The Hen House

by Sharon Sala

  Columbines were blooming along the edge of the path, their pale, rosy blooms dangled from the fragile stems like tiny bells. A pair of robins were fussing over a green wooly caterpillar, and a small gray squirrel was digging near a clump of rocks, searching for nuts it had buried last fall. T-Bone’s presence made the squirrel nervous and it disappeared up a tree.

  The peacefulness of the moment was, for Letty, bittersweet. It was the kind of scene that Eulis would have loved, and she felt more than a little anger that fate had taken him away.

  When she reached his grave, she eased herself down onto the stump, and as she did, realized she was shaking.

  “Lord, Eulis, what’s the matter with me? I’m carrying on like some helpless female, and you and I both know I’m anything but that.”

  Her complaint seemed out of place within the peacefulness, and since it was obvious Eulis wasn’t going to answer, Letty decided to shut up. For a while, she just sat, watching a tiny trail of ants marching from somewhere beneath the stump to an anthill on the other side of the white cross bearing Eulis’ name, trying desperately to concentrate on anything but the constant rumble in her belly.

  As she sat, a quiet enveloped her. The shaking eased. Her stomach settled. She closed her eyes and drew a deep, cleansing breath, and as she did, a realization dawned.

  Eulis had been gone for more than two months. There had been so much turmoil in her life afterward that she hadn’t given the normal functions of her body a single thought, but she was thinking about them now. Not once since Eulis had died, had she had her monthly flow.

  She stood abruptly, her gaze frantic, her heart pounding in disbelief. Then her vision blurred as she gazed down at the cross on Eulis’ grave.

  “Oh, Eulis… Eulis… can it be? Here I’ve been thinking you went off and left me all alone.” Her voice began to shake as she laid her hands across the flat of her belly. “I’m not sure about this, because… well… I haven’t been in this situation before… but I just realized we might be having a baby.” She sat back down on the stump, stared at the bulge of bare earth over his grave, and then started to cry. “All I have to say is… it’s not fair.”

  It took a few minutes of bawling out loud before she could finish what she needed to say. The ants were still in the midst of their march, but the robins had flown away and the squirrel was still up a tree. Letty shuddered, overwhelmed from the realization and from the new wave of grief.

  Eulis was gone, but he’d left a bit of himself behind. She didn’t have to see Dr. Angus to be told, there was a knowing deep in her heart. She was going to have a baby. She came off the stump and went down to her knees, then fell forward, embracing the bulge of brown earth that blanketed her man. She laid there, numb to everything but the knowledge she was coming to accept. Eulis was gone, but he’d given her the one thing she’d believed was beyond her.

  “Thank you, Eulis… thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

  She never heard the sounds of someone approaching on horseback, or the thump of his boots hitting dirt as he dismounted on the run. It wasn’t until someone began pulling her upright that she realized she was no longer alone.

  ***

  Robert Lee had awakened with Letty on his mind. It wasn’t anything unusual, because she haunted his thoughts during the day, as well as his dreams at night. Still, for some reason, today felt different.

  He’d purposefully kept his distance over the last few weeks, knowing that it was safer if she was angry with him, than if she was overly sympathetic regarding his gunshot wound. Yet for some reason, his need to see her today was stronger than his fear that he would reveal too much of his feelings. And so he’d saddled up after tending his chores and ridden into town. He’d killed time at the saloon, bought some needed supplies, and ridden by the blacksmith to have a loose shoe replaced on his horse’s right hoof. Each time he stopped for a task, his gaze was drawn to the fine house just visible on the hill above Denver City. It was almost noon. He knew if he rode in during mealtime, they would invite him to eat. It would be a good excuse to spend some time in Letty’s presence, but with the distraction of all the other women to keep his manners in place. Once his horse had been shod, he headed for the road that led to Letty.

  He’d smelled fried chicken as he was riding up to the front of the house. The windows were open and the curtains were blowing in the breeze. He could hear the sound of laughter and recognized little Katie’s voice, as well as Alice’s. He knew Mary Whiteside only slightly, but was getting to know her better with each trip. He knew Miss Delilah all too well, but in deference to her new lifestyle, pretended she was a new acquaintance.

  However, despite the surfeit of females living in this house, his interest lay with only one. It was the fierce warrior-woman with the long brown hair and clear blue eyes that haunted him, and it was her he’d come to see.

  He was about to dismount when he realized that T-Bone was standing at the corner of the house, watching him in a strange, quiet fashion. Usually the dog came running, anxious for a pat on the head, or a piece of jerky.

  “Hey, boy,” he said softly, and clucked his tongue, thinking that the dog would come.

  Instead, T-Bone turned around and disappeared around the corner of the house. He thought nothing of it until the dog re-appeared, again with that watchful stare. This time, Robert Lee remembered that wherever T-Bone was, Letty wouldn’t be far away. He settled back into the saddle and rode around the corner of the house, thinking he would find Letty at some job in the back yard.

  At first, he didn’t see her, but then when he did, his heart came up in his throat. She was face down on the ground at Eulis’ grave, and from where he was sitting, appeared to be unconscious.

  He spurred his horse forward, riding toward her at a lope. By the time he dismounted, he could tell she was crying. The sound tore straight through him as he ran toward her. Without a word, he lifted her up into his arms.

  ***

  Letty was startled to find that she was upright and being cradled against Robert Lee’s broad chest.

  “Robert Lee?”

  He carried her to the stump and sat her down gently before dropping to one knee.

  “Are you hurt? Did you fall?”

  Without thinking, she cupped the side of his face.

  “I didn’t fall. I suppose you could say I was indulging myself with a good cry.”

  The touch of her hand on his face struck him dumb. For a moment, he couldn’t think—couldn’t speak—couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t until she dropped her hand in her lap that he came to his senses.

  “Oh,” he said awkwardly, then stood up and stepped back. “I didn’t mean to intrude. I’ll just ride on—”

  “You’ll do no such thing,” Letty said, and held out her hand. “Help me up,” she said, and then grabbed his hand before he could think to pull back and hefted herself upright. “Lord, I’m shaking like an aspen.”

  “Are you ill?”

  Letty shaded her eyes with her hand as she looked up.

  “I have been a bit under the weather this morning, and would appreciate a ride back to the house.”

  Robert Lee was surprised by the request, but more than happy to oblige.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said softly, and helped her mount. “Just hold onto the horn. I’ll walk you back, myself.”

  “Thank you,” Letty said, thankful that she wouldn’t have to make the trek back on her own.

  Robert Lee gave her a nervous glance as they started toward the house at a slow, easy pace. The rocking motion of the horse didn’t sit all that well with Letty, but it was still better than making the walk back of her own volition.

  “I’d be happy to ride down and get Dr. Warren,” Robert Lee said.

  “There’s no need,” Letty said, and lifted the heavy fall of her hair away from her neck.

  Robert Lee frowned. “But you said you weren’t well.”

  Letty sighed. It seemed odd that Robert Lee was going to be the first one she t
old, but she had to start somewhere and he was the closest.

  “Well, if this morning is any indication, I reckon I’ve got a few more months of being sick ahead of me,” she said.

  Robert Lee paused, then turned around and looked her square in the face. There was a glitter in her eyes he’d never seen before, and a softening of the sternness around her mouth.

  “What are you saying?”

  “That I’m with child.” Her chin quivered just the least little bit, but she didn’t give way to the tears in her voice. “I was just giving Eulis the good news. He didn’t have much to say on the subject, but you know how he is. Even when he’s happiest, he’s still a quiet man.”

  Robert Lee’s heart stuttered to a stop, then started back up so suddenly that it hurt the inside of his chest. He looked at her body, picturing the way it was going to change, and was instantly ashamed that he was jealous of a dead man.

  But then he smiled, and as he did, Letty was startled by the way it changed his face. It was the first time she’d actually seen Robert Lee as the man he was, and not just an employee and a friend. It also struck her that, for a man who’d lived such a hard and dangerous life, he was actually quite handsome.

  “I’m proud for you, ma’am,” he said softly. “It must give you a real good feeling to know that Eulis is still with you after all.”

  Letty thought about it a moment, then nodded.

  “You’re right, Robert Lee. You put a good name to the feeling that’s in me. I’m sad that my baby will never know its father. Still, I’ve had a dream all my life of one day sitting out on the back porch of my house with my child at my feet, watching the sun go down and the moon come up. And as the darkness comes to the land, we’d be listening for the first call of the whippoorwill. I used to do that with my Mama before she died. Then, after the way my life turned out, I never thought I’d get to do it with one of my own.”

  Robert Lee heard the longing in her voice and wanted to weep. Instead, he pulled his hat down a little lower over his forehead and urged the horse forward. With every step that brought them closer to the house, Letty Potter was growing farther and farther away from him, and there was nothing he could do about it.

  ***

  Within the month, everyone in Denver City knew that the Widow Potter was carrying her dead husband’s baby. Even the hardest of men were touched by the situation.

  After a quick examination, Dr. Warren pronounced Letty and her baby healthy and forbid her to ride until after the baby was born. For Letty, it was a small price to pay for the joy of becoming a mother. At first, she’d been uneasy that Alice would be upset, maybe even envious that Letty was having a baby when hers was dead. But she wasn’t. It was Letty’s first lesson in knowing how the heart of a mother can work. Alice had taken Katie into her life as readily as she’d accepted the baby to whom she’d given birth. One had been taken away, but another had been given. Life wasn’t easy. Raising a child to adulthood was even harder. Alice knew that firsthand. Letty prayed to God that it was something she never had to face.

  ***

  Letty’s pregnancy had, in an odd way, eased Robert Lee’s yearnings. He still cared for her—dreamed of her, yearned for her. But he was well aware that her entire being was focused on nothing but the baby she was carrying.

  Because she couldn’t ride out to the mine anymore, he made a habit of stopping by the house more often. The ease of the routine into which they’d settled was pleasing to both. Letty didn’t realize how much she’d come to look forward to Robert Lee’s visits until he’d gone three days without stopping by.

  ***

  Letty stared at her growing girth in the full-length mirror in her bedroom, then turned sideways and cupped her hands beneath her belly to test her size from that angle as well.

  “Amazing,” she muttered, then slowly smiled as she patted her belly. “Come on, Little Bit, it’s time we started our day.”

  She moved out of her room and headed down the stairs, taking care to hold onto the railing as she descended. Once light on her feet, she now moved at a slower, awkward gait.

  ***

  The imminent arrival of a baby in the house had set every female hormone into overdrive. Alice was piecing a baby quilt. Delilah was saving and hand-hemming flour sacks to be used for diapers. Mary Whiteside had traded a traveling salesman a nugget of gold for two skeins of cotton yarn to knit the baby a bonnet. Even little Katie had involved herself. With Alice’s help, she was making a rag doll for the baby out of a couple of handkerchiefs and a stocking.

  And, unknown to all the women in the hen house, Robert Lee was making a gift of his own. He’d built a cradle out of hickory, honed it down to a smooth, satin sheen, and spent his nights carving figures into the headboard by candle light. He’d finished the little bird he’d put in the center of the design, and was working on a small rabbit. He had plans to put a turtle on the other side to balance the image, and imagined tiny fingers tracing the shapes of what he was carving into the wood. When he was deep into the dream, he imagined himself teaching the baby the animals’ names and the baby trying to repeat the words.

  ***

  Letty was all the way down the stairs and moving through the parlor into the kitchen before she realized the house was completely silent. With so many women in residence, it wasn’t often the house felt like this.

  “Hello,” she called. “Where is everybody?”

  A floor board creaked behind her. She turned, expecting to see one of the women, but there was no one there.

  “Probably out in the vegetable garden,” she said, and headed toward the kitchen.

  The screen door squeaked as she walked out onto the porch. T-Bone was noticeably absent and the women were nowhere to be seen.

  ENEMY WITHIN

  After calling their names with no answer, Letty began to feel uneasy. She circled the house, thinking they might have gone into the woods to look for berries, but when she went back into the house and searched the kitchen, the berry basket and both bowls they might have taken were still on the shelf.

  She turned and gazed out the window toward the forest, hoping to see the women emerging from an early-morning walk—certain that wherever they were, T-Bone would be running in circles around Katie, waiting for her to toss a stick for him to fetch.

  Lost in her muse, she stared out the window for several moments, trying to shake a feeling of unease. It wasn’t until a bird flew past her line of vision that she shook off the feeling of malaise and decided to look for them in earnest. She was all the way across the kitchen and reaching for the screen when she saw the first drop of blood.

  It was the size of a pea and almost lost in the shadow of the threshold. Startled, she went down on her knees and then touched it with the tip of her finger. It was still sticky.

  Breath caught in the back of her throat. When she looked up, she saw a trail of blood drops leading all the way out the door and off the porch. By the time she dragged herself to her feet, she was trying not to panic. There were all kinds of reasons why the blood could be here. Children get nose bleeds, and Alice was known to nick her fingers now and then when peeling vegetables.

  She sidestepped the drops and then followed them out the door and off the porch. It took her a few moments to find the small droplets in the grass, but when she did, she continued to follow them. She was halfway across the yard when she realized that the door to the root cellar was open, and that the blood trail seemed to be leading in that direction.

  She couldn’t imagine why they would all be in the cellar at once, or why they hadn’t answered when she’d called before, but her heart was lighter as she started toward it.

  “T-Bone! T-Bone!” She whistled sharply, expecting the dog to come bounding up the steps. When he didn’t, she couldn’t help but frown. Whatever was going on still didn’t feel right.

  She was less than twenty feet from the cellar when a man emerged and started toward her. Letty was so startled by his appearance that it took her a few
moments to realize he was holding a gun on her.

  He waved the gun in her face as he grinned.

  “Well, well now… I was just comin’ to get you. After all, you’re the belle of the ball.”

  Instinctively, Letty cupped her hands across the swell of her belly and took a step back. Even from where she was standing, the stranger’s stench was evident. A few seconds later, she doubled up her fists as she stared down the barrel of the gun.

  “What have you done with my family?”

  He laughed, revealing a mouth full of broken and rotting teeth.

  “They’re all fine… just a little tied up right now,” he said, and then waved the gun at her again. “You and me got some business to do. If you’re real good, I might be persuaded to turn everyone loose.”

  “What do you want?” she asked.

  “Want? What do I want?”

  Letty shuddered. The flat, almost vacant stare on his face was more frightening than if he was screaming at her.

  “You can have anything on the place. You want a horse? Some food? Just take it and go.”

  The man’s eyes narrowed as his smile disappeared.

  “Now, now… it’s not all that simple, missy.”

  It was at this point, Letty realized part of the stains on his hands were blood—almost as red as the drops she’d seen on the porch. She didn’t want to think of who he’d hurt—maybe beyond redemption. Despite the fear roiling in her belly, she remembered something she’d learned the hard way a long time ago. Never let them see your fear. Never let them see you cry.

  “Then speak your peace and get off my property,” she snapped.

  The stranger was startled by her behavior. He was the one with the gun. He was the one in charge. She was supposed to be crying. She was supposed to be scared.

  “You’re not the one callin’ the shots,” he said shortly. “Shut up and get over here.”

  “Or what?” Letty challenged.

  Again, the man felt as if he was losing some ground. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be.