Gathering on Dance Hall Road

by Dorothy A. Bell

  Melody leaned over her cup of milk and confessed, “It’s Jewel.”

  Her mother jerked back. “Jewel? Your brother? What about him? Is he in some kind of trouble? Has he involved you in one of his tangles?”

  Shaking her head, Melody quickly replied,” No, nothing like that. He certainly doesn’t come around here. I’ve seen him in town. He stays out at the mill with the other millworkers in the mill shacks. And that’s my point; he’s not here. He’s never home. I know he’s been a bit wild in the past, but at least he was home. Now he’s gone. If…if I left too, well, you and Daddy would be all alone. There wouldn’t be anyone here to look after you.”

  Hand over her mouth, her mother started to giggle. Melody set the bottle of rum on the counter behind her.

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Cleantha said and slapped her hand. “You didn’t worry about us when you left home and went off to school. You went a-roving with a traveling show all around the country doing God only knows what. Now you sit there and tell me all of a sudden you’re worried about your father and me being left alone?

  “You need to be out doing something, your father and I know that. You need occupation, a challenge, something that pushes you to your limits and gives you satisfaction. Doing dishes, laundry and feeding chickens will never be enough, but really, dear, I do hope your traveling show days are over. You are…are…a wonder and a delight, and my wish for you includes so much more than becoming someone’s wife and housekeeper. I wish for you a life of satisfaction, passion, and fulfillment.”

  Melody bit her lip and considered her mother’s assessment. “So, what you’re saying is, in the past I’ve been a thoughtless, ridiculous, selfish little brat. And I have a lot to learn about being a grownup.”

  “Oh, pooh, I have a long way to go before I become a grownup. No one ever quite achieves absolute adulthood. If they do, they become so boring and righteous no one wants to be around them.”

  Cleantha drained her cup of milk and took Melody’s hand. “Let me guess the real cause for all this soul searching and self-deprecation. You’ve lost your heart to a certain person, and you’re hoping, but not at all certain, but desperately hoping, and at the same time, scared to death he’ll ask you to share his life. The problem is, the life this person leads is not the life you’ve ever wanted. At least it’s not anything you thought you would want. Which means you’ll have to adjust, leave home, create a home of your own, create a life that fulfills you—start from scratch. You, my dear, have to decide what you really, really want, then go get it.”

  “He is good and kind and brave. And…and…he’s beautiful. Too beautiful for someone like me. He has the most beautiful eyes.”

  “I beg to differ with you, my dear. No one is too good, or too beautiful for you. You deserve beauty, kindness, and a person of valor and principle. A knight in shining armor is not good enough for you. I can’t wait to meet kind and brave Mr. Beautiful.”

  »»•««

  “What are you doing out here?” Buck asked, startling Van and causing him to knock a tin cup off the work table. Luckily it was empty. Van picked it up and set it on the frame board above the table. “It’s colder than a well digger’s jewels out here. You know it’s snowing?” Buck said.

  Van grinned at his father. He had the little potbellied stove burning red-hot here in the tack room, but yeah, he was still cold. “I was looking over this chart you made of the sleeping arrangements for our guests.”

  “I think it’ll work,” Buck said, bending over the paper Van had laid out on the table.

  “Yeah, it’ll work,” Van said without enthusiasm.

  “Okay, spit it out. What’s wrong with it?”

  “Nothing’s wrong with it. The Longtrees have a cabin. Royce’s brother Quinn and his wife Tru, and their boys have a cabin. Cabe and Birdie and Joy have a cabin. Royce, Cleantha, Jewel, and Melody have a cabin. Don’t want Melody’s mother having to do stairs. Jo and Ryder are in a cabin, that’s good, don’t want her doing stairs either. Rafe and Doreen are in the house in Gabe’s room. I’m in the house in my room, and you and Idella are in your room. It’s good.”

  Buck tipped his head to the side and stared at him without blinking for a long moment. Van rolled up the sheet of paper and handed it to him. Unable to stand the knowing look in his father’s eyes, he went over and shut down the damper on the little stove. It shuddered in protest.

  His father leaned his hip against the work table. “Doesn’t leave a fella any place but here in the barn or down at the spring if he had in mind to do a bit of sparkin’ I guess.”

  Van kicked the kindling bucket. “That isn’t a problem.”

  “No? Then what is it?”

  “All right, all right. Yeah, it’s part of the problem, but I’ll manage just fine, thank you. It’s…it’s…the thing is Dad, if…if I were to say, take a wife…live here, because this is my home, where would…where, which cabin would be our home? We need the cabins for our guests. A man needs a house for a woman, a family. I don’t have one. I have this tack room. I sleep in here most nights. Cold nights like tonight. I can’t ask a woman to do that.

  “The tough woman I’m thinking of would do it. Hell, she slept in a barn with her damn horse for a couple of years, so she’d probably sleep in here with me if she were fool enough to take me up on my offer. What I have to offer isn’t much, at least not from a woman’s point of view.

  “I have a whole lot of doubts she’d accept an offer from me. She’s more apt to laugh in my face and punch me in the arm. This woman presents a challenge on all fronts. She’s smarter than me, fearless, reckless, self-reliant as hell, independent, stubborn and the most beautiful, wild creature I’ve ever seen riding a horse. Fool that I am, by the tone of her letters, there is a chance she might take me up on my dare to hitch her wagon to mine.”

  Buck stood there, lips pressed tightly together, and then burst out laughing and slapped Van on the back. “I love it,” he said and turned to leave. “Come inside, go to bed. We’ll work it out. You’ll see. We’ll work it out. Been meaning to talk to you about expanding this operation anyway. Could be we could add a wing to the house. We enclosed the back porch and added onto the house for Jauna and her kin. But you’ll need a proper house, not a cabin or an addition. I’ll draw up a few ideas. You draw some ideas. Then when this wild woman of yours gets here, she can tear them apart and draw up a plan of her own. That’s the way most women work. You’ll get used to it, even think it’s cute once in a while. But most of the time it’s annoying as hell when their plans turn out to be better.

  “Miss Melody McAdam, I never met the lady. Jo mentioned her, said she’d left with a traveling show. I can’t wait to meet your wild woman. Can’t wait. You’ve got me all excited, son. I’ll never get to sleep now.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The train from Laura Creek arrived in Cherry Grove on time at eleven forty-five A.M. Melody, with her hand on her mother’s elbow, followed Jo into the house, leaving her father and Ryder to see to the luggage. She took her mother’s cape, and Jo showed Cleantha into the parlor, where Cleantha chose a straight-backed chair near the hearth. Jo took the settee across from her and put her feet up. “Wouldn’t you rather sit in a softer chair, Mother O’Bannon?”

  “Definitely not. So difficult to get up once you’re in. But I’ll take the little footstool. If you would, Melody, push it over here.” Jo nodded, and Melody brought her mother the footstool.

  Jo smiled at Melody and took her hand to her cheek. “It’s so good to have you here. You’re looking lovely, by the way. That shade of green is beautiful on you.”

  Melody blushed and to hide it, she made herself useful and poured Jo and her mother a cup of tea. Jo insisted they help themselves to the gingerbread men on the serving platter. “The girls baked yesterday. I’ve got Ryder in the kitchen today.”

  Royce entered the room and stood at the fireplace to warm his hands. Cleantha giggled and tugged the back of his cord coat to get his at
tention. “Our son is in the kitchen, Royce.”

  He snorted and shook his head. “Ah, well, we had a hearty breakfast.”

  Melody handed her father a cup of tea. Cleantha took a sip from her cup and closed her eyes. “Ah, that hits the spot. Too bad Jewel couldn’t make it. He’s going to be sorry he missed seeing his brother in an apron. He had to work,” she said to Jo.

  Melody looked into the kitchen from her sitting room chair. Ryder was in there, slamming and banging pots and pans, supposedly preparing their lunch.

  “The mill is only giving the men Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and New Year’s Day off,” said Cleantha. “The Buttrums invited him to their home for the holidays.”

  Melody giggled. “I think he’s sweet on Grace.” She selected a frosted gingerbread man from the platter on the occasional table and nibbled off the arms first, then the legs, then the head before popping the rest of the cookie in her mouth.

  “I doubt Grace’s father would allow her to marry a mill worker. Jewel will have to prove he can make something of himself,” Royce said.

  Jo tipped her head to the side and reached for a cookie. “Fathers often don’t have a lot to say in these matters.” She set her teacup down on the serving tray and sat back with her cookie and grimaced, her hand on her distended abdomen.

  Melody rose and went to the kitchen to talk to her brother.

  Cursing under his breath and shaking his hand, Ryder closed the oven door none too gently. “Damn it.”

  “Need some help?”

  “Yes,” he said, growled, and pressed his wrist to his lips. “I do need help. Jo told me to put the scalloped potatoes in the oven an hour ago, then the ham. I don’t know if the potatoes are done and the ham is turning black. The green beans have turned to mush. The table needs to be set, and I can’t find the serving spoons.”

  Melody untied his apron. He ducked and allowed her to take it over his head. “You need to go sit with your wife. She’s really uncomfortable.”

  Ryder dipped his head down to hers, lowering his voice. “She’s huge, Melody. It’s not natural. And the little devil is playing kickball in there all day and night. I’m worried. The doctor grunts and pats me on the back and swears she’s doing very well all things considered. All things considered? What the hell does that mean, Melody?”

  “Well, it probably means, considering her time is fast approaching and yes, her distended abdomen causes her discomfort, she is doing very well.”

  He tipped his head to the side. “It’s this damn idea she has in her head to get to the hot spring. The doctor said the baby hasn’t dropped so could be another couple of weeks or a month before she delivers. Traveling shouldn’t be a problem. Fat lot he knows, doctors are useless in my opinion.”

  She’d seen her brother scared. He was scared the day their daddy fell out of the hayloft window and broke his leg. He was scared when Melody hit her head on a tree limb while practicing a new trick with Maji and concussed herself. But she’d never seen him this rattled. “What does Jo say?”

  He snorted, growled and tossed the tea towel on the kitchen table. “Damn her eyes; she claims she’s fine. She said I worry too much. But I worry, damn it. I’m damn worried. And she still says we are going to the hot spring for the gathering. I don’t like it. The hot spring is miles from town. No doctor, no help.”

  “Have you written to her father?”

  “Yesterday, I sent a wire, told him I didn’t think she should travel. She should stay close to home and a doctor. He wired me back.” Ryder slapped a crumpled-up piece of yellow paper on the table. “There’s his answer. He promises me Idella and Bollo’s wife will take very good care of her. He said he’s putting us in a cabin so she won’t have to do stairs.”

  Hands gripping the edge of the sink, arms straight, head down, eyes closed, Ryder said, grinding the words between clenched teeth, “He also reminded me his son, Gabe, is a veterinarian—a veterinarian? My God.”

  “You set the table,” Melody said, her hand on his back. “I’ll take care of the rest. Everything is going to be fine, Ryder. We’re taking the trip in stages, two days here, two days with Jo’s brother Gabe. There will be a doctor in Baker City. We’ll have him come give Jo a once over before we go to the hot spring.”

  »»•««

  In the fading light of day, Van paced the boardwalk of packed snow and ice at the train station. The train from the north was almost two hours late due to snow on the line. He pulled the Sherpa collar of his wool Mackinaw up to his ears and flapped his arms across his chest to keep the circulation in his body moving. He wasn’t alone; most of the passengers waiting for the train had taken shelter inside the depot. But those waiting for someone, those who had arrived in buggies and carriages, huddled under their lap robes outside. Van had left his horse-drawn sleigh waiting around the other side of the station.

  At Gabe and Birdie’s home, a doctor waited. He’d been waiting for an hour. Van prayed he hadn’t left. Ryder had sent a wire before they’d left Cherry Grove insisting they have a doctor in attendance upon their arrival. He’d made it sound as if Jo were rendered immobile, in pain, and on the brink of delivery.

  The train whistle sounded in the distance and the headlight flickered in the darkness. The train chug, chug, chugged into the station, steam hissing, creating a dense fog all around. Van didn’t see Jo, dressed in a gray cape from head to foot, until she was a couple of feet from him. Smiling, calling his name, arms out, she rushed to embrace him.

  He returned her hug, uncomfortably aware of the solid roundness of her abdomen pressed against his torso. She laughed into his face. “Oh, Van, so good to see you. You will never know. I thought we’d never get here.”

  “Good to see you too,” he said, holding her at arms-length to get a good look at her. Her eyes were bright as ever, her cheeks rosy, her face had filled out some. All in all, she looked in robust health. “You don’t look in pain or at death’s door,” he said.

  She gave him a dismissive slap on the chest. “Oh, pooh, no, for heaven’s sake. Ryder, he’s making everyone paranoid. Speaking of my overly attentive spouse, we do need a doctor, I’m afraid,” she said, and pointed to her husband hobbling along on one foot, his arm around Royce’s shoulder. “In his rush to get me in a seat facing forward he tripped over his own feet and sprained his ankle. I’m fit as the proverbial fiddle.” She had the audacity to giggle in spite of her husband’s obvious chagrin. “The baby loved the rocking motion of the train and the vibration. He was good as gold the whole long way. Can’t wait to see Birdie-Alice and her little Joy,” Jo said, putting her arm around her husband’s waist to give him more support.

  Van met Royce’s cool nod and tipped his hat to him. “If you would, see to Cleantha and Melody. They’re waiting in the car,” Royce said, keeping his burden moving.

  “Sleigh’s around front waiting. Lap robes in the back seat. Horse with his nose in a red feed bag.”

  “Right,” Royce said over his shoulder.

  “Jo, there’s ice on the down ramp. You watch your step,” Van said, moving toward the passenger car at the end of the train.

  “Van? Oh, Van.” Melody waved to him, hanging out over the steps of the last car. She wore a red cape, and the hood of the cape framed her beautiful face with a wide band of black satin. The sight of her stopped him for a moment, then her wave of urgency put him back in motion. “I’m so glad it’s you. I made Mother wait in the car. She’s mad at me. But I told her she was not to move until someone came to help her down these horrible steps. Ryder sprained his ankle.”

  “Yeah, I know. Jo looks good, though.” Van stepped up on the wooden stepstool, and taking a big step, he reached the deck and Melody at the rear of the car. “It’s wonderful to see you. You take my breath away,” he said without giving a thought to his words.

  Melody put her hand to his jaw and smiled up at him. “Come on, we better hurry or Mother’ll get up and try to get out of here under her own steam. I don’t doubt for a momen
t she could, it’s just better if we give her our support,” Melody said, turning back and reentering the car.

  “This is ridiculous,” Cleantha said, her green eyes blazing with barely repressed fury. “I managed to get in here on my own. I can damn well get out.”

  “Daddy picked you up and set you on your feet to get you in the car, Mother. This is Van, Hoyt Van DeVeer Buxton. Van, this is my mother, Cleantha.”

  Van removed his hat from his head. “Ma’am, at your service.”

  “Humph,” the lady said. “Pleased to meet you. Melody said you were pretty, but are you useful?”

  Van picked up her canes, helped the lady to her feet, waited for her to find her balance and handed them to her, keeping his hand under her elbow.

  “My goodness,” she said, tipping forward then back. “I am a bit rocky. Funny. Guess it’ll be a while before I find my land legs. Good, you’re here.”

  Cleantha O’Bannon had the most amazing eyes. They were green, river green, and her complexion was pure cream. The contrast between Melody and her mother, one a dusky, sloe-eyed beauty and the other all peaches and cream, had Van feeling oafish, nervous, desperate to make a good impression. “I’ll go ahead, lift you down. I’ll have to, ah, have to put my hands on your waist. Sorry. If you feel dizzy, let me know. It’s icy on the platform. Folks have packed the snow.”

  Melody waited for them at the exit to the car. She smiled at him and winked, setting his cheeks on fire. He ducked his head. “I’ve got a sleigh waiting. I couldn’t get it any closer.”

  “Melody and I will steady you,” he said to Mrs. O’Bannon. “If one of us goes down, we all go down. I’ll try to be on the bottom of the pile to soften your fall.” He pressed his lips together, ashamed of himself, of the absurdity he’d just uttered, and vowed to do better, get a grip.

  The lady laughed in the face of his discomfort. “Won’t be this first time I’ve ended up in a snow bank on my nose.” She stood poised at the opening to the car, leaning heavily on her canes. Van stepped down, moved the wooden steps to the side. He held out his arms to her. She hesitated, handed him her canes, and tipped forward into his outstretched arms.