Page 10 of Mail Order Moose

Sebastian looked at Ella with new interest. “Does she?”

Ella wished Lula had not announced it as if she were a circus horse trained to count. “My mother taught me.”

“Then we shall see whether Mrs. Whitcomb was a good teacher.”

David pulled out the chair beside his own and set it so Ella could see the table, the door, and the stove without turning her back fully to any of them. He did it without asking. He did not announce that he had noticed where she preferred to sit. He only made the choice available.

Ella sat.

The first hand was awkward only because everyone expected it to be. Lula dealt too fast, Sebastian spoke too much, and Ella studied the cards without lifting her eyes higher than necessary. David sat as her partner, and when it came time to name trump, he did not lean over her shoulder or tap the table or tell her what she ought to do.

“Your call,” he said quietly.

It helped. Not because she needed his permission. Because he seemed to understand she did not need instruction in front of an audience.

Ella passed.

Sebastian ordered up hearts with a flourish and then proceeded to play as if the flourish had been the strongest card in his hand. Lula took the first trick. David took the second. Ella watched the left bower fall, then the ace, then the nine Sebastian tried to pretend he had meant to play all along.

On the fourth trick, David led low. Ella knew at once what he had left because of what he had not played earlier. She laid down the queen of trump and took the trick cleanly.

Sebastian stared at the card. “That was unexpected.”

“Only if you forgot the jack was gone,” Ella said.

Lula slapped the table. “I told you.”

Ella had not meant to sound sharp. She looked down immediately, but Sebastian was laughing.

“Mrs. Sanders,” he said, “you wound me.”

“Not fatally,” Ella said, and this time she knew she had done it.

David made a sound that was almost a cough and almost a laugh. Lula leaned back in her chair, triumphant as if Ella’s quiet remark had been a prize she had known existed all along.

The next hand went faster. Then the next. Ella stopped thinking of the room and began thinking of cards. She remembered every suit led, every trump spent, every hesitation at the edge of Sebastian’s fingers. Lula played boldly, which meant she won beautifully when she was right and lost loudly when she was wrong. Sebastian tried to bluff with his eyebrows. David played steady, giving her room without abandoning her to it.

When Ella ordered up spades on a thin hand, Sebastian looked at David. “Did you teach her that?”

David shook his head. “I am learning along with you.”

Ella’s fingers tightened around her cards. Praise was still uncomfortable, but this was not exactly praise. It was recognition. David had seen what she was doing and had not taken credit for it, nor had he explained it away. He had simply left it beside her where it belonged.

She took three tricks that hand because Sebastian had held the king too long and Lula had spent her ace too early. When the point was counted, Lula pointed at Sebastian with one sharp finger.

“Humility,” she said.

Sebastian gathered the cards with wounded dignity. “I invited guests into my home and have been betrayed.”

“You invited us to supper,” Ella said. “The cards were Lula’s doing.”

“Hear that?” Lula said. “She remembers who is guilty too.”

Ella looked at her cards to hide the small smile that came despite her. The cabin was still warm. The table was still crowded. Sebastian was still too loud and Lula still too bright. But the evening had begun to arrange itself into something she could understand. Four chairs. One deck. Rules that did not change without warning. A partner who let her think.

David watched her only once when she laughed softly at something Lula said about Sebastian’s eyebrows giving away his entire hand. He looked away quickly after, as if he had caught himself staring. But Ella had seen his expression first. It was not surprise exactly. It was wonder kept carefully quiet.

The game ended with Ella and David ahead by enough that Sebastian declared the score suspicious and Lula declared it justice. Ella helped gather the cards, aligning the corners before placing them back in the box. Her hands were tired, but not trembling. That seemed worth noticing.