Piecrust Promise

by Nanette Kinslow

  “Do you think he knows where we’re going?” Lee asked as the horses picked up speed.

  “Mince is the smartest dog I have ever seen. He knows.” Corinne smiled at Lee broadly in the softening daylight.

  When the claim came into view they saw Mince sitting at the spot they had decided would be the front door to the dwelling. “See,” Corinne said. “He knows.”

  Lee slowed the wagon and watched Corinne leap off and run across the prairie excitedly. She dropped to one knee and rubbed Mince’s fur enthusiastically and he put his paws on her chest and licked her face. He’d never seen a woman have such a close relationship with a dog. In fact the only woman he had ever seen close to an animal was his mother and her mare. He watched Corinne run up to the stacks of brick and throw back the tarps. When he pulled up the wagon and tied off the horses she walked over and picked up a brick.

  The clay had dried hard, the shape uniform and consistent across all the bricks. Lee knew it was an art and extremely hard work and he was impressed. He walked over and examined the trench they had dug to begin the walls. Everything was ready. In the morning they could begin building.

  Corinne paced the floor she had leveled out which would be inside the dugout, stopping several times to envision the home from several angles. There was no evidence that anyone had bothered her claim.

  “Windows here and here and here,” she pointed.

  “That’s what I thought. They’ll let in plenty of light and a nice view of the persimmon and the creek. We’ll want to fill in the hollow where you dug to make the clay, right?”

  “As soon as we know we have enough bricks I’m thinkin’ we start fillin’ it with straw and manure and maybe some limestone. We’ll need it to mix the mortar first though, and I’m thinkin’ a layer of clay over the floors. Then we can fill it in.” Corinne looked up at him.

  “You’re thinking of putting a garden in that spot?”

  “Exactly,” she said. “It held water after the soakin’ rain, but only for a little while. What do you think?”

  “I know where we can get plenty of lime. I was thinking about a whitewash inside.”

  Corinne stood up straight and looked at him puzzled.

  “It works like a paint. Perfect with adobe. You paint it on thin and it soaks into the brick and turns white. It will make the place nice and fresh inside,” he said.

  “Like that shirt?” Corinne pointed to his chest and laughed.

  They unhitched Boomer and Chief.

  “I was afraid they wouldn’t get along,” Corinne said as they led the horses to the water. She noticed that Lee looked tired.

  “I didn’t mean to pry back there,” she said. She sat down on the rock beside the creek and took off her shoes. Lee could not help but notice her shapely legs as she lifted her skirt high and walked into the water.

  “It’s probably time I talked about it,” he said, still watching her ankles.

  “Lee,” she said, trying to get his attention. “Take off your boots. The water is nice and cool right now.”

  He shook his head.

  “Are you afraid you’ll get dirty?”

  “No.” He suddenly found himself completely caught up in how beautiful she looked skimming her bare feet through the water.

  Corinne noticed his expression. “Are you angry with me?”

  “Not at all.” He cleared his throat.

  “It feels perfect,” she said, lifting her skirt to her knees and wading in further. Corinne suddenly lost her footing and slipped into the water. Although the creek was not deep she was swept away several inches and quickly soaked.

  Lee was in the creek immediately and he grabbed her hand and stood her up straight. Corinne was completely drenched. He could not contain his chuckle.

  “Next time maybe you won’t turn me down,” she said, shaking water from her arms and wading out of the water. Corinne wrung out her hair.

  “Not likely. Look where it got you.”

  “I feel wonderful!” Corinne laughed aloud. “I’m all cooled off after ridin’ for days. Now I’m starved! Let’s eat!”

  Corinne’s dress clung to her body and Lee held his breath. When she walked away giggling he turned away from her. He thought for a moment he should just jump in the cool water himself. It might just extinguish the consuming desire he was fighting. As he stepped back to the banks of the creek his decision was made for him when he too slipped on the wet rocks and plunked into the water.

  Lee picked himself up and pulled off his wet boots. He was entirely soaked. He had to admit it felt refreshing and it had certainly squelched his desires. He braced himself for Corinne’s inevitable teasing and walked to the site.

  She was pulling the tents from the back of the wagon and searching for their food bags when she looked up and saw him standing near the trees dripping wet. Corinne was sure he had not decided to bathe in all of his clothes.

  Turning away from him she laughed hard, burying her face in the packages loaded onto the wagon.

  “I can see that you’re amused,” he said as he stepped up. “You’re not fooling me.”

  Corinne swallowed hard and turned to face him with a serious expression but she could not contain herself and was overtaken by a smile. She put her hand up to her face and looked away.

  “Go ahead, laugh. I can take it,” Lee said, setting down his boots beside him and folding his arms across his chest.

  Corinne looked again. His shirt was stuck to his shoulders and his trousers clung to his legs. She looked him over and lost her smile briefly.

  Lee could not help noticing the look in her eyes.

  When she looked up to his face she caught her breath. He was soaked and embarrassed and he looked amazing. Corinne was suddenly and completely overwhelmed. She turned away and busied herself with the bags.

  “I’m looking for dry clothing for both of us,” she said blushing.

  Lee watched her expression change. It was another glimmer, he thought. But, this time it was different. It was not just warmth and gratitude. There was something else in Corinne’s eyes.

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  In dry clothing they cooked over an open fire, the prairie alive with the sparkling twinkles of a million fireflies. The dunking they had both had in the creek at first invigorated them but now they were both exhausted. Mince had climbed the wagon and tried to dig in the furniture and boxes until Corinne realized that he wanted the old baby blanket and she pulled it from the stack. He carried it to Lee’s open tent and took it inside.

  “Interestin’,” Corinne said. “I guess he’s found someone he likes better.”

  “I’m sure that’s not it at all,” Lee assured her.

  “It’s alright, I’m not jealous or anythin’. It’s nice he likes you. He should get used to you. You’ll be comin’ and goin’ while we’re workin’. Imagine what it would be like if he was barkin’ all the time.”

  “What is it he took in there?” Lee asked.

  Corinne could not help but chuckle. The old baby blanket the dog drug around was filthy and tattered. It had never occurred to her to wash it before now. She was certain that Highland would not like having the rag in his tent, let alone the dog. “It’s Dustin’s baby blanket. He got attached to it after the baby died. It’s kind of a mess. I’ll get him out of there.” When she stood up to whistle for him Lee touched her arm.

  “He’s fine. If it’s that important to him.”

  Corinne sat back down. She looked out over the prairie listening to the sounds in the darkness.

  “It’s so peaceful here,” she said. “Not like the places near the border and the fort.”

  “It will only get worse over there. Did you see all the buildings that sprung up while we were away?” Lee poked at the fire with a long stick.

  “There might be places to sell my pies, but I like bein’ out here where it’s quiet.”

  “It will seem much farther in the winter. It might get lonely.”

  Corinne tried to imagine wh
at it would be like without him around. She’d have her place then, and, if everything went the way she hoped, she’d have her pies, and the animals, of course. He wouldn’t be there to sit around the fire though. She could speak her mind to the dog, but he’d never talk back. Corinne looked at Lee’s face and watched the orange glow from the flames throw light and shadow across his thoughtful expression.

  “Do you ever get lonely? I know there’s soldiers all around the fort, so maybe not, but do you?”

  “Sometimes. I think it can be loneliest where a lot of people are. I sure would like to get away from the fort. More and more all the time.”

  “You could always come here,” she said. “I know you can’t just up and leave when you feel like it, but when you have a break, like now and if you don’t reenlist…” Corinne wasn’t sure what to say next. “Would you leave?” she asked, feeling a bit panicked.

  “Leave?”

  “If you didn’t reenlist. Where would you go?”

  Lee looked up across the flames and into the darkness. “Whatever I do, I’d like to come here. I really would.” He turned to her. “If I do reenlist I could get reassigned. There’s talk they’re sending troops into the Dakota Territory in the spring.”

  Corinne thought about him going back to the fort. She imagined him in his immaculate uniform on Chief’s back waving goodbye with a leather gloved hand. She felt something she had not felt in a very long time and she stood up suddenly.

  “We have a lot we want to do in the mornin’. I think I’m goin’ to try to get some sleep.” Corinne slipped into her tent and pulled her blankets around her.

  Lee was sure he heard her crying. He saw the dog nose open his tent, and, with the ragged blanket in his mouth, push his way through Corinne’s tent flaps.

  He sat in the darkness for a very long time considering their conversation. Of course he wanted her to ask him to stay. He wanted much more than that from her too. Barnette had seen his feelings right away. She’d encouraged him, even said that when he finally got into Corinne’s heart they’d better invite her and Daniel to the wedding. Lee realized that he was daydreaming about it, formulating a vision where he resigned his post instead of reenlisting and stayed right there with her. They’d live on the prairie happily-ever-after once Corinne saw how much he loved her.

  Lee shook his head. Now she was curled up in her tent likely hugging the dog, certainly upset. It was over the thought of him leaving, which he thought could be a good thing but she was suffering and that was not what he wanted. He paced outside of her tent and briefly considered calling her to come out so he could tell her how he felt. Instead he walked to the creek, washed up for bed and climbed into his own tent. He listened in the darkness and heard Corinne breathing, slow and soft. He was asleep within minutes.

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  At sunrise Corinne emerged from her tent and found Lee dressed in a clean shirt, freshly shaved and stacking bricks in neat piles. Corinne gathered clean clothing and walked down to the creek with no more than a nod towards him. The thought of him leaving angered and frustrated her. If she had not already let him in and told him he could help her, she would tell him to leave immediately.

  When she returned she looked at him and sighed. She didn’t want him to go. She had looked forward to this day for such a long time. She took a deep breath and walked over to him.

  “There’s coffee in the pot and I made some bacon and eggs. They’re still warm. Eat and we’ll talk,” he said.

  Corinne was certain he was going to say something about their conversation the night before. She poured coffee and sat down by the fire.

  “You don’t need to say anythin’. I was rude and wrong last night. It’s just-”

  “Corinne,” he interrupted. “No one would hate it more than I would if I got reassigned. That’s not happening right now. Right now there’s a stack of adobe bricks there that I’m just itching to build into a house. I got the windows down so we can look at them. We can build today. It’s all I want to think about.”

  Corinne looked up at him gratefully as he handed her a plate of breakfast. She took the fork from his hand and smiled. “Thank you,” she said softly.

  Lee sat across from her and cleared his throat.

  “If we put a window here and here they will fit perfectly if the expanse here is exactly twelve bricks.”

  “But that’s wider than we planned. That’s goin’ to make the house better than thirty feet across. I only planned twenty,” Corinne said.

  “You have the bricks,” he explained. “It will give you much more room and we really only need to dig the trench along one side and a few more feet in the front. Come here.”

  Corinne set aside her plate and followed him to the area they had laid out for a floor.

  “You have the stove that’s this big.” He drew a shape out in the dirt. “And your table and chairs and…”

  “I understand.” She could see his vision for the larger room.

  “I’d like to put the hearth almost completely along this wall. The adobe will be good insulation and close to the stove you can set up racks for laundry and have a good space for Mince to lay.”

  Corinne looked around at the area seeing exactly what he had in mind.

  “I know it’s your place,” he said seriously. “But I think it would work best.”

  “Lee, it’s perfect. If I did it alone, why, it’d be far too small. I couldn’t even fit my long table in and I’ll need that for my pie makin’. Thank you, yes, we’ll dig more trenches!”

  Corinne carried shovelfuls of the clay hill to the mixing pit while Lee dug out the trench. Corinne noticed that he began to perspire through his shirt, beads of sweat glistening at his throat. He seemed to be getting more handsome every day. She tried to focus on her task.

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Before the sun rose to its full height at noon Lee set the first corner brick into the trench and Corinne smiled.

  “Wait!” Corinne pulled a small knife from her bag and scraped it across the cornerstone brick. She carved in the year “1889” and her initials.

  “Put in your own,” she said. “I feel like we’re makin’ history here.” Corinne offered him the knife.

  She brought him the heavy adobe bricks one at a time and he set them neatly into the trench. The first row went quickly. There would be no mortar between the stones which would allow for expansion and let water run off.

  Before they built the row that would sit above ground level Lee stacked the bricks and Corinne mixed the clay, bringing it over in bucketfuls while Lee set the bricks into place. Corinne could not help but notice that he was meticulous, leveling the bricks carefully and smoothing the mortar perfectly between each brick. She knew if she had done it alone that the house might have been built haphazardly.

  In the afternoon, while they ate fried chicken and canned green beans, they discussed the windows. The walls were now nearly fifteen inches high and Lee thought it was time. When he carried one of the windows over and leaned it against the structure Corinne could not contain her excitement.

  “It’s goin’ to look like a real house. I can tell already it’s goin’ to be so cozy and beautiful. Why, I can even hang curtains. It’s so handsome. I could not have done this, not like this, alone. You are earnin’ a lot more than a pie here today,” she said.

  Lee was hoping for a lifetime of pies. He smiled with pride and they prepared to set the windows.

  While the mortar was still damp, Lee pressed the first window frame into the opening they had left between the last few rows of bricks. He set shims of wood into the mortar between the bricks. Soon all of the windows were firmly in place.

  Corinne stepped inside the house and looked through the window into the yard. The persimmon’s green leaves fluttered in the breeze, tiny orange fruit growing along the twisted branches. She could see the tree line along the creek where it turned in the distance and the noisy mockingbird called to them as he flew past the panes.

>   She waved from behind the window to Lee and he stepped into the doorway.

  “Look at the view,” she said, taking his arm and pulling him to stand beside her.

  He looked out through the window. “It looks so different framed off like that. Beautiful. That tree has such an interesting shape, it’ll be beautiful in the winter as well, I would think.”

  Corinne looked up into his face. She saw that he had mortar on one cheek and dust in his hair. “Perfect,” she said. “Just perfect.”

  Lee looked down at her face and he knew that she wasn’t just talking about the house.

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Corinne stood in front of the construction in the morning light wondering why Lee had left such a large opening for a doorway. She hadn’t noticed it earlier but now it seemed unusually wide.

  “I have a question,” she said, turning her head to one side.

  Lee stepped up beside her as he wiped the lather from his face. “We need to get that stove in.” He knew exactly what she had been thinking. “Then I’m going to frame the doorway in bricks stacked on their sides. I thought it might look interesting.”

  Corinne was not sure exactly what he had in mind, but leaving room to get the big stove in was genius.

  They worked through another day and by nightfall all the walls to the house had been completed. Corinne had to agree that building a back wall into the hill was a wonderful idea. Although the bricks did not show from the outside, inside it looked much more civilized than other dugouts she had seen. Along the inside back wall, a row of the flat adobe bricks laid in a patchwork design served as a hearth. Lee had switched them long and short and mortared neatly between each one. Corinne thought she’d been in much finer places that had far less charm than the home they were building. At the end of the day Corinne mixed a large batch of the clay and they spread it smoothly over the rest of the floor.