Briar swallowed hard. “Should we be worried about him?”
“We have to wait and see if a letter gets through. These rail strikes are slowing everything down. If it were an emergency, he would send his parents a cable. He may already be on his way home. Don’t worry until you have something to worry about. Time will tell.”
“Speaking of time, that’s why Nanny set the deadline at my seventeenth birthday, isn’t it? She’s only concerned about me pricking my finger and then she’ll be off to watch over some other girl named Briar?”
“Prudence doesn’t tell me her plans, but that sounds like a fair assessment.”
“Morning, Briar,” called Pansy, up before the boys for once. She had a basket with her and was headed for the garden.
“Sweet Pea, could you start the twins’ breakfast?” asked Fanny. “Briar and I are having a little talk.”
“About boys, I bet.” Pansy made a face.
Briar laughed nervously. “We’ll be in to help you in a bit.” She reached for the basket and then followed Fanny to the strawberry patch.
Once Pansy had gone back into the house, Briar continued the conversation. “I have so many questions I can’t get them out fast enough.”
“The question now is what do we do about the spindle if I can’t remove it? We can’t just leave you working at the mill with a cursed spindle. Too risky.”
Briar shook her head. “If I left, another girl would take my place. That’s risky, too. I’m the one who put it in there. Now what?”
“I suppose you’re right. We are certainly in a pickle. It’ll be up to you to make sure no one under seventeen goes near the spindle. You must become part of the story, dearie. You watch over the spindle.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
At church, Briar thanked the Princes again for giving her a ride and for sharing Henry’s animals, then she asked them to check in on them once in a while to make sure the children were caring for them properly. And to surreptitiously check on Fanny at the same time.
Before Briar could leave the cottage Sunday afternoon, the children made her say good-bye to each of the animals in their growing collection. Last thing she did was hug each child tight, to the point of making the boys squirm. “You be good. I’ll see you next week.”
Pansy poked at Briar’s bloomers. “Can Miss Mim make me these, too?”
“I can copy her pattern and we can make a pair together, how about that?”
“Okay. Bye!” Pansy scampered off in her dress after the boys.
Fanny walked with Briar and the bicycle down the lane.
“I did everything I could to dislodge the spindle while you and the children were at church, but you’re right. It is firmly attached. I wish you hadn’t made me promise not to tell anyone, but I know what it is to want to fix your own mess. We’ll do this together. You and me. But you need to do everything I tell you. Let’s just make it till the end of your birthday. Once the danger for you has passed, then we can attack the problem without fear.”
“Thank you.” Briar spoke with relief. She was more worried about Prudence finding out than the spindle causing harm. The way it was positioned in her frame, it should be easy to avoid the tip.
“The most important thing is, never touch the spindle. Ever.” Fanny raised her eyebrows. “Ever.”
“I understand.” Briar hopped on the bicycle and rode back to town, her mind cycling as fast as the wheels she was riding on. If only Mam were here to talk to. She would help Briar make sense of all this, because she didn’t understand. Not at all.
Back in town, Briar eyed the mill warily, wondering what a magic spindle did when no one was around. Lie in wait for its next victim?
She zoomed down the row of boardinghouses, savoring her last few minutes of freedom. She slowed to a stop by the porch, turning heads of the girls sitting outside. “I’m back! Anyone want to use the bicycle before I put it away?” She slid off the seat. Her legs wobbled a little, not yet accustomed to cycling such a distance.
Met by blank stares, she assumed no one was interested, and so she parked the bicycle back in the shed. When she climbed the porch stairs, one of the girls she didn’t know very well leaped up from the bench and said in an exaggerated deep voice, “Miss Jenny increased her production today. Let her be an example of what you can accomplish with focus and hard work.”
Another mocking voice joined in. “Work more quickly, and like Miss Jenny, your next paycheck might go up.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“That’s what the overseer told everyone in line after you left on Saturday. He thinks we’re slow and lazy, and because you were suddenly working faster you’ve made us all look bad. Thanks a lot. We’re working as fast as we can.”