by Jan Watson
“Cara Wilson came home with me from the quilting circle, and she’s got Dimm down by the creek. You were right all along.”
“Told you.”
Rising, she upended Old Tom. The cat stalked down the steps and took a swipe at Faithful just for the fun of it. “Grab that stool,” Copper said. “I’m going to get the scissors.”
John sat on the low seat with a towel around his shoulders while Copper cut his unruly hair. “For pity’s sake,” she said as wheat-colored hair fell to the porch floor, “you’ve got more cowlicks than a salt block.”
“It’s a sign.”
She stepped back and cocked her head. “A sign of what, pray tell?”
John tapped his forehead. “Means there’s a lot going on. Why, my brain’s so busy my hair don’t have time to lie down.”
Copper lifted the hair at the nape of his neck and snipped a straight line before ruffling his hair and combing it in place. “There. That’s much better. Now you’ll look handsome for Hezzy Krill.”
John gave her a quizzical look.
“Mrs. Krill wants you to visit,” she teased. “I hear you’re at her beck and call.”
“Sometimes it feels like it. What’s Hezzy need now?”
Copper told him about the well bucket and the rope. In truth she was proud he was so good to Hezzy.
“Here come the lovebirds,” John said.
Copper followed his gaze and saw Cara and Dimmert coming around the barn. “I don’t know how you knew when I didn’t.”
“It was a while back. When you went up there to tend Kenny. I was out in the yard with Dimmert when Cara stepped out on the porch. Dimmert lit up like a Christmas tree.”
“Wonder how they’ll make it.”
John pulled the towel from around his neck and shook it over the edge of the porch. Bits of fluff caught on currents of air and swirled away. She stood beside him as the young people approached. “Love finds a way,” he replied.
“Mr. John . . . Miz Copper,” Cara said, clinging to Dimmert’s hand. “We’ve come to ask you something.” Dimm stood stiffly beside her. Copper couldn’t tell if he was even breathing. Cara nudged him sharply with her elbow. “Dimm?”
His Adam’s apple could have been the bobber on the end of a fishing line. “Cara and me—we’re getting married,” Dimmert choked out.
“Why, congratulations,” John said. “What’s your folks say, Cara?”
“They really like Dimmert. They won’t stand in our way. That is, as long as we can make our way. That’s what we wanted to talk to you about.” She poked Dimm again.
Dimmert was so nervous he jumped like a gigged frog. “Need a hired hand?” he said when he landed.
John rubbed his jaw. “There’s plenty to be had here and more come May when we combine these two farms. What do you say, Copper?”
Copper dabbed at tears. Rushing down the steps, she hugged Cara, then Dimmert. “I say I couldn’t be happier. How about a double wedding?”
“Good idea,” John seconded. “Then we’ll only have to pay the preacher once.”
A week later Copper found Dimmert in the barn next to Star’s empty stall. He’d hung the saddle over a rail and was polishing it with an old rag. “Where’s Star?” she asked.
His shoulders slumped, and she thought she saw a glisten of tears in his eyes. “Sold.”
Copper was poleaxed. She couldn’t take it in. “Sold?”
“Sold,” Dimmert repeated, rubbing the shiny leather round and round.
“What for?”
Tears streamed down his cheeks, but he stood as proud as a soldier. “I needed money to start a life with Cara.”
She had a million questions and a million answers. Why hadn’t he come to her? She would have bought Star, and then he could stay with Dimm. Why didn’t he sell the saddle and keep his horse? Or why didn’t he ask for a loan? She would have given him the money. She wanted to tell Dimm she’d buy Star back, fix it for him, but his look held her back. She mustn’t treat him like a child.
“I’m sure Star will be fine,” was all she offered, turning her attention to Mazy, but a big lump formed in her throat. It was all she could do to keep from bawling.
It wasn’t until later that evening that Copper got mad. John came by, and they were walking to the apple orchard. John wanted to check for blight. She was telling him about Dimm and Star when he said, “I know.”
Her heart leaped with joy. Of course, Dimmert had gone to John.
But his next words dashed that hope. “Dimm made a down payment on a few acres next to the creek with the money. I told him he and Cara could live in my cabin until he could build one of his own.”
“You mean you didn’t buy Star?”
“Well, no, I don’t need another horse.”
She could feel her face heat up. “John Pelfrey, how could you let this happen? Star belongs with Dimmert!”
“How’d this get to be my fault?”
“You could have fixed it and you didn’t. Don’t you see?”
“Life’s about making choices,” he said, taking her hand. “Dimmert chose Cara, a person, over Star, a horse. Nobody gets to have everything.”
Copper pulled away. “Why not? For once in his life why can’t Dimm have everything?”
John reached for her, but she hid her hands behind her back. “Don’t you know, sweet girl, when Dimm has Cara he has everything he ever needs?”
Sorrow as sad as a mourning dove’s song blurred her vision. “But what about Star?”
“Believe me, Star will be fine. The man who bought him doesn’t mistreat his stock. You’d approve of Star’s new home.”
“That makes me feel a little better.” But in her heart a picture formed of the beautiful Star looking over his stable door for Dimmert. She hoped his new owner had apples.
The third Thursday in May dawned sunny and warm. Copper was in a tizzy. A little more than a week before the wedding and her house was inside out. The quilting ladies had shown up on her porch right after breakfast with mops and brooms and bars of lye soap. Now mattresses lay outdoors to bake in the sun, rugs hung over the clothesline, and windowpanes gleamed as Jean polished the winter grime away. Balls of damp newsprint gathered at her feet until Bubby started lobbing them at Lilly Gray, who giggled and threw them back.
Fairy Mae and Hezzy sat on the porch, hemming the two wedding dresses: Copper’s pale green silk shantung and Cara’s creamy white taffeta. Copper had ordered a short white veil for Cara and for herself a hat the color of her dress, trimmed with matching netting and a nosegay of artificial violets. Lilly would wear a dotted swiss pinafore over a lavender frock with a dropped waistline. Jean made a darling handkerchief-linen bonnet with long lavender ribbon ties that Lilly was already begging to wear. Copper had to hide it in a hatbox on top of the chiffonier.
Copper stood at the stove stirring chicken soup for the noon meal. She’d stayed up until nearly midnight making yeast rolls from Searcy’s recipe. She was sure some of the ladies had never tasted light bread, and she wanted to give them a treat. Copper mopped her brow with the hem of her apron. She didn’t remember it being so much trouble the first time she got married.
It was the letter the postman brought last week that had her frazzled. Otherwise, spring cleaning could have waited until September, as busy as she was with other things. But Alice was coming! Yes, she had invited her, and she would be happy to see her, but who would have expected Alice Upchurch to come all the way to Troublesome Creek, even for Copper’s wedding?
A knock on the kitchen window made her jump. She dropped the spoon, and it slid down her clean apron before bouncing on the floor. Old Tom pounced, licking the savory broth. She thought she might just pull her hair out, but she smiled and turned toward the window.
“Is this inside or out?” Jean asked, pecking at a smear on the glass.
Copper squinted. With her dish towel, she rubbed until the streak gave way. “In.”
Copper set the round oak table with the twelve place settings
of fine china that Alice had sent along with her letter. Miraculously not a piece of china was broken when Copper unpacked the barrel stuffed with wood shavings. A vase of wildflowers made a pretty centerpiece.
“When’s your folks get here?” Hezzy asked after everyone had settled at the table and Jean said grace.
“Next Friday,” Copper said, passing the basket of bread.
“And your sister-in-law?” Jean asked.
“Oh my,” Copper said, “less than a week now.” Just saying it made her stomach knot. Her late husband’s sister was what these women would call stuck-up. She lived in Lexington in a big house full of servants, and her husband was a banker. What was Copper going to do with her? Mam and Daddy and the boys would stay at John’s, but Alice and her daughter, Dodie, would sleep in Darcy’s room. Thus the mattresses in the sun and the shiny windowpanes.
“This must be what heaven tastes like,” one of the ladies said, buttered yeast roll in hand.
“Try it with some of this honey,” Fairy Mae said, offering a bit to baby Jay. “You’ll think you’ve died and gone on for sure.”
“You all make me so thankful,” Copper told them. “How would I have gotten everything done without your help?”
“Oh, we just come to see what that pretty quilt looks like on your bed,” Fairy Mae laughed.
Hezzy gave Copper a sly look. “Just don’t be trying it out before ye dance down the aisle.”
“Hezzy!” Jean exclaimed.
Fairy Mae couldn’t hold back a giggle, and soon all the ladies were laughing.
“Sounds like a hen party in here,” John said from the other side of the screen door.
Well, that did it. Copper laughed until her sides ached, and every time she calmed down, Hezzy would snort or Jean would giggle and she’d start in again. It was just the tonic she needed for her jittery nerves. Thank You, Lord, for friends and laughter.
As Wednesdays tend to do, this one came and with it, Alice. Copper paced the porch until she saw the carriage far off in the distance. When it pulled into the barnyard, she was there to meet it. “Alice,” she cried. “Oh, Alice.”
All her fretting fell away as soon as her sister-in-law stepped down from the buggy. It was so good to see her.
Alice had changed not a whit and stood regally in Copper’s embrace. “So this is Troublesome Creek,” she said with a little frown.
“I can’t believe you’re here.” Copper pulled Alice along to the porch. “And, Dodie, you’re such a big girl now.”
“Where’s Lilly?” Dodie asked, taking in the rooster who chased a hen across their path.
Copper lifted Dodie into her arms and nuzzled her neck. “She’ll be up from her nap directly. Oh, she’ll be so glad to see you.”
Two men carried a large trunk from the carriage to the porch. “Where do you want this, ma’am?”
Darcy opened the screen door. “Bring it on in here.” When they had hefted the trunk through the door, she poked her head back out. “Should I feed these two fellers, Miz Copper? It’s right on noon.”
“Yes, Darcy. They’re probably starved.”
“My word, Laura Grace,” Alice said, “are you sure that’s the proper thing to do?”
No one had called her by her given name since she left Lexington, Copper realized. Laura Grace sounded strange, as though it belonged to someone else. “In the mountains we never let a stranger go away hungry. There’s always a pot of beans simmering on the stove and a round of corn bread in the warming oven.”
The screen door squeaked in welcome. “Here,” Copper said, “let me show you and Dodie to your room. I know you’ll want to change into something more comfortable and maybe rest a spell after your long journey.”
Entertaining Alice was not as hard as Copper had imagined, for all she wanted to do was sit and hold Lilly Gray. When Copper first saw Alice with Lilly, it caused a bit of a shock. From Lilly’s stormy eyes to her black hair with its streak of silver, not to mention finely arched eyebrows, Lilly Gray was the spitting image of Alice Corbett Upchurch. I’m in trouble, Copper thought, if Alice’s exacting personality goes along with that handed-down beauty.
Later, after supper—when Alice met John for the first time—and after the little girls were tucked in for the night, Copper had a chance to talk with Alice.
They sat on the porch, rockers side by side, sipping from cups of chamomile tea, taking in the pleasant evening air. Copper reached out and patted Alice’s free hand. “I still can’t believe you came all this way to see me get married.”
“Contrary to what I once would have believed,” Alice said, “I’ve missed you terribly.”
Copper thought back to their strained relationship after she’d married Simon and gone to live in the city. Alice had given her nightmares then. “And I have missed you. Tell me, have you heard anything from Marydell? And how is Andy?”
Marydell and Andy were brother and sister to Alice’s adopted daughter, Dodie. In Lexington, Copper had discovered the children living in dire straits. She had befriended them and continued to pray for them daily.
“I hear from Marydell’s grandmother on occasion,” Alice said. “Marydell is well and attending school. Andy continues to live at Mrs. Archesson’s boardinghouse, but he takes supper with us once in a while. I think it is his way of staying close to Dodie.”
“And Searcy and Reuben? Are they well?”
“She keeps her little house tidy and leads a Bible study for her acquaintances. He has a garden and the cow you left with them, so he is happy.” Alice patted her hair as if it had come out of its pins. “Dodie and I visit with them every week. They are like grandparents to her.”
Alice Upchurch calling on a housekeeper? Copper was amazed. Will wonders never cease?
A little wind blew fast around them, whipping their skirts. The leaves of the apple tree in the side yard whispered against each other. The air darkened with an approaching storm, and lightning cracked the sky.
“We’d best go in,” Alice said.
“Just one more question.” Copper stacked Alice’s cup and saucer with her own and nested the spoons inside, afraid of the answer. “What do you think of John?”
“May I say I am pleasantly surprised?” Alice’s voice softened. Copper held her breath. “He is quite rough but charming nonetheless. I’m sure you can smooth his rough edges.”
Copper inhaled. “Thank you. That means so much to me.”
“I ask only one thing, Laura Grace,” Alice said, turning her sharp eyes on Copper.
Copper held her breath again.
“I intend to be a part of Lilly Gray’s life. I will come for visits until she is older, and then I want you to bring her to me on occasion.”
“Fair enough,” Copper replied as rain moved in and thunder rolled. She rushed to hold the door for Alice. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Surely you didn’t expect that I wouldn’t come. I had to see about Lilly Gray, after all.”
Ah, Copper thought, smiling, Lilly is her soft spot. And why shouldn’t she be? The child is all she has left of Simon.
On the Friday night before the Sunday wedding, Copper and John had a shindig for everyone who lived within shouting distance and some who didn’t. Copper was afraid they’d turn it into a shivaree, with wild tricks and lots of noise. It was the custom, but John said he’d put a stop to that foolishness. He didn’t fancy riding a rail down to the creek for a dunking. Instead they’d keep everyone busy eating and dancing. Elder Foster brought his banjo, and his son Dylan played the mouth harp.
Darcy borrowed lanterns from anyone who had an extra, and Dimmert hung them from the branches of trees. The yard glowed with soft yellow light while children chased fireflies and men swapped stories. Copper’s lady friends sliced ham and dished up fried chicken and potato salad. Fairy Mae brought coconut cake, and Cara’s mother, Miranda, brought a four-layer chocolate cake with caramel icing. There was coffee, cold sweet tea, and milk to drink. But Copper suspected some of the m
en behind the barn were sipping something stronger. Ace Shelton had probably brought it. She tried to catch John’s eye to send him around there to check, but he was picking and singing a ballad with Elder Foster and Dylan.
A chill ran up Copper’s spine. “Barbara Allen” was so plaintive a song to sing on such a pretty night. She rubbed her arms and shivered; a goose must be walking on her grave.
“Are you all right, Laura Grace?” Mam asked, dropping a shawl over Copper’s shoulders.
“Oh, this feels good. It’s just the song they’re singing. ‘Barbara Allen’ always makes me lonesome.” Knotting the shawl at her waist, Copper looked around. “Where’s Daddy?”
“I sent Will out to the barn. I don’t like the looks of what’s going on behind there. Daniel,” she called.
“Yes, ma’am.” Copper’s little brother stopped running wild long enough to answer.
“Ask the fellows to sing something happy,” Mam said.
Soon “Oh, Susannah” had folks clapping and singing along.
“Look, Mam,” Copper said, pointing at Hezzy and Fairy Mae tapping their feet on the porch floor. “Did you know you could clog sitting down?”
Then John was pulling Copper off the porch and she was looking up into his beaming face as the little band played a couple’s waltz. She couldn’t say who looked prouder, John or Dimmert, who did a quick slide step with Cara.
Copper’s moment of melancholy drifted away as she let the music soothe her. She was in her beloved’s arms. Her family and friends surrounded her. It was a time for happiness.
Remy slipped away from her hideout in the trees behind the barn. She was aggravated, for she enjoyed watching, but some men were lifting jugs of white mule. Remy knew from experience how things could turn ugly when that mule kicked. Her pap was the meekest of men, wouldn’t step on his own shadow, ’til he got a taste of corn liquor. Which, come to think on it, he generally tasted all day long. No matter, she hadn’t seen his sorry hide since before she fell over Torrent Falls.
The spring night was warm, and a high silvery moon made her hike through the forest easy. Not that it mattered; Remy had eyes like a cat. The slip of feet on new grass let her know she was not alone. “Hello there, Foxy,” she whispered.
