Suffer the Children by John Saul

take a hose to the inside of that car,” she said, almost making it sound like a threat.
    “I’ll take care of it, Mrs. Goodrich,” Jack began. “We can’t really ask you—”
    I’ve cleaned up worse than that in my time,” the housekeeper snapped. “Besides, you’ve got other things to do.” There was an edge to her voice that captured Jack’s attention. Rose had already disappeared with Sarah into the house.
    “Other things? What other things?”
    “It’s Miss Elizabeth,” the housekeeper said. “I think she’s been playing where she’s not supposed to.” Jack waited for her to continue, and eventually had to prompt her.
    “Well,” Mrs. Goodrich said. I saw her come out of the woods not too long ago. “I don’t know why, but I’m sure she was playing on the embankment. She denied it, of course.” The last was said with the certainty of one convinced, by a lifetime of hard experience, that children will deny anything and everything, even when caught red-handed.
    “Elizabeth’s usually pretty honest,” Jack said gently. He was reluctant to nettle the old woman; when he did, it usually showed up at dinner in the form of overcooked food. Mrs. Goodrich peered at him over her glasses and stood her ground.
    “I’m well aware of that, young man,” she said, and Jack prepared to give in. Ever since he had been achild, he had known that when Mrs. Goodrich called him “young man” she meant business.
    “Nevertheless,” she went on, “I think you’d better speak to her. She knows she’s not to go into those woods, let alone anywhere near the embankment And I know she was in the woods. I saw her come out.”
    “All right,” Jack said. “I’ll talk to her as soon as I clean up. Where is she?”
    “In the field,” Mrs. Goodrich said dourly, indicating that as far as she was concerned, the field was almost on par with the woods and the embankment She pointed off to the distance, and, following her gesture with his eyes, Jack saw his older daughter. She was squatting down, and seemed to be looking at something.
    He started to move toward the house but, seeing the glare Mrs. Goodrich was giving him, turned toward the field instead.
    “No time like the present,” he heard the housekeeper mutter behind him.
    Elizabeth didn’t see him until he was less than twenty feet from her. She suddenly looked up, as if she had heard something, but Jack was sure he had been silent. When she saw him a smile lit her face, and Jack could feel its glow brighten his spirits. He stopped, and the two of them studied each other for a moment. With her hair flowing free, Elizabeth looked more than ever like the girl in the portrait.
    “How’s my favorite daughter?” he said, breaking the silence.
    “Am I?” she said, the smile growing even brighter. “Well, if I am, you deserve this for telling me so.”
    She stooped, and when she stood up there was a single buttercup in her hand. She ran over to him and held the flower under his chin.
    “Well?” he said. “Do I glow?”
    “I’m not going to tell you.” Elizabeth laughed. “Didyou bung Sarah home with you?” He nodded, and when Elizabeth turned and began to walk toward the house, he stopped her.
    “Hold on. Can’t you spend a little time with your favorite father?”
    Elizabeth turned back to him. “I just thought—” she began.
    “Never mind,” Jack said. “Sarah had a little trouble on the way home, and your mother’s cleaning her up. It’s nothing serious,” he added hastily as a look of concern twisted Elizabeth’s face. “Just something she ate. She had a bit of an accident on the way home.”
    “Yuck!” Elizabeth said. “Does the car stink?”
    “Mrs. G’s cleaning it up. She wants me to talk to you.”
    “I thought she would,” Elizabeth said. “She thinks I was out on the embankment today.”
    “Were you?” Jack tried to sound unconcerned.
    “No,” she said. “I wasn’t I don’t know why she thinks I was.”
    “She