“Duty calls,” Rob said. He sighed dramatically over his untouched ice cream and then looked at Tonino. “You watch that for me now, will you?” And without waiting for an answer he scuttled off to take care of his customers.
At first the ice cream seemed to puzzle Tonino. He ignored his spoon and used one finger to poke the small mound, studied what he had found, and with some reservations, stuck the finger in his mouth. His expression went from neutral to deeply suspicious, his whole face contorting into a frown. With that he looked so much like Rosa that any doubt of his identity was banished.
For the next few minutes he just watched Anna eating her ice cream, his eyes following the spoon from dish to mouth and back again. His own dish remained untouched and so when Anna finished hers, she very deliberately reached for it.
For the first time she saw some emotion move over his face. His hand darted out to pull the dish back, and he bent his arm around it like a fortress.
“There you are,” Anna said. “Very nice to meet you again, Tonino.”
With great solemnity he picked up his spoon and dug into the melting ice cream. He never took his eyes from her or his arm from around the bowl as he shoveled the tremendous spoonful into his mouth. He swallowed with an audible gulp, licked his lips, and dug back in. Table manners were the last thing that worried her, but Anna thought of Margaret, and wondered whether he would adore her, as most little boys seemed to, or resent her instruction.
? ? ?
FROM INSIDE THE mercantile came the sound of children quarreling. Tonino inched away on the bench, taking both his and Rob Carlisle’s dishes along. Anna watched him and tried to read from his expression what he was feeling. Who had caused him such pain that he would withdraw from the world so completely?
As watchful as he was, she saw his eyelids begin to droop. Anna found herself holding back a yawn, but Tonino just put his head down on the table and fell asleep. He slept like an infant, in a world that Anna could hardly imagine. There would be nightmares, almost certainly, and behaviors more typical of a much younger child. Mothers came to her often in despair over bed-wetting and thumb sucking, expecting solutions when she had less experience with such things than they did. Along with Sophie she had had long discussions with Aunt Quinlan and Mrs. Lee, who between them had raised ten children and dealt with every challenge imaginable.
Anna would do her best, but she would depend on the two women who had raised her to lead the way, and on Margaret. There would need to be a very frank discussion at the start, where all the adults in the two households worked out some ground rules. As they should have thought to do when the girls came. But there were far worse things for this boy than a household full of adults dedicated to his welfare and happiness.
The sound of the rockaway pulling up in front of the store roused her out of a half doze. Anna resisted the urge to jump up for fear of startling Tonino and saw that he was awake, all his attention focused on the carriage.
Jack had seen them, but Lia and Rosa were so wound up in a difference of opinion that they took no note. That meant that Jack hadn’t told them where they were going, or why. Now he made a small movement with his head that Anna understood as a request that she wait. A reasonable course of action, for any number of reasons, and still, perspiration broke out on her throat and face. Suddenly she was sure they had made a mistake, that this wasn’t Tonino, or that this was not the Tonino the girls were looking for. That they would be frightened by the changes they saw in him.
Lia was turning to Jack to engage his support in this newest disagreement with her older sister when she caught sight of Anna. A smile broke out on her face and disappeared almost immediately as she took in the boy. It was the blank look on Lia’s face that made Rosa look around herself.
The girls rose so slowly that they might have been puppets being drawn to a standing position. In a sudden explosion of movement they made to jump from the carriage, but Jack had been prepared for this and he held on to them both, talking rapidly.
Rosa twisted at the waist to look at her brother.
“Tonino!”
The boy, reserved and watchful, studied the girls in the carriage as he might have studied a painting of some creature out of his sphere of experience. His sisters had disappeared once before; maybe he had convinced himself that he would never see them again. Or, it occurred to Anna, he could be angry to have been left behind and alone.
Jack helped the girls down and they came flying toward the table, both of them calling his name and weeping.