That was the worst punishment of all. She loved to be in the kitchen while her mother cooked the dinner.
Everything smelled so good. Everybody always said her mother was the best cook the Marlowes had ever had.
She heard footsteps and looked up.
Ronald Marlowe threw himself to the ground beside her.
She looked down again and finished feeding Susie, then said in a matter-of-fact voice,
"Would you like some dinner, Laddie?"
He sniffed disdainfully from the superiority of his lofty eight years.
"I don't see anything to eat."
She turned toward him. "You're not looking," she said. She forced a doll's plate into his hand, "Eat it. It's very good for you."
Reluctantly he pretended to eat. After a moment, he was bored and got to his feet.
"I’m hungry," he said. "I’m going in and get some real food."
"You won't get any," she said.
"Why not?"
"Because my mommy's still sick and nobody cooked."
"I'll get something," he said confidently.
She watched him walk away and turned back to her dolls.
It was turning dusk when Molly, the upstairs maid, came out looking for her.
The girl's face was red from crying.
"Come, macushla," she said, sweeping Rina up in her arms. "It's your mither that wants to set eyes on ye again."
Peters, the coachman, was there, as was Mary, the downstairs maid, and Annie, the scullery helper.
They were standing around her mother's bed and they made way for her as she came over.
There was also a man in a black suit, holding a cross in his hand.
She stood very still near the bed, looking at her mother solemnly.
Her mother looked beautiful, her face so white and calm, her white-blond hair brushed back softly from her forehead.
Rina moved closer to the bed.
Her mother's lips moved but Rina couldn't hear what she was saying.
The man in the black suit picked her up.
"Kiss your mother, child," he said.
Obediently Rina kissed her mother's cheek. It was cool to her lips.
Her mother smiled again and closed her eyes, then suddenly opened them and looked upward unseeingly.
Quickly the man shifted Rina to his other arm. He reached down and closed her mother's eyes.
Molly held out her arms and the man gave Rina to her.
Rina looked back at her mother.
She was sleeping now.
She looked beautiful, just as she did in the early mornings when Rina would awaken and stare at her over the edge of the bed.
Rina looked around the room at the others.
The girls were crying, and even Peters, the coachman, had tears in his eyes.
She looked up into Molly's face. "Why are you crying?" she asked solemnly. "Is my mommy dead?"
The tears came afresh in the girl's eyes. She hugged Rina closely to her.
"Hush, child," she whispered. "We're crying because we love her."
She started out of the room with Rina in her arms.
The door closed behind them and Rina looked up into her face.
"Will Mommy be up in time to make breakfast tomorrow?"
Molly stared at her in sudden understanding. Then she sank to her knees in the hallway at the top of the back stairs. She rocked back and forth with the child in her arms.
"Oh, my poor little child, my poor little orphan child," she cried.
Rina looked up at her and after a moment, the tears became contagious and she, too, began to cry. But she didn't quite know why.
Peters came into the kitchen while the servants were eating supper.
Rina looked up at him and smiled.
"Look, Mr. Peters." She laughed happily. "I had three desserts!"
Molly looked down at her. "Hush, child," she said quickly, the tears coming again to her eyes. "Finish your ice cream."