Becky interposed herself between Molly and Uncle David. "No, David. She's been through enough already."
"You spoil this girl too much, that's why she's such a little monster. She needs some discipline."
"Beating her isn't going to help anything. Let's go." Becky pulled Molly close, keeping her on the other side of Uncle David. He glared down at Molly, his fists clenching.
Along the way, Molly kept looking back for any sign of Veronica. Once she thought she saw movement in the trees, but it turned out to be a deer. She doesn't care about me, Molly thought. She hates me. All that time Veronica had only been waiting for Molly to get better to leave her.
They reached Eternity by nightfall, by which time Molly's legs had gone to sleep from sitting too long on Becky's shoulders. Becky set her down on the front step and then turned to Uncle David. "Thanks for helping me find her," she said.
"Are you two going to be all right?"
"We'll be fine now."
"I'll go look in on the kids then. Goodnight." To Molly's surprise, Uncle David leaned down to kiss Becky on the lips as Molly had seen John and Helena doing in the pantry cellar.
When Becky turned around, Molly saw her cheeks had turned bright red. "Let's go inside and I'll warm up some water for a bath," Becky said.
"Are you and Uncle David-"
"That's none of your business, young lady. Come on now." Becky led Molly inside the cottage and had her take off her dirty clothes. As they waited for water to boil, Becky went into the kitchen to fetch a stale loaf of bread and some watery gravy. Molly refused to take any. "This is all we have, eat."
"No. I want tomato soup like Veronica gave me."
"What soup? Molly, I don't want to hear any more of your stories about this Veronica person. She's not real."
"She is so! She found me in the snow and she took me to her grandfather's house and fed me tomato soup and she told me a story all about a magic book and she promised when I got better she would take me to my parents in Dublin and-"
"That's quite enough, Molly. We don't have any tomato soup here, so you either eat what's in front of you or go hungry."
Molly folded her arms across her chest. She'd rather go hungry than eat this slop. How could Becky say Molly had invented Veronica? She never believed Molly about anything.
Becky had eaten all of the bread and gravy by the time the water came to a boil. She mixed some of the hot water with snow from outside in a bowl and then used a wet towel to give Molly a bath. Molly stood there in the center of the cottage, wishing she were back with Veronica in her grandfather's hut. She wanted to hear more about the magic book and the golden land where Veronica's grandfather had gone. Maybe that's where she went, Molly thought. She went to the land of golden hills and she didn't take me with her. Molly started to cry.