Follow the Stars Home (40 page)

“Maybe she's right,” the woman, the baby-sitter said softly. “Why don't you just do that? Sit down a minute … let them give you the stitches. It would make her feel better.”

Maggie cried and shuddered, feeling her father's arms around her, hearing the woman's quiet voice and somehow suddenly, completely, loving her for it. This stranger had come out of nowhere that awful bloody Tuesday morning to take care of their family. She was saving her father's life.

“What's your name?” Maggie heard her father ask in that flat, unfriendly way that made him sound like the lawyer no one liked, the hard-planed voice designed to drive everyone away from him, from them, and leave the O'Rourke family alone with their private tragedy and dirty clothes.

“Kate,” she said. “Kate Harris.”

“Fine, Kate Harris,” Maggie's father said, his voice just as flat but even icier than before, a frozen lake of a voice. “I'll have the stitches, but you'll have to get them off to school. Maggie and Teddy. Mrs. Wilcox-can you help her out?”

“Of course, John,” Mrs. Wilcox said.

“We'll have to work out the details afterward,” Maggie's father said.

“You're on,” Kate Harris said, and Maggie suddenly felt a hand on her head. The fingers were light and
cool, and they moved down to take her hand, gently easing her away Maggie didn't even put up a fight.

She drifted out of her father's embrace. He was watching her, and she felt him wanting to take it back-not get stitches, but walk her to the bus stop and then hurry to his office. Maggie's stomach was in a knot, but Kate Harris crouched down to look her in the eye and melt the knot away.

“He's going to be fine,” she said. “He'll be very brave and let them stitch him up. When they're done, they might even give him a lollipop.”

“Why?” Maggie asked, her mouth tugging up in a smile.

“To treat him, for doing the right thing even though he doesn't want to do it.”

“I don't want a lollipop,” her father said, sounding as sullen as Teddy did when he had to do the dishes.

“You might not want one,” Kate Harris said, her smile so pretty and gentle, it pulled Maggie even closer to her, “but you might need it. A little sweet now and then never hurt anyone. Right, Maggie?”

“Right,” Maggie breathed. Her eyes filled with tears, but for the first time in longer than she could remember, from happiness. Kate Harris was her new baby-sitter. She had landed on their doorstep just like Mary Poppins or a new baby, just like a basket filled with the most beautiful summer flowers imaginable.

“Right,” her father said, his voice very edgy and hard, but it didn't matter. Kate Harris had gotten him to sit still and get stitched, taken care of by the proper authorities, so he didn't stand up, sit down, and suddenly die-just like Maggie's mother.

Kate Harris had just saved her father's life, and Maggie loved her for it.

FOLLOW THE STARS HOME
A Bantam Book

All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2000 by Luanne Rice

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
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eISBN: 978-0-307-56754-3

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