Preach hadn’t been hungry? “Was Preach feeling all right, Miss Sophie?”
Miss Sophie placed her hand over Isabelle’s. “I’m not sure, dear.”
Josephine clapped again to silence the women and then tucked a stray lock of hair behind an ear. “I’d like to thank you all for coming. You’ve made many beautiful items for Saturday’s fair. We hope our booth will be our best sale to date.”
The women clapped their agreement.
“Those of you who can are welcome to stay after tea and continue working on your projects. As you know, the tradition for our tea time dictates the newest member of our community pours the tea.”
Isabelle’s glance bounced around the room from one knowing set of eyes to another. Josephine hadn’t given Isabelle any idea she would be the focus of attention. A burn crept up her ears. Her look darted to the table, where twenty cups awaited filling. Her stomach pitched. How difficult could it be? It was only pouring tea.
“Ladies, I’d like to introduce Isabelle Franklin, Lou Franklin’s niece.”
More polite clapping followed from the ladies in the room.
Miss Sophie encouraged Isabelle with a smile. She pushed her chair back and rose to join Josephine and Phyllis at the tea table.
As Josephine slipped one arm around Isabelle’s back and tucked her other hand in the crook of Isabelle’s elbow she spoke, “Please tell the ladies a little about yourself.”
Isabelle looked at the eager faces waiting for her to share. The walls pushed in. She drew a slow breath to calm her racing nerves. “I…well…”
Josephine gave Isabelle a light squeeze. “Let’s start with where you’re from.”
Calm down Isabelle. These women won’t hurt you. “I live in Seattle. I’ve come up to Stony Creek to help my aunt as an assistant cook at Pollitt’s Lumber.” Facts all the women in the room would know since Isabelle’s introduction to Phyllis in May’s restaurant. Why Isabelle was at the camp was not going to be announced.
Josephine scrunched her shoulders and leaned in. “Aren’t you leaving out the most important part?”
What was Josephine alluding to? “Um, I’m not sure—”
“You’re to be married!” Josephine released Isabelle’s shoulders and clapped. The other ladies joined her.
Did Isabelle’s ears just hear what she thought they did? “I believe there’s been a mistake.”
The room hushed, and the women stared at Isabelle. Her hands began to quake.
“Don’t be reticent,” Josephine said. “You can tell us.”
“I assure you, I am not betrothed.”
Miss Sophie stood and walked over to the tea table. “I believe we have a bit of a muddle. Ladies, shall we have our tea? Isabelle, I’ll help you pour.” She lifted one of the china teapots and handed it to Isabelle before taking another and pouring a steaming serving into the nearest cup. The woody scent of Orange Pekoe drifted through the room.
Josephine cleared her throat and raised her voice to be heard above the ladies who had resumed conversing with one another. “There’s no need to be secretive. Rumor has it your intended is coming to Stony Creek for a visit.”
The teapot wobbled. Isabelle set it down on the table. “My intended?”
Josephine tipped her head back and laughed as though Isabelle had said something humorous. “Daniel and your father should arrive this evening.”
Daniel was coming to Stony Creek? Why? Isabelle hadn’t replied to her father’s telegram. How could that have been construed as acceptance of Daniel’s offer of marriage? And how would Josephine know they were coming? For that matter, how did she even know of Daniel’s existence? Isabelle tried to control the tremor in her voice. “Josephine, what makes you think Daniel is coming to Stony Creek?”
Josephine’s gaze traveled to Iva’s. Iva looked as if she’d swallowed a canary. What had the two of them done?
“Ladies.” Miss Sophie’s voice filled the room as she poured another cup. “Shall we serve the tea?” Under her breath she said, “Let’s discuss this mix-up later, girls.”
The tea was served and the plates of cookies passed around as the women visited. Isabelle received several congratulations and questions regarding her upcoming nuptials. She stumbled over her words as she explained there would be no wedding.
As tea time drew to a close, most of the ladies left the church. Only a few stayed behind to continue working on items for the fair. Phyllis and Josephine collected the teacups in oversized enamel basins to take them next door to the parsonage for washing.
Pain had gripped Isabelle’s temples and would soon be coursing over the crown of her head. The thought that Daniel might actually be coming to Stony Creek wasn’t helping. “Josephine, let me help you wash up.”
“Mother’s assisting. You’re welcome to continue with the others at the craft tables if you like.”
“You can answer my questions here”—Isabelle swept out an arm—“or you can answer my questions next door.”
Josephine dropped the bin to the table. The teacups rattled, and several heads bobbed up. Josephine stretched a smile across her face before speaking softly. “Your relationship with Daniel and whether you are getting married or not, are no concern of mine.”
“I don’t have a relationship with Daniel.” Nor would she ever again. “But I would like to know how you know about Daniel and why you think he’s coming to Stony Creek.”
“I don’t know anything about Daniel.” Josephine picked up the bin and flounced toward the door.
Had Preach mentioned Daniel to Josephine? Everything Isabelle poured out on the way home from town should have been held in confidence. And how had it become so misconstrued that Josephine believed Isabelle and Daniel were getting married? Isabelle trotted after Josephine. “Answer my question.”
Miss Sophie, a teapot in her grip, followed Isabelle next door to the stone cottage that had served as the parsonage.
In the narrow kitchen at the end of the front hall, Phyllis was washing teacups in the ceramic sink while Josephine stood by, tight fists by her side. “I won’t apologize.” Josephine clamped her lips as she noticed Miss Sophie and Isabelle in the hall.
Phyllis turned, tugged a dishtowel from its hook, and dried her hands as she glared at Josephine. “My daughter has something she would like to say to you, Isabelle.”
“I do not have anything I would like to say.” Josephine’s lip curled up into a snarl. Her pleasant demeanor of the afternoon was completely gone. “I think Isabelle is the one who has something to say. She’s the one who showed up in Stony Creek pretending to be unattached, leading men astray, while all along she was hiding the fact she was engaged.”
“I have done no such thing,” Isabelle said. “And furthermore, I am not engaged.”
Pfft. “I’ve heard the stories, disappearing for an afternoon with our local pastor, no less.”
Was Josephine’s anger jealousy over Preach? It was possible, but the accusation sounded as if it had come from Snoop. When and why would Snoop tell Josephine anything?
Isabelle squared her shoulders. She’d taken enough unfounded accusations from envious girls who didn’t have their facts straight. “I have not disappeared with any man, let alone the pastor. Why did you say Daniel and my father were coming to Stony Creek this evening?”
Josephine snugged her lips and slipped a defiant expression over her features.
Phyllis shook the tea towel at her daughter. “Josephine, why did you say that?”
“Because it’s true.”
Isabelle’s stomach rolled as she looked at Josephine. The thought of facing Daniel again was making her ill. ”How-how do you know?”
Josephine’s glance flew to her mother before she spoke. “Your father telegrammed.”
“I didn’t receive it.”
“Iva,” Miss Sophie whispered.
Josephine’s gaze dropped to the floor as she toed a chunk of broken cookie on the flagstone with her boot.
“Josephine,
you didn’t.” Phyllis’s eyes bulged as she gaped at her daughter.
“I don’t understand, Miss Sophie,” Isabelle said, “What does Iva have to do with this?”
“It’s against the law, Josephine.” Phyllis gave the tea towel a twist. “You could go to jail.”
Miss Sophie turned toward Isabelle and grasped her fingers. “Ellis Wherry, the young man who works at the telegraph office, is courting Iva. The girls must have manipulated him somehow.”
“So it’s really true? My father is bringing Daniel to Stony Creek, today?”
Josephine’s head bobbed once.
Tea surged up and threatened to spill from Isabelle’s throat. She couldn’t face Daniel. She couldn’t ever face Daniel again.
Chapter 14
Preach slid the third sandwich from his canvas lunch bag and bit off one corner. The bittersweet cranberry jelly Lou had made normally tickled his taste buds, but since Sunday when Isabelle had taken to ignoring him, nothing tasted the way it should.
Horace had commented on Preach’s lack of appetite that morning over breakfast shortly before he forked the three sausages growing cold on Preach’s plate. Normally, a man stealing his food would’ve caused an invite for a wrestle outside. Preach couldn’t have cared less about what was on his plate, though, and Horace knew it. Most likely that would explain the gap toothed grin he proffered before stuffing all three sausages in his mouth at once.
How could Preach eat or sleep when thoughts of Isabelle swirled in his mind day and night? Sunday’s service should’ve brought her some consolation, but instead she’d taken it as an insult. He couldn’t figure it. Why hadn’t she found relief for the guilt she was feeling in the verse we are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus?” He’d found comfort in the words many a time himself.
He missed Isabelle fiercely. He missed her as if she wasn’t just a friend.
“You gonna share some of those thoughts creasin’ your brow, Preach?” Snoop kicked at the sole of Preach’s boot before tucking into a palm sized molasses cookie.
Against Preach’s better judgement, he’d agreed to chop with Snoop for the day. Until Mack was feeling up to working, the men were rotating as Preach’s partner. He’d avoided working with Snoop until now, and the man’s prying questions were one of the reasons. The fact that Preach didn’t like him was the other.
Preach squeezed the bite of sandwich down his throat and took a long sip from the water pail before wiping his mouth on his sleeve and swinging his gaze across to Snoop’s. “It’s none of your business.”
“You hear that, Lewis? I’d call that rude, wouldn’t you? I’m just trying to make conversation. The man’s hardly said ten words all morning.”
Lewis’s metal file sped its strokes on a tooth of Preach’s and Snoop’s crosscut saw. As youngest man in the woods, it was his job to circulate the water pail and sharpen the saws if they needed it. He looked from Snoop to Preach before dropping his chin and muttering under his breath.
“What’s that you’re saying? You find Preach’s rudeness unacceptable, too?” Snoop laughed at his own cunning.
“That’s not what I said.” Lewis studied the saw as his file skipped to sharpen the next tooth.
“Did you say you’re wondering—like me—why someone with so little to say has been put in charge of this whole outfit?”
Was that Snoop’s problem? The fact Joe had made Preach foreman when the crew had returned in the fall? Maybe Snoop was done being upset over Lavinia.
Resting the saw against a stump, Lewis straightened. “The only thing I’m wondering is how the two of you made such a mess of this saw. Have both of you had enough water? If so, I’ll be moving on to Perley and Ernie. They’re bound to be thirsty by now.”
By the work day’s end, there would be a tobacco colored scum on the water’s surface. Preach was thankful Lewis had arrived at their block by noon. He swallowed another mouthful from the bucket before handing it to the boy.
“Give that here. You’ve been hoarding water the whole break.”
Preach jerked the bucket, and Snoop startled.
“Whoa! You trying to soak me?”
What Preach wouldn’t give to pour the rest of the water over Snoop’s dark mop. He might have, too, if there hadn’t been a witness.
Snoop snatched the pail from Preach and took several gulps.
“You going to leave any for the other guys?” Lewis asked.
Preach grunted. “Snoop’s only about Snoop. You should know that by now.”
Snoop’s gaze snapped to Preach as he handed the pail over to Lewis.
“I’ll be taking my leave now.” Lewis bent to retrieve his own lunch bag from the felled tree where the men had been sitting to eat their noon meal. “If you two don’t manage to kill each other before the days’ over, I’ll see you back at the camp.” Branches cracked beneath Lewis’s boots as he disappeared behind a curtain of trees and into the forest.
“You ready to get back to work?” Preach asked.
“Well, I guess we ain’t talkin’”
Preach picked up his axe. He was bone tired, and the day was only half spent. If he didn’t get Isabelle out of his head, things would only get worse.
He managed to reign in his thoughts and continued chopping until late afternoon when he tromped toward a thirty-six inch diameter pine. Swinging with the short bit from shoulder height, he started the scarf eighteen inches up the coarse trunk. Wood chips flew and settled on his jacket.
“You losing your touch, Preach? What’s with the chips?” With a sharp crack, Snoop struck several branches from the last felled tree with the long bit of his axe.
Snoop had been trying to get under Preach’s skin since they’d set out that morning. So what if Preach wasn’t letting the chunks fly. Several minutes later he’d finished notching one third of the way through the tree.
Snoop stepped over and slid his axe head in the pine’s notch. The handle pointed due east. “This where you want it to go? Looks to me like it’s going to get hung up on those two old poplars. I don’t want any widow makers coming down on my head.”
“I was chopping in these woods before you knew what an axe was. Leave it be.” For two cents Preach would knock Snoop on his head and figure out later how to explain it to the rest of them.
“You might have been chopping longer than me, but you ain’t any better. The boys have been talking in the bunkhouse.” With a tug, Snoop let his axe fall to his side.
“When aren’t the boys talking in the bunkhouse?”
“They usually ain’t talking about fearing for their lives. Horace said you would have split him in two the other day if he hadn’t ducked. Carl says he won’t work with you anymore. He’s tired of looking over his shoulder to make sure a tree ain’t coming his way.”
Carl was always looking over his shoulder. Nearing sixty, the man no longer moved as fast as he should. Joe kept him around because the woods were all Carl knew.
Anger bubbled at the bottom of Preach’s gut. He’d never put a man in danger. “You’re lying, Snoop.”
Snoop leaned in, close enough for his foul breath to singe Preach’s nostrils, and Preach lurched back.
“I ain’t lying. You go ask them yourself. Ever since you been chasing Lou’s niece, you ain’t had your mind on the job.”
More than likely the men were thinking Isabelle was making Preach distracted because that’s what Snoop had been telling them. Preach hadn’t sensed any discomfort among the men. “Logging the woods has always been dangerous. You know that.”
“You threatening me, Preach?”
“Nope, just stating a fact. But whatever’s going on, you leave Isabelle out of it.”
Snoop’s upper lip curled into a sneer. “I don’t blame you. That girl’s a fine piece of—”
Preach’s fist shot out and connected with Snoop’s jaw.
Snoop’s head snapped back, and he went over.
Preach cursed under his
breath. Sorry, Lord, I let him get to me. Kneading the fingers of his right hand, he stared at the prone figure of Snoop on the forest floor. A trickle of bright red oozed from the corner of the man’s mouth.
A second later, Snoop coughed, spreading flecks of blood across the moss. The air rushed from Preach’s lungs. Regardless of his earlier thoughts, he hadn’t meant to hit Snoop that hard.
Snoop’s eyes blinked open, and Preach extended his hand. Groaning, Snoop reached out and allowed himself to be pulled upright. Wiping the trail of blood from the corner of his mouth, he said, “What did you do that for? You could have broke my teeth.”
“I said leave Isabelle out of it. She’s got nothing to do with the two of us, and she’s the better for it.”
Massaging his jaw, Snoop took two steps back. “You told your sweetheart about Lavinia yet?”
Preach feigned a lunge toward Snoop. “You want to be back on the ground? She’s not my sweetheart.” And she wasn’t going to be either. His shenanigans with Lavinia had happened before he’d met the Lord and Isabelle both, although the thought of Isabelle knowing about it gnawed at his belly.
A dark blue shadow collected on Snoop’s jaw. He raised an eyebrow before taking a step back. “Then you won’t mind that I mentioned our shared acquaintance—I guess that would be the polite term—to Isabelle.”
Preach flexed his right hand. “What are you saying?”
“Last Sunday after church. Me and Isabelle had a nice little visit.”
That might explain why Isabelle had avoided Preach all week. He reached for the collar of Snoop’s jacket and tightened it around his neck. “You had no right.” Preach shook Snoop’s collar, and the man’s eyes brightened in fear.
Raising his palms, Snoop’s voice rose. “Look, I didn’t tell her nothing. Let me go.”
Maybe Preach should finish what he started. “Then why did you say you did?”
“Let me go, and I’ll tell you.”
With a quick push, Preach released Snoop’s collar, sending him to his backside beside the notched tree.
Snoop rose from the ground and brushed the puckers of moss from his jacket sleeves. “I didn’t think it was fair.”
Rocky Mountain Redemption Page 13
