My own tears spilled over without permission and I hurried to fan my face and wipe Cooper’s eyes before Gregor walked in. The man was already so heartsick he could barely function. To see anyone else upset only made it harder for him.
“Hey, let’s take a walk outside, okay?” I kissed him on the head, letting Cooper go so that he could stand next to me as I threw a quick glance at the bread. I still had a few minutes to spare so I took his hand and led him outside, hoping his sniffles weren’t audible upstairs.
Once we were outside with the cold wind whipping across our cheeks, Cooper spoke. “It’s so sad, Aunt Jane.”
“I know it is, Cooper, but you know what? She’s still here now, and she wouldn’t want a sweet, little boy like you to spend one minute unhappy because of her. She’s still laughing and telling stories and very much full of life. If she’s not sad, why should we be?”
I knew how Isobel struggled. I saw it in moments when Gregor was away, her tears and the heartbreak she felt over her sickness and the thought of leaving him, but she never allowed herself to show it around Gregor. She loved him more than she loved life and more than she feared death. But more than anything, she didn’t want her sickness to dampen the spirit of anyone around her so I knew I told Cooper the truth; she didn’t wish for any tears to be shed over her. Not yet. Not while she was still here.
“I guess, I guess that’s a good point, Aunt Jane, but it still makes me hurt right here.” He pointed to the center of his chest and swallowed hard, trying his best to do as I said.
“It does me too. Hey, I bet that bread is ready. Are you willing to take a chance on my cooking?”
He laughed, and I smiled at seeing his normal cheerfulness creep back onto his face. “Yeah. I think I’m braver than I was a couple of years ago, so I guess I’ll try it. Do you remember that time you tried to feed me a PB&J? I think you just about killed me.”
I shook my head, looking down at him with disapproval. “I did not almost kill you, Coop. There was nothing wrong with that sandwich.”
“Okay, Aunt Jane, whatever you say. Now, let’s go try that bread.”
“Wait just a moment, Cooper. Doona ye take another step.”
Cooper squeezed my hand so tight my knuckles cracked, and he bared all his teeth in panic at hearing Eoghanan’s voice approaching.
Guiltily, he turned to face his stepfather.
“Hey, E-o. I just…I…I saw Aunt Jane leaving this morning and decided to follow her. I know I shouldn’t have gone alone, but I’m a good rider now. Ya know, it’s your fault really, since you’re the one who taught me how to ride. If I wasn’t so good, I wouldn’t have dared to go alone, but thanks to you, I knew I could make it safely.”
Eoghanan stared down at Cooper with the quiet, gentle authority that was impossible not to respect, taking a long moment before speaking. “If yer mother knew what ye had done, she’d have worried herself to death. Do ye wish to frighten her?”
Cooper squirmed at my side, and I knew that guilt was starting to overtake him. “No, I don’t. Of course, I don’t. But everybody has been lying to me, and I knew it. I just wanted to see where Aunt Jane was going. Now I know, so I won’t do it again. And I won’t tell anybody else. I promise. Let’s just not tell Mom, okay? It would only upset her.”
“Ye talk too much when ye know ye have done something wrong, do ye know it, Cooper?” I could tell how Eoghanan struggled to keep his face straight.
“Yes. Yes, I do know that. And I’m very sorry, but it’s only that I don’t like being in trouble, but I dislike not knowing what’s going on even more, and I just couldn’t stand it another second, E-o. I really couldn’t. You gotta understand that, right? I’m a growing man, and I need to explore to find things out that are hidden.”
I tried to keep from smiling, but the corners of my mouth pulled up involuntarily, and I could see by the twitch at the corner of Eoghanan’s mouth that he was having the same difficulty. Cooper was nearly impossible to be angry with. Still, Eoghanan did his best to be a responsible adult.
“Cooper, ye will walk around back and lead yer horse over here at once. And aye, we willna tell yer mother, but ye will tell yer father directly after we get back. We shall let him decide yer punishment. Do ye ken?”
Nodding, Cooper released his death grip on my hand and headed toward the back of the inn where he’d tied his horse–a miniature, with long brown hair who was as gentle and sweet as his rider.
Once he was gone, I spoke to Eoghanan for the first time. “You had to know that was going to happen, right?”
“Aye, o’course I did. I watched him go down to the stables and was never more than a short distance from him during his entire journey into the village.”
“I suspected as much. Before you leave, come inside and let me cut a piece of bread for you both. I told Cooper he could try some.”