ATOP Chapter Two

"Three... more... days!" Katie ground her pencil into the calendar as she spoke between clenched teeth. Then, with a little squeak of what could only be called overwrought nerves, she dropped the pencil to the floor and hopped once or twice across the kitchen. Emma looked up from the bread dough she was kneading and grinned sideways at her little sister. A smudge of flour was streaked across her cheek and strands of hair fell over her eyes, giving her a ridiculously disheveled look.

"Bad case of nerves, eh, sis?" she teased, laughing. Katie hopped again, accompanied with another squeak, and fell into a kitchen chair. Katie never fell into chairs. This case of nerves was very bad indeed.

"Three more days!" Katie cried again, jubilantly, as if that explained all. Well, it did. Emma knew exactly what it was that ailed her sister and she knew what was to happen in three days too.

"Yup, three days," she sighed, attacking the bread dough with great vigor. "Three days and then... he's gonna come and carry you off. Ain't fair."

"Aha!" cried a voice at the kitchen window. Katie jumped, but Emma only rolled her eyes. "Seems to me I heard an "ain't" escape the lips of this creature whom professes to be a proper lady..."

"Shut up, Scout," Emma groaned and thumped the bread dough harder. "One thing you should know, Katie, if you're gonna marry a man... make sure he's a man first, and not just a little boy in disguise."

Josh was climbing bodily through the kitchen window at that very moment, thus unwittingly providing proof of Emma's statement. Both girls ignored him royally. 

"So." Josh paused for breath on the windowsill and grinned dangerously at the inhabitants of the kitchen. "The bride-to-be and the bride-that's-mine. And where is the bride-that-is-my-brother-in-law's, eh? Got anything to eat?"

"No, there is not anything for you to eat," Emma said significantly, with emphasis in all the right places. Or wrong places, if you happened to ask Josh. "And Ronnie and Rachel will be coming in on the..." she glanced at the clock. "Four thirty train. Which is due in an hour. Which means that you, Mr. Campbell-Hayes, ought to be out of those muddy chore clothes already and getting ready to go. What on earth are you doing in this nice, clean kitchen, looking like you just crawled out of the pig sty?"

"I already told you," Josh answered loftily, wiping grimy hands on even grimier jeans. "I'm looking for food, woman. Now feed me, or else."

"Or else what?" Emma tossed her head as she slid a loaf of bread dough quite expertly into a floured pan. "Not much you can frighten me with, Torpedo. Remember, I am a veteran."

"So'm I," Josh laughed. "And even more so than you. I could teach you a thing or three about battle... or seven or eight or even ninety-six, I betcha."

"If this is what marriage is like," Katie interrupted, looking warily at them both. "Then maybe I'd better... have a talk with Mac..." she backed slowly out of the kitchen. Josh and Emma didn't even notice her absence. The verbal battle was only just beginning... and it was one out of at least three that day. It was a mystery, not only to the rest of the family, but to the whole of Jefferson, how the two of them managed to get along. But somehow they did... and they stuck closer than most couples did too.

"Is raw bread edible, perchance?" Josh was saying as Katie's footsteps echoed up the stairs and faded from earshot. He was peering beneath the towel Emma had spread over the loaves, and got a crack over the knuckles for his pains. 

"Don't ask, or you might find out the hard way," Emma was using the sort of voice that Josh had discovered was dangerous. But the hard way was the only way for him to learn, unfortunately... after all, he hadn't even realized that particular voice meant danger until he did so the hard way. Not that he profited much by the lesson. He generally ignored the danger. 

"Never mind," he said quickly, spying something else which happened to be directly behind Emma. Only one obstacle between him and the cookie jar, which he knew was full nearly to overflowing with molasses cookies... and he knew how to handle the obstacle too. In one swift motion, perfected by much necessary practice, he wrapped an arm around aforementioned obstacle and pressed a kiss on her surprised lips whilst the other arm reached for the cookie jar.

Victory was granted the thief and he managed to grab a handful of cookies before Emma could get away from him and then there was naught to do but jump out the window. He did so immediately... but danger Emma had meant and danger was about to happen.

Had Katie not been very distracted just then by a rather substantial stack of letters in her hand, she would have been treated to a not-very-uncommon scene unfolding in the yard outside. Emma, having followed her husband through the window, was tearing across the lawn after him and waving a wooden spoon. Josh, only a few steps ahead of her, had his mouth too crammed with cookies to laugh, but had it not been for the cookies, he would have been laughing hysterically. 

But Katie did not notice, and the cookie war raged on unseen. The last letter Katie took it out lovingly, pressing it to her lips before unfolding it, almost reverently. It was the last, because he was on his way now. He would have gotten on the train that morning... and in three days, he would be arriving in Jefferson. And then two mad, scrambling weeks of preparation, and then a wedding... and before she knew it, she, Katie Stewart, would be no longer Katie Stewart, but Katie Scott. And she would be the one getting on a train... and going far, far away...

The thought sobered her. It was so dreadfully far away. And train fare was expensive. It wouldn't be often that she would be able to come back to Jefferson... Tears filled her eyes and she pressed the letter close against her heart. She loved Mac with everything that was in her. But leaving home again... would be very hard. Granted, not as hard as it had been the last time... but still. And this was different, this was leaving forever. Before, she had known she would come back again.

But Mac was wonderful. She would forever be grateful to him for these months he had let her come home again. He had been reluctant, she knew it. She had sensed it, although he had never said a word. He had wanted to get married right away, and take her straight to Minnesota, with only a little visit in Jefferson. But he had seen the look of longing in her eyes.

"Why don't we wait a few months," he had said, and she had looked up at him in wonder. "Why don't you just go home for a while, and I'll go home too, get things ready for you and all that. Then you can spend time with family and just... recover from... you know. The war. And then, when we're both ready... I'll come to Jefferson and get you."

"On one condition," she had cried breathlessly, wild with sudden joy and relief. "You must stop in Jefferson first and meet everyone. And then... then you can go. Oh... oh, Mac... thank you... if you only knew how I had longed for home again..." and she had burst into tears. She hadn't seen the tears in his eyes as he folded her in his arms. It would be a long and lonely time for him. But... he could work and wait and hope... and how the letters would fly between them! The time had gone so much more quickly than he had thought.

And now it was just three days. Three days... and then Mac would be with his Lintie again.