The Borrowers Grown Up

by Jayne1955

'When I grow up, I think I'll marry Spiller." Arrietty thinks that would be a good idea. Pod seems noncommittal, and Homily thinks Spiller would be all right if Arrietty tied him down a bit. What does Spiller think? Some days he thinks it's a good idea, and some days he doesn't. How long will it take for him to make up his mind, and will Arrietty change hers?

22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Spiller planned to travel all night and as much of the day as possible. He went to Peregrine right before he left and asked him if he would keep the bench Pod had made. It weighed the boat down too much to have so much cargo in it. Peregrine, admiring the workmanship, said he would be happy to. Spiller thanked him profusely, to Peregrine's surprise and then hurried off once the job was done.

Spiller next stopped in the afternoon for a nap but after that he was off again. He smiled when he passed Burgonet's place, looked longingly at Halbert and Hemiola's landing, and shook his head when he got to where the drain went into Lupy and Hendreary's place. He tied up there for a few hours sleep. When he woke, he wished he had the time to stop and tell Daubery and Sateen his plans, but decided against it.

He was a man with a purpose. It was early evening on Monday when he reached the bank by the lodge. He tied the boat carefully, not wanting to make the same mistake twice at the same stop, and dragged himself up toward the hollow tree. He was so tired he was about to collapse. He'd knocked a day and a half off his normal time and hoped to make as good a time on the way back. If he wasn't back by Friday morning at the latest his whole life would be ruined.

Larkspur came running when she heard him in the hall, and gasped when she saw him. He was shaking with fatigue and very pale. "Spiller, what's happened? Where's Ari?" She helped him to a chair and quickly poured him a glass of water.

"At Little Fordham. We need to get back there as quickly as possible. Need some rest but want to leave at dawn. Can you be ready? We need some family and you're the best one to fill the bill."

"But why?" Larkspur asked. "Spiller, tell me the truth. What's happened?"

She fetched a bit of bread. In between bites he told her about the mill, Pod, Homily, the human wedding, and his own idea. "Got it all planned, but I want you there. Please, please help me."

"Of course," she said stoutly. "I'd love to. After seeing all the borrowers I met with you, it gets even more boring here without Alice and she's mostly gone now. I'd love to spend time with you and Arrietty. Your happiness makes me happy. Oh, if it would only happen to me! I can take that fancy dress Miss Menzies made me for the wedding, and I can travel in the dress Ari gave me, but Spiller, you must get some rest. You look terrible for what you have in mind."

"Am I doing the right thing, do you think?" Spiller asked, and his sister, hugging him fiercely, told him he was.

He collapsed and slept all day. It was close to dawn when he woke up. His sister had several borrowing bags packed. "I have everything I need for a visit, even if it's a longer one. I'm sure you're not going to want to whisk me back right away. Knowing you, you'll be busy for awhile," she said, and he felt his face redden. He was happy then for the dark insides of the wall. She handed him a piece of plum cake and a dish of chicken pot pie from the human's dinner the night before. "Now eat and drink! I brought you coffee. The humans say it keeps them awake."

He was starving and wolfed down the food. "What's the weather like?"

"It's a nice morning, but cloudy. The sun's pale and keeps slipping in and out from behind the clouds but the river looks calm and there's no sign of rain coming."

"We had enough rain to last for a long while," Spiller muttered, picking a pea out of his pot pie.

"Poor Arrietty! How did she take it?" Larskpur asked.

"Better than I thought she would," Spiller admitted. In between bites he told her about Tom, Hendreary, and the burial at sea. She shuddered. When he was done she left him to attend to his personal needs while she washed the dishes and fetched her baggage and cloak. As they went through the grass to the river they both thought of the night she had found him on its bank.

Larkspur said afterwards that during the trip back she finally learned what it must feel like to fly. Her brother drove himself mercilessly. She could barely get him to stop to eat and take brief naps. They landed back at Pott's shipping house dock on Thursday morning. When they got to the Crown, Arrietty took one look at Spiller, gave him a cup of hot soup, and put him straight to bed. He wanted to leave that night and made the girls promise to wake him in the late afternoon.

While he slept, Ari and Lark talked and talked. With Lark Ari could finally put into words everything she'd been feeling since those dreadful days at the mill. On a cheerier note they talked about Vine Cottage and Dovecote, trying to decide which one Larkspur would like as a summer home if she decided to stay through the summer.

When afternoon came, Spiller, Larkspur and Arietty got everything ready to take to the boat. Spiller fetched Miss Menzies to help them load the boat for the trip to the church. They arranged it carefully with everything they thought they would need for a short visit. Miss Menzies gave Spiller several packages, "as we agreed" and while Arietty gave that statement an odd look she was too excited about the wedding to be very concerned.

"The next time I see you, you will be Mrs. Pott!" Arrietty exclaimed. "Won't you just love it? Won't you just adore being Mrs. Pott?"

"I rather think I shall," Miss Menzies said smiling. "I hope the next time I see you that you are very happy with how things turned out."

"Oh, I think I shall be," Arrietty said, smiling back. Spiller began to cough in an odd way. Arrietty patted him on the back. "Spiller, are you all right?" Lark laughed at that, and so did Miss Menzies, which left Arrietty puzzled.

"I'll be fine. I will be fine, I hope." He looked over at Miss Menzies. "Wish us luck and do take care of the Crown while we're gone. We're leaving most of our thing behind. When we come back we'll have to decide what we want to do after the summer ends."

Miss Menzies looked at him soberly. "I had hoped you would stay here. You know how Abel and I feel. We'd be pleased if you'd stay here for the rest of your lives."

"We'll stay the summer through," Arrietty said, "but we can't stay here forever. Borrowers and humans just don't mix. It's not that we aren't fond of you. We are. And it's not that we don't love the village. We do. But Spiller and I agree. Mother and Papa were right. No good ever comes of being seen. In the short term maybe, but not in the long term."

"It's lovely here for a visit," Larkspur said hastily, "but it's just not the borrower way. I like visiting as much as they do, but I can see why they have to go."

Miss Menzies gasped, and looked over at Spiller, who nodded solemnly. "No matter what you do," he said gently. "There's always a risk. We'll not leave without saying goodbye, and we'll try to come back when we can, but this is just no good everything being done for us like this."

"We appreciate it all," Arrietty said quickly. "We do, but we need to live our own lives and stand on our own two feet sometimes."

Miss Menzies sighed. "I'm of the same mind. I do understand but my mind can't convince my heart. I've been so happy when you've been here. It's as if my fairies had come to life."

"You'll be just as happy when we're not here," Spiller said stoutly. "You've got Pott, the railroad and village, your church friends and now little Louisa. But for now, we're off. We'll see you married even if you don't see us and we will come back here afterwards."

"Good luck, Spiller," she said. "Bon voyage!"

As they climbed onto the dock, Arrietty asked him what was in the bags. "Just a few odds and ends I need to take to the rectory," he said nonchalantly. "Here, Lark, will you put this one under your bags for me? The other one is food. That can go on top."

He helped her into the boat first and then helped in Arrietty. He pushed off from the dock with his butter knife. Arrietty watched him, happy to be on the water again. The breeze was soft and stirred the rushes on the banks. A bored frog seeing them pass croaked with interest. They reached a small pebbly beach in a couple of hours, and Spiller stopped the boat there. "We need to eat some supper and rest a bit. We can't cross the pond to the house until it's quite dark."

"Dark? What about foxes and owls and such?" Larkspur asked, wide eyed.

"Can tell you spend most of your time indoors. No fox is going to get us in the middle of the pond," Spiller said, "and once the owls go a hunting it's quite safe." He opened one of Miss Menzies bundles and sighed with pleasure. She'd given them his favorite sandwich, beef on rye. They each took a quarter and ate. There was a scone as well, and they broke off a piece to share.

Lark went to sleep in the stern of the boat even before Spiller and Arrietty. She said she wasn't used to so much fresh air. Spiller and Arrietty lay on a quilt enjoying the lazy evening until they both dozed off. Spiller, tired from handling the boat fell asleep first and Arrietty watched him fondly. She couldn't imagine how he could ever have dreamed it possible that she would turn to someone else, but she would like to see a library.

Arrietty remembered how she would lie out on the lawn with the boy at Firbank reading. That was the start of all my troubles with human beans, she thought. He seemed so harmless, and was really, but then the trouble started and it turned out to be trouble indeed. Arrietty didn't regret leaving the big house, living in a boot, meeting Spiller, getting reacquainted with Hendreary's family, and certainly not seeing Little Fordham. But she knew now that even if borrowers weren't dying out, which apparently they weren't, they were still vastly outnumbered by human beans, most of whom stood ready to do borrowers harm.

She finally dozed off snuggled up to Spiller, and as she did she knew the time had come to put away her childish curiosity about human ways and live the life she'd been born to live. Just before she nodded off, she wondered again about the newest borrower she was going to meet in the morning. When she woke, Spiller was untying the boat, the churchbell was tolling and Larkspur was still asleep. "What time is it?" she asked, wondering if she had slept through much.

"Midnight," Spiller said. "Time to start across. I saw a tawny owl fly over the water about an hour ago, but there ain't been nothing since."

He pushed off and began to row, and they moved across the water. Arrietty murmured, "Dear God, be good to me; the sea is so wide, and my boat is so small."

Spiller looked back, startled. "What did you say?"

"It's another poem. It's called 'The Breton Fisherman's Prayer'. I don't know who wrote it."

"More poetry," Spiller snorted.

Arrietty was hurt. "You used to like it when I read poems to you. When you were sick I used to read to you for hours."

"I do like it," Spiller admitted. "I'm proud of you for being so good at it. I'm just out of sorts whenever I'm around Peagreen. He makes me feel the way your mother used to see me. But you make me a better person," Spiller said. "Maybe with you I won't feel that way no more." Spiller moved across the pond slowly and steadily and finally came up alongside the rushes at the edge of the pond closest to the house. Larkspur had woken when the boat had started to move, and when she sat up, she asked about Peagreen. Arrietty tried to explain but she didn't really know that much about him so all she could tell Lark was that he was going to be their host.

"Are we going to go into that dark house now, this early in the morning?" Larkspur asked when Spiller tied up the boat.

Spiller shook his head. "The caretakers will be asleep, but so will Peagreen. We'll lay up here until late morning. When the humans are off working we'll go in to Peagreen's place. I hope the twit will still let us in. I need a drink and a bit of rest now, though."

Arrietty quickly got him water worrying all the while about how exhausted he must be from rowing. When he flung himself down under the canopy she curled up beside him, leaving Lark to keep watch. Arrietty, excited about meeting a new borrower, hoped Spiller wasn't still jealous. Lark stared at the house, also wondering what this new borrower would be like, just as excited. For so long she'd been lonely and now she knew more borrowers than she'd ever dreamed of.

Peregrine Overmantle was a different sort of borrower, though, the girls had to admit. When they went with Spiller up to the house late the next morning, slipping through a jagged hole in an old glass door into a long deserted conservatory, he'd been pulling a little wagon across the tiles from the room beyond. Spiller froze so Arrietty did too, and watched as he took the wagon toward a dripping tap. There was a small cup under the tap catching the drips. What a tiresome way to have to get water, Arrietty thought, especially for someone so lame. He was lame, very lame, but he had a mop of tow colored hair, and his clothing was neat, his face and hands clean.

When he went to exchange the full cup for the empty one in the wagon, Spiller spoke. "Need a hand, Peagreen?" He looked up at Spiller, startled. When he stood up straight, Arrietty could see that he was taller than Spiller but not that much older. Perhaps somewhere in his early twenties? He was wearing brown pants and there was a maroon cravat tied around the neck of his roomy white shirt.

"I have to give you credit, Spiller, no one can move as silently as you can. You remind me of stories I've seen in books about the red Indians of America." He glanced at Arrietty and Larkspur, who had both come up behind Spiller's right shoulder very shyly. "Ah, that must be your sister. She looks exactly like I'd expect a sister of yours to look. And this must be your fiancée. Introduce us, do. I have so been longing to meet her."

"Arrietty, Lark, this is Peagreen Overmantle. Peagreen, this is Arrietty Clock," Spiller said flatly, "and my sister, Larkspur Lodge."

"Peregrine Overmantle, at your service, my fair ladies," he said. "P-E-R-E-G-R-I-N-E." When Arrietty stepped forward, she extended her hand but he didn't shake it. He took it gently and lightly kissed the back of it.

"I've so looked forward to meeting you, too," she said as he turned and kissed Lark's hand, making her blush. Arrietty ignored Spiller's eyeroll although she caught it out of the corner of her eye. "What a lovely name, Peregrine Overmantle. Peregrines are falcons, aren't they, about the size of crows? They're known for their speed."

Peregrine recoiled. "Alas, I am not. You consider yourself a naturalist, too, then? I know Spiller does. Perhaps he's met his match after all. What about you, dear lady?" He asked Larkspur.

"The less time I spend outside the better it suits me," she retorted.

"Then you are not as much like your brother as you look. The world of nature is his natural habitat." He looked over at Spiller. "Yes, I could use some help with the cup. It's not so much heavy as it is awkward." He smiled at Arrietty. "We'll need water for tea and in case you all want a bath before the wedding we'll need to stock up. I must congratulate you on civilizing Spiller, Miss Arrietty. I never would have dreamed that possible."

His voice was gentle, if a bit clipped, but Arrietty didn't care for his inference. "I would never dream of trying to change Spiller. What he does he does because it's what he wants to do and what he wants to do is nearly always right. I trust his instincts totally."

Peregrine laughed at her indignation. "Though she be but little, she is fierce!"

Arrietty smiled. "That's from a Midsummer Night's Dream, by Shakespeare. I do so like Shakespeare. My favorite quote though is, 'Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love.' That's from Hamlet."

Peregrine laughed. "I am delighted to find another Shakespearian scholar among the borrowers. We shall have to discuss the Bard's works more during your visit." Glancing at Spiller he said, "Your lady has a sharp tongue."

"Does," Spiller said shortly. "Came by it honestly from her mother. Before you get the water do you think you could bring your wagon and help us unload a few more things from the boat?"

"I'd be delighted," Peregrine said, bowing. They headed toward the pond. Larkspur slowed her pace so that he could keep up with her, feeling very sorry for him having to limp. Spiller hung back as long as he had the patience to, but soon bounded ahead with the excuse that he would start unloading and have things ready to go when they got there. Arrietty went with him.

Peregrine watched Spiller disappear in a flash and sighed. "He's so quick. I can't even remember what it was like to run."

"He was afraid when he broke his leg that it wouldn't heal right," Larkspur said, helping Peregrine push the wagon over a rough spot. "I'm glad I was able to help him get well and back to Arrietty. He worried every day if he'd ever see again and be able to provide for her. I don't think he would have adapted well to the type of life he'd had to have had if it hadn't mended."

"No, he has been wild for too long. It would have been a great hardship for him, especially since he has no indoor pursuits that would keep him occupied. Being able to read has been a great comfort to me. One of my favorite poems is by the American, Wilbur D. Nesbit. He said, 'Who hath a book, hath friends at hand, and gold and gear at his command; And rich estates, if he but look, are held by him who hath a book. Who hath a book, hath but to read, and he may be, a king, indeed. His kingdom is his inglenook- all this is his who hath a book.' Do you like to read?"

"Oh, yes, Alice, my human use to read all the time at the lodge. She would have liked that poem. She also liked Shakespeare. She used to cry over Romeo and Juliet but I never liked that one much. They hardly knew each other, they were so young, and well, nearly everyone died!"

"That's what happens in a tragedy," Peregrine said, his blue eyes sparkling as they looked into Lark's black ones. "Which of Shakespeare's tales did you like best?"

"I think," Larkspur said slowly as they walked up to the bank of the pond, "like Arrietty, that I liked Midsummer Night's Dream the best."

"Oh, I liked that very much, but it wasn't my favorite," Arrietty called. "A boy at Firbank had me read it to him once." She began to hand luggage out of the boat to Peregrine, who handed it to Lark to pile in the wagon.

"What's it about?" Spiller demanded. "What's so good about it?"

"It's basically about how falling in love can make fools of us all," Peregrine said laughing.

"Well, a bit," Larkspur admitted making sure that the one package from Miss Menzies went on the bottom of the stack. "There are three stories in one."

"At least you'd get your money's worth reading that, "Spiller remarked.

"I never have been able to understand money," said Arrietty, "and I hope I never have to. She's right though. There are sets of lovers camping in a magical forest. There's the world of the Fairy King and Queen and their elves, which is Miss Menzies' favorite part, since it gave her the ideas for a lot of her fairy stories before she met us, and a group of humans attempting to put on a play to amuse their Duke in honor of his wedding, but it's really an awful play."

"Who else is out in the forest?" Spiller asked, handing his suit bag over.

"Hermia, who is in love with Lysander," Peregrine explained, 'but her father wants her to marry Demetrius. To escape the arranged marriage she and Lysander run off into the woods."

Spiller looked at Arrietty and grinned. "Would you have run off with me, if your mother hadn't finally gotten used to me?"

"Maybe," Arrietty said, looking at him out from under her long eyelashes. "Anyway, Demetrius follows them, and he's followed by Helena, who is in love with him."

"What a mess," Spiller exclaimed, getting out of the boat and double checking the moorings.

"I think 'The course of true love never did run smooth' which is something the character named Lysander says, is one of the best lines in it," Larkspur told him. "Anyway, it's full of magic, lots of action, and some very funny situations."

"But," Peregrine added, "what can you expect? It's about the world's most popular human pastime, falling in love. But as the character Puck knows, falling in love can make all of them look silly. Love can make them quite mad, actually."

"Not just humans, Peregrine. Even borrowers sometimes wonder if love will win out in the end," Larkspur said, looking at her brother, who scowled at her, and handed Peregrine the leftover scone saying, "This will do for tea. If you can carry this, Ari and I can pull the wagon."

"I like Shakespeare, but I also like poetry," Arrietty admitted as they started back to the house. "I like Christina Rossetti, John Donne, the Brownings, and I adore Charlotte Bronte."

"With the Bronte sisters, I am fonder of their prose than their poetry," Peregrine admitted, "but I do like poetry. Sometimes I even attempt to write it."

"Oh, drat," Arrietty said suddenly, as they got within sight of the faucet. "We forgot the full cup. We don't have room for it in the wagon with all of this luggage and Peregrine needs that water."

"You can put these things wherever we're going to bunk," Spiller said firmly, "and Peagreen and I can go back for the water."

When they entered the library, Arrietty gasped with pleasure, though. "You live in here?"

"Not exactly," Peregrine told her, balancing the scone as Spiller pulled the wagon steadily, "but near. You'll see." They slipped through a tile into the large wall next to the fireplace grating, and Peregrine pointed at a kettle. "As soon as we get the water I'll put the kettle on and we can make some tea." Arrietty was dismayed by the dark, dingy room, and he noticed that. "Never fear," he said, adding a few sticks to the smoldering fire, which sprang up, improving the view with its light. "I only heat my water here, although there are all of those tin lids left over from when the Wainscots used to cook in here. My room is much nicer than this. Come. I'll show you."

The grating in its little alcove to one side of the large room delighted Arrietty. "Oh, we had a grating when I was growing up at Firbank! I do love gratings. And look! There's Papa's bench!"

"Yes, Spiller asked me to store it for you. You and Miss Larkspur can have that alcove for a bedroom during your visit if you wish. The curtains draw closed. I sleep in the room at the back behind the stack of books. After I read them I made them into a wall and nice bedroom it is. I wasn't sure what you would want to do. When Spiller's here he usually sleeps in his boat. I can arrange some more books to make another bedroom along any of these walls, though, if we need one for him."

"The alcove will be fine for me and for Ari," Spiller said bluntly. "Lark's the one that needs the extra bedroom." Arrietty blushed scarlet and he immediately regretted it. "It's been hard on Ari, being alone, since she lost her parents."

If Peregrine was embarrassed he covered it well. "Why don't you take the alcove, and let Miss Larkspur have the back room? I actually have another place nearby where I can go." He glanced at Arrietty. "My deepest condolences. I'm sure your grief is still quite overpowering, but I'm sure they are still with you just the same." He turned to Arrietty and asked, "Since you are familiar with Elizabeth Browning, perhaps you've read this?" He began to recite, one hand over his heart-

All are not taken; there are left behind
Living Belovèds, tender looks to bring
And make the daylight still a happy thing,
And tender voices, to make soft the wind:
But if it were not so – if I could find
No love in all this world for comforting,
Nor any path but hollowly did ring
Where 'dust to dust' the love from life disjoin'd;
And if, before those sepulchres unmoving
I stood alone (as some forsaken lamb
Goes bleating up the moors in weary dearth)
Crying 'Where are ye, O my loved and loving?' –
I know a voice would sound, 'Daughter, I AM.
Can I suffice for Heaven and not for earth?'"

"Thank you. That's a lovely poem and exactly how I feel," said Arrietty. "It does help so much not to be alone. I had forgotten that one. When I think about Papa, I've been thinking more about the poem that American wrote, James Whitcomb Riley, but I can't remember the end of it. She recited back to him-
I cannot say, and I will not say
That he is dead- . He is just away!
With a cheery smile, and a wave of the hand
He has wandered into an unknown land,
And left us dreaming how very fair
It needs must be, since he lingers there.'"

"I am not familiar with that one," Peregrine said. He indicated two chairs. "When you're done arranging your belongings to your satisfaction you ladies can wait for us here. I'll go with Spiller now to see about the water." The furniture was simple but sturdy. Ari assumed he'd inherited it from the borrowers who'd gone away. When he limped back toward the fireplace with Spiller Arrietty took the baggage into the little alcove. She looked out the grating, and felt very much at home. She and Larkspur left their blankets and quilts in a neat stack opposite it and practiced drawing and shutting the curtain.

"What do you think of Peregrine?" Larkspur asked Arrietty. "I think he's really handsome. It's a shame about his poor leg, of course, but he's still good looking. He has lovely eyes."

"He's all right," Arrietty said, "but very much an Overmantle. I can hear it in his voice. He's nice enough but I don't think he's that good looking. He's too pale."

"Indoor borrowers are always pale," Larkspur said. "When you lived indoors you were probably pale, too."

"No," Arrietty said, "Because I had my grating. I do like the grating, though, and the house."

The men were soon back. "We left the cup in the fireplace," Peregrine said, taking some tea from a small tin box sitting on a shelf. "I'll go put the kettle on.

When he'd gone Spiller looked at Arrietty and Larkspur and said, "What do you think?"

"Of Peregrine? We were just talking about that. He's exactly what I expected an Overmantle to be in some ways but not in others. He seems nice enough. I wonder where he gets the tea?" Arrietty replied.

"From the larder," Spiller said. "Peagreen gets everything from the larder. He can't cook at all."

"Neither can I," Lark said. "I like him. I like him a lot. He seems sweet."

Peregrine was delighted by how good the scone tasted. While they had tea he said "So, we were talking about the bard. I know Miss Larkspur is partial to the comedies. What about you, Miss Arrietty? They are not your favorites?"

"No, the histories are I think. I do like learning about the past and trying to figure out what the future will be. He wrote so beautifully about all those human kings."

Peregrine smiled. "There's never been anyone who made the English language speak as he did."

"It's not the language," Arrietty argued. "It's the feeling behind the language. Feelings are what really matter in the end."

Peregrine sighed. "I don't have many anymore. That's why I lose myself in the written word. After my family left, then the Wainscots, I was alone a lot. That doesn't give one much chance to explore one's feelings. I do pop into the church occasionally for weddings and funerals, to see how the human beings handle loss and love. I imagine it's the same for many borrowers."

"It is," Larkspur said, with feeling. "I know it is with me," she said, patting his hand. "Of course I know very little about the game called love. So far the only borrower even close to my age I've met is Arrietty's cousin Grego, and I haven't spent much time with him."

"I know my other cousin, Eggletina, is solitary," saisd Arrietty, "but I don't think I could bear being alone all the time. I think love is an overwhelming longing to be longed for overwhelmingly and that it's quite normal."

Peregrine then asked Larkspur about her home, how she had managed after the loss of her parents, and was surprised to hear that she had been saved by a human. He didn't think much of humans. Larkspur said sadly that she didn't think she'd be seeing much of Alice anymore, as Alice would be marrying, soon. "Her father had several ideas of proper suitors for her, but none of them as difficult as Demetrius, I hope."

"Or Grego," Spiller said causing Lark to swat him and Peregrine to give him a searching look.

She and Arrietty, with some reluctant help from Spiller told him quite a bit more about their recent grand tour. Spiller was willing to let Arrietty talk about almost anything to keep her off the subject of her parent's death at the mill. At one point, Peregrine looked over at Spiller shaking his head. "I never knew you'd also lost your family at an early age. I would have understood you better had I been better informed as to your early history."

"Never thought of us having much in common," Spiller admitted. "Maybe more than I realized."

"I think it's interesting that you learned to read," Arrietty said. "My father taught me, but none of my cousins ever learned since my aunt and uncle didn't know how."

"All of the Overmantles learned to read when the human children were taught," Peregrine said. "They had tutors and governesses here but humans never stay long because they tell each other that it's haunted."

"That's how I learned to read," Lark said, "but I never heard any stories about the lodge being haunted, not even after the fire."

"Good thing humans think that here," Spiller said. "You have just enough to live off of, Peagreen, but things stay pretty regular."

"Yes, they do," Peregrine said. "Shall we check out the larder so we're prepared for supper? And I'll bring along my bedding and drop it off in my other home."

"I thought you were going to hunt and I'd make mouse stew," Arrietty said to Spiller.

Spiller laughed. "I'll do that after dusk. The mice will be out then. You can make it another time. While I do that maybe you, Lark and Peregrine could check out the garden?"

"Certainly," Arrietty said, wondering if Spiller was just no longer jealous or if he expected his sister to be a chaperone. She and Lark went with the men for a complete tour of the house before heading to the larder to borrow. Peregrine showed them an old bin that was stuck shut but could be accessed from a crack between the bin and the wall. It was dark but warm and smelled clean.

Peregrine stumbled a bit before he found a stub of candle and a match. Lighting that revealed a huge, cavernous space. "Isn't this wonderful?" he asked. "This is where I plan to stay tonight."

"I don't want to put you out of your own room," Lark cried, but he assured her he didn't mind.

"I'm thinking of staying here all the time in the winter. It would be warm and dry and quiet. I'll be able to read and write to my heart's content," Peregrine said.

"You'd need an awful lot of candles," Spiller said frowning. "Are you sure the humans will never take it into their heads to poke about in here?"

"They can't, "Peregrine assured him. "They'd have to break the whole bin apart, with the lock the way it is, and they have no cause to bother since they don't use any of these bins anymore."

"This house is a lot like my lodge when the human family is away. They don't come that often anymore. I have two caretakers there, and I do things very much the same way you do, Peregrine," said Lark.

"I'd like to see your abode sometime since you've seen mine," He assured her. "I don't get out much because of my leg, but perhaps I could do more than I do."

In the larder the four of them began to examine what the caretakers had in the way of food. Spiller climbed a string of onions to cut one off, and got a carrot and a piece of celery for Arrietty's stew. They got a slice of bread and pulled some slivers of ham off a bone for supper, and dragged all of these things back. They left the things for the stew by the fireplace. Arrietty, reminded Spiller again, as they had their cold supper, that for stew he had to get a mouse.

"He'll do it," Peagreen said. "I have every confidence in him. He's very talented with that bow of his and there are mice aplenty in the garden." There were, too. When they went out into the dark, after the owl in the cedar tree had gone out to hunt they found two mice getting into the corn as soon as they walked out to the garden. Spiller brought them down at once, and taking one by the tail said he was going to go butcher it. Peregrine had brought his tiny wagon in case anything needed to be hauled, and to exchange the next full water cup for an empty one, but when he offered the wagon to Spiller, Spiller shook his head silently.

Arrietty, Lark and Peregrine didn't ask where he was going to do the dirty job, but before he left, Lark slipped alongside of him and sternly whispered, "Are you really going to make Ari cook tomorrow? Spiller, really!"

"What can I do?" He appealed, throwing his arms out. "If she puts it on to simmer in the morning it will be done after the wedding and we can have it for our luncheon. It's not that much work. How can I explain it to her without spoiling everything?"

"I guess you're right, but it's such a shame," she whispered back. "I'm just going to love having Peregrine there, though. I really like him." Spiller just sighed at that.

The women were too squeamish and Peregrine was too well bred to ask questions about butchering. They went to check out the crops. They got a couple of strawberries into the wagon, a pod of peas and a tiny new potato that Arrietty dug out of the sun-warmed earth for the stew. After she got it she noticed Peregrine giving her an odd look and realized how dirty she had gotten herself and was suddenly aware of how clean Peregrine always was. That was an Overmantle trait, no doubt. Homily had always said they were a stuck up lot. While Peregrine was not as stuck up as Arrietty had expected, he really was a bit affected in speech and dress.

They went to the dripping tap. Ari and Lark rinsed their faces and hands quickly and then helped Peregrine put the cup back under the drip to refill. "It will be nice if we're able to have a bath before the wedding," Arrietty said. "When I change for dinner I'll have to spot clean this dress."

"It's very stylish," Peregrine said, "not at all what I expected from someone living with Spiller. I've never seen him in anything but skins. Is he really going to wear a suit to the wedding?"

"Oh, yes, my mother made it for him for my cousin's wedding. I have four cousins, three boys and a girl. The oldest boy married the oldest girl in the family that took Spiller in after he lost his family. They seem quite happy. We visit them often. That family had five daughters."

"They're a very nice family," Larkspur assured him.

"I'd like to meet more borrowers sometime," Peregrine said. "Like I said, I seldom go anywhere and I so very seldom see others that it's a treat when I do." He looked down and recited quickly, "I saw, in gradual vision through my tears, the sweet, sad years, the melancholy years, those of my own life, who by turns had flung a shadow across me."

"That's Elizabeth Browning," Arrietty said, awed, "but as I remember, it ends well." She recited back to him, "And a voice said in mastery, while I strove, 'Guess now who holds thee! Death,' I said, but there, the silver answer rang, 'Not Death, but Love.' I do so like that poem. You'll like it even better when you do meet other borrowers and aren't so lonely. Perhaps you can take a grand tour with us sometime," Arrietty said. "Now that we've met I do so want us to be friends."

"Oh, I hope so, too," Larkspur said, clasping her thin hands together.

"I'd like that," Peregrine said. "You, know, Spiller's a different person around you two. I can't quite get over it. Perhaps you can even get him to stop calling me Peagreen. The Wainscots started that, and it's gone on for a long time, but I'm getting rather tired of it."

"I'll see what I can do," Arrietty said, "but it works both ways. Spiller senses that you look down on the way he lives, but it would be very boring if everyone liked the same things, and he really is a good person. He was always so kind to my family. We'd have been lost in the wilderness without him. He likes his independence, yes, but he's unbelievably loyal. He's reserved but once you get to know him no one has a better sense of fun."

"I can see now why you like Charlotte Bronte," Peregrine said with a smile. He began to recite and once Arrietty and Larkspur realized what he was doing, they joined in:
True pleasure breathes not city air,
Nor in Art's temples dwells,

In palaces and towers where
The voice of Grandeur dwells.
No! Seek it where high Nature holds
Her court 'mid stately groves,
Where she her majesty unfolds,
And in fresh beauty moves;
Where thousand birds of sweetest song,
The wildly rushing storm
And hundred streams which glide along,
Her mighty concert form!

Go where the woods in beauty sleep
Bathed in pale Luna's light,
Or where among their branches sweep
The hollow sounds of night.

Go where the warbling nightingale
In gushes rich doth sing,
Till all the lonely, quiet vale
With melody doth ring.
Go, sit upon a mountain steep,
And view the prospect round;
The hills and vales, the valley's sweep,
The far horizon bound.
Then view the wide sky overhead,
The still, deep vault of blue,
The sun which golden light doth shed,
The clouds of pearly hue…

Then they all stopped short as Spiller appeared, looking confused. His hair was wet, and it was obvious that he had cleaned up by rinsing his arms and head under the faucet. "What ARE you all on about? I've been looking for you!"

"We were talking about you," Peregrine said, and he started to laugh. Arrietty dissolved into a fit of giggles, and took Spiller by the arm as Peregrine started to pull the wagon away.

In the fireplace, Larkspur cleaned and rearranged the shelves in Peregrines meager kitchen and Arrietty began preparing the vegetables and spices for the mouse stew the next day. Spiller and Peregrine tried to help until she shooed them away.

"Nice of you to give Lark your room," Spiller admitted as he and Peregrine fetched another cup of clean water while they were waiting for the girls to get done.

"It's no imposition," Peregrine said. "I'll be fine in the other room. I'm happy to be of service to your sister. I find her fascinating. She's beautiful and wise, but I don't believe she's ever met a man who understood her."

"She hasn't met many men at all," Spiller said, thinking of Grego's interest in her. He hadn't realized when he'd taken Larkspur to meet other borrowers that they might make her yearn for a less solitary lifestyle. She'd mentioned her restlessness when he'd picked her up, but he'd been too concerned with getting back on the river to think about it. What have I done? Spiller thought to himself, but his more practical side argued, why shouldn't she have her own life?

Spiller looked at Peregrine critically. If he was fascinated with Larkspur and she liked him, liked the house, and was not likely to go mad discussing books for hours, there might be some potential there. The chap wasn't really that bad now that Spiller had taken more time to get to know him. There was nothing for it now but to see how things played out. He certainly didn't want his sister winding up like Eggletina, drained by her hard life of all life.

Once the kitchen was organized Arrietty heated water so that she and Lark could bathe and wash their hair. When it was time for bed they each took a turn in the Victorian opalescent milk glass pin dish that Peregrine used for a tub. While Arrietty bathed and got into her nightdress, Spiller watched as Lark and Peregrine had a long discussion about Dickens' "Old Curiosity Shop". Lark was very fond of Nell, a character in the story. Peagreen favored Kit. They tried to explain it so Spiller but he didn't pay attention. He just watched his sister and Peagreen debate the ending, which shocked Spiller, since Little Nell died when he had totally expected her to live, as the saying went, happily ever after. The two borrowers seemed to be having a fine time.

When Arrietty was in the little annex trying to untangle her wet hair with her father's old eyelash comb, Larkspur slipped off to bathe leaving Spiller and Peregrine to split a bottle of Peregrine's homemade gooseberry wine, in honor of the wedding. Peregrine was effusive of his praise of Lark, and his confidence in Arrietty and Spiller's relationship. When he left with his things to go to the bin, the tables were turned and he was the one who almost tripped into the fireplace. Spiller hoped that Peagreen wouldn't have too big of a headache in the morning.

Spiller got up early, washed, and put on his suit. He also put the kettle on and cut up the last of the scone. When Peagreen came back he didn't look too worse for wear, although he was grateful for the tea and had obviously washed up at the dripping faucet.

"I brought another cup of water and left it in the fireplace area. Since it was so nice out, I availed myself of the dripping water, shadows and sunshine and prepared for the momentous occasion. The ladies are not up yet?" He asked.

"Let 'em sleep," Spiller said. "It's going to be a busy day."

"You do look smart, Spiller," said Peagreen. "I didn't know you had it in you."

Larkspur came out first wearing the coppery satin dress trimmed in black lace that Miss Menzies had made her. Peregrine was struck dumb by her beauty. When he stammered a greeting, Spiller laughed. "Never thought I'd see you short of words, Peagreen. Cat got your tongue?"

Pergerine looked at him reproachfully. "Beauty itself doth of itself persuade the eyes of men without orator."

Larkspur laughed, blushing. "I never thought I'd see any Shakespeare applied to me! It is a nice dress, though. Arrietty's human made it for me."

"Perhaps there's some good in some of them after all!" Peregrine said, pulling a chair out for her.

When Arrietty joined them she was wearing a calico everyday dress. "Is that what you are wearing to the wedding?" Larkspur exclaimed.

"No, it's what I'm wearing to put the stew on, "Arrietty said calmly taking a bit of scone. "If I have it on low when we go to the church, it will be done when we come back and we can have a nice luncheon. You three can all sit around and enjoy your finery while I take care of that."

When she finally came back to the alcove to dress properly for the wedding Spiller was waiting for her there with a dress Arrietty had never seen before, a lovely ivory dress trimmed with matching ivory lace. It came with a tiara made from a human ring that had a row of diamonds on it and had lovely cream colored netting trimmed with lace hanging down the back of it.

"I picked you these," Spiller said nonchalantly, holding out a bouquet of lily of the valley, tied with a narrow ivory ribbon that matched the dress.

Arrietty stared. "They're lovely, but wherever did you get that dress?"

"Miss Menzies made it for you after she got done with her own wedding outfit. She and I thought it would be fun for us to say our vows while she and Pott said theirs. It will be even better than how Burgonet and Arista did it since we'll have attendants."

Arrietty's jaw dropped. "You expect me to marry you today? I can't do that!"

"Why not? I love you and I thought you loved me. I got you a dress, a veil, a bouquet, a bridesmaid and a best man, although what he's best at remains to be seen. I even have a ring for you just like Hemiola's." He pulled it out of his pocket and held it in his palm.

She shook her head. "Oh, Spiller! You've forgotten the most important thing!"

"What's that?" Spiller asked, mystified.

"I just realized," Arrietty said smiling slightly. "You never actually asked me! We've talked about if for years, and you asked Papa about it, but you never actually proposed to me!"

Spiller blinked. "Arrietty Clock, I can't let this chance go by. Just can't. I don't want to live another day without you becoming my wife. So before there's another fire, or a flood, or I break my other leg, will you please marry me?"

"Since you put it like that, I'd better," she said laughing as she threw herself into his arms and kissed him. "Now let me get into this creation you and Miss Menzies have come up with for me to wear. Send in Lark. I may need her help."

He vanished as quickly as she had ever seen him vanish, leaving her staring after him in wonder.

Author's note- There will be 25 chapters, so we're almost at the end of this odyssey.

.