“I—I don’t know. I did wish that we’d left before, but…I suppose we don’t even know if Cole would want us to stay. I think he needs our help.”
“I don’t want to sound like a jackass, but I don’t give a shit what anyone needs right now, except us. They hired me, they can hire someone else. Anyway, he’d have Riley.”
“Tanner, Riley has no interest in this place. He told me so that night after he got back from that mess at Emmaline’s. He doesn’t want to run a business anymore or be in charge of anything. He might find something useful to do, but I truly doubt that it will involve operating this place. His experiences changed him too.”
“But if we stay, where will that leave us? We’ll never have anything of our own. We’ll always be like hired hands.”
She drummed her fingers on the tabletop, searching for a suggestion. “Maybe we can just think about this for a while. Maybe we should talk to Cole and Jess.”
“I guess.” He sounded dubious. “But do you want to cross paths with Riley every day?”
She gave him an even look. “No.”
He stood up and came around to her side of the table. “You know, I think that injury affected my hearing.”
Dread washed over her. What more could happen? “Are you sure? You haven’t mentioned it—”
“I need you to come upstairs and give me that answer again.”
He held out his hand and she gave him a knowing look. “I see. When did you discover this hearing problem?”
“As soon as Riley moved out of that bedroom next to ours.”
• • •
Riley sat at the table in the bunkhouse and read Véronique’s letter again, the one he’d received before Thanksgiving. This wasn’t the first time he’d reread it, but it was the first time he’d considered answering it.
The trouble was, although he could read enough French to get by, he couldn’t write it. He wondered if he was good for any task these days. His physical condition had improved since he’d been here, but his mind sometimes felt as scarred and pitted as the landscape in France. Still, Nature was tenacious and he had faith that she would help that place reclaim its beauty over time. As for himself, he wasn’t so sure.
But he recalled the calm and simple beauty of life with Véronique, and despite its lack of conveniences and downright spareness, it held more appeal than this existence. Oh, he’d had his problems with l’étrangeté, The Strangeness. At least Dr. Carmichael’s treatment had stopped those fits.
He glanced down at the letter again, then out the window at the stables and the house, sites that he’d ached to return to while sitting in the trenches. This place had once meant so much to him. Instead, now he was l’étranger.
The stranger.
• • •
Véronique sat at the table, cutting up the potatoes she had collected from her root cellar. Tonight they would have a chicken pot pie with a tender crust, a meal that Christophe had always liked. She had already butchered a chicken, made stock, and now it was ready for the blond roux thinned with the stock and white wine, and the vegetables. The crust she could put together in just a few minutes and it would turn golden and bubble in her oven.
Outside, Édouard was preparing the field for planting. It was hard work for one person, especially now that they had expanded the area so they could include cool-weather crops too. But her growing belly had thrown off her balance, making it difficult for her to help him with that kind of work. In any event, Édouard would not hear of her doing that sort of manual labor. He seemed content to have the job and a place to call home.
They got on better than she had expected. Little by little he had earned her trust, and it comforted her to know he was there. No more fearsome incidents had occurred since he had arrived. Word had gotten about that she was not alone here anymore, and the news helped give them a measure of peace. After all, Édouard was a young man and not as easy to overpower as an elderly farmer.
Daylight hours were still short, and the fragrance of the cooking pie wafted through the small house when she heard him washing outside. He came in, ruddy-cheeked from the scrubbing he’d given his face.
“Everything went well today?”
He nodded and went to the roll of paper that stood in the corner. Using his pocketknife, he cut off a piece. He scribbled for a while and in his note, told her of his progress. After she read it, he took back the paper and scratched, We are ready to begin planting.
She looked up at him. “Oh, that is wonderful! The relief organizations are distributing seeds they have gathered from America and some other places. We will have a beautiful garden this year. And later in the spring when it is warmer, we can have the sheep shorn. Their wool will bring in some money too.”
He smiled at her, and she saw happiness in his eyes. He held up a finger, bidding her to wait for a moment. He went to his room and returned, carrying another piece of paper, this one white and folded once. She could not imagine where he might have gotten it.
She opened it and found a more formal letter than the type he usually jotted down. In fact, the script was beautiful and ornate, the hallmark of a learned man.
Dear Véronique,
I have been keeping this letter for a while, waiting until I feel the time is right to give it to you. If you are reading this, that time has arrived.
I know that we have no grand love affair, and if not for the war our paths would never have crossed. That would have been my profound loss. I was a city dweller and attended the Sorbonne in Paris to study chemistry.
She looked up at him, her mouth slightly open. “The Sorbonne?” She might be a farm woman but she certainly had heard of the school.
He nodded somewhat self-consciously. She read on.
When war was declared I gave up my new pharmacist’s position and you know the rest of my story. Everything that was important in my life was gone. But in exchange, I found you. I am not only grateful—gratitude alone would give me little more worth than a stray dog that is content to be fed. I am happy and my heart is at peace.
You should have a father for your child and a husband to protect you legally. I would be very honored indeed if you would accept me for those roles. I know that your heart belongs to another, but I swear I will always work hard to make you happy and prevent you from regretting your decision.
Édouard LaFontaine
To her great surprise, he dropped to one knee in front of her and took her hand. “W-w-w—will you mar-mar-ry me, V-V-Véro-Véronique Rai-Raineau?”
She gazed down into his handsome face and saw honest sincerity in his eyes that touched her heart. Even poor Christophe had not been able to offer her such a proposal.
“Yes, Édouard, I will.” She leaned forward and kissed his cheeks, then smiled with her brow arched. “I know Monsieur le curé will be pleased, too.”
• • •
Three Sundays after the banns were read, Véronique and Édouard walked to church in the village, and père Michel joined them in marriage in a private ceremony. Édouard even surprised her with a simple gold band, which he had managed to secure through a barter from a neighboring farm couple who needed their firewood split and stacked. Véronique, not knowing why he had done the work, had bathed his blistered hands when he came home and applied medicated goose grease to them, all the while making clucking noises of sympathy.
In keeping with the happy spirit of the day, the priest gave them a box of his cherished profiteroles and had arranged for them to get a ride back to their farm afterward. Véronique was most grateful for this second gift.
When they were back in the house, with the dip pen Édouard said, Perhaps later when things are more secure, I will be able to get a farm cart and a donkey to pull it. That way we will not have to walk into town.
“That would be marvelous,” Véronique said, “especially with a baby to carry.”
He smiled.
“I think that it is time for you to stop sleeping alone,” she said. “I do not mean to sug
gest that you—that I—”
He put his hand on her bulging belly and shook his head. “Nn-no, of c-our-course n-n-not.” But he did share her bed that night, and his presence and warmth were of great comfort.
As she lay in the darkness, with the baby sleeping beneath her heart and Édouard sleeping beside her, she believed that although things had worked out differently than she had ever anticipated, she was happy—genuinely happy with this turn her life had taken. For the first time since Christophe had left, she was content. People did not always get what they wanted, but sometimes fate gave them what they really needed.
• • •
On a Saturday evening, Cole and Jessica came to have supper with Tanner and Susannah. The Braddocks didn’t know that the Grenfells were about to drop earthshaking news on them, but that was the purpose of the meal. Joshua and Wade had gone off to see their mother and they wouldn’t be back until tomorrow.
“Aren’t we just going to talk to them first to see what they think?” Susannah asked, as she set the table in the dining room.
“Well, yeah, but I’m not too optimistic. It’s not their fault—there’s nothing they can do about this. I have some money put away to give us a start somewhere else.”
After Jess and Cole arrived, they sat down to eat and Jess put away more fried chicken than anyone else. “God, I’m sorry. I’m just hungry all the time!”
“But you look more beautiful than any pregnant woman I’ve ever seen,” Susannah said, and meant it sincerely.
Cole agreed.
“I’m lucky that I feel good. Some women are sick for the whole nine months. That would really be my undoing.”
Susannah began to clear away the dinner dishes, and Jessica started to get to her feet, but she waved her back into her chair. “Don’t get up. I can do this. Anyway, Tanner has something we want to discuss with you. We were hoping Riley would be here too, because this also concerns him, but he said he had something else to do.”
Cole looked at them and Susannah saw puzzlement mixed with apprehension. “What? I hope it’s good news. We’ve had about all the bad news we can take for a while.”
Tanner winced as Susannah slipped into the kitchen. “You might not see it as good.” He paused, then said, “Susannah and I are thinking of leaving.”
Susannah had walked back into the room and everyone was talking at once.
“Leave!”
“This isn’t funny.”
“It isn’t meant to be.”
“You can’t be serious. You’re family.”
Tanner, who’d recently rid himself of his sling, held up both hands for silence. “That’s the thing. We’re not family. Susannah and I have talked about this for a while. Now that Shaw is gone, you and Riley own this place. She told me that Riley said he has no interest in running the business and probably won’t do much around here.”
Cole exhaled. “Is that what this is about? We can hire someone else to help.”
“No, that’s not it. Cole, you and Riley hired me. And now that Susannah has no connection to the family at all, we’re both just hired hands. We have nothing of our own. We’re even losing the boys. You can understand why we would want our own lives and our own place, can’t you?”
Neither Cole nor Jess had an immediate answer to this.
“Oh, dear,” Jess said, finally. “I’m so used to thinking of you as family, I forgot that technically, you aren’t.”
Cole sat back in his chair and rubbed his forehead. “There has to be some way out of this. I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t want you to go. We don’t want you to go.”
Susannah sat too and said, “There’s one other problem we’ve considered.” Now all eyes were on her. She took a deep breath and exhaled. “It’s not his fault, but I’m not Riley’s wife and honestly, the situation is awkward. It’s not going to be comfortable for any of us to have to deal with each other every day.”
Another moment of silence fell upon them.
“Damn, this is a hornet’s nest,” Cole admitted.
“You can see why we’ve been talking about a change,” Susannah said.
“Yeah, but when?” he asked, his face flushed. “Am I going to wake up one day, come over here, and just find you gone?”
Tanner fixed him with an even stare. “Oh, that’s a low blow, don’t you think? If that’s the way you want this to go, I could say I woke up one day and got shot because your father paid two ex-cons to get rid of me. You might have only found me dead!”
Susannah and Jessica both jumped in.
“All right, we’re not going to get into an argument like that!”
“Just stop it, both of you!”
“We all know that Shaw was a hateful old man, and if, as Mr. Mumford said, he’s happier where is now, I would be extremely surprised,” Jessica said, flapping her napkin back into her lap with irritation. It kept falling off because her lap was disappearing with each passing week.
The tension in the room was thick.
“And it would give him a lot of pleasure to know that he’s still causing trouble.” Riley walked into the room, his hair and coat rain-spotted.
“How long have you been hanging around, listening in?” Tanner demanded.
“I just got here!”
“Oh, Riley, I’m sorry. You said you wouldn’t be here for dinner. We didn’t mean to eat without you,” Susannah said.
“I didn’t think I would be here. I went into town.”
“Sorry,” Tanner mumbled.
“I’ll get you a plate,” Susannah said and started to stand.
“Don’t bother, I’ve already eaten. But it’s just as well that you’re all here. I have something to tell you and you should all hear it.”
“God, now what?” Tanner said.
Riley sat down at the far end of the table and went on to tell them exactly what he’d told Susannah—that he was not the same man he’d been before the war and just didn’t want to have anything to do with horse farming anymore. “I’m really not cut out for this place now. I remember it, but I see it through different eyes.” He looked at Susannah. “You told me to find something that will make me happy and fill the emptiness I’ve felt since I arrived here. I don’t mean to say that you didn’t all try to help, because I know you did. You tried hard.” He sat forward and folded his hands on the table. “What will make me happy isn’t here, and I need the money to get to where I’m going. Now that Pop is gone, I’d like to get my half of the inheritance and go find it.”
“Goddammit, is everyone leaving?” Cole demanded, clearly angry.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“First these two,” he gestured at Tanner and Susannah, “and now you? Does anyone give a damn about what happens to this place besides me?”
“Until last fall, I wasn’t even a consideration. I was dead, you know.”
“That wasn’t our fault! That’s what the army told us!”
Jessica gave up the battle with her napkin and threw it on the table. “I can’t believe any of this.”
“Riley, I’m not the Bank of Powell Springs,” Cole said. “I can’t afford to give you half of what this is all worth. You must know that. We’ve never had that kind of cash just sitting around, gathering dust and interest.”
“Wait a minute!” Susannah interrupted. “Cole, do you have any idea how much money we’re talking about?”
“Not exactly. I’d have to talk to Parmenter and the bank. Why?”
She turned to Tanner. “You said you have some money tucked away—”
The men all began talking at once, their voices raised.
“I can’t afford to buy him out, either! I might have if Bert Bauer hadn’t swindled me out of my last dime all those years ago.”
“Well, he’s dead too. Take it up with his corpse!”
“I would but I don’t know what Gannon did with it!”
“Oh, shut up!”
“I resent that tone—”
Sus
annah brought her fist down on the table hard enough to make the remaining dishes jump. “All right!” She got to her feet and lifted her voice. “All right, that’s enough! Can you people hear yourselves? Tanner! Riley! Cole! No, we aren’t all blood relatives but we’ve been like family to each other for years. This is not how a decent family behaves. And now that Shaw is dead, we’re a decent family!” Some muffled snickering erupted that eased the tension a little. She lowered her voice again. “You can forgive someone for a hurtful thing they say, but you’ll never forget hearing it. So everyone be quiet before this gets any more out of hand.”
The men looked at the table. Jessica smiled up at Susannah.
“Now, then,” Susannah continued. “Tanner, if it were possible, would you be interested in buying a share of the farm?”
“Well, yeah, but I don’t know how much we’re talking about here, and—”
“Never mind the ‘buts.’ Cole, are you interested in this proposition, if everything is equitable?”
“Sure, but—”
“No ‘buts’! Riley, would you be willing to take less than half if it’s fair, considering what you know about everyone’s circumstances?”
“Maybe.”
She gave him a sour look. Jessica beamed at her with unconditional admiration and nodded her head in approval.
“I guess.”
She sighed. “Well, then, it looks like we have some figuring to do. Riley, when are you leaving and where are you going?”
“As soon as I can. I’m going back to France to find Véronique.”
Susannah sat down, feeling as if the strength had gone out of her legs. “Really? Everything I’ve read about it in the papers says life there is hard.”
“It is. But I was happy there. Or as happy as I could be given what I’ve been through. Anyway, they’re in the process of rebuilding. The Germans are paying for part of it. And Véronique is there. I miss her and my life with her. I believe she will fill that emptiness in me, and she needs help too.”
“Geez Riley, that’s a long way to go. We’ll never see you again,” Cole said.
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