The Hollow

14

"She is indisposed, I'm afraid," Mahala heard her father say as she moved quietly down the stairs into the hall. She paused near the top, tucking her curls behind her ears. The front door was open, and standing just on the threshold was Freddie Walker. She could just see the bottom of his face, his full lips, and that he was dressed for walking. It did not appear that he had his rifle that day. "She is still sleeping."

Freddie Walker's lips thinned as he pressed them together.

"That is unfortunate, I was hoping to walk with her before I had to leave for business," he said softly.

She slipped down another step, looking at the back of her father's head and the thinning white hair there. Her father was formulating a way to have Freddie leave...and somehow it hurt.

"Perhaps when you return, Frederick, she has not been well..."

"I am quite well, Father, much improved, in fact," she said, moving from the stairs to step beside her father, taking his arm, careful to avoid touching his hand. She had not put on her gloves.

Freddie looked her from head to toe, his eyes crinkling in the corners to smile. Mahala beamed back, noting to herself that it was perhaps the first real smile he had given her. It was oddly comforting to see that he could smile, as most of the time he seemed so pensive.

"Mahala!" her father gasped, surprised at her appearance. "I think you should take care, and put off your walk..."

Mahala knew her father was worried, but the string she felt from her chest that connected her to Freddie Walker thrummed to be ever nearer.

"Perhaps just a walk down the road to the low gap and back, Mr. Hiner?"

Mahala squeezed her father's arm.

"Nothing too strenuous, Mahala, your brother will be livid if you were to disappear into the woods again..."

"Again?"

Mahala gave her father a stiff smile. "Where is my brother?"

"At the big house, he was needed... Mahala..."

Mahala had moved to grab her shawl, as the day was warmer than it had been for a short while and her toque. Soon, she was walking with Freddie Walker to the road. When they were out of sight of the house, Mahala slipped her hand from the crook of his elbow to grasp his ring and small finger of his left hand. The contact gave her a slight jolt, but she saw and sensed only him in that moment. Somehow she felt more at ease than before, especially after waking up in the woods the night before.

"Tell me," he said softly as they walked along the road that followed the creek until the road diverged in the narrowest point of the sheltered hollow.

"It isn't anything for you to worry about," she said softly cutting her eyes up at his. He had been watching her out of the corner of his eyes for some time.

"But I do," he said even softer, his hand moving to envelope her hand, then he paused at the point where the road diverged and went over the low gap over onto the property of Warm Springs.

Mahala stopped short as he turned to her, frowning up at him. His dark eyes were piercing, and slowly, she sighed.

"Walking out of the house in my sleep, it seems..." she murmured, her eyes falling to the dirt track of the road.

"Somnambulism," he whispered. "It has your father alarmed."

She blinked at him. "It was how my mother started out before she abducted me to Albany...he's afraid..."