Farmer Allen knew what he was talking about when he said rain was coming. There were a few days of autumn sunshine then the heavy rains started like the sky intended to drown the earth. For a good long while everything was drenched.
During the days of rain, Quincy stayed indoors and peered out at the wet world reproachfully and a little anxiously. As best he could, Will was mending a leather apron Russ sometimes wore. Russ was cooking their supper.
"The rain is not so bad when we are inside and all together," Will said to console Quincy.
Quincy agreed with a nod that being all together was good, but he was not happy in the least with this turn in the weather. While he played on the floor, he kept glancing toward the windows though they were closed. Rain was not falling too hard now, but the steady rain seemed to have no end.
As the downpour slowed, it should have been a relief to Quincy. But when Will looked at him, he saw Quincy staring at the corner of the floor in terror. He hurriedly climbed on his bed.
"Too much water. It get me," he said and Will saw what had scared him so. Water was coming under the wall, seeping in as if it would flood the place.
"Up, up," Quincy said in alarm. "Wants to get me."
Will rushed to get Quincy and held the frightened boy in his arms. "No, it won't get you. I won't let anything harm you," Will promised. "And Russ won't either."
"That's right. Me and your papa will keep you safe," Russ said as he went over to see why water was coming in. He went out then came right back.
"It must be coming from under ground. There's no flooding outside," Russ said.
Even now, water could not come up easily through the clay of the cottage floor, but it seeped in around the edges, spilling in under the walls.
"Where does this water come from?" Will asked while in his arms Quincy trembled.
"There is a stream that runs underground, but it should be west of here. No matter how hard it rained in the past, nothing like this ever happened. Maybe a stream changed direction and..." Russ trailed off without finishing, confounded by what was happening before his very eyes.
Suddenly Quincy yelled, "You go away! Go away!"
It wasn't long before the water receded.
"You scared it away, my boy," Russ praised him. He went back to making their supper, but Will did not go back to his own task. He kept hold of Quincy and paced the floor like a sentry. He was nearly as watchful as Quincy, who also eyed the corners just in case the water should return.
After supper, Will sat with Quincy on his bed. "We'll stay with you, don't you worry," Will assured him as they all lay down on his bed together.
"The rain will subside and all will be well," Russ said.
"Will you be able to sleep here?" Will asked him. "We could take turns on the cot."
Russ shook his head. "There's nowhere I would rather be," he told Will though the small bed was very crowded.
Will huddled against him. "I like it when it rains and you hold me," he whispered in Russ's ear and saw him smile.
By the next day the rain had stopped. The day after, it was dry enough out for Quincy to go about unafraid. That morning, Russ learned that the mason sent word to him.
"He said to get him as many dragon stones as I can get my hands on. He'd like fist size or bigger," Russ told him as he got ready to head out in search of them.
"The size of Quincy's fist?" Will said and had Quincy make a fist to show him.
Russ laughed. "I recon that's it," he said as he made a fist too then put it next to Quincy's tiny one. "I suppose I better take him along with me so I don't take the wrong size. What do you say, my boy?"
"Pick rocks with Papa," Quincy said, his way of agreeing.
"That's right we'll go rock picking, find them where they grow," Russ joked.
Quincy smiled and nodded.
"What about you, Will?"
"I have to take this coat you got for Quincy to Ada, the seamstress, so she can make it smaller for him. I don't want our boy to get caught with no coat as the weather turns cold," Will told him though Quincy did not as of yet show any sign of suffering from cold.
"Coat for Quincy?" the lad said, and Will kissed the top of his head.
"Yes for you, my sweet boy. And it's thanks to Russ and his hard work," Will told him then he kissed Russ as well.
After Russ and Quincy had gone, Will headed out too. He did not get far. He had only just stepped a few paces from the door when he was shocked to see his grandmother coming up the path toward the house. Will set aside what he was carrying and went to meet her.
He saw that she walked with the aid of a walking stick. She did not usually use one, but she must have needed it to make the climb up the hill. Will couldn't imagine how she did it. She amazed him with her fortitude but he was worried that her visit did not bode well.
Grandmother's walking stick clinked with each step she took on the Rocky ground and her expression was dour. That might have been due only to her being fatigued from the climb. That's what Will hoped. He wanted to believe that she had come to make up with him, to say that she was wrong and that he and Quincy could come home.
By no means did he wish to leaves Russ, but he did wish to feel welcome in his father's house again. He just hoped that's why his grandmother had come.
Going to her to greet her, Will wished her good morning and invited her inside. "Come and sit. Take a rest. You must have had a time of it coming up all this way. If you had sent word I would have come to meet you," Will told her as cheerfully as he could, but his grandmother's face stayed grim.
At first his grandmother said nothing, only glowered all around the main room of Russ's cottage. "I hear things, Will. Distressing things," she finally said and gave Will a withering look.
"Grandmother," Will said with a sigh of disappointment as he lost all hope that this was a friendly visit.
She only continued in the same way, speaking as if she had uncovered great crimes. "You've been seen with that cursed, fiendish boy. You cart him around."
Will did not let her continue. "Grandmother, there is nothing wrong with Quincy."
"Quincy?" she said, confused. So she must not have heard that was the name Will gave him.
"That's his name," Will affirmed.
"He is cursed, Will. That boy is beyond helping. The curse has gone marrow deep in him. The evil in him cannot be rooted out, but there's still hope for you," she told him.
"I am doing fine grandmother and so is Quincy," Will said.
"Where does he hide? Where is that accursed child?" Will's grandmother said looking all around.
"He's not accursed and he's not hiding," Will told her as she seemed ready to search the place to ferret him out. The way she spoke, Will was glad Quincy wasn't around to hear her. His little ears should never hear such hateful things. "He's out with Russ Mullins picking up dragon stones," Will told her, hoping she would choose to leave now.
"That's what we were doing, all right, but we're back now Mrs. Galen," Russ said from the door surprising Will with his unexpected return.