Daisy's guest didn't wake up for three days. She checked on him in between all of her chores, gave him water, and changed his bandages as needed. She would have thought he was dead if not for the steady rise and fall of his chest.
Taking care of him may have been inconvenient but she couldn't leave a kid alone to suffer and die. She was managing alright even if it was tiring.
Honestly, she needed more farmhands. Despite Veronica's natural strength from years of being a farm girl, Daisy was running herself ragged. Things were barely staying afloat right now. What was she supposed to do when the harvest came? She would need to hire more farmhands and wasn't sure she would have the money.
She had been doing her best to keep things going as they were. She sold vegetables and fruits from the garden that were ripe in the summer but there were a whole lot less of them than there were crops that were harvested in the fall. And don't get her started on the grains that had to be harvested in the spring! She would never be able to handle that with so few helpers.
The May Farm had only been able to afford three farmhands on a regular basis (bringing extra people on for the grain harvest) but that hadn't been a problem when the family was alive. The Mays had enough children of a working age to take care of things before illness struck their house. Now "Veronica" was the only one left.
Daisy had begun looking for other ways to make money, such as selling milk from the cow and goats and getting the pigs to hunt for truffles. Milking was laborious and apparently that job used to be Mrs. May's.
The family hadn't sold their dairy products because they needed them to feed their rather large family. Now that Daisy was on her own, there was way too much for one person so it was the obvious thing to do even if it was exhausting and difficult.
She was also in charge of chopping firewood to store for the upcoming frost and wasn't looking forward to that at all. Running a family farm largely on your own was hard.
With a sigh, she looked back at her patient and continued trying to get him to drink. She was surprised when he began sputtering. That had never happened before. Had she made the water go down the wrong pipe because she was distracted?!
The words "are you okay?!" were halfway out of her mouth when she realized that the boy was glaring up at her as suspiciously as he could while continuing to cough. He had finally woken up!
"You're awake!" Daisy cried. "How are you feeling?"
"Who—who are you? Where am I? Were you the one to bandage my injuries? Why would you do that?"
Wow. Ungrateful much? A thank you would have been nice. She supposed she could cut him a little slack though considering the state she found him in. He was probably experiencing major stranger danger right now after being so close to death and found by someone he didn't know.
Everyone around here thought she was Veronica May so it would have been suspicious if she introduced herself properly. "I'm Veronica. Right now you're at my farm since I found you half dead by the stream. As for why I helped you, it was because it was the right thing to do. I couldn't leave you there to die."
The boy's eyes widened in disbelief and it was then she realized that his hair wasn't the only unusual thing about his appearance. He had heterochromia. His right eye was technically hazel but looked more yellow than anything and his left was sky blue.
"You seriously saved me because it was the 'right thing to do'? I don't believe it. Don't you know who I am?" he asked distrustfully.
Daisy furrowed her brow. "Should I?"
"…where am I?"
"I told you, you're at my farm."
"Yes, but where is it?" the boy pressed. "I need to know."
This was where things got dicey. She honestly didn't know. She had been here about two months now and had never gotten the chance to ask. Everyone thought she was Veronica so it would have been suspicious.
She didn't know what year it was or even the name of the village she lived closest to because everyone always referred to it as "the village." The only reason she had gotten by running the farm was by observing the farmhands and occasionally asking for help. They chalked it up to her not knowing because other members of her deceased family used to handle those things.
Daisy assumed she was somewhere in colonial or possibly post-colonial America since she had been living in Cincinnati, Ohio before getting into that accident and traveling back in time. Wouldn't it make the most sense for her soul to stay relatively nearby?
"Uh…honestly, I don't know. Everyone around here refers to the closest village as 'the village' so—"
"How stupid can you get?!" the boy exclaimed furiously. "Of all people, why did I have to end up with the one who doesn't even know where she is?"
Her temper flared. This was the thanks she got for dragging him out of the forest and taking care of him for three days?
"If you're going to be this rude about it, I wish I had left you there!"
He immediately realized the precariousness of his situation. If he made her mad, she could easily toss him out and he knew he couldn't survive on his own so he changed tacks. A wise move but it wasn't enough to placate her.
"Forgive me, miss. I have had a…rough few days. Can you please tell me how long I was unconscious?"
Daisy glared at him with her arms crossed over her chest. "You've been out for three days. Do you mind telling me your name so I have something to call you?"
"Oh," the boy said as if the fact he hadn't introduced himself hadn't even occurred to him. "You can call me Leo. Again, please forgive my rudeness. I would like to thank you for your generosity somehow once I have recovered."
He was being oddly formal now. Was it because he realized he had been too snappish with his savior? Not that she was complaining. Politeness was definitely a step up from what he had been giving her a minute ago.
"Do you have anywhere to go?" she asked curiously.
Truthfully, she did need help. If he stayed on as a farmhand even until the grain harvest was over… If he had somewhere to go back to though, she didn't want to keep him from getting home.
Leo's face hardened. "No."
Her curiosity flared even more. The way he said that…had his leaving home had something to do with his injuries? Was this boy a runaway? It would explain why he wanted to know where he was. He might want to be sure he was far enough away from whatever he left behind that he wouldn't be caught.
Daisy felt a stirring of empathy for him. He couldn't be terribly old and he had nowhere to go. She knew what that was like.
"You can stay here as long as you want if you're willing to help me with the farm. I can keep you safe," she told him. "We'll have to find a way to disguise your hair and eyes but that shouldn't be too difficult."
Leo stared at her blankly. "…I thought you said you didn't know who I was."
"I don't but clearly you're hiding from something so it's better if you aren't recognizable. I know what it's like being on the run."
Unfortunately, Daisy had plenty of experience with that. She had run away from more than one foster home where she didn't feel safe and had spent a good amount of time on the streets.
Living in a park for a few months and spying on the groundskeepers was where she got her love of gardening from. It had been the most peaceful time she ever experienced if you ignored the fact that she was renting a locker at a nearby YMCA to keep her things in and to use their showers.
Leo seemed to want to ask more but didn't pry. He was keeping secrets too so he couldn't mind her keeping them and he knew it.
"…thank you," was all he said in response.
Daisy smiled at him. "You're very welcome. Would you like something to eat? It's about lunchtime so I'll be making food for the rest of my workers anyway. I'm sure you're hungry after not eating for three days."
"I am. Thank you, Miss Veronica."
"Hang tight. I'll be back soon," she reassured him before heading out to make sandwiches for everyone.
There were plenty of leftover tomatoes from her plants and she could make simple but tasty sandwiches with them, some goat cheese, and a few herbs. The farmhands had originally been surprised by this since it wasn't a common food around here.
Daisy wasn't sure when or where sandwiches were invented so she wasn't too surprised. There were a lot of things she had to be careful of when talking to others, which was why she typically stuck to saying only what needed to be said.
She couldn't deny it was a lonely way to live but it was no different than things had been back in Cincinnati. At this point, she was used to it.