Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.”
* * *
There wasn’t a dry eye under the canopy when she’d finished. Reverend Taggart asked if anyone wanted prayer and several went forward and he prayed for them.
Afterward people had a noon meal on their own, some with picnic lunches, others at the vendors’ booths along the midway. Daniel located seating and brought plates of chicken, potato salad and buttered rolls from Aunt Mae’s booth.
“Did you see Noah came to the service this morning?” he asked while they ate.
“I didn’t, but I heard a couple speaking about the vicious-looking black dog outside, so I assumed he was there.”
“That dog is part wolf, but his bark is worse than his bite, just like his owner.”
They lingered after the lunch crowd had moved on, talking about this and that, enjoying the breeze and the distant laughter.
“That necklace looks familiar,” he said. “It’s lovely.”
She touched the coral and silver, warm against her skin. “My father gave it to me on Christmas Eve when I was thirteen. I wore it to parties and dances. I felt so grown up.”
“You haven’t worn it since you’ve been here.”
“I wore it under my clothing on my journey here. It has good memories, but it has bad memories as well.” She didn’t bother to keep the pain from her voice. “Those are the ones I’m trying to forget, but it’s impossible. They’re with me always, so I may as well wear the necklace.”
“Do those memories have anything to do with the dreams?”
She blinked, uncertain about the direction of this conversation, but she answered honestly. “Yes.”
He didn’t question her further. His patience and understanding had no limit. No doubt he would wait if it took her years to tell him, but she couldn’t keep her secret pain to herself any longer. She was hungry for kindness, hungry for the caring and concern Daniel so freely offered. “I was wearing it when I returned to Pennsylvania before the war ended.”
“So you left the place you’d been where your husband was stationed and went home?”
“Yes. And I soon discovered the situation back there had become desperate for everyone. Our families, Daniel, all of our neighbors who remained. Women and children, elderly folks, everyone just trying to survive and praying for their sons and brothers and husbands to come home, but learning one by one that they weren’t.” She swallowed hard as the memories assailed her. “Winter was miserable. Confederates cut off supply routes, confiscated wagons, and people ate whatever they had left, holding on to only a few chickens and cows because the animals needed to eat, too, and there weren’t enough workers to grow the crops. Those who could, planted gardens for themselves.”
“I know, Leah,” Daniel said, his tone somber. “We saw it all, too. We were the ones cutting off supplies so the southerners could no longer survive.”
“We hid from the rebels.” The words came easier now that she’d opened the floodgate. “We made sure the house looked unlived in, but in order to stay warm we burned furniture that wasn’t essential and then started on Daddy’s books.”
Daniel closed his eyes as though her telling pained him. “Go on,” he said, his voice hoarse with emotion. The present fell away, and he was in Pennsylvania with Leah seeing the big old house slowly being disassembled, feeling the bitter cold, smelling the books burning, sharing the pangs of hunger.
“Mama and Hattie and I slept with our clothes on to stay warm, and we wore things we didn’t want to lose if we had to run. Like this.” She touched her necklace. “Do you remember Hattie?”
He opened his eyes. “Your cousin.”
“Yes. She’d lost both my aunt and uncle, and had been staying with Mama when I went back to Pennsylvania, thinking it would be safer there. We holed up by the fireplace in Daddy’s study to stay warm. Mama took sick. She had a fever and a bad cough.” A lump rose to her throat, but she managed to go on. “One morning the rebels approached the house. We heard them coming from the orchard. We ran to the ice house and watched through the cracks in the chinking as they set fire to the house.”
Daniel had done the same damage as those men, looting and burning as ordered. He’d displaced innocent women and children, destroyed homes, stolen food. While those Union soldiers had been the enemy, they’d only been men just like he, hungry, frightened men with families at home waiting for the war to end. Leah’s chilling words were spoken to his heart, as though he was hearing the accusations of his enemies, but he had to listen. There was no escaping the facts.
“Mama couldn’t keep up,” Leah said, her voice cold now, matter-of-fact, as though she was reading a book, a tale of someone she’d never met and with whom she had no personal connection. “She coughed something fierce.”
He heard Mrs. Robinson’s painful cough, felt the women’s fear and panic, and his heart seized. He knew what was coming next, and the hair on the back of his neck stood up. He didn’t want to hear the rest, but he had to listen.
“‘Go,’ Mama said.” Leah’s voice was no more than a guttural whisper now, but he heard every nuance and syllable. “‘You have a chance without me,’ she said. ‘Make it for me and live.’ She was so brave. She picked up a rock and crouched, ready to stop the first man who came after us. So brave.”
Daniel covered his face with his hands and inhaled a shaky breath. He remembered Leah’s mother, graceful and happy, cooking and serving guests and enjoying her family. That she’d died in such a manner was a shame to this country and to the people the war had turned them all into. He was almost thankful his own mother had passed away when he was young, so she hadn’t lived through those years, so she hadn’t met a similar fate.
“We heard the gunfire, but we waited where she’d told us to. In the bushes where we could see that big flat rock that hung out over the stream. The place where we used to jump in and swim in the summer. She didn’t come and we had to leave.”
He knew the spot. Daniel saw the frozen water, heard the gunfire, felt her terror and grief.
Leah stood and moved in front of him, peeling his hands from his face and placing her own palms on his cheeks.
“Leah, I’m so sorry,” he managed to say, and swallowed hard.
“I know.” She rubbed his cheekbones gently with her thumbs. “I know.”
He wrapped his arms around her expanding waist, and she flattened herself against him. Her clothing smelled like fresh air and starch. “There was nothing you could have done to save her. If you had stayed with her all of you would have died.”
“I know,” she said again. “Hattie just gave up once we got to the city. She took sick and died.”
“Your mother was brave,” he said around the rasp in his throat. “But you’re brave, too. It takes courage to go on when life looks hopeless. When we look around this town, at our neighbors and friends, we’re seeing the people who had the courage to go on, no matter how hard it was. I’m proud of you, Leah, and I’m thankful you fought to survive.” Because I found you.
“So am I.”
“Out of all the places you could have ended up,” he said as though he’d spoken his thoughts aloud. “You’re here.”
This was the most she’d opened up to him since her arrival. She was more vulnerable now than in their youth. Every day he wondered over what she didn’t say. He wondered about her husband. He heard every sound that came from her room at night, had trouble sleeping with her in there, knowing how close she was, yet they had remained a world apart. Until now. Until she’d been brave enough to tell him what gave her nightmares and woke her crying in the darkest midnight hours.
No one had entered the seating area alongside Aunt Mae’s tent since they’d begun this conversation. It seemed as though they’d been divinely affo
rded these precious minutes of privacy in the midst of bustling activity. It didn’t matter that he embraced her where anyone passing by could see them. She was his wife. He wanted to be completely honest with her about his feelings, but he didn’t want to put any pressure on her. She’d begun to open up to him and this was a sign of good things to come.
He cradled her jaw, ran his thumb across her impossibly soft, pale cheek. She grasped his wrist and smiled at him through the sheen of tears. Leaning close, he brushed a gentle kiss against her lips.
Her lips trembled, but she said, “I’m glad I’m here, Daniel. I’m so thankful I found you.”
Daniel kissed her again, hopeful that this was only the beginning.
* * *
The fair was a success. At the council meeting Monday evening, business owners shared that the effort and the investment had more than earned out in revenue and good will. The council rented a railcar in which to store all the lumber, the tents and awnings until the next occasion. Cowboy Creek was putting itself in the running as an excellent prospect for county seat.
After the meeting, Will caught Daniel before he left. “I sent the query for Noah’s bride today.”
“Are you going to tell him?”
“No,” Will said. “I’m not giving him a chance to veto our efforts. I asked for someone smart and friendly. Once the prospective bride gets here and they get acquainted, he’ll recognize he needs someone and see that people don’t judge him by those scars.”
“Did you mention the scars in the letter?”
“No. Those scars aren’t who Noah is. I wrote about the kind of man he is.”
“You could have written a letter for yourself.”
“You did all right without trying,” Will replied. “Perhaps someone on the next bride train will be perfect for me. If not, I can wait.”
“Don’t get your hopes up for perfect,” Daniel told him. “There are always things to work through.”
“Coming from the one with all the experience?”
“I have a little experience,” he said almost defensively.
Will chuckled. “Well, I’ll know her when I meet her. She’ll bat baby blue eyes at me and twirl her fringed parasol, and I’ll be besotted.”
“I can’t wait for that.”
“I wired money for train fare and expenses,” his pal said. “Hopefully a prospect should be here in a few weeks.”
“I’ll be looking forward to that,” Daniel drawled.
“Won’t we all?”
Chapter Nineteen
That week work began in earnest on the nursery. Daniel and Leah ordered an iron crib and wallpaper from one of the catalogs at Remmy’s store. One afternoon Daniel came home early with a rocking chair he’d had Mr. Irving make. It was sturdily built with a padded seat and back, delightfully comfortable. Daniel carried it upstairs and set it in the room that only held a bureau and a few crates.
He pointed to one of the crates. “That came a week or so ago. Noah told me to open it when we were preparing for the baby.”
“I wondered what that was.”
He got a claw hammer and pried open the lid to find straw packing. After digging through the straw, he discovered items and uncovered them. “It’s a carved wooden horse,” he said of the wooden animal he held.
Leah took the miniature from him and examined it. “Look at the detail,” she said in awe. “Where did he get these?”
“I’ve seen him carve. It’s a hobby of his.”
“Noah made this?”
Daniel nodded and searched the packing, finding a bear and a raccoon, then another bear in a different pose. As he uncovered more and more figures, it became clear there were two of each. Two cows, two goats, two pigs, two eagles, a pair of mountain lions and a pair of beavers.
“That’s a big crate. How many animals are in there?” She knelt and helped him unpack. “Why, it’s the animals from Noah’s ark!” Leah exclaimed. “He carved two of every animal.” She stood and arranged the creatures atop the bureau and admired the craftsmanship of each piece. “Can you imagine the hours that went into making these?”
Daniel shook his head. “He spends a lot of time alone.”
“I do wish he’d come join us on occasion. I can’t wait to thank him. Perhaps we can take a drive out to his place?”
“Of course we can.” Daniel discovered a couple of large objects on the bottom and hauled them out, straw spilling to the floor. “Look, Leah. It’s the ark.” He set the boat-like bottom on the floor and placed a hinged box on top. It had been painted and was storage for all the animals. “He’s painted a dove with an olive leaf on the top.”
Leah wiped tears from her eyes. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
Daniel moved the ark to the bureau and Leah arranged the animals on and around it. In the bottom of the crate Daniel found a few birds, two small snakes and two frogs. He and Leah smiled at each other.
Leah sat in the rocker and surveyed the room, imagining where the crib would go. Through the open window came the distant sound of hammering. “Where is that coming from? The school is finished, isn’t it?”
“That’s construction on the opera house over one street.”
“Pippa is certainly excited. Still no idea who burned that first shipment of wood?” she asked.
“No idea, but the mayhem has died down since the Murdochs moved on.”
“Just doesn’t seem like something dangerous criminals would do,” she mused. “Sounds more like someone with a grudge against the town or against someone in the town. Who has enemies that you know of?”
“We’ve all probably made a few waves, but I can’t imagine anyone wanting to stop the progress of the town. This town is a joint effort for the good of everyone.”
“Who might have something to gain if there are setbacks to the progress?” she prodded.
He set the crate with the straw near the doorway. “I’ve wondered the same thing, Leah, and I honestly don’t know. It takes hard workers to create a terminus like this and aspire to the county seat. People don’t come here if they’re not ready to work.”
They grew silent for a few moments, both lost in their worrisome thoughts, contemplating the uncertainty facing their small close-knit community.
“Valentine left early today,” she remembered to mention. “She’s having dinner in town. I can fix us something.”
Daniel glanced at her resting comfortably in the rocker. She’d had a busy day and he’d rather she didn’t go to the trouble. “Why don’t we have supper at the hotel?” he suggested. “We haven’t done that for a while.”
“That sounds nice.”
Later she changed and they strolled hand in hand to the hotel. There were quite a few diners in the restaurant. Will entered a few minutes after they’d taken their seats and Daniel waved him over.
Will took a chair and hung his cane on the back. “You look lovely this evening, Leah.”
“Thank you.”
“I remember that necklace you’re wearing. Your father gave it to you.”
She rested her fingertips over the coral stone and silver filigree and smiled, as though pleased he’d remembered. “Yes, he did.”
“You wore it to dances and parties.”
Daniel felt a niggle of discomfort at Will’s fond remembrances. He certainly had an accurate memory about things regarding Leah. But he had an acute memory about most things. The man was polite and respectful to Daniel’s wife, paying her a compliment, making social conversation. His uneasiness was only his own insecurity flaring up, he told himself, and he refused to allow the jealousy a foothold.
Will turned to him. “Today I got wind of something you should know.”
“What is it?” Daniel asked, assured of his conclusion. Will had come to talk to him and had
politely greeted Leah first.
“A railroad representative will be arriving soon.”
Daniel narrowed his eyes. “We’ve met a lot of them before. What’s this visit about?”
“A potential opportunity may be opening up. Obviously the railroad is still expanding. It seems we may be given the opportunity to invest in the Union Pacific.”
“How did you learn this?”
“You remember Gideon Kendricks, one of the men we worked with when we sold land?” When Daniel nodded, he went on to say, “Well, we keep in touch and I got a telegram from him.”
“As stockholders we could make a difference,” Daniel said, warming to the idea.
“How?” Leah asked.
He turned to answer. “Stockholders can form companies and their influence makes a difference in controlling the storage and shipping rates. By investing, we may actually be able to help the farmers and ranchers keep their costs down.”
“It would definitely help me on the level of state legislature when I’m ready to run for an office,” Will explained.
She looked from one man to the other. “It sounds like a good thing for the economy in the long run to have two levelheaded men helping set legislation.”
“Three,” Will told her. “Noah has as much say as we do in investments and town concerns.”
“And it could help grow the town, too, don’t you think?” she asked.
Will nodded. “I do.” He reached behind him for his cane. “I’ll leave you two to your supper now and excuse myself. I just wanted to share the good news.”
“You’re welcome to join us,” Leah offered.
“Thanks, but I’ve already eaten. I’m on my way up to my office to work for a few hours. Have a good evening.”
“I always pictured him doing something like this,” she told Daniel after Will had gone.
“His aspirations keep him motivated.”
She leaned toward him. “But you’re a surprise.”
He absorbed her words, wondering what to make of them. Had she believed he had no ambition? “I guess I surprised myself when I got excited about starting a town like this.”
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