Sins of Summer (35 page)

Wiley shuffled his feet and moved restlessly in his chair. Ben saw the old man’s hands shake when he took out his pocketknife
to cut a chew of tobacco.

“What do you think of it, Wiley?” Ben prodded.

Wiley took his time putting the chaw in his cheek and returning his knife to his pocket.

“I’m thinkin’ that if’n Steven don’t want the marshal ta know ’tis his business, he bein’ the one what was shot.”

“It’s a big responsibility for the McHenrys,” James said. “Steven is afraid that if someone comes and tries to finish the
job, some of the family could be hurt or killed.”

“Milo or Louis wouldn’t risk that, but they could have hired someone,” Dory said.

“Louis knows that if it wasn’t for Steven the company would have gone under. What surprises me,” James said, “is that they
haven’t tried to get rid of me.”

“You’re the best cutting foreman in the Bitterroot,” Dory said. “You get more work out of ten men than Louis or Milo can get
out of twenty. Another thing, they didn’t think that you or I could persuade Judge Kenton to divide the property, but Steven
could, because the judge likes and respects him.”

“Makes sense to me.” Ben was watching the way James’s eyes kept going to Odette. Her silent adoration of him was obvious.
I’ll have to tell him. Only he can put a stop to this before it goes any farther.

“What shall we do?” Dory reached down and lifted Jeanmarie onto her lap.

“I’ll go back down to Spencer the day after tomorrow. By then Steven should be better… or worse. Howie will be back by then
and I’ll have him take the letter to the judge.”

“Louis was here today looking for you,” Dory said.

“Yeah?”

“He had been to the cutting camp and was in a rage because you weren’t there.”

“If I’d been here, I’d a told him where he could put the whole damn company. I’m tired of it.” James got up and refilled his
cup. “I’m tired of playing games with him and Milo. I’m tired of keeping away from here when I think they’re here, and I’m
tired of wondering if I’ll be shot in the back and you’ll be left alone,” he said to his sister. “All my life, and yours too,
Dory, we’ve had to walk on eggs to keep peace, even when the folks were alive. They made life miserable for Ma and Pa, and
now they are doing the same to us.” James ran his fingers through his hair. “I want a home and a family to work for, and I
don’t want people thinking that all the Callahans are trash. Is that too damn much to ask?”

James went to the door. looked out and came back to the table.

“The entire town turned out for Marie Malone’s funeral,” he said, looking at his sister. “How many would come to yours, Dory?
Or mine? It isn’t our doing. We just happen to be Callahans. It makes a person stop and think.”

“I’m not one bit ashamed of being a Callahan,” Dory said quietly, her eyes mirroring her distress. “Papa was a good and decent
man. He did the best he could for Milo and Louis and for us. We can’t help the way they are. I realize that I contributed
to the way people think about the Callahans—I had a child out of wedlock. I’m sorry if I’ve disgraced you. But James, you
can make what you want out of your life in spite of your relatives.”

“Oh, Sis. It isn’t you and Jeanmarie. If you had married Mick, even if you were big as a barrel, folks would have welcomed
you with open arms because you’d have been a Malone. After Mick was killed, it would still have been all right if Milo and
Louis hadn’t been so busy spreading stories about you.”

“What’s done is done, James. We can’t go back and change things.”

As Ben listened, he knew that he had made no mistake choosing this woman to share his life. His mind filled with pride, his
eyes with admiration when he looked at her. He saw behind her pride and courage, to the misery inside her.

James paced back and forth and Dory’s worried eyes followed him. Suddenly he stopped, looked at Ben, then moved around the
table, took Odette’s hand, pulled her to her feet and drew her into the hallway.

When the door closed behind them, Dory looked at Ben. Her heart sank. His brows were drawn down in a scowl. She was vaguely
aware that Wiley had got to his feet and was moving toward the door.

She wanted to cry.

The kitchen was as silent as a tomb after Wiley left. Dory looked down at her daughter sleeping in her lap and brushed the
curls from her forehead. She wasn’t even aware that she was miserable. She just knew that what she’d thought she had a moment
ago had vanished and once again she was alone. There was a difference now. Now she knew how wonderful life
could
be.

She didn’t look at Ben. She didn’t want to see the disapproving scowl on his face. Into her mind floated a dozen unanswered
questions that merged into one. Why did he not want James to court his daughter? It could only be that he didn’t think James
good enough; that he thought brutality was ingrained in all the Callahans. If that was true, why did he want
her?
She and James were full brother and sister; the other two had only their father’s blood.

“Ben?”

He didn’t look at her. He was looking at the stove as if it were something he hadn’t seen before. He was thinking that he
had not realized that James was so serious about Odette even though she was smitten by him. Odette had had no experience with
boys her age, much less with a man like James. It was natural for her to be flattered by his attention. Damn him! She would
never understand now when James broke things off between them. He couldn’t tell Odette that there was a chance he wasn’t her
father, that one of James’s half-brothers may have sired her.

Ben turned to Dory and saw the hurt on her face. It was like a blow in the gut. She had gone through so much, and now this.

“Why, Ben? Is it that you think James has bad blood? I have the same blood.”

“It isn’t that. I don’t believe in bad blood. Never did, never will.”

“He isn’t like Milo and Louis. He’s got the softest heart in the world. He’d never hurt her.”

Ben was silent. He didn’t want to discuss it with Dory until after he had talked to James. This could be the death of his
dreams as well as Dory’s and Odette’s. But he couldn’t let it go on. It was too risky.

Dory took his silence as a rebuff and said no more. They sat in silence and waited for the door into the hall to open. When
it did, Ben got to his feet. James had an arm around Odette and a beautiful smile lit the face that looked up at him.

“I want to talk to you outside, James.” Ben spoke before they had taken two steps into the room.

Smiles faded from the couple’s faces.

“Now?”

“Yes, now,” Ben replied and headed for the door.

“Papa?” Odette had not caught all the words, but she knew from the look on Ben’s face that he did not like what was happening.

With a finger on her cheek, James turned Odette’s face toward him.

“It will be all right,” he said silently, his lips moving with the words. “Don’t worry.”

Ben waited for James beside the woodpile. The younger man walked purposefully toward him, his face set in angry lines of resentment.

“Here I am! Whatever you’ve got in your craw, spit it out.”

“I have nothing against you. Under different circumstances I’d be happy for Odette. I blame myself for letting this go this
far, because it can’t go any farther.”

“I asked Odette to marry me. I’ll love her and protect her. We will go away from here so that she’ll not have to put up with
my half-brothers.”

Ben knew there was no easy way to say what he had to say, so he said it as bluntly as possible.

“I
may
not be Odette’s father. Her father
could
be Milo or Louis.”

For a moment James looked as if he had been poleaxed; then his face turned fiery red.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“The summer I was eighteen, I slept with a woman in Seattle. Milo and Louis were there at the same boardinghouse. Thirteen
years later the woman named me as Odette’s father, but there is no way for me to know for sure if she’s my flesh and blood.”

“You knew Milo and Louis back then?”

“I didn’t know them. I sat at the table with them and listened to them brag. They were so full of themselves they paid no
attention to a skinny bashful kid.”

“Does Odette know?”

“Of course not! She’s been with me almost four years now. I don’t know what it would do to her if she even thought that I
doubted she was mine. I’ve been the rock she’s clung to. She was a silent timid little thing when I first saw her. She wouldn’t
look anyone in the eye and didn’t speak a word for months. She’s changed since we came here. She talks and isn’t so ashamed
that she can’t hear. I give credit to Dory and Jeanmarie for that.”

“Oh, God.” James turned his back to the house and looked off into the woods surrounding it. A single choked sob tore from
his throat. “Oh, God,” he said again.

“I’m sorry, James. I should have told you the night I asked you to stay away from her, but I didn’t want to bring out the
reason if I didn’t have to.”

“We’ve got to find out for sure,” James said tensely. “I’ll ask them if they slept with a woman that summer.”

“No,” Ben said firmly. “You can’t do that. Think of what it would do to Odette, and we still wouldn’t be sure.”

“But… I love her!” James blurted.

“So do I. That’s why I can’t let her marry you and have your children.”

Ben was silent after that. One part of his mind told him that he should take his daughter and leave this place. The other
part asked him how he could leave without Dory if she refused to go. As loyal as Dory was to her brother, Ben was sure she’d
not leave him here to battle his half-brothers alone.

The hell of it was that he couldn’t leave either because of what had happened to Steven. The same could happen to James and
Dory would be alone. If she felt differently about Chip Malone, she could go there and let Chip and James figure out what
to do.

“It’s a hell of a mess, James. I’d give anything if I didn’t have these doubts. At first I was going to take Odette and leave,
then all this trouble came down and I realized that I love your sister. I won’t go and leave Dory to face those two and she
won’t go with me and leave you here to face them.” James turned. The look on his face reflected the misery in his soul.

“Don’t go until Dory will go with you. She deserves more than living here and taking their abuse. I’ll be around, but I’ll
stay out of sight until this trouble plays out. Tell Odette that I went to the mill. After a while, when I don’t come back,
she’ll forget me.”

“She won’t forget you, but time will ease the hurt.”

James walked quickly to the barn. Ben stood beside the woodpile dreading having to face Dory and Odette. Knowing he had to
do so sooner or later, he put his feet into motion and headed for the house.

Both Dory’s and Odette’s eyes were on him the instant he came through the doorway. He felt their anxiety and would have given
anything to be able to tell them that things were all right.

“James said he was going to the mill.”

“Papa?”

Ben went close to Odette and repeated what he had said.

“Why did James go to the mill now?” she asked.

Ben shook his head. The hurt in her eyes cut him to the core.

“Papa? You don’t like James?”

“I like James,” he spoke slowly.

“No. You are mad at me and James.” Odette shook her head and huge tears flooded her eyes.

“No, honey. I’m not mad at you.” He pulled her to him and hugged her. He looked at Dory over her head. Dory’s face was set
and the eyes that looked back at him were ice-cold and accusing. He stepped away from Odette and reached for the water bucket.
“I’ll get some fresh water.”

Outside, he threw out a half-bucket of water and hung the bail of the bucket on the pump spout. He worked the pump handle
until the water came gushing out and continued to work the handle until the bucket filled and overflowed.

When Dory called Ben and Wiley to come in to supper, her voice was even, but underneath Ben detected anger. It was evident,
too, in the way she stood, shoulders back, head high. She had practiced this for so long that it came naturally to her not
to allow her hurt and anger to show.

While at the table, Wiley talked and tried to act as if the tension didn’t exist. Dory spoke when she was spoken to, Odette
not at all—her eyes going constantly to the doorway. The meal was finished in silence. Ben got up to leave when Wiley did.

“Good supper, Dory.” Ben waited for her to say something, and when she didn’t, he followed Wiley out the door.

“Lucifer!” Wiley exclaimed as soon as they reached the bunkhouse. “It was colder’n a well-digger’s ass in there.”

James was stretched out on a bunk, his clasped hands beneath his head.

“Do you want me to tell Dory you’re here?” Ben asked. “She’ll save some supper for you to eat later.”

“Suit yourself.”

Ben passed through the bunkhouse and into the barn. He leaned on a stall rail. His horse came up to nudge his arm. Absently
he rubbed him between the eyes and stared unseeingly at the animal. His action, or lack of it, might have destroyed any chance
for happiness not only for himself, but for Dory, Odette and James. He would explain his actions to Dory when the time was
right. If she was the level-headed person he thought she was, she would understand.

How long he stood there, he did not know. When he became aware that it was pitch dark in the barn as well as outside, he went
back into the bunkhouse. James hadn’t moved. He lay on the bunk staring at the ceiling. Wiley sat on the edge of his bed in
his union suit, one leg rolled up. He was rubbing a foul-smelling salve on his injured leg.

“Phew!” Ben wrinkled his nose. “It smells like something’s dead in here.”

Wiley laughed. “I smelled it fer so long, it don’t even stink no more.”

Ben went to the door, opened it and looked toward the house. The light was burning in the kitchen. He saw Dory go past the
window. Later, after the women went upstairs to bed, he would go bed down in the kitchen. The danger to Dory was still there.
He must not let other matters overshadow that.