by Kari Trumbo
Chapter Nine
Penny paced her room in agitation. She pulled her timepiece forward and looked at it again. Only five minutes had passed since Lily left. She grabbed a bonnet from the peg in her room and arranged it on her head, letting the ties fall down her back. It was a head covering that didn’t involve asking for help, something she was sore about doing. She descended the steps of the front porch and peeked behind the bush at the corner of their property to make sure Beau wouldn’t scare her again. He wasn’t there. She stood on the tips of her toes and looked down the street. Though he’d been much more visible than usual, he seemed to have evaporated into thin air today. She wondered briefly if he’d found a job. Perhaps his father was now well and he could. She swung her small basket and walked down to see her brother, Holston, at the mercantile.
As she entered the store, Carol turned from her conversation with Holston and daintily waved to her. Penny stepped forward to wait her turn.
“Penny, I’m so glad you were finally able to go down and speak to the sheriff on behalf of Josiah. It will take us weeks to put the weight back on him that he lost. He’s just skin and bones.” She turned back to Holston. “That’s fine, Mr. Hanover. Can you have that delivered to the Williams’ house?”
Holston nodded. “Yes, miss.”
Carol collected her bill and turned from Holston, avoiding Penny. She stepped up to the counter and her brother smiled at her.
“She’ll forgive you eventually. So what can I get for you, sis?” He reached for her list. “I’ve never figured out why we don’t just write the list the day before, and I could bring it with me. I guess some habits are hard to break.” Holston had a ready smile that shone over his whole face.
Penny pushed a strand of errant hair behind her ear. “I don’t mind the walk. I never thought I’d like living in town. Now I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”
“I s’pose when you marry Josiah you’ll stay in town, no matter what Ma and Pa decide to do.” He looked down the list. “I think I can bring this all over tonight, if Pa doesn’t pick it up later.”
“You’d best have it ready just in case.” Penny looked down at her hand and leaned against the high counter. “Holston? Do you think Josiah is an honest man?”
Holston put the list under his till and then clasped his hands in front of himself. “Pen, you know I’d never purposely steer you wrong. I’ve known Josiah just as long as you and I’ve never thought he was anything but a good man. I didn’t believe that he shot you for a second, though I wish they’d figure out who did.” He drummed his fingers on the shiny counter. “That was the easy bit. Now comes the hard. I hear a lot of talk in here. This is the place to gossip, and I’m not immune to hearing it. People have been talking that Josiah is into something, but no one knows exactly what. He’s very secretive about his deliveries and what he does when he isn’t visiting you. That breeds speculation. I’m not saying he’s doing anything wrong. He may just like to keep his business private. But...that is what you will deal with if you become Mrs. Williams. People will talk about you, too.”
“I don’t care about what other people say. I never have. You know that, Holston. I just want everything to go back as it was. If you can trust Josiah, then I feel like I’m going in the right direction. My feelings seem to be leading me back where I was.”
“Obviously something besides your memory loss is holding you back or you wouldn’t have come to me. What is it, Pen?”
She frowned and dashed a glance over her shoulder to make sure they were alone. “When I asked him last night on the porch if there was anything he kept from me, any reason I should distrust him?” She stopped to think about the right words to say. “He wouldn’t look at me when he answered, and his answer seemed…almost dishonest.”
“How can you be almost dishonest? Either you are or you aren’t. Do you feel he was dishonest?” Holsten leaned in closer and lowered his voice.
“I…I’m not sure. He just wouldn’t look at me and his answer felt false. I don’t want to accuse him of anything. Especially when we are just starting over.”
“No one in this world is perfect, not one. I think you should get to know him again, learn to trust him again. It is possible you feel distrust because you can’t remember him, because he is a stranger to you?”
“That is true. I’ve been taught to distrust men until I know them. It would explain why I didn’t recognize the two other men when I had my vision in the chapel. Perhaps it isn’t just Josiah I don’t remember, maybe it is all the men involved in the situation.”
Holsten pulled on her bonnet string. “Sounds like you know what’s ahead of you.”
“I do. Thank you for talking with me. You’ve always known just what to say.”
He laughed. “I know all the right things to say. I just don’t have the right someone to say them to!”
“She will come. You’ll see.” Penny tossed her bonnet tie back over her shoulder and left the mercantile. Only a few short hours to wait for Josiah.
~~~
Beau walked ahead of the team with his rifle in hand. Josiah led the oxen and listened, both for anyone waiting for them or for noise from within the cart. They’d already had to stop twice because Cori had begun shaking uncontrollably and frothed at the mouth. Josiah had never seen anything like it. Moses said it was The Fear, but he didn’t know what that meant. He focused left to right, waiting for the tiny town of Rocks Peak to come into view.
The grade got steadily sharper and he knew they’d be there shortly. As it was, they were late and they still had to unload the cart and get back to Cutter’s Creek before anyone noticed he was missing. They crossed a shallow mountain stream and the trees again opened up to the small hamlet of Rocks Peak. He drove the team to the far end of town to a small house. Josiah looked up and down the street, but his aunt’s cousin was nowhere to be seen. He whistled like a mountain bluebird and waited.
No sound came from within the cabin. Josiah felt the blood pumping in his ears. Something wasn’t right, and he had nowhere to turn. He couldn’t take this load back to Cutter’s Creek, and he certainly couldn’t take the people within his cart all the way back. The sun sank a little lower in the sky. Beau strode up to him.
“I don’t like this. The contact is supposed to be sitting outside waiting for the delivery. Something is wrong.”
Beau looked back and forth. “I don’t feel right just leaving these people. We have to find somewhere safe for them. This town is supposed to be ready for this couple. Is there a doctor or someone we could take them to?”
The door of the cabin swung open and Shorty stood in the door with his rifle. “Lookie who’s out of jail.” He had angry bumps all over his skin and he swayed as he strode forward a few steps, and then stopped and rocked back on his heels.
“Shorty, you got no business messing with this. We find homes for these people in places where they are wanted. Where they don’t have to run no more. You need to leave them alone. This isn’t your town or your fight. Move along.”
“I don’t want none of them up here. You say you take them where they’s wanted? You brought the last batch to Carter. That’s where I live and I don’t want ‘em. S’bad enough we got the Indians. Course, you don’t think those Indians is so bad, do ya, Jo?” He scowled through the puffiness in his face.
At the mention of his Penny, he grabbed the rifle from Beau and leveled it at Shorty’s chest.
“You go right ahead and pull that trigger. Then they’ll arrest you, an’ I don’t have to worry about no mo’ of yo’ deliveries around here.” He spat and the motion sent him floundering across the front yard. Beau ran into him, slamming him at waist level and knocking him to the ground. He didn’t fight much, but screamed like a tom cat whenever Beau touched him. He tied Shorty’s hands and Josiah ran inside to see what had happened to his cousin. He found Cousin Ned tied and gagged in a chair.
Josiah hurried to untie him, telling what happened in his front yard and about Moses and
Cori.
“I’ll get a fire going. She’ll need one after riding this long. We don’t have a doctor in town. We just make do with whatever women pass down.”
Beau crossed the threshold and strode in, crossing his arms. “Shorty’s waiting over by the cart. We need to get those two inside. Cori isn’t looking good.”
Ned nodded. “I’m working on it. You bring ‘em inside.” He looked to Josiah. “That must be your new man? Shorty got in here by telling me he was your new man, come to scout out the house. I’d heard you’d hired someone, but I didn’t know who. I should have made him do the sign, but I was so nervous. It’s been days since you were supposed to be here.”
“I’m sorry about that, Ned.” Josiah went over to Ned’s stove and spooned up two bowls of soup.
Ned stood back and smiled at his fire, and then moved his rocker in front of it. “You tell Cousin Mable that we can handle these two, but the town is hesitant to take on more just now. She’ll have to write further on to find homes for the next ones.”
Josiah nodded. “I’ll pass that on to Aunt Mable.”
Moses entered the cabin with Cori draped over both arms. She wasn’t moving. He laid her gently in the rocking chair and rubbed her hands.
Josiah looked up at Ned. “You know anything about The Fear? That’s what he says she’d got.”
Moses turned and looked at him. He spoke slowly as if to a child. “Not the fear, the fe-ver. She done had it for days now.”
Ned’s mouth flattened and he crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t know nothing about the fever. Is it catchy?”
Moses shrugged his massive shoulders and continued rubbing Cori’s hand.
Ned stared hard at Josiah. “You need to get Cousin Mable down here to help and right away. We can’t have the town thinking these two brought in sickness. It’s a worrisome change as it is.”
Josiah shook his head. “I can’t. We have to deliver this flour to the mercantile and get back to Cutter’s Creek. I’m not even supposed to have left, and you want me to chance coming back here…in the dark?”
Ned looked outside. “Getting mighty late to make that trip. You’ll have at least the last half in the dark going through the forest. Good thing you know the route.”
Josiah shook his head. “That won’t do me a bit of good and you know it. I have a young lady waiting who’s nervous about me. I’ve got to make it home to at least let her know I’m safe. I’ll talk to Mable. She might be able to come tomorrow morning, but then she’d have to close the shop, which would make the tongues in town wag. Our doctor won’t leave. He never even leaves town. I don’t know what to do.”
“I suspect you’ll figure it out. If’n you don’t, we could lose this woman and that would be a terrible shame, to be this close to a new life and never see it.”
Josiah raked the back of his neck with his gloved hand. “I’ll talk to Mable. Maybe she’ll know what to do. We’ll take Shorty with us. He’s got something to answer for back in Cutter’s Creek.”
Chapter Ten
Penny sat with her sister Geraldine on the front porch after supper. Geraldine pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders. “It’s almost time to get the coats out again. Sometimes I miss Paradise Valley, where we could sit out on the porch and as far as you could see was ours.”
Penny pushed the swing back with one foot and let it fall forward on its own. “So do I. Sometimes.”
“Do you ever wonder how Josiah ended up in our corner of Montana and how he just happened to meet Pa at just the right time to deliver us here?”
“No, I don’t wonder. The Lord works in mysterious ways. We weren’t sure how we were going to get us all here with our belonging, but He provided us with Josiah, who was more than happy to get paid not just for his delivery all the way to Paradise Valley, but all the way back home too. To think that we wanted to go to the same small town. It must have been quite a shock.”
“Do you think I’ll ever find someone who makes me smile like Mama does when she catches Papa staring at her, or like you do when Josiah comes near?”
“I’m sure you will.” Penny tried to focus on her sister, but as the minutes ticked by, her nerves were tough to harness. “You only just turned twenty years old. You’re still young. When we left behind everything in Paradise Valley, I was sure I’d be an old maid since we were moving where I didn’t know anyone.”
Geraldine giggled. “You are, sis.”
Penny reached over to pinch her sister. Geraldine shrieked and stifled her giggles under her hand. Mable made her way towards them from the sweet shop. She stopped at the edge of the porch and nodded at the girls.
“Fine evening. Penny, it has been lonely at the shop without you. And busy. I hope you are feeling well enough to come back soon.”
Penny felt her desire drain from her. She’d been putting off going back in the shop. The fear that held her around the throat whenever she considered going back left her gasping for air. Her mother would tell her to face her fears head on, but her father would be more cautious and look at the whole situation. She closed her eyes and prayed. Lord, what do I say? I can’t lie to her and I’m so frightened.
“I can see you aren’t ready yet, but please consider it as soon as you can. By the by, have you seen Josiah tonight? He was supposed to have come in the shop tonight, but I finally gave up waiting for him and assumed he came to visit you instead. You sure are a sight prettier than I am.” She laughed.
Penny stopped swinging and her mouth opened to speak, and then clamped it shut. Mable was his aunt, but she didn’t always know what Josiah was up to. Maybe this was just a misunderstanding.
“I haven’t seen him, at least not yet. He told me he would be by this evening. I really expected him any moment.” She picked up her watch around her neck, realizing belatedly that it was now too dark to see it.
“Hmmm. He had a few things to do this afternoon, but I fully expected to see him. If he doesn’t stop by, don’t fret, dear. I’m sure he just got too tied up in his work.”
“But…he wasn’t supposed to leave town. If he’s working, then he certainly did. What if he really did shoot me and he has escaped?” Penny couldn’t keep her voice from rising in pitch.
“Penny! Keep your voice down. Now I thought you said that there were two other men there that night and that Josiah just might be the kind one? Didn’t you say that? Josiah is doing all of this for you. If he didn’t do his job tonight, he would have lost the bid on the next one. The work he’s doing right now not only pays well, it is the right thing to do.”
“So why won’t he tell me about it?” Penny rubbed her shoulder gently, it hurt less and less.
“Not for me to say. I told him to tell you, but he won’t listen to old Aunt Mable.” She shook her head.
“Now, go inside and heat yourself up some tea. He might be coming around yet. I had just hoped that he was with you instead of late. I’ve got to go make sure the sheriff hasn’t rounded a posse for him already.”
“Mable?” Penny leaned forward in the seat. “You are sure he is doing something honorable, and what he is doing is all that he is hiding from me?”
Mable looked at the ground, and then up at Penny. “I don’t think he’s trying to hide anything from you, Penny. He’s a good boy.” She turned and left for the jail.
~~~
Josiah pushed the oxen faster than he normally would, but the cart was almost empty and they could rest when he reached home…as long as no one saw him approach. It might be easier in the dark. He slammed his foot into the tongue of the wagon. He’d be far too late to meet with Penny. She would be not only disappointed, but she might lose what little trust he’d managed to build yesterday. They reached the edge of the forest. His house sat just in sight.
A lamp in the living room let him know that something was amiss at the house. Aunt Mable put that light in that spot only when he should be cautious. Why now; why tonight? He waited for Beau to climb down.
“I’ll go
see what’s going on in the house. You wait with Shorty until I get back.” Beau plunged into the darkness before Josiah could answer.
Shorty moaned in the back of the cart. His many stings had left him talking nonsense and unable to sit up. When Beau wanted a man out of the way, he usually handled it. Neither of them would ever have guessed that Shorty would not only still be able to move, but had been able to travel to Rocks Peak to intercept them. That plan may cost him his life if they didn’t get him to a doctor soon. Josiah had never seen a reaction to the stings like this.
He watched Beau circle to the front of his house and he crouched down against the tongue to rest. It could take a few minutes for him to figure out what the problem was and take care of it. The oxen stamped and puffed. Knowing they were close to their stalls where they could rest and eat made them antsy and unwilling to remain still. They puffed small white clouds of vapor in the cool evening.
If they made a break for the stable, there would be no way he could stop them. He held on to the lines and pulled down on the brake to keep them right where he wanted to, but one good yank and he’d be in trouble.
“Come on, Beau,” he whispered. “What’s going on?”
Josiah heard some voices. Beau, Sheriff Brentwood, Mable, Carol, and his father spoke in low tones. He could see their silhouette outside his house just to the left as if his family were leading the sheriff back toward town. Mable and Sheriff Brentwood left laughing and Beau came back toward him. Josiah stood and seated himself back on the bench.
“What was that all about?” he whispered, unsure of how far his voice would travel this close to the river.
“Brentwood was looking for you. Mable told him you had to go pasture the oxen. That you would be back shortly. When I came in, she told the sheriff that I had been with you the whole time so you were back. He wasn’t happy about you leaving but she told him you’d only gone just outside of town.”
“Let’s get these beasts put away for the night and go find the doctor for Shorty. He has a meeting with Sheriff Brentwood early tomorrow morning.”
