Suddenly, the dog bounded up from behind them and raced to the woman.
“Down, Honey,” the woman said and the dog sat at her feet, its tail still thumping in welcome. “You don’t want to scare our guests.”
By then they were close enough for Jake’s mother to hold out her hand. She reached for Jake first, but he stiffened.
“I’m so glad you came here with my son,” the woman continued, offering her hand to Cat, instead.
“Thank you, Mrs. Stone.” Cat took the woman’s hand. She felt the hard calluses on the fingers as the woman squeezed her hand in welcome.
“You must call me Gracie,” the woman said as they shook. “We’re all just family here.”
The woman’s eyes turned to her son then.
Cat’s breath caught, and then she assured herself the woman had merely used a figure of speech. She couldn’t possibly suspect Lara was her granddaughter.
Jake’s mother looked back to her.
“I’m Cat,” she said as they finished the handshake. She stepped back, and Jake took her arm again. Then she realized he hadn’t said anything yet. She glanced up at him quickly and saw his face locked in some kind of a mask.
“You must be thirsty,” Gracie said, her voice hurried as she wiped her hands against her jeans. “I have some lemonade sitting in the refrigerator for when you got here.” The woman glanced up at Jake. “I know how you boys all loved lemonade.”
Cat noticed Gracie wasn’t looking at Jake any longer and the woman’s eyes slid down to Lara as she smiled. “I’m guessing you’d like some lemonade, too.”
“Yes, please,” Lara said very politely.
Jake’s fingers gripped her arm more tightly, but Cat didn’t move.
“Well, then,” Gracie said in what sounded like relief. “Let’s go have some, shall we?”
Cat waited for Gracie to turn and start walking back into the house before she turned to Jake. He didn’t look angry, but his face was frozen in some way.
“You okay?” she asked. Lara was already following the older woman.
Jake nodded, but he didn’t say anything. He dropped the hand that had gripped her arm and started walking toward the house.
Cat took one last look around the outside of the ranch. The door to the barn was wide-open and some kind of a tractor was parked inside. A new pickup was parked on the left side of the barn, so someone here was as prosperous as Jake.
She almost cried when she saw the water dish by the door to the house that read Honey. She imagined everyone here had their place on this ranch. A shot of pure longing ran through Cat. She wished she had a place here, too.
Chapter Seven
Jake looked around the kitchen of the house where he had grown up. Sunlight was coming in the window above the sink and he saw some repairs had been made where it looked as though rain had come inside. Ten years of standing vacant couldn’t have been good for this old house. It had been built by his father’s great-grandparents when they first homesteaded here, so the walls were thick and the structure sound enough that it had probably taken the neglect in stride.
It was comforting to see it had been repainted inside. The walls were a cream color and it still smelled the same as it had when he was a boy. He caught the scent of coffee mingling with the lemon smell of some disinfectant. His mother must use the same brands as she had years ago. She’d added red curtains, but the scarred wooden table sat in the middle of the room like it always had. He and his brothers had carved their initials on the underside of the table one night for no particular reason that he could remember now.
Cat had taken Lara to the bathroom upstairs so he and his mother were alone.
“You did a good job painting,” he said as he saw the trim on the cabinets and a small mural with a red bird that had been added to the wall. “It’s nice.”
“Amy Mitchell did the bird,” his mother said proudly as she noted where his gaze had traveled.
Amy was the neighbor his brother, Wade, was going to marry. The two of them had been childhood sweethearts and, even though Jake didn’t approve of his brother getting married in principle, he did soften when he thought of Amy. She was a good person. He only hoped the family legacy his father had started didn’t follow Wade into that union. He’d hate for Amy to be hurt like his mother had been.
Jake watched then as his mother turned with the help of her cane and pulled a large pitcher of lemonade out of the refrigerator. He walked over to help her and then stopped. He felt a sudden urge to open his arms to her, but he wasn’t sure she’d welcome a hug.
His mother turned to set the pitcher on the counter and then closed the refrigerator door.
“Let me help,” he said as he saw her look up at the open cabinets where the glasses were.
“I can get them,” she replied.
He should have written when she was in prison instead of just pretending to do so for the officials of the home. It had been worse for him to ignore her than it had been for his two brothers, because he had known deep inside that she was innocent. She could never hurt anyone, no matter what they did. And when he didn’t write, it was like saying he thought she was guilty just like everyone else did.
His mother set her cane against the counter and reached up into the cabinet. Looking down, he could see her feet. The foot in the slipper was swollen and he started to say something as she set a glass on the counter, but she started speaking before he had a chance.
“I want you to know how very sorry I am,” she said as she slowly moved to face him squarely. “I should have been a better mother to you and your brothers.”
The surprise of what she said made his eyes turn damp. She looked sincere, her black eyes meeting his with such tenderness that he couldn’t question her emotions.
“I’m the one who should be apologizing,” he said brusquely, hoping to stop the lump forming in his throat. “You were the best mother, and I didn’t even write when—”
He heard a whimper and the dog was suddenly between them. If the animal had stayed in its corner by the door, Jake would have opened his arms at last.
“I should have reported your father for his abuse,” she said, waving away his words and continuing with her own. “I had myself convinced we had no choice, but I was wrong. I should have gotten help for us all.”
“But how?” Jake demanded as he looked at her. He didn’t like his mother taking the blame for something like that. With the sun shining full through the windows, he could see the new wrinkles on her face. Nothing about her stance had changed, but there was a freedom he’d never seen before in her eyes.
He wondered for the first time how she could have come back to this kitchen. It, along with the rest of the house, had been her cage as much as any prison she’d been in later.
“Dad never let you go anywhere by yourself,” he reminded her as he gestured around the room. There hadn’t even been a telephone in here for most of his childhood. His father had always kept the phone in a closet that he locked during the day. His mother had to ask permission to call anyone. “This was the only place he let you be. How could you have found someone to help us? He hid the keys so you couldn’t drive anywhere. The ranch is way out in the country. Even if you did manage to call, by the time a county sheriff got here, Dad would have been passed out so there would have been nothing to see.”
Bruises wouldn’t have counted for much, he told himself. His father always had some story to tell, and with three boys, most lawmen would have figured they did the fighting among themselves, anyway.
“I could have gone to the church,” his mother said. “Your dad would have taken me there even if he wouldn’t have stayed. And I could have stood up in the service, asking people to help us. The people there would have banded together. I was so timid that I didn’t even try.
Some of the men told me they would have helped us handle your father if they had known what was happening.”
Jake felt his jaw tighten. He heard the sounds of footsteps walking on the bare floors in the living room. “Yeah, well, it’s easy for those men to say what they would have done when the time for doing anything is past.”
Those church men had no idea what a force his father had been, drunk or sober. And he wouldn’t have liked his mother asking strangers for help.
The footsteps ended at the door to the kitchen, but Jake found he couldn’t stop his words.
“The truth is, all any of those men from the church would have done is pray,” he finished, the bitterness stripping any softness from his voice. “So they might as well have been spitting in the wind for all the good it would have done this family.”
The gasps of the three females around him sucked away his belligerence. He turned around to look at the doorway and saw that even little Lara was shocked. Her blue eyes were big and horrified. He figured he had no hope of being her prince now. She’d call him a troll and she’d be right.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered, giving a nod to his mother before returning to where Cat and their daughter stood. “I know you all pray and I’m not saying you don’t have the knack for it.”
Wade had filled him in on the religious awakening their mother had in prison when she had been in some support group there. Even when he was a boy, she would have taken him to task for disrespecting anything related to God, so he expected her to scold him now. Instead her attention seemed to have gone elsewhere.
“You’re a believer?” His mother stepped to the side so she had a clear view of Cat.
“Yes.”
“Well, isn’t that wonderful!” his mother exclaimed with more animation on her face than he remembered her having at any point when he was growing up. She clearly believed in something that had given her a new passion for life. She didn’t even lean on her cane as she looked at Cat.
Life in this house had certainly changed since he’d been here last.
No one needed to remind him that Wade had started going to church, too.
“Of course, I don’t mind if people go to church,” Jake said, figuring he might as well wave the white flag. He wasn’t going to win this battle in this house. “It’s just that—well, a man’s entitled to have an opinion about prayer.”
He didn’t feel God should get credit for something He hadn’t done, and He certainly hadn’t done anything to set his mother or his brothers free from his father. He glanced over at Cat. Her face was too pale again, so he sent her a reassuring smile. He didn’t want her to worry about his soul on top of everything else.
Then he looked back at his mother and she had the saddest expression on her face.
“It’s my fault that you feel that way,” she muttered, half to herself.
“That’s not true. It’s…” He scrambled to think of something light to say. “It’s Mrs. Hargrove’s fault.”
“What?” his mother asked in surprise. He noticed that she was smiling now, though. “How could that be?”
He saw that Cat and Lara were stepping into the center of the kitchen.
“Mrs. Hargrove only promised me a piece of pie if I went to Sunday school,” he said, trying to grin convincingly. “She should have known I’d hold out for the whole thing.”
His mother laughed at that, the sound filling the kitchen with a happiness he hadn’t known it could have. He heard Lara’s giggle join in after a bit, too. Cat was silent, but she was there. His mother barely stopped when he opened his arms wide and stepped close enough to hug her to his chest.
That’s when he heard a satisfied sigh come from behind him and he knew Cat was happy, too. She felt conflict even more than he did and would want him to be at ease with his family. He realized it had been a long time since anyone had cared about him that much.
A half hour later, Cat sat at the kitchen table with an empty glass of lemonade in her hand. Jake had taken Lara out so she could walk the dog, even though he assured her that pets on a farm didn’t need to be walked like they did in the city. The window by the sink was open and she could hear Lara’s delighted squeals in the distance, mingling with the excited yips from the dog and the deep chuckle from Jake. It sounded as if the three of them were racing around together. Maybe it wasn’t the dog but the girl who needed the walk.
The open spaces around the ranch would be good for Lara.
Jake’s mother had insisted Cat stay and let Jake take care of her daughter. The truth was, Cat probably couldn’t have kept up with Lara if she tried. Not today. The drive here had been almost as much as she could handle. She felt the flutter in her heart just sitting here.
“You look a little tired,” Gracie had said as she gave Cat her glass of lemonade before Jake and Lara left.
The sugar had boosted her energy somewhat, but she was barely able to sit while Jake’s mother walked around the kitchen, using her cane to steady herself as she moved dishes into the cupboards from the drainer near the sink. The older woman kept up a steady stream of chatter about the weather and what the forecast was for the weekend.
Then suddenly she turned.
“You were the one at the home, weren’t you?” Gracie asked as though she had just realized something. She kept the dish towel in her hand as she hobbled over to the table and sat down. “One Christmas when Wade called me, he said that Jake had a special friend there. Wade called the other boys once a year or so. I was so grateful, knowing Jake had someone to talk to. That was you, wasn’t it? I remember you had an unusual name.”
“I was there, all right,” Cat admitted. She tried to deepen her breath. “Right where the state put me. Jake was the one who started calling me Cat because I had said my given name was boring.”
“We never like our names when we’re that age, do we?” Gracie said with a smile. “I know I couldn’t stand to be plain Grace so I had to dress it up with the ie on the end of it.”
“I like being called Cat.”
“You’re going to have to tell me all about the home while you’re here,” the older woman said. “I tried to get Wade to ask his brothers questions, but—you know how boys are—he never managed to find out much. Mostly he just said they didn’t like the food. I always worried about Jake. I think he took my going away harder than the others. He always has had such a strong sense of justice.”
Cat nodded. The room was beginning to spin slightly, but she didn’t want to put her head down to her knees and close her eyes. That’s what she usually did.
She pulled herself back to the conversation. If she could just focus, she’d be all right. “Jake does think life should go in certain ways.”
“And he gets disappointed,” his mother added as she stood up again. “Maybe you should have some tea to go with the lemonade. Or a sandwich. I could make you something. I have a pan of lasagna in the refrigerator that I plan to put in the oven for supper, but a snack would be good.”
“I wonder if I could lie down for a few minutes,” Cat said as she started to stand.
“Of course.” Gracie walked around the table and offered her arm for Cat to hold. “Let me just help you get to my bed—”
“Oh, I couldn’t take your bed.”
“Nonsense,” Gracie said softly. She had the cane on one side of her and Cat on the other as she slowly led Cat out of the kitchen. “My bedroom is the only one on the ground floor and we’re not taking the stairs.”
Cat didn’t argue further. She needed everything she had to keep putting one foot in front of the other. She hadn’t realized what a strain the drive up here to Montana would be on her. And the worry of meeting Jake hadn’t made any of it easy, either.
“We’re almost there,” Gracie said as they stepped through the bedroom door.
> An impression of white clouds filled Cat’s mind. She wasn’t sure if it was the color in the room or if she was slipping into unconsciousness. She did see a big window in the room.
“I’ll be fine,” she muttered as Gracie gently helped her lie down on the bed.
Cat felt the fabric under her. It was a quilt made out of denim. She could feel the ridges of the seams. The fabric was soft as though the material had been worn until it was smooth. She didn’t bother to try and keep her eyes open.
“Should I call the doctor?”
Cat heard Gracie’s voice from a distance and fought her way back to consciousness. A doctor could spoil everything. She needed to keep her secret for a little longer.
“I’m fine,” she said and struggled to make her voice sound reassuring. “Really, I am.”
She forced her eyes open and tried to smile. The sunshine was so bright she had a hard time zeroing in on Gracie’s face even though the older woman was leaning over her in concern.
“If you could get my purse from the pickup,” Cat managed to say. One of her heart pills would help her.
She wondered why Gracie’s hands were gripping hers as she tried to surface more completely. And then she realized she was the one holding on to the other woman.
“Have you told Jake that you’re pregnant?” Gracie asked quietly.
That was enough to bring Cat completely back. “What?”
Her hands fell away from Gracie of their own accord.
“You don’t have to tell me, of course,” the other woman said with a worried look on her face. “But I have had three babies and I fainted a time or two when I carried them. Especially at first.”
“I’m not pregnant,” Cat managed to whisper.
Gracie just patted her hands. “Well, all I’m saying is that, if you are, you need to talk to Jake. I raised that boy, and he’ll do right by you.”
“But…” Cat tried to explain, but she couldn’t carry it further. Jake’s mother was five years too late with her suspicions, but she wasn’t wrong in the basic story. Or the fact that Jake had always seen it as his duty to marry her.
Lilac Wedding in Dry Creek Page 9