I was about to take a sip when, over the lip of my cup, I saw Heathan watching me weirdly again. His cup was still on the blanket between us. I wondered if he’d ever had afternoon tea before. If he hadn’t, it was a travesty!
I leaned forward. “You need to drink it soon, Rabbit. While it’s hot. Just make sure you blow on it first. You don’t want to get a burned tongue. That’s the worst feeling in the world!”
Heathan leaned over his cup and then looked up at me through his hair. “There’s nothing inside it.”
My hand froze on my cup. I had to be sure to hold the handle and not touch the china. I didn’t want to burn my finger. “What are you talking about, Rabbit? I just poured you a cup!” My head dropped to the side. “You have never had afternoon tea before, have you?”
Heathan slowly shook his head. I placed my cup on the blanket. “I normally have cakes and treats too. But silly me, I haven’t brought them today. I wasn’t expecting new company. New acquaintances, as Mummy would say.”
Heathan frowned and stared down at his cup. The pink of the cup and blanket was bright against his black clothes. “Would you like me to teach you how to drink your tea properly?” I scooted around the edge of the blanket until I was sitting right by his side. Reaching down, I put my hand on his. I jumped when Heathan froze and snapped his head my way. I forgot he didn’t want me touching him.
I couldn’t help it. I always touched people. I was a touchy person.
I went to pull my hand back, sad, when he said, “No . . .” I could feel my heart beating faster in my chest. “You can leave it there,” he said. But he sounded funny. His teeth were gritted together, like he was in pain or something.
I leaned in closer, until my arm pressed against his. “You smell good,” I said. Heathan’s eyes looked into mine. “And you have the prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen.” His jaw clenched, and he moved closer until his nose was near my neck. My eyes went wide as I wondered what he was doing.
He moved back, his nose near my nose, and said, “You smell good too.” His eyes closed, and opened again a second later. “Like roses.”
I smiled and nodded. “It is roses. It was my mummy’s perfume.” I made sure no one was around before saying, “I’m not supposed to wear it—Papa told me so—but I sneak a little bit on every day. Just a little drop behind each ear.” I tapped behind my ear to show him. “Out of sight.”
Tightening my grip on his hand, I looked back at the cup of tea before us. “To drink tea, you must take your fingers and put them through the handle.” I nodded at Heathan and guided his hand down to the cup. I put his fingers where they were supposed to go. “Now you bring the cup to your lips.” Heathan did as I said, never taking his eyes off mine. Just as the cup almost touched his lips, I sat up straighter and shouted, “Wait!” Heathan stopped. I slapped my forehead with the palm of my hand. “I forgot the most important thing!” I reached out and pulled his pinky finger out into the air. I clapped and smiled. “There. To drink tea properly, you have to stick out your pinky. It’s the law when drinking tea. Mummy told me that in England, if you don’t do it, the Queen can chop off your head.” I slowly touched Heathan’s black hair. “And your head is far too pretty to chop off, Rabbit.”
I sat back, waiting for him to drink. “Go on then,” I urged. “Take a sip.” Heathan’s eyebrows were still pulled down, but he took a sip of the tea, then lowered the cup and saucer back down to the blanket. “Well?” I held my breath.
“It was good,” Heathan said, kind of awkwardly, but I still squealed in delight.
“It wasn’t too hot?”
“Just right,” he declared, and I moved back to my cup and took a sip too. I loved tea so much. But only Earl Grey. No other blend of tea was good enough. To drink Darjeeling, especially, was positively a crime.
“What else is in the sack?” Heathan asked as I placed my cup on the ground. I whipped around and pulled out my most prized possession. I shuffled on my knees toward Heathan and placed the boombox on the blanket.
Heathan raised his eyebrow. I pulled the bright pink boombox toward me and switched it on. “It was Mummy’s. There’s a tape inside. A cassette. It has all of her favorite songs on it. They are from the eighties. I don’t really know what that means, but they are my most favorite songs in the entire world. I play them every single day.”
I ran my hand over the loveheart stickers my mummy had stuck on when she was younger. I turned to Heathan. “You want to listen, Rabbit?”
He nodded. I rewound the tape until I found my most favorite song and pressed play. The music started. “This song is called ‘Dear Jessie.’ It’s by a lady called Madonna. It was Mummy’s favorite song in the whole wide world.”
I swayed as the music started. Unable to sit down, I jumped to my feet and, holding my Alice doll in my hands, I began to dance and sing. I spun around, head tipped back as I sang the words out loud. When I could spin no more, I looked over at Heathan. He was watching me with a strange expression on his face.
I dipped my shoulder and looked him right in the eyes. I danced and sang, moving toward him, putting on a show. I always put on shows for my papa and my uncles. Almost every night. They always asked me to dance for them in my Alice in Wonderland dress—it was their favorite dress of mine. I loved to dance for people. It always made them smile.
When the song ended, I dropped down beside him, out of breath. “Did you like that, Rabbit?” I pulled Alice to my chest.
His silver eyes ran down over my dress, then back to my face. “Yes,” he said, his voice raspy. “I liked it a lot.”
“Really?”
He nodded.
“I’m so happy!” I took another sip of my tea, and Heathan did the same. I poured us one more cup. When all the tea had been drunk, I reached into the sack for my final treasure.
I placed the book before Heathan. “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”
Heathan picked up the book and ran his fingers over the old front cover. “Your favorite book.” He opened the cover and started looking at the pages.
I gasped. “Can you read, Rabbit?”
Heathan’s hands paused, and he looked at me. “Yeah. You can’t?”
I shook my head. “I’m homeschooled. My papa is a very busy man and he doesn’t get much time to teach me. I spend most of my days playing out here in the yard.” I played with Alice’s hair. When I flicked my eyes back to Heathan, he was still watching me. “Can . . . could you read the book to me, Rabbit?”
Heathan looked like he was going to say no, but then his shoulders dropped and he nodded. Smiling, I moved until my head rested on his leg. I heard Heathan breathing weird, but I didn’t say anything. I looked up, and he was looking down at me.
He was very handsome.
“My mummy read this to me every night when she was alive. Since then, no one has read to me . . . until now.”
Heathan swallowed, and then started at the first page. I smiled as he read. And he read well. He must be really smart, I thought. Quiet and smart.
I studied Heathan as he read. I listened to his voice, his strong Texan accent . . . just like mine when I wasn’t using my English one. “Why didn’t your mummy want you, Rabbit?”
Heathan stopped reading and looked down at me. His silver eyes seemed to darken. “No one ever wants me,” was all he said.
“Your papa? Mr. James doesn’t?”
Heathan shook his head once. “He doesn’t want me either. But I’ve got nowhere else to go. He told me to stay away from him while I was here. So I do.”
I felt my heart grow heavy with sadness. “Then I’ll want you,” I said quietly, and Heathan’s eyes grew so wide they looked like two bright moons shining in the midnight sky. I put my hand in his and squeezed gently. “I’ll be your friend, and you will be mine. Dolly and Rabbit. Friends of the Earnshaw estate . . . your first friend in the whole wide world.”
I rolled to the boombox beside me and pressed the play button. As Mummy’s tape played, I rested my head back on Heathan’s leg and gave him a huge smile. Heathan’s hand left the book, then, really slowly, he lowered his fingers to my face and over to my hair. He straightened my headband. I thought he might smile at me, but he didn’t. He looked back at the book. I closed my eyes as he read to me again. And all the time he did, I imagined I could hear the tick-tock of his pocket watch in his vest.