“Give me a minute or two, will you?” Impatience with his daughter rushed over him. His relationship with Ingrid was awkward enough without Agnes thinking it was her place to give him pointers.
“That woman makes the best biscuits I ever ate,” Agnes said. “We’re sure gonna be in a sorry fix if she walks out on us, and then I’ll never get me that new dress.”
“Would you quit talking like that?” Joshua said. “She’s not your hired hand. I actually married the woman, for Pete’s sake!”
“Then go on out there, Pa.” Agnes turned accusing eyes on him. “Go apologize. We need her.”
8
“Hello, the house!”
Ingrid heard a familiar voice, and her spirits lifted. It was Hazel. Never had she been so grateful for the appearance of another human being.
She-Wolf loped along, a self-appointed advance scout in front of the wagon that Hazel was driving. The dog came right up to where Ingrid sat on the stump and sat back on her haunches with her tongue lolling, and Ingrid could have sworn that the animal was grinning at her. Perhaps it was nothing more than Ingrid’s desire to feel welcome, at least by something, but she was ridiculously grateful the animal seemed happy to see her.
Hazel drove the wagon over close to her. “Whoa!” She pulled back on the reins and from the high seat of her wagon looked down at Ingrid sitting at the edge of the forest.
“What are you doing way out here a-sitting on that stump in the middle of the day?” She sniffed the air. “And why do you smell like you’ve been smearing roses all over yourself?”
Ingrid shook her head in despair. There was so much she needed to say, and so much English required to say it. She grew tired of forever translating in her mind for these people.
“I cook. I clean. I try to find mother’s dress to make dress for Agnes. Joshua get angry because I touch wife’s precious clothes.” Her voice broke. “He yell at me.”
“Angry, huh.” Hazel’s eyes narrowed. “He yelled at you? Well, I’ll just have to go over there and show him what angry looks like! Hi-yup!”
With that, the old lady tore into the front yard of the cabin. The wagon had barely come to a stop before she leaped off. Ingrid saw Joshua walk outside and give her a quick glance. Right before she turned her back on him, she saw Hazel wagging her finger beneath Joshua’s nose while she gave him what appeared to be a good talking to.
Ingrid, in spite of her hurt feelings, was delighted. If Hazel chose to chastise him, that was fine with her. Even though she was several yards away, she could hear the angry tone of Hazel’s voice and Joshua’s conciliatory tone in return.
A few minutes later, out of the corner of her eye, she saw him jam his hat on his head and stride toward her while the children and Hazel gathered together in the doorway. She pretended not to notice and feigned a great interest in pulling petals off of a daisy she had plucked from a clump growing next to the stump.
“It appears I have not yet apologized enough,” Joshua said when he was a couple feet away.
She kept her back to him and did not acknowledge his presence. She had scrubbed the man’s dirty floor, washed his dirty dishes and his dirty underwear only that morning. He was not going to be forgiven so easily.
He walked around the stump so he could face her. “Will you please look at me?” he asked. “I’m trying to tell you that I’m very sorry.”
So, he wanted her to look at him, did he? Well, she would look at him! He was not the only one who was angry. She gave him the full force of her anger.
“I cook, cook, cook. Clean, clean, clean. I try to find dress for Agnes. She is young girl. She need pretty things!” She lowered her voice. “And you say mean things to me.”
“It was the perfume. For a second I thought Diantha was back.”
She sniffed. “I not want wife parfym! It stink.”
“I’m sorry. I overreacted.” He put a hand in his pocket and pulled out a small perfume vial.
“What? You bring to me? No!” Ingrid folded her arms across her chest and shook her head emphatically. “I not want.”
“I know.” He took the vial and flung it as hard and as high as he could.
She saw it glistening in the sun as it arched into the sky and then disappeared into the deep foliage of the forest.
She cocked her head. “Daughters not want?”
“My daughters might want it, but I need to get that scent out of the house. Obviously, it does bad things to me.” He tried to smile, but it was halfhearted. “It makes me say mean things to someone who has done nothing but ‘cook, cook, cook, and clean, clean, clean.’ I did not mean the terrible things I said to you.” He held out his hand. “Hazel can stay with the children. Come take a walk with me.”
Ingrid took his hand and rose from the stump. He led her to an opening in the woods where there was the hint of a path.
“Diantha used to love to come here,” he said. “There was something about a forest that always calmed her. Her father’s people were hunters, and she must have inherited some of that desire. Sometimes she would actually take my gun and kill game for our family.”
Ingrid was not in the mood to hear about what a wonderful outdoorswoman his wife had been. There was entirely too much to do. For one thing, the children needed to be fed supper and she was longing for a chance to visit with Hazel. A walk in the woods with a man who wanted to talk about his deceased wife was not part of her plan for the day.
“I have dough rising.” She pulled away. “Time to put in stove.”
To Joshua’s surprise, Ingrid stalked away from him without so much as a backward glance. He took his hat off, scratched his head, and put it back on again. He put his hands in his pockets and took them back out. He had no idea what he was supposed to do now as Ingrid marched back to the house.
He had been a fool to start talking about Diantha. Even though he’d just been trying to make conversation and had said the first thing that popped into his mind, he didn’t blame Ingrid for walking off like that. Who would have guessed that the immigrant girl who had been so eager to please would have that much spunk when she felt mistreated?
He walked back into the yard, intending to go into the cabin and wait for supper, until he saw that Ingrid, Hazel, and the four girls were huddled in a tight circle and Ingrid was talking and gesturing. It did not take a genius to figure out what she was talking about when she stopped and six pairs of disapproving female eyes trained themselves on him. Even She-Wolf appeared to be unhappy with him.
Who would have guessed that his daughters would take Ingrid’s side so quickly? Weren’t stepmothers supposed to be suspect? Wasn’t there supposed to be a sort of probationary period before children accepted them into the home? He had expected to have to ease Ingrid into their lives. He had especially expected there to be problems between her and Agnes. Instead, in less than twenty-four hours, he felt like the outsider!
Girls were fickle creatures. All it had taken was some good cooking, a clean house, freshly laundered clothes, and the promise of new dresses for them to firmly take Ingrid’s side.
It made him long to bring his little son home, if for no other reason than to have another male around. In fact, now that he thought about it, there was no reason he couldn’t go get little Bertie now. Ingrid already had the house and children under control. It was reasonable for him to want to bring all his children back under one roof, and his girls had been begging for him to go get their little brother.
It would not be a pleasant task to confront his former in-laws, but the judge had said that if he had a wife, he could have his children. His in-laws didn’t have a legal leg to stand on.
Besides that, going to get little Bertie seemed infinitely preferable to entering a cabin filled with irate females. He decided to take a detour to the Youngs’ farm down the road before going in to supper. It would give everyone, including him, a chance to cool off.
“I brought you some supplies,” Hazel said. “With all these children, I figured you c
ould use ’em.”
“George not mind?” Ingrid asked. The wagon was filled with interesting-looking bundles and boxes, and she couldn’t wait to find out what Hazel had brought. It really had been stretching her abilities to come up with meals for the family with what Joshua had on hand.
“No.” Hazel grinned. “George didn’t mind. Millicent may think she’s got that man of hers wrapped around her little finger, but he does have a backbone. When I gave him the list I’d made out for you, his eyes practically bugged out of his head. He could hardly wait to fill it.”
“He know this is for us?” Ingrid asked.
“He did,” Hazel said. “He even stuck some candy in there for the children. It wasn’t on my list, but George always has a soft spot in his heart for children. It’s too bad he married a woman who couldn’t carry a child full term. She lost two that I know of after they moved here.”
“Ingrid, look!” Agnes exclaimed. “A whole bolt of pink calico! And ribbons! You won’t have to use my mama’s clothes to make me a dress after all!”
“I do not think my husband has monies to pay,” Ingrid said.
“I’m quite sure that he doesn’t.” Hazel laughed. “Actually, I’d be surprised if Josh has two cents to rub together until his cherry orchard comes in—if it ever does come in. He’s pretty much invested every dime he has into those cherry trees. Lots of people wondering if it will pay off.”
“A cherry orchard is fine thing,” Ingrid said defensively.
“Absolutely,” Hazel said. “Actually, I owed Joshua for helping me build a fence around my pasture, but he wouldn’t accept anything for it. I’m not a poor woman, in spite of the way I dress. My husband and I got here before the town ever got started. He had the good sense to put our name on the land where White Rock stands, and then he sold building lots to the people who wanted to move there. I owe Josh, and I can afford to pay him for his help, but I know he won’t take money from me—and I was pretty certain you and the girls could use a little help.”
Ingrid bit her lip, considering. “For you I come work to pay back.”
“Nope. No need for that. Me and She-Wolf don’t need any help.” She turned to her wolf-dog. “Do we, girl? But we do need some company from time to time. I’m fine, but She-Wolf tends to get lonesome. In fact, I was wondering if it would be an inconvenience if we spent the night here. It took me longer than I expected to get all this stuff loaded. By the time we get it unloaded and put away, it’ll probably be dark. Especially since it appears like Joshua has decided to visit your neighbors instead of helping us unload.”
Ingrid looked. Joshua was, indeed, walking toward Diantha’s parents’ place.
“Oh, I almost forgot. I have something for you.” Hazel dug a pair of women’s everyday shoes out of the wagon. “I hope they fit.”
“Ah!” Ingrid immediately sat down on the porch, pulled off George’s boots, and pulled on the new shoes. “So much better! Thank you, thank you. Where you find?”
“George had ordered them a few days ago, without telling Millicent. They just came in yesterday.”
“I never take off!”
“Well,” Hazel said, “I wouldn’t sleep in ’em if I was you.”
“I put the bread in oven, then we unload. Have fresh bread and soppa after.”
Hazel seemed taken aback. “You’re making soap for supper?”
“No, no, no.” Ingrid made a motion as though dipping and slurping out of a spoon.
“Oh! You mean soup!”
“Ja. I make soup.”
“Soup and bread sounds good to me. I never did have the knack for making bread. Drop biscuits was about as good as I could manage.” Hazel lifted Polly from Trudy’s arms. “And how are you doing, you little sweet ’tater?”
Polly grinned, unplugged her thumb from her mouth, and offered it to Hazel.
“Oh, you got some sugar for old Hazel? I been needing me some sugar. Yum!”
She pretended to put Polly’s thumb into her own mouth and made loud smacking noises. This tickled Polly so thoroughly that she started belly laughing. Ingrid saw Joshua glance back at them as he walked down the road to Diantha’s parents’. Ingrid turned her head so he wouldn’t think that she was bothering to watch him.
She desperately longed for a heart-to-heart talk with Hazel, so she asked the girls to go upstairs while she finished making supper. She put a few more sticks of good ash wood into the firebox, then held her hand inside the oven to test the heat. She counted the seconds and made it to twenty-five before she had to snatch her hand away. Perfect! Twenty-five seconds was just about the right temperature to bake bread. Forty-five seconds was her standard for anything that required a moderate oven. Sixty seconds for more delicate foods.
“I am so sorry,” Hazel said once the girls were out of earshot. “I don’t know what came over me yesterday. I saw this smirk on Millicent’s face when the judge said he was going to give those girls to Virgie, and it went all through me. I spoke up before I thought. Now you two are in a mess, and it’s partly my fault. I came out here hoping for a chance to tell you, privately, that I’m pretty sure you can get this marriage annulled. It’ll take awhile and it will cost money, but since I got you into this, I’ll pay for it.”
“Annulled?”
“It means the marriage would be over.”
“Where I go?”
“I got friends in Port Huron. Nice people. The wife is an invalid. They’ve been looking for just the right person to come help out. Pay is decent. It’s just the two of them. I had planned to get you set up with them before I lost my mind yesterday and told the judge all that hogwash about you and Josh being a couple.”
Ingrid sat down at the table and gave Hazel’s words thoughtful consideration. Finally she said, “No. I stay.”
“I don’t understand,” Hazel said. “I come here and find you sitting out on a stump, Josh upset, and the girls all in a state. It’s obvious to me that things aren’t working out. Why would you want to stay?”
“I already love girls . . . and Joshua. He is good man. Someday, he make a fine husband. I pray he loves me someday.”
“Josh Hunter”—Hazel crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair—“would be a greater fool than most men if he didn’t.”
“You ain’t taking the boy,” Richard Young said. “And that’s that.”
If Joshua thought getting his son back just because the judge had given him permission would be easy, he had been mistaken. He kept a careful eye on the Kentucky long rifle that his father-in-law cradled in the crook of his arm. It had never occurred to him that he would have to arm himself to enter a home that had once been as much a part of his life as his own.
“The judge said I could have my children.”
“Well, the judge ain’t here now, is he?” Virgie chimed in. “You got all the girls. Now, leave us the boy and get out of here.”
“But he’s my son.”
“And Diantha was our daughter and you went and kilt her.”
“Virgie, you know that’s a lie. I never harmed a hair on Diantha’s head.”
Her jaw was set—a bad sign. The woman could be as stubborn as a mule. “We’re keepin’ the boy.”
“Richard . . .” He wished he could get Richard alone so they could work this out man to man. His father-in-law had always been reasonable.
That estimation of his father-in-law’s reasonableness evaporated when Richard very deliberately cocked the gun and pointed it straight at him.
“Git on out of here, Josh,” Richard said. “Whether or not you had anything to do with Diantha’s death is no never-mind now. She’s gone. The thing is, Virgie’s gotten attached to the boy, and you ain’t gonna take him away from her. She’s suffered enough.”
There really was no choice. Joshua knew it was best to retreat and regroup when going up against overwhelming odds, and so he walked away. That cocked rifle worried him. When it came to guns, Richard was a very careful man. Josh had never known him to point a gun
at something he did not intend to kill.
Richard wasn’t playing around when it came to Bertie.
The problem was, Josh didn’t know how to regroup in a situation like this. To come back here armed and ready for battle was ridiculous. There was no way he would allow bullets to fly around his infant son, nor did he want to hurt Richard or Virgie. For the moment, he was stumped.
Admitting temporary defeat, he went back home.
Ingrid, Hazel, and the girls were having a spirited discussion over the use of a bolt of pink calico when he slipped through the door. He was hungry, and even from outside the house, he could smell the aroma of fresh-baked bread and bean soup. Ingrid made a point of ignoring him. The girls barely noticed him. It was obvious that they had eaten without him. It was Hazel who finally acknowledged his presence.
“Where’ve you been, Josh?” Hazel asked. “Me and the girls had to unload the supplies out of the wagon all by ourselves.”
“What supplies?”
“The ones I brought. And not a moment too soon, from what I see.”
“I was going to make a trip into town tomorrow.”
“I made the trip for you,” Hazel said. “I’ll repeat, where’ve you been? Trying to make peace with your in-laws?”
“I went to get little Bertie.”
All conversation stopped. Once again, six pairs of female eyes were focused on him.
“You what?” Agnes asked.
“I went to get your little brother.”
“Well, I don’t see him anyplace.” Agnes mimed looking around the cabin. “What happened?”
“Your grandfather refused to give him up.”
“You’re bigger and stronger than Grandpa.”
“Not when he’s pointing a gun at me.”
“Grandpa pointed a gun at you?” Agnes was astonished. “Our grandpa? The one who always tells us to never point a loaded gun at anything we don’t want to kill?”
A Promise to Love Page 9
