Read Online Wishful Seeing by Janet Kellough - Free Book Online Page B

door.
    Thaddeus kicked off his boots and followed Martha into the kitchen. “What was that all about?”
    She sighed. “That’s twice now he’s made an excuse to come over here. It’s a nuisance really, except that both times he brought something — first a box of kindling, and now a pie.”
    â€œAh, I see.” Apparently James Small had taken a fancy to Martha. “Is this going to be a problem?” She seemed not just indifferent to, but downright annoyed by, the young man’s attentions. “Should I speak to him?”
    â€œI don’t think so,” Martha said. “I haven’t given him the slightest encouragement. Nor will I.” She giggled a little. “Have you noticed that his Adam’s apple bobs up and down when he talks? I can’t help staring at it, and then I miss what he’s saying to me.”
    She was right. It did. Thaddeus had become mesmerized by it once or twice himself. He hoped Small wouldn’t be too insistent and that there would be no hard feelings over Martha’s rejection. It could make their working relationship awkward if Small took offence, or persisted in spite of her discouragement.
    â€œBesides,” Martha went on, “he’s old .”
    Thaddeus laughed. “He’s twenty-three!”
    Martha looked at him solemnly. “And I’m fifteen. Far too young to have any young man coming to the door, much less an old one of twenty-three.”
    â€œThat’s absolutely correct, my dear.” He knew he was being teased, but he did wonder again if he had taken on more than he bargained for.
    â€œAnyway, I hadn’t expected to see you quite so soon,” she said. “I was going to melt some cheese on some bread and call that my supper.”
    â€œThat sounds fine, if we can have some of that pie for dessert.”
    â€œI’ll brew some tea for you first.”
    Thaddeus walked over to the kitchen table and pulled out a chair, but was suddenly struck with the realization that something was different. It took him a few moments to work out what it was.
    â€œDid you put different curtains in here?” he asked. The window had been draped in a worn and yellowed fabric that blocked most of the light. Now only the bottom pane was covered, and with a far lighter material.
    â€œYes. Those came from the back bedroom. They washed up better than the ones that were there, so I switched them. It’s lovely in the morning — the sun pours in through that window.”
    â€œGood idea,” he said. It was something that would never have occurred to him to do. “They look nice.”
    He sat down and reached for the newspapers that Martha had left on the table. He had seen only one or two papers in the days he had been away, and then he had not been able to do anything more than glance at them. It would have been rude to do otherwise in someone else’s home; he was expected to make polite conversation, to comment on the fineness of the meal, and to lead the family in prayer, not sit with his nose stuck in their reading material. Now he looked forward to a steaming cup of tea and a bite to eat, all consumed while devouring the latest news and the commentary on it. It was a luxury to take the papers, but one that he was reluctant to forego.
    The Cobourg Star had only a brief article on the matter of the Plews lawsuit, stating only the barest of the details. Thaddeus wondered what the Sully neighbourhood was making of the whole affair. George Howell was not a particularly popular figure to begin with, apparently, and his seemingly unscrupulous land deal seemed to have uncovered a tangled web of questions, none of which had been answered by the newspaper. It didn’t seem to matter, as far as the town fathers were concerned. Thaddeus discovered in a second article that they were prepared to pour another forty thousand pounds of municipal money into the railway project, and in a