“Yeah. Simmer has kind of adopted him.”
“Going to the ball game this evening?”
“Might, if you stop flapping your lips and get that type sorted.”
A week had passed since Jesse had seen Wade. Beside the fact he hadn’t called, there were two reasons for her nerves being on edge.
The first was what happened when the housekeeper went into the parlor and found Todd with the stereoscope and several series of views.
“Put those back right this minute,” she had ordered, her voice reaching down the hall to the surgery. “You are far too young to be viewing that set, and, besides, you’ll break your father’s stereoscope.”
“B-But, I-I-I-I—”
“No buts. Put it away.”
“N-N-o-o-! J-J-Jesseee—”
Jesse left the surgery. Todd’s wail brought her scurrying down the hall. She was alarmed at the terror she heard in his voice. She paused in the doorway of the parlor to see him with the stereoscope clutched to his breast and Mrs. Lindstrom trying to wrench it from him.
“This is shameful behavior, Todd. Give it here.”
“I-I-I w-w-won’t. J-J-Jesss—”
Mrs. Lindstrom’s hand lashed out and struck Todd’s face. The slap made a sharp sound.
Jesse, with rage boiling up like a tidal wave, flew across the room and grabbed the woman’s arm, spinning her around so violently that she stumbled back and stood with a chair between them.
“Leave him alone!”
Sobbing, Todd turned to wrap his arms around his sister’s waist. “J-J-Jess… Sh-She w-w-on’t—”
“It’s all right, darling. It’s all right.”
“He’ll break it. The doctor said I should discipline him.”
“I’m sure he didn’t mean for you to strike him.”
“He must learn to bow to authority.”
“Not yours, madam! And he will not break it.”
“The doctor spent good money—”
“The doctor did not spend one red cent on it. I did. Todd has been using the stereoscope for years. It’s not only enjoyable, it’s educational.”
“He was looking at the series that show men and women kissing.”
“And what is wrong with that? People do it all the time. Todd, take the stereoscope and the views to your room. You can keep them there.” Jesse bristled like a mama bear protecting her cub.
Louella waited until the boy was gone before she spoke.
“I’ll speak to the doctor about this. He wants the children trained to be refined and genteel. Your interference makes it impossible for me to have any control over them.”
“Speak to him all you want, but keep your hands off that boy.” Jesse was so angry that words gushed out of her mouth like water from a fountain. “I’ll tell you this and you had better heed my words. If I ever hear that you have slapped him, called him stupid or have even mentioned his stammering, I’ll pull every hair out of your head. And that’s not all. I’ll mark up that lily-white face of yours so that you’ll be putting more than buttermilk on it for the rest of your life.” By the time Jesse finished she was shouting.
“You are certainly lacking in polish and grace.” Mrs. Lindstrom lifted her chin and shook her head sadly. “I can’t imagine why a man as refined as Edsel Harper would be interested in you.”
“If you find the Harpers so perfect, Mrs. Lindstrom, why don’t you apply for a job with them?”
Back in the surgery, Jesse sank down in a chair. Never in her life had she threatened anyone or come so near losing control. It would not have taken much more for her to grab handfuls of the woman’s hair. She realized how short her temper had become as the days had passed and her father had continued to appear to enjoy the housekeeper’s company. But that had nothing to do with the anger she felt now.
That evening she and Pauline sat in the porch swing and discussed what had happened.
“Wait,” Pauline cautioned. “Wait until you have more incidents to report to your father. He may be able to find an excuse for the woman’s behavior.”
“For slapping Todd?”
“She could tell him that she used this method with her students at the boarding school.”
“Papa wouldn’t go along with that, would he?”
The conversation was cut short when Ethan Bredlow came up the walk to the house. He sat on the porch rail and tried to make conversation.
“Nice evening. I like the long days, don’t you, Miss Anthony?”
Pauline’s eyes lifted to survey him with unease. “Yes,” she agreed, coldly.
“Soon we’ll have the longest day in the year. June twenty-second, isn’t it?”
He was looking at Pauline. When she didn’t answer, Jesse tried to fill the void.
“It’s the twenty-first or the twenty-second. And then the days will start getting shorter. I love fall, but I love summer more.”
“Have you been going to the ball games? I hear Grover has a good team.”
After a pause, Jesse answered. “We’ve been to some. Todd, my brother, loves to go. He says he’s going to be just like Joe ‘Iron Man’ McGinty.”
“Whoa!” Ethan’s laugh was warm. “I was at the game when they threw him out for stepping on the umpire’s toes, spitting on him, then punching him. They not only threw him out of the game but out of the National League. He was later reinstated because the fans demanded it. The little escapade cost him a wad of cash in fines.”
“Wait until Todd hears that you were at that game. You’ll be his hero.”
“Great. That’s probably as close as I’ll ever get to being one.”
Doctor Forbes came to the door. “Come in, Ethan. We’ll go over the information about the vaccinations.” Ethan went into the house.
“Why don’t you like him?” Jesse asked.
“I just don’t. He’s too sure of himself.”
“You acted as if he were… were—”
“The Looker? Maybe he is.”
“I don’t believe it. He’s just a nice man. He might be fun.”
“Not to me. I’m going in. I need to prepare for tomorrow’s lessons.”
Jesse watched Pauline escape into the house and wished with all her heart that there was something she could do to ease her friend’s fear.
Lessons with Jody were going well. He and Pauline had carried a table out to the barn—out from under Mrs. Lindstrom’s eagle eye, as Pauline put it. Each morning Jody worked for a couple of hours in the yard before lessons. After dinner, they studied for a couple more hours. Then Jody quietly disappeared.
Several evenings a week Todd slipped away after dinner to go to Ike’s garage. He came home before it was completely dark with greasy hands that he washed at the pump. Once Jesse brought out clean clothes so that he could leave the greasy ones in the wash house. She wanted badly to ask him if Wade had been there, but she didn’t; and although she listened for any news Todd might volunteer, she heard nothing about Wade.
After a few days, when her father failed to mention the scene in the parlor, Jesse realized that Mrs. Lindstrom had not told him. She debated again about telling him herself but decided against it. He would be put in the middle again and have to take sides, but surely he wouldn’t have approved of the housekeeper’s slapping Todd.
Then something happened that caused Jesse to stand in the door and wait for her father to return from the depot, where he had supervised the loading of enough smallpox vaccine to vaccinate the entire county.
“Papa, I’ve got to talk to you,” she said as soon as he had hung his hat on the rack.
“What’s happened?”
Jesse closed her eyes for an instant. “I had promised myself that I’d not complain about Mrs. Lindstrom, but this time she has gone too far.”
“What has she done?”
“She dumped out all the canned food that I brought back from the hill country. Dumped every bit of it in a slop bucket and had Todd take it down to Mr. Adams’ hogs. When I asked her why she did it, she said it was
n’t clean. I’m not only angry, Papa, I’m furious! That food was as clean as any she cooks. Mrs. Bailey may live in a shack, but it’s spotless. The Gordons are as clean as anyone I’ve seen in town. The Prestons are dirt-poor, but Mrs. Preston is neat and clean with her person and her cooking. That woman even threw away the dried pumpkin and peaches I bought from Mrs. Arnold.” Jesse paused to take a deep breath. “Papa, those people have pride. They sacrificed to give up that food as payment, and she threw it away as if it were so much garbage.”
“Jesse,” Hollis took his spectacles out of the case and put them on. “Mrs. Lindstrom comes from a different background from ours. She doesn’t understand the ways here. To her the people up there are trash like the ones in the slums in the cities of the world. I can understand her reluctance to use the home-canned food.”
“Papa, why didn’t she tell one of us her concerns about the food? I never got sick eating at the tables up there. If she didn’t want to use it she could have just let it sit. She won’t be here forever.” Jesse’s eyes were steady when she looked at her father and added, “Or will she?”
“Jesse,” he said tiredly. “You’re over-reacting to this. I agree that she shouldn’t have dumped the food without discussing it with you, but she didn’t do it maliciously.”
Jesse looked into his face and suddenly realized that he looked strained and tired and old. She went to him where he sat in the chair and, bending, put her arms around him as she had done in the days following Dora’s death.
“I’m sorry, Papa. I shouldn’t have bothered you with this.” She patted his shoulder and moved away. “I take it the vaccine came in.”
“Yes. I asked the freighter to bring it over. I didn’t take the buggy, and there were other supplies too heavy to carry.”
“We’ll have two busy Saturdays. Pauline has volunteered to help with the paperwork so that I can help with the vaccinations.”
“Ralph put a good-sized notice on the front page of the Gazette. I hope it brings the people out. Your idea of a donation box is a good one, Jess. The folks who can pay will donate. Those who can’t won’t be embarrassed. It will bring out the ones who can’t afford to pay.”
“Jody should be vaccinated.”
“Of course. We’ll do it here in the office.”
“He’s a strange boy. Sometimes I forget that he’s colored.”
“How’s he doing?”
“Pauline says he’s smarter than all get out—soaks up everything she tells him and asks questions.”
“Why is she teaching him in the barn?”
“The boy is proud as a peacock, Papa. He won’t come into the house. Mrs. Lindstrom chased him from the doorstep with the broom the first time he came with my message.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“He stays around until sundown and then disappears. I wonder if he runs all the way back to Mr. Simmer’s place.”
“I doubt it,” Hollis said drily. “Hand me the ledger, Sis. I’ve got to write down some things before I forget them.”
As usual after supper, Jesse and Pauline sat on the porch. This evening they watched Todd and one of his friends play “kick the can.”
“What a wonderful way to wear out your shoes—and yourself.” Pauline had pulled her hair to the top of her head and tied it with a ribbon. Now she wiped the back of her neck with her handkerchief.
“They’re old shoes. We saved them for just this purpose. When he wore a hole right through the sole, we put a piece of cardboard inside. That’s probably worn through by now.”
“It’s awfully hot. Do you want to go for a walk?”
“Maybe later. I’ll get us some lemonade.”
“Sit still. I’ll get it.” She leaned toward Jesse and whispered, “Old Ghost-face walked uptown. I can pilfer some ice from the icebox.”
“Oh, you! How am I ever going to teach Susan and Todd to be refined with you around?”
Pauline was still laughing as she left the porch. She was back to her old flamboyancy with one exception: when Ethan Bredlow was around, she turned cold, and when he persisted in his attempts to get her to talk, she became downright rude.
Jesse rocked gently in the swing, one foot tucked under her, the other touching the porch floor. The scent of honeysuckle was in the air. Earlier in the evening she’d seen a hummingbird dipping its long beak into the blossoms to drink the sweet nectar.
Her senses swarmed with details of her last meeting with Wade. She had only to close her eyes to see his sculptured features: high cheekbones, magnificently squared jaw, and his forest-green eyes framed with thick dark lashes. His eyes were like deep pools, clear and fathomless, as though they reached to the very center of him. She had lived over and over the time they spent alone in the buggy, recalled every word and every touch. She relived the kisses they shared, the raw pleasure of his warm, vibrant body pressed to hers, the tender expression on his hard, dark face just before he kissed her.
She half-hoped he would never come to call. It would be an ordeal for her as well as for him. He was a hill man and she a town girl. They had absolutely nothing in common. To get more involved with him would only mean heartache for her.
Jesse opened her eyes.
Wade was coming around the end of the porch.
Her foot stopped pushing the swing. She blinked. He seemed to have materialized out of her imagination except that he was wearing a white stiff-collared shirt with a string tie and dark dress pants. She watched him walk toward her, unable to keep her foolish heart from fluttering like a caged wild bird. He removed his hat as he stepped up onto the porch. Her imagination could not have conjured the look of longing in his eyes or the expression of uncertainty on his face.
“Wade.” Her throat tightened as she said his name. She suddenly yearned to tell him how glad she was to see him, although a minute ago she had hoped he wouldn’t come.
“Good evening. Is this a convenient time to call?”
“Yes, of course.” She removed her numbed leg from beneath her and straightened her skirts. “Come sit down.”
He sat down beside her, holding his hat on his lap. “It’s been a long time since I’ve sat in a porch swing.”
“I sit out here for a while each evening.”
The tension in his expression and the set of his shoulders told her how uncomfortable he was. Her mind searched for a way to put him at ease.
“Have you changed your mind?” he asked with quiet emotion.
“About what?” The unexpected words stirred confusion in her.
“About… wanting me to call?” The agony in his eyes sent a quiver through her heart.
“Of course not. Whatever gave you that idea?”
“I came by one evening and you… already had a caller. He was sitting there on the rail talking to you and Miss Anthony.”
“That was Ethan Bredlow. He works for the newspaper and came to see Papa.” She clutched his arm. “I wish you had stayed and met him.”
His hand covered hers and squeezed it so hard that it hurt. He could have broken it and she would not have cared.
“This past week has been pure hell. I wanted to see you so damn bad that I could hardly wait. I was tempted to come and stand in the shadows and look at you.”
“What a lovely thing to say.” Her eyes were luminous, her lips trembling.
“This is strange new ground for me, Jesse. I’ve never courted a woman before.”
“Didn’t you consult with Grandpa Lester?” she asked with mock seriousness, then laughed when he smiled.
He couldn’t seem to say anything. He stared into her jewel-like blue-gray eyes, which were filled with what could only be the pleasure of being in his company. His breath caught and his heart almost stopped at the thought of it. Could he really be sitting with her like this—on her front porch—in Harpersville?
“Jesse, Jesse, Jesse.” He whispered her name over and over, his voice deep, resonant with longing. “I was deathly afraid to come even though you said I would be
welcome.”
For a moment she saw old memories, old hurts in the eyes that devoured her face. The hurt reached across the years, and she felt the pain that must have been in his boyish heart the day his father was hanged in the town square.
This great oak tree of a man was actually trembling beneath her touch. He had come down out of the hills and into the town that had rejected him and his family for years dressed in what he thought would be acceptable to come courting. He was so vulnerable—baring his heart, his pride, offering to fit himself into what he thought she wanted him to be. His willingness to do so filled her heart with joy.
With unsteady fingers Jesse reached for the string tie and slowly pulled it from under the collar of his shirt. Her eyes held his captive while she wrapped it around her fingers and stuffed it in his breast pocket. Slowly she unbuttoned the collar on his shirt and then the second button that revealed his sun-browned throat. With utmost care, to prevent scratching his neck, she pulled free the detachable stiff high collar.
“Now… you look more like… like the Wade who met me in the woods and told me he was not the least bit disappointed in me.” Her breath caught in her throat as she watched his eyes become softer, greener.
“You remembered that.” He managed a dry whisper.
“I remember every word.”
He fitted his palm to hers, gently threaded his large, calloused fingers through her slender soft ones, then curled them down over her hand. She placed her other hand over his as if to lock them together. They smiled into each other’s eyes, then looked down at the symbol of their joining.
“Shall we walk?”
She nodded. “I know the perfect place.”
They walked down the steps, his arm holding her close to his side. Feeling as light as a billowing cloud, he pulled her hand into the crook of his arm and heaved a trembling sigh of relief. At last he had found the part of himself that had been lost for such a long time.
Pauline came out of the house with two large glasses of lemonade. The first thing she noticed was the hat in the swing, then the stiff white collar beside it. She was puzzled until she saw Jesse and Wade strolling slowly down the walk, his head bent toward hers, hers tilted to his.
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