It took all Daniel’s strength of will to refrain from bringing up a sharp knee to smash Tolhurst’s nose.
But as Tolhurst ducked out of his line of sight, Daniel espied a familiar figure coming around the garden hedge. Lofthouse, of all people, emerged from the greenery. Moreover, he appeared appropriately horrified at the sight before him.
Never before had Daniel felt so happy to see his guardian’s clerk. Happier still to hear him interrupt Tolhurst’s impertinent display and, furthermore, demand (however politely) to speak to Daniel alone. A hideous weight lifted from Daniel’s chest as Tolhurst banished himself back into the academy.
The resulting interview with Lofthouse proved far more pleasant, though still troubling. It wasn’t just Daniel who hadn’t heard from Felix since the beginning of May. And this, combined with Tolhurst’s sudden increase in overbearance, led Daniel to conclusions that made his stomach twist. He revolved the matter in his mind well after Lofthouse took his leave. And by the time Sukie had joined him in the attic that evening, he’d come to a decision.
“I’m running away,” said Daniel.
A thousand thoughts flew across Sukie’s beautiful face in an instant. Then she smoothed her furrowed brow and set hertrembling chin to reply, in a voice not of a lover but of a girl in service, “I see.”
Her evident assumption that he would leave her behind broke Daniel’s heart. Yet still he feared her answer as he asked, “Will you come with me?”
The dull look in her eyes vanished with a gleam. “Yes.”
Daniel’s tongue stumbled in his mouth. He’d already prepared his case, laid out in his mind how he would explain his plan to her and what place she might have in it, how he would attempt to retain his dignity even as he begged her to leave behind all she knew for a future with him. And she’d needed to hear none of it.
So instead, he kissed her.
~
Lofthouse returned to Daniel and Sukie’s cottage at noon on Sunday, just as promised. He explained, in his own nervous and apologetic way, that he didn’t require them to pose together again, for he intended to make close-up pencil sketches of their individual faces, to better capture their likeness in the final painting. As such, he need detain only one of them at a time.
Daniel volunteered to sit first. He pulled his chair into the best light from the southern window, just as they’d done yesterday. Unlike yesterday, Lofthouse drew the kitchen chair up very near to him—within a yard or so. Daniel braced himself for whatever awkwardness must assuredly ensue. It helped a great deal when Lofthouse brought out his sketchbook and set its board up between them as a barrier. Though, given he drew Daniel’s face, their eyes must by necessity still meet now and again.
Sukie, meanwhile, took up her mending on the sofa. Likewise she took up the threads of conversation from where they’d left off the previous day. She enquired what Lofthouse thought ofPort Hawkesbury and indulged him with her own opinion of its charms and virtues.
Lofthouse confessed he likewise found Port Hawkesbury refreshing and added, “I’ve seen a great many remarkable birds.”
Daniel blinked. Lofthouse coloured.
“What sort of birds?” Sukie asked. Daniel could hear the smile in her voice.
Lofthouse dropt his gaze to his sketchbook again as he replied, “There was a pileated woodpecker just this morning. And a black-and-yellow warbler. And a blue jay—have you seen? You must have—delightfully vibrant, positively cerulean in parts.”
“We’ve seen blue jays,” Sukie confirmed, still audibly smiling. “And woodpeckers, though I don’t know if they’re pileated.”
“The ones with red caps and black-and-white bodies,” Lofthouse explained. The hunch in his shoulders relaxed just a hair. “I only know the name because my mother had a book that illustrated the North American birds. It’s been something of a treat to come and see them for myself after all these years. You must have seen the robins as well?” he added, bringing his head up at last.
“Yes!” Sukie chimed in. “About twice as big as those in England, I’d wager. Did you see any puffins?”
“Puffins?” Lofthouse flicked his gaze away from studying Daniel’s face to meet her eye with a bewildered glance.
“Fat funny little fellows,” Sukie explained. “In black-and-white suits with bright blunt beaks. We saw them on both sides of our boat crossing.”
Lofthouse blinked. “Oh. No, I haven’t had the chance, I’m afraid. But I should very much like to.”
Daniel wondered to himself how Lofthouse could’ve avoided seeing them on his own Atlantic crossing. The fat funny little fellows, as Sukie called them, had flocked all over the rocky coasts of Britain and Canada both. For that matter, Lofthouse hadn’t mentioned any other seabirds in his list. Perhaps they weren’t colourful enough to attract his notice—puffins aside.
Lofthouse cleared this throat. “Mr Butcher has espied several waterfowl in his own excursions. Loons, harlequin ducks, green-winged teal, red-breasted merganser…”
All freshwater birds, Daniel noted.
“What sort of excursions bring Mr Butcher to so many ducks?” Sukie asked.
Lofthouse glanced up as if the question had startled him, though Daniel couldn’t see how. After a moment’s hesitation, Lofthouse replied, “He hunts.”
There was half the mystery solved, then. Butcher could hardly do worse than the Canadian wilderness for catching wild and hitherto unseen game. A single pair of elk antlers would suffice to make conversation for decades if brought back to England and hung up in his study.
