A Gathering of Memories (9 page)

“I’m sorry you don’t feel well.” Amy spoke quietly as she settled next to Carrie.

Carrie looked at her from her place on the sofa in the living room. Silas had insisted, as soon as they’d arrived home, that she rest there.

“You don’t want to be up in the bedroom all by yourself,” he said as he’d carried blankets and pillows from his bedroom. “Just take your shoes off and get comfortable right here.”

Carrie had glanced at Amy as if to ask permission, but Amy had only smiled at her and said she had just the thing for a sore throat. She was back in less than 15 minutes with a steaming cup and sat beside Carrie as she drank. Silas had taken the boys out to the barn with him and Mandy had Becca upstairs in hopes of getting her to take a much-needed nap.

“Do you have a headache or anything, Carrie?”

“No, it’s just my throat,” Carrie said, and already half the cup was gone.

“Well, it could be the start of something worse, so I’m glad Mark is taking care of you.”

“What is this I’m drinking?”

“It was a recipe my mother used. She always gave it to me when I was sick.”

“Does your mother live around here?”

“No, Carrie, she doesn’t. I haven’t had a chance to tell you, but my mother died when I was 14.”

Carrie looked stricken but didn’t apologize for asking.

“I’m 14.”

“Yes, I know. It isn’t easy is it?”

“It’s awful.” Her voice shook but tears did not come. “Is your pa gone, too?”

“No, he lives in Neillsville where I grew up.”

Carrie nodded and said nothing more.

“I think it might be a good idea if you rested your throat, Carrie. I’ll be in the kitchen if you need anything.”

“Amy,” Carrie called, causing Amy to turn expectantly before she could leave the room. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, sweetheart.”

“Do you have a favorite?”

“Mm hmm. Guess which one.”

The boys had no trouble. Titan, the tremendous black stallion whose name they had seen on his stable door, tossed his head and flicked his tail as if he knew he was the topic of conversation and praise. He raced around the small corral in display and stopped to call to four mares in the field beyond his own fence.

“I don’t suppose we’ll ever get to ride him.” Levi’s voice was too cynical for his years.

“Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say never, but he’s not a pony, that’s for certain. There are other horses here you can ride.”

“Today?” They chorused together.

“Sure.” His answer surprised them into momentary silence, a silence they made up for when, seconds later, yells of excitement erupted from them, causing the high-spirited Titan’s front hooves to dance in the air and his eyes to roll back in fear.

Silas led the boys into the barn, knowing that a talk about their conduct around the stables was in order before he set them on the back of any horse, no matter how docile.

“I’m not sleepy, Mandy, really.” The five-year-old’s argument was accompanied by a yawn, and Mandy only shook her head at her sister’s stubbornness.

“You don’t have to go to sleep, Becca, but you do have to rest,
with
your eyes closed.”

Becca gave in then with lots of sighing and turning from one side to the next. Lying next to her, Mandy was just drowsy enough not to care how much she moved as long as she could rest herself and let her mind drift.

The first place it stopped was Carrie. Poor thing. She was never sick and then to come down with something on the day of Mama’s funeral, well, it was the worst kind of luck. At least Mark Cameron hadn’t expected payment for his services. She would have hated to leave, but there just wasn’t any money so there would have been no choice.

The next face her mind conjured up was that of Ross Beckett. He was far and away the nicest man of her own age she’d ever met. He was nice looking too. He wasn’t as tall as all the Cameron men, but then not many men were. She guessed him to be about six foot, which was a good nine inches over the top of her own head. But it wasn’t his height that made him stand out in her mind, or the sandy brown hair that fell over his forehead when his hat was off. Or even the color of his eyes, such a soft blue.

No, it wasn’t any of those things. It was the way he paid attention to what you were saying. Not just heard but listened, making you feel as though what you were saying, no matter how simple or inane, was the most important thing in the world at that moment.

Mandy had watched him in the short time they talked, before Carrie came out. Especially the way he handled Levi, Clovis, and Becca. He talked to them like adults but his hand was close, even when she stood there, to help…

His hand.

“I held his hand.” Mandy spoke the words aloud. As she remembered his hand closing over hers, Mandy felt the blood rushing to her cheeks, not in embarrassment but something else, something she couldn’t define.

What a comfort it had been, she realized suddenly. Reaching and finding that big, warm hand had been exactly what she needed to get her through that moment at her mother’s grave. She would have to thank him when she saw him again.
If
she saw him again, she amended, even as she hoped she would.

So wrapped up in her thoughts, Mandy had not realized that Becca had finally fallen asleep.

“I really should get up and do something to help Amy.” But Mandy’s eyes were drifting shut; her body had other ideas.

Her last thought before she drifted off to sleep was getting her mother’s papers and leaving a note for her pa. She’d have to discuss it with Amy…

Aaron Marks stood at his office window overlooking Baxter’s main street and reread the letter in his hand. He withdrew a match from his pocket to light his cigar. The smoke curled around his head as he once again read the last line. “I’ll be home this summer and it’ll be different this time, I promise.”

He raised both cigar and letter but changed his mind and pulled back short of lighting the paper. Walking to the cabinet where he kept his files, he reached in until he felt the false back. It moved easily under his touch, and the paper disappeared inside.

He scowled at the wall, where music suddenly sprang to life from the bar next door, and clamped the cigar tight in his teeth. The last thing he needed was music when he had to decide what move to make next. The din grew steadily louder, a little too raucous for so early in the day.

He reached for his jacket and started toward the door. There just might be something interesting going on right now. One never knew what one could learn from the patrons of the bar.

A strand of hair kept slipping down into Amy’s face, and she blew it out of the way for what felt like the hundredth time.

“You sound like a billows,” Silas teased her as he came in from the yard. His shadows, Levi and Clovis, right behind him.

Her laugh was a little breathless as she leaned into the laundry tub.

“My turn, Amy,” exclaimed Mandy as she came in from the dining area with a basket of clothes in her arms.

“Mandy, you’re just in time. My arms are getting tired.”

“I was talking with Carrie. She feels guilty that she’s not out here working. So I used one of your lines, Amy, ‘there will be plenty of laundry in the days to come.’ ”

“Good thinking. I’ll take this basket out to the line and then be right back with you.”

Silas scooped up the basket before Amy could touch it and stood waiting, as ever her faithful servant. Amy gave him her prettiest smile and sailed out the door, very much a woman in love. Mandy watched them with an unreadable expression before plunging her hands into the soapy tub.

Amy’s hands flew as she filled out the clothesline and Silas stood holding the basket as she moved along briskly with clothes pins in her mouth. At one point, when her mouth was empty, he bent so he could kiss her, as she retrieved a pillow slip from the basket. She wholeheartedly returned the kiss, unaware of Levi and Clovis in close attention.

“I love you, Si Cameron,” Amy spoke quietly.

“The feeling is quite mutual, I assure you.”

Amy became aware of the boys just then, and Silas felt her stiffen. His voice came for her ears alone. “They’re going to see us as a man and woman in love, sweetheart. Don’t pull away from me.”

“I just didn’t realize they’d followed you, I’m not really embarrassed, just surprised.”

“No more time alone.” He raised his voice to a normal level then. “We’ll get out of your hair and leave you to your work. I’m going over to Luke’s and then into town. While Carrie is seeing Mark, the boys and I will have time to go to the store if you want to make a list. Tell Carrie I’ll be about a half hour, and to please be ready.”