Angel Sister

by Ann Gabhart

  Victor blew out his breath slowly. What good did it do to keep pounding on cold iron? “That’s all long past, Father. Done and over. What do you want today? Now.”

  His father kept glaring at him. “I want your daughter to stop defying my orders.”

  “If you’re talking about Kate going to see Lorena, that’s not harming anybody.” Victor felt tired. He just wanted his father to go away.

  “I told her not to.” His father’s face stayed as hard as the anvil Victor was leaning against.

  “But I haven’t told her not to. What you did with Lorena was wrong.” Victor kept his eyes on his father’s face. “You can’t just take a child and give her to this or that person like she’s no more than a stray dog.”

  “Oh, can’t I? I did, didn’t I?”

  “But it was a wrong thing to do.” Victor’s eyes didn’t waver on his father’s face.

  His father’s eyes narrowed a little as he said, “I told you I wasn’t going to let you make that gypsy child into a Merritt. And I’m not. Mark my words on that. You tell Katherine to stay away from the Baxters.”

  “Or what?”

  “I’ll disown you.” He shot the words at Victor. “I’ll write you out of my will.”

  “You think I care about that?” Victor almost smiled. “About your money? Go ahead. Cut us out of your life. You’ll be the one losing there. I have my family. I don’t need you. I learned not to need you years ago. And what will you have if you disown us? A safe full of money and nobody to give it to.”

  “I could marry again. Have more children.”

  “Then why don’t you? Why didn’t you?” Victor had never seen his father any angrier, but he didn’t care. He kept on. “What was the matter? Were you afraid you couldn’t find anybody worthy enough for you? Nobody who would give you strong Merritt children? Afraid that maybe it wasn’t the Gale blood that was weak, but maybe the blood in your own veins? That you’d have more weak children like me and Gertie?”

  Victor’s father crossed the space between them in two steps and backhanded Victor like he was still a child instead of a man bigger and stronger than he was. Victor didn’t raise his hands to defend himself. He just looked at his father and suddenly felt sorry for him. “Hit me again if it makes you feel better.”

  His father raised his hand up again, but then he laughed. It wasn’t a happy sound. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bottle of whiskey. “I bought this for you. I thought you probably would need it by now.” He held it out toward Victor.

  Victor kept his hands on the anvil. He tried to absorb the hardness of the iron to keep his hands from shaking.

  “You want it. I can tell you do.” His father’s voice was mocking as he stepped back and pitched the bottle toward Victor.

  When Victor didn’t raise his hands to catch it, the bottle hit the anvil and shattered. Whiskey splashed all over his pants and shoes. The smell of it filled the shop.

  His father laughed again. “When I leave, you can lick it up off the floor.” He turned on his heel and went out the door without looking back.

  Victor looked down at the broken glass. He felt no regret at all over the spilled whiskey. He stooped down and picked up the pieces of the bottle and threw them in a bucket by the forge. He only hoped Nadine would believe him when he came in with the whiskey smell on his clothes. That was his only worry.

  35

  ______

  The alcohol smell came through the kitchen’s screen door as soon as Victor stepped up on the back porch. Nadine’s heart sank and the prayers she’d been circling in her head all week crashed down with it. He hadn’t been able to keep his promise. She blinked back tears and turned away from the door to stir the vegetable soup on the stove even though she’d just laid down her spoon from stirring it a moment ago.

  She couldn’t look at him. Not and trust herself to keep her tongue still. She didn’t want to lash out at him. Not with Kate right behind her setting the table for supper. The last few days had been hard enough on Kate without Nadine piling more grief on her head.

  All week Kate had moped around the house, a faint shadow of her normal self. At mealtimes, she picked at her food. She didn’t fuss with Evangeline. She didn’t play with Victoria or go out to talk to any of the neighbor kids when they showed up in the yard. They all thought she was sick.

  Jesse Granger had even brought her a mason jar filled with daisies and Queen Anne’s lace. “Flowers for the sick,” he’d said when he showed up at the front door.

  Kate looked at the flowers and said, “I’m not sick.”

  “Well, something’s wrong with you.” He shoved the flowers at Kate and left.

  And he was right. She was sick. Sick at heart. So Kate already had enough sorrow in her heart without being witness to Nadine’s disappointment. No, more than disappointment. Despair. He had promised. Worse, she had believed him.

  Victor opened the screen door and stepped into the kitchen. Nadine kept her eyes on the vegetable soup she was stirring as though her sanity depended on it being mixed just so. The whiskey smell was strong. She’d never known him to drink so much so early in the day.

  The clank of the spoon against the pan was the only sound in the kitchen. Kate had quit rattling the plates, and Victor had to be standing stock-still just inside the door. What did he want from her? Forgiveness? She had none left to give. He had promised. They had prayed together. They’d never done that before. Not about the drinking.

  Not about anything, really. She had always kept her prayers private, but wasn’t that what the Bible said to do? She did pray out loud at times. She taught the girls the Lord’s Prayer. She said grace. But other prayers were between her and the Lord. In the prayer closet of her heart.

  She prayed Victor through the war. She prayed for her babies as she carried them and still lost that first precious child. She prayed to live through giving birth to each of them. She prayed her girls would be healthy. She prayed for rain. She prayed Victor would stop drinking. But until he came to her in the night and asked her to, she’d never prayed with Victor. Now he had betrayed that prayer.

  “Nadine. Look at me.” He didn’t sound drunk. His words weren’t slurred. When she didn’t move, he added, “Please.” His voice trembled a bit.

  She couldn’t refuse him. Not with Kate standing there between them. She scooted the pot of soup to the back of the stove where the fire wasn’t as hot and carefully laid the spoon across the top of the kettle. As she turned around, she wiped her face with her apron to hide her despair from Kate. “All right, Victor.” She managed to keep the sound of tears out of her voice.

  His eyes grabbed hers. “You have to trust me,” he said.

  She felt like she was drowning in his eyes. Beautiful eyes. Loving eyes. “I want to,” she said. But the whiskey smell was there, sickening her and giving lie to all his promises.

  “Have I ever lied to you?” When she hesitated, he went on. “I haven’t always done what I should. I don’t deny that. I’ve let you down many times, but I’ve never lied to you. I’ve never spoken a promise to you I didn’t keep. Never.”

  His eyes burned into her as he waited for her to speak. She wanted to say yes, he was right. He had kept his spoken promises to her, but there were other promises as well. Promises of the heart. She didn’t know what to say. She believed his eyes, but her nose couldn’t deny the stench of the whiskey.

  Again he spoke before she could find words to say. “You have to trust me. Without trust, we have nothing.”

  Nadine could feel Kate’s eyes on her as she stood frozen at the end of the table watching them. Nadine had to say the right words, but when she finally spoke, her words were not because of Kate. They were true words from her heart. “I do trust you, Victor.”

  “Thank you.” Relief flooded his face, but he still didn’t step across the floor to her. “I haven’t been drinking. I know you smell it on me, but I haven’t swallowed a drop. Someone broke a bottle on the anvil, and the drink splashe
d all over me.”

  “Why in the world did they do that?” Nadine frowned.

  “I guess I made him mad.” Victor attempted a smile as he shrugged his shoulders, but Nadine saw the pain in his eyes.

  “Who?”

  Victor’s eyes slid sideways to touch on Kate and then came back to Nadine’s face. “Nobody important.” Then he was looking at Kate again. “Why don’t you go fetch me a clean pair of britches, Kate, and I’ll change out back? We wouldn’t want you girls to think you were eating in a saloon tonight.”

  Kate giggled, more from nerves than because anything was funny. Then instead of going straight to find his britches, she stepped around the table to the door and wrapped her arms around Victor. “I love you, Daddy,” she said. Then she turned loose of him and came back around the table to grab Nadine in a hug. “And you, Mama.”

  “That’s more than she’s said all week,” Victor said after Kate ran out of the room. “Do you think the worst is over?”

  “For us maybe, but not for her.” Nadine stepped around the table to put her arms around him.

  He put out his hands and tried to step back. “I’ll get you dirty, Nadine.”

  “Then I’ll be dirty,” she said and stepped into his embrace. “Thank you, Victor.”

  “For what? Not drinking?”

  “For making me fall in love with you. For coming home to me once again. For being the good man you are.”

  “My father doesn’t share your opinion on that last, I fear.” Victor’s voice sounded strained. “Or so he just got through telling me.”

  “He was the one?” Nadine leaned back away from him to look at his face. “He had the whiskey? But he doesn’t drink.”

  “He bought it for me.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “I don’t know, Nadine. Aunt Hattie must have told him I’d quit drinking.”

  “But that doesn’t make sense.”

  “Not much does when it comes to me and my father.” Victor sounded resigned. Then he tightened his arms around her. “But you have always made sense to me. You are the most wonderful woman in the world, and I’m the one who needs to be thanking you. My beautiful Nadine. If only I could write a poem to do you justice. My Nadine. She keeps me clean. My love for my Nadine would fill a ravine.”

  “Keeps you clean? Fill a ravine? Surely you can come up with something more romantic than that.” Nadine laughed.

  “All right. How about this? No eye has ever seen a prettier girl than my Nadine.”

  “Better, but I don’t need poetry. I just need you.” She lifted her mouth to meet his lips and didn’t push him away even when she heard Kate come back into the kitchen.

  After a minute, Kate cleared her throat. “Should I go away?”

  Nadine pushed back from Victor. She looked around at Kate. “No, no. It’s time for supper.” Nadine’s face was warm and not just from the heat in the kitchen. She normally didn’t behave so wantonly in front of her children, but she’d felt like a new bride. It wasn’t a bad feeling.

  Victor kept his arms around her and leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Later.” Then he grinned over at Kate. “It’s okay, Kate. We’re married.”

  “Oh, Daddy!” Kate rolled her eyes at him as she handed him the clean britches. She looked at Nadine. “You want me to tell Tori and Evie supper’s ready?”

  “Give your father a few minutes to change,” Nadine said. “You can put water in the glasses.”

  Victor was still on the back porch washing up when somebody started pounding on the front door. “Who could that be?” Nadine muttered as Victoria came running into the kitchen. Her face was white and her eyes wide open.

  “It’s Grandfather Merritt and Mr. and Mrs. Baxter,” she said.

  “Do they have Lorena with them?” Kate asked with a look of hope on her face. “Maybe they’re bringing her home.” She set down the glass she was filling and ran toward the front room.

  “Wait, Kate!” Nadine tried to stop her.

  Nobody pounding on the door like that was there for any good purpose, but Kate was already out of the kitchen. Nadine wiped her hands on her apron as she hurried after her. She wouldn’t let Father Merritt hurt Kate again. He’d already tried to do enough harm on this day.

  Evangeline was at the door, doing her best to greet her grandfather as if he’d just come to visit. “Grandfather, come in. And Mr. and Mrs. Baxter. How nice to . . . ”

  Her grandfather pushed past her without a word to her. His eyes locked on Kate as he demanded, “Where is she?”

  Kate stopped in her tracks at the look on his face. “Who?” The blood drained out of her face.

  He crossed the space between them in two steps and was in front of Kate before Nadine could step between them. He shouted in her face. “You know who. That gypsy child.”

  “Lorena’s missing?” Kate edged back a step, but he stayed in her face.

  “You know she is. Where are you hiding her?”

  Kate stood her ground this time. “What are you talking about?” She looked over her grandfather’s shoulder at Ella Baxter. “What did you do to her?”

  “Don’t play Miss Innocent with me,” Father Merritt said. “I’ll make you tell the truth.” He reached toward Kate, but Nadine pushed Kate aside and stepped in front of him.

  “Don’t you ever touch my daughter again. Ever.” Nadine kept her voice low, but she put every bit of force she could in it.

  Then Victor was there beside her, strong and unbending. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but I think it might be best if you all leave.”

  “We’ll leave when we find the girl,” Father Merritt said.

  “Are you talking about Lorena?” Victor said.

  “Polly,” Mrs. Baxter corrected. “Polly’s gone. She was in the . . .” She hesitated and then quickly went on. “The kitchen. When I went to check on her, she was gone.”

  “She stuck her in the closet again.” Kate’s voice was matter-of-fact.

  Nadine looked at Ella with disgust. “You surely didn’t lock her in a closet? The poor child is terrified of dark places. No wonder she ran away.”

  “It was for her own good.” Ella raised her chin and sniffed as she stared at Nadine. “She’s a willful child who needs correction. Isn’t that right, Joseph?”

  She looked around at her husband, standing just inside the front door with his hat in his hands. He twisted his hatband and sounded worried as he said, “I don’t know, Ella. I’d say she’s been more unhappy than willful.” He touched his eyes on Nadine’s face and then looked back at Ella. “Could be you shouldn’t have locked her in the closet if she was scared.”

  Ella whipped her head around to glare at Joseph, who stared down at his feet as if he hoped a hole might open up in the floor to let him fall through.

  Father Merritt spoke before Ella could explode. “The point is, the child is gone.”

  “That’s right.” Ella recovered and wagged her finger at Nadine. “Your daughter must have come into my house without permission and helped her run away. Talk about a willful child.”

  “Enough!” Victor’s voice had the force of his biggest hammer slamming down on his anvil.

  Everyone in the room fell silent and stared at him. Even his father was quiet as he stared at Victor with narrowed eyes and his mouth screwed up in a tight circle.

  Victor pulled in a breath and waited a brief moment before he went on. “If Kate knows where Lorena is, she’ll tell us.”

  They all turned toward where Kate had been standing behind Nadine. She was gone.

  36

  ______

  As soon as Kate realized her grandfather had come hunting for Lorena instead of bringing the little girl home, she started easing toward the kitchen. Her bare feet didn’t make even a whisper of noise on the wood floor. In the kitchen she stepped around the spot in front of the icebox where the floorboards always squeaked before she carefully pushed open the screen door and eased out on the back porch. The scree
n door slipped out of her hand and rattled shut. Kate pulled in her breath and froze in place as she peered back through the screen to see if anybody was coming after her. Nobody was. They were still in the front room arguing about why Lorena had run away.

  That was no mystery. Lorena would do anything to get out of that closet when she heard the rats coming after her toes. After all, who could expect her to keep believing in rat-proof angel powder when the angel had deserted her? Kate hadn’t wanted to desert her. She just didn’t know what to do to help Lorena.

  She hadn’t helped her today. She’d stolen a few minutes with her early that morning, but she’d had to help her mother clean Grandfather Reece’s house that afternoon. She’d been planning to go see Lorena after supper. So she hadn’t let Lorena out of the closet, but she knew who had.

  Kate slipped on the shoes she’d left on the back porch before she jumped off the end of the porch and took off across the yard. Two old hens pecking in the dirt squawked and flapped out of the way. Kate didn’t look back. She just ran faster across the open field toward the woods. She didn’t hear any doors slamming. She didn’t hear anybody yell her name. She wouldn’t have stopped even if she had. She had to find Lorena and make sure she was all right.

  Once out of sight in the trees, she slowed to a walk and caught her breath. She went by Graham’s little cabin first, but he wasn’t there. It was no telling where he and Poe might be. Fishing in the pond. Hunting raccoons. At the Lindell house dusting his mother’s hats. Kate looked in the direction of the big house, but she had no way of knowing for sure whether he was there or not. He could be anywhere and she didn’t have a lot of time to waste. The sun was already sinking behind the trees to the west. She didn’t want to be hunting Fern after dark.