by Zoe Matthews
****
The next Saturday, Lizzie arrived at the farm with plans to stay the entire day. As soon as she arrived, she told Jessica her plans.
“I think we should see how many carrots and potatoes we can find in the garden. It probably will freeze soon and we should get them out of the ground before then.”
Jess happily agreed and did her best to help as much as she could with the garden, her puppy, Brownie, at her side. The puppy had thrived under Jessica’s care and was no longer the thin small animal they had first found.
Lizzie showed her how to make sure all the dirt was dusted off each root vegetable and then put in a gunny sack while Lizzie pulled up the carrots and potatoes. She had to cut huge weeds out of the way every so often to get at the vegetables, but in the end they had been able to fill two gunny sacks.
One time, she had straightened and looked around, wiping sweat from her brow, when she saw Austin had also stopped and was wiping his face with a red cloth. They looked at each other for a moment, then she waved, and he waved back. She turned back to her job and called to Jessica who had stopped to play with the puppy.
“We are almost done. Finish dusting off these last carrots,” Lizzie instructed her and Jessica willingly obeyed. Every few minutes, Lizzie glanced towards Austin working in the distant field, but Austin didn’t look at her again.
Right before dinner, Austin came in from the fields. “You have two sacks of vegetables,” she told him. “Not bad for a neglected dry garden.”
Austin met Lizzie’s eyes and smiled. “Thanks for taking care of that chore.”
She nodded and tried not to stare at Austin. There was something about a hardworking man that appealed to her. She glanced at Jessica who was sitting on the floor by the stove cuddling her puppy. She enjoyed being part of this small family, helping Jessica make the meals, cleaning the small home. But she needed to remember this was only temporary.
Chapter 8
A few days later, Austin ran into the house. “Jess, I need your help. One of the horses has a bad cut on his leg, but I can’t get him out of the field he is in to isolate him.” Lizzie looked out of the kitchen window as Jessica ran after her father. The horse was in a field near the house and she watched as Jessica followed her father into the field. Austin had a rope he was trying to toss into the air while Jessica waved her arms in front of the horse. The horse raised up on his hind legs, and as his front legs waved in the air, the horse neighed in anger, or fear. Lizzie didn’t know which. She gasped and ran out the door after Jessica. Was Austin really going to let the child near what looked to be a wild horse?
Austin shouted something at Jessica and she ran to an entrance of a small pen, ready to shut the gate as soon as the horse entered it.
Lizzie saw the rope Austin held. “Let me help.”
He snickered. “What are you going to do? Sweet-talk him?”
She looked at him with frustration and grabbed the rope. Talking softly, she approached the horse, who was still running around in the small fenced field. She quickly made the rope into a lasso and swung it out. The rope went over the horse’s head and she immediately tightened it. Austin came up behind her, grabbed the rope, and quickly pulled him in. Suprisingly, once the horse knew he had been captured, he calmed down. Quickly, Austin had him in the pen, and Lizzie continued to quietly talk to him until she could see he was no longer agitated.
“I think he will let you work on him now,” Lizzie told him with a twinkle in her eyes. She was glad she had been able to show him that some women could do more than just cook and clean. She knew that Austin could have roped the horse on his own, but she was glad that she could show him that she had some skills.
Austin seemed too shocked to move.
“Austin?” she questioned, trying not to smile. She had taken great delight in showing him up.
He glanced at her, but gathered up some medical supplies and walked toward the now calm horse.
“Do you still need my help?” she tried to ask him innocently, but she knew her twinkling eyes gave her away.
“No, thanks anyway,” he muttered and climbed into the pen to look at the wound.
She returned to the house and finished the dinner preparations. An hour later, both Austin and Jessica returned and she watched as both of them washed up for dinner.
“Will the horse be all right?” Lizzie asked. She noticed that Austin refused to look at her, but Jessica nodded.
“Pa cleaned the wound real good. He says he will be like new in a few days.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Lizzie responded. She didn’t like to see any animal suffer.
Dinner was eaten quickly, with Jessica the only one who talked. Austin didn’t say a word and left the house as soon as he ate the last bite. Lizzie quickly did the dishes and then directed Jessica to do her homework.
“I’m going to go talk to your pa,” Lizzie told her. “I also would like to see the horse.”
Jessica nodded her agreement and scooped up the puppy. She settled him on her lap and started to write out her spelling words.
Lizzie walked towards the barn, keeping her eye out for Austin nearby, but she couldn’t see him. When she reached the barn, she called out. “Austin?”
“Right here,” he responded and she jumped because he had been behind her. He was leaning against a wall. “So, where did you learn to do that with a horse?”
His tone was flat, almost as if he was upset, and Lizzie’s heart plummeted. “Does it matter?” she finally asked him.
“Not many women would know how to do that.”
“I know that you think that all women are weak, that there is no place for them on your farm, or in these beautiful Montana mountains. You think that pretty things have no value.”
Austin turned away at her words. “I don’t think all women are weak. But a woman needs to be strong and sturdy to live out here.”
Lizzie felt greatly disappointed. She had been hoping she had proved to him otherwise, about herself. “It doesn’t seem fair to judge all women by what your wife did.” To judge me against his wife, she thought.
He turned to her angrily. “You don’t know anything about her.”
“I know what I see, what you expect out of Jessica. What she has told me is that she can’t be weak, only tough.”
“She’s right. She knows there is no room in these mountains for weakness.”
“Pretty things, a pretty child, does not signify weakness,” Lizzie insisted.
“What good are they when it is more important to survive?” Austin asked as if he truly wanted to know.
“I think that anyone can face almost anything life throws at them when their heart is happy. Pretty things brighten our days. A pretty girl can also be a strong girl,” she said firmly.
Austin changed the subject. “Where did you learn how to rope a horse?”
Lizzie hesitated. She didn’t want to tell him about her past. She didn’t want to admit that her father hadn’t wanted her or her younger sister and that he had taken both of them to a New York orphanage because they weren’t boys.
“Are you hiding something?” His voice was demanding, but he touched her shoulder gently, and it instantly made her want to lean towards him. For the first time, she suddenly wanted to tell him everything.
She sighed and looked down at the ground. “My older brother taught me. My younger sister, Debbie, and I used to follow him around on our farm as he worked. He raised and trained horses, and he taught me.”
Austin turned her to him and lifted her face so she was looking at him. “It sounds like he was a good brother to you.”
Lizzie couldn’t think, couldn’t move, and couldn’t speak. She moved away from him so he couldn’t touch her, but a part of her wanted to move closer to him.
“I don’t think your brother taught you how to teach,” he commented.
Lizzie shook her head. “No. I was given that opportunity by the women who took Debbie and me in.”
He fro
wned at her words. “What happened to your brother and your father?”
Lizzie hesitated again, then made a sudden decision. She might as well tell him everything.
“When I was about Jessica’s age, Pa took Debbie and me to an orphanage in New York. He decided it was too hard to care for two girls and he didn’t have a wife. About a year later, Debbie and I traveled on a train to Maple Grove, Texas. We were taken in by two spinster sisters who owned a boarding house. They finished raising us. When I graduated from the town school, one of the sisters gave me the opportunity to get my teaching certificate. When Hannah Atkins heard that there was an opening here in Pine Valley, I applied for the job. And here I am.”
“So you haven’t seen your brother or your father since you were nine?”
Lizzie shook her head and backed away. She already regretted telling him. He now had another reason to think she would leave by Christmas. She had never really had a stable home life.
“I…I better go now,” she stuttered and quickly ran out of the barn and down the lane towards Hannah’s home.
Chapter 9
Lizzie stayed away from the farm for almost a week. She knew she was starting to fall in love with Austin, and she couldn’t allow that to happen. She knew Austin would never think of her in that way. He had so much bitterness in his heart towards his late wife, she didn’t know if he would ever be able to get beyond it. And she also knew he still believed she was a weak woman who was going to decide living in the mountains of Montana was too hard and would leave.
She began to plan a Christmas program with her students even though Christmas was many weeks away. She needed something else to focus her thoughts on besides Austin and Jessica. One of the older boys enjoyed writing stories, so she had asked him to write up a short Christmas story that the children could act out, along with singing some carols.
She wrote a long letter to Debbie and told her everything that had been going on in her life, except for her interaction with Austin. She briefly described the progress Jessica was making on learning the basic skills she had been teaching her.
One day after school, she told Jessica she would go with her to her farm. She knew the child was hurt she had been staying away.
“I have washed all the dirty dishes every night and put all our stuff away,” Jessica assured Lizzie as if thinking that was why she had stayed away.
“That’s great, Jessica,” Lizzie praised her. “It sounds like you are doing a terrific job.”
The child started to run ahead, giving Lizzie time to gather her thoughts. She had to get her thoughts under control. She realized she was foolish to think that Austin would see her in a new light after she roped the horse. She knew she had somehow thought if he approved of her, it would erase her past.
Jessica stopped her running and waited until Lizzie caught up with her. “I thought you were too mad at Pa to come back.”
“I’m sorry that you thought that. I am not mad at your Pa.”
“That’s good. I don’t want anything to stop you from coming,” Jessica said as she slipped her small hand into Lizzie’s.
Lizzie didn’t say anything, but she knew that someday, probably in the near future, she would need to stop her visits. She felt a prick of tears at the thought. She had developed a love for Jessica, much more than a teacher should love a student. She wished she could always be a part of the child’s life.
“What has your Pa been doing?” Lizzie asked, trying to change the subject.
“He’s working on the barn. He says the roof needs to be replaced before winter gets here.”
“Is he working on it by himself?”
Jessica shrugged her shoulders. “I guess. He says he doesn’t need any help.”
Lizzie suddenly had a vision of Austin getting seriously hurt falling off of the roof. The roof of the barn was very steep, shaped in a sharp V. Why would he be trying to fix the roof on his own?
Just then a snarling dog ran towards them. The Fosters’ dog had not been tied up. For the past month, the Fosters had kept him tied up or in their barn, and Lizzie had stopped worrying about the dog, but obviously it was still a concern. She pushed Jessica behind her.
“Don’t run,” she instructed the trembling child. “Just walk quickly beside me. If you run, he will chase after you.”
A shout came from the Fosters’ house, calling the dog back, but the animal ignored his owner. He called again, louder. This time, the dog slowed down and soon stopped, but he was still growling and snarling at Lizzie and Jessica. The man ran towards the dog and grabbed his collar, pulling him towards the barn.
“Sorry about that, ma’am,” Mr. Foster called. If Lizzie was alone, she would have raked him over the coals for allowing his ferocious dog to get loose, but because Jessica was still trembling beside her, she just nodded at the man and they quickly moved on.
“Did you tell your pa about the dog?” Lizzie asked when they were a safe distance from the Fosters’ farm.
Jessica shook her head.
Lizzie stopped her and bent down so she was at the child’s level. “Jessica, you must tell your father. If Mr. Foster hadn’t been around, that dog could have bitten us. You walk by their farm by yourself every day to school. He needs to know.”
“I can’t. Pa will think I’m not tough. He says the dog is a coward and really wouldn’t hurt me.”
Lizzie didn’t believe that for a second. “Well, I for one, don’t want to see if it’s true. There are some things you should be afraid of. This is one of those things.”
Jessica kept shaking her head.
Lizzie stood, trying to decide what she should do. She instantly made a decision. “Jessica, if you don’t tell your father, then I will need to tell him.”
She waited while Jessica shuffled her feet in the dirt, trying to decide what was more important, her fear of the dog or her desire to be tough for her father. She sighed in defeat. “Will you be with me when I tell him?”
Lizzie nodded, feeling relieved that Jessica finally agreed. “Yes, I will be with you the entire time.”
When they arrived at the farm, Lizzie could see the floor needed to be swept and mopped and the stove wiped down. She also saw that Jessica had done her best to keep things clean. All the dishes were washed and the table was clean.
She showed Jessica how to make a simple meal of fried potatoes and scrambled eggs. When Austin came into the house, she made sure her nerves were steady before she turned to face him.
He was very dusty and sweaty. She could tell he had been working hard all day. He removed his cowboy hat to reveal a rim on his hair. “Hello, Lizzie.”
She almost whispered a hello back to him and tried to look away from his gaze, but could not. This was one of the reasons she had stayed away so long, this pull she seemed to have towards him.
“Dinner smells good,” he said as he hung his hat on a hook by the door.
Lizzie quickly helped Jessica get the food to the table. After a prayer was said, they all enjoyed the simple meal, although Jessica had been quieter than usual. When the meal was over, Lizzie looked at Jessica and then at Austin.
“Before you go back out to work, Jessica has something to tell you,” Lizzie nodded towards the child who was sitting on a kitchen chair swinging her feet. She wouldn’t look at either her pa or Lizzie.
“Tell me what, Jess? What’s up?” Austin asked.
“It’s about the Fosters’ dog,” Jessica almost whispered the words.
“That crazy dog? What about him?”
Jessica lifted her head to look at Lizzie who nodded her head in encouragement. “I’m scared of him, Pa. I’m afraid he’s going to bite me.”
Austin glared at Lizzie. “Is this your idea? You are encouraging her to be afraid of him.”
Lizzie glared right back. “Jessica, why don’t you go outside and play with your puppy for a few minutes.”
Jessica looked at her pa and then at Lizzie, then sighed and picked up the dog and left the house, letting
the screen door slam behind her.
Lizzie opened her mouth to talk, but Austin cut her off.
“I told you I don’t want her afraid of things. That dog is all bluff. He’s the type that makes a lot of noise but runs at the first opportunity.”
“I’m not teaching her to be afraid of him. That’s happening all on her own. When we passed the farm, he ran straight for us. If Mr. Foster hadn’t called him back…”
They glared at each other. She knew she needed to leave and not come back.
She walked towards to door and started to open it, then turned back to him to try one last time. “Everyone is afraid of something. Even you.”