Her two encounters with Luke Jackson had left her with memories that still sent chill bumps up her arm each time she thought of them. She could only imagine how much worse Matthew had fared living with his drunken father every day.
She clasped her hands in her lap and said a quick prayer for the right words before she spoke. “Matthew, I’m so sorry about your father’s death.”
His long lashes blinked, and he inhaled before he turned to stare at her. The dispassionate look in his eyes almost took her breath. It was as if she were staring into the face of an old man who’d waged battles no other human could understand and had emerged with no visible scars. But this boy had wounds that cut deep into his soul, and Anna knew none of Granny’s herbs could ever heal what he’d endured.
“Bound to happen sooner or later,” he said.
Those few words told her the mountain pride had taken over again. Whatever he was thinking, he wouldn’t share it with her.
Granny guided the horse down a lane and into the front yard of the most ramshackle cabin Anna had seen since coming to the Cove. Anna’s gaze drifted over the sagging roof with its missing shingles, and she wondered how the family managed during a rainstorm.
The sheriff rose from sitting on a stump in the front yard when they pulled to a stop. He stuck a pocketknife and the piece of wood he’d been whittling into his pocket, walked to the buggy, and grasped the horse’s halter. With one hand he tipped his hat in their direction. “Mornin’, Granny. Good to see you.”
“Good to see you too, Jim,” Granny said as she climbed down from the buggy. “Me and Anna came as soon as we could.”
He tied the horse to a small tree and nodded. “I knew you would. That’s why I waited. Didn’t want to go off and leave Naomi alone ’fore you got here.”
“That was right nice of you.” Granny pulled a basket out of the buggy and pointed to Anna. “This here is Anna Prentiss. She’s a-helpin’ me this summer. Anna, this be Sheriff Jim Wade.”
The man pulled his hat off and held it in front of him. “Glad to meet you, Miss Prentiss. Doc told me you was over to Granny’s.”
Anna smiled. “Oh, you know my uncle?”
“Yes, ma’am. I reckon everybody in these here mountains know Doc.” He glanced back toward the house. “I’m just sorry we had to meet this way. Naomi’s inside.”
Granny pursed her lips. “We’ll go tend to her and see ’bout gettin’ Luke ready for the burial. Simon and John are comin’ to build the coffin. They should be here ’fore long.”
“Then I’ll stay around so’s I can help them.” He pushed his hat back on his head. “If you ladies need anything, you jest let me know.”
“Thanks, Jim.” Granny squared her shoulders and headed for the house.
Anna took a step to follow, but she stopped when she realized Matthew had disappeared. “Where’s Matthew?”
Sheriff Wade pointed toward the back of the house. “He took off when he got out of the buggy. Guess he wanted to be by hisself for a while.”
“I guess so. Maybe I’ll see him later.”
Right now she had to concentrate on Naomi. She inhaled and followed Granny into the cabin. Naomi sat at the kitchen table and stared at a tin can filled with mountain laurel blooms in front of her. Eli lay sleeping on a pallet at her feet.
She looked up and smiled when they stopped beside her. “Thank you for comin’. I didn’t know who else to send Matthew for.”
Granny put her arms around Naomi’s shoulders and gave her a hug. “You done the right thing, Naomi. We’s glad to help you out. This is a mighty bad thing that done happened.”
Anna knelt beside Naomi’s chair and grasped her hand. “I’m sorry about your husband. I can’t imagine the pain you’re feeling right now.”
Naomi’s shoulders slumped and her tormented eyes stared into Anna’s. “What am I gonna do? How am I gonna feed Matthew and Eli?”
Anna blinked back tears and tightened her grip on Naomi’s hand. “We’ll think of something. For now, though, we need to take care of Luke. Where’s his body?”
She nodded toward a door off the kitchen. “The sheriff put him in there when he brung him home.” She glanced down at Eli. “Pore little feller. He fretted most of the night. I’s glad he finally dropped off to sleep.” A frown puckered her forehead, and she stared past Anna. “Where’s Matthew?”
“Sheriff Wade said he ran around back of the cabin when we were getting out of the buggy. I’ll look for him later if he doesn’t come in.”
“Won’t need to go far,” Naomi said. “I reckon he’s a-sittin’ out back by that big mountain laurel bush. It’s one of his fav’rite thinkin’ places.”
Anna glanced back at the flowers in the center of the table. “Did these come from that bush?”
A tear trickled out of the corner of Naomi’s eye. “Yeah. When me and Luke was first married, he knew how I loved mountain laurel. One day he come home with a little plant he’d dug up in the woods. He planted it for me and told me ev’ry time I looked at that bush he wanted me to think about him and how much he loved me.” She stared into Anna’s eyes. “He was diff’rent then. Didn’t drink. A few years of failed crops made him change, though.”
Anna glanced up at Granny, whose mouth was set in a grim line. Her heart ached for Naomi and how her life had gone so differently from the way she’d dreamed and planned it as a young bride. “I’m so sorry, Naomi.”
She tilted her head and a sad smile curled her lips. “I wish you’d knowed Luke then, Miss Anna. You only got to see what the drink did to him. Most folks saw that, but they didn’t see the Luke I knew. He’d be real sorry after he got drunk, and then he’d hire on somewhere for a few days. We’d have a little money, and things would be good for a little while. Until the itch for the bottle took over agin.” She reached out and touched the blooms in the tin can. “But he always brung me mountain laurel when they was a-bloomin’.”
Eli stirred and cried out in his sleep, and Granny bent down and picked him up. She cuddled him a moment before she handed him to Naomi. “You take care of Eli whilst me and Anna get to work. We’ll get Luke cleaned up and ready for the buryin’. Simon and John will be here soon, and I reckon other folks will come when they hear about what happened.”
Naomi hugged her son close and smiled. “Thank you agin for a-bein’ here.”
Anna gave Naomi another quick hug before she followed Granny. She came to a halt at the door of the room where Luke’s body lay. Naomi had spoken of a person very different from the man Anna had encountered since coming to the Cove. She couldn’t reconcile the two images in her mind.
“What’s wrong?” Granny asked.
“I’m thinking about what Naomi said about Luke. How could the man she described be so different from the one I saw?”
Granny placed her hand on Anna’s shoulder and squeezed it. “It’s like I been a-tellin’ you ever since you got here, Anna. Life’s hard here. It’ll break a man. A woman too. When Luke’s crops failed, he lost all hope of takin’ care of his family. When that happens to some men, like Cecil Davis for instance, they buckle down and do ev’rything they can to put food on the table. Luke didn’t. He was weak, and he turned to the bottle and lost hisself in liquor. I ’spect we never will know all Naomi done to keep this family goin’.”
“I think she’s a very special woman.”
Granny nodded. “She is, and she loves her family. It pained her a lot ’cause Luke didn’t want Matthew to get no book learnin’. He said Matthew was needed to help with the farm.” A disgusted grunt rumbled from her throat. “He just wanted Matthew to do all the chores he didn’t do ’cause he was a-layin’ in bed drunk.”
“I feel so sorry for them. They must have had a terrible life.”
Granny sighed. “Yeah, but I guess it’s a-gonna git worse now. I don’t know what they’ll do to git by. Matthew’s a good boy, but he’s too young to take over responsibility of a family. I reckon the Lord will just have to show us how to help them.�
� She glanced into the room. “But right now we’s got work to do. Ready?”
“Yes.”
Anna took a deep breath and followed Granny into the little room. She dreaded what the next few hours would bring. Maybe if she kept her mind focused on how she could help Naomi and her children she’d be able to get through the preparations for Luke’s burial. There had to be something she could do for them.
Simon backed away from the finished coffin and placed his hammer in John’s toolbox. Only a few rays of sunshine penetrated the walls of the dilapidated shed where he and John, along with Sheriff Wade, had been working for the past few hours. The shadows that filled the gloomy interior matched the desolate feeling he couldn’t banish from his heart.
He closed his eyes for a moment and tried to blot out the image of Luke’s lifeless body lying in the house. He couldn’t remember what he’d said to Naomi when he arrived. Maybe he’d offered a little comfort. Nothing had brought him any yet.
John looked up from pounding the last nail into the end of the box and frowned. “What’s the matter?”
“I need a drink of water. I’ll be back in a minute.”
He strode from the shed into the light of mid-afternoon. He headed toward the house, but he didn’t stop at the well. A mountain laurel bush with its blooms beckoned him, and he dropped down beside it and buried his face in his hands. All he could think about was how many times he’d talked to Luke about God’s love. There would be no more conversations now. Soon they would carry the coffin inside and place Luke in it.
A coffin should be more than a few boards nailed together, Simon had always thought. In the city, there were undertakers who sold all kinds of burial caskets with insignia and carving on them. They also had hearses and carriages available for use at the funeral. In the Cove, however, they had none of those things. Luke’s simple wooden coffin only hinted at a poor man who’d lived out his life in the rugged Smokies. Nothing more.
Luke Jackson would be buried in the wooden box he, John, and Sheriff Wade had hammered together. Instead of a carriage, it would be transported to the church on the back of a farm wagon, and the people of the Cove would gather around the grave to offer sympathy to Naomi and her children.
Few would probably give Luke a second thought in the months and years to come. If they did, they would remember his angry rant at the Fourth of July picnic or his drunken horseback rides through the Cove. If only he had reached Luke, folks would have good things to talk about when Luke’s name was mentioned. But he hadn’t succeeded.
“You okay, Preacher?”
Simon jerked his hands away from his face and stared at Matthew, who sat a few feet away. How had he missed the boy when he’d dropped to the ground?
He wiped at his eyes and tried to smile. “Matthew. I didn’t see you there. What are you doing?”
“Just thinkin’. It’s my best place for doin’ that.” He glanced past Simon. “I came over a little while ago and seen the coffin you and your brother was makin’. It looked real nice. Ma will be proud to have such a nice one. Thank you for a-doin’ that for her.”
“We were glad to help out.”
Matthew took a big breath and nodded. “I been a-thinkin’ ’bout how I can repay you. I figured I can go over to Mr. John’s place and help him with his chores for a few days. That ought to pay for the wood and his time, and I reckon I can come clean the church up for you and do anything else you need.”
Simon frowned and shook his head. “We don’t need you to repay us, Matthew. We helped out because we wanted to.”
Matthew nodded. “I know you did. But since I be the head of the family now, I want to do things different than my pa. I got to be a man, and a man takes care of his debts.”
Simon rose, and Matthew stood to face him. Determination lined the boy’s face, and his dark eyes didn’t flinch from Simon’s stare. “Matthew, how old are you?”
He straightened his back and lifted his chin. “I’m gonna be ten real soon.”
Simon placed his hand on Matthew’s shoulder and squeezed. “You don’t have to be a man yet. You need to be a boy.”
Matthew glanced at the cabin. “I reckon I ain’t got no time to be a boy, Preacher. My pa done seen to that.”
He wriggled free of Simon’s grasp and walked toward the house. The despair that had consumed Simon since Luke’s death welled up in him again, but this time it threatened to suck the breath from him. His failure with Luke didn’t end with his lifeless body. It lived on in the impact it had had on Luke’s son.
Two days later dark clouds drifted across the sky as the crowd of mourners gathered next to Luke’s grave. The threat of rain was increasing by the minute. Eli squirmed in Anna’s arms, and she jiggled him up and down in an effort to quiet him. Beside her Naomi and Matthew stared at the wooden box resting on the ground. The women of the congregation held jars of wildflowers and mountain ferns they’d brought to decorate the grave.
Simon, his Bible open, stood in front of the coffin and read from Psalm twenty-three. “The Lord is my shepherd,” he began. “I shall not want.”
Anna glanced at Naomi’s face and tried to determine what she was feeling, but her expression divulged nothing. Anna wondered what thoughts were running through the woman’s mind. A little over forty-eight hours earlier she’d found out her husband had been killed, and now she faced the task of burying a husband and trying to provide for her children alone.
Simon concluded reading the chapter. “Let us pray.” The Cove residents, gathered in the small cemetery beside the church, bowed their heads as Simon began to pray. “Lord, we don’t understand when tragedies like this happen, but we do know You’re still in control. We come to You today in this sad hour to ask Your blessings on Naomi, Matthew, and Eli. We ask You to be with them and help them through the hard days ahead. Help them to draw on the promises found in Your Word and keep them in Your safekeeping. Their friends and neighbors place them in Your hands. Amen.”
Naomi, who hadn’t shed a tear at the service, opened her eyes and stared at Matthew standing next to her. He reached up and took her arm. “You ready to go now, Ma?”
She smiled down at her son. “I reckon I am.”
Naomi held out her arms for Eli and Anna handed the child to her. “Thank you kindly, Anna, for all you done for us since they brought Luke home.” She glanced at Granny, who stood behind Anna. “And thank you, Granny. You two been better to me than anybody ever. I won’t be fergettin’ it.”
Granny touched Anna’s shoulder. “Darlin’, the men want to git the grave filled in. Doc’s gonna drive Naomi home, and then he’ll come back by my house.”
Together they walked from the cemetery toward the front of the church. Uncle Charles, who’d arrived a few hours before the burial, moved along in the midst of the mourners leaving the grave. Anna grasped Naomi’s arm. “You will think about what Uncle Charles and I told you?”
Naomi’s expression didn’t change, but she nodded. “I been a-thinkin’ all through the fun’ral. I reckon a woman with two young’uns gotta do what she kin to take care of ’em. You and your uncle are good friends to be lookin’ out for me and mine. I al’ays knowed he was, and when I met you, I said to myself you was jest like ’im. I reckon I was right.”
“Thank you, Naomi. When will you be leaving?”
“Doc said he’d send a wagon fer us in ’bout two weeks.”
Anna smiled. “Good. That’ll give me time to visit with you before you go.”
They stopped beside the buggy Anna had ridden in when she came to the Cove. Toby whinnied as distant thunder rolled across the valley. Naomi glanced down at her son. “All right, Matthew, let’s go home. We’s got lots to do.”
The boy’s dark eyes stared back at his mother, and he nodded. “I reckon I gotta get on the chores. Then we’ll talk about leavin’.” He helped his mother climb into the buggy, his protective manner with his mother proclaiming his position as head of the family now. He might only be a boy, but he was a boy w
ho’d grown up overnight. He took off the straw hat he wore and held it in front of him. “Thank you, Miss Anna and Granny. I won’t never forgit your kindness to my ma.”
Uncle Charles stopped beside Matthew and grasped his shoulder. “You’re a credit to your mother, Matthew. She’s lucky to have a son like you.”
The boy didn’t smile but gave a small nod in acknowledgment of the compliment. Uncle Charles turned to Anna. “I’ll drive Naomi and her sons home. Then I’ll be back by Granny’s in just a bit.”
Uncle Charles climbed in the buggy and flicked the reins across Toby’s back. Anna watched him ride away from the church, the little family huddled beside him. A few drops of rain splattered against the dry earth. Dust whirled across the dirt yard.
One after another the families left until only Anna, Granny, and the men filling the grave were left. Granny looked up at the sky. “Looks like we’re in for a downpour. We oughta wait a while ’fore drivin’ home. I’ll jest go in the church and clean up some for Sunday service. You coming?”
Anna looked around for Simon, but he was nowhere to be seen. She took a step toward the cemetery. “I’ll be there in a minute. I want to find Simon first.”
She walked back to the cemetery and stopped at the grave. John, working with the men to fill the grave, paused and leaned on his shovel as she approached. “Anna, I thought you’d gone home.”
Her gaze drifted over the tombstones scattered across the small hill next to the church. “I was looking for Simon. Have you seen him?”
John pointed to a field behind the cemetery. “I saw him walk out that way a little while ago.”
Anna hurried to the back of the cemetery and let her gaze drift across the area. At the far edge of the field she spotted a dilapidated cantilever barn that looked as if it had been abandoned years ago. She squinted and caught a glimpse of Simon sitting underneath the barn’s overhang, his arms resting on his bent knees and his head bowed. Another drop of rain hit her head. She looked up at the dark sky and hurried across the field toward the barn.
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