A Hope Unseen (Escape to the West Book 2)

by Leigh, Nerys

  “You’ve never been stung by one of my bees,” Daniel said. “You’re just afraid to go near them.”

  “That’s not fear, that’s prudence. It’s also why I haven’t been stung by one of your bees.”

  “Please,” Sara said, touching Daniel’s arm. “I want to help. I’ll be extra careful and do exactly what you tell me to.”

  He didn’t reply for a few long seconds and Sara found she was holding her breath.

  “All right. We’ll go closer to midday, when it’s warmer and the bees are more active.”

  “Thank you,” she said, excited at the prospect of going out with him.

  She wanted to learn everything about the farm, and maybe this would be a good chance to get Daniel talking again. He’d been withdrawn since the incident the previous day with Mr Ely and she was beginning to worry about him.

  “Why do we need to go when they’re more active?” she asked. “Wouldn’t it be safer when they’re less active?”

  “Mm-mm,” he said around a mouthful of ham before swallowing. “The warmer it is the more of them will be out gathering nectar and the less of them there are in the hive.”

  “I didn’t think of that.” Of course, it made sense when she thought about it. “I have a lot to learn.”

  “Better you than me,” Will said.

  “Coward,” Daniel said.

  “Prudent,” Will shot back.

  ~ ~ ~

  A few hours later, Sara and Daniel were walking the worn trail leading to the hives.

  Daniel carried a canvas bag and a cane, with the rifle slung across his back. She’d never seen him take the rifle out before and it worried her that he felt the need to have it with them. It could have been that he thought Ely might return, even though Will hadn’t seen any sign of him the day before. Or it could have been that Daniel no longer had confidence in his ability to keep them safe. That he would feel that way concerned Sara most of all. She always felt safe with him.

  The cane belonged to Will. He’d sheepishly told Sara he bought it two years before after spraining his ankle badly while drunk one night. It was Doctor Wilson’s suggestion during their visit to him the day before that Daniel carry something he could use to detect any obstacles in his way. Sara could tell Daniel wasn’t keen on using it, but he took it anyway, sweeping it back and forth in front of him as he walked. With his left hand he held her arm so she could lead him. She got the feeling he wasn’t too happy about having to do that either.

  “Are you all right?” he said after a while.

  “Yes,” she replied, slightly mystified. “Why?”

  “After yesterday, I mean.”

  “Oh.” She thought about it. “I feel better that you’re with me. I suppose I’ll have to get used to that not always being the case, but for now I’m grateful for it. Although I’m not grateful you’re injured,” she added quickly.

  The corner of his mouth twitched. “I’m glad to hear it. It’s nice to know my wife doesn’t wish me ill.”

  She touched his hand. “She doesn’t.”

  His answering smile was wonderful to see. Maybe getting out and doing something was just what he needed to combat the melancholia she’d seen growing in him since the accident.

  “So Will is afraid of bees?” she said.

  “When he was sixteen he was climbing in an apple tree on our parents’ farm to get to the fruit and he disturbed a honeybee nest. The bees weren’t happy about it. I was working in the next field when I heard him yelling. Turned around in time to see him fall out of the tree, run to a pond the cattle used for drinking water, and throw himself in. By the time I got there the bees had given up and he was climbing out covered in mud. I took five stings out of his arms and head. He was hurting for a while. Ever since then he’s been scared of them, although you won’t get him to admit it. When I offered him the job here his exact words were, ‘As long as I don’t ever have to go near any of your bees.’”

  “Poor Will,” she said. “It’s a good thing I’m not afraid of bees.”

  “If you hadn’t offered, he’d have done it. But he wouldn’t have liked it.”

  “Then that’s another reason I’m glad I’m here.”

  He was quiet for a few seconds. “You’re still glad you’re here? Even after everything that’s happened?”

  “Of course I’m glad I’m here. I love being here on the farm with you. There isn’t anywhere I’d rather be.”

  She was hoping for a response along the lines of he was glad she was there too, but he simply nodded. Whether that meant he wasn’t glad she was there, she didn’t know. He’d been glad she was there a few days before. Surely his feelings hadn’t changed since then.

  As they reached the orchard, Bess bounded up to them in a frenzy of tail wagging. Daniel reached down and she pushed her muzzle into his palm. “She probably wonders why I’m not out here with her and Will.”

  Having received her ear rub from Daniel, Bess moved her attention to Sara.

  “You’ll be back with them soon,” she said, stroking the joyous dog.

  “Hmm.”

  Will’s voice called from amongst the branches some way into the forest of fruit trees. “Is it time for lunch yet?”

  Sara spotted a ladder leaning against a trunk, his feet just visible at the top.

  “Couple of hours,” she called back.

  “That long?”

  “Have some cherries,” Daniel said.

  “I’m insulted that you think I would eat any of our profits,” Will replied, sounding indignant. “That only ever happened that one single time you caught me doing it.”

  “Sure it did.”

  An arm emerged from the foliage and waved them away. “Go talk to your bees. And good luck. You’ll need it against those monsters.”

  Bess trotted ahead of them as they headed for the hives. When they got within fifty feet she stopped and flopped down in the grass, stretching her head out on her paws.

  Sara looked back at her. “Why has Bess stopped?”

  “She knows not to go near the hives,” Daniel said. “Dogs are smarter than humans.”

  She returned her gaze to the group of hives ahead of them, feeling a twinge of apprehension. “Oh.”

  He patted her hand. “I’m joking. Honeybees aren’t dangerous unless they feel threatened. Some people don’t even wear protection when they work with them, but I’m not that brave.”

  She wasn’t completely reassured, but she tried to imbue her answering “OK” with more enthusiasm than she felt.

  He slid his hands up to her shoulders and turned her to face him. “You don’t have to do this.”

  Standing up straight, she said, “No, I love bees. Bees are my friends. I can do it.” The last thing she wanted was for him to think she was incapable of doing anything he needed of her.

  A rare smile curved his lips. “I know you can.” He let her go and dug into his bag, pulling out two wide-brimmed hats and handing her one.

  She turned it over in her hands, unsure what to do with it. “Um...”

  “Like this.” He donned his own hat and unrolled the attached veil to settle around his shoulders.

  “Ohhh, that’s what that’s for.” She put on the hat. With her face protected by the veil, she felt a lot less nervous about approaching the hives. “Clever.”

  He produced a pair of gloves from the bag and handed them to her. “Make sure there’s no gap at your wrists between the gloves and your sleeves.”

  “These fit perfectly,” she said in surprise as she pulled them on. She’d expected them to be a spare pair of his and therefore too large.

  “I bought them specially for you. I was looking forward to introducing you to my bees.” His smile faded. “I didn’t think you’d be doing all the work though. I was going to bring you in easy.”

  Her reluctance disappeared. “No, I want to do it, I promise. And thank you for the gloves. I truly do appreciate them.”

  His smile returned. How she loved that smile.
She’d missed it badly the past few days.

  “All right,” he said, “pick a hive and we’ll get started.”

  She approached the closest of the twelve boxy hives with a little trepidation. Bees were constantly flitting in and out, flying every which way so that they were impossible to avoid.

  “This is a movable comb hive,” Daniel said. “I based the design on the Langstroth hive, with a few tweaks of my own.”

  “You have a book by him,” she murmured, watching the bees fly in and out of the tiny entrance near the bottom. It was oddly mesmerising.

  “Yeah, I learned a lot from that book. I don’t think my first couple of hives would have survived more than a few months without it. You see the different boxes placed on top of each other?”

  She moved her focus from the bees to the hive itself. “Yes.”

  “Those are called supers. The lowest is the brood box. That’s where the queen is, laying eggs into the comb the workers have built. We don’t have to check that today. The shallower super on top of the brood box can have honey in, but I know all mine also have broods in there too, so we can leave that alone. The top super is where the bees store the honey for the colony. I just need you to check if any of the combs in there are ready for harvesting.”

  “What do I do?”

  “First, take off the lid.”

  She located the clips holding the lid in place, lifted it off and leaned it against the side of the hive. She looked into the box she’d exposed.

  “There are bees in there.” As soon as the words left her mouth she knew how stupid they were, but the sight of so many of the insects crawling over the wooden frames was unnerving.

  He laughed softly. “I’m glad to hear it. There would be something seriously wrong if there weren’t.”

  She was glad he couldn’t see her blush of embarrassment. “What next?”

  He handed her a short, flat metal tool, about an inch wide and curved on one end. “Use the curved end to gently lever beneath the top of the first frame to loosen it, then you can lift it out. If it’s too heavy, I can do it. When they get full they can weigh quite a bit.”

  Following his instructions, she managed to extract her first frame, being very careful to not accidentally touch anything that was moving. There were times when she found she was holding her breath, she was so worried about harming a bee or stirring the whole hive into anger. She very much didn’t want to have to run and find the nearest pond to throw herself into.

  Finally, she slid the frame out and rested the base onto the top of the hive. All her nerves faded at the sight of the amazing construction. “Oh, Daniel, it’s incredible.”

  He was grinning. “That’s exactly what I thought the first time I saw one.”

  The perfectly shaped hexagonal cells filled the frame, their honey-filled interiors glowing amber in the sunlight. Mesmerised as she was, she even forgot to be afraid of the bees crawling over it, refusing to stop working despite being removed from the hive. How could a simple insect have created something so perfect and so ingenious?

  God, Your creation is amazing, she thought, turning the frame around so she could see the other side.

  “How many of the cells are capped?” Daniel said.

  She studied the cells sealed with cream coloured wax. “You want me to count them all?”

  “That’s OK, just a rough percentage will do.”

  “Um... around seventy percent, I think.”

  He nodded. “I don’t like to harvest until it’s at least ninety percent, so you can put that one back.”

  They worked their way around all the hives, removing the ten frames in each top super one at a time to check them, making a note of the few that were full enough so they could return the following day when Will would be available to do the actual harvesting from the combs. He wouldn’t go near the hives themselves, but he was happy to remove the honey back at the barn.

  When Sara had replaced the final lid, she put her gloved hands onto her hips and looked around the clearing, feeling a sense of satisfaction. She’d learned a lot in the last couple of hours, enough to make her feel as if she could truly be useful on the farm. She wasn’t going to be just cooking and cleaning and milking Peapod and gathering the eggs. She was going to be working at Daniel’s side, helping to continue what he and Will had started.

  It was the life she’d imagined when she’d said yes to Daniel’s proposal. There would be no attending dinner parties and dances just to garner social favour, or spending hours primping and preening so she could look good on someone’s arm. She wasn’t a tool to further a husband’s business aspirations. This was real. It meant something. It was the foundation of her and Daniel’s life together, for them and their future family. It was just what she wanted.

  “You did well today,” he said as the two of them arrived back in the yard, Bess having decided to stay with Will. “I was afraid you’d be scared of the bees, but you were real calm.”

  Sara couldn’t help feeling a sense of pride at his words. “Well, I was a little afraid to start with, but I enjoyed myself. I can see why you like the bees so much.”

  “They bring in a good income too. There aren’t as many full combs as I was hoping for, but it will help with the mortgage payment next Friday. The cherries will too. No one else around here has them ripening as early as we do. That orchard gets us through the year.”

  “Oh, you don’t have to worry about money,” she said. “At least not for now. Would I be able to have some of the cherries for a pie tomorrow?”

  “If Will hasn’t eaten them all, sure. What do you mean, I don’t have to worry about money?”

  “I know you had to pay a lot for my train ticket, so I brought the money with me to give it back to you.” She wondered if Will would bring the cherries he’d picked with him when he came home for lunch. If he did, she could make the pie today instead. She was eager to try out Mrs Gibson’s recipe.

  She’d gone several steps before she realised Daniel’s hand was no longer on her arm. She turned to look back at him.

  “You brought the money to pay me for the ticket?” he said, frowning.

  “Yes. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. To be honest, with everything that’s happened I completely forgot about it. I suppose you should deposit it with the bank so it’s safe.”

  “I had the money to buy that ticket. I didn’t expect you to give it back to me. I don’t need help paying to bring my bride here.”

  “I know that, but I didn’t bring a dowry because you said you didn’t want one and you know my family has money. I just wanted to pay you back for the ticket, that’s all. And my father said if we ever needed anything, he’d help.”

  His frown deepened. “You told your father I couldn’t afford to provide for you?”

  “Of course not! But he knows that life out here can be hard. What’s wrong?”

  “What’s wrong? What’s wrong is that my wife apparently doesn’t trust me to take care of her and our family.”

  Sara’s mouth dropped open. “I never said that.”

  “No, you just said you had to bring money with you to pay me for something that was my responsibility to provide as your husband. And that we need your father’s money as a backup plan.”

  She couldn’t understand why he was getting angry. “That’s not what I meant at all! I’ve never said I doubted that you can provide for me.”

  “It sure sounded like it. And that was even before all this.” He waved at his bandaged eyes.

  She planted her hands onto her hips even though he couldn’t see it. “Why are you making such a big thing out of it? I brought money with me, that’s all. Why is that so wrong?”

  He thumped his palm onto his chest. “Because it’s my job to provide for my wife. That’s what a man does; he takes care of his family. That’s what all this is for, why I waited so long to get married, so I could be sure I could give my wife and children a good, stable home. We don’t need your money!”

  “O
f all the...” She marched up to him and jabbed her finger into his chest. “It’s 1870, not the dark ages. This is my family as much as it is yours and if I want to contribute money to it, that’s up to me.”

  He huffed out a breath. “I don’t need you to contribute. Keep the money if you want to, but whatever you need, I will provide it.”

  A tight growl of frustration forced its way past her gritted teeth. “You’re impossible!” Turning away, she marched towards the paddock. “I’m taking Rosie out.”

  “Where are you going?” he called after her.

  “To visit Lizzy,” she shouted back. “And since you’re so determined to do everything without any help from me, you can get your own lunch!”

  ~ ~ ~

  Daniel slumped onto a chair in the kitchen and dropped his head onto his arms with a groan. Outside, he could hear Rosie galloping away.

  He’d had no illusions he and Sara would never have an argument, but he had hoped their first one wouldn’t have come quite so soon. And it had been his fault.

  The truth was, he had no objections to her bringing that money. But when she’d told him, it felt like she was questioning his ability to provide for her. There wasn’t much that could have wounded him more, especially since it was what he himself had been doing for the past four days. And if he couldn’t provide for her and keep her safe, what use was he?

  Nevertheless, she hadn’t deserved his anger. He probably deserved hers, however.

  He rubbed at the edges of the bandage around his eyes, yearning to pull it off. It had started itching today. His ma always told him itching meant a wound was healing, usually when she was trying to stop him from scratching one. He supposed it was a good sign, but that didn’t make it feel any better. More than anything, he hoped it meant his sight would return soon.

  If it returned.

  Please, God, please give me my eyes back.

  It wasn’t much of a prayer, but it was all he’d been able to manage for the past couple of days.

  Light didn’t suddenly blaze through the bandage, no supernatural tingling heat signalled that God’s healing hand was performing the miracle he needed. Not that Daniel was surprised. God didn’t seem to be paying him much attention lately.