Beyond These Hills

by Sandra Robbins

  “No. On Wednesday he and Anna visit folks. ’Course now they don’t have as many visits to make. When Anna was deliverin’ babies, they had somewhere to go all the time. Now all the young women are gone from the Cove and there ain’t no babies bein’ born here anymore.” Granny’s shoulders drooped, and she wiped at her eyes. “It shore ain’t like it used to be around here.”

  Andrew wanted to say something to break the veil of sadness that had descended over Granny, but his mind was a blank. He suddenly remembered how careful all the family had been on Sunday as they helped Granny move about the cabin. Yet today with Simon and Anna gone she sat on the front porch alone.

  “Granny, how did you get out here on the porch?”

  “Simon and Anna helped me out here before they left.”

  He stiffened in surprise. “How would you get up from the chair if you needed to go inside?”

  Her lips curled up in a playful grin. “I guess I would ask Laurel to help me since she’s staying with me this afternoon.”

  His eyebrows arched, and he grabbed the arms of the rocker. “Laurel’s here?” He jerked his head around and stared at the cabin door. “Where is she?”

  “She’s in the kitchen. Her mama sent over two quarts of the grape juice she made last year. Laurel’s inside gettin’ me a glass of it. Why don’t you go tell her you’re here? I bet you’re mighty thirsty after driving over our dusty roads and could use a cool drink yourself.”

  Andrew pushed to his feet and glanced at the door and back at Granny. “I-I don’t know, Granny. Maybe I’d better leave. Laurel made it clear on Sunday that she doesn’t want to have anything to do with me.”

  Granny rocked back and forth a few times as she stared at Andrew. “I see. And how do you feel about that?”

  His eyes grew large, and he swallowed. “I told her I’d like for us to be friends, but I don’t think I want to hear her tell me again she’s not interested in that.”

  Granny nodded. “I kin understand why that might put you off a bit. That girl can be mighty fierce in what she says sometimes. Takes after her mama in that way. But you ain’t afeared of a little girl like her, are you? I ’spect you can stand your own ground right good.”

  He started to tell Granny he thought it better to leave things the way they were, but his tongue refused to cooperate. As he stared at Granny, he remembered how his knees had grown weak when he saw Laurel in Gatlinburg. Then how he’d enjoyed sitting next to her in church. He liked her, and she’d led him to believe she liked him too…until she’d found out about his job.

  Well, he wasn’t about to let her have the last word on this issue. For the last two days he’d had doors slammed in his face, had curses hurled at him, and had faced a shotgun-wielding mountain man. Surely he could dredge up enough courage to have a conversation with Laurel.

  He clenched his fists at his side. “I think I can do that, Granny.” Without saying another word, he marched into the house and stopped at the kitchen door. Laurel had her back to him and was pouring grape juice from a pitcher into a glass. He took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak to her, and the words rushed from his throat in a booming voice. “Laurel, I’d like to talk to you.”

  She squealed a high-pitched scream and jumped. The pitcher slipped from her hand and left a swath of purple down her white dress before it crashed to the floor and shattered. Grape juice ran in rivulets across Anna’s kitchen floor. Andrew stared in shock at the scene before him.

  A stunned Laurel, her arms spread to her sides, stared at her stained dress and the grape juice that had now run under the kitchen table before she looked up at him. Her mouth moved, but no words came out. Then a slow change began to emerge on her face.

  Her eyes narrowed, and her eyebrows pulled down across her nose. Her jaws turned rigid, and her teeth clenched. “Andrew Brady,” she snarled, “what do you mean scaring me like that?”

  He wished he could run from the wrath evident on her face, but his feet felt rooted to the spot. “I…I didn’t mean to scare you, Laurel. My voice came out louder than I meant.”

  She took a step toward him and her foot slipped in the juice on the floor. With a gasp she grabbed for the back of a chair at the table and caught herself. She straightened, looked at her dress again, and then glared at Andrew. “Look at my dress. It’s ruined. I’ll never get this stain out.”

  A dish towel lay on the kitchen table. Andrew grabbed it and took a step toward her. “Here. Let me help you wipe it off your dress.”

  She recoiled as he neared her, then reached out and jerked the towel from his hands. “You’ve done quite enough to help me today.” She swiped the towel down the front of her dress, but the juice had already seeped through the material. She glanced up at him, her lips trembling. “This was my favorite dress. I don’t guess I’ll be wearing it anymore.”

  Andrew’s heart plummeted to the pit of his stomach. “Laurel, please forgive me. All I wanted was to talk to you. I didn’t mean to scare you.” He raked his hand through his hair. “Oh, I feel awful. What can I do to make it up to you?”

  She glanced down at the juice on the floor. “Well, to start with you can help me clean up this floor.”

  “Of course. But you sit down and let me do it.” He unbuttoned his shirt cuffs and rolled his sleeves up to his elbows.

  “No, I’ll help.”

  He shook his head. “I’ll feel better if you’ll just let me clean this mess up by myself.” He pulled a chair out of the puddle of juice on the floor and set it against the wall. “Now sit down here, and I’ll have this cleaned up in no time at all.”

  She eyed the purple pools of juice on the floor and then glanced at the wall where it had spattered. “Are you sure you can do it?”

  “Of course I can. I’ve cleaned up worse. Now do like I said and sit down.”

  She glanced at the floor again before she eased into the chair. “Well, okay, if you’re sure.”

  Andrew put his hands on his hips and glanced at the kettle on the stove. “I see there’s some hot water. Where can I find a pan to pour some in?”

  “In the bottom of the dry sink. Just open the door underneath and pull one out.”

  “The what?”

  “The dry sink.”

  “I don’t know what that is. Where is it?”

  “It’s right there beside you.” With a sigh Laurel pushed herself up from the chair, sidestepped the juice by the table, and walked over to the dry sink. She opened the door underneath and pulled out a pan. “Here’s one you can use.”

  Andrew took it and nodded. “Thanks. Now you sit down and let me take care of this.” He set the pan on the table and poured some water from the kettle in it. Then he glanced back at the dry sink and frowned. “I don’t see any soap. Where does your grandmother keep it?”

  “Look on the shelf above the sink.”

  He let his gaze drift over the items on the shelf and shook his head. “There isn’t any here.”

  Laurel got up and came over to where he stood. She pushed up on her tiptoes and pulled a box of soap powder from behind a can of coffee. “Here it is.”

  “Thanks, I didn’t see it.”

  Laurel headed back to the chair, but before she could sit down Andrew stopped her. “Where can I find some cloths to use?”

  She turned and stared at him for a moment before her lips twitched and pulled into a big grin. “Andrew, there’s no need for me to sit down if I’m going to have to keep getting up to help you help me.”

  “No, now you sit back down…” He stopped babbling as his gaze drifted over her face. The anger was gone now and had been replaced by a smile, and his heart thumped in his chest. He walked over to where she stood and stopped in front of her. “I’m really sorry I scared you, Laurel. All I wanted was to talk to you about what you said Sunday.”

  Her long lashes fluttered and his skin warmed. She tilted her head to one side. “I’ve wanted to talk to you too.”

  “You have?”

  She nodded.
“I’m afraid I behaved rather badly. You asked me to be your friend, and I refused when I really wanted to say yes. Can you forgive me?”

  “There’s nothing to forgive, Laurel. I understand why you wouldn’t like me. But please believe me when I say I don’t want to hurt your family in any way. I’ve been sent here to do a job. Please try to like me in spite of it.”

  Her dark eyes sparkled. “But I do like you, Andrew. That’s what I wanted to tell you, and I’d like to get to know you better while you’re in the Cove.”

  His heart pounded so that he thought his chest might burst. “Do you really mean that?”

  “Yes.”

  “I want that too.” He reached for her hand, and she threaded her fingers through his. His head was spinning from her nearness and the sweet smell of lavender mixed with grape juice. “I think about you all the time, Laurel,” he whispered.

  Her eyes grew large. “Really?”

  “Yes, I’ve never…”

  “Laurel!” Granny’s shout from the front porch shattered the moment between them.

  She pulled her hand away and hurried to the kitchen door. “Yes, Granny?”

  “What’s keeping you two so long?”

  “I spilled the grape juice. We’re cleaning it up. We’ll be out in a few minutes.”

  “No hurry,” Granny hollered. “I just wondered what was a-goin’ on.”

  Laurel turned back to him and smiled. “I think we better get this mess cleaned up before my grandparents get back. And I think it’ll get done faster if we work together.”

  Andrew grinned. “Whatever you say, ma’am. I’m just glad to be here with you.”

  Her cheeks flushed, and she lowered her gaze to the floor. “I’m glad you’re here.”

  Andrew took a deep breath and poured some more water in the pan. “Let’s get Anna’s kitchen back to normal.”

  She laughed, and the sound sent a thrill through him like he’d never felt before. Everything he’d endured in the last two days was worth the reward of being with Laurel at this moment. Later he would try and figure out his new emotions, but for now he just wanted to enjoy being with her.

  With the kitchen cleaned up Laurel and Andrew sat on the front porch with Granny. Laurel drank the last drop of grape juice from her glass and set it down beside her chair. “I’m glad Mama sent two quarts of juice today. We wouldn’t have had any otherwise.”

  Granny chuckled and handed Laurel her glass. “I shore would have liked to see Laurel’s face when that pitcher hit the floor.”

  Andrew shook his head. “Oh, no, Granny. Like you said earlier, Laurel can be fierce at times, but I expect she’d never been as mad as she was then.”

  Laurel sat up straight in her chair and stared at him. “Fierce? Granny said I was fierce?”

  Andrew held up his hands as if to ward off her blows and laughed. “Oh, Granny, I’ve done it now. We’re about to see how fierce she can really be.”

  Granny chuckled and nodded. “Yeah, like I said, she shore does take after her mama. That girl’s tongue could make the bark on a tree curl up.”

  Laurel sank back in her chair and laughed. “I’ve heard you say that before, but I never thought I was that much like her.”

  Granny reached over and patted her arm. “As far as I’m concerned, the best compliment I could ever give you is to say you’re like Rani. I’ve loved that girl since the day I brought her into this here world. And your pa too.” She stared past Laurel to Andrew. “You know I was the midwife in the Cove until I turned my work over to Anna. Between the two of us, there ain’t no tellin’ how many babies we delivered.”

  “That’s really something, Granny,” he said. “And I agree with you. I only met Mrs. Jackson Sunday, but I could tell she’s a wonderful person.” He stared back at Laurel. “And I think her daughter is too.”

  Laurel’s heart skipped a beat and she sucked in her breath. She heard Granny chuckle, but she didn’t turn to face her. At the moment she was enjoying staring into Andrew’s dark eyes that appeared to be devouring her. A tingle of pleasure skipped up her arm, and she wondered why she had thought she could stay away from this man. There was some quality within him that pulled her to him.

  Before she could find an answer to her puzzled emotions, a horse pulling a buggy trotted into the yard. Her grandparents were back from their visits. Instead of heading around the house toward the barn, her grandfather pulled the horse to a stop, climbed from the buggy, and tied the horse to a tree at the edge of the yard. He walked around to the other side of the buggy and helped her grandmother step down before they headed toward the porch.

  “Afternoon, Andrew,” her grandfather called out.

  She and Andrew rose as her grandparents ascended the steps to the porch. Andrew stuck his hand out. “Hello, Simon. Anna. I stopped by to visit.” He glanced at Anna. “You may have wished I hadn’t when you see your kitchen.”

  Anna’s eyebrows arched as she looked from him to Laurel. Her eyes fastened on the purple stain that covered the front of Laurel’s dress from above the waist to the hem. “What happened to your dress?”

  Laurel laughed and waved her hand in dismissal. “We had a little mishap with the grape juice, but thanks to Andrew your kitchen is back the way you like it.”

  Her grandmother’s brow wrinkled. “Good. I think.”

  Andrew shuffled from one foot to another. “I’m really sorry about Laurel’s dress. I hope the stain will come out.”

  Anna narrowed her eyes and studied the purple on the white dress. “We’ll see.” Then she glanced at Granny. “Did you make it all right while we were gone?”

  “Just fine. I don’t know when I’ve enjoyed anything like vis’tin’ with these young folks. Reminds me of when you came to the Cove and how you and Simon kept me laughin’ all the time.”

  Laurel glanced at Andrew, detecting a flush on his cheeks. She hoped Granny hadn’t embarrassed him. She cleared her throat and directed her attention to her grandfather. “I think Andrew really came to see you, Grandpa. He’s had a rough time this week with some of our neighbors, especially Nate Hopkins.”

  Her grandfather laughed and glanced at his wife. “That doesn’t surprise me a bit. But I don’t think you need to worry. He really wouldn’t shoot you, although he might threaten to.”

  “He didn’t threaten me, sir. It was my car.”

  “I see. I’ll talk to him about that. I don’t want him to accidentally hurt you or himself.”

  Andrew nodded. “I don’t either. But no one will even talk to me, Simon. I hope you know I’m not here to hurt anyone or try to steal their land from them. They do need to hear what I have to say, though, even if they don’t like the message.”

  Her grandfather furrowed his brow and nodded. He didn’t speak for a long moment. Finally he took a deep breath. “How about if I arrange a community meeting of all the remaining families? We can have it at the church, and you can address everybody at one time.”

  Relief shone on Andrew’s face. “I would really appreciate that.”

  Simon held up a hand and cocked his head to one side. “I will tell you as well as my friends that this will be an orderly meeting. There will be no arguing, no name-calling, and no guns. Anyone can say what’s on their mind as long as it’s done in a peaceful manner.”

  “I would agree to that.” He stuck out his hand. “I don’t know how to thank you.”

  Her grandfather grasped his hand. “You do understand I will not support you at this meeting, but I will see to it that you get your chance to address everybody.”

  “I understand, and I still thank you.”

  The rocking chair creaked, and Granny scooted to the edge of the seat. “Now that we have that settled, how ’bout somebody a-helpin’ an old woman back in the house? I ’spect I’d like to take a little nap before I help Anna cook supper.”

  Nana bit down on her lip, but it didn’t stop the smile from escaping as she and Grandpa helped Granny to her feet. “Don’t sleep too long.
You know I can’t cook without you sitting at the table giving me instructions.”

  A little groan rippled from Granny’s mouth as she stood. “You make me sound like a smart aleck, missy. Don’t you forget who taught you how to cook.”

  “How can I? You never quit reminding me.” Both of them burst out laughing, and Nana gave Granny a quick hug. “And you were the best teacher any girl could ever have.”

  Seeing them together and the easy manner in which they joked with each other touched Laurel’s heart. She was glad Andrew had gotten to see the love her family had for each other. Maybe it would help him understand how they needed to stay together in this valley where their roots went back for generations. The thought of facing the unknown in the world outside the mountains that sheltered their valley filled her with more fear than she’d ever known in her life.

  As her grandparents moved toward the door with Granny, she glanced at the sky and was startled to see that the sun had begun to sink into the west. “Oh, I didn’t realize how late it was getting. I need to get home.”

  Before she could take a step, Andrew was at her side. “How far do you live from here?”

  “About a mile and a half.”

  “Did you walk here this afternoon?”

  She laughed. “Of course I did. I’ve always walked everywhere I went in the Cove.”

  Andrew glanced past her to her grandfather who had now reached the front door. “Simon, I’d like to ask your permission to take Laurel home in my car.”

  All three stopped and looked back over their shoulders. Laurel’s grandparents exchanged quick glances. “Well, Andrew, I don’t…” Simon began.

  Andrew took a step nearer them. “I promise I’ll take her right home and deliver her to her front door safely. It’s the least I can do after ruining her dress.”

  Granny sighed and elbowed Simon in the ribs. “Oh, go on, Simon. The boy just wants to make amends for ruinin’ Laurel’s dress. Besides, it’s gettin’ late, and Matthew will be worried. I wouldn’t doubt them meetin’ him on the road on his way over to see what’s keepin’ her.”

  Anna gave a slight nod of her head, and Simon exhaled. “All right. But no stopping along the way. Take her straight home and nowhere else. Understand?”