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But she remained standing.
“I just wanted to say we understand and respect your wish to remain anonymous.” He looked down at her with sympathetic eyes. “Your secret is safe with us.”
She nodded slowly thanking him silently.
He grimaced and said, “I can only image what you witnessed up in that mountain. But it must have been horrific. You will always be safe here at the Circle H.”
He smiled suddenly and the old Prescott was back. “My sister and I plan to have a very leisurely day today, catching up and so forth. Would you mind bringing some tea into the reading room?”
She nodded.
“After that, you’re free to spend the day as you please.” Prescott gave her a parting smile before exiting the kitchen.
Free. Such a strange word. With the disclosure of her true identity, she ought to be feeling abundantly free, but she felt more trapped than she ever did before.
As per Prescott’s request, she made up a pot of tea and brought it along with two china saucers out to the reading room. She had never entered the room before, but had seen it many times walking past it to the kitchen. It was far bigger than her few glimpses indicated, and housed many floor to ceiling shelves full of books. Behind the door the room extended further where a set of very expensive chairs sat in front of an elaborate marble fireplace. A fire had already been started and was warming the room nicely. Enormous glass pane windows flanked by long red velvet curtains drawn open to allow the morning sun to enter, substituted an entire back wall. Anna had always known the home was beautiful, but it grew more magnificent in every room she entered. Kathleen stood in front of a row of books with her back to Anna when she entered but turned upon the sound of her entrance.
She placed the tray of tea on the small, elegantly carved table between the two chairs. Anna found it hard picturing Wade sitting there with a book perched in front of his nose. No doubt, the reading room was for the benefit of Prescott and their sister when she visited.
“Thank you,” Kathleen said, turning away from the shelf with a book in her hand.
Anna lifted the tea pot and poured the hot liquid into one of the elegant saucers. Glancing around the room, she noticed Prescott missing and hesitated before pouring the second cup.
“I’ve sent Prescott to Lantern,” his sister explained. “My brothers are so fond of you, I thought maybe you and I could get acquainted.”
Anna couldn’t stop the sad crease that formed on her forehead.
“Wade will come around.” She seemed to have read Anna’s mind. “He’s far more stubborn than Prescott. As I’m sure you’re probably aware.”
She dropped her chin in order to conceal the emotion in her eyes. His sister was far too astute.
“Won’t you sit and have tea with me?”
Her head lifted, surprised.
“Please?” Kathleen shared the same blue coloring in her eyes like her brothers, however hers held so much more softness. It was easy to be drawn into her warmth. She hesitated, then nodded, uneasy about the situation. What would Wade think to see a servant sitting and having tea with his lady sister?
“Good.” Putting her book down on one of the chairs, she stepped over to the tea tray. “Let me pour you a cup. Is black fine?”
Anna nodded but felt uncertain.
“I was thinking about your name,” she said and handed Anna a china cup perched on a small saucer. It felt like glass and it occurred to Anna that she had never drank from anything so fine before. “We can’t continue to refer to you as girl, for obvious reasons, and I refuse to call you Peter.”
She smiled and Anna felt the urge to return it.
“Prescott tells me you do not know how to read or write so I thought while I was here, I would teach you.”
When she was younger, she recalled her father bringing home a book in the hopes of teaching his children to read. Anna was never certain if her father actually knew how to read or not, but it was the only book Anna had ever seen. Her mother had refused, saying it took away from time needed for more important tasks. So the book had gone away and never mentioned again.
“Perhaps your first word will be your name.” When she smiled this time, Anna smiled back.
Kathleen got up and walked over to a desk where some paper lay neatly stacked. She took a sheet and a pen from the ink holder and proceeded to write something on the blank paper. When she was done, she returned to the chair and showed it to Anna.
“This is my name,” she said. “Kathleen.”
To Anna, it simply looked like a combination of straight and curvy lines, but she was willing to listen.
“Words are made up by using the letters of the alphabet. Each word we speak has letters that represent the word in written form. Such as my name.”
