The Visions of Ransom Lake (13 page)

Mr. Polowsky only shook his head as if he hadn’t heard her correctly and returned to his redheaded task at hand. With a heavy sigh, Vaden left Mr. Polowsky’s shop and started home. No sooner had she passed the next building, however, when she was bombarded with the attention of Belva, Selma, and Raylin.

“
Did ya see that?” Raylin squealed, taking hold of Vaden’s arm. “Did ya see that dream of a man that just went walkin’ on by down the road?”

“
Yes. I saw him,” Vaden answered bluntly, for it only at that moment came to her realization that in having shaved Ransom Lake for her own curious purposes, she had exposed his superb grandeur of physical feature to all the world. Now every woman for miles around would be pining away after him. She scolded herself inwardly for giving into the temptation and shaving his face. Before she had done it, he had been hers. Yes, Belva too had been intrigued by him, but for the most part people had kept their distance from Ransom Lake. Now it would be different, painfully different.

“
I knew he’d be handsome under all that mess,” Belva whispered.

“
But did ya see that? Sakes alive! He’s…he’s…unbelievable!” Selma sighed.

“
I shaved him,” Vaden blurted out. She couldn’t stand their not knowing. Her pitiful ego had to divulge the information. It had to let the other girls know she had been the first to lay eyes on his astounding appearance.

“
What do ya mean by that?” Belva spat.

“
While he was unconscious in my uncle’s house, I thought…I thought he might be more comfortable after a shave.” Vaden returned Belva’s glare, though she could not match the hatred in it.

“
What’s goin’ on, ladies?” Jerome asked as he and Nathaniel approached.

“
You have gotto see Ransom Lake, Nate,” Raylin squealed. “Ya won’t believe it! He’s all shaven, short hair, and walkin’ around town like it’s nobody’s business.”

“
It is nobody’s business,” Belva spat. “Ya all treat him like some freak at a circus, worst of all you, Vaden Valmont. I’ve no doubt he thinks you’re the biggest nosy-rosy busybody in town. Imagine! Takin’ such familiarities with a man,
a
convalescin’ man at that. You had better think twice about this girl, Jerome. Hard tellin’ what she’ll try to pull on you.”

“
What in tarnation are ya goin’ on about, Belva?” Jerome asked, obviously irritated.

“
I’m going home,” Vaden choked as tears rose to her eyes. “I’m just going home.”

“
Miss Vaden?” Jerome reached out and smoothed Vaden’s forehead, moving a stray strand of her hair away from her eyes. “What’s goin’ on?”

“
Let Belva tell you. She thinks she knows everything. I’m certain the story will be much more exciting and degrading to me in her words.” With that, she turned and fled toward the mercantile.



It did not take long for the gossip to begin about the newly revealed Ransom Lake. By the very next morning, townsfolk were coming into the store in droves to quiz Vaden and Yvonne, Dan and Myra, and whoever else may have seen the shaven hermit.

“
They say he’s better lookin’ than some of them Greek gods were supposed to have been,” Sue Ellen Wimber told her sister-in-law as they stood chatting with Myra in the store.

“
I’ve seen him! He’s…it’s unimaginable why a man that looks like that would hide away like he’s been doin’!” another woman said.

“
Oh, he’s plain as mud,” Jerome Clayton argued as he and some other young men entered the store.

“
You’re just afraid of a little competition, old man,” Nathaniel teased his friend.

“
Ransom Lake ain’t no competition, boys,” Jerome assured him. “Miss Vaden, you were the first to see him. Is he as all-fired good-lookin’ as everyone says he is?”

Vaden cleared her throat. Every set of eyes in the store was intent upon her as the people of the town waited for her answer. Jerome’s eyes narrowed, and Vaden knew he was irritated about the whole matter.

“
He’s extraordinarily handsome,” she stated. Then as the hot blush began to rise to her cheeks, she added, “Excuse me,” as she walked through the crowd of people, out the front door, and into the street.

Yvonne was quickly at her heels, knowing well the signs of her sister being upset. “Vaden? What’s wrong?” she asked.

Vaden paused and turned to face her sister. Yvonne was disturbed when she saw tears brimming in Vaden’s eyes. “Nobody cares that he was shot right there in the mercantile only a couple of days ago, Vonnie! All they care about is what he looks like, and…and…they’re going to hound him, and his privacy will be completely destroyed because of me! I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t grind me into the ground with the heel of his boot.”

As understanding enveloped Yvonne, she smiled affectionately at her sister. “I’m sure Mr. Lake will not blame you for that. I had no idea you were so completely in love with him, Vay. Why didn’t you tell me how desperate you were toward him?”

Vaden’s indignant expression answered Yvonne’s question even before her voice did. “I am notin love with him! And anyway, I’m entirely certain you wouldn’t have understood why I found myself in this…this…obsessive curiosity where the indecorous town hermit is concerned.”

Yvonne guiltily cast her eyes to the ground for a moment before putting a comforting arm about her sister’s shoulders. “Forgive me. I’ve been totally insensitive as of late. Forgive me, darling.”

“
That was quite a blunt answer you gave in there,” Jerome stated, coming out of the store and approaching the girls.

“
A forthright answer to a forthright question,” Vaden explained rather sharply. She had no desire to deal with Jerome at that particular moment.

“
Well, let me just tell ya this.” Jerome took hold of Vaden’s arm rather roughly as he continued commandingly. “An old goat like Ransom Lake ain’t no competition to me.”

“
How dare you speak to me in such a tone, Jerome Clayton?” Vaden snatched her arm from his grasp, rubbing its sudden soreness and glaring up at him.

“
Don’t you handle my sister like that!” Yvonne scolded.

Jerome seemed to ignore her and continued to glare at Vaden as his chest rose and fell heavily with withheld anger. “He’s probably twice your age, probably hidin’ from the law or some woman he done wrong.”

“
I knew it,” Vaden said calmly, looking at him with complete distaste. “You’re like everyone else around here—judge, jury, and executioner. I knew you weren’t any different from all the other old gossips in town.” She despised Jerome Clayton at that moment. How dare he speak so of Ransom Lake? How dare he?

“
I’m sorry, Miss Vaden,” Jerome apologized, his manner softening. He did seem sincerely remorseful in that moment, but Vaden was wary of him all the same. “It’s just that…well, I’m so dang hanged up on ya and—”

“
Then act like a gentleman and prove it to her,” Yvonne scolded.

“
You’re right, Miss Yvonne. Of course, you’re right,” he conceded. “I’m so sorry, Miss Vaden. I—”

“
Let the ladies have their walk, boy.” Vaden looked up to see Ransom Lake approaching from across the street. Her heart began to pound fiercely as he nodded in greeting to Yvonne and then to her. Goosebumps broke over every inch of her flesh; she was as thoroughly overcome by his incurably handsome appearance as she had been the first time she had seen him unshaven and awake.

“
Your daddy’s team is for sale, I hear,” Ransom Lake said to Jerome. “I’d like to take a look at them if I could. Why don’t ya come on into the mercantile with me and tell me about them?”

Jerome looked to Vaden, irritated. Then, nodding, he followed Ransom into the mercantile. Yvonne and Vaden watched in silence as the men entered the mercantile. Vaden wondered if Ransom Lake had intentionally coaxed Jerome away from irritating her further.

“
I hope those cackling hens in there don’t make complete idiots of the women of the world and swoon right at his feet,” Yvonne whispered as Vaden clutched her hand.

As she and Yvonne stood outside the mercantile watching what was taking place within, Vaden’s heart pounded madly. She prayed the women in the store would not rudely stare at him.

All seemed well save the fact Jerome kept glancing out the window at Vaden. She started to heave a relieved sigh, but someone bumped her shoulder. She turned to see Belva, Raylin, and Selma headed for the mercantile, Nathaniel and Toby Bridges at their heels.

“
Well, let’s have a good look at Mr. Ransom Lake, shall we?” Belva snipped pointedly as she glared at Vaden.

“
Oh, Vonnie,” Vaden breathed as she watched in horror. Yvonne gripped her hand tighter, and Vaden knew she too was watching with great trepidation.

Yvonne and Vaden couldn’t hear what was being said. It was plain enough, however, what course the conversation in the store was taking. Belva boldly walked up behind Ransom Lake, tapping him on the shoulder. Ransom Lake turned and shook the girl’s outstretched hand. At the same moment, Jerome stared at Vaden through the window with obvious disapproval.

“
I-I can’t watch!” she cried out and turned and fled.

“
Vay! Wait! Don’t run off!” Yvonne called. But Vaden knew all too well what this meant—what the town’s sudden acceptance of, and interest in, Ransom Lake meant. Whatever small amount of his attention she had been able to capture thus far would fall by the wayside in the wake of the newfound acceptance he would have. Angrily wiping at her tears, she ran down the center street of town, turning off at the road to the pumpkin patch. She didn’t even stop to wave to Mr. Wimber when he called out. At last she reached her haven.

Climbing quickly up into the secluded branches of her favorite maple, she sobbed bitterly for some time. He’d made it plain enough the day before. Ransom Lake had told her exactly how he felt about having his face shaved without his consent. And then, she’d managed to find herself squarely in his lap at the barbershop! Vaden buried her face in her hands. She had been nothing but an anvil tied about his neck—an irritating cat walking between his feet as he was trying to get somewhere. And now, now he would have all the attention, all the help, and all the friends he wanted, even if he didn’t want them. Vaden sobbed bitterly. Ransom Lake was completely lost to her now. There would never be another moment when he would walk into the mercantile causing everyone to evacuate in discomfort. More likely they would flock to it like ants to spilt sugar!

An hour passed—a long, excruciating hour during which Vaden accepted the fact it had all been a silly schoolgirl’s dream. Why had she allowed herself to become so enamored with the man? Why hadn’t she listened to her sister? To her aunt? Jerome Clayton was a fine young man, they all assured her over and over again, a young man of many divine qualities. And it seemed to be true. He seemed safe, she mused. And safe avoided heartache. Oh, Vaden had been one to champion love against all odds, but that day in her maple as she reflected over and over again on the triumphant expression on Belva Tibbits’s face, she realized Jerome Clayton was reality—a nice, safe reality—while Ransom Lake was only a dream—a beautiful, dangerous, and unobtainable dream. Dreams were for little girls, and she was growing up. It was a harsh, unwanted, unfriendly truth.

Letting the last of many maple leaves she’d picked float gently down through the air and into the brook, Vaden inhaled deeply and brushed the last tear from her cheek. Her soul had been searched and, in being searched so long and so ardently, had lost the certainty of life. Slowly she climbed down from her perch in the maple and started back toward home.

CHAPTER FIVE

“
Ya’ve just been too darn quiet as of late, sweet pea,” Dan stated. He sat beside Vaden on her bed one evening a week or so after Ransom Lake raised himself from the Valmont’s guest chamber and walked out of Vaden’s grasp. “Your auntie and I…well, we just worry. Look at them cheeks of yours, girl, usually all rosy and full of life. They’re nearly pale now. And the spark to your eyes is dwindlin’ more and more every day.”

“
I-I’ve just been a bit downhearted is all, Uncle Dan,” Vaden explained. Forcing a smile, she looked at her uncle’s concerned face and assured, “I’ll be fine soon enough. I promise.”

“
Well…all right then. I’ll let ya be for now. I know Jerome will be here any minute to take ya for a ride.” Dan paused and drew in a deep breath as if he’d meant to say something more. He must have reconsidered, however, for he kissed her affectionately on the cheek and left.

As Vaden looked at her reflection in the mirror, she too noticed the pallid complexion looking back at her. Pinching her cheeks mercilessly, she forced a smile and said, “Jerome Clayton will be here any minute, Vaden Valmont. And each time you agree to go riding with him or for a walk or let Aunt Myra invite him for dinner…each time you’re coming closer to reality.”

Closing her eyes for a moment, she let her mind conjure up an image of Ransom Lake the way he’d looked only that morning when she had seen him coming out of the blacksmith’s shop. He’d seemed completely oblivious to everyone looking at him when he passed them by. One by one, he’d sauntered past people, completely unaware and completely irresistible. Her heart endured a deep pang of misery, of unhealable sorrow, as she thought of him. Several times during the week she had seen him in passing, even once while she had been walking back from her maple near the brook. Each time he’d nodded to her politely, not smiling, however, and not speaking one solitary word to her.