Chapter 37: Chapter 37

After breakfast, Aunt Flory ushered the girls outside to help clean out the flower beds. The rock gardens ringing the cottage were bursting with wild violets, creeping phlox, and thyme, still blanketed beneath a layer of fall leaves. Providing warmth and protection for the tender roots in the winter, the debris now blocked the spring sun. Ruby and Zoey worked quickly, scraping the leaves into a messy pile while Aunt Flory built a fire. A roaring bonfire was another Starling family tradition marking the beginning of spring.

While Aunt Flory carried logs from the stack at the side of the house, Celeste gathered twigs. She placed them carefully in the stone-ringed fire pit, arranging them in a perfect pyramid from smallest to largest.