Page 82 (1/2)

Home

Tabitha and Aunt Elizabeth scrubbed and soaked and wrung out the week’s linens in the old washing tub Their eyes were red and sunken orry and with lye fu his pipe, but his heart wasn’t in it All the other children had arrived hoe School already He could only think that Branwell and Anne had gone along with the girls in the carriage frohley to see them properly settled in and all four had been lost in the blaze that destroyed Cowan Bridge School Branwell had always been thoughtful that way

The children caht Their clothes sed and exhausted and hollow-looking, but the color was high in their cheeks They were hungry and bickering and alive

Tabitha and Elizabeth fell upon them like hens on autumn apples

“Where have you been? My darlings, htened your auntie so!”

“You are just the worst children,” Tabitha said fondly, runing her fingers through their tangled, filthy hair

Papa could not bring hiround and held out his arht

“We feared the worst,” he said gruffly “When word caht now It’s all right We’re all here”

Charlotte and Elances What fire?

“There are other schools,” Papa whispered into Anne’s hair as he picked her up “Better schools You’re all safe and you’re all mine”

“Buck up, Papa!” Anne laughed

“Be brave,” Branwell said into his father’s coat

“Busy hands” Eainst her aunt

“Make bright hearts,” Charlotte finished, and lay her head on her sister’s lap She had never been so tired

What they had been about they would not say, nor how they had been gone so long, nor why Branwell and Anne had not just let the girls go in the carriage as they were told, nor how they had found their way home in the dark In fact, all four were silent as monks