A rtie Sinclair pitched hay into the goat pens, a pile landing on Martha’s head. She shook it off with a look of reproof.
That’s what you get for insisting on being in the way.
He returned to the hay mound and stabbed another pitchfork full. He started to pull it out, when a clap from behind caused him to turn around instead.
“Can you hear me now?” Theo’s dark eyes almost produced a glare.
“Did I ignore you at some point?” Artie turned back to his pitchfork.
“All the way from the house! I said your name more than once.”
“I didn’t hear you.”
“Obviously.” Theo leaned against the pen, watching his brother pitch hay. “What’s bothering you, Artie?”
Artie stabbed the pitchfork straight up in the hay mound and looked up.
“Do you have anything for me besides a stare?”
“I don’t know.”
Theo raised both eyebrows. “You don’t know if you have more than a stare or you don’t know what’s bothering you?”
Artie nearly laughed. “The latter.”
Theo pulled at his suspenders. “You’re so bothered by whatever this botheration of yours is that you can’t be bothered to hear me speaking to you, but you don’t know what it is that’s bothering you?”
Artie squinted. “That sounds about right, Theo.”
“Bother it!” Theo bent down and picked up a piece of hay. “Start talking. You’ll figure it out.”
“It doesn’t always work like that.”
“Yet, it might!” Theo snapped the hay in half. “You should give it a go while you have a willing listener.”
Artie watched Martha stomp while she chomped at her hay but didn’t say anything.
From the corner of his peripheral vision, he could see Theo eye him for several seconds. “Is it the girl you had to go meet yesterday?”
“No.” Artie pulled out the pitchfork for no good reason and stabbed it in the mound again. “It’s not her.”
“You’re sure about that?”
Artie sighed. “It’s…” He considered stabbing the pitchfork again but thought better of it. “It’s Fred Salts.”
“Oh. Him. What about him?” Theo bent his hay some more.
“I don’t know. I did say that already.”
Theo looked up, one eyebrow raised. “Then why is he bothering you?”
“I said that I don’t know.”
Theo just watched him, finally tossing the broken piece of hay over his shoulder.
“There’s just something…” Artie turned back to watching the goats. “There’s just something about him. It bothers me.”
“And how! You’re so bothered that you’re confused.”
“Somehow, I don’t think the commentary is helpful.”
“I’m not helpful.” Theo picked up another piece of hay. “Fred Salts is not one of my favorite people.”
“He’s odd, but I’ve never disliked him.”
Theo focused on folding his hay piece. “That is what I’m here for, Artie, my boy!”
Artie ignored the light-hearted tone. “Then, there’s that girl yesterday…”
Theo nodded. “I knew she came into it somewhere.”
“She was terrified.”
Theo choked and looked up. “Of you ?”
“Apparently.” Artie pictured the girl again with her wide eyes and trembling hands.
“How ever did you, of all people, manage to scare her?”
“I have no idea. She was scared of me before she even laid eyes on me, I think.”
Theo frowned this time. “What do you think Fred told her about you when he set up the meeting?”
“I’m sure I don’t know.” Artie shrugged. “Why would he want to scare her anyway?”
“Artie! Artie!” The little girl’s voice echoed from the house across to the farmyard. From behind somewhere, a chicken squawked in response.
“I’m with the goats, Hazel!”
“Ah, so you can hear her call you, but not me.” Theo’s smirk belied his petulant tone.
Artie rolled his eyes.
Hazel Sinclair came into sight at full speed, her red braids flying behind her yellow skirts. The seven-year-old didn’t slow her movements until Artie caught her up in his arms. If he hadn’t, she would have simply run into him. It would not be the first time she had done so.
“You brought a dust cloud with you, Hazel.” Theo watched her impassively and crossed his arms.
Hazel laughed. “Did it make you cough, like it does Mr. Salts?”
“It got my trousers dirty.”
“They were already dirty!”
“Not this dirty.”
“I should kick dirt on you on purpose. Then you’ll really be dirty!” She grinned broadly in his direction.
Theo did not look amused, but neither did he respond.
Hazel raised laughing brown eyes, almost exact duplicates of their older brother’s, to Artie’s face and shrugged her small shoulders. “He’s always out of sorts with me.”
Artie raised an eyebrow at the gleeful face. “I think that you try to provoke him.”
“What’s ‘provoke?’” The child tilted her head to one side, still holding onto Artie’s shoulders.
“It means, Sparrow, that you actually try to get him out of sorts.”
Hazel pursed her lips and lowered her brows thoughtfully. After several seconds of contemplation, she looked up at Artie again. “Does Theo provoke me too?”
Artie heard his brother snort.
“Does it matter?” The child started to feel heavy.
Hazel shrugged.
“Hazel Charlotte Sinclair! Wherever have you got off to?”
Hazel and Theo startled in unison.
“Hazel!”
“I’m with Artie and Theo, Mama! By the goats!” Hazel twisted to call over her shoulder, still firmly holding onto her brother.
Artie watched his stepmother emerge, hat and gloves in hand. She marched over to join them, and Theo visibly stiffened.
“There you are!” The woman, really only seven years Artie’s senior despite being married to his father, shook her head. “Darling, I’ve been all over the house looking for you!”
“Because the house is so large.” Theo’s mutter could barely be heard by Artie, and he didn’t think his stepmother heard it at all.
Myrtle Sinclair tugged and tucked at her short blonde hair. “Come along, darling, we’re going out this evening and I need you to come get ready. Your brother is probably filthy from spending time with all his animals!”
Hazel looked up at Artie and cocked her head again. “He doesn’t look filthy!”
“Perhaps he’s not, darling.”
Hazel scrunched her nose, still looking up at her brother. “I don’t think you’re filthy. Are you coming with us?”
“Not this time, Sparrow.”
The little face drooped.
“You’ll have fun with Mama.” Artie kissed the top of her head and let her jump down.
“Come along, darling!” The mother held out her hand.
Hazel nodded, but stopped walking at the sight of Theo. She glanced back at Artie, then took a single step toward her eldest brother. “I’m sorry for provoking you, Theo.”
Theo still stood erect and impassive, but almost imperceptibly shook his head. “You don’t need to apologize, Hazel.”
Hazel wanted to hug him. Artie recognized the hesitant movement on her part. Theo, however, must have proved too intimidating, because she turned away and hustled toward the house with her mother.
Artie started tidying his things and brushing up scattered hay. “You don’t have to keep punishing her. She’s hardly responsible.”
“I told you a long time ago that I wouldn’t get used to it. I’m not used to it.”
“It’s been seven years and—”
“It’s been over eight years, if we’re counting.” Theo cut him off. “Eight and a half years since a gold digger only five years older than me, somehow convinced our father to marry her. It doesn’t bother you as much as it should.”
“As I was going to say.” Artie locked eyes with his brother. “It’s been seven years since our sister’s birth, and she is not responsible for the marriage. You don’t have to keep treating her like it.”
“She’s her mother’s daughter and even you can see that she likes to irritate me at every turn.”
“She’s a seven-year-old, and she wants you to pay attention to her. Maybe you should try not to provoke her for once. You are, after all, the adult.”
“She wants attention. Sure.” Theo leaned back against the goat pen and pulled on his suspenders again. “That’s difficult to believe. She gets plenty of attention from you already.”
Artie sighed and turned away. “What I give her doesn’t fall into the equation, Theo. I’m not you. Like you said, she gets my attention, but she wants both of her brothers to notice her, and I can’t fill in for both of us.”