The Reaper's Song (43 page)

Who are they and how did they get in here without the bell tinkling? How long have they been here?

“You know, if you’d told me you were hungry, I’d have gotten you some real food.”

One dashed one way, one the other, around the counter and making for the door. She grabbed for the one on her right and got hold of his coat. Or was it her? Impossible to tell. She had no time for thought because the child slipped out of the sleeves, leaving her with a handful of coat. She leaped and hit the door just before they did, throwing her weight against it so they were trapped. They darted down one aisle, heading for the back door.

“Hjelmer! Anner!” Penny’s screeching could be heard clear outside.

The two men came running. The children collided with the men’s legs. They caught themselves and darted around the men. Or rather tried to. One made the mistake of going to Anner’s good side. The other stumbled. One man per child. Caught.

Kicking and screaming, the children struggled for freedom. Hjelmer held his captive up by the back of his coat.

“And what do we have here?” Flailing the air with his fists, the boy called Hjelmer every name he could think of, none of them complimentary.

Anner, however, had the smaller child clutched to his chest with his one arm and suffered myriad kicks to his thighs and shins. “Be still, you little thief, or I’ll—”

“You leave my brother alone!” the older one yelled.

Penny watched the proceedings, her mouth going from an
O
of astonishment to a widening in laughter. It started with a single giggle, but as the other battle continued, she lost hers. She laughed until her sides ached. Soon all four male creatures were staring at her as if she’d lost whatever mind she’d started with.

When she tried to stop, the look on Hjelmer’s face set her off again.

“Do you care to share with the rest of us what is so funny?” Hjelmer quirked an eyebrow.

“Y-y-you.” She held her hands up in surrender.

With the boys still, the men got a better grip on them and plunked them both on the counter.

“Now, stay still.” Anner glared at his charge.

Hjelmer fixed them with a stern look. “Who are you, where are you coming from, and where are you supposed to be?”

Both boys crossed their arms over their chests and stared at their
knees. The younger one was the first to look up. He cleared his throat.

“Don’t you say nothin’!” the older one hissed.

The little one dropped his gaze again.

All Penny could see was two well-ventilated stocking hats. Blond hair stuck out of the holes of one, slightly darker out the other. “How long have you boys been on the road?”

“Ain’t been on the road.”

“I told you to shut up!” the older boy scolded.

“Been on the train.”

“Oh, I see.” Penny nodded as though refugees arriving from the train was an everyday occurrence.

“Can’t you never shut up?”

Hjelmer and Anner, while keeping a close watch on their captives, let Penny do the talking.

“So where were you going?”

Shrugs of both sets of thin shoulders.

“Guess we better take them to the sheriff,” she said after a long silence. “Maybe he can get them to talk.”

“The sher—” Anner bit off his word. He nodded to Penny, his eyes crinkling around the edges. But when he looked back to the boys, his face wore the stern mask she’d known for so long.

“Don’t want no sheriff.”

“Then you better talk to me.” Penny walked around the counter and, taking the dome off the cheese wheel, cut two small wedges. “Here, this might go well with those crackers.”

The older boy clenched his hands under his armpits.

The younger stared at the cheese, glanced at his brother, and snatched the food. It disappeared into his face as fast as he could stuff it.

“Now you did it.” The older one cuffed the younger.

“Yeow!” He rubbed his shoulder. “You din’t need to do that.”

“All right, that’s enough. Now let’s get some answers. Where is your ma?” Penny made her voice tough as hog hide.

“Runned off.” Spoken to the one remaining button on his too-small coat.

“Your pa?”

“Dead.”

The one-word arrow stabbed her heart.

The older boy slammed his hand on the counter. “Now ya did
it. I was trying to keep us out of the orphanage, and you tossed us right in.”

Penny turned to him. “Why do you say that?”

“Everywhere we go, folks try to take one of us, not both, or they talk about the orphanage.”

“We don’t have an orphanage in Blessing. But I know we got some families that would take both of you in without any kind of argument. Where you from?”

The younger boy peeped out of the corner of his eye to his brother.

The boy sighed. “Way east. We hopped trains whenever we could. There’s no one to write to that cares beans about us. We’re on our own, and we’re gonna make it. You just watch.” Both tone and face grew fierce.

“I’ll be glad to, but first we’ll find you a place to stay where there’s some clothes that will fit and plenty to eat.” She leaned closer to the little boy. “What’s your name?”

“Toby.”

“Toby what?”

“White and him’s Gerald. We call him Jerry.”

“Toby and Gerald White, huh?” She turned to Hjelmer and Anner, who stood ready in case the boys bolted. “So, what do you think? The Baards, or Olaf and Goodie, or—”

“Why can’t they come to our house?” Anner asked. “We got room, and when we build the new house, they can have a room all to themselves.”

“We can collect some clothes for them.”

Anner shook his head. “No, we can buy some, and my wife will make the rest.” He looked at Penny, then Hjelmer. “Unless, of course, you . . .”

Hjelmer leaned forward just a hair. “I think you’ve already made the best suggestion possible. The gift of two boys is something mighty special for one afternoon.”

Penny started to say something, then stopped. This reminded her far too much of her own situation years earlier. Only then it had been relatives splitting up the children, never again to all be together. There could have been room at their house for these two. She loved them already. But Anner and Hildegunn needed these boys as bad as the boys needed them.

“Well, Mr. Valders, I get to help with something. Come on, you
two. The boots are right over here, and from the looks of your feet, you need some right bad.”

“Why don’t you go on home and talk this over with your wife,” Hjelmer said in a low voice. “We’ll bring the boys later.”

“No need. She’ll be scrubbing them clean and fixing clothes all night. I can’t give her anything better. Don’t you see?”

“I do see. And even more, I see that you have come a long way, Anner, and I’m proud to call you my friend.”

Anner hawked, almost spit, then remembered where he was and drew out his handkerchief. “Thanks to the good Lord above and all you men who kept coming to care for me even when I spit in your faces. I can never repay what I owe.”

“Ain’t that the truth for all of us?”

The bell over the door tinkled.

Anner turned to the newly arrived customers and asked, “Can I help you?”

As Hjelmer headed back toward his office, he heard Penny and the two boys laughing over in the boot section. Maybe he should have claimed the boys for their own. But surely God was going to bless them with children soon as He deemed the time was right, wasn’t He?

August 1887

T
hey’re here! They’re here!” Andrew and Deborah shrieked the words together.

“Who’s here?” Ingeborg wiped her hands on her apron.

“Katy’s home! With horses. Lots’a horses.” Andrew fairly danced in place at his news.

“Glory be to God, they’re safe.” She followed the children out the door and shaded her eyes with one hand. It sure enough did look like
lots’a
horses. “Come on, Andrew, Deborah. Let’s go open the corral gate.” She grabbed the children’s hands and ran with them across the yard to the corral by the old sod barn. She flipped the rope loop off the gate post and pulled it open wide. Latching it to a rail, she took the children to stand in the door of the sod barn.

“Pretty horses,” said Deborah, her mouth and eyes matching
O
’s.

“I get to ride?” Andrew tugged on her skirts. “Mor, can I ride now?”

“No, son. Those horses aren’t tame enough to ride yet. Zeb has lots of work to do with them first.”

“Oh.” He leaned against his mother’s side, letting her pat his curls with an absentminded gesture.

With a whoop and a swirl of dust, the horses streamed through the open gate, following the lead mare that Zeb had snubbed to his old faithful mount. Katy brought up the rear, swinging a rope and hollering at the stragglers. In a broad-brimmed hat and men’s britches, she reminded Ingeborg so much of herself that she laughed out loud. No wonder people were scandalized at her men’s clothing.

With the last horse in, Katy swung the gate shut and latched it. “There now, you broomtails, you’re trapped for sure.” Then turning to Ingeborg, she said, “We did just that, Inge. We trapped them. Zeb
figured it out. We drove them into a box canyon that we’d fenced off. Worked so perfect we could choose which to keep and which to let loose. The stallion was the only one left out, and he tried to get his mares back a couple of times. You should have seen him.” She swung to the ground as if she’d been riding all her life. “He was happy when we let the ones we didn’t want loose again. He rounded them up and hightailed it out of there as if to say ‘so there!’ ”

“You look like range life agrees with you.” Ingeborg could feel her smile nearly touch her ear lobes.

“Oh, it does. We saw the mountains, and all I could think of was Norway. They were so rugged and majestic, they made my heart ache.”

“Who has a heartache?” Zeb led his mount out of the gate, making sure none of the wild horses were following.

“No one, silly.” Katy tossed her long braid back over her shoulder.

The three of them crossed their arms on the top rail of the corral. Andrew and Deborah scrambled up to sit beside them, bare feet hooked around the lower rail.

“You sure got pretty horses.” Andrew patted Zeb’s shoulder.

“Glad you like them, young sprout.” Zeb looked around at Ingeborg. “I think he grew three feet while we were gone.”

Andrew looked down at his feet, shaking his head. “No, I only still got two.” He stared from one adult to the other, bewilderment written all over his face, but started to laugh just because they did.

“Andrew, my boy, I sure did miss you.” Katy tousled his hair, knocking his hat into the horse pen. When Andrew started to climb down to get it, she grabbed his arm. “Oh no, you don’t.”

At the same moment Zeb bent over and reached inside for the hat, straightening and plunking it back on Andrew’s head. “You stay out of there. Those horses would stomp you right into the dirt.”

Andrew looked at him as if he’d taken up telling tall tales.

“All horses aren’t gentle like ours.” Ingeborg turned from watching a particularly fine filly. “But give Zeb time with them and they will be. You just remember to do as he says.”

“Yes, Mor.” Andrew laid his arm across her shoulders. “You going to ride?”

“One day.”

“So what all has gone on while we’ve been gone?”

“The usual.”

“We got new calves. Belle had a baby. Paws is a pa.”

“There are new chicks.” Deborah held out her hand to show a scabbed spot. “That hen near to tore my hand off.”

Katy and Zeb both looked to Ingeborg, who shrugged and grinned at the same time. “A lot of love and she’s healthy again. She can talk your arm and both legs off.”

“But, Mor—” Andrew started but Ingeborg cut him off.

“I know, you got two legs and so does Zeb. You and Deborah go crank up a bucket of water. I’m sure a cold drink would taste mighty good to these travelers.”

The two leaped to the ground and ran off yelling, “Race you!”

The look the newlyweds shared brought a lump to Ingeborg’s throat.

“Shall we ask her? Tell her? What?” Katy locked her arm through her husband’s.

“What now?” Ingeborg raised an eyebrow.

“Well, we want the girls to come live with us. Since they started out with Zeb—”

“I guess I think they should be mine—er, ours,” Zeb finished.

Ingeborg dropped her chin on her hands. Both Manda and Deborah had become like daughters to her. “G-guess we’ll have to talk about this later.” The wrench of losing them already knotted her stomach. “Manda should probably have the say in it.”

“We wanted to ask you first,” Katy whispered.

One of the horses snorted. Another one got nipped on the rump and squealed. Ingeborg kept her gaze on the horses. She couldn’t bear yet to look the two young people in the eye.

After a bit Zeb broke the silence. “Have Anner and Hildegunn moved to town yet?”

“Just last week, in fact. They have two boys now.” Gratitude for his changing the subject flowed through her.

“They were surely busy while we were gone.”

“Zebulun MacCallister!”

Smiling at the shocked look on Katy’s face, Ingeborg turned to Zeb. “Penny caught two boys stealing crackers in her store. Come to find out, they came in hiding on a train car. Anner volunteered to keep them, and now they’re one happy family.”