The Visions of Ransom Lake (7 page)

Everyone jumped as Vaden’s fork fell from her hand, clanking loudly as it hit the edge of her plate and tumbled to the floor.

“
Why don’t you take Vaden with you, Uncle Dan? She’s been a bit edgy lately and needs to get out,” Yvonne suggested, winking at her sister.

“
Could ya do without her for a couple of hours, Myra?” Dan grinned at Vaden. He knew Vaden desperately preferred the out-of-doors to being inside.

“
Of course. I know she’ll come back all rosy-cheeked and ready to work like the dickens afterward. Right, sweet pea?” Myra grinned, for she too knew how much Vaden needed fresh air to motivate her.

“
I promise!” Vaden squealed.

Vaden could hardly believe her Uncle Dan was actually taking her to see Ransom Lake. Of course, he wasn’t actually taking her to see the man, but she would see him, and that was all that mattered.



“
You take after your daddy, Vaden,” Dan commented as he and Vaden rode along in the wagon. “And after me. I hate bein’ cooped up in the house all the durn time. Gets me fidgety and irritable. You’ve been workin’ hard since ya been here, and I knew ya needed to get out.”

Vaden reached over and linked her arm through her uncle’s. “Look at the beauty of that patch, Uncle Dan.” The pumpkin patch was on either side of them now, and the beautiful squash seemed to glow orange from beneath the leaves. “Doesn’t it just give you all the more reason to appreciate God’s creations?”

“
That it does, sweet pea. That it does.”

They rode in silence then, for they were alike. Both enjoyed the beauty of nature, the autumn scents in the air, the cool, crisp breezes. Before Vaden knew it, Uncle Dan was reining the team in before a small, white, cozy-looking farmhouse. A large black dog barked and ran to the wagon, wagging its tail and panting happily.

“
Hey there, Ragamuffin. How ya doin’ today?” Dan climbed down out of the wagon and scratched the dog’s belly. As Vaden climbed from the wagon, she too crouched down to pet the dog.

“
He certainly seems happy,” she said as the dog licked her hand.

“
Mornin’, Dan.” Looking under the wagon, Vaden saw a pair of familiar-looking boots approaching from the direction of the house. The sound of Ransom Lake’s voice as he uttered a greeting sent a thrill traveling through her.

“
I’ve got your supplies together, Ransom. Ya sure are stockin’ up thorough for winter. It looks about like what ya take when ya winter in the mountains. You are plannin’ to stay out here all winter, aren’t ya?” Vaden looked up at her uncle as he spoke but remained crouched down petting the dog. For some reason, she was uncertain as to whether she wanted to face Ransom Lake again.

“
I am winterin’ here. Just like to be prepared, ”Ransom Lake replied. When he walked in front of the team and came to stand before her uncle, Vaden noticed his eyes narrowed with a frown when he glanced down and saw her. Instantly, she was startled, for he wore only his boots, trousers, and suspenders—no shirt! Vaden was unsure if she could keep her composure under such a circumstance. It was obviously no fault of Ransom Lake’s that he should appear in such a state of undress. He would have had no reason to think anyone other than her uncle would deliver his supplies. Still, it was the first time Vaden had had a view of a man’s bare anatomy.

“
Good morning, Mr. Lake,” she managed to sputter at last, standing and offering her hand. The man continued to frown, making no move to accept and shake her extended hand. He simply nodded and looked back to her uncle.

“
Ya missed quite a town social a couple weeks back, Ransom,” Dan said as he walked to the wagon and lifted out a sack of flour. “Dancin’, pies, pretty girls—just about everything a man could want.” Dan handed the sack of flour to Ransom Lake, who hefted it onto his shoulder, walked to the house, and set it down on the front porch. “’Course, I know ya don’t go in much for social gatherin’s…but still, the pies were good.”

Vaden again found herself staring shamelessly at Ransom Lake as he worked to help her uncle unload the wagon. Actually, her staring had nothing to do with the fact she had never before seen a man in such a state of undress. Granted, his chest and stomach, his entire torso, was a fascinating mass of perfectly sculpted muscles, but Vaden was more intrigued with his manner. He seemed self-conscious and yet, at the same time, indifferent.

“
Wimber gonna harvest those pumpkins soon?” Ransom Lake inquired of Dan.

“’
Bout two or three weeks, so he tells me,” Uncle Dan answered. “I hope we’ll see ya out at the Halloween social, Ransom. It’s Halloween night out by the old oak west of town.”

Ransom Lake didn’t answer. He simply hefted the sack of sugar Dan handed him onto his shoulder and carried it to the porch. When he returned, he paused and said, “Don’t think folks want the likes of me roamin’ around at the socials.”

“
They’re simply scared of you because you make them feel ignorant.” The statement was past Vaden’s lips and into the autumn air before she could stop. She winced as she looked at the man, afraid he might literally bite off her head.

As the turbulent gray of his eyes pierced the softness of Vaden’s, Dan chuckled. “She’s got it right there, boy.”

“
Ignorant?” the man questioned. “Explain that to me, girl.”

Vaden clasped her hands together to try to still their trembling as she spoke. “You’re obviously a man who wants no one and needs nothing from others to survive. Most people aren’t like that, so independent and self-sufficient. They all know you don’t need them or want them, and they feel less confident in your presence is all. And you do look a bit intimidating. I know you look as you do intentionally…to disguise yourself from the world for whatever reasons you have. But they probably think you do it on purpose to look frightening and to try to emphasize your superiority.”

Ransom Lake scowled deeply as he reached into the wagon and withdrew a bucket of lard. “Your niece is a very presumptuous girl, Dan. Is the other one this bad?” he asked.

“
The other one is the picture of Missy Proper Polly. This one’s honest and says what she thinks. But I’ll warn ya, Ransom…don’t take your eyes off of her or you’re liable to find beans up your nose.” Uncle Dan looked at Vaden all too aware of her humiliation and chuckled merrily.

Vaden closed her eyes and wished she could melt into the ground so it could absorb her into oblivion. She couldn’t believe her uncle had said what he did! It had started out to be a compliment, she knew. But, oh, what an ending!

“
Don’t know nothin’ about beans, but I do know somethin’ about boots conkin’ ya on the head,” Ransom Lake said. Vaden opened her eyes to see him staring at her with the possibility of a grin hiding beneath the abundant facial hair he wore. She wanted to feel his hair at that moment, to know whether it was soft or coarse.

Dan chuckled quietly and placed the back of one hand tenderly against Vaden’s scarlet-warmed cheek. Vaden cast her eyes to the ground again, for Ransom Lake continued to stare at her with his unsettling eyes.

“
What’s the winter gonna bring this year anyhow, Ransom?” Dan asked. Vaden almost forgave him for teasing her, for she knew he was taking the attention from her blush.

Ransom Lake paused in unloading his supplies from the wagon. He leaned against it for a moment and folded his muscular arms across his impressive chest. “I’m thinkin’ it’s gonna be bad. Birds already leavin’. Heard some wild geese overhead only this mornin’.” Vaden looked at him as a pleased smile spread across her face. That morning she too had noticed the quiet, barely audible call of the wild geese. She had looked up, shading her eyes from the sun, and caught a glimpse of the flock as they flew high above her and over town. “Skunks and squirrels already diggin’ in, and the mountain got a siftin’ of snow last night.”

Dan turned and looked to the mountains standing majestic in the distance. “Shore ’nough,” he mumbled.

“
It’ll wait ’til late November, I’m thinkin’,” Ransom continued. “Then it’s gonna bury us in snow and ice this year.”

“
My bones are achin’ already,” Dan sighed.

“
I’ve got some late apples that’re ready for pickin’, Dan. Why don’t ya go on and fill up a couple of bushel baskets and I’ll unload the rest of this.”

“
If ya don’t mind…I think we’ll do just that, Ransom. Thank ya kindly.” A smile spread like melted butter across Dan’s face. Vaden’s smile increased, for she well knew her uncle’s delight in eating apple dumplings and pies.

“
I left a couple of baskets out under the closest tree last night. Just fill those up and take them.” Ransom nodded at Dan and lifted another sack of flour out of the wagon.

“
We’ll do it!” Uncle Dan clapped his hands together and rubbed them back and forth with delighted anticipation. “Come on, Vaden. You and me ain’t picked apples together in years!”

Vaden started to follow her uncle toward the nearby orchards and then paused and looked back at Ransom Lake when he called out, “You be careful, girl. Don’t go climbin’ up higher than ya can handle.”

Vaden clenched her teeth together. With great indignation, she turned and walked toward the orchard with her uncle.

A good twenty minutes had passed when Dan finally said, “I think we ’bout got these full, sweet pea. You come on down from there now, and we’ll head home.”

“
Okay, Uncle Dan,” Vaden answered from her perch high in the upper branches of a tree. “Let me just get this big juicy one on this branch up here. It’s just calling to my mouth!” Carefully, she began to shinny up a nearby limb, pausing to reach for the large ripe apple growing at its tip.

“
Vaden, your Aunt Myra will skin me alive if ya come home all banged up. Now come on down from there.” Vaden heard her uncle’s instruction, but the apple was just at her fingertips. Just an inch more and it would be hers. Finding a sturdy knot on the limb, she pressed her boot firmly against it and raised herself slightly.

“
I’ve just about…just about…there! Got it!” she squealed triumphantly as she took hold of the apple and pulled hard. It snapped from any lingering attachment to its mother tree. “See there, Uncle Dan? Now there’s an apple worth stretching for!” She held the apple out for him to see. A moment of dizziness seized her when she looked down and realized she was much higher than she thought.

“
Well now…this doesn’t surprise me one lick. Nope. Not one.” Vaden looked across the orchard to see Ransom Lake approaching. He came to stand beside her uncle, both men gawking up at her. “I just knew I’d come out here to find that child stuck up a tree, Dan.”

“
She ain’t stuck. Are ya, darlin’? She just likes the best out of life, just like her ol’ Uncle Dan. Ain’t that right, sweet pea?” Uncle Dan chuckled.

“
That’s right. I am
not
stuck, Mr. Lake,” Vaden said. Unbuttoning several buttons at the front of her shirtwaist, she protectively placed the apple inside and began her descent. She was miffed at Ransom Lake’s assumption she had yet again gotten herself into another precarious position. When she reached a limb that wasn’t quite so far from the ground but still well above the men’s heads, she sat down and locked her knees firmly around it. Throwing herself backwards, she turned a somersault and landed smartly in a crouching position at Ransom Lake’s feet. Standing with an air of victory, she pulled the apple from its place at her bosom. Biting into it fiercely, she held it in her teeth as she rebuttoned her shirtwaist, all the while meeting the impressed expression in Ransom Lake’s eyes. She pulled the apple from her mouth and continued to chew, savoring its sweetness. “That’s a good apple you’ve grown, Mr. Lake.”

“
And that’s a fine petticoat you’re wearin’ there, girl,” he mumbled, something of a smile apparent beneath his mustache and beard.

Vaden’s eyes widened with indignation. When Dan’s amused chuckle burst from his lips and into the spicy autumn air, however, Vaden sighed and smiled. Ransom Lake possessed a good sense of humor. Vaden was not surprised, for she had expected as much, but it was delightful to actually see him demonstrate it, no matter how inappropriate his remark.

“
Now, we want to see ya out at the Halloween gatherin’, Ransom,” Dan boomed as he helped Vaden into the wagon after the apples were loaded. “There’ll be fun and purty girls and pies aboundin’.”

“
I don’t go in much for social gatherin’s, Dan. Ya know that.” Ransom Lake’s stormy eyes met Vaden’s for a moment before he looked back to her uncle.

“
Nonsense, man! Everyone goes in for pies!” Dan chuckled.

Ransom Lake looked at Vaden and shook his head, as if to acknowledge it was a losing battle to argue with her uncle.

“
Thank you for the apples, Mr. Lake,” Vaden said.

He nodded. Dan slapped the lines, and the wagon lurched forward. “Ya come on into the mercantile soon, Ransom. We’ll have some pie together,” Dan called over his shoulder. As the wagon pulled away, Dan commented, “I think ol’ Ransom Lake is taken with ya, sweet pea.”

“
I think I cause him to be taken with insanity,” Vaden responded. “Oh, why do I act so…so irrationally, Uncle Dan? I can’t believe—sitting here with you, still eating this delicious apple—I can’t believe I cherry dropped from that tree limb!”

Dan chuckled. “Well…your pride was at stake, child. Ya had to defend your honor. And I’ll tell ya right now, ya done a fine job of it. A fine job! We just won’t say anything to your Aunt Myra or Yvonne ’bout it, now will we?”