Will O Wisp (14 page)

“
N
o, I haven't,” Melinda said, wadding the sides of her apron in
her hands. “You two better not go back out to the timber. At least,
not until after the sheriff comes out here.”

“
What's ailing you?” Gracie
asked.

“
Shana's news is
disturbing. That's all,” Melinda excused.

“
If you've never seen one
of those spooks, how did you know what they look like?” Gracie
asked.

“
Wait a minute! What's the
sheriff coming out for?” Millard asked.

“
I asked Earl to tell him
come look around. Someone dug a small spot up in my family
cemetery. I didn't like seeing that,” Gracie said.

“
Why would anyone do that?”
Millard asked.

Gracie shrugged. “It looked like a
small grave so might be for a baby.”

“
Tell Mr. Sokal about the
woman we saw that night while we were pickin' up nightcrawlers,”
Shana added.

Gracie asked,
“
You know those fancy white dresses and
white straw hats women are wearing these days? We saw a woman
dressed that way, carrying a lantern in the timber after dark. She
came through the timber and wound up in the cemetery. We slipped up
close to see what was going on. This was after we found the small
grave if that is what it is. I hollered I'd shoot if she didn't
come to us, but she ran off anyway. We never could get close enough
to catch up to her.”

“
Mr. Sokal, have you heard
of a woman in the neighborhood that has lost a baby recently?”
Melinda asked.

Millard shook his head. “No, I
haven't, but this sounds like a case of a woman who didn't want to
let anyone know she lost her baby. She didn't expect Gracie to be
in the cemetery before the grass grew over the spot she dug I
expect.”

“
Sounds right. So maybe
something bad happened to that baby, and that's why the woman is
hiding the grave,” Gracie said. “Problem is, I wouldn't be the one
to discover the body later on. That was the spot I was to be buried
in. Whoever has to dig the grave for me would find the
bones.”

Shana looked sad as she listened to
Gracie and sipped her cocoa.

Melinda wondered if all the talk about
dead babies, human bones and Gracie's demise was too much for the
girl. Seeing spirits might have been the result of that. “Shana, I
washed clothes this morning, but I didn't get the last basket full
hung up. It's still on the porch. By the time I got the tubs
emptied and the washboard put away, it was time to cook lunch. Want
to go hang the clothes up on the line for me before we
eat?”

“
Sure,” Shana said and
drained her cup.

When Melinda had the food on the
table, she sat down. Gracie started to pick up a bowl. Melinda
said, “I will say grace for the meal. Bow your heads.” Melinda
prayed, “Dear Lord, Thank you for this wonderful day, and the
company at this table.” She opened her eyes and saw Gracie glaring
at her. She continued, “Bless this food we eat, and thank you for
providing the mushrooms. Amen.”

Gracie muttered, “This ain't no Sunday
school meeting, and the Lord weren't much help hunting them
mushrooms. Me and the girl did all the work to find them. I didn't
hear us get any thanks.”

Melinda said, “I'm sorry, Gracie. That
was an oversight on my part. I want to thank you and Shana for
finding all these good morels.” She winked at Shana, and the girl
grinned at her.

That afternoon, Shana offered to go
pick the strawberries by herself while Gracie visited with Mr.
Sokal and Melinda.

Melinda worried, “I don't think you
should go off by yourself until we know what's going on around
here.”

“
I won't go in the timber,
Aunt Melinda. The strawberry patch is near the pond. With a mite of
luck, I should be fine,” Shana said.

“
She will be all right, and
the berries are ready to pick. I told her you might know how to
make a shortcake if we brought you the strawberries,” Gracie said.
“But, girl, you keep an eye peeled. If you see anything that
worries you, hightail it for the house as fast as you
can.”

“
Yes, ma'am,” Shana said.
“She picked out a blue granite kettle and left.

“
How's it going with the
girl?” Millard asked.

“
She seems to be enjoying
herself here with the two of us,” Melinda said. “Shana minds well
enough. She just can be easily influenced by others without
thinking about getting in trouble. That comes from being on her own
so long in the slums of New York. She had to fight to stay alive.
Poor dear.”

“
The girl's turning as
brown as an Indian,” Gracie added. “Speaking of Indians, have you
seen any in the timber around you, Millard?”

“
Nope, but I heard from
Junior Singleton that they were down his way in his timber,”
Millard told her.

“
Strange that they're
staying so far away from here,” Gracie said. “It makes me wonder if
they know what's happening in my timber. I believe I should hunt
Black Eagle up, and find out if he knows what's going
on.”

“
If you plan on doing that,
I best go with you. You shouldn't go looking for Indians by
yourself,” Millard said.

“
I can take care of
myself,” Gracie barked.

“
I'm going with you,”
Millard said determinedly. “Want to go right now?”

“
Yip,” Gracie
said.

“
I'll hook your buggy up,”
Millard said. “We can drive down by the Singleton farm and walk
into his timber.”

Gracie paced the floor, thinking about
the past few days.

Melinda said, “You should settle down,
Gracie.”

“
I have a feeling trouble
is coming worse than the small things we've been seeing. They're
just signs. I just wish I knew how bad the trouble was going to
be,” Gracie said, looking at Melinda.

“
Oh, Gracie, if trouble is
coming our way it will get here on its own good time. No use you
sending a search party out looking for it,” Melinda
said.

“
You telling me I shouldn't
try to hunt up Black Eagle and his tribe?” Gracie asked.

“
I can't see that they know
anything about what's going on around here. The only good thing I
can see out of the whole experience will be you've had an excuse to
go on a nice ride with Millard,” Melinda said, grinning.

“
You want to go along with
us and chaperone?”

“
Not on your life. You're
old enough to take care of yourself,” Melinda said and
giggled.

Millard pulled the buggy up by the
house. He came to the back door and called in, “I'm ready to
go.”

“
I got to go,” Gracie said
shortly and slammed the screen door on her way out.

While Millard waited for Gracie to get
in, he focused on the clothesline with a grin on his face. Gracie's
face heated up when she noticed what was so interesting to Millard.
Something men didn't get to see very often. Shana hung the
unmentionables on the first line in plain sight. Gracie made a
mental note to have Melinda give Shana a lesson in how to be
discreet when she hung up their underwear. She should always use
the middle line so the unmentionables were hidden behind the
dresses.

“
Does Miss Melinda want to
go with us?” Millard asked, coming to help her get in the
buggy.

“
She said she didn't. She's
going to stay here and work on supper. Besides, we both shouldn't
leave the girl by herself.” She climbed into the buggy before
Millard could get there to help her.

After he started down the lane,
Millard looked down at the hole in the buggy side. “I thought you
were in Locked Rock for church Sunday?”

“
We were,” Gracie
said.

“
Why didn't you take the
buggy back to the livery stable and exchange it for another
one?”

“
I don't much care to face
Jake at the livery stable and try to explain what happened to his
buggy. Besides, with my luck, I'll probably have something worse
happen to the buggy before the month is out. I might as well damage
just one buggy rather than two. No telling what Jake is going to
charge me for that hole,” Gracie complained.

“
He shouldn't make you pay
for something you couldn't help. If you want, I'll go with you when
you talk to him. With an eye witness to the deer's head stuck in
the hole, he has to believe this damage isn't your fault,” Millard
said.

“
That might help,” Gracie
said. “Thanks for the offer.”

Chapter Eleven

At first, they traveled in silence.
Gracie looked everywhere but at Millard.

Finally, he sighed loudly. That got
her attention.

“
What's that all about?”
Gracie asked, glancing at him sideways.

“
I was just thinking about
what a waste it is with you living in town alone and me out at my
place alone. It would be so much better for both of us if you'd
give in and marry me,” Millard said.

Gracie shrugged.
“
That's just your opinion.”

“
Listening to the
tone of your voice, I don't believe I want to hear
your opinion,” Millard said dryly. “But think about this. If you
lived out here with me, we could go by your farm all the time.
Check on the cemetery and keep the weeds out of it. We'd be able to
watch for anything else going on at the farm that shouldn't
be.”

“
There does seem to be more
crooked people in the county now then honest ones,” Gracie
contemplated. “As for keeping an eye on my place, the Sawyers are
good at that. Sooner or later, Thad would have noticed the strange
goings on in the timber and investigated. You might as well change
the subject now. I've heard this one long enough.”

Millard ran his fingers up and down
the lines. “Fine, but just so you know, I'm not giving up on you,
Gracie. Not by a long shot.”

Gracie shrugged and looked
off to the side of the road.
Old gal, keep
your eyes on that cornfield of Singleton's. Don't look at Millard's
wistful, pup dog eyes, or you'll give in.
“Fine, and just so you know my answer is always going to be
the same.”

Millard parked by the Singleton house.
“We better tell Junior what we're doing, wandering around his farm
and all. He might try to take a shot at us for
trespassing.”

“
Good idea,” Gracie
said.

They walked toward the house, hearing
thump, thump, scarp, scrap coming from the barn. Millard looked
past the house. “I'd say Junior is cleaning out his barn. His
manure spreader and horses are parked by the side door.”

While they walked that direction, a
big fork full of manure and straw bedding flew out of the door and
plunked onto the half full spreader.

“
Guess we're going to have
to interrupt Junior,” Gracie surmised.

“
Reckon so,” Millard
agreed.

When they neared the barn, Junior
stuck his head out with another big fork full of manure and aimed
it at the spreader. He unloaded the fork. As he turned, he spotted
he had company. Junior leaned the pitch fork against the barn door
and stepped out into the sun light. The heavy set man ran his hand
around to his overall back pocket and took out his blue hanky. He
wiped his sweaty forehead.

“
By golly, here comes a
likely pair of mischief makers if I ever saw any,” Junior joked.
“What are you two up to now?”

“
Just stopped by to ask if
it would be all right if Miss Gracie and I walk in your timber for
a spell. We didn't want to do that without asking,” Millard
said.

“
Ah, it's all right with
me, but what are you looking for? If it's mushrooms, you might be
too late. I've seen several lookers out there already,” Junior
said.

“
We're looking for Black
Eagle and his Indians,” Gracie said.

“
What has that bunch been
up to now? A fellow a few miles over said he's missing two pigs. He
thinks those thieving Indians got them,” Junior said.

“
I don't know about any
stolen pigs,” Gracie said. “Those Indians have always been honest
when they come to my farm. They just hunt and fish.”

Junior leaned his head over
his shoulder and studied Gracie. “
What you
want to talk to them for then?”

“
Have you seen the Indians
in your timber lately?” Millard countered.

“
Yeah, they have been. I
should know. I make a point to keep my eyes on them just so I know
what they're doing. Of course, at night I can't tell what's going
on when I'm sleeping. They're good at slipping around all sneaky
like,” Junior said. “Now you didn't answer me. What you want to
talk to the Indians about?”

“
I heard from Thad Sawyer
Black Eagle's bunch was in the timber on my farm, but they
disappeared,” Gracie said. “Just seemed strange to me they would do
that. Black Eagle has always been straight with me. I thought I'd
ask him if something was going on we didn't know about,” Gracie
explained.