Chapter 17
The trip with Spiller and Arrietty was the highlight of Larkspur's life. Spiller took them over the river toward Daubery's house, but before they got there, he tied up and did some fishing. When he started catching minnows Larkspur got so excited watching him land the fish that Arrietty was afraid her future sister-in-law would fall overboard. In between fish Larkspur was content just to watch the twilight creep over the trees and the running river.
Poor thing hasn't been outside much, Arrietty thought. It reminded her of how she felt when she first got out from under the floor.
"Sorry it's taking so long," Spiller said at one point, as he put another fish on the stringer, "but it will take a lot to have enough for a fish dinner for all of us."
Larkspur asked again about everyone in Daubery's family and Arrietty named and described them all for her until Spiller had a string full of minnows. Then they glided the boat around the last curve to where Spiller usually docked and hid it when he was visiting. Arrietty and Larkspur both teased him about tying it up properly, and Spiller had Arrietty help him, telling her that way he would know it was done to her satisfaction.
The visit to Daubery and Sateen was the first of many similar visits. Everyone was shocked that Larkspur had survived, was eager to meet her, and wanted to know all about the winter that Spiller had spent laid up with a broken leg. Over a good dinner of fish and chips everyone in Daubery's family both listened and questioned.
Sateen and Daubery were the most distraught about Lark. They both blamed themselves for not going back with him when he arrived at their home and doing a more complete check on the lodge.
"We should have," Sateen fretted, giving Larkspur a huge hug as she got up to go get the dessert. "But I'd just found out that Actina was on the way and the rest of the girls were such a handful. Hemiola was too little to watch all her sisters back then. I just feel terrible, though, that you got left behind and had to fend for yourself all of these years!"
"How do you think I feel?" Spiller retorted.
The girls took to Lark like a duck to water, though, eager to take her in as a new sister. Arrietty and Larkspur spent the night in the large room they all used as a dormitory, with Lark using Hemiola's bed and Arrietty on a pallet on the floor. They laughed and talked and told stories almost all night.
Spiller, down the hall in the spare bedroom that Halberd had deserted, lay on the bed with his hands folded behind his head, listening to the muffled whispers and giggles. He missed Arrietty, but he knew that it would do Lark good to have some new friends. He was rather grateful however when Sateen finally went back there in her voluminous nightgown to tell them all to quiet down and go to sleep.
The next day Spiller and Daubery went to the boat to unload all the shoes. Pod had put a neat label on each one and when Spiller handed them out with Arrietty's help it was almost like a human Christmas morning. Sateen, Daubery, the twins and Elegancy were so excited they all started talking at once. Actina was disappointed she hadn't gotten a pair, because her shoes were much too tight and pinching her toes, but when Spiller pointed out how fast she had grown and how Pod wouldn't have known what size to make her, she understood. Arrietty took new measurements of her feet and promised to get her father to make a new pair as soon as possible.
Elegancy consoled her by saying she could have her old pair until Arrietty and Spiller could bring new ones. This went a long way toward making Actina more resigned to the wait.
With the flour Spiller had brought, the women set about making bread, cakes, sweet biscuits and several types of rolls. Sateen was thrilled to have so much flour as the old woman upstairs hadn't been baking as much lately.
They had another fine dinner and another night of camaraderie between the girls. This time Spiller missed Arrietty even more. He was beginning to understand that as long as his sister was along for the ride, he and Arrietty would not get a lot of alone time. But that was all right. The shocked look on Pod's face when he had found them in bed together had made Spiller feel guilty. Not about what he had done, but about the fact that they were in a sense lying to Pod, who was basically a good and honest person.
The next day, when Spiller was making plans to move on down the river, Larkspur made a tearful speech about how grateful she was to Daubery and Sateen for being Spiller's family when she couldn't be, and Sateen broke down in tears as well and told Larkspur that she was now a member of the family, too. The atmosphere in the room was so heavy that you could have mopped it up with a sponge. Spiller was touched, amused, and slightly aggravated all at the same time.
Sateen packed them a basket of food for the trip, and gave them several things that she wanted Spiller to give to Hemiola and Halberd for her. Spiller asked for a candle and some matches, and Sateen found him one to give to them and a nice extra piece for himself as well.
They left as it was getting dark. It was a cool night, but spring was definitely in the air. Arrietty and Larkspur sat up watching the river for awhile, and then fell asleep. Spiller got to the cove where he liked to hide his boats before dawn and was relieved that his soap box boat had survived the winter very well.
Once he had the newly refurbished knife box boat soundly moored next to his small boat, he got a drink of cold, clean river water and went to sleep as well. It was mid morning when he was awakened by Arrietty shaking him.
"I'm up and so is Lark. I think it's past bath time for the humans," she said. "Perhaps we should start up the drain as soon as we eat breakfast?"
"Good idea," Spiller said, yawning and rubbing his eyes. "What did Sateen give us?"
"Bread and jam sandwiches, a bottle of tea that's gone cold, a jar of applesauce, and a bit of boiled ham."
"Good enough," Spiller said, sitting up. "Give me a few moments to myself and I'll be down to the bow." He dressed as he used to do, shedding the last of his winter clothes and carefully setting his boots aside. His summer clothes were worn and ragged, and he hope Lupy had his new ones finished.
He got out and looked around. The water was running smoothly and the sun was shining brightly enough when he got out from under the leafy canopy that covered the boat. He found a fresh, green dandelion plant and picked the young leaves as he was heading back to the girls.
"Got a bit of salad to go with our lunch," he told Arrietty.
She beamed at the sight of him. In his vest, bare feet, and with trousers worn a bit ragged at the bottoms he looked exactly like he had looked when she first met him. "They'll be delicious. Thank you. They're good like this, when they're new and young."
When they divided up the food, Larkspur was worried. "Don't we have to save anything for later?"
"Naw," her brother said. "Lupy and Hendreary will feed us, and if they're short on anything, I'll just ask young Tom for it. Eat up. We've got along weary walk ahead of us. I can do it in the dark, and Ari has done it with me guiding her, but I won't make you do that. Sateen gave us a nice piece of candle to light our way."
After breakfast they made themselves packs with what they absolutely thought they must have for a visit of a couple of days, added a couple of bags of flour wrapped in some waterproof material Spiller had stashed in the soap box through the winter, and then left the boat hidden in the brush. Spiller had been planning to pull the soap box through the drain, but by the drain they found an old tin from sardines. Spiller was pleased.
"This will work even better. It's sturdier but just as light. I'll get some rope out of the boat and make a towline for this so we can pull it. We can set the candle in the bottom and no one will have to hold it. Then if we get anything from Lupy that we have to cart back I can pull it along."
It didn't take long for him to go back, get the rope, and arrange it the way he wanted it, and then he loaded it. After stowing away the soap box again, he went into the drain, pulling the tin sledge behind him. The girls followed. When they got into the drain far enough that the opening was just a faint light behind them, Larkspur shivered. "I wouldn't want to do this in the dark."
Since they were well inside the tunnel Spiller obligingly lit the candle and pulled the makeshift sled up the slight incline that led to the main part of the drain. They heard an almost musical dripping, but there was no sign of any bathwater. The drain smelled slightly of sandalwood. As they walked along, the walls slid by unbroken except for occasional archlike openings where two lengths of pipe joined together. Shadows from their fat stubby candle flickered on the damp ceiling as the tin can scraped along the rough drain bottom.
They passed several of the clumps of branches that Spiller had jammed in so long ago, spots where one could brace oneself if water came rushing down, or the way got too slippery. When they passed the mouth of a circular cavern, Arrietty eyed it curiously.
"Do we dare?" she asked.
Spiller shook his head. "I'll take you someday, but not today. Want to get to the cottage as soon as possible."
As they continued to follow him, Arrietty quietly told Larkspur about how Spiller used the branch drains, and the cottages or houses above them, as a source of borrowings. She was impressed.
He was chagrined. "Haven't been up any of them in longer than I'd care to admit. Everyone's been spoiling me from humans to you, Lark."
The floor got slippery with scum, and Arrietty and Larkspur sat on a ledge and took off their shoes so they could go the rest of the way barefoot like Spiller did and not have to worry about them. He decided that would be a good time to rest and sat beside the girls as they munched the last of their bread and jam. The girls tied the laces of their boots together when they finally got up and slung them around their packs. The candlelight still slid across the arched roof above them and the damp walls around them, but the candle was burning down steadily. It was nearly gone when they reached the familiar grating that led into Tom Goodenough's cottage.
"We're here," Spiller said. In the flickering light of the candle Arrietty saw strain on his face.
"Are you all right? Is your leg all right?"
He nodded, but admitted, "Hurts a bit and I'm awfully tired. I think I'll have to go right to bed after supper."
He handed the tin to the girls to hold onto, set his pack inside it, and raised one corner of the grating with the piece of curtain rod that he kept in the drain for that purpose. It took all his strength to do this, and Lark suppressed a gasp as he strained, but it finally moved the loose grating in the mouth of the drain and Spiller was able to swing himself up on the piece of twine attached to it.
"Lucky this hasn't rotted away," he muttered.
Arrietty, a natural climber, went up the rope and helped Spiller let down the bolt for Larkspur to sit on, and helped haul her up. Once she was out of the drain Spiller let the grating down and they all stepped out from under the mangle onto the worn flagstones.
The washhouse door was open and they crept into the room slowly. The main window was shuttered but a faint light came from the smaller window in the wall. Tom Goodenough was splitting a length of hazel into thatch. Since there was no sign of his grandfather, Spiller hailed him.
When Tom looked up, he had circles under his eyes as if he had not slept well, but the eyes lit up at the sight of Spiller and Arrietty. "Hallo," he said. "Haven't seen you in the longest while." He then saw Larkspur, hanging back behind the others, looking nervous. "Who's your friend? That's one I ain't seen before."
"This is my sister, Larkspur," Spiller said, pointing a thumb back over his shoulder. "I had to spend the winter at her place. I broke my leg you see, and couldn't travel until it healed."
"Glad to meet you, Miss. Sorry to hear that about your leg, Spiller. I thought perhaps you'd gotten married and Arrietty had tied you down," Tom said with a wry smile.
"Not yet," Arrietty said. "Not ever, as far as tying down goes. Not even I could ever figure out a way to tie Spiller down. We're still planning the wedding, though. June, I think."
Tom sat back in his chair. "Want some tea and a biscuit? I think I can find something to put some tea in. Will a couple of bottle caps do?"
"Nothing better," Spiller replied, and they came across the room to the edge of the table. Tom passed down the tea and a sweet biscuit on a saucer which they began to break up.
When they sat down on the floor to eat it, he said mournfully. "You didn't hear me Granddad died then, did you?"
"Why, no," Spiller said, startled. "Sorry I am, Tom."
He nodded. "Died in January. Got through until Christmas, but couldn't go on any longer after that. He wasn't ever going to get better and he was getting worse. I tell myself it's for the best. He was suffering but I miss him."
"I'm sure you do." Sitting down with a cup of tea made Spiller feel much better. Rest, food and caffeine convinced him that he was not getting sick or that his leg was not healed properly. Just like the day he had worked on the canopy with Pod, he'd simply overdone things. He and Tom chatted a bit about this and that. Tom seemed to like Larkspur and she began to relax around him. Tom could definitely see the family resemblance.
"Everyone says that," said Arrietty, who offered her own condolences for the loss of his grandfather. Tom was grateful to her for that.
"Still got my job, though," Tom said, pouring some more tea into his own mug. "Old Sir Montague says it's mine for life and glad I am of that. I never want to have to leave here."
"I hope you don't," Spiller said, finishing his tea, "but we'll have to talk later. Need to get up and see Lupy we do."
"Very well. Talk to you later?" Tom asked, bending over to pick up the remains of the tea things. The borrowers walked beside the hearth to the side of the wood box and then to the familiar, gothic-shaped hole in the wall next to it. Arrietty watched Larkspur's face remembering all too well the first time Spiller had led her to this point.
Arrietty and Larkspur followed Spiller into the shadows. "We go up here," Arrietty told Lark, who eyed the ladder inside the wall with a bit of apprehension.
"Is it sturdy enough?" Lark asked. "I don't go up high very often. I just don't feel comfortable up."
"Mother and Papa never got used to it, either," Arrietty said, laying a hand on one of the lower rungs as Spiller was already halfway up. "But not to worry. It's just another visit, that's all. I think you'll like my cousins."
When they had all emerged onto the dimly lit platform at the top of the ladder, Larkspur noticed a lighted doorway. Voices could be heard now through the wall, faint voices, of varying pitches. There was a low laugh and a high pitched cry that sounded like indignation.
Then they were through the door, and Aunt Lupy was saying, "I told you I heard something, Hendreary!"
Grego peeped out from the kitchen, while Timmis was crying, "Spiller! Arrietty! Where have you been?"
Eggletina glided toward them for a hug, and noticed Lark hanging back. "Why Spiller, who have you brought now?"
When Spiller introduced his sister, things went pretty much the same as they had at Daubery's house, but without some of the guilt and angst. Everyone was very interested in her. Eggletina brought Spiller and Lark some tea and Arrietty offered to help Eggletina finish getting the supper, so Hendreary and Lupy could have a nice chat with them. They also got the story of Spiller's broken leg and his winter in the lodge so Arrietty didn't have to listen to that again.
The only thing that disappointed Lupy was that Spiller had no idea how Halberd and Hemiola were doing. She was worried sick about them.
"I'll go there after I leave here," Spiller promised, "so if you have anything for them get it together. We'd like to stay here for a couple of days at least and get some rest and catch up with everyone but we will be heading toward the stove after that."
They had a nice dinner of leftover roast pork that Hendreary had borrowed from Tom, with potatoes and dandelion salad. Tom was having good luck raising pigs. The fact that he'd had such good luck was the reason that he had butchered one of the young shoats instead of leaving it to grow into a hog. All four of his female pigs had piglets that year, and they were becoming quite a handful to take care of.
"He says he's not going to keep so many after this year," Grego said. "Just a boar and a sow from now on. These will either go to the butcher or go to market this fall, the ones he doesn't eat in the meantime."
"It's wonderful pork," Larkspur said. "Very tender."
After dinner Lupy gave Spiller his new spring clothes, and he tried them on to see if they fit.
"You're not growing much anymore," Lupy said, rocking back on her heels as she squatted down and adjusted the back of his vest.
"I would hope not," he said, trying to look as grown up as he could.
The girls thought he looked very fine in his new clothes and they all sat down for tea and some dessert. Lupy finally asked for news of Homily and Pod, and Arrietty gave them a rundown on how things were going at the mill.
"Papa is worried about the miller getting so old," she admitted. "I am, too. It doesn't seem like he's doing as much work on the place as he used to. He lost a few farmers last fall. They heard him complaining about them taking their grain to a newer mill further down the river, but they haven't had any problems getting enough to eat except when he goes away to visit his children."
They passed out the new shoes Pod had sent for Lupy, Hendreary, Grego and Eggletina, and Arrietty took measurements of Timmis' feet so Pod could make him new shoes. "I'll bring them next time," she promised. "Papa said it was no use trying to make you new ones from the old patterns and he was right. You're growing like a weed! You'll be as tall as your brother soon!"
Timmis flushed with pride, but he was not too grown up to beg Arrietty to tell him a story, and she promised him one before bedtime.
Spiller noticed Grego paying quite a bit of attention to Larkspur and it irritated him. He tried to figure out a polite way to nip any interest Arrietty's cousin had in Lark in the bud. Spiller adored Timmis, a friendly, open child, and he had gotten used to Halberd, who had just been a shy, quiet lad for the most part when Spiller had just met him, but Grego had never impressed Spiller much. He tended to tease in a way that was borderline cruelty, and be as self-centered as Lupy. No, Spiller did not want Grego sniffing around Larkspur.
Luckily, though, Lark was fascinated by Eggletina and directed most of her conversation to her, when she was not answering questions from Lupy and Hendreary. Spiller thought this was good for Eggletina. She didn't talk much as a rule but Spiller thought it would be good for her to be less solitary. She was getting better and really seemed to like Lark.
Having spent so much time alone Larkspur seemed very keen on now having friends, and most borrowers that made friends made friends with those of their own sex. Spiller grinned, thinking of all of the times he and Arrietty had tried to explain to someone that they were just friends. It very rarely worked that way. So Eggletina was a better bet for a friend in Spiller's opinion than Grego.
Larkspur and Arrietty wound up taking the bedrooms upstairs leaving Spiller to sleep in Halberd's old bed. As he viciously punched the lumpy pillow they'd given him, he made up his mind to press for his wedding the moment he and Arrietty finished what the girls had dubbed "Larkspur's grand tour" so he wouldn't have to sleep alone anymore.
They stayed for several days. Spiller talked to Tom some in the daytime while the girls went through a whirlwind of baking much as they had done at Sateen's house, and he did some borrowing in the drains at night after the humans and the Hendreary family had gone to sleep. Tom would have given him almost anything he asked for but Spiller wanted to keep his borrowing skills sharp.
He borrowed Lupy some hobnail glass perfume bottles with stoppers that she liked very much. She washed them well and planned to use to make dandelion wine. He took a handkerchief, candles and matches from another house, and got caught in a third cottage by a very puzzled terrier. He managed to talk the dog into quieting before it had been barking too long but when he heard a human voice calling to the dog and the sound of human feet plunking down on the floor next to what must certainly be a human bed, he hid quickly, not wanting to be spotted wearing that gleaming white kid. He hadn't had time to season it at all.
A pair of scuffed slippers sticking out from under a nightshirt passed by him, lit by candlelight, and he held his breath. The dog went to his master and did not reveal Spiller's hiding place to his great relief.
Thanks be it wasn't a pointer, Spiller thought. Out of practice I am, or that dog wouldn't have caught me out like that. I should have heard him coming and went still. He might have smelled me but he would have been too puzzled to start barking before I had a chance to talk to him.
Lupy's chattering got on his nerves, and Spiller began to press Arrietty to go whenever they had a moment alone, which wasn't very often. They were kissing on the landing one night after Larkspur had gone up to bed and Spiller was getting ready to go tackle a cottage drain again and she agreed that they had worn out their welcome.
"Lupy's getting flustered more and more when we try to help her in the kitchen and she will say snide things about Mother whenever she can work them in," Arrietty admitted. "It's time to go."
"Tomorrow night?" Spiller asked.
"Tomorrow night," Arrietty agreed. "We'll tell them in the morning." She gave him one more goodnight kiss and went up the ladder. He stood below and watched her climb enjoying the view of her slim ankles as she went up.
He decided to go have a chat with Tom and tell him they were getting ready to leave, too. Tom was having a late supper and offered Spiller a bit of his chicken and gravy. When Spiller told him they were going to leave the next day he asked Tom if he could spare a bit of bread for them to take on the trip.
"Sure. Anything else you need? An egg maybe? I had better luck with the chickens this year than I had with the pigs and that's really saying something. I think last year I spent too much time taking care of Granddad and didn't give them as much attention."
"Can it be hardboiled? Easier to travel with," Spiller said, tucking into his chicken. The gravy was divine.
"No problem," Tom said. "Where you off to?"
"To that stove I have at the gypsy camp," Spiller said. He flinched when Tom laughed.
"Ain't no more gypsies camping there. The squire and the police cracked down since New Year's. Every time they'd stop they'd get told to move on. Been pinching too much and poaching too much for the likes of the locals."
"Drat!" Spiller exclaimed. "Halberd and Hemiola were staying in that stove over the winter. If there ain't no gypsies I hope they haven't run out of food."
"Well, like I said, they were stopping now and again but they were getting run off pretty quick. Didn't they put in stores for winter?" Tom asked.
'Yeah, they did. I helped them do it, but it was a long winter," Spiller admitted. "If Halberd and Hemiola are still there we'd like to visit for a few days. If not, I don't know what we'll do. Mayhap I'd better leave sooner than later." Spiller shook his head.
Spiller caught the girls the next morning as they were coming down the ladder and explained what had happened to them and told them how worried he was. Lark and Arrietty were all for leaving right away for the stove.
"We can go back down the drain to the knife box boat whenever you want us too," Arrietty said. "Then we can head downriver and see Halberd and Hemiola, then to see Arista and Burgonet, and then on to Little Fordham."
"Don't tell Lupy about Tom, Spiller warned the girls. "She's more used to him now but it's no use asking for trouble. Just say we're leaving this afternoon."
Once Lupy knew they were going to the stove she spent the day in a frenzy trying to make some nice gift bags for Halberd and Hemiola. She baked cakes and biscuits, put honey into all of her empty jars and got out some socks she had knit.
Spiller got three jars of honey from her and put them into the tin boat in the drain. He was grateful that he'd be pulling through soap slime most of the way as they were heavy. He also packed the matches and candles he'd gotten while borrowing in the drain, put a a handkerchief neatly folded over them and organized everything so that he and the girls could have room to put their things down if they needed to rest. There were lots of hugs all around when it was time to set off.
"Not to stay away too long," Hendreary said. "Take care of yourself this time!"
"I will," Spiller told him, grinning.
"And if he doesn't," Arrietty said, smirking, "Lark and I will do it."
Tom was waiting for them when they came out of the wall. He actually gave them three hardboiled eggs, a whole loaf of brown bread, a banana and a bag of raisins. The girls both exclaimed over this bounty, and thanked him very sincerely. He blushed a bit at their praise and said it wasn't anything. Spiller silently groaned, thinking of how hard the boat would be to pull and what the bread would look like if it got wet.
Once they got down into the drain, Arrietty and Larkspur laid the banana sideways around the eggs and honey jars and balanced the bread on top. Spiller closed the grating and tried to lash the bread in a little better. His packing prowess impressed his sister. Arrietty chattily told Larkspur some stories of Spiller's previous trips down the drain. That impressed her even more.
They started walking, the girls barefoot, with their packs and bedding on their backs. They had divided Spiller's belongings between them to lighten his load. Arrietty took his kit bag and gave Lark his quilt to make things easier for her, but soon regretted it. She gritted her teeth, though, and marched on.
They had to stop more often to rest but they were making decent time according to Spiller. "Glad we left when we did. Late enough not to run into any more baths but earlier enough to have plenty of time," he said the first time they stopped. The second and third time they were too tired to even talk. Arrietty leaned her head on Spiller's shoulder and he patted her arm absently. They were all exhausted when Spiller commanded, "Look! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. That must be the mouth of the drain by the river. We're almost there."
Finally, they got outside. They were bone tired but still made trip after trip to move everything from the mouth of the drain to Spiller's big knife box boat. Once that was done, they had a drink of cool water and collapsed under the canopy too tired to even eat. They all slept all day lying on piles of sheep's wool. When they finally started waking up at dusk they were groggy and disorientated.
"That tunnel is really something," Larkspur remarked, stretching her stiff arms over her head.
"It's a long haul but it's still better than cutting through the woods," Spiller said propping himself up on his elbows. "All sorts of things live in those woods and it's an even longer walk over uneven ground. What's hard about the drain is having to go through it at night when all the humans are sleeping."
Arrietty got out some raisins and Spiller used a broken piece of fret saw blade to saw off a slice of bread. Lark used Pod's new bucket to get them some clean water to drink. As they sat around munching their bread, Arrietty looked at her piece.
"The rest of that loaf will get dry where we cut it," she pointed out.
"We can eat the rest of it for lunch and at Arista and Burgonet's place," Spiller answered, shaking his hair out of his eyes. The black fringe was getting long and shaggy again.
"When will that be?" Larkspur asked her brother. "Do we have to wait and travel at night again?"
"It would probably be all right to leave in the afternoon," Spiller answered, taking a raisin.
"It's about afternoon now," Arrietty pointed out, looking at the sun overhead.
"So it is," Spiller nodded. "We'll have to rearrange the boat but once we do that we should be good to go."
When they set out down the river Larkspur was in a panic. She couldn't understand why humans didn't see the boat and wonder what it was. Arrietty explained to her that it often went by so quickly that the humans didn't know what they were looking at and by the time they thought about it the boat was gone.
Soon they were at the familiar bank. Arrietty thought about the first time she had come here, how her family had ferried themselves across the water from their little alcove on a piece of bark, how they had gotten scratched on the brambles along the edge of the stream, and how they had struggled through the hedge. Now that she knew where Spiller tied his boat up in the heavy grass next to the hedge it was very easy but at the time she and her parents had been loathe even to intrude on Spiller's territory.
Carrying only their personal gear the borrowers climbed the bank. "I can see my old stove," Spiller told them. "It's still here but there ain't no gypsies. Doesn't look like there has been for a bit. Hang on and I'll get a little closer and check things out." The girls didn't argue and he elaborated. "I'll go in first and see what it's like in there. If it's all right I'll come back for you. Halberd can go down to the river with me and help me with the rest of the cargo."
Spiller walked over to the bank below the hedge with his eyes darting about like they always did when he was out of doors. He set down his kit bag on the bank just below the stove and moved cautiously toward it. He rapped on the iron grate with his hatpin and called out a greeting as he stepped inside. It looked as it always did. He hadn't gone but a few steps in when he heard glad cries and breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Halberd and Hemiola came running out to grab him. She clutched him, hugging and kissing and weeping over him, while Halberd, looking a bit thinner and more threadbare, but healthy, slapped him on the back and asked him where in the world he had been.
"I broke my leg in November and wound up spending the winter with my sister, Larkspur. She's outside with Arrietty. I'll go get her," Spiller said. "We just came from your mother's place, Halberd, and we have lots of things to bring in. You'll have to help me later."
"Your sister?" both of them exclaimed, making Spiller smile. He loved everyone's surprise but it was no less than his own. Finding Larkspur had been a miracle that would never cease to amaze and delight him.
"Yeah, come and see. Like I said I have lots of cargo down by the river and we'll have to get that later." He walked to the front of the stove, and swung out, balancing himself on the brass latch that held the oven door closed. "All's well," he called. Arrietty walked up the bank and Lark followed cautiously. Halberd and Hemiola jumped out of the stove after Spiller and walked over to them.
"Oh, my," Hemiola said to Lark. "You look so much like your brother! I'm so happy to meet you!"
"I'm happy to meet both of you. I'm so glad you're all right," Lark said, looking up into Halberd's face. He was the tallest borrower she had ever seen. "Lupy and Hendreary were so worried about you."
"It's been a tough go with the other humans chasing off the gypsies right and left for poaching," Halberd said. "How are Mother and Father and the others? How's young Tom and his grandfather?"
"Passed away during the winter, the grandfather did," Spiller said with a sigh. "Everyone else is fine aside from worrying about you. I'll bet it was hard being out here on your own."
"Sorry to hear that," Halberd said, and he meant it. "We're all right. We had stocked up quite a bit on food in the autumn, and when the gypsies would make camp and then get run off, they nearly always packed in a hurry and left a lot behind. Once they had just put a whole lot of potatoes into the fire to bake and had to leave them all. We kept watch until the fire went out and then as soon as the ashes were cool we dug them all out with a piece of tin. It was hard going and we had to hurry to get them out before the ground froze but we had potatoes for weeks."
"They're going to keep running them off," Spiller told him. "I know that's hard for you all but they can't let them stay anymore. People for miles around were complaining about them stealing and poaching and making all sorts of noise at night. Honestly, if I were you I'd think about moving somewhere else before winter."
"We'll think about it," Halberd said, following Spiller to the river so they could unload all of the supplies. The girls stayed by the stove getting acquainted and helping get everything into the stove as the men brought it up, trip by trip.
They had a regular party that evening with hardboiled egg, bread, and tea with honey in it, and for Spiller, Arrietty and Larkspur, watching Halberd and Hemiola with their gifts was like watching a lot of humans on Christmas morning.
They loved the new shoes and the wooden spoons from Pod, exclaimed over the bread, banana and raisins and admired the new socks Lupy has sent while munching on some of her cake. They wanted to know all about Lark, and about Spiller's accident, and about when Arrietty's parents were going to let Spiller and Arrietty have their wedding.
"Wish we could see it," Halberd said with a sigh. "Having you at ours was one of the nicest things about it."
"I don't know what sort of wedding it's going to be yet," Arrietty admitted. "I'm just glad that my parents finally agreed to let us hold it in June. I thought we'd never get them to agree."
"They can see how happy you two are together," Lark said. "I could see it at once. You belong together."
"Well, I think so," Spiller said, catching Arrietty by the hand.
They all slept on the floor of the flue at the back of the stove, just in front of the tunnel that led to the gas pipe. In the morning they had bread with honey and banana and Spiller and Halberd decided to do a little bit of hunting.
"I know there's mice about," Halberd said. "We've seen them going through the scraps after the gypsies have been warned to leave. I've managed to shoot a few of them but I haven't your skill with a bow, Spiller"
"Between the two of you," Hemiola said, "you should be able to get enough for a nice meal for tonight. We can have dandelion salad with it and I think some of the first strawberries are getting ripe by the hedge. Bring some back if you see any, won't you? We can have some of those with supper and then we can have some in the morning with the rest of the banana for breakfast."
"Will do," Halberd said, giving her a kiss.
When he had followed Spiller across the campsite toward the river, Larkspur squealed. "He's so handsome, Hemiola. You are so lucky! It's plain as day that he adores you."
"I'm so glad you made it through here on your own all these months. When Spiller didn't come back at first I was afraid something had happened to you, since he told us he was going to come and see how you were doing before we settled in for the winter," Arrietty confessed. "It took me awhile to realize something must have happened to him."
"You must have been very worried," Hemiola said. "I know how much Spiller means to you."
"I was very worried and Mother wasn't much help. She just kept talking about how Spiller does what he pleases and shows up when he feels like it but it's not really like that," Arrietty said with a sigh, as she helped Hemiola put away the leftover food from breakfast.
"Of course it's not," Larkspur said, tossing her head and sending her black hair flowing down her back. "He worried about you every day. He missed you ever day. If there had been any way he could have let you know where he was he would have. I'm so glad you're going to be my sister-in-law because I know that's what will make my brother happy."
While the girls were discussing love and marriage Spiller and Halberd were discussing the practicalities of both. They agreed that Tom was right. If the gypsies were not going to be allowed to camp in Perkin's Beck, Halberd and Hemiola would either have to do a lot more stocking up before winter or have to find somewhere else to spend those months.
"What about Little Fordham?" Halberd asked when he and Spiller sat down by the river under a bush.
Spiller sighed. "That's looking more and more likely for us, too. Don't really think I can spend months on end with Pod and Homily once Arrietty and I are married, but if we're at Little Fordham in the winter we'll also have to stock up and we'll have to depend on the human beings. Hate to be dependent on the human beings."
Halberd leaned against a tree. "I've given that a lot of thought and the fact is we're dependent on them all the time, no matter what. We get too proud to admit it, but if there were no human beings, it would be very hard for borrowers to get by. You get along without them more than anyone else I know but you still need them for certain things. You couldn't just go off in the wild and live and never get anything from a human."
"True. I've known borrowers who tried and I'm afraid it didn't go well for them," Spiller said, "but borrowing from them is not the same as them knowing where you are and at Little Fordham they'd have to know we were there if we were going to spend the winter. We'd leave tracks all over the village. Pott would know, and Miss Menzies would know, and what if someone else found out? It's dicey."
"It all comes down to how much you trust your humans," Halberd pointed out. "You trust Tom don't you?"
"Well, yes, but no one believes anything he says," Spiller retorted. "Except that Mild Eye because he actually saw us."
"Do you think anyone would believe that Miss of Arrietty's anymore? I mean, she's a lovely lady but she spends all her time playing with doll furniture, Mr. Pott's trains and writing fairy stories. Come on!"
Spiller almost laughed. "All comes down to being seen. Pod's problem at Firbank was being seen, the problem with the gypsies had to do with being seen, and the problem with Mabel and Sidney came down to being seen. It's not the ones we trust. It's the ones we don't. "
Halberd shrugged. "The Little Fordham ones seem to be trying to keep a tight rein on their place. Shouldn't be a problem if there are rules and they get followed. I definitely want to spend some time there with Hemiola this summer. She wants to see it."
Spiller nodded. "So does Lark. I want to show it to her this spring and bring her down for a longer visit once Arrietty and I get settled." He suddenly held up his hand, and Halberd froze. Spiller's bright black eyes were darting about. He rose slowly to his feet, laid an arrow to his bow, and fired. There was a faint squeak, and Spiller grinned. "That's one."
He had two more when they got done, and Halberd wound up carrying two of the field mice, since Spiller found it hard to manage more than one while carrying his bow and wearing his quiver. The girls were all very impressed and began to get ready to make stew as Halberd and Spiller started cutting up the mice.
"Papa really missed that nail scissor," Arrietty said, peering around Spiller's shoulder as she came to take the last of the meat away from the butchering and to the kitchen, "but I always knew you could make better use of it than he did."
He smiled sheepishly at her. "Hinted to me at least a dozen times that he wanted it back, but I really have nothing that skins game as well as this does. I'd hoped after he got that little set from Miss Menzies that he might forget about this one." He wiped his hands on a rag and turned to her. "Halberd and Hemiola want to spend some time at Little Fordham this summer. How would you feel about having neighbors?"
"I'd love it," Arrietty said, "and I hope Lark can spend some time with us, too. She'd really enjoy it. She seems to be having lots of fun with all of the new people she's meeting."
"Easy thing to do after being alone for so long," he said. "I know I got a lot more sociable after I met you."
She laughed and went to help Hemiola set the table for dinner. They all discussed the pros and cons of Little Fordham over dinner. After dinner they had some of Lupy's ginger biscuits and they all told stories about growing up. Larkspur talked about how much she had missed her family and how glad she was to have Spiller back. Arrietty admitted that sometimes there actually were things she missed about Firbank but that for her the best summer she'd ever had was the summer she'd first spent out of doors after they'd escaped the house."
"Course," Spiller said. "That's the summer you met me."
"Oh, take another biscuit and keep your mouth busy," she teased him.
Hemiola told several stories about growing up with Spiller as an adopted brother that Larkspur hadn't heard yet, and she laughed until she cried at some of the things he'd gotten up to at Sateen and Daubery's house.
Halberd had gotten into some mighty scrapes with his siblings, too, and was happy to bring those stories up again. By the time they went to bed they had all exhausted themselves eating and laughing.
They had hardboiled egg and toast for breakfast. Larkspur was fascinated at how Hemiola cooked over the gas jets. When Hemiola explained how Halberd's family, along with Spiller had dug the tunnel to the pipe and set it all up, she was even more impressed.
"You never put it out?"
"No, they've been burning like this since we first lit 'em," Spiller told her, reaching for another piece of the bread they'd toasted against one of the burners. "We've never let them go out." He poured honey on it and Larkspur eyed it with an amazed look on her face.
"Where did Lupy get so much honey anyway?"
Halberd told her about the time they'd had the bees in the thatch. "With all of these jars," he said after he'd finished his tale, "We'll have to rearrange the way we have our storage area in the flue. I think we'll have to extend it."
"Can I help?" Larkspur asked, and Hemiola assured her that they'd be glad for the help.
Spiller shook his head. "You don't need us all for that. Halberd, if you still have the fishing stringer I made for you, I'd like to go down to the river and try my luck. "
"Oh, please can I go along?" Arrietty cried. "I've so missed being out of doors. Now that spring is here I'd like to spend some time at the river's edge. We used all the wild garlic Hemiola had in the stew last night. I could look for more and maybe pick some watercress for salad. I like dandelions, mind you, but something different wouldn't be amiss."
"Fine with me," Spiller assured her. "We should take my quilt though, in case the ground is too damp for you to sit on."
As they walked to the river, Arrietty told Spiller about how she and her parents had first scouted out the campsite while Spiller was off picking up his winter clothes the year they had lived in the boot.
As they went across the stretch of grass beside the lane and into the hedge, she said, "We ferried ourselves over on a piece of bark and got stuck in the brambles. Papa was worried all the while that you'd be upset that we'd overstepped ourselves and gotten into your territory."
"Wouldn't have minded," Spiller said, "but it can be tricky if you don't know the way. Down here to the left is flatter ground and a better fishing spot."
A large tree root stuck out like a pier into the stream and the ground was sort of washed out before it. Arrietty could see the minnows flashing in that deep bay. A long clump of grass hung over the other side of the tree next to another large root embedded firmly in the rich soil of the riverbank and they slipped under the waving grasses and laid out Spiller's quilt in that light-dabbled space.
"Not wet," he said, "but you don't want too much sun, either. I like to do my fishing earlier than this as a rule, but I needed to get out of the stove, too. Glad I am to know Hemiola and Halberd are all right, and I'm happy Lark is having a good time, but I still can't get used to being inside all the time with a lot of others. Haven't lived that way for this long since Hendreary's family came to stay in the stove with me."
"A little privacy wouldn't be amiss," Arrietty agreed, reaching out to turn his face toward hers. Her hand was warm as her fingers curled across his jaw and she kissed him.
"Not necessarily what I had in mind," he protested.
"But it's all right, isn't it?" She pulled back slightly, but her face was still right in front of his and her eyes were soft and warm, as were her lips. He could hardly say no.
Later on, when they were curled up on the quilt with the sunlight coming in speckles through the tall grass and making tiny bright spots on their skin she sighed. "This isn't catching any fish, but I have missed you so."
"I miss you, too. We need to get back and have this wedding as soon as possible. I'll feel like a total rotter until we do." He breathed in the spring breeze and ran his hand along her shoulder and down her arm.
"Don't feel that way, Spiller. This is something we always decide together. It's nothing bad." Arrietty sat up and snatched up a few violets from the edge of the grass. Tying them together she made a sort of crown which she put on her long hair.
"Like it that way," Spiller said. "Reminds me of when I met you."
"I'm going to pick a nice bunch of violets for Hemiola's table," Arrietty said. We can put them in the empty jar she has sitting on the table.
"Suit yourself," Spiller said, sitting up and reaching for his tunic. "I'm going fishing."
Luckily it didn't take too long to catch fish the way the river was running. When he had a stringer full he went back, rolled up his quilt, and began looking for Arrietty. She was stroking a bumblebee that had stopped to feed on a clover blossom and it had gone strangely still.
"Ari!" he hissed at her. "Come away from there before it stings you!"
"They never sting unless you provoke them," she said, stepping back slowly. She picked up the bunch of violets she had picked along with the garlic and the watercress. She had piled that up on a cool violet leaf. She folded in the edges carefully, and when she had it secure, she offered to carry his quilt so it didn't wind up smelling like fish.
"My, you two have been gone a long time," Hemiola said mischievously when they got back to the stove.
"It's such a beautiful day," Arrietty said. "Here's the garlic and watercress, and I picked you a bunch of flowers. The air smells of spring and there were so many bees and butterflies out."
"I turned my back on her for awhile and actually caught her petting a bumblebee!" Spiller exclaimed, handing Hemiola the stringer of fish.
"Arrietty! Did you really?" Lark asked, her eyes as round as an owl's.
"They've got the softest fur," she answered, then looked at Hemiola walking away toward the flue. "We should help her get dinner ready."
"You'll love the way we rearranged the storage area," Lark assured her, putting her arm around her future sister-in-law's waist. "It's so much roomier now."
"It is," Halberd assured Spiller. "Did Arrietty have a nice time out of doors?"
"Yes, I think she did," Spiller said. "She had it rough cooped up all winter, not knowing if I was dead or alive, or where I was. If there had been any way I could've got word to her, I would've."
"I know you would," Halberd assured him.
Spiller slept especially well that night.