Providence (29 page)

The areas she and Jonathan worked
were too narrow or rocky for the large team and mow to cut, but the grasses
here were too abundant to ignore. They worked with the scythes, swinging in
rhythmic motion as they progressed slowly over the ground. Glancing at the
cloudless expanse above, she said a brief prayer of thanks for the dry weather,
which gave the hay ample time to cure before raking and stacking the golden
harvest.

 For three days they had
been working in the hay pastures. Each morning she woke sore and bruised, her
hands blistered and raw, even with the thick leather gloves she wore, but she
was thankful for the agonizing labor, as she rarely had time to think about
Luke, or wonder where he had gone and why.

Taking a deep breath, she set the
scythe and began once again the long sweeping strokes that sent the blades of
grass flying, separated neatly from their rooted home. The scythe whispered
over the grasses as they fell and she stepped on to the next sweep, arms
aching, breathing labored, sweat streaming from her brow, stinging her eyes,
focusing only on the next cut, the next step.

Drawing her arm back for yet
another swing a hand grasped her wrist. With a choked scream, she turned to
find herself staring into a deeply tanned face with unfathomable green eyes.

“Luke!”

Without a word he took the blade
from her hand, positioned it over the row and began cutting, moving away from
her with every sweep. Stunned, Kate stood rooted to the ground, unable to move.
She wanted to run after him, demand to know where he had been, why he had
returned so abruptly.

Do not judge, it is not your
place.
Tochoway’s words echoed through her mind.

***

“So you’ve been to Guthrie?”
Jonathan asked between bites of the hearty lunch Nana had packed.

Luke nodded, savoring the good
home-cooked food.

“But why? Why did you go without
saying
anything?
”

“Jonathan, let the man alone,”
Jake said, though Luke knew that Jake was as curious as his grandson.

Luke chewed on a biscuit for a
moment before answering. “There was some business I needed to mull over. Still
haven’t come to grips with all of it.” He paused, looking toward the homestead,
just visible in the distance. “I did find a ready market for the cattle. I’ll
need to talk that over with Kate, sort of figured she didn’t want to go with
Johnson this year,” he added with a wry grin.

Jake smiled ruefully, nodding in
agreement. “Jonathan, go hitch the team back up, time we were after it again.”

“Yes, sir.”

Luke watched the boy stand and
stretch in the patch of shade they shared beneath the lone oak. Reluctant to
leave the relative coolness, Jonathan lingered over packing the remains of
lunch. Smokey lay at the edge of the shade like a grey shadow, watching
covertly, muzzle resting on outstretched paws, his eyes following every move
Jonathan made. With nothing left to occupy him, Jonathan shot one last look at
Luke before he headed off to hitch the team.

“Well?” Jake asked as soon as
Jonathan was out of ear shot.

“What?”

 “Are you here to stay this
time, or is this just another resting spot between your escapades?” Jake wore
an ominous expression..

“I thought you knew me better
than that,” Luke said, though he didn’t blame Jake for feeling that way.

“I thought I did, too, until you
up and disappeared. I will not stand by and see my girl hurt like that again,”
Jake glanced obliquely in Jonathan’s direction before continuing. “I really
thought you were different, someone she could depend on, build her life back
with.” He shook his head. “You’ve got a lot of proving to do.” Without waiting
for a response he stood and joined Jonathan, helping position the traces, and
tightening the last of the buckles.

Luke felt the burden of Jake’s
words, and for the thousandth time he wondered if returning to Providence was
the right thing to do.

***

Kate watched the team approaching
from the west, as the sun cast its final red light behind them. Jake drove
while Jonathan and Luke walked slowly behind the mow.

“Are they coming yet, Momma?” Jo
called from the kitchen where she was helping Nana put the finishing touches on
the supper.

“They’re on the way now,” Kate
called back.

 A lightening blur ran past
her. “Oh, I wanna see!” Jo strained her neck as she stretched tall enough to
see over the rise. “I see him, I see him!”

Kate sighed and shook her head at
her daughter’s exuberance. She wished she could feel Jo’s unabashed joy at
seeing Luke again. In Jo’s mind, Luke had simply been gone on a short
adventure. All the fretting and grieving Jo had done the last few days was
wiped out when Kate made the simple announcement, “Luke’s home.”

Mother and daughter returned to
the kitchen to set the table and prepare for the evening meal. Jo’s incessant
chatter and optimistic view of Luke’s return soon grated against Kate’s already
strained nerves. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath,
Lord, give me
patience, I don’t want to lose my temper, but I feel it coming.

“I helped Nana bake a fresh apple
tart for desert tonight,” Jo said, her little arms straining against the weight
of a stoneware jug filled with fresh milk.

“Jo, watch out...” Kate warned
just as Jo stumbled on her way to the table. The pitcher crashed to the floor
in a jarring lurch, pottery shards and creamy milk covering the rag rug and
plank flooring. Jo stopped in her tracks, eyes wide, her mouth a small oh of
dismay.

“What do you think you’re doing?”
Kate snapped. “Get a rag and clean up that mess.”

 “But, Momma, it was an
accident,” Jo cried, trembling.

“You weren’t paying attention to
what you were doing, and you made a mess. Now you need to get it cleaned up,”
Kate’s said sternly.

Tears welled up in Jo’s blue
eyes, her cheeks paled, then turned scarlet red as a voice from the door spoke
quietly, “Let me help with that. Somehow, I feel I may have been the cause of
these troubles.”

“Luke, oh, Luke,” Jo cried,
running into his arms and weeping against his broad chest.

Kate set her jaw, raging with barely
controlled anger and an unexpected stab of jealousy at seeing her daughter
comforted in the arms of a virtual stranger. “Supper’s ready. You may come to
the table as soon as the mess is cleared,” she said in a cold, even voice.

Jake and Nana exchanged a
surprised glance. Nana shrugged her shoulders.

The meal was a quiet affair.
Conversation was strained and trivial. Even Jo sat quietly subdued, though Kate
noticed the little girl glowed with adoration every time Luke happened to
glance at her.

“Jo, honey, if you’re done with
your tart, then you need to go up and get ready for bed, okay?” Kate said
gently, sorry for her outburst earlier.

 “Yes, ma’am.” Jo excused
herself, and climbed down from the bench.

“I’ll be up in a minute to tuck
you in.” Kate smiled as Jo scurried from the room, catching one last glimpse of
Luke, as though to assure herself that he was really there.

Nana stood to clear the table.
“I’ll just get these cleaned up, then Jake and I are gonna turn in for the
evening. Jonathan, you run on home now, we’ll be along shortly.”

“Mrs. Insley, I’ll clean up
tonight,” Kate offered. “You all have been putting in some mighty long days,
and I got an unexpected break today. Tomorrow is going to be another long one.”

Nana considered this for a moment,
glancing between Kate and Luke, before nodding in agreement. Carrying the
plates she had already gathered to the sink, she set them beside the pump, took
her shawl from its peg, and gathered her basket from the bench by the door.
“Come along then Jake, I’ll fix you a nice cup of tea at home.”

As the Insleys left, Kate began
clearing the remaining dishes from the table, wondering if Luke would stay or
leave.

“Why don’t you go see to your
daughter? I’ll take care of these,” Luke said, his voice gentle, yet distant.

 Kate realized these were
the first words he had spoken directly to her since his return. She nodded
without looking at him, and hurried from the room. Pausing at the foot of the
ladder leading to the small loft, she gripped the rung with an intensity that
surprised her. Trying to calm her surging emotions before climbing up to see
Jo, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Even here the smell of fresh mown
hay clung to her skin and clothes. She tried to empty her mind of thoughts and
feelings by focusing on these senses, the feel of the wooden rung beneath her
calloused hand, the warm breeze stirring the curtains, whispering past her
cheek. She felt her heartbeat slow, and finally she loosened her grasp and
began the short climb to Jo’s loft.

Jo lay nestled against the
feather pillow, a riotous mass of red-gold curls dwarfing her pale face. Huge
blue eyes stared somberly up at Kate. Candy lay nearby on a small rag rug, her
tail thumping a steady rhythm as Kate approached. Kneeling beside the bed, Kate
took Jo’s hand in hers, marveling again at the absolute perfection of God’s
creation.

“Honey, I’m sorry I snapped at
you earlier.”

“That’s all right,” Jo replied.
“Momma?” she asked, her gaze fixing intently on Kate.

“Yes?”

“Aren’t you glad Luke’s home?”
she asked. “I missed him so much, and I worried about him, but now he’s home,
and it feels so right, and I’m ever so glad,” Jo paused. “I really like Luke,
Momma, and I thought.....” her voice trailed off as she glanced away.

“You thought what, sweetheart?”
Kate asked, filled with trepidation.

 “I thought you liked him,
too.”

Kate searched her daughter’s
face, not knowing how to respond. Placing a tender kiss on Jo’s forehead, she
whispered, “Let’s pray for Luke, and for us, and see what plans God has, okay?”

“Okay,” Jo replied sleepily as
she snuggled deeper into the pillow, her doll tucked securely under one arm.

Picking up the small oil lamp
that burned on the bedside table, Kate scratched Candy behind the ear, and made
her way down from the loft. Pausing again at the bottom of the ladder, she
could hear Luke scraping plates in the kitchen, then the sound of the pump arm
being primed and soon water sluicing into the sink full of dishes.

“Wash or wipe?” Kate asked
walking into the kitchen and grabbing a towel from the sideboard.

“I’ll wash, you dry,” Luke
answered, sending her a sidelong glance.

 Kate began methodically
wiping the pewter plates as they came dripping from the water basin, stacking
them in the open sideboard as she finished each one. They worked in silence for
several minutes. Kate obliquely studied the man beside her. He had been good to
them, worked diligently and hard. He had even risked his own life for them on
more than one occasion. She once thought that he had been in love with her. Had
she foolishly returned that love? A man in love does not ride away without so
much as a word, she fumed.

Do not judge.

“I went to Guthrie.” His voice
cut into her thoughts.

“Did you?” she asked, remembering
the handbill in his room, but the revival was more than a month away.

“I talked to some cattle buyers
there. One from Chicago made a real good offer, if we can get the steers to the
railhead in Guthrie,” Luke said, wiping down the counter around the wash basin.

“Really?”

“With your approval, of course,”
he added hastily.

“What is he offering?”

“Going market rate, about seven
cents a pound. I figure we can send at least forty steers, and there’s twelve
or fourteen older cows that you have heifers to replace that could go, too,
though he’d offer a bit less for them.”

Kate made some quick mental
calculations. Assuming the steers weighed in at around a thousand pounds each,
and the cows besides, that would be well over three thousand dollars.

“Are you sure about this?” she
asked.

“I have his card. He said he’d
meet us at the yards anytime the last week of September.”

She nodded, “I guess we’ll be
going on a cattle drive, then. Won’t Jonathan be thrilled?”

 Luke smiled. Their eyes met
briefly, Kate felt her heart skip a beat in spite of her misgivings, before an
awkward silence fell between them.

“Do you want some coffee or
something?” Kate asked to break the stillness.

Luke shook his head. “Will you
take a walk with me?” he asked.

Glancing toward the loft, Kate nodded,
knowing Jo was soundly sleeping with Candy on guard.

The night was warm still, but a
gentle breeze stirred the leaves and ruffled Kate’s hair. The cloying sweet
scent of honeysuckle wafted from near the spring house which was covered in the
deep green vines. They walked past the garden fence, toward the apple trees in
the distance.

Stopping beneath the spreading
branches, she reached up and picked a reddish fruit, still slightly green
beneath the ripening hue, firm and fresh. Kate could almost taste the
tart-sweet fruit. She would have to help Nana and Jo harvest the apples soon
and begin the drying and canning process.