Harper

When David took Harper from the house, all she had was the dress she was wearing and her doll, Lady Buttons.

Mother hadn’t moved in days. When Harper had listened at her chest for a heartbeat, there had been none. The blood had long dried and the smell was unbearable in the heat.

The adults wanted to know where her Father, Mr. Lantrell, had gone. She just knew her parents had argued, Father had hit Mother in the head with the poker, threatened Harper to never say a word or he’d kill her too, and then left. That had been four or five days ago, and Father hadn’t said where he was going, so she just pointed out into the distance when asked.

The rest of the adults started planning to go after Mr. Lantrell. Jack, the tall one with short black hair and blue eyes said she'd come live with him and Charlotte. He had a little boy named Carson who was only a year older than Harper, and seemed excited she was going to come stay at their Castle.

She thought he was pretending, but Jack really did live in a Castle and he was the King. That meant Carson was a Prince and his Mother, Charlotte, was the Queen. Jack had three other children, but they were grown up and living somewhere else.

She was given clothes that were much nicer than anything she’d ever imagined before, and Carson didn’t mind sharing his toys. Charlotte gave Lady Buttons a new button for an eye, since one had gone missing, and fixed her clothes and yarn hair. She was also fed enough to be full at every meal for the first time in her memory. Jack and Charlotte read her stories, Carson played with her, and he said they’d take school lessons.

She thought all this new stuff was temporary. They’d find Father, or Mr. Lantrell, as everyone else called him, and she’d have to go live with him again, but she knew Mother wasn’t coming back.

She didn’t want to go live with Mr. Lantrell again. He always used to hit her and tell her to shut up. Jack and Charlotte mentioned her Grandparents. It was only right for them to send a letter and see if they’d take her, since she was rightfully theirs. Harper didn’t know her Grandparents, but she figured the King and Queen didn’t want her.

The fact that they didn’t want her became clear when the adults all started planning some trip they had to go on. They were going to leave her in the big Castle, all by herself. It would be like last time, when she was stuck in the house. She’d had to eat scraps and drink the funny tasting water from the water bucket in the corner. She hadn’t said a single word, but what if Mr. Lantrell came back for her in the meantime?

She went to the room she shared with Carson and hid under the bed with her doll. Surely, nobody could find her there. She heard the door open after a bit and then Jack got on his knees near the bed to peer under.

“Harper, what are you doing under there?”

She said nothing.

“Won’t you come out? Please?”

She remained silent. Why should she come out? She had started to like him and Charlotte, but they were already leaving her.

He shifted, so she could only see his legs. “Harper, I’m sorry, I don’t want to go, but we’re not leaving you. You’ll still have Ella, Lucy, and David’s two little ones. I promise, we’ll be back.”

She finally came out and sat on the floor in front of him. Maybe he would return, but he shouldn’t be going away at all.

“We’re not going away forever,” continued Jack. “I have a sister in Emaray, and-she needs me right now, so me and some of the others are going there to make her feel better. Do you understand?”

She’d heard something about a Jacob and a Hector, and all the adults had looked sad. Maybe Mr. Lantrell got them. But Jack said they’d come back, so she nodded.

“It will take many days to get there, but we will come back,” he said. “We’re not abandoning you. Even if your Grandparents are reached while I’m away, I’ve told Lucy you’re not to be taken anywhere until my return. Charlotte, David, and I want to make sure they’re fit to care for you. We’ll write and Lucy will read the letters to you, okay?”

He gave her a smile, but his eyes still looked sad. Harper sat in his lap and offered her doll up to him. Maybe that would make him feel better. He told her to keep Lady Buttons, because the doll needed her, but Harper stuffed her in Jack’s vest so only the face showed.

“Do you really want me to take her and then bring her back so she can tell you everything she saw?” he asked. She nodded. “I’ll take good care of her.” He hugged her.

He really did come back with the others. It took a while, but they all returned. After a few days, he told her that her Grandparents couldn’t take her in, so she’d stay there with him and Charlotte.

If her Grandparents didn’t want her, that probably meant Jack and Charlotte didn’t either. Why would they? She couldn’t even read yet, and Carson could. She wouldn’t even talk.

Nobody seemed to mind that she never made a peep. The King and Queen had gotten quite good at figuring out her expressions. Sometimes they’d ask her something and she could tell they were trying to get her to speak, but Mr. Lantrell would come back if she did.

As the months passed, the King and Queen kept her. She assumed it was because she behaved and didn’t do anything wrong. They never even hit her like Mr. Lantrell did.

When Carson had his lessons, she sat with him. She knew the alphabet already and by watching and listening, she learned other things too. Near the end of winter, she could recognize some words and basic sentences.

Carson didn’t seem to care that she didn’t speak. He wanted her to do everything with him and said she was his little sister now, so that meant she should call his parents Maman and Daddy, like he did. They were her parents too.

She started thinking of them as Daddy and Maman. They were really nice to her and didn’t seem ready to shuffle her off somewhere else. Maybe if she just kept behaving and stayed quiet, she really could stay forever. But one day in spring, when she was up in her parent’s rooms, she was sure she had ruined it all.

She hadn’t meant to drop the glass. It had just slipped out of her hand, shattered on the floor, and splashed water everywhere. Daddy suddenly snatched her up and she thought he was going to hit her, just like Mr. Lantrell did the last time she broke something. But he only set her down away from the shards.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

She stood there rigidly, still afraid he’d smack her.

“It’s all right,” he said, with concern on his face. “It's just glass. Let me see your feet.”

She had stockings on, but no shoes. None of the glass had cut her feet and Jack seemed relieved. A servant came to sweep up the shards and everything seemed fine. Maybe he really wasn’t angry.

But the next day, he said he was taking her somewhere, and had her put her cloak on. This was it. He was getting rid of her for breaking the glass and she couldn’t even apologize for it. He set her on his big horse, named Prince, climbed up behind her and they went to Hemshire.

They passed David’s house. He probably didn’t want her either because he had three daughters and his wife, Ella, had given birth to a baby boy. They wouldn’t have time for her.

Jack guided the horse to one of the outlying farms. A man closed the gate to his pigpen and greeted Jack when he slowed Prince. The man didn’t look mean, but Harper didn’t want to live with him. She wanted to stay with Maman and Daddy and play with Carson everyday. If only she hadn’t dropped the glass.

The man said they were in the barn. Maybe she wasn’t going to live with the man, but whoever “they” were, and they had decided to wait there for some reason.

Jack trotted the horse to the barn, got down, and lifted her off.

“Come on,” he said, appearing quite excited. “Why do you look so sad?”

She just looked at him while she clutched her doll.

“This will cheer you up. Come see.”

There were a couple of horses in the stalls, but Jack led her to an empty one and swung the gate open.

“Go in. We have to keep the stall closed, so they don’t wander off.”

Harper’s eyes widened at the sight inside.

Jack closed the gate and knelt down next to her. “Surprise!”

A cat was laying on a blanket on the hay and five little kittens surrounded her. They tussled with each other, pounced on strands of hay, and one was getting a bath from its Mother. Harper had always wanted a kitten, but Mr. Lantrell never would have gotten her one, and she didn’t know how to ask Daddy. Somehow, he had known what she wanted.

“Pick whichever one you want and we’ll take it home,” said Jack.

If he was letting her have a kitten, that meant he wasn’t getting rid of her and he wasn’t angry about the glass. Most of the kittens were all shades of black, grey, and white, but one was pure white and had blue eyes that were the same shade as Jack and Carson’s. It tried to swat at her doll’s yarn hair.

Harper tucked Lady Button’s in her cloak pocket, picked up the white kitten, and smiled at Daddy to tell him she wanted that one. The farm owner had a basket with a lid, so the kitten went inside, and they took him home.

She was enthralled with her new buddy. He went after just about anything that moved, including the lace edges of Maman’s skirts when she walked. When he wasn’t finding something to destroy, he purred, cuddled, and would squint his eyes at Harper.

The kitten needed a proper name and Daddy tried to help by saying a few. She didn’t like them, or Carson’s suggestion of Mr. Fluffybottom. She thought of the kitten's eyes and decided she wanted to call him Blinky. She blinked at Jack a few times, hoping he got it.

“Blink?” he asked, after a few seconds. She tilted her head and did it again. “Blinky?”

That got him a smile and the kitten had a name.

Every night, Blinky kneaded Harper’s pillow and then curled up to sleep while he purred. Harper had her own room now and she wanted to tell Blinky how much she loved him. She wished she could tell Maman and Daddy too, since they didn’t get rid of her, but she was too scared to speak.

Maybe Mr. Lantrell wouldn’t know if she talked to Blinky, because kittens weren’t people. She put her head near Blinky’s and whispered.

“I love you.”

Her voice was raspy from lack of use, but Blinky just purred louder. From that night on, in private, she told Blinky everything she wanted to tell others.

A year passed. Blinky grew into a cat and his favorite toy was feathers. Carson found a big one in the Castle yard one day and the cat ended up breaking it in half. Harper wanted another for him so she went to the office. Daddy was at his desk, writing something with a quill.

He put it down and turned to her as she came around the desk. “What are you up to?” He picked her up and let her sit in his lap while he went back to writing.

Harper glanced at the parchment and saw the word taxes, but she was more interested in the quill and kept staring at it.

“Did Blinky break his last toy?” asked Jack, with a hint of a laugh in his voice.

She nodded in response, so he opened his drawer and selected a clean quill. With the sharpening knife, he cut the nib off.

“There you go. Nothing sharp. That should last him a few days...or hours.” Jack chuckled. “I guess I better order more quills.”

Harper smiled and leaned against him. She could hear his heartbeat in his chest and she had grown to like that during the past year. It sounded strong and if it kept beating, that meant he was alive.

She wanted to say she loved him, opened her mouth slightly, and remembered Mr. Lantrell’s warning. Blinky might not count, but Jack did. He wore a sword at his side, but Harper was afraid Mr. Lantrell might be able to kill him anyway. His heart would stop and Mr. Lantrell would go after Maman and Carson, and maybe even David and his family too.

The heartbeat remained strong and steady in her ear while Daddy kept writing, occasionally pausing to dip his quill in the inkwell.

He didn’t mind if she never spoke and neither did anybody else. He always knew what she was trying to say and had given her a wonderful surprise last year. She had finally realized she was really staying here forever, but Mr. Lantrell could end everything if she said anything. Silence was safer. She closed her mouth and looked at the feather.

Jack signed his name on the parchment and pushed it aside so the ink could dry. He wrapped his arms around Harper and gave her a squeeze.

“I love you and I’m glad we got to keep you.”

She hugged him back, also glad her Maman and Daddy wanted her. He knew, even if she never said a word again.