldn't afford it. His chores had been suffering as it was with the lessons and studying taking up so much of his time. After getting in trouble for forgetting to clip the hedges, Derek had started reading at night with his broken lamp after Devon was asleep so he wouldn't use up so much daytime on it.

Sighing, Derek followed Gabriel down the slope and along the river. They walked for several minutes without speaking. When they reached the point where the blackberry bushes were too thick for them to walk the bank, they took off their shoes and splashed back into the river and fought the current. They reached the head of the path quickly, climbing out of the water sluggishly.

"We could use my shirt for the berries," Derek volunteered, handing Gabriel the book and gathering the front tails of his shirt to make a carrying bag of sorts. He started picking berries into it.

Gabriel nodded and started picking also.

When they had as many as they could fit in Derek's shirt, they started up the path.

"We'll have a lot of muffins with that many," Gabriel observed, slightly out of breath by the time they reached the lawn behind the house.

Derek nodded.

"I'll go and get a basket."

"All right." As Gabriel ran towards the side door, Derek strolled after him and sat on the step, grateful to be off his feet. Between staying awake late to study, morning chores, and swimming, he felt no guilt at being tired. He ate a couple more blackberries while he waited.

The door opened and Gabriel came out. "Beth was down there" he said, holding out the basket. "She said she'd be able to make muffins today."

"Sounds good to me." Standing, Derek tipped the berries out of his shirt and into the basket. There were blue and purple blotches all down the front of him.

"Should I take that in for Beth to wash today?"

"Naw. I'll just rip it up for rags."

"If you're sure."

Derek nodded. "Yeah, I needed some. Well, I better get going. I still have to clean out the stores in the stables and make sure the horses had their exercise."

"I'll bring you out some muffins when they're done."

"Thanks," he said, taking his book and jogging around back of the house. When he reached the stables, he climbed to the loft and pulled his wet, muddy, blackberry-stained clothes off. Rifling through his trunk, he took out a clean shirt and dry pants and dressed again.

"Boy?"

"Just got back," he called quickly. "I was about to clean out the stores."

"Take inventory while you're at it," Devon ordered.

Derek went to the edge of the loft and frowned down at the old man. "Take inventory?"

"You bin learnin' all that readin' an' writin' for a reason, ain't ya?"

Surprised, but proud of his new assignment, Derek said heartily, "Yes, sir," and started down the ladder. He knew Devon must have been aware of his study sessions with Gabriel, but he never mentioned them and Devon never asked about them, so Derek assumed he was ignoring them on purpose.

"Here," Devon said gruffly, shoving a pad of paper at him. "See these?" He pointed to a series of numbers on the side of a bag of oats.

"Yeah."

"Write the number from the bags and the amount of each that's here. Do the boxes in the last stall, too. When yer done with that, yer lunch is by the door."

Smiling to himself, Derek started copying the numbers and counting the bags. He marked them on the paper, then looked at the next item. When all the bags and boxes had been noted, he set the pad on the hay bale by the door, and sat down to his lunch.

When he was finished eating, he went to get the lead from the wall.

"Ready to go out, you two?" he asked, opening Blueberry's stall first. It was always easier to convince Lady Sarah Mary-Ruth to go out if she knew she would have to be alone if she stayed inside.

Once both horses were in the corral, Derek climbed up and sat on the fence, watching them thoughtfully. Despite the haze of humidity that coated the field, everything seemed bright as the grass shifted in the breeze and the trees bent to the wind. He stayed there, seeing everything look hopeful, for as long as he could.