What Doesn't Kill Her (Cape Charade #2)(31)

“No. No! Huckleberries. We found huckleberries!” Rae hopped around the six-foot-tall sprawling dark green hedge, collecting the dark purplish fruit with wild abandon.

Kellen followed in alarm. “Are you sure these are edible?”

Rae looked a question.

“Not poisonous. If we eat them, will we die?”

“No! They’re huckleberries!” Rae acted as if Kellen was an idiot.

Not in a mean way, Kellen realized, but in total surprise, as if she expected Kellen to know everything.

Kellen took another look at Rae. Oh, no. She did expect Kellen to know everything.

Rae popped the handful of berries in her mouth.

Kellen lunged to stop her, but it was too late. Was Rae going to die from eating poisoned berries? Should Kellen stick her finger down Rae’s throat?

She couldn’t. She just couldn’t. Rae seemed so sure, and Kellen didn’t know a thing about Pacific Northwest berries, and she couldn’t traumatize the child any further on a vague fear. After all, it wasn’t as if she’d eaten poisoned mushrooms...

There was only one thing to do. Kellen ate a handful of berries, too.

They were fabulous. If they were going to die, they were going to die together and die happy, too. “How do you know about huckleberries?” she asked as she picked more and ate them.

“Mrs. Maniscaldo lived down the road from the winery. She was old.” Rae’s shaking voice dramatically indicated Mrs. Maniscaldo’s age. “Grandma and me used to go down to her house to help her pick her raspberries and blueberries. Grandma would make jam, and we’d keep some, and she’d give the rest to Mrs. Maniscaldo, who gave it out as Christmas presents. I’d go down there and eat it with her on fried bread. Last summer, me and Daddy and Grandma took Mrs. Maniscaldo up in the mountains. Because she’s from the mountains, but she was so old she couldn’t live up there anymore. She showed us huckleberries and how to pick them, and she yelled at Daddy on the other side of the thicket to start picking the berries and stop eating them, and when we walked around so she could yell at him again, it wasn’t Daddy.”

“Who was it?”

“It was a bear. I saw it. It was big and black!”

Fascinated, Kellen kept popping berries in her mouth. “What happened?”

“She yelled at the bear and waved her arms and it ran off. She laughed and laughed, and sat down, and Daddy had to help her get up. She said she was scared the bear would get us, but I didn’t know it. She yelled right at him!”

“Mrs. Maniscaldo sounds like quite a woman.”

“She was nice. She died.”

Whoa. Kellen hadn’t seen that coming. She stopped eating. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. Grandma didn’t want me to go to the funeral, but I wanted to see her again, so Daddy took me.”

To Kellen’s relief, Rae didn’t look sad. She looked, well, philosophical. For a kid, that was quite an expression. Kellen asked, “What did you think?”

“She wasn’t there.”

“Mrs. Maniscaldo?”

“She was gone. Grandma said she went to heaven. I think she went to the mountains.”

Kellen didn’t know whether to grin or console.

“When I get new crayons, I’m going to draw LightningBug riding Patrick, because I sat on Patrick in the van. Grandma’s not going to be happy because I wasn’t in my car seat.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t tell her?”

Rae mulled that over. “That’s lying.”

“It’s not telling all the truth. Rae, I promise when your grandmother finds out about this trip, we’re going to have a lot to tell her and we’ll want to make it so she isn’t too scared. In the big scheme of things—” like knocking people out with an ancient marble head and shooting them “—it won’t hurt her not to know.”

“So it doesn’t matter whether I sit in my car seat or not?”

“I didn’t say that. I’m saying we had no choice and it turned out well, so we’ll keep it between ourselves. Okay?”

“Okay! In my drawing, Patrick’s going to wear my pink tutu and I’m going to have a pink cape with jewels and flowers.”

“You bet. Let’s pick more berries and save them for later.” Kellen looked around.

The sun was going down and with the mountains surrounding them, the light would disappear quickly. Temperatures would drop to near freezing. They needed a place to stop for the night, a spot she could protect, someplace they’d be safe.

“Mommy, can you find me?” Rae’s voice was muffled.

Alarm sent a trill up Kellen’s spine. She looked around. “No. Where are you?”

Rae’s head popped out from under the bushes. “Here!”

“Is there room under there?” Kellen pushed her way into the hedge. The densely leafed branches grew low to the ground, and in here, no one could see them... “This is a great place to sleep! Let’s get our stuff.” She crawled out and dragged in her backpack and the Triple Goddess.

“We’re going to stay here?” Rae did not sound impressed.

“It’s a good place. It’s fairly dry and protected from the rain, if we get any more. It’s hidden from the bad guys and easily defensible.”