Dorothy Garlock (4 page)

Joe kicked his boots off at the door.

“Something smells good. Have the good ladies in town brought you supper in hopes of snaring you for their daughters?”

“Daughters, h-hell. They hopin’ to t-trap me for themselves.”

“What are you now, Doc? Forty? Fifty? I heard your bones creakin’ when you opened the door.” Joe enjoyed teasing the doctor because he was only thirty-four and his once-dark hair was rapidly turning gray.

“S-smart-ass. What’re you doing out on a night like this? Can’t be Jill. I saw her yesterday. She’s not due for a couple of w-weeks. Thad thought I should pinpoint it down to the day and hour. I’m good, b-but not that good.”

“I came to tell you that your new nurse got as far as my place before she got bogged down in the mud.”

“April is here?” A brief smile fluttered across Doc’s face, then disappeared. “Did you t-treat her to s-some of your smart-alecky humor? If you did, I’ll s-sew up that mouth of yours the f-first chance I get.”

“I treated her like the gentleman I am. What do you take me for? A country clod?”

“You said it. I didn’t.”

“I charmed her. She fell for me like a poleaxed steer. She couldn’t keep her hands off me.”

“B-bull hockey! She’s too smart for that.”

“She’s at Pa’s. Jack and I will pull her car out in the morning. She’ll be so grateful she’ll swoon in my arms. Where’s she going to stay?”

“I’ve put out some feelers. Shirley Poole has a room to let. Only she and her b-brother live in that big old house. I don’t know if she offers meals. She and Miss Asbury would have to work that out.”

“Marry her and she can stay here.” Joe watched carefully for Doc’s reaction. His expression never changed.

“And lose out on all the c-cakes and pies I get from the ladies who are trying to s-snare me?”

“How about Mrs. Bloom? Her son went to St. Louis to find work.”

“It’s a thought. I’ll s-suggest it to Miss Asbury.”

“How did you meet her?”

“You’re awfully nosy about my new n-nurse.”

“Why not? She’s the prettiest thing to come to Fertile in a long time.”

“She was r-recommended by a doctor in Kansas City when I went there to take a brushup course. She was working at the hospital and taking care of a s-sick grandmother. She told me that she wanted to eventually work for a small-town doctor where she could get to know the patients. I wrote to her as soon as Miss Franklin t-told me she was quitting.”

“She’s a lot better-looking than Miss Franklin.”

“You’re just saying that because she turned you down for Harold Walker.”

Joe snorted. “She made a play for every single man in town and some that were not single. Even you, for God’s sake. That’s how desperate she was. She caught poor old Harold when he was looking the other way.”

“Why even me? Hell. I’m the best c-catch in town.” “Bullfoot! I’m the one carrying the stick to keep the women off me.”

“Don’t play f-fast and loose with my nurse. Hear? I want her to s-stay.”

“Miss April Asbury can take care of herself. She’ll have you wrapped around her little finger in no time at all.” Joe headed for the door and slipped on his boots. “I’ll get her car as far as our place. I think the road from there to town is hard-packed enough for her to come on in.”

“Don’t rush off. I was about to offer you a p-piece of Miss Davenport’s chocolate cake or a dish of Mrs. Maddox’s peach cobbler or a hunk of meat loaf b-brought in by Sarah Parker.”

“Thanks. That’s generous of you, but I’m afraid it would get out that I’m eating the treats the dear ladies bring you and your supply would be cut off. I’d better get back uptown, look up Jack and see if he’s ready to go home.”

“Jack’s going through a d-difficult time right now.”

“Pa’s worried about him.”

“You’re a h-hard act to follow, Joe. You’ve got your land and a good start while he’s s-still working at home with his pa. His dream of p-playing baseball blew up, and he doesn’t know what to do with himself.”

“I know he was disappointed. But hell, Doc, we all have disappointments. That’s no excuse for trying to drown them in booze.”

“He was shaken up when Ruby b-broke off with him and started going out with a fellow who has a g-good job with the electric company.”

“Jack had his chance with Ruby. She’s been crazy about him since they were kids in school. I don’t know why they broke up, but I suspect it had something to do with his drinking. Her folks are churchgoing people, and she was probably getting stomped on at home.”

Doc stood in the doorway as Joe crossed the porch. “Hurry up and get s-sick, Joe,” he called. “I’ll need the money to pay my new nurse.”

“If I get sick, I’ll head for the vet over in Mason. At least he knows enough not to pull my teeth if I have a bellyache.”

Doc chuckled and closed the door.

Joe rode his horse the two blocks to Main Street, then turned into the alley behind Hannity’s, the pool hall where Jack usually hung out when he was in town. After tying his horse, he walked between the buildings to the front door.

He heard his brother before he saw him.

“Dammit, This. I’ve a notion to bend this cue stick around your scrawny neck.”

“You’re a poor loser, Jack.”

Jack was playing pool with This and That, the redheaded Humphrey twins. Their names were Thomas and Thayer but they had been called This and That since they were babies, and most folks thought those were their real names. They still resembled each other but not as much as when they were younger.

The twins were strong, hardworking boys, as were all the Humphreys. They had been working with a harvest crew, but that job played out. They were home now and, like hundreds of other young men, looking for work.

“What’re you doin’ in town? Come to see about the prodigal son?” Jack bent over the pool table to line up a breaker shot.

“Came to see Doc.” Joe took a cue stick from the rack on the wall and set up the balls on the other table. “How about a game, That?”

“What are we playin’ for?”

“Nickel.”

“Lord, you’re cheap,” Jack snorted. Joe knew his brother was on his way to being drunk. “Play the boy for a quarter.”

Jack wasn’t as tall or as heavy as his older brother. Thick light brown hair sprang back from his wide forehead. His smile was engaging. Until lately he had been the prankster in the family.

Jack made several plays before he spoke again. “Why’d you go see Doc? Is Jill all right?”

“Yeah. I went to tell him that his new nurse is out at the farm.”

Jack straightened up and chalked the end of his cue stick. “What she doin’ out there?”

“Waitin’ for you and me to pull her car outta the mud.” “Tonight?”

“No. In the morning.”

“I told Corbin I’d come by in the morning and help him grease his printing press.”

“It won’t take but an hour or two. We can take Pa’s team.” “What’s she look like?” This asked.

“Well”—Joe reached for the cube of chalk and studied the balls on the table—“you remember that teacher you had in high school who was so ugly she’d make a freight train take a detour through the woods?”

“Holy Moses! Not like her!”

“She’s a very nice lady. She can’t help what God gave her.” Joe moved to the end of the table. “Doc isn’t known for picking good-looking women.”

“Hell,” Jack said. “This one can’t be uglier than the last one he had.”

“You’ll see.”

“Doc got a new nurse?” The question came from a man who stood beside the cue rack.

“Yeah. How’s things at the hardware, Fred?”

“Slow. Not like it was when I first came here back in ’23. Business was booming then. That fellow Hoover about ruined the country.”

“He didn’t do it by himself. No man has that much power.” “I’m glad he got voted out. Roosevelt even
looks
smarter. But then, he’s probably crooked as a snake’s back. He’ll look after his rich cronies, and to heck with the rest of us.”

Fred Hazelton was pessimism personified. If there was a dark side to any subject, Fred would find it. It was probably the reason he had never married. He had come to Fertile eleven years earlier to help his sister, Shirley Poole, run the hardware store after her husband was killed.

“Sister has a room to let,” Fred said. “Does the nurse have a place to stay?”

“I’m not sure. Her car is stuck in the mud out near my place.”

“I’ll tell Sister to call Doc Forbes.”

Joe sank the last ball in the pocket and held out a hand to That to collect his nickel.

“Come on, Jack. Let’s call it a night.”

“Go ahead. I’ll be along.” Jack took a drink out of the bottle he brought from under the pool table.

“If the law catches you drinking in here, it will go hard for Mr. Dewey,” Fred said.

Jack glared at the shopkeeper. “I suggest that you tend to your own damn business.”

Joe saw the sign. Jack was spoiling for a fight. He wouldn’t fight a soft, sissified man like Fred, but he’d cut him down verbally.

“Fred’s right, Jack. We don’t want to cause Mr. Dewey any trouble. He’s hanging on here by the skin of his teeth, trying to support his family.”

“I know that. I just don’t want some prissy-ass store clerk telling me what to do.”

“Let’s go. My horse is out back.”

“I suppose you’re going to stay till I do.” “You got it right, Brother.”

“Sheee-it. Let’s go. I’m out of booze anyway.”

Fred waited until the Jones boys and the Humphrey twins left the pool hall, then went out into the light drizzle and down the street to the house he shared with his sister.

“Sister,” he called excitedly as soon as he opened the door. “What is it?” The woman who hurried from the back of the house was tall and thin with a heavily lined face. Long gray-streaked brown hair was pulled tightly back, twisted and pinned in a knot on the back of her neck. She looked much older than her thirty-five years.

“The new nurse is here. You’ve got to go tell Doc Forbes about the room.”

“I’ve already told him. He said that he’d tell her about it. That’s all I can do.”

“You promised that we’d get a lady roomer!”

“I’m doing the best I can.”

“Joe Jones says that she’s not pretty. But that doesn’t matter.”

“Where did you see him?”

“In the pool hall. Her car is stuck in the mud out by his place.”

“I’ll talk to the doctor again in the morning.”

“Go early.”

“Why are you so anxious for us to get a lady roomer?” Fred started up the stairs to his room and turned back. “Because you need someone here in case something happens to me.”

“Nothing is going to happen to you. You’re as strong as a horse. Aren’t you?”

Fred continued on up the stairs without answering. With a furrowed brow Shirley watched him until he turned at the landing.
Why was he so concerned about her being alone all of a sudden?

Chapter 3

A
CROWING ROOSTER AWAKENED
A
PRIL
. She lay for a long moment relishing the comfort of the soft bed and remembering the big red rooster her grandmother had when she was a little girl. Her grandpa had claimed him to be almost as old as he was himself and declared that only because he would be tough as boot leather kept him from lopping off the bird’s head and putting him in the cook pot. Grandma had just smiled and warned Grandpa to keep his hands off that rooster. She cautioned that it was not wise of him to irritate the cook lest he leave the table with a bellyache and a running off of the bowels.

April had been weary the night before when Mrs. Jones had brought her to the room at the top of the stairs. The long drive, the trudge through the mud to reach the small house set in the pasture and the horseback ride had tired her out. She had fallen to sleep almost immediately and had awakened only briefly during the night when she heard footsteps in the hallway outside her door.

Now hearing voices below in the farmyard, she rose from the bed to look out the window. Joe was standing at the head of a team of mules. He wore an old straw hat and an oiled slicker, and his pant legs were stuffed down into rubber boots. As she watched, a man came from the barn leading a saddled horse. Joe said something to the man, whom April presumed to be his brother Jack. The brother, laughing, put his thumb to his nose and waved his fingers in an obscene gesture. He then mounted the horse and loped him down the lane toward the road. Joe followed slowly, leading the mules.

April moved the curtains back to look at the sky. It was too early to tell if the rain clouds had passed over.

She hurried to dress, wondering when Mrs. Jones had placed her dried clothes on the chair in the room. She must have been sleeping soundly not to have heard her.

“Good morning.” Eudora had just finished pouring her husband a second cup of coffee when April stepped into the cozily lighted kitchen. “There’s warm water in the reservoir,” she said, as she moved Jethro’s plate from the table.

“Has the rain stopped?”

“For the time bein’,” Jethro said. “The boys are on the way to get your car.”

“Did they have breakfast before they left?”

“Oh, my, yes.” Eudora laughed and placed her hand on her husband’s shoulder as she passed him. “I only hope they don’t kill each other before they get back.”

“Don’t worry about that.” Jethro’s eyes, blue as his son’s, twinkled. “They been at each other since they were knee-high to a frog.”

“I could have gone along to help.” April finished blotting her face and drying her hands and placed the towel on the rod at the end of the cabinet. “It would be too bad if they pulled in the wrong car.” A small laugh escaped her. She couldn’t help thinking that it would serve the “flirt” right.

“Joe said you were driving a Ford Runabout. We’ve not seen many of those around here.” Jethro got up from the table. “You ladies will have to excuse me. I have chores.” Before he reached for his hat, he pulled his wife close and kissed her. “You don’t plan to wash today, do you?”

“I will if the sun comes out. I’m three days behind already.”

“If the sun comes out, I’ll be back in to build a fire and fill the iron washpot.”

“I can do it. You don’t need to stop your work and come all the way back to the house. I know you want to finish digging out the stumps while the ground is soft.”