To get to the hive, we had taken a path from the Lockharts’ that cut through the woods well below home, but we were now on the one that took us straight there.

“We’ll stop there for a minute before we go back up,” I said.

“No time for that. We should be getting back.”

“I know, but my mother won’t forgive me if we go straight past without stopping. And there’s something I need to do for my father.”

“Ellie, we need to get back up-mountain. And I expect your mother won’t thank you for bringing home a stranger.”

“Don’t worry. This will only take a minute. Besides, you’re not a stranger.”

“Even worse. One meeting, and it was a bad one.”

“Not because of anything you did.”

He shrugged. “Even so.”

I wasn’t likely to knock on my own door, but I wanted to give my mother some warning that I had brought Larkin home with me, so I called out, “Mother!” as soon as we got there and then waited just inside the door until she came.

“Oh!” she said at the sight of him. “Larkin. Come in.” And then, before he had a chance to say a word, she blurted, “I have one of your father’s mandolins.”

He smiled. “My father never knew what became of them, after they left him.”

I thought that was a very lonely thing to say.

“She used to play it all the time,” I said.

He raised his eyebrows at the used to.

“Oh, I’ve just been busy lately,” my mother said. She didn’t seem aware of how her fingers plucked at her skirt. The collapse of her face.

And then Samuel came running out of nowhere, yelling, “He opened his eyes, Ellie!”

And I felt myself swell like a blossom.

But my mother put up her hand, her own eyes closed, and said, “He means Quiet.”

I could not recall ever feeling so disappointed over something I’d wanted so badly.

“Not Daddy?”

She shook her head. “He’s the same.”

“I went out to the shed to give Maisie some water and Quiet looked up at me!” Samuel was fairly dancing. “Come see.”

“That’s awfully soon for a puppy to open his eyes,” I said doubtfully.

Samuel made a face. “He wanted to see us, Ellie. And Quiet’s different from the others.”

Something I’d known since I’d pulled him, dripping and squirming, from a bucket of well water just days before.

“Where’s Esther?” my mother said, looking past us and through the open door.

“Still up there,” I said. “Miss Cate’s leg is worse and we had to come down for honey again.”

“I don’t understand.” She looked more and more confused. “Esther stayed on?”

I said, “Yes, Mother. She wanted to.”

Which made her sigh and shake her head.

Samuel pulled on my hand. “Come see Quiet!”