Bring the Boys Home (7 page)

From across the table, Jeff was looking at Leah. He appreciated her green eyes and blonde hair and the smoothness of her skin.
There’s gonna be lots of fellas come courting Leah
. He remembered the old days when they had hunted birds’ eggs together.
I reckon courting’s a little bit different from hunting birds’ eggs
.

Studying her more closely as she laughed and her white teeth flashed, he thought,
But she’s pretty enough to fight for, and that’s what I aim to do!

F
inding a place to live proved to be both complicated and simple.

Although the Carters would have been glad to put up the three Majors men and Mrs. Majors, Nelson was almost frantic with anxiety to be in his own house.

“I appreciate your offer, Dan,” he said the morning after they arrived, “but you know how it is. A man just needs his own place.”

Dan Carter nodded slowly. “Ordinarily I’d agree with you, Nelson, but situations change. Right now you’re in kind of a bind. It looks to me like the best thing for your wife would be to stay here and let us kind of take care of her.” He scratched his thinning hair and shook his head. “She doesn’t seem too pert, does she?”

“No, she’s not well. She had trouble with her first child, and that worries me.” Nelson shuffled his feet. The two men were standing in the yard, and Nelson had just saddled a horse. “I’m going to ride around and look. There’s bound to be some kind of house I can get around here. It’s just that I don’t have any money to pay for it. I may have to work it off.”

“You can always count on me for a loan.”

“No, you’ve done enough, Dan. Taking care of my daughter during the war—and now welcoming us back. I’ve got to do something on my own.”

He mounted and rode away to spend the better part of the day covering the roads. He was greeted by many with warm smiles—people who had been sympathetic to the Confederacy. Others slammed their doors in his face. After one such encounter, he said to himself,
I knew to expect this, but it’s hard from old friends. Still, I can’t blame them
.

He returned to the Carter place just at twilight, and as he stepped down from the horse, Eileen came to meet him. “Did you find anything, Nelson?”

“Not a thing, but I’ll try again tomorrow.”

“Come on in the house. We kept supper warm for you.”

“What have you been doing all day?”

“Sewing baby clothes. Mary’s such a wonderful seamstress. I’ll show you the nightgowns that I made for Hezekiah.”

“You’re not really going to name a helpless baby Hezekiah?”

“It was your suggestion.” She smiled, humor glowing in her eyes. “Unless you can come up with something better, I think it’ll be Hezekiah.”

“Anything
would be better.”

They went inside. The meal was already over, and only Dan and Uncle Silas still remained at the table. The others had all scattered.

“Hello, Nelson,” Silas said cheerfully. “Sit down and get on the outside of some of this good food that Mary and Sarah made up for you.”

“I can use it. Hungry work riding the roads.”

He sat and listened as Dan and Silas talked about the farm. Neither of them mentioned the war, and he was grateful for that.

Then Mary Carter brought in a plateful of food and gave him a big smile. She was a compassionate
woman with the same blonde hair and green eyes as could be seen in her daughter Leah. She fixed herself a cup of tea and sat down as Nelson ate.

“I couldn’t find anything—that we could afford,” Nelson said, in answer to her question. When the others all looked at him, he grinned wryly. “Of course, I can’t afford much of anything.”

Mrs. Carter got up to bring him a cup of tea. At his words she paused and said, “I wasn’t going to say anything about it, Nelson, but there’s always the old Turner place.”

“Aren’t the Turners still there?”

“Oh, no,” she said. “They moved out two years ago. Nobody’s lived in the old house since.”

“Did Turner sell out?”

“I don’t think he sold out,” Dan Carter said. “The bank foreclosed on the place. Now, that’s an idea, wife. That old place is just sitting vacant. Of course, it’s a mess. It wasn’t much when the Turners had it, and it’s worse now.”

“I’ll stop in the bank tomorrow and see if they’ll let me rent it.”

“I should think they would. Anything they get out of it is profit. Nobody wants that old place. It was wore out when Turner bought it, and he finished it off. Only about ten acres, I think, but the house—at least it’s a roof.”

Nelson sipped the tea that Mary had brought for him. “I’ll go in tomorrow morning.”

After he and Eileen had gone to bed, they lay talking quietly.

“I hope we get that house, Nelson.”

“You may not be after you see it. It always was pretty much a wreck. I’m surprised it’s still standing.”

“Anything will do.”

Nelson took her hand. “I didn’t bring you much, Eileen.”

She squeezed his hand tightly, and moonlight illuminated her smile. “You brought me yourself, and that’s the best gift of all.”

Pineville had not changed greatly, Nelson saw as he rode down the main street. It never had been a large town, although it was the county seat. He saw that several new stores had been added during the years he had been gone, but mostly the place looked about the same as when he’d left it. He was greeted several times by old friends—and ignored by others, who gave him one hard look and then turned away.

He drew up in front of the bank, a frame building wedged between a dry goods store and a hardware, and tied the horse to the rail. The assistant manager, a tall, gaunt man named Robert Squires, greeted him with merely a grunt and a nod. Squires had been strongly Union, Nelson remembered, and had been hateful to the Majors family even before he had left for the South.

“Why, hello, Mr. Squires. Is Dave in?”

“Mr. Pimberly is in,” Squires said stiffly, “but I don’t know if he’ll see you.”

“Would you mind asking?”

Without another word, Squires sniffed, then stepped through a door at the back of the room. He came out shortly and said reluctantly, “You can go in now.”

“Thanks for your courtesy, Squires.”

Stepping into the back room, Nelson advanced to the large walnut desk and greeted the man behind it.

“Hello, Dave.”

He waited, for he knew that Dave Pimberly had also been a Union man, and he expected that the banker would greet him coldly.

Pimberly, however, got up smiling. He stuck his hand across the desk and gripped Nelson’s with a firm pressure. “I’m glad to see you made it through, Nelson. And your boys too, I hear.”

“Yes, we did. Thank God for that. How about your family?”

“We lost Mackey at Gettysburg.”

“I’m sorry to hear it. He had a great deal of promise, Mackey did.”

“Yes, I guess you might say all those that fell had a great deal of promise,” Pimberly said. “Sit down, Nelson. Tell me what you’ve been doing.”

Lowering himself into the oak chair across from the banker, Nelson sighed heavily. “I guess you might say I’m not doing anything, Dave. Got mustered out of the army and thought about staying in Virginia.” He looked out the window to where a pair of robins perched in a tree, one of them feeding worms to a baby. He studied the sight for a moment, then turned back to Pimberly. “But this is home to me—at least I’d like for it to be.”

Pimberly studied him. He had known Nelson most of his life. They had disagreed about politics and about the war, but Pimberly now said quietly, “You’re going to find some folks who are not glad to see you—but you expected that.”

“Yes, I did. I’ll just have to prove myself, I suppose.”

“We’re going to have to learn to live together, North and South,” Pimberly remarked. He leaned
forward and asked, “What can I do for you, Nelson?”

“I was talking with Dan Carter about the old Turner place. I need a place to put my family.”

“You want to buy it? Not much to it, you know. You remember the place.”

“I can’t buy it. In the first place, I don’t have any money, and if I did, it wouldn’t be to buy that. What I want to do is rent the old house.”

Pimberly shook his head doubtfully. “It’s not fit to live in. You’re married now, I understand from Dan.”

“Yes, and my wife’s going to have a baby.”

“Then you don’t want that old shack.”

“Not much choice, Dave. If you’d rent it to me, we’ll fix it up. We’ll make do for a while.”

“Move in any time you like. It’s not worth any rent. Actually, I thought you’d come in to ask for a loan.”

“Not yet, Dave. I appreciate your kindness.”

Nelson got up, shook the banker’s hand, and left the bank.

He had not gone more than ten steps down the street toward the general store when a voice called out, “Go home, Rebel! Go back to the South where you belong!”

Looking up quickly, he saw three men standing across the street. He did not recognize two of them, but one of them he knew at once. Young Dewitt Falor. Falor was glaring at him with anger in his eyes.

Nelson felt a streak of annoyance go through him. He almost stepped into the street to cross and challenge the men. Then he remembered that he had to live with these people and that starting a
fight would not be the best way to begin. He went on down to the store and picked up a few groceries.

The clerk, who knew him, said, “Now, you can’t pay for those with Confederate money, Nelson.”

“I know that, Sy.” Nelson reached into his pocket and pulled out some greenbacks that he had been forced to borrow from Silas. “These will spend, won’t they?”

Relief washed over Sy’s face. “Sure, they’re fine. Glad to have you back.”

Nelson left the store, mounted the horse, and started home. As he left town, he heard again a voice filled with raw anger call out, “Go back where you belong, Rebel!”

“The breeze feels good, Jeff,” Leah said.

“Sure does. It’s been a hot day!”

The two had gone for a late-afternoon walk and now were some two miles from the Carter house. Leah had chosen to wear her pale blue dress today, and her hair was tied back with a dark green ribbon. Jeff had on a pair of faded jeans and a worn white shirt. His hair, as black as hair could possibly be, framed the olive skin of his face. She thought he looked very tall and lean and handsome as they walked along together.

Looking up suddenly, he pointed, “You see that hickory tree over there?”

“Sure. What about it?” she asked, puzzled.

“Don’t you remember that tree?”

It was an enormous hickory that had limbs stretching out in all directions.

“That’s where we found that hairy woodpecker’s egg. We’d looked for it for two years. I’m surprised you’d forget.”

Leah clapped her hands together and smiled. She ran to the tree and reached up to touch a limb. “I do remember! You had to boost me up to get me into the tree!”

“You want to go up again?” He grinned and reached for her.

She squealed. “No! I’m not climbing a tree—not in this dress!”

Jeff laughed aloud. “You ought to get a pair of your old overalls on.”

“You remember your fourteenth birthday?” she asked, leaning back against the tree and changing the subject.

“I remember every birthday. It’s nice we have them on the same day. My fourteenth was the last one before the war began.”

“Yes. And I remember you got me a set of paints from the store, and I got you the knife that you’d wanted so long.”

Reaching into his pocket, Jeff pulled it out. “Still have it. Cut up quite a few meals with this throughout the war.” He opened the blade, which was worn from sharpening. “Sure has been a good one.”

“I still have the paints too. I looked at them last night—and at some of the pictures I painted.” She giggled. “You should see the ones I painted of you.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t.”

Later, on the way home, he brought up Tom and Sarah.

“Tom hardly ever even speaks to her,” Leah said as they came in view of the Carter house.

“I guess he’s just afraid that she won’t want him.”

“He’ll never know until he asks, but I
know
she wants him.”

“Why don’t you tell him, Leah?”

“
You
tell him. You’re his brother.”

“I
have
tried to tell him, but … well … I don’t know. When a fellow’s lost a leg, he does feel kind of like a misfit. I can understand how Tom feels.”

“He’s wrong, though. Sarah didn’t fall in love with his leg.”

“You’re quite an authority on love and romance. You used to read books about them all the time,” Jeff teased. “You may be right about this one, though. I know Tom’s still in love with her, but besides the problem with the leg, he doesn’t have a penny. None of us do.”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“Don’t talk foolish!” Jeff said sharply. “Of course, it matters! You’ve got to have a place to live and food to eat. And don’t tell me that God’s going to take care of it all. God helps those that help themselves. It says so in the Bible.”

Leah waved her hands in exasperation. “It does
not
say that in the Bible! It says that in Aesop’s Fables! You know as well as I do—God helps those who
can’
t help themselves.”

This seemed to strike Jeff as being true. “I know. You’re right. So many times during the war when I just couldn’t help myself at all, God always saw to it.” He smiled at her and took her hand. “You were in some of those escapades.” He suddenly lifted her hand, kissed it, and then watched her face.

Leah felt herself blush, but she did not pull her hand back. “Now you’re the one who’s getting romantic. You practiced up hand kissing with Lucy, I suppose?”

“Now, don’t start on Lucy. She and Cecil are going to get married and live happily ever after.” He
held her hand a moment longer, then said, “Let’s go in the house. You can tell me some more about hand kissing later.”

Late that night, Sarah was preparing for bed. She was brushing her hair, seated at a dressing table.

Leah watched from her own bed. She asked suddenly, “Has Tom said anything to you?”

Sarah did not miss a stroke. She had beautiful dark hair that came down to her waist and dark blue eyes that looked back at her out of the mirror. She had one of the most beautiful complexions that Leah had ever seen.