Dorothy Garlock - [Wabash River] (24 page)

“You and Mercy are going to stay with me, Daniel,” she crooned softly and smoothed his thick dark hair back from his face so she could place light kisses on his forehead. His small arms went around her and clung tightly. “You’re my little boy now. Farr and I will take care of you. We love you and want you to stay right here so we can watch you grow up to be a man your mama would be proud of.”

“Mercy, too?”

“Mercy, too. You’re not to worry about it, sweetheart.”

“Is Willa stayin’ with us?” Amy was watching with a puzzled look on her face.

Liberty looked across the room and saw another worried face. Willa’s hands clutched the edge of the table as if the world were tilting and she was afraid she would fall off. She looked directly into Willa’s eyes as she spoke to her sister.

“Willa is welcome to stay with us for as long as she wants to. She is to be considered a member of our family. We will
all
share the work, the good times and the bad. That’s the way it’s going to be.”

Willa’s mouth worked and she drew her lips between her teeth to stop their trembling.

Liberty let Daniel slip off her lap. “You and Mercy stay in here with Willa while Amy and I go through the trunks in the wagon.”

“I’m handy with a needle,” Willa said hesitantly.

“Good. I’m not,” Liberty confessed. “Amy’s stitches are much better than mine. We’ll see what we’ve got in the trunks. Farr did say there was cloth in the storeroom, but we’ll not use it now if we don’t have to.”

Amy followed Liberty to the wagon. She didn’t speak until they were inside.

“What’s happened, Libby? Why are you talking like we’re staying here forever?”

Liberty sat down on a stool beside her trunk and reached for her sister’s hand.

“Because we are. Farr and I were married this morning.”

“What?” Amy’s voice squeaked. “You
married
him?”

“Yes. Just a little while ago.”

“Well, dog my cats! Amy let loose a chortle of laughter. “You married him?” she repeated. “You married that big, handsome woodsman! By jinks damn! That’ll take the starch out of Papa and that old pissant Stith. Oh, Libby! I’m so glad!” She threw her arms about Liberty and hugged her so hard they both almost fell off the stool.

“Calm down, Amy. We’ve got to talk. Papa will be madder than a stepped-on snake. He’s got his heart set on Stith as a son-in-law. I don’t know what he’ll do. He might even try to take you away. You’ve got to stay close, hear?”

“He won’t do that. He’d have to find a place for us to stay. That would mean work, and you know what Papa thinks about that . . .” Her words trailed off and her eyes widened as the meaning of Liberty’s words became clear. “Do you think he’d take me to Stith’s place?”

“I don’t want to frighten you, Amy, but I’m not sure what he’ll do. He might . . . might tell Stith he can marry you. I’m almost certain he’ll ask for you.” Liberty held tightly to her sister’s hand.

“Ask to
marry
me!” Amy’s face turned a deep crimson red. “But I’m not grown up yet. I’m not ready to marry. Flitter, Libby. I’m not a . . . woman!”

“You got your woman’s time last winter, and I’m sure Papa knows it. If Stith puts enough pressure on him he might consent to a wedding.”

“No! Papa wouldn’t!”

“I hope not. Oh, I hope not.”

“I hate Stith! He’s a fart, a turd, a . . . pissant! Papa loves me. He wouldn’t just give me away. Would he, Libby?”

“Who knows what Papa will do. But if he does, there will be trouble. Farr won’t let him marry you to Stith if you’re against it.” She hugged her sister. “Don’t worry about what
might
happen. Just don’t go wandering away from the homestead by yourself until we find out what Papa is going to do and if Stith is staying on here.”

“Did Farr say he’d not let Papa do that?”

“He said that if we married, it would be his job to keep his family safe. He said you would be a part of our family.”

“I’m glad you married him, Libby. I like him better than Jubal. Jubal wasn’t . . . able to do much.”

“He wasn’t a strong, forceful man like Farr, but he did the best he could. If not for Jubal we’d be back in Middlecrossing and I’d be married to Stith. Remember that, Amy. Jubal was a brave man to go up against Stith and take something Stith wanted. For that reason I’ll cherish his memory always.”

“I didn’t mean he was like Papa is always saying he was. Papa talks like Jubal didn’t have any sense at all. I just mean nobody listened when Jubal said something. Farr is . . . well, I’m not afraid at all when Farr is with us.”

“Neither am I. And I’m grateful to him. We’ll have a home here and he’ll stand between us and Stith.”

“I’m glad Farr hit old Stith. I hope Farr kills him!” Amy sat down hard on her trunk. Her usually smiling lips were turned down at the corners and her eyes were filled with the awful hurt of her father’s betrayal. “I’ve always tried to . . . love Papa.”

“And we will continue to love him. He’s our father, but that doesn’t mean we have to
like
him!”

“Old Stith’s a poot-head and a mule’s ass,” Amy blurted. “All the kids in Middlecrossing hated him. They were afraid to stick their tongue out at him, but I did once.”

“Stith is everything you say he is, but there’s no use talking about it.” Liberty lifted the lid on the trunk. “This is what I thought we could do. I have a couple of dresses that you can have. Yours are getting too small for you. Do you think you can make them over for Mercy?”

“I suppose so.” Amy’s face softened and she grinned impishly. “She’s a lot of trouble, but not so much with Daniel helping to watch her.”

“We can make some of Jubal’s clothes over for Daniel. Now what about Willa?” She lifted a blue sprigged dress out of the trunk and held it up. “I was saving this for you to grow into. It should be just right for Willa. Did you know that she doesn’t have a stitch of underclothes? Isn’t that a shame? She can use some of mine and a nightgown too. We’ll make her some as soon as we can.”

“Do you know what, Libby?” Amy hadn’t moved from the trunk. She had a dreamy look on her face. “I bet Rain will grow up to be just like Farr.” She looked out the end of the wagon and then back at her sister. “I think I’ll marry him when I grow up. By then he might not be so damn stubborn!”

“Don’t swear, Amy love.”

“I won’t in front of the kids, but sometimes I just like to. Libby?” She sat up as if a thought had pulled her erect. “When you married Farr, did that make Rain my brother?”

Liberty laughed. “No, silly. Get the sewing box. We’ve got a lot to do. Amy,” she said before she climbed down out of the wagon, “don’t say anything about the wedding. I think it’s best that Farr tells Juicy and the others.”

“Uncle Juicy will be tickled. He said you were the kind of woman Farr should take.”

“Uncle Juicy?”

“He told me and Mercy and Daniel to call him that. I was getting tired of saying Mr. Juicy.”

“Are you going to like it here, Amy? We’ve always made our decisions together. I had to make this one alone; there wasn’t time to talk with you about it.”

“Oh, yes! I want to stay here for ever and ever. I was even dreading going to the Shellenberger place.”

“Amy Carroll, you’ve set your sights on Rain,” Liberty teased.

“I’ve not done any such thing? Amy’s face reddened, then she giggled helplessly. “Yes, I have, but don’t you dare tell, Libby. Don’t tell Farr or anyone. Rain’s so quiet and stubborn and stingy with words you’d think every one cost him a shilling! How can I get him to talk to me?”

“I was never much for trying to win someone over,” Liberty said seriously. “But I remember my mother saying that if you say a nice thing about something dear to a person, you have a better chance of his liking you.”

“I tried that. I told him his horse was the prettiest horse I’d ever seen. I even told him how smart I thought
he
was. I bragged on his moccasins because he said he made them. I told him I bet he could take on a whole band of Indians and kill them all. He just growled at me when I said that and looked at me like I was just a silly kid with no sense at all. He makes me so mad I want to kick him!”

Liberty tried hard to keep the smile off her face as they climbed down out of the wagon. This was terribly important to Amy. She remembered how close to the surface her own feelings were at that age.

“Well, in that case you’ll just have to wait until he wakes up and sees how sweet and pretty you are.”

“Will I be as pretty as you are, Libby?”

“Oh, honey! You’ll outshine me a hundred times or my name isn’t Liberty Carroll—Quill.”

The shock of hearing her new name slowed Liberty’s steps. The enormity of what she had done was just now sinking in. How well she understood the kind of rosy dreams a young girl like Amy had concerning the man she would some day marry, how many babies she would have, and what she would name them. When she was younger, the thought of being a bride was a beautiful thing, but she had married Jubal and had stored those dreams away. Today she was another man’s bride—today she had committed herself to live the rest of her life with a man who was tormented by the memory of his lost love.

The deep sigh that slumped Liberty’s shoulders made a small sound as it left her parted lips.

*  *  *

The sun was directly overhead when the men came from the thick stand of timber where they were marking the trees to be felled to make the fifteen-foot pickets for the stockade and the logs for the shot buildings.

Mercy and Daniel were sitting on the doorstone. Liberty heard Mercy squeal, looked out, and saw her running toward the four men walking up the path. The child stopped, let out a cry, and hopped on one foot. Another burr, Liberty thought, as she watched Farr swing the child up with one arm and set her on his hip without breaking stride. His other hand gripped his rifle.

Liberty stepped outside, her knees unsteady. She was nervous about this meeting. Had Farr told Juicy, Colby and Rain about the wedding? What would they think? For men who were used to being alone, how were they going to feel about suddenly having three women and two children thrust upon them?

After Liberty had confided the news to Willa, the three women had gone to work. The cabin was spotlessly clean, the table set, and the meal ready to be served up. They had brought in a few things from the wagon. Libby’s quilts covered the bunks and her rocking chair was placed beside the hearth. When the work was done they had set about making themselves presentable.

Liberty still wore the brown linsey with the clean side of her white apron turned out. Willa wore the blue sprigged dress; and with her hair brushed and pinned to the back of her head, she didn’t look like the same waif who had arrived with the Thompsons the day before. Knowing this was an occasion, Amy had brushed her hair back and tied it with a ribbon. In one of Liberty’s dresses she looked like a pretty young woman, and Liberty felt a dread of what her father would do when he discovered she had once again evaded Stith.

“This youngun’s got a burr in her foot,” Farr said as soon as he reached the cabin. He turned so that Liberty could take Mercy’s foot in her hand. “We’ll have to see about making her and Daniel some moccasins.”

It was such a normal, everyday thing to say that some of the anxiety Liberty had been feeling left her. She found the burr, pulled it out, lifted the child from Farr’s arm and set her on her feet.

“The meal is ready,” she said without looking at him “Soap and towels are on the wash shelf.”

“Now ain’t that plumb handy,” Juicy said, his sharp blue eyes going from Liberty’s suddenly red face to Farr. “I swear but somethin’ do smell larrupin’.” He headed for the side of the house and Rain followed. Farr and Colby stepped inside to place their rifles on the pegs just inside the door, then went out.

Liberty had lengthened the table by moving a smaller one up close to it. It wasn’t as high as the regular table, but she planned to sit at the end with one of the children on each side of her. She assumed it was customary, even here in the wilderness, for the men to eat first and the women and children later. She had always detested the custom and decided she would start off the way she planned to continue. They would all sit down and eat together.

“Waugh!” Juicy came in, followed by Rain. He looked around and shook his head in wonderment. “I jist never knowed this place could look so homelike. I’m figgerin’ ta get plumb spoiled. What’s that thar in the pot? It be ticklin’ my insides clear down to my toes.”

“Meat stew and potatoes,” Liberty said, taking a loaf of fresh bread from the side oven.

“Taters? Lordy! Them those old rotten taters we had?”

“They weren’t rotten. They just needed to be eyed. Amy eyed them this morning, and we’re eating what’s left. Find a place to sit, Juicy. You, too, Rain.”

Willa filled bowls from the big iron pot and Amy carried them to the table. Liberty set a sliced loaf of bread at each end and the large crock of butter in the middle. She was acutely aware when Farr and Colby came into the cabin. She saw Farr turn and take a long, deep look around the room. She saw him note the neat quilts covering the bunks, the orderly shelves, the extension to the table. When his eyes came to her, she could see the smile in them although it didn’t reach his mouth. She knew instinctively that he was pleased she was making this cabin into a home.

Colby stood with his hands on his hips, his head tilted toward the iron kettle, sniffing appreciatively. “I don’t hardly know how to act, things so ready and waiting, pretty women to eat with and all.” His smiling eyes lingered on Willa even after she had turned her back to hide her blushing face.

“Might as well get used to it,” Farr said casually as he went to the head of the table and sat down.

Liberty picked Mercy up off the floor where she was playing with a spool and sat her on the chair. After the sound of chair legs being scraped on the rough plank floor, and they were all seated, an unusual quiet settled. It was as if each one of them were waiting for something. Liberty had put a small amount of stew from her bowl in Mercy’s, mashed the potatoes with a fork, and now she placed the spoon in the child’s hand.