Wade placed his hand in the marshal’s. “Yes, Mr. Shaw.”
For the first time, Clyde smiled, which caused the last of Wade’s fear to fade away. “And what’s your name, son?”
“Wade Hunter.”
“All right then, Wade Hunter. Come along. I’ll introduce you to my family.”
Chapter Two
Wade followed Clyde through the front door of a small house, tightening his grip around the strap of his saddlebag as he did. It was dark and stuffy inside, and it took some time for his eyes to adjust. He heard the children before he saw them.
“Pa, you’re home!” a young female voice exclaimed with glee. Rapid, soft footsteps padded across the floor, and a tiny girl in pigtails came to a stop in front of Clyde.
“Hello, darlin’,” Clyde said, giving one of her braids a tug. “I’ve got someone to introduce you to. Say hello to Wade.”
The little girl focused wide eyes on the stranger. “Hello.”
“This here is Ada,” Clyde told him. “She’s the youngest.”
“Hi,” Wade said to her.
Clyde introduced the rest of his children. Sadie was the oldest, a girl of twelve, and Grace was closest to her in age at ten years old. There were twin boys who were nine—Miles and Luke, who looked nothing alike. And finally, there was Ada, the youngest, who was not yet five.
Wade found the whole exchange dizzying. The house was dark and crowded, and he longed to escape, or at least open the windows. The children were gathered around him tightly and stared at him without censor.
“Wade is going to be staying with us tonight,” Clyde informed his children.
“Why does he have to stay here?” Sadie demanded.
Judging by the look on Clyde’s face, he didn’t appreciate his eldest daughter’s question. “Because he needs a place to stay, and this is better than the jail. I expect you all to make him feel welcome.”
“You can have my peppermint, Wade,” Ada said cheerfully, holding out a half-eaten stick of candy in her grubby palm.
By habit, Wade accepted. He hadn’t had the luxury of rejecting food for some time, even food from a dirty child who had already dampened it with her saliva. “Thanks.” He held the peppermint between his thumb and forefinger, wondering if there was a bucket of water nearby where he could wash it off before eating it.
The tiny child stared up at him expectantly, and something in Wade’s heart constricted. Twice in the span of an hour he’d been shown kindness—first by the marshal and now by the marshal’s daughter—and though he didn’t exactly like what either of them had offered him, he couldn’t deny the good feelings the gestures gave him.
Wade spotted a pitcher over on a table near the fire. “This candy looked delicious. I’m going to rinse it off before eating it,” he told Ada.
She cocked her head. “Why you gonna do that, Wade?”
Wade bit back his thoughts. Because you’re dirty and a strand of your greasy hair is stuck to it. “Um, ‘cause that’s what you’re supposed to do. Haven’t you ever heard that water makes candy taste better?” Wade asked.
It was ridiculous, Wade realized, that he could find something as harmless as a child’s hair and saliva disgusting, when he’d been sleeping for three nights in a livery next to horse manure. But, not too long ago, he’d been accustomed to a much higher standard of living, and he couldn’t successfully block all his thoughts about cleanliness.
Ada stared with curiosity and awe as he walked over to the table. Clyde chuckled behind him, and Wade was relieved that Clyde wasn’t offended by the white lie he’d told his daughter.
Wade rinsed off the peppermint and popped it in his mouth. “Mmm, delicious,” he said to Ada. “Thanks very much.”
“I wanna try!” she exclaimed, digging into the front pocket of her frock. She fished out another peppermint stick along with various other items—a bottle cap, a penny, and what appeared to be a dead insect of some kind. After stuffing the rest of her treasures back in her pocket, she held the sticky candy out to Wade.
He obliged and rinsed it in the same way he had rinsed the last candy. When Ada tasted it, she exclaimed, “You’re right, Wade! It’s much more deliciouser!”
Wade couldn’t help but grin before he glanced at Clyde sheepishly. The marshal’s eyes twinkled with amusement. He seemed to be a completely different person from the strict man in the jailhouse.
The marshal’s daughter Sadie was far from amused. In fact, from the aggression in her tone, it was evident she was downright angry. “Now Ada will insist on always pouring water over her candy before she eats it.”
“Ah well, darlin’,” Clyde said good-naturedly. “There are worse things she could be doing.”
“That’s the trouble,” Sadie snapped. “She won’t be doing it. I will, just like I do everything else. If I let her rinse her own candy, she’ll spill the whole pitcher and break it.” She stalked out of the house, slamming the door behind her.
Clyde stared after her before sighing and returning his attention to Wade. “Her attitude isn’t on account of you. She’s had to do a lot since her ma passed away, so that’s what’s got her tetchy. She’ll be all right. You make yourself at home, kid. I’m gonna go check on the animals.” He tousled Wade’s hair and left, leaving Wade alone in the house with the other kids.
Wade couldn’t muster up even a smidgen of sympathy for Clyde’s rude eldest child, despite having just learned she’d lost her ma. At least she had a pa, and her pa seemed like a good one too—slow to anger and thoughtful. Nothing like his own.
Wade ran his fingers through his hair to tame what the marshal had mussed while surveying the layer of dirt covering everything inside the house and the food-crusted dishes on the table. He supposed the marshal couldn’t be expected to be on top of housework as well as his lawman duties, especially since cleaning was normally women’s work, but the house desperately needed a thorough scrub-down.
“Would you care for some milk, Wade?” Grace asked. She was markedly different from her older sister in both appearance and manners, with a sort of vulnerable softness about her, whereas Sadie looked much stronger. Even their style of hair differed drastically. Where Sadie’s hair was brown and pulled back tightly to the back of her head, Grace’s blonde hair flowed freely around her shoulders.
“Yes, I would like that,” Wade replied, aware that all the children were still watching him like he was some kind of circus act. He used his bandana to wipe down the stool at the table before sitting.
Grace set a mug of milk in front of him and took a seat. “Are you going to stay here for long?”
He drank some of the sweet, warm milk, savoring how wonderful it tasted. He’d become accustomed to eating food rapidly without spending any time tasting it, so he enjoyed the milk immensely. Shaking his head, he answered Grace’s question. “No, I reckon I’ll move on after a night or so. Clyde told me I had to either stay here or in jail."
Grace laughed, as did the twins Miles and Luke, who were standing nearby still observing him. “That’s what Pa told us too,” she said.
Wade frowned. “What do you mean? He threatened to put his own kids in jail?”
“It was before we were his kids that he threatened jail,” Miles explained, speaking for the first time since saying hello. “Our real pa and ma died a couple years back.”
“Oh.” Wade drank the last of his milk. “So none of you are Clyde’s real kids?”
“Sadie is, and so is Ada,” Luke explained. “It was just the three of them after Mrs. Shaw died, and then Clyde brought me, Miles, and Grace home.”
“I see,” Wade grunted. “So you’re Clyde’s charity case.”
“What does that mean?” Grace asked innocently, her brow wrinkling with confusion.
Wade regretted his cynical words. “Doesn’t matter. I don’t plan on being another kid Clyde takes in, so I’ll be gone soon. There’s no room for me here, anyway, and I do better on my own.”
“There’s plenty of ro
om!” Grace exclaimed. “There’s a cot that’s got no one sleeping in it. I think Pa was just waiting for the right person to give it to, and it sounds like that’s you.” She reached out and took his hand, giving it a tug. “Come. I’ll show you.”
Wade set down the empty mug of milk and allowed Grace to lead him into a bedroom. It was a larger room than he would have guessed from looking at the house from the outside, but it was in the same general state of unkemptness as the main area. Wooden blocks were spread across the floor. The beds were unmade, and the window was shut tight despite it being a warm day.
Grace pointed at a cot that looked comparatively tidy and unused. The bedding was smoothed over it, and a pillow lay at one side, with a folded blanket on the other. “That’s your cot. This is the boys’ room. Me, Sadie, and Ada sleep in the room next door, and Pa has his own room. Well, it’s more like a closet,” she said, and giggled. “I’ll show you.”
She led the way to the girls’ room, with Wade and the rest of the children following her. After Wade saw the messy room where the girls slept, Grace then showed him Clyde’s room, which indeed looked as small as a closet—barely able to fit the bed and nightstand, the only two pieces of furniture in it.
“So that’s the house,” Grace chirped. “Do you like it?”
The children looked at him expectantly. It seemed their house was a source of pride to them, but Wade couldn’t help thinking it was terribly cramped and unpleasant. Though he didn’t have two nickels to rub together presently, he’d grown up in privilege, and he was not even remotely impressed by the modest living quarters.
“It’s… nice,” Wade managed. “Seems like you’re happy here.”
All four heads bobbed, and smiles appeared on their faces. “Pa seems really strict, but don’t worry. He doesn’t get mad hardly at all,” Grace told him. “Me and Miles and Luke only got in trouble once. That’s ‘cause we ran off after Sadie kicked up a row and said we weren’t even her real brothers and sister. Pa didn’t like it when we ran off.”
“Yeah, he sure was cross,” Luke confirmed. “Yelled at us the whole way home.”
Grace nodded. “We thought we were in for a terrible whipping, but by the time we got back to the house, he wasn’t mad anymore. He said never to run off again because we’re his family now, and then he gave us supper.”
Wade was learning more about Clyde and his daughter Sadie by the second, listening to the children. Sadie sounded mean-spirited—no surprise there, considering her behavior toward Wade—and Clyde was kind even to those who weren’t his kin. It was all very interesting, the family dynamic, but Wade had no desire to join in it. He was already counting the hours to when he could make his escape. It would be best to go when they were all asleep, he thought to himself. With the way the children talked nonstop, he doubted he would have a moment’s peace other than when they slept.
The front door whined open. Sadie trudged in with a resigned look on her face. She didn’t look at Wade, electing to walk straight to her room and close the door forcefully behind her.
Several minutes later, Clyde returned from checking on the animals. He smiled at Wade. “The kids show you around?” he asked.
Before Wade could answer, Grace skipped to Clyde’s side. “I took him to all the rooms, Pa. And I showed him the cot where he can sleep tonight.”
Clyde smiled down at her. “Thank you, sweetheart.”
Grace beamed. “You’re welcome.”
Clyde addressed Wade. “Grace here is the mother hen of the family. You ever get hungry, cold, or tired, she’ll sort things out for you.”
Wade didn’t intend on staying long enough for any of that, but he nodded agreeably. “Is that how it works? Everyone has a job here?”
“Well, of course,” Clyde said. “Sadie does the cooking, and she’s in charge while I’m gone. The other kids know to mind her. Miles and Luke—they’re responsible for feeding all the animals. There’s a chicken coop out back and a small stable with a mule and two horses.”
“I make sure whichever horse Pa rides gets an extra sugar cube that day,” Miles said proudly.
Ada spoke next. “I don’t have a job ‘cause I’m little.” Her voice sounded shaky, like she was dismayed by the realization that she wasn’t as useful as the others.
Clyde stared at her mournfully a moment, then sat down on the sofa and patted his knee. “Come here, Ada.”
She trudged over sadly and allowed herself to be scooped up into Clyde’s lap. She buried her head in his chest.
“There now,” Clyde said. “Didn’t you give Wade a piece of your candy earlier?”
“Yes,” she responded in a barely audible voice.
“And you also helped Grace set the table, didn’t you?”
The little girl nodded and lifted her head from Clyde’s chest to look at him with a hopeful expression.
“And you fetched some rope for me when I had to repair the buggy.”
“Yes, Pa.”
“See, you don’t have just one job. You have a whole bunch of jobs, which makes you pretty important, I’d say.”
Wade couldn’t help but smile when he saw the expression of pure joy light the child’s face, especially after having seen her so crestfallen moments earlier. It was confirmed for him then that Clyde was a kind man, the sort Wade didn’t run into all that often. He never in a million years could imagine his own father saying even one kind word to him.
It had only been constant criticism growing up. Though his father had been a criminal who was drunk half the time, he’d been very particular about Wade’s behavior. Any wrong turn of phrase, the incorrect expression, even too many wrinkles in his shirt—all were cause for harsh punishment.
“What’s Wade’s job, Pa?” Ada asked.
Clyde set the child on her feet. “I don’t know yet. We’ll have to see what Wade’s good at.”
Wade stared at the floor, wondering about Clyde’s response to Ada. If Clyde was planning on giving him chores, it didn’t sound like he had any intention of letting him go soon. Suddenly, the house seemed even smaller. He took a giant gulp of air, feeling trapped and panicky, similar to how he’d felt at the orphan’s home, which had been the equivalent of hell on earth for him.
There had never been enough room, always too much noise, and the constant feeling of no air. The first time he’d run away from the home, he’d been caught and punished in front of all the other children. The second time, he’d escaped for good. There was no way he was going to settle in another dirty place with a bunch of other kids, even if Clyde was leaps and bounds kinder than the masters of the orphanage.
“Children, let’s get on with the evening and stop gawking at Wade,” Clyde ordered.
Wade wondered if Clyde had sensed his distress. Regardless, when everyone took their attention off him, he was able to slow his breathing and temporarily squash his desire to escape the cramped quarters.
Clyde settled in his armchair with a cup of coffee and a pipe, which he lit, filling the space with the scent of vanilla tobacco. Grace and Ada played with some dolls made out of corn husks, and the twins sat at the table to do homework. Wade found a free spot on the sofa and picked up a book on the table next to it. It was titled, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and after three pages, Wade was so enthralled with the story, he all but forgot there were other people around him. He didn’t even notice when Clyde lit the lamp next to him as dusk descended, and he nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard his name.
“Must be some book,” Clyde said when he’d caught Wade’s attention.
Wade noted the page he was on and closed it. “It’s very interesting,” Wade confirmed.
“What’s it about?”
“A boy who goes on adventures.”
“Ah,” Clyde replied. “Sounds like you. You seem to have been on some adventures yourself.”
Wade nodded, feeling pleased by the comment. His adventures hadn’t been nearly as fun as Finn’s, but it made him feel important that the ma
rshal thought of him as an adventurer.
Chapter Three
The next morning, Wade awoke slowly from his first peaceful slumber in ages. He glanced around the bedroom and noticed with some surprise that he was the only person there. Sunlight bordered the window around the closed shutters, and he realized it was well past dawn. He heard clattering and sizzling coming from outside his room, and he smelled bacon, causing his mouth to water.
He would have to stay in Clyde’s house for another day. To make an exit without fuss, next time he needed to wake up earlier than everyone else and slip out of the house before being noticed. He sat up in the cot and looked down, noting with relief that his saddlebag was still next to him. Every day for two years he’d woken up and checked that he hadn’t been robbed.
When Wade joined the family with some reluctance, his senses became overwhelmed. Ada ran from one side of the house to the other, screeching at imaginary Indians to leave her scalp on her head. Sadie pushed around the bacon popping over the stove, while Grace hummed loudly as she set the table.
Grace looked up from her task upon seeing him. “Good morning, sleepyhead!” she exclaimed brightly.
“Morning,” Wade returned. He liked Grace. If he had a sister, he’d want one like her.
She smiled at him. “Pa says you’re our guest, so I’m giving you the prettiest plate.”
Wade looked down at the bright red plate. The table settings were arranged tightly to accommodate so many people. He glanced around the cabin. “Where is your pa?”
Sadie clattered a spoon in the pan and half turned to look at Wade. “He’s outside chopping wood, and he said he wants to talk to you. Go see what he wants.”
“Very well,” Wade agreed, relieved for the excuse to go outside, though he felt irritated that Sadie had framed her words as an order.
Clyde spotted Wade as soon as he stepped outside. He beckoned him over. “Did you sleep well?” he asked, resting the blade of his ax on the base log.
When He Returns Page 2