“Oh, yes. He’s ever so much kinder than people think,” she replied aloud, carrying the tray towards the door. As Rosie moved to let her pass, Katherine couldn’t resist saying innocently, “You should come by again some time!”
Rosie rushed off through the crowd, her face bright red. Katherine knew she would be interrogated no more, at least for the evening.
Perhaps that was a bit unkind, she thought. but at least she won’t be following me around now.
It wasn’t the first time Rosie had tried to pry information about the Captain out of her, and she knew it wouldn’t be the last.
Soon, the refreshment line dwindled and Miss Harriet came over to Katherine with a basket full of sparklers. “Would you please pass these out at the door as people go out? Mr. James and I will stand outside and light them.”
“Of course.” Katherine replied. She had been looking forward to this. Nearly the whole town was there, and Mr. James had arranged for permission for the street to be blocked off so they could all stand outside with their sparklers.
“It’s the next best thing to a bonfire” Miss Harriet had said.
Soon, they were outside and the sparklers were lit, each person helping to light their neighbors'. As the street was filled with the smoke and smell of gunpowder from the sparklers, Mr. James stood on the crate (which had been relocated outside) to recite the famous poem.
“Please to remember the fifth of November…” he began.
“Oh, isn’t it so exciting!” said Rosie’s voice in Katherine’s ear.
“Mm-hm” Katherine replied, her eyes still on Mr. James.
“I just love the sparklers!”
Katherine said nothing.
“I do hope the sparks don’t light anything on fire. You know I read somewhere of that happening at a fourth of July party. This isn’t July, though, and things are much wetter, but you never know.”
“Maybe it would be safer if you were to stand away from the crowd. You wouldn’t want any sparks to land on your hat.” Katherine said coolly.
Rosie raised her eyebrows and reached a hand up, as if to make sure her hat was still there, then looked around. “Oh, well, I suppose Miss Harriet has considered the safety of it. And the fire chief is just over there, so we should be safe enough.”
She stopped to take a quick breath, then continued, jabbing Katherine in the ribs with her elbow. “My, doesn’t Mr. James look handsome up there on his box! If I were just a bit younger, you know, I might be quite taken with him. But he’s too young for me. Not like some others I could mention… but then, he does have such a nice nose. Not like that horrid Captain. His nose is quite atrocious. You can tell a lot about people by their noses, you know. I have this theory…”
Katherine sighed. She had been looking forward to the poem, read in Mr. James’ sonorous voice, but Rosie was clearly determined to talk her way through the whole reading. Katherine didn’t want to be rude to one of Miss Harriet’s most faithful customers, so she listened just enough to know when to nod and tried to catch as much of the poem as she could.
Soon, the sparklers had died out and the reading was over. The crowd dispersed, calling merry farewells to each other as they did. Katherine and Miss Harriet went inside and began to clean up.
“That was such a delightful evening!” Miss Harriet said, rolling the cart out of the kitchen so they could collect all the dishes. “And just one broken teacup! Quite remarkable, given how many people we had here.”
Katherine smiled to herself. How like Miss Harriet to be happy that only one teacup had been broken, instead of being upset that it had happened at all.
“Did you enjoy the party, Katherine?” Miss Harriet asked.
“The party was wonderful! I like parties when I have something to do, so I can just watch everyone instead of having to talk to people.”
“I did see you talking to Rosie quite a bit.”
Katherine rolled her eyes. “Yes, she talked through Mr. James’ whole reading!”
“Well, I‘m proud of you for bearing with her. I know it must have been difficult.”
“It was. Have you heard her theory about noses?”
“No, that’s a new one, but not surprising. Her last theory was about eyebrows!” Miss Harriet replied, and both ladies burst into giggles.
Just then Mr. James walked in carrying an old coffee can full of sparkler ends. “Well, you’re a merry pair! I must admit it’s quite a happy thing to walk in on such fun.”
“We were just talking about Rosie’s theories. Has she told you the one about noses?” Katherine asked.
“Thankfully, no. But forewarned is forearmed, or so they say. I shall now know to avoid the topic with all due diligence.” Winking at Katherine, he set the can on the floor and began pulling tables away from the wall.
The three worked quickly and cheerfully, despite how tired they all were, and soon Katherine and Mr. James had the shop back to normal and Miss Harriet had put the last clean dish back in the cupboard.
“I think that’s everything” Miss Harriet said, coming out of the kitchen with a tin-foil package. “Mr. James, you’ve been just wonderful this evening. Would you like some Parkin cake to take home?”
“What a silly question!” he said, eagerly taking the package. “And might I say, I have been ever so glad to be a part of your celebration. I sincerely hope it will become an annual event!”
Miss Harriet smiled happily in reply, and Katherine thought that perhaps the evening had been worth having to listen to Rosie’s annoying chatter, after all.
17 Thanksgiving
After the Guy Fawkes celebration, the days flew by. Katherine kept so busy with preparations for Miss Harriet’s town-wide Thanksgiving, she could almost have forgotten the upcoming trip to her parents’ house. That is, she could have forgotten, were it not for the heavy feeling which welled up in the pit of her stomach whenever something brought it to mind.
But time flew by anyway, and suddenly, she found herself in the kitchen with Miss Harriet, doing the last of the washing up before leaving the next day.
