At breakfast the next morning, the family was somewhat subdued, and still tired.
Burl was still sleeping, and the discussion was on whether to go wake him up or not.
"I say let him sleep," Johnny said.
"If he sleeps too late, then he might not sleep tonight," Teresa pointed out.
"We don't need any more late nights," Scott added.
"Let's have our breakfast, and then, if he's not up, we'll wake him," Murdoch said.
They began talking about work for the day, and then, later, as they were finished, Charlie scooted her chair
up to the table.
"I'll take Burl for a walk," she offered.
"Only around the house or the barn," Murdoch told her.
"I'll keep an eye out while I'm hanging the laundry," Teresa promised him.
Once the men folks had gone outside, to join Jelly and the other men to being the day's work, Charlie helped Maria
do up the dishes, while Teresa began on the laundry.
Things were peaceful in the kitchen, and pleasant, with the door open to the breeze, and the smell of bread baking.
In the midst of the peace and quietness, there was a thud that could be heard from upstairs. Both Charlie and Maria
paused, to listen.
"Que el ruido?" Maria said, tilting her head to listen more closely. "Senor Burl?"
"I'll go see," Charlie said, and sped out of the kitchen, with her apron flapping.
She could hear Maria calling after her, but ran on. At the top of the stairs, and to the doorway of her own bedroom, Charlie
came to a stop, Maria just behind her, breathing heavily. Teresa was sitting on the edge of the bed, and Burl was sitting beside her.
Charlie saw that Teresa was holding her elbow with her opposite hand, rubbing at it. For that reason, Charlie didn't ask any questions.
She knew already, with a sinking feeling, what had happened.
Maria asked what the loud thudding had been a few minutes before.
"I bumped into the dresser," Teresa said.
"Sure and I'm sorry for it-" Burl said.
"It's no harm done," Teresa said, in a soothing tone.
Maria wrinkled her forehead. "El codo?" she asked, with a nod at Teresa's rubbing of her elbow. Immediately Teresa stopped the rubbing, lowering
her hand to her lap.
"I jarred it-it's alright," Teresa said.
Charlie knew that Teresa wasn't being quite truthful, and she knew that Maria knew it, too.
Within the next few minutes, Maria had things organized, and under her control. Burl was asking for some of his material,
and Charlie was sent to fetch it, along with needles and thread. Burl was thusly installed in a corner of the kitchen, where he worked
with the material at the table.
Charlie was sent to finish hanging the laundry, and when she came back inside, Teresa was sitting holding a chunk of ice in a cloth
on her arm.
Charlie wanted to ask Teresa what had happened upstairs, but she didn't think it was best to do so in front of Maria. For that lady's mouth
was set in a line of obvious disapproval. When an hour or more had passed, and Charlie was busy chopping vegetables and watching
Burl work with his project, he announced that he was weary, and folded his supplies up neatly, and nodded his head to the three
females and said, "I'll take a rest."
Maria went after him, and Charlie knew it was to make sure he was set for that rest on the sofa in Murdoch's study.
In the brief few minutes that she knew that there were, Charlie asked Teresa what had happened.
Teresa shook her head slightly. "I surprised him too much, when I was trying to wake him up-"
"Did he push you into the dresser?" Charlie asked, horrified.
Maria was bustling back into the kitchen, and, now that Burl was occupied elsewhere, she was intent on answers.
"Teresa, lo que paso antes?" Teresa, what happened before?
"I startled Burl," Teresa said. "Sorpresa, Senor Burl," she amended.
"Te golpeo?" Did he strike you? Maria asked.
Teresa shook her head. "No. No lo hizo." He did not.
"It was nothing-an accidente," Teresa said. Accident.
Maria pursed her lips together tightly, and gave Teresa a long look which spoke more than words.
"Le diremos al Senor Murdoch," Maria said. We will tell Mr. Murdoch.
There was a firmness in the older woman's tone.
Lunch was just Burl, and the two girls. Maria stayed nearby while they ate. Burl ate his lunch and then went to sit
outside on the bench in the sunshine, working again on his sewing.
Charlie was sent to pick the garden, and once she'd taken the vegetables into Maria, she went back out to sit near Burl.
She watched him work, fasinated by the way he moved his knarled fingers thru the soft material.
"Did Lettie always wear nice dresses?" Charlie asked him.
Without looking up, Burl said, "She spent the time she must in what she was expected to wear-" Burl chuckled. "But when she
could slip away-well, then she would tuck her dresses up, and wade the pond."
"Did you go with her?" Charlie asked.
"When I could get away from my chores, then I did," he said.
"And she could get away from her chores," Charlie echoed.
Burl looked up, his eyes bright. "Oh, Lettie never had chores to hold her," he said. "It was other things that held
her from doing what it was that she pleased."
"What other things?" Charlie asked, breathless to keep him talking.
"Her studies, and her embroidery-her mother was always insistent she do that embroidery-" Burl began to chuckle. "She hated that so much,
she used to prick her finger on purpose so the blood spots would stain her handwork. That would give her the excuse to leave it,
and she'd take the opportunity to slip outdoors then."
"To pick flowers? And go to the pond?" Charlie prompted.
"Yes."
There was a pause and then Charlie took her chance.
"You loved Lettie, didn't you?" she dared to ask him.
Burl's watery eyes settled on Charlie. "Oh, yes, I did," he said, fervently. "She was a dear, sweet girl. Her heart was the
largest part of her-"
"Why didn't you marry her?" Charlie asked.
"Oh, no," Burl said. "That was not to happen. They wouldn't allow it."
Intrigued, and thinking that she had never gotten this far in the story before, Charlie scooted forward.
"Who wouldn't allow it?" she asked, breathless.
"Her family-her brother loathed the sight of me."
"Why didn't he like you?" Charlie asked.
Burl began to tell the story of how Lettie's family had been very wealthy, and her brother had been a Baron. The brother and Lettie's mother
had wanted her to marry someone of her own social standing and class.
"They didn't find the likes of me to be suitable," Burl said. "And, it was so. I was not nearly good enough for her."
"She loved you, too?" Charlie asked.
"She did," Burl said, sounding definite. And proud.
"Couldn't you and she have run away to get married?" she asked, then.
"We might have-but we never got past the talking of it." At this the old man looked sadly at Charlie. "I loved her all of her life, from when
she was a child, to when she was a young girl-I know I would have loved even more the woman she would have become-"
"What happened to her?" Charlie asked, when he paused.
"She got a fever, and even though they had the best doctors, she became so weak-they cut her hair, you know-her beautiful long
blonde hair." Burl leaned forward a bit, and said in a low tone, as if sharing a secret, "I slipped into her room to see her, right into
her window, I did-until they caught me at it, and threw me out again."
Charlie knew the ending of the story already. She'd always secretly believed she knew what had happened to Lettie.
Still, when she heard Burl put it into actual words, it made her so sad.
"She lived two days after that, I didn't see her again-but one of the maids there, she was my cousin, and she said
that Lettie lay all the last afternoon, calling out for me."
L