Mittman, Stephanie (20 page)

"Where's
Hannah?" he asked again, raising his voice to be heard over the shouts of
the infant in the next room.

"Your
mother took her this morning," Wylene answered, lazily stretching on the
bed. "I thought you'd pick her up on your way home."

The
baby was shrieking and he turned to go get her. "How could I pick her up
if I didn't even know she was there?" he asked, not expecting an answer.

"Just
make it a habit," Wylene said. "In case."

"In
case what?" he'd been foolish enough to ask as he changed the diaper on
the tiny writhing being he was responsible for.

She
hadn't answered him, but a week later he knew. In case she decided to pick up
and leave. And he'd been foolish enough to be grateful that she had at least
left the girls in his mother's hands and not just run out and left them to fend
for themselves until he returned home.

For
weeks he had lived as though it were only a temporary state, ignoring the
comments of all the wiser neighbors who had warned him of Wylene's true nature,
dragging the girls back and forth to his mother's house and trying the various
combinations of milk and water and Mellin's Food Additives for Healthy Babies
she gave him to feed Julia during the night....

"But,"
he said to Ethan as he snapped out of the past and back into the present,
"their mother's not here and I am, so I'll just go see what's got Julia
going now." He pushed off against his knees to rise when the cries
intensified.

"That
there sounds like anger to me," Ethan said. "It's best you let the
girls work it out for themselves."

He
felt foolish asking if that was what Annie would do, so he simply nodded and sat
down again and continued inspecting the parts of his furnace and comparing them
to those in the book.

"I'll
be leavin' early this afternoon," Ethan said after a short silence,
"if that's all right."

Noah
appreciated every hour Ethan gave him. Though the young man thought himself
naive and inexperienced about everything but plowing a row and putting in an
acre of corn, he was actually an encyclopedia of knowledge about everything
that concerned a farm, and a lot more than that. He had an easy way about him
that calmed the animals and at times even worked magic on the girls.

"Of
course it's all right. Where are you off to, Tessie Willis's?" He'd seen
Ethan joking with her at the social and hoped he wasn't seriously interested.
Tessy reminded him too much of Wylene, with her sexy smile and her throaty
laugh. Or maybe it was having seen her stagger down the street in the middle of
one Thursday afternoon, so close to falling down drunk that in a flash all
those moments with Wylene came flooding back and he found himself staring after
her with such disgust it embarrassed him to remember it.

"Nah,"
he said. "Sissy's having the whole family out for a special dessert for
the newlyweds." He lowered his voice as if he didn't want to be overheard
by the pile of coal or the stack of old
Harper's Weekly
magazines in the
corner. "I think she doesn't like bein' alone with the two of them all
that much. It'll be nice for her when she finally marries ol' Winestock and
gets off that farm for once in her life."

"Annie
isn't marrying Miller Winestock," he said, as quietly as Ethan had spoken
to him. "She's marrying me."

"What?"
Ethan shrieked, jumping into the air and banging his head on the ceiling.
"Ouch! Noah, that's great, better than great! When did you ask her? Was it
the shoes that did it? When are you—"

Noah
motioned with his hands to calm down and keep quiet. He knew he ought to be
embarrassed, but he wasn't. "I said she was marrying me. I didn't say she
knows it yet."

Ethan
shook his head at his friend. "You had me going there, really you did.
Does she know you're even thinking about it?"

Noah
thought about the kiss they had shared by the oak tree last night. She had been
as moved by it as he, of that he had no doubt. "Yes." He smiled.
"I'd say she knows at least that much."

"You
want to come with me to the farm?" Ethan offered. "I know Sissy'll
have enough pie to feed half of Van Wert, and there'll be Soldiers on the
Mountain for the little ones and half a dozen other desserts, what with Risa
expecting and Sissy wantin' to start her showing."

"Soldiers
on the Mountain?" he asked, having never heard of it and trying to keep
the hunger out of his voice. As good as all the food sounded, the thought of
seeing Annie again was so tempting he wasn't sure he could let good manners
keep him from accepting Ethan's offer.

Laughing,
Ethan explained that it was a dessert the whole family had a hand in inventing.
"Sissy used to decorate her custard with leftover cookies. When Della was
little they were Girls on the Meadow. When I was small they were Cowboys on the
Range. By the time Francie was old enough to name them, Pa was in and out of
the hospital so much she called them Nurses on the Ward."

"Don't
tell me Annie made different cookies for each of you?"

Ethan
nodded. "Samuel and James like soldiers, so that's what there will
probably be tonight."

"And
Risa and Charlie's little one?"

"Cara?
Princesses on the Moor or some such thing."

While
every sensible bone in his body told him he should decline Ethan's offer, and
all the good manners and breeding his mother had instilled in him insisted that
he refuse graciously, just the thought of seeing Annie tied knots in his
stomach and sent shivers up his flesh.

"Well,"
Ethan asked, "you gonna miss a chance like that?"

"I
should
say no," Noah hedged, trying to be strong in the face of
temptation.

"Miller
might be there too," Ethan added. "Acting like he's already family
when he ain't even made his intentions known yet."

"Does
he go out to the farm a lot?"

"Depends
who's countin'," Ethan said with a sly smile. "Don't it?"

***

The
wagon pulled into the front yard, stopping near the watering trough so the
horse could get a drink. From the kitchen window Annie saw that Ethan wasn't
alone. As if the day hadn't gone badly enough!

Annie
had spent the whole afternoon baking while Willa rested with her feet up at
Bart's insistence. Then after all that resting, Willa had stirred herself to
all but burn supper. Annie had been all set to shield her from Bart's temper
when he'd claimed he liked his meat well done and took the portion she was sure
even Blue, the setter they'd had as children, would have turned up his nose at.

She'd
never seen him drink as much water in one sitting, but her admiration for his
patience with his new wife grew with each mouthful he managed to swallow. He
even seemed to be enjoying it, or perhaps it was just that he took pleasure in
Willa's pride at having managed to turn out a meal on their stove.

Then,
after Annie had done the dishes, Della, Peter, and the boys had shown up and
Samuel had managed to catch the corner of the tablecloth, and before anyone
knew what had happened two of her mother's plates had crashed to the floor and
broken. Annie had bitten back tears when she'd picked up the pieces, and then
again when Della had referred to the china as "those old plates,"
suggesting it was time to replace them anyway.

Just
as Risa and Charlie had pulled up, Miller had come and been rather unnerved by
what greeted him. It seemed as though the baby Risa was carrying had gotten its
days and nights mixed up and Risa was in the throes of morning sickness when
she arrived, despite the fact that it was nearly six o'clock in the evening.
Seeing her mother sick had thrown Cara into hysterics, and Annie's bodice was
still wet with her tears.

And
now, here, waltzing up to the door as if he'd received an engraved invitation,
was Noah Eastman, stealer of kisses, quoter of sonnets, buyer of shoes. He had
Hannah by his good hand, and Ethan carried Julia in his arms. The foursome was
laughing, but she saw Noah sober up as he approached the door.

"What's
he
doing here?" Bart asked, as he looked over Annie's shoulder and
took in the crowd.

Annie's
heart was pounding so hard in her chest she didn't trust herself to answer.

"Well,
I guess we got plenty," Bart said, in an attempt to be gracious. "I
ain't all that hungry anyway."

"There's
plenty," she assured him, stifling a laugh. It was no wonder he couldn't
think about dessert after all that charred meat he'd downed.

Willa
opened the door and welcomed the newcomers.

Annie
could hear Noah explaining that Ethan had invited him. The crowd moved amiably
into the dining room, but no one took seats at the table.

Pale-faced,
Risa returned to the kitchen and offered to help Annie get things onto the
table.

"Now,
Risa, since when do I need help?" Annie replied. "Don't you think you
might like to lie down awhile? You look pretty done in."

Her
sister-in-law broke a small piece of crust off one of the pies and popped it in
her mouth. She closed her eyes and let the sweetness replace the sour mouth she
must have had from her retching.

"I'll
be fine in a minute," she assured Annie. "What happened to your
blouse?"

Annie
looked down at the tearstains and reached for an apron, gesturing with her free
hand that it was nothing. Of course to Risa that was the same as saying that
Cara had messed her aunt's dress, and Risa was quick to apologize. A moment
later she quieted and her posture straightened as if she was straining to hear
something in the other room.

"Is
that Mr. Eastman I hear?"

"Ethan
asked him along," Annie said, hoping she wouldn't get any ideas.
"Which reminds me. If you're feeling well enough, I've a bone to pick with
you."

Risa
was breaking off her third chunk of crumb topping, but her hand stilled and she
feigned a bit of dizziness that didn't fool Annie for a moment.

"Risa,"
Annie started, "what you're doing ain't fair. Not to him"—she jerked
her head toward the dining room— "nor to me."

"He's
not complaining," Risa said, giving up the act.

"It's
wrong of you to be taking sides. Here you are helping Noah by slipping his
notes in my foodstuffs, and I don't even want to think about what those shoes
must have set him back."

Risa
studied Annie so closely she was uncomfortable. What her sister-in-law was
looking for, Annie couldn't imagine, but when she spoke it seemed like Risa was
out of patience. "Taking sides? Is that how you see it? Do you think
Reverend Winestock has come to my store and asked me to send you a message? Do
you think he's tried to buy you presents and I've refused to sell him
something? Don't you know I'd walk to San Francisco for a ribbon to match your
hair if you wanted one? Don't you know how much I want to see you happy?"

"But
I
am
happy," Annie replied, when she'd recovered herself. Though
she and Risa were as close as sisters, closer certainly than she was with Della
and probably just as close as she was with Francie, they had never said as
much, had never put into words the lengths they would go to for each other.
Risa was truly Annie's best friend. "And marrying Miller will make me the
happiest woman in the world."

Risa
shook her head sadly, but all she said was, "If you say so."

"So
no more helping Mr. Eastman with whatever it is he is trying to do?"

"Don't
you know what he's trying to do, Sissy?" she asked. When Annie offered no
response, Risa continued. "He's courting you, honey, plain and simple.
He's in love with you."

"No,"
Annie said simply and adamantly. "No. Maybe he is courting me, I don't
know. Lord knows, I've never been courted before. But he is most definitely not
in love with me. Why, just a month ago he was in love with Francie. The man is
in love with the idea of gettin' a mother for his girls, that's all. He ain't
in love with me. And he ain't gonna get Francie back from New York, either."

"That
man never loved Francie," Risa argued. "She's just a baby herself.
What went on between them was all in her head."

Maybe
Risa was right. If anything
had
gone on between them, Annie thought
Francie would have confided in her. It had certainly seemed to her at the time
that all the dreaming was on Francie's side, but now, with Noah actually
courting
her,
she wondered if he hadn't encouraged the young woman's
fantasies in the hope of getting her to stay and watch his girls.

Willa
came into the kitchen, followed by Della and an assortment of children, all
drawn by the sweet smelling desserts and having trouble waiting.

"Sorry,"
Annie apologized. "I was just waiting for Risa to recover her health.
Seems her little stowaway isn't much for buggy rides."

"Oh,"
Della said, "you should only know what it's like with two! Having twins
every pain is doubled, every ache is twice as bad."

"Mm,"
Risa said, pretending to agree. "I remember you certainly were twice as
big." She smirked at Annie, who scratched at her nose to hide her smile.