by Lucy Evanson
David set the brake on the carriage and jumped down to the ground, then came around to help Lee and Melanie. “Well, let’s go see your pa,” he murmured, though he was a whole lot less enthusiastic about it than he was an hour earlier.
“I don’t like the looks of this,” Melanie said, as she grasped his hand and stepped down.
“Let’s just wait and see,” David said. “You know what they say about judging a book by its cover.” He tried to give her a smile, but even he knew that his eyes gave away the misgivings he was feeling as well. “Come on.”
Lee led them to the door, wading through the thick grass. “Careful,” the boy said, glancing over his shoulder. “Don’t step on that.” He was pointing to a broken whiskey bottle lurking in the grass, but he might as well have pointed to the entire yard. In the dozen paces from the carriage, David saw four shattered bottles. There were a handful of rusted food tins. Scraps of splintered wood. A single, well-weathered wagon wheel, sinking into the earth.
Melanie took his arm as they walked, perhaps as much to help her navigate the trash as to get his attention. “How can he live like this?” she muttered. “What kind of parent keeps his house like this?”
David was silent. Some questions had no good answers.
“I’ll go wake up my pa,” Lee said as they reached the door. “Y’all wait here. Ain’t nobody supposed to come in.” He opened the door a crack, slipped inside, and closed it behind him.
Melanie turned to David instantly. “This is no good,” she said. “You can see that, can’t you?”
He nodded as she spoke. “It’s not the best house I’ve ever seen.”
“It’s not just the house,” she said. “I wish it were only that. The boy has no food, and his father drinks all the time—”
“We don’t know that for sure.”
“You and I both know that,” Melanie said, her eyes widened in anger. “Still asleep at eleven o’clock. Medicine, my foot.”
“Actually, it was for his foot.”
She drilled a hole in him with her gaze. “If you’re going to make a joke at a time like this, it should at least be funny.”
There was a loud groan from inside, and David leaned forward, close to the door. He put a finger to his lips and pressed his ear against the wood.
“Goddammit! I told you not to bother me when I’m sleeping!” The voice was hoarse, gruff and whiny all at the same time. “Didn’t I tell you that?”
Lee’s reply was too soft to understand.
“What people? What in hell are you talking about?”
There was another murmur from Lee, and then the creak of a bed frame. David stepped back just as Lee opened the door and joined them outside. “Here’s my pa,” the boy said, keeping his eyes downturned.
His pa had not been expecting company. The man who stepped into the doorway had greasy hair tousled in a wing extending to his left, and his reddened, puffy face still bore lines from his pillowcase. His pants were held up by a single suspender that ran diagonally over his shoulder, and David didn’t want to think about what had so thoroughly stained his shirtfront. He was about the same age, David guessed, but they wore it differently. For David, twenty-seven still gave him the glow of a healthy youth. Lee’s father looked like he had ridden the hell out of each one of those twenty-seven years.
“Who are you?” His eyes were watery and he scowled against the bright day.
David could smell the liquor on him from three paces. “I’m David Tanner,” he said. “From over in Mineral Point.” He was about to step forward and shake hands, but Lee’s dad chose that moment to scratch his armpit. David stayed put.
“And who are you?” the man asked as he looked at Melanie. He gave her a long look up and down, apparently liking what he saw, since his frown melted into a smile. It was hard to say whether he had more yellow teeth or more brown ones.
“I’m Melanie,” she said. Consciously or not, she took a step closer to David. “And you are....”
“Benz,” he said. He didn’t bother trying to conceal the way his gaze was focused on her bust. “Merton Benz.”
“These are the folks I told you about,” Lee said, looking up at his father. “They’re friends.”
Benz laughed. It was sharp and short and ended in a hacking cough. “You ain’t got no friends,” he spluttered as he wiped his eyes.
“No, he’s right,” Melanie said. “We are his friends. He stayed with us last night.”
Lee’s father hadn’t had the brightest expression before, but now his face went absolutely dull. “Huh?”
David cleared his throat. “He was over in Mineral Point,” he said. “He spent the night at my ranch.”
Benz stared down at his boy, his eyebrows all bunched together as if he were still struggling to understand. He dropped one hand to Lee’s shoulder. “Is that true?”
Lee nodded.
Benz’s hand leaped to Lee’s ear like a snake after a mouse. The boy cried out and tried to twist away, but his father had pinched him tight and fast, and he pulled Lee closer in a flash. “What’d I tell you about running away?”
“Pa, let go! That hurts!”
“What’d I tell you?”
Melanie stepped up and took the man’s arm. “Mr. Benz, please stop. He was never in any danger, I assure you.”
Benz turned his head to look at her. He said nothing, but his smile was no longer to be seen. In fact, he looked at her like she’d be next, once he was finished with Lee. “This ain’t your business,” he growled, then turned back to his boy.
David took her by the elbow, firmly but gently, and pulled her out of reach, stepping slightly in front of her. Benz was shorter than he was by about three inches, and he had the thin, wasted frame of a man who drank most of his meals. Any fight between them would be a short one. David couldn’t say he was exactly abusing the boy—David had gone through this once or twice himself when he was a lad—but if it went any further Benz was going to have a real bad afternoon.
“What’d I tell you?” he repeated, twisting the boy’s ear again.
“To not run away!” Lee squealed. “I’m sorry! I was hungry!”
Benz finally relented and let go of his son. Lee clapped one hand to his ear and turned toward the house so they wouldn’t see him crying, but his quivering shoulders made that clear enough. “That boy just don’t listen,” Benz said. “But I’ll make him learn, soon enough.”
“There’s no reason to hurt him like that,” Melanie said, stepping out from behind David. A tremor of emotion carried her words, and David could see that Lee wasn’t the only one crying. “If you were a better father, he probably wouldn’t have run away. He’s a good boy.”
Benz’s lips curled back, like he was a dog getting ready to bite. “You think you know better than me how to raise my own son?” He spit onto the ground and then balled his fists. “You don’t know nothing ‘bout him,” Benz said, as David again stepped between them. “Or me.”
“She just means that Lee behaved well when he was with us,” David said. “She didn’t mean anything else by it. Did you, Melanie?”
There was a pause, but she finally spoke, nearly too quietly to hear. “No, I didn’t,” she said.
Benz sucked his teeth for a moment. “Anyway, he’s back home now.”
“So he is,” David said.
“So be on your way.” Benz shoved his son inside the house, stepped in, and closed the door.
David took a breath and crossed his arms as he stared at the door’s peeling paint. “That didn’t go exactly like how I was expecting,” he said. Melanie was silent, and when he glanced at her she was trembling. He reached out and squeezed her shoulder briefly, then turned to go. He led her as though she were sleepwalking; she stumbled along, tripping over the long grass, and when he reached out to steady her, he saw that her vision must have been blurry with tears.
“We can’t just leave him here,” she said, wiping her eyes.
“And we can’t just take him,�
�� David said. “Like it or not, this is his home.”
“But it’s not fair!”
“Maybe not, but this is where he belongs.” He lifted her up to the carriage seat before she could protest any more, then climbed aboard himself.
“No. No child belongs in a house like that,” she said, reaching forward and taking David by the shoulder. “No child deserves that.”
“Melanie, that’s his father,” he said, as he released the brake and snapped the reins. They turned and began heading back home.
“I don’t care if that’s his father or not,” she said. “David, stop. Please.”
“Look, we can’t just go around getting into the business of every family we meet.”
“Maybe not,” she said. “But we can with this one. I don’t trust Benz. We’re leaving a defenseless boy alone with a dangerous man. If you don’t go, I’ll go myself.”
He snorted. The next thing he knew, there was the brush and rustle of fabric behind him as Melanie climbed out of the runabout and jumped to the ground.
“Whoa,” David called, pulling hard on the reins as he brought the carriage to a halt. Melanie had fallen to her hands and knees as she landed, but she stood up fast and tall. Her eyes were lit with a fire he hadn’t yet seen in her. “What do you want me to do, kidnap him?”
“We have to do something,” she said. “You have to do something.”
He studied her for a long moment. Her chin was high and her fists were curled. She sure did look ready for a scrap. He sighed. Any fight with Benz would be over in a minute. A fight with Melanie would go on for a lot longer than that. David nodded at the seat behind him. “Fine,” he said. “Get in.”
He made another turn and returned to the house. They parked close enough to easily hear what was going on inside the soddie. Benz was barking at Lee. Lee replied with his usual soft murmur. There was the sound of a fist pounding on a table, and then another noise, distinct and immediately recognizable: it was the sound of a hand against a cheek. Lee began to cry.
“Goddammit,” David muttered.
Melanie sharply sucked in a breath, and when she spoke it was like she had felt the blow herself. “That poor boy,” she managed to say. “Go get him.”
David gritted his teeth as he set the brake and jumped down to the ground. It was quiet out there on the prairie. He could hear the breeze blowing through the grass as he strode to the front door. There were birds calling to each other in the oaks above. And there was sobbing, both from Lee inside the house and Melanie just behind him.
He knocked hard on the door, and when Benz opened up he looked as enthused to see him as a man considering a wart.
“What do you want?”
“I wanted to talk to you about something before we go,” David said. “I had an idea that I think might interest you.”
“Get to the point, mister. I’m busy.”
Busy beating your son, you mean. David felt a wave of heat go through him, but he forced himself to take a deep breath and even out his voice. He had unconsciously balled his fist, and he unclenched it only with an effort. “See, the thing is, Melanie really took a shine to your boy,” he said.
“So?”
“So as it happens, she wants kids of her own,” he said. “But she doesn’t have any yet.”
“I said get to the point.”
“Why don’t you let her watch Lee for a couple of days?”
Benz narrowed his eyes. “What?”
“You know, just so she can see what it’s like,” David said, then leaned closer and lowered his voice. “Just between you and me, I don’t think she understands how much work it is to look after a boy like that.”
Benz snorted. “No kidding.”
“Anyway, I’d really appreciate it if you’d let him stay with us for a while. Just a few days. Maybe a week,” he said. “I could make it worth your while.”
Benz cocked his head to the side. “How do you mean?”
“Well, you strike me as the kind of man who would appreciate a good drink now and again,” David said. “Let me guess. Are you a beer drinker?”
“Bourbon.”
“Ah, of course. Well, how about you go get yourself a bottle of Crow, then? My treat.” David stuck his hand into his pocket and jingled the coins within.
Benz ran a hand over his stubble and his gaze went unfocused. He swallowed hard, like he could already taste the first sip from a brand-new bottle. “Lee!”
The boy stepped forward, out of the gloom. His eyes were puffy, his cheeks were streaked with tears and David could count the red stripes on his face where his father’s fingers had landed. “Yeah, Pa?”
“You’re going with these folks for a while,” Benz said. Then he stuck out his hand toward David, not to shake, but to take the coins he’d been promised.
~ ~ ~
David didn’t say a word the whole ride home. Melanie could see that his brow was furrowed and his jaw was set; he was so deep in thought that he hadn’t even heard her when she spoke, and she let him be after that. After what he had done, he certainly deserved some time to be alone with his thoughts.
Melanie looked down at Lee, who was fast asleep with his head in her lap. She stroked his hair, brushing it out of his face, and he let out a sigh as though even now he understood that he was safe and sound.
She wiped her eyes again. So silly, she thought. There’s no reason to be upset now. Everything turned out fine. Still, it was hard to keep that uppermost in her mind when she could see evidence on Lee’s face that things, until just recently, hadn’t been fine at all. She gingerly laid her hand on his cheek, just as if her touch could erase his father’s, and wiped her eyes again with her free hand.
After a moment she reached for her book and found her place. They had a long ride ahead and it would be good to think about something else for a while.
When Lord Wellstone plucked her from among all the other orphans at Harks House, he changed her life. Penny had heard the dire tales of the girls who had spent their whole lives under the roof at Harks, only to come of age and be turned out to the street. It was often a brutally short, brutally unpleasant life after that, but what could be expected of girls who had nobody to turn to in this world? Even now, years later and surrounded by the warm luxury of Whitelake Manor, Penny shivered as she remembered the stories of the girls she had known and the miserable deaths they had.
If an orphan girl was lucky, she found work in a cotton mill; in that regard, life hardly changed from what she knew at Harks House. A girl was given a cot, a cloak and a bowl of soup every day for lunch. She gave back ten hours on a normal day; an abnormal day also asked for a finger or two, but one learned quickly to respect the machinery.
Unlucky girls found no such work. They became those half-people who existed, rather than lived, frequenting only those places that polite society refused to recognize, selling only what they’d arrived in this world with, existing only in body while their souls crumbled inside.
Lord Wellstone diverted her from that road. He hadn’t just changed Polly’s life; he had saved it. He wasn’t just her employer. He wasn’t merely a man who she expected would make both a kind parent and faithful husband someday. He was a hero.
Chapter 9
The morning sky started out a deep red—almost like the color of blood—but by the time Melanie had the water boiling for coffee, it had calmed and was a beautiful blend of pink and purple. It was such a nice morning, in fact, that she had her coffee on the porch to take in the morning air. It was already warm and pleasant outside, which augured a hot, humid day, but which was very nice at just that moment.
What a difference a little time makes. It was hard to believe that they had only met Lee less than 48 hours ago. They had been preparing to take him home only 24 hours ago. And now he was staying at the ranch for...well, for a week, anyway. She studied her coffee. The steam drifted from her cup and dissipated in the air, leaving no trace behind. Maybe he’ll stay a little longer. She took a long last
sip, draining her cup, and returned to the kitchen. There were fifteen men who’d be wanting breakfast, and it was time to get to work.
She had gathered eggs and started baking already when she heard the creak of the kitchen door. She turned, expecting to see Lee there. Instead, it was Polly.
“What are you doing up so early?”
Polly snorted as she looked at the clock in the corner. “It’s almost six,” she said. “That’s hardly early.”
“Early for a woman who’s supposed to be taking it easy, I mean. But it seems like you’re feeling a little better.”
“I am,” Polly said. “I actually can’t remember a time when I was so well-rested.” She pulled a stool up to the kitchen table and moved the eggs closer to her. “But it is a little boring, I have to say. I thought I’d come make breakfast with you.”
“Well, I’m glad to have the help,” Melanie said. “That’ll give me time to get lunch ready for our picnic.”
Polly raised an eyebrow.
“It’s something Lee was talking about last night. I told him that I’d take him for a walk around the ranch and he asked about having lunch on the hill,” she said. “Would you like to come along?”
“No, I’ll pass on that,” Polly said. A slight smile appeared on her face as she cracked an egg into the bowl. “But I think you should have David join you.”
“Oh, I...I guess I figured he’d be too busy for that.”
“He’s the boss,” Polly said. “He can make the time for it if he wants to. I think it would mean a lot to the boy.”
