Magdelaine asked the next morning as she placed the pail full of fish on the kitchen worktable. She crossed into the front room to where Jean-Henri stood at the window. She had seen Susannah working in the garden when she returned from the lake. The young woman was crouched down with her back to the lane, hacking at the hard-packed soil. “I woke at dawn and she was already out there, though I don’t know how she could even see what she was doing before the sun came up. Esmee took her some coffee a while ago because she didn’t want to come inside for breakfast.” Magdelaine shook her head. “Yesterday afternoon she wouldn’t leave her room. Now she won’t come back inside?” Susannah ascended a ladder and worked with methodical confidence in the boughs of the apple tree. The small saw Jean-Henri had given her was in her right hand. “She says it is safer for her to work very early when most people are not yet out and about.”
