A New Day Rising (46 page)

"She'd lie?"

"Appears so. How quick do you think you can be ready to leave?"

"Where would I go?"

"My guess is Fargo. Go work on the railroad like your brothers did. The pay is good, and they are always looking for strong backs. With your blacksmithing skills, you'd be a real asset."

"But ... but what about Penny?"

"You'd have to leave her here. Her folks wouldn't hold too well with you and her running off. Besides, you don't want to start married life on the run. In a couple of months, you'll get a letter from us saying the baby never showed, and Mary Ruth is still slim and trim as ever."

"And then you can come home." ingeborg set Andrew in his seat and went to the stove to begin frying pancakes again.

"But ... but what if... ?"

"What if she really is in the family way?"

Hjelmer nodded.

"Do you swear that you are not the father?"

Hjelmer nodded again. "On a stack of Bibles, if I must."

"Then all will turn out all right in the end. You eat yourself a good breakfast. Got any cash?"

"Some. Lessen twenty dollars, I think."

"Good, that's enough to hold you till you get paid." Haakan got to his feet. "And if Strand comes back here, well, we'll deal with that when it comes. But I don't think he will. Let us know in a couple of weeks where you are, so before then we can honestly say we don't know. That should shorten some of that old ..."

"Haakan."

"I won't say it." He raised his hands. "But it sure is hard not to think it."

Within the hour, Haakan and Ingeborg, with Thorliff and Andrew in front of them, stood watching Hjelmer stride off across the prairie, heading south.

"I wonder when we will see him again?" Ingeborg said with a catch in her throat.

"Only God knows, but He will watch over him." Haakan swung Andrew up to his shoulders. "Come on, let's go fishing."

"Fishing!" Thorliff jumped up and down. "I'll get the worms." He headed for the manure pile on the other side of the barn.

"Worms!" Andrew squirmed to get down. "Me, worms."

"You're a worm all right." Ingeborg set him on the ground. "Thorliff, he's coming with you." She started into the house and turned back. "And don't let him eat the worms."

"I won't."

They returned late that afternoon with enough fish for them, for Kaaren and Lars, and some left for smoking. Lars took over the scaling job until the others finished chores, and then they all joined in. Ingeborg had scales clear to her elbows. Haakan even picked a few from her hair. At supper that night, they all ate fried fish till they complained of stomachs popping.

"Where do you suppose Hjelmer is by now?" Kaaren asked.

"I hope he's far away, either by boat or train. I don't trust that Strand fellow any farther than I can throw him." Lars locked his hands behind his head.

"Or his wife, either," Haakan added.

"Haakan!" Ingeborg shook her head with a glance to the boys.

"Where would you throw him?" Thorliff looked up from drawing on one of the pieces of brown wrapping paper.

"See?" Ingeborg's look said more than that.

"Nowhere." Haakan tousled the boy's hair. "It's just a figure of speech."

"Me and Baptiste, along with Swen and Knute, we threw each other into the haystacks. That was fun. But no one's big enough to throw Mrs. Strand."

"You could build a..

"Haakan Bjorklund."

He winked at her but saved the rest of his comment for later. After the boys were sleeping, he leaned close to the rocking chair where she sat knitting a thumb on a mitten that looked to be about Andrew's size. "Build a catapult and throw her into the next state. The next state after Minnesota."

Ingeborg kept her voice low in case Thorliff really wasn't asleep yet. "Shush. You have to watch what you say around those boys of mine. They repeat everything, and you know Thorliff believes every word you say."

"You are right. But he needs to learn to tease and be teased, too. Otherwise how will he get along in school?"

"He'll be fine." She put her knitting away and picked up her Bible. "What should we read tonight?"

Haakan listened as ingeborg read of Christ's miracles. As far as he was concerned, being here and married to this woman who seemed to glow in the lamplight was miracle aplenty. And later, when she lay tucked snugly against his side, he thanked God for the miracle of their love, and that he no longer had to sleep in the barn.

Hjelmer strode south, a pack containing clothes and bread and cheese over his shoulder, leaving all his tools but the carving knife behind. With each step, his rage at Mary Ruth deepened and spread. Here he was running again and through no fault of his own. Just like it had been in New York, where he was falsely accused of cheating and had to run for his life. Only this time the pursuer was a furious father. One not afraid to use a shotgun.

Hjelmer called Strand every name he could think of and a few he made up. When he was done with him, he started on Mary Ruth. When he closed his eyes, all he could see was the hurt in Penny's gentle gaze. Who would tell her? Would she believe the gossip that surely would arise? Would she wait for him, or marry another?

What if Mary Ruth really was pregnant? Who was the father? Not him, that was for certain.

Without conscious thought, he veered to the west and made a beeline for the Baard homestead.

"Mrs. Baard, is Penny home? I need to talk with her."

"Hjelmer, what is that pack? Where are you going?" Agnes dusted her hands and wiped them on her apron.

"I'll tell you later, but it is really important that I speak with her." He clutched his hat in his hands. Please let her be near, I must talk with her. If someone had told Hjelmer he was praying, he would have laughed them off, but he repeated the phrase while Agnes wrinkled her brow to think.

"I know, she's out with the boys cleaning the springhouse. Go on out." She followed him to the door. "Everything is all right at home, isn't it?"

"I hope so." Hjelmer left her and headed for the room dug into the ground. He could hear someone laughing. As he got near, Swen bolted from a -hole in the ground that was covered by a -low roof of sod.

"I'll get you!" Penny shot after him, skirts flying in the race to catch her cousin. From the look on her face, he must have been tormenting her again. "You ever throw a mouse at me again, and I'll-" She stopped as if she'd slammed into a wall. "Oh." Her hands went to her hair and then covered her face. "I'm a mess."

Hjelmer reached out with a long arm and snagged the running boy. "Here, now you can do to him whatever you want." He smiled at her distress. "And you are not a mess."

He loved the way her cheeks flared red, the way she tried to smooth her hair and had to bite her lip to keep from laughing at her young cousin flailing in Hjelmer's grip. I could lose her! The thought made him drop the boy.

"Please, can I talk with you for a few minutes?"

"Of course." She studied him from serious eyes. "You are going somewhere?"

"Ja, I must." He took her by the arm and together they walked out toward the prairie.

"She did what?" Penny spun around and faced him when he finished telling her the story. "That ... that witch! Mary Ruth, I could scratch her eyes out. To think she would accuse you of-" She stopped and looked up at him. Her voice dropped to a whisper. "It's not true, is it? I mean, I could understand if--

Hjelmer clutched her shoulders with both hands. "No, I never even told her I liked her, not ever. She wanted me to, but I never did. Oh, please, Penny, you got to believe me."

She threw her arms around his neck. "Oh, Hjelmer, I believe you. I don't want you to leave."

"Haakan said I should go work on the railroad for a while. I will do that, and when I come back, I will have money to start a blacksmith shop. Ingeborg said she will deed me five acres by the school and ... and ..." He wrapped both arms around her slender body and buried his face in her soft neck. "Penny, when I come back, will you marry me?"

"Yes! Yes! A thousand times, yes!"

When he kissed her, she melted into his arms. A few minutes later, they pulled apart and stood breathing hard. "I love you, Penelope Sjornson, and I always will. You remember that, you hear?"

"I will. I love you too much to forget."

"Then I best be going." He touched the tip of her nose with the tip of his finger. "Tell your aunt and uncle what has happened. Tell them good-bye for me."

"For now. The good-bye is only for now."

He nodded and turned to leave before the moisture in his eyes brimmed over. Why was he feeling so desolate? He'd only be gone for a short couple of months after all. Wouldn't he?

The next afternoon when Paws announced a visitor, Metiz could be heard talking to the dog. Before Ingeborg could close the lids on the stove and greet her, the old woman appeared in the door.

"Berries me bring." She held out one of her hand-woven baskets full of plump, purple-blue June berries.

"Metiz, how good to see you, and what a wonderful present. Where did you find them ripe already?" Ingeborg popped one of the juicy berries in her mouth and closed her eyes, the better to savor the sweetness.

"Plenty more."

"Good, perhaps I can send the boys out to pick tomorrow, if you will show them where. These will make delicious jam."

"Good pemmican."

"I should dry some, shouldn't I?" Ingeborg nodded. "Perhaps Kaaren and I can go, too."

Visiting with Metiz was growing easier all the time, with them both learning new words of the other's language and understanding the signs better too.

"Strand come?"

"You heard?"

"He loud voice. Mean."

Ingeborg poured them each a cup of coffee and set the leftover cornbread on the table. "Ja, that he is."

"Lars' foot?"

"He'll be able to put his boot on soon, I think. Thanks to you, that man can walk."

"Thank Great Spirit." She finished her piece of cornbread and drained her coffee. "Takk."

"You are welcome." ingeborg got to her feet. "Come, I have something for you out in the root cellar." A few minutes later, she shaded her eyes as she watched Metiz trot back toward the river, the basket now containing six eggs and a hunk of cheese. She would have given her friend more, but Metiz turned it down. Thank you, Lord, for Metiz. Guess we could call her our prairie angel, she's helped us so much. Ingeborg sighed. She'd better get going in the garden before the weeds took over.

Hot July ran into a hotter August, and the uncut prairie grass stood tall as a man's chest. Ingeborg spent much of her days weeding the garden, caring for her livestock, and keeping Andrew out of trouble. "I don't remember Thorliff being such a problem," she said one afternoon to Kaaren.

"You didn't know him at two, but he wasn't as busy as Andrew. Thorliff could sit and play with a couple of sticks and a pile of dirt by the hour. I would hear him telling the sticks what to do, as if they were humans. I think he started telling stories before he could really talk."

"Ja, I'm not surprised." Ingeborg studied the woman before her. "Why don't you lie down and put your feet up for a time. Look how swollen your ankles are."