Wizard and glass - Stephen King [178]
14
Not too long after Susan and Roland had parted, Cordelia Delgado stepped out of the Hambry Mercantile with a box of groceries and a troubled mind. The troubled mind was caused by Susan, of course, always Susan, and Cordelia’s fear that the girl would do something stupid before Reaping finally came around.
These thoughts were snatched out of her mind just as hands—strong ones—snatched the box of groceries from her arms. Cordelia cawed in surprise, shaded her eyes against the sun, and saw Eldred Jonas standing there between the Bear and Turtle totems, smiling at her. His hair, long and white (and beautiful, in her opinion), lay over his shoulders. Cordelia felt her heart beat a little faster. She had always been partial to men like Jonas, who could smile and banter their way to the edge of risquéness . . . but who carried their bodies like blades.
“I startled you. I cry your pardon, Cordelia.”
“Nay,” she said, sounding a little breathless to her own ears. “It’s just the sun—so bright at this time of day—”
“I’d help you a bit on your way, if you give me leave. I’m only going up High as far as the corner, then I turn up the Hill, but may I help you that far?”
“With thanks,” she said. They walked down the steps and up the board sidewalk, Cordelia looking around in little pecking glances to see who was observing them—she beside the handsome sai Jonas, who just happened to be carrying her goods. There was a satisfying number of onlookers. She saw Millicent Ortega, for one, looking out of Ann’s Dresses with a satisfying O of surprise on her stupid cow’s puss.
“I hope you don’t mind me calling you Cordelia.” Jonas shifted the box, which she’d needed two hands to carry, casually under one arm. “I feel, since the welcoming dinner at Mayor Thorin’s house, that I know you.”
“Cordelia’s fine.”
“And may I be Eldred to you?”
“I think ‘Mr. Jonas’ will do a bit longer,” she said, then favored him with what she hoped was a coquettish smile. Her heart beat faster yet. (It did not occur to her that perhaps Susan was not the only silly goose in the Delgado family.)
“So be it,” Jonas said, with a look of disappointment so comic that she laughed. “And your niece? Is she well?”
“Quite well, thank ye for asking. A bit of a trial, sometimes—”
“Was there ever a girl of sixteen who wasn’t?”
“I suppose not.”
“Yet you have additional burdens regarding her this fall. I doubt if she realizes that, though.”
Cordelia said nothing—’twouldn’t be discreet—but gave him a meaningful look that said much.
“Give her my best, please.”
“I will.” But she wouldn’t. Susan had conceived a great (and irrational, in Cordelia’s view) dislike for Mayor Thorin’s regulators. Trying to talk her out of these feelings would likely do no good; young girls thought they knew everything. She glanced at the star peeking unobtrusively out from beneath the flap of Jonas’s vest. “I understand ye’ve taken on an additional responsibility in our undeserving town, sai Jonas.”
“Aye, I’m helping out Sheriff Avery,” he agreed. His voice had a reedy little tremble which Cordelia found quite endearing, somehow. “One of his deputies—Claypool, his name is—”
“Frank Claypool, aye.”
“—fell out of his boat and broke his leg. How do you fall out of a boat and break your leg, Cordelia?”
She laughed merrily (the idea that everyone in Hambry was watching them was surely wrong . . . but it felt that way, and the feeling was not unpleasant) and said she didn’t know.
He stopped on the corner of High and Camino Vega, looking regretful. “Here’s where I turn.” He handed the box back to her. “Are you sure you can carry that? I suppose I could go on with you to your house—”
“No need, no need. Thank you. Thank you, Eldred.” The blush which crept up her neck and cheeks felt as hot as fire, but his smile was worth every degree of heat. He tipped her a little salute with two fingers and sauntered up the hill toward the Sheriff’s office.