Serendipity (32 page)

“Thank you? Thank you?” he roared. “You fed our guests groundhog!”

She let out a big sigh. “From the way you gobbled it up, I reckoned it was one of your favorites. You don’t have to worry that we’ll run out. I already have a couple more soaking in brine.” Snuggling up against him, she added, “Cooking with Hope was a lot of fun. We traded a few recipes.”

Todd poked at the bowl the next day and gave Maggie a suspicious look. “Grits?”

“Aye. What with us having a cow now, there’ll be butter tomorrow.”

“Hmmpf.”
It looked safe enough. Tasted okay, too – but so had the whistle pig. Maggie had fed them vermin. God bless Jakob and Phineas, they were true friends for not hurting his Maggie’s feelings and spitting out what they’d had in their mouths.

Todd might have thought it was a joke, but Hope Stauffer didn’t have a drop of guile or ability to put up a pretense. She’d cooked right alongside his wife, making it seem like everyone ate . . . it. He’d had nightmares about what Maggie would make next.

“Baked some prune bread, special just for Ma.”

Normally, he’d laugh. Ma hated prune bread, too – but this was no time to mention that. Last night he hadn’t had the words to explain the error of Maggie’s ways. But he needed to set her straight.

Still looking peaked, Ma asked him to put her back to bed. She whispered, “We’ll take turns asking. My new policy is ‘Look before you leap and ask before you eat.’ ”

“What about, ‘What you don’t know can’t hurt you’?”

“What you eat can,” Ma fired back.

Maggie’s shadow fell over the bed. “Is there a problem?”

Todd grimaced, but Ma hopped right in. “Your cooking. What possessed you to cook hedgehog?”

“I didn’t. Hedgehogs don’t live in America. Porkypines do, though. Haven’t ever cooked one, but I hear it’s mighty toothsome. Mayhap I can trade for some. Or even armadillo.”

Immediately, Todd ruled out those dishes. “Armadillo shell is too troublesome and porcupine has nasty quills.”

“Nothing’s too good for my family.” Maggie swished her hand in the air. “Don’t trouble yourself over the work. One meat’s about as easy to cook as the other.”

“But,” Ma coughed, “they are not as easy to eat.”

“Ma,” Maggie stroked her cheek. “Chopping it up for you is no bother. I’m proud of your good appetite.”

“My appetite suddenly plunged.”

“We’ve got a few days to perk you up. Remember – on Sunday we’re a-going to eat at Parson and Mrs. Bradle’s!”

“By Sunday afternoon I’ll be ravenous.” Ma glowered at Maggie. “Mrs. Bradle serves decent food. You shamed us all last night.”

“Shamed!” His wife looked every bit as astonished and hurt as she sounded. “You said supper was good – just like your own recipe!”

“People don’t eat rodents.” Todd tried to keep his voice soothing, yet firm.

“Squirrel! Squirrel’s fine eating and they’re rodents, too. God provides a bounty – possum, beaver, frog legs . . . Waste not, want not.”

“I don’t want any of that,” Ma stated baldly.

“Then why did you have a recipe? We thank God for our daily bread – ”

Grabbing that lifeline, Todd declared, “Bread sounds great!”

Fierce as any badger she’d refuse to eat, Ma stood her ground. “I thought it was chicken.”

“Then what’s a-wrong? If you can’t tell the difference, then there’s no reason to fuss. Our neighbors knew what they were tucking away, and – ”

“Good manners,” Todd explained.

“Hogwash!” Maggie’s confusion had slid into frustration – but temper now fired that exclamation. “Hope said she and Annie just baked them up a tasty whistle-pig casserole.”

“Low-class, white trash – ”

“Silence!”
He grabbed Maggie as she recoiled from Ma’s ugly words. “Forgive Ma. She’s still sickly and spoke too harshly.”

Precisely, carefully, Maggie twisted her hand and released herself. Her voice shook. “About the food I cook? Or about how she’d attacked our neighbors’ dignity? Or just about how she’s demeaning me? Because I want to know exactly what harshness I’m to overlook.

“And you, Husband. You believe good manners led my sweet friend to cook alongside me and her family to eat with gusto when they could have just nibbled?” Aching hurt tainted her voice. “You’ve condemned me for having no manners – or bad ones.”

“Don’t put words in my mouth!”

“She doesn’t have to. She already filled your mouth with – ”

Todd bit out, “Ma! That’s enough!”

“No, it wasn’t. It was just right.” Maggie gave him a brittle smile. Her skin was normally fair as could be, but it had gone stark white. Her eyes darkened to indigo, and tears sheened them. “A woman deserves to know where she stands. I’ve just been soundly put in my place.”

“Your place is beside me, as my wife.” He thought to reach for her hand, but she’d crossed her arms and was hugging herself. The best thing he could think of was to move and stand by her and slide his arm about her shoulders. “This is simply a misunderstanding. Our ways of living are different. You are a barterer. You know it is possible to come to an agreement.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. I don’t barter when there’s no respect.” Leaning away from him, she oh so carefully unlaced Ma’s boots and removed them. Then she rolled up a towel and tucked it beside Ma’s hip and thigh so her weak leg wouldn’t rotate out and make her ache. Maggie pulled up a quilt, set the bell within Ma’s reach, and wordlessly slid the breakfast dishes into the washtub.

“Yesterday was Proverbs nine. ‘She has killed her beasts and mingled her wine, she hath also furnished her table.’ And that’s what I did.” She left the cabin and shut the door very quietly behind herself.

“She cannot pick and choose verses. The same chapter says “ ‘A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple and knows nothing.’ Ach! What a disgrace that girl is!”

Looking at his mother, Todd’s heart sank even further – if that were possible. “Margaret is knowledgeable and she followed the Word.
She
was not clamorous. The disgrace is not on her. My wife deserves respect, not insults. This will not happen again.”

“I’m not eating hedgehog again, either!”

“Groundhog, Ma. And if my wife fixes it, we will eat it,” There. That settled the issue – or at least a very small part of it. He still had to deal with Margaret.

“You’ll still read the Bible to me.” Ma sounded tearful. “Just as your father did. Ja? That will not change, too, will it?”

For a second, he paused. When upset, Maggie seemed to like a little time alone. He owed her that, and there was no better place to go for guidance than the Bible. He lifted the black leather book. “ ‘Hatred stirreth up strifes; but love covereth all sins.’ ” He paused for that verse to sink in, then continued. The last verse hit hard. “ ‘The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable; but the mouth of the wicked speaketh forwardness.’ ”

“See! It is our duty to tell her what is acceptable.” Ma snuggled down.

“Acceptable by whose measure? Everyone else liked it. You speak of shame – but the shame was our ingratitude and your contempt. Asking her to forgive you because you are still weak – it was wrong of me. Your body is afflicted, but your mind is sharp. Ja, and your tongue is sharper still.”

Ma snorted. “Sharp tongue? She bosses me and prods and nags. The way you twist a pretzel – that is what she does to me. This way and that.”

Livid, Todd grabbed her footboard. “All for your welfare. She cares for you, and you complain. You embarrassed yourself and me, calling her a vile name and complaining. There will be no hatred or stirring up strife.” He paused before speaking slowly and precisely. “It will not happen again.”

Todd strode outside, determined to set matters straight. Maggie wasn’t in the garden. He walked into the barn. Something dropped down on him, and everything went dark.

Sixteen

Maggie froze at the deep bellow. She hadn’t known Todd was below. Peeping over the edge of the loft, she spied Todd’s arms windmilling as he fought his way free of the quilts she’d dropped. He tilted his head back and spotted her. He looked hostile as a bull in midcharge.

“I’d apologize, but I don’t have any manners.” The second the words left her mouth, she jerked back out of sight. It would be wrong to laugh. But she did, and she made no attempt to muffle her reaction. Either she’d laugh or she’d weep, and Todd Valmer wasn’t going to see her cry. Nay, he’d not. She’d kept her tears from falling while in the house, and that counted as a miracle. Only now she’d had a few moments to think matters through, and anger replaced the hurt. Resilience. Uncle Bo taught her well.

“It tasted good, Margaret.” Todd’s deep voice carried to her. “The groundhog. I’ll eat it again, and so will Ma.”

Todd expected her to come down the ladder. Maggie could hear him waiting beside it. But he’d miscalculated. Arms stuck out to balance herself, she walked almost all the way across a beam. As the space narrowed, she sat and straddled the beam, scoot-hopped another couple of yards, and bit her lip.

“Margaret, come on down.” The coaxing tone of his voice brought back memories she quelled at once.

Adam shuffled below. From the way he snuffled, he smelled her, and that gave her a burst of confidence. Maggie held the beam and slid her leg over, then barely kept from losing her grip as her body swung with the force of a wild pendulum. Pointing her toes to add a few more inches’ reach, she searched in vain for Adam’s form beneath her. Though not afraid of heights, Maggie didn’t want to look down. She kept craning her neck, trying to see the base of the loft’s ladder.

Shuffling sounds below restored her confidence. Even if she had to drop a yard or so, Adam’s back could bear the brunt of her fall. Dismay washed over her when she dipped her head, for Adam moved
. The minute I depend on him, he strands me. “Komst,”
she whispered to the horse.

He looked up at her and shook his mane. At that moment, Maggie spied it – the rope about his neck. It was tied to a post that kept him just far enough away from her.

Dangling from the side of a beam, her only choice was to inch sideways and land in a pile of hay. Whatever it took, she’d do it to get out of this barn and be alone.

Todd was talking, but she couldn’t make out exactly what he said. That didn’t much matter since he’d already said plenty enough. She was entirely focused on slowly moving along the beam. But, oh, how her arms ached.

“Bullheaded pain in the neck!” Todd’s voice sounded near. “Wife, are you going to hang around there all day, or are you going to see sense?”

“One of the two of us sees things clear as can be, and it’s not you!” An enraged sound curled in her chest when Maggie spied him again. Todd sat astride Adam – bareback, no less – and the traitorous stallion followed every little nudge and nuance Todd gave until they were right below her.

“We’re waiting for you.”

Maggie refused to give in and drop into that oaf ’s arms. “Go away.” Drawing up her knees, she punctuated her rejection. Only her hands couldn’t take it much longer.

An impatient growl sounded a mere breath before a firm yank ripped half the hem out of her skirt. “Wife!” A second jerk made her fingers lose purchase, and she landed in Todd’s arms. “Are you trying to kill yourself?”

“No.” She shoved a lock of hair out of her face. “I was trying to kill you. I had it all figured out and was going to poison your dinner today. Groundhog was on the menu, but now I’ll have to come up with another plot.”

Todd threw back his head, and his deep rumbles of laughter almost knocked her from his lap. “And just to think I came in here and told you we’d eat it. I’ve spoiled your plan.” Fast as lightning, his expression changed. Cupping her cheek, he said, “It’s not the only thing that’s spoiled around here.”

She knocked his hand away and tried to slide free. “I’m not spoiled.”

Gripping her apron bow to hold her in place, he growled. “I never said you were. Stop looking for reasons to be offended. Are you always this touchy?”

“No.” She retreated into sarcasm to hide her hurt. “Low-class, white trash hillbillies develop thick hides from totin’ rifles and eatin’ skunk. Let me tell you, farmer man, skunk roast with collard greens and corn pone is the best Christmas Eve supper you’ll ever have.”