by Irene Brand
She paused, and the bleak expression in her eyes deepened as she remembered vividly the lost, hopeless feeling she’d experienced that day.
“So what did you do?”
She laughed slightly and the sparkle in her blue eyes dissolved some of the fatigue lines on her face. “I decided to travel. Trina is a cousin of Bert Brown, who’s married to my sister, Spring. Trina and I met at their wedding, and we kept in touch by letter after that. She’d invited me to visit her, and when I had no other place to go, I went to see her in Nashville. I took all the money from my savings account that I’d been accumulating since I was a child, and when I got to Columbus I sold my sports car. I had enough money to last me for a while.”
“I remember that sports car! Wasn’t it hard to give up?”
“Not really. Daddy bought it for me when I graduated from high school. I wanted a pickup truck instead, but Mother objected that it wasn’t a suitable vehicle for me, so they gave me an expensive car. When I needed money, I was glad I had it. Trina was getting ready to go to a Christian youth conference in London, and since I had nothing else to do, I tagged along.”
Autumn paused, thinking about the conference that had introduced her to a whole new way of life. Trina had jokingly called her a heathen, because she knew nothing about what it meant to be a Christian. Except for a few weddings and funerals, Autumn had never attended a church service, but after she spent two weeks at that conference, she’d become a student of the Bible, trying to span her gulf of ignorance about spiritual matters. She’d come to believe the Gospel message, but even yet, she couldn’t submit wholly to Christ’s lordship. Looking at Nathan’s interested eyes across the table, she knew she couldn’t expect God to forgive her own sins until she’d received forgiveness from Nathan and her parents for the past.
“And then what?” Nathan prompted.
“After the conference, with a group of youths and a couple of adult advisors, we backpacked several months on the continent of Europe. We’d travel until we ran out of money, then we’d find work, usually on farms. Trina was a city girl, but she became interested in animals, and we decided to go to vet school. I had $5.25 in my pocket when I got off the plane in Milwaukee.”
“How did you manage to go to college? Did your father help you?”
“I’ve had no contact with my family since I left. I learned through my sister, Spring, that Daddy had disowned me, saying I would never be welcome at Indian Creek Farm again. I guess I’m as stubborn as he is, so I didn’t ask him for anything.”
“You didn’t know your mother is ill?”
“Not until I saw Ray last month. He told me she’s an invalid and also how Daddy has let the farm run down. Those are the reasons I said I might have been better off to stay away. I can’t bear to think of my home and family deteriorating when there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“Where did you go to school?” Nathan asked, wanting to learn everything he could about those years Autumn had been lost to him.
“At the University of Wisconsin.”
“Why Wisconsin?”
“Trina’s sister lives in Milwaukee, and after we got back from Europe, she offered us a place to stay until we got settled. Too, it was far enough away from Ohio that I didn’t think I’d encounter anyone I knew.”
“That school has a good reputation.”
Autumn nodded. “I already had one year of college, and some of my credits were accepted at Wisconsin. By taking classes year-round, we graduated last month. There were times when I wondered if I’d ever graduate, for, to pay our expenses, Trina and I started a cleaning business. We hired other students to work for us. We cleaned office buildings at night, and we didn’t have much time to study.”
“And your father sitting here with his pockets full of money!”
“If I’d done what my parents wanted, they’d have taken care of me, but I didn’t choose to do that.” She stood up and stretched. “Thanks for the breakfast. I’ll check on the cow, and then I’ll head back to Greensboro.”
He walked with her to the barn, where they found Tony still sleeping on the hay, and the cow contentedly chewing her cud.
“You saved the cow for me, Autumn, and I appreciate your coming to help. I can’t afford to lose any livestock. I’m operating on a shoestring.” He took her hand in a firm shake. “You’re going to be a good vet. I’m glad you had the courage to get what you wanted in life.”
Not everything I wanted, she thought, for she’d never gotten over losing him. She wouldn’t meet Nathan’s gaze, fearing he could read the emotion in her eyes.
As they strolled toward the truck, Nathan said, “Hearing your story has cleared up something that’s bothered me since I came to Greensboro. It took me months to convince people that you and I hadn’t been living together the years I was away.”
Autumn stared at him. “What?”
“That’s right. And I understand why now. If you left the day after I did, and no one knew where either of us was, they jumped to a wrong conclusion. I wouldn’t have mentioned it, but someone might say something to you.”
“I won’t be here very long, so perhaps I won’t have to answer questions about my past.”
Nathan watched as she got into Ray’s truck and started the engine. Before she drove away, Autumn looked directly into his gray eyes and said, “I don’t expect you to forgive me, Nathan, but that day after Daddy fired you, I told him that I was to blame for what happened between us. He didn’t believe me, but as soon as I could, I came to Woodbeck Farm. By that time you were already gone, and your uncle wouldn’t tell me where you were. There was no way to make restitution, but I’ve always wanted to see you again and tell you I was sorry.”
He held up his hand. “Don’t be so hard on yourself, Autumn. I was as much to blame as you. We were both too young to be making decisions for the future. It’s okay.”
“I hope so. Anyway, I’m thankful that God brought us together again so I could apologize.”
He nodded, and the warmth in his steady, gray eyes made her hopeful. “It’s good to see you again. Autumn.”
Chapter Three
When Autumn reached the highway, she took the long way back to Greensboro. She had to deal with this surprise meeting with Nathan before she talked to Trina or Miss Olive. In spite of the lack of sleep she’d had, Autumn couldn’t remember when she’d felt so exhilarated. After being empty for eight years, a part of her had suddenly been filled when Nathan took her hand and said, “Welcome home, Autumn.”
What had drawn her to Nathan in the first place? What had captivated her so forcefully that no other man had ever seemed worthy of her attention? With the window down, and the wind fluffing her curly red hair around her face, she drove slowly over roads that had been familiar to her in the past.
Perhaps one reason she cherished his friendship was that he’d come into her life on a Christmas Eve when she desperately needed help. Her father was returning from a Belgian horse association meeting. Her mother, Clara, and sister, Summer, had gone to the airport to meet him, while Autumn stayed at home. A freak snowstorm had delayed Landon’s flight, and Clara and Summer were marooned at the airport.
Resigned to spending Christmas Eve alone, Autumn had turned on the in-house monitoring system that Landon used to survey what was going on in the horse barns. Autumn loved watching the horses. She scanned the huge, well-lit barn with its comfortable box stalls, the huge reddish horses munching slowly on their supper of oats mixed with molasses. All seemed well until she looked at Tulip in the last stall. Instead of eating, Landon’s prize brood mare paced restlessly, acting colicky. Landon Weaver’s horses didn’t get the colic, and Autumn had known immediately what was wrong. Tulip was getting ready to foal.
Autumn had telephoned for the veterinarian immediately, only to learn from Miss Olive that Ray Wheeler was out on a call. Under ordinary conditions, the mare could deliver her foal without any assistance, but if there was trouble, it could mean the loss of the mare or foal
. Autumn drew on heavy clothes and fought her way to the barn through the swirling snow. She’d helped her father many times when a mare needed assistance, but she was afraid to try it by herself.
Autumn was busily preparing the foaling stall, when a slender young man walked into the barn. Pulling a red snow-covered cap from his dark-brown hair, he’d said in a hesitant voice, “I’m Nathan Holland. I’m visiting my uncle at Woodbeck Farm, and he volunteered my assistance to clean the barns while Mr. Weaver’s been gone. Uncle was afraid this storm would delay your father’s return, and he asked me to drive over and check on the horses.”
“Oh, I’m so glad to see you,” Autumn said, warming to the sincerity in his slate-gray eyes and the slight smile on his sensitive, well-formed mouth. “One of the horses is going to foal, and I need help.”
He laughed lowly, and Autumn liked the sound. “Shouldn’t you call a vet? I’m a city boy. I won’t be much help.”
“I can tell you what to do,” Autumn had assured him, and the two of them had worked companionably as they padded the foaling stall and moved the large Belgian into place. Then they’d gone into Landon’s office to monitor the mare’s progress on the television screen. While they munched on snacks Autumn had found in the refrigerator, she had told Nathan of her desire to be a vet.
“Seems like that would be a good job for you,” he’d said. “I’d go for it.”
“What would you like to do, Nathan?” she’d asked, for they’d started out on a first-name basis.
“Since I graduated from high school, I’ve been working at a plant in Indianapolis,” he said, “helping to support my mother and brothers, and I haven’t thought much about the future.” He laughed, embarrassed, as he added, “But working here for your father the past few days, I’ve decided I’d like to be a farmer.”
“I can’t think of any better profession,” Autumn told him. “I’d love to spend the rest of my life here on the farm.”
“But to be a successful farmer, I’d need to go to college, and I don’t have any money for that nor to buy a farm. It’s only a dream.”
“It doesn’t have to be,” she’d said. “My great-grandfather started the Weaver Belgian tradition with one filly. He didn’t have any money to buy stock, but a man gave him an orphan foal the owner thought was going to die. He nursed the filly until it was well, and the rest of the story is all around us. I’ve been taught to believe you can have anything you really want.”
Their conversation was interrupted when she’d discovered that Tulip was having trouble. Autumn had spent the next hour moving the foal into position for birth. Nathan had knelt beside her, helping and encouraging her in every way he could. Soon after midnight, Tulip had given birth to a healthy filly, a sleek auburn-brown foal with a pronounced star in the long white streak down its nose. Landon had been so grateful that Autumn had saved both the mare and foal that he’d given the foal to her as a Christmas gift. She’d promptly named the filly Noel to commemorate the day of its birth.
The next day Nathan had gone home to Indianapolis, and at the end of the holidays, Autumn went back to college. She didn’t forget Nathan, however, and during the winter, she’d made two decisions that had plunged her into conflict with her parents and had charted her future course. She would not return to the fancy boarding school, and she intended to find out where Nathan was so she could pursue their acquaintance.
Elated over her chance meeting with Nathan at Woodbeck Farm, Autumn entered the Wheeler home through the kitchen. Dolly and Trina sat at a round table, that had served several generations of Wheelers, feasting on pancakes and sausage. Autumn had hesitated about bringing Dolly, fearing Olive wouldn’t want an uninvited guest, but Ray’s sister had already succumbed to Dolly’s chatter and winning smile. Dolly was a chubby child, and her long brown hair framed a dark oval face dominated by slate-gray eyes. Dolly was cheerful and lovable.
“Come and have pancakes, Autumn,” Dolly called. “Miss Olive is a good cook.”
“I enjoyed Miss Olive’s meals before you were born,” Autumn said, ruffling Dolly’s hair. “I need a shower before anything else. Besides, I’ve already had my breakfast.”
“You’re looking decidedly cheerful for a woman who drove five hundred miles yesterday and spent most of the night out on a vet call,” Trina observed.
Olive laughed, Autumn blushed and Trina stared suspiciously at her friend.
Heading for the stairs, Autumn said, “I’ll be down soon. Do we have a full schedule today?”
“Only a few calls so far. Ray’s usual procedure is to open the clinic for surgery at eight o’clock,” Olive explained, “and go on field calls in the afternoon. Since there are two of you, it should work out well for one of you to be at the clinic all the time. We have lots of emergency walk-in customers. Ray is the only vet in the area, so he’s always busy.”
“Suits us,” Trina said. “We need to put our education to practical use.”
When Autumn got back to her room after showering, Trina was struggling up the stairs with two suitcases.
“I’ll help with that,” Autumn said, “as soon as I dress.”
“Take your time. Dolly is helping Miss Olive with the dishes.” Trina brought a bag into Autumn’s room. She admired an antique barrel-top train trunk that stood in front of the window, then sat on the side of Autumn’s bed.
“You look happier than I’ve seen you since the day Spring and Bert were married. What’s happened?”
Pulling a sweatshirt over her head, Autumn grinned. “Old eagle eye! Am I that transparent?” Her pulse quickened when she said happily, “My early-morning call was to the farm of Nathan Holland. His uncle died and Nathan inherited the property that adjoins Daddy’s farm.”
“No wonder you’re radiant! Don’t tell me you’ve already patched up the differences of the past.”
Autumn shook her head. “We’re a long way from that, for we can’t span eight years in a few hours. He did ask me to have breakfast with him, so I suppose that’s a step in the right direction.”
“Apparently that torch you’ve carried for him is still burning brightly?”
“I don’t know how bright it is, but there’s still a flicker left. It’s ridiculous, with all that’s behind me and the future I have as a veterinarian, that I can’t forget a girlish infatuation.”
“Are you sure it was only an infatuation?”
“I don’t know, but I suppose two months will give me time to find out.” Autumn finished tying her shoes. “Let’s go to work.”
Nathan jammed his hands deep in his pockets as Autumn drove away from Woodbeck Farm. He returned to the kitchen, filled the dishwasher, unlocked a drawer in his desk and took out a large envelope. Sitting at the table, he drew out a photograph that he’d mistakenly taken away from Indian Creek Farm the day Landon had fired him. As he’d angrily scooped up his possessions and loaded them into boxes, he didn’t realize he’d gotten a file folder that belonged to the Weavers.
After he arrived at the oil camp in the Middle East, he started studying the textbooks and notes he’d used at OSU, where he had studied for one semester. Among his papers, he’d discovered a folder containing several newspaper clippings of Weaver triumphs at various fairs and farm shows. Triumphs that had made the Weaver girls famous throughout the Midwest. Their names commemorating the seasons of the year had been noteworthy, but from the time they were able to walk, dressed alike in prairie dresses and sunbonnets, they’d perched on the wagon beside their father as his six-hitch draft horses won numerous trophies in parades and fairs in Ohio and neighboring states.
The enclosure that ruined what little peace of mind Nathan had mustered since the episode with Landon was a large photo of Autumn, dressed in a long, blue dress, wearing a matching sunbonnet, standing beside a Belgian mare. Nathan was angry that her image had followed him halfway around the world, and he started to destroy the picture, but he didn’t have the courage. Posting her picture over his bunk, he learned to live with Autumn�
��s presence, thinking he would never see her again.
“God,” he moaned, “why did she have to come back? I’ve ordered my life without her and am finally making something of myself. The things that matter the most haven’t changed. I’m still a struggling farmer born on the wrong side of the tracks. She’s Autumn Weaver, member of a socially prominent family and possible heir to great riches. Why did she have to return?”
But had he ordered his life without her? Determined to wipe Autumn’s memory from his mind, Nathan had dated several women, but none of them snagged his interest. Nathan thought Autumn was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen, and all other women paled into insignificance when he compared them to Autumn when she was eighteen. She’d been tall, willowy, regal. Curly chestnut hair framed her oval face like a halo, and her animated sky-blue eyes nestled in a smooth, creamy complexion, soft as a rose petal. She was even more fascinating now. Nathan shook his head to clear away the memories and locked the picture back in his desk.
He went to the barn and took the still-sleeping Tony by the arm. “Wake up, Tony. Your mother told me to bring you home early. You have a dental appointment this morning.”
“Aw, gee,” Tony said, shaking himself awake. “I wanted to stay here.”
“Your mother can drop you off on the way back from the dentist, and you can finish painting the fence around the paddock. I’ll be out in the fields, and if Dr. Weaver leaves any medicine, put it in that refrigerator here in the barn.”
After the short trip to the Simpson farm and back, Nathan got on his tractor and headed toward the fields to cut alfalfa, hoping to avoid another encounter with Autumn until he stifled his emotions, but that was a mistake. One of his most memorable incidents with Autumn had occurred when he was cutting hay.
The summer day she’d returned home from college was seared in his memory. He’d been in the alfalfa field driving a team of Belgians hitched to a mower, when he’d seen her hurrying along the path to the pasture. She’d stopped when she reached the mower, and her eyes had brightened when he tipped back his hat so she could see his face. He’d heard about her homecoming, and he wondered if he’d see her. His pulse was racing, for he didn’t suppose she would even remember him.