Chapter 24: The Knock

The snow went off Maud's lawn in the second week of April.

By the third, four babies were crawling across the wet grass in a row.

Gideon walked backward in front of them, holding a bucket.

"I'm sorry, Daisy," he told a goat. "I'm very sorry about the whole thing."

Daisy ate his sleeve.

Maud sat on the porch step with a basket of biscuits and watched him with deep satisfaction.

"He's apologized to every one of them twice," she said. "I've told him that's plenty. He's decided it's not."

"Good," I said.

I sat beside her in a quilt with a cup of tea, and I did not have to be anywhere.

Joanna crouched in the grass with her stethoscope, listening to the loud boy's chest while he tried to eat it.

"Perfect," she said. "All four. I've never seen healthier babies."

She sat back. "I've never worked harder for a clean bill of health, either."

"Noted," Maud said.

I was lifting my cup when the loud boy stopped crying.

He sat very still in the middle of the lawn.

Then his small body bent, and a black cub fell out of his blanket where the baby had been.

It stood up on four wobbling legs and sneezed.

"Oh," Joanna said, in a very small voice.

The silent girl went next.

A white cub with grey eyes shook herself on the grass.

Frost spread out under her paws in a neat ring.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Substitute Luna, Runaway With His Quadruplets from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.