Leanna considered Miss Bronte’s statements about Hide and Go Seek, and Tag very seriously. She took her time coming up with what she wanted to say, and had to wait for Miss Bronte to finish speaking about lesson plans before she answered. “There are a lot of places to hide in the regular gardens, so we could still play that. Tag is better with more people any way.” She paused. “I’d like to run and jump in leaf piles better than either, though. Can we please play in the leaves?”
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Leonard watched Miss Bronte push the food around on her plate sympathetically. She was probably feeling awkward due to the slight impropriety of a governess eating with the family. It didn’t make sense, however, in such a small household, to serve her meal separately. He was pleased to hear that she had Leanna’s lessons all planned out, and was about to ask to hear more about that, when Leanna spoke up. He smiled at her eagerness to play in the leaves. Autumn had always been his favorite season as a child, for precisely that reason. He decided to put his weight behind Leanna’s request. “As I recall, there is a perfect spot in the corner of the orchard. The wind blows most of the leaves into one corner of the wall surrounding it, and it the pile gets quite big. When I was a child, we used to jump of the corner of the wall.” He turned to Joanna. “The wall is only about knee height, and quite often the leaf pile is taller then it is.”