The words struck against Hannah with almost a physical force. Her face grew slightly pale, and she whispered, “How could you know that?”
“The Lord just whispered to me that you’re going to have a boy, and he’s going to be a great servant of God.”
“Is that right, Hannah?” Jenny asked with astonishment. “You’re really expecting?”
“I . . . I haven’t been sure, but I think so.”
“You can be sure of it. The Lord don’t make no mistakes,” Missouri said, smiling. “Have you told Clint yet?”
“No, I wanted to wait until I was absolutely sure.”
“Well, I think if Missouri says it’s so, why don’t you go tell him?” Jenny grinned.
“All right, I will.” Hannah got up but stopped as she reached the doorway. Turning around, with wonder in her eyes, she whispered, “After what I went through in New York, I never thought I’d have a husband, much less a child, but God is good.”
She turned and left the room, and Jenny said, “She’ll be a wonderful mother—just like you, Ma.”
****
“Hand me that screwdriver, would you, Lewis?”
“This one?” Lewis picked up a screwdriver and handed it to Clint. The two of them were putting new rings in the truck. Kat was hovering over them offering her help but was actually more in the way than anything else. She wore the usual ragged overalls and was barefooted, and a smudge of black grease marked her forehead.
“You’ve got grease all over your head,” Lewis said. “Come here.” Pulling a handkerchief out of his pocket, he carefully wiped the girl’s forehead, then squeezed her and gave her a kiss.
Kat was a youngster who held nothing back, saying anything that came to her mind. Lewis knew this, but still he was shocked when she looked at him directly with her gray-green eyes and asked, “Daddy, are you going to love me any less with all those boys around?”
“What a question! Of course not.”
“But if you’ve got more children to love, you’ll have to divide your love up,” Kat said. “It’s like a pie. If you got one pie, and you’ve got four people to eat it, you cut four slices. But if there are five or six, you have to make the slices smaller. So you can’t love me as much because you have to give some of your love to Temple and Sam and Michael.”
“What an idea!” Lewis said. He reached over and pulled the girl into his arms, knowing her desire for affection. He thought for a moment, trying to find a way to put it that would assure her of the very deep love he had for this youngest daughter of his. “Love isn’t like a pie. It’s just the opposite. True enough with a pie you’ve only got so much to give away, but with love the more you give away, the more you have.”
“Is that right?”
“It’s absolutely right, and I want you to always give it away. For if you keep it, it spoils and goes bad, like milk that’s not used.”
Kat pondered this for what seemed like a long time. Both of the men were watching her, fascinated by the processes of her mind. She was the brightest and most inquisitive youngster either of them had ever seen, and finally she sighed and smiled brilliantly. “I’m glad you told me, Daddy. Now I won’t have to worry about that.”
“Why, of course not. We all have those boys to love, and you’re going to have a fine time helping raise them.”
“I will too! Ma’s going to let me change a diaper pretty soon.”
“That’s quite an honor.” Lewis made a face at Clint.
“Come on, Daddy, let’s go hunting. You promised me you’d take me.”
“I’ve got to help Clint with this.”
Clint said quickly. “I’m about finished up here. You might as well take her while it’s daylight, Lewis.”
“All right. We’ll do it. Come along, Kat.”
The two left and Clint watched them go, conscious, as always, of the miracle of family. He had been alone for so long in his own life that he had known nothing of family love, but the Winslows had shown him the wonder of it. And after he had married Hannah, he felt closer to the Winslows than ever.
He watched for a moment as father and daughter left the house, the dog bounding along at their heels. Lewis was carrying the shotgun, and Clint could hear Kat begging to be allowed to carry it and Lewis denying her the privilege.
“Where are those two going?”
Clint turned, surprised, and saw that Hannah had come out.
“They’re going out to scare squirrels. I think they’re pretty safe, though. I’ve never figured out how Lewis could be a war hero when he can’t hit the side of a barn except with a shotgun.” He stood up, stretched, and asked, “How’s Missouri?”
“She’s doing fine.”
“She’s a wonderful woman. I’ve never known anybody quite like her.”
“She’s not the woman I would’ve thought Daddy would have fallen in love with, but they make a perfect match.”
Clint reached over, pulled the rag out, and wiped the grease from his hand, then came over to pull her into his arms. “No more perfect than we are,” he smiled. He kissed her and then shook his head. “Every day I wake up thinking the dream will be over and I’ll be back on the road or in a jail somewhere. And here I am with the prettiest wife in the whole world and the sweetest.”
Hannah had done without male appreciation most of her life. As a young woman, she had had a bad experience with a man and then had lived the life of a recluse, avoiding all men for years. But she had always longed for such words as this, and now life seemed to glow within her, and she reached up and put her hand on his cheek. “I’ve got something to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“We’re going to have a baby, Clint.”
Clint stood staring at her and shook his head as if he hadn’t heard, and then he saw the smile on her face. He let out a whoop. “A baby! Well, glory to God!” He put his arms around her but very gently instead of roughly as he usually did.
He hugged her, and then he stepped back and took her hands. “I hope it’s a girl just like you.”
Humor bubbled up and mixed with joy in Hannah, and she laughed aloud. “Maybe it’ll be triplets.”
“Wait a minute, now,” Clint said, pretending to be alarmed. “That’s too much of a good thing. Tell you what. Let’s start out slow and just have one little girl. Then if we like her, we’ll have a boy. And come to think of it, I have three young ones to practice on now. So by the time our baby gets here, I’ll know all about it.”
Hannah leaned into his arms again, laid her face against his chest, and hugged him fiercely. She felt a joy that only a woman can know who has long been hungry for love and has finally found it.
****
Clay Varek looked up from the floor he was mopping, sniffed, and with a groan, wheeled and ran to the stove. The stew was boiling over, and when he touched the pot handle, he burned his hand. Quickly he grabbed a towel and picked up the pot. The stew dribbled onto the stove and sent an odor of burned meat throughout the kitchen.
“Blast it!” He put it down on the tile trivet and began to clean up the mess, scraping the excess from the top of the cook stove. The smell permeated the kitchen, and wiping his hands with disgust, he picked up the coffeepot and poured some coffee into a white cup with a missing handle. Sitting down, he stared across the room and thought for a moment about how much better the place looked. He had taken the house without seeing it because the rent had been cheap, but when he had seen it, he understood why. It had been uninhabited for years and had a terrible odor. It had been used and misused by visiting tramps, and most of the windows were broken out and animals had taken up residence inside.
Varek well knew that housekeeping was not his strong point, but he had plunged in with a vigor that marked everything he did. He had attacked the house in sections, cleaning out one bedroom and setting it up for himself with a bed for Jamie in the same room. Then he had launched the main crusade, which was to clean up the kitchen. He was thankful enough that there was some indoor
plumbing, although he’d had to replace the well pump, and having electricity brought to the house had been a major expense.
As he sat there thinking of chores to do, he realized that he was weary. He was a strong man, but he had not known how hard housekeeping was until it all fell on him. The cooking, the washing, what ironing was done, cleaning the house inside and making repairs outside kept him busy from early morning until night.
A sudden creaking sound startled him, and he whirled quickly, his hand going to his belt. The gun was not there as he was accustomed to, and when he saw that it was merely the screen door moved by the wind, he relaxed and took a sip of coffee. “You’ve gotta stop being so edgy.” He spoke the words aloud, and the sound of his own voice seemed to startle him. He forced himself to be still, and then as he finished his coffee, he heard Jamie crying. He got up and went to the bedroom, moving over to the half bed he had fixed for her. Her face was flushed, he saw, and when he put his hand on her forehead, he was startled at how high her fever was.
“I don’t feel good,” Jamie whimpered.
Varek made up his mind immediately. “I expect we’d better take you to see the doctor.” She was wearing few clothes, for she had been hot, and there was no fan in the room. He put a dress on her, slipped her shoes on, and then left the house. He put her inside the used Chevrolet, but when he tried to start it, he found the battery was dead.
He sat there frustrated, then shook his head. “Come on, Jamie, we’ll have to walk.”
“All the way?” the child asked. Her face was very flushed, and fear touched Clay. He knew little about children, especially about childhood diseases. “It’ll be all right,” he said. “Somebody will pick us up. Come along, now.” Picking up the child, he stepped out of the car and started down the road. It was a good six miles to town, but traffic was fairly common, and he was hopeful someone would pick them up quickly. But there was a natural glumness in Clay Varek as if he always expected the worse and was rarely disappointed. In the back of his mind he was already planning to make the entire walk, and grimly he set himself to the task.
Jenny saw the pair as she drove along the highway. She recognized Varek and the child and pulled up behind them. She watched as he turned, and when he came to stand outside her window, she said, “Where are you going?”
“I’ve got to go to the doctor. Jamie’s sick.”
“Well, get in. I’ll take you there.” She saw him hesitate and knew that he was not a man who took favors easily, but he nodded and said curtly, “Thanks.” He went around and got in, and once the truck was moving, she asked, “When did she get sick?”
“Just yesterday. Just a little fever, but it’s higher today, I think. I don’t have any way to take it.”
“Which doctor do you want to go to?”
“I don’t know any of them.”
“We use Dr. Peturis. He’s a little bit rough, but he’s a kind man. I’ve heard he’s good with children.”
“Take me there if you don’t mind.” He hesitated, then said, “Sorry to be such trouble.”
“You’re not from around here, are you, Mr. Varek?”
“No, you can tell from my voice, I guess.”
“Yes, we’re from New York, so we all have northern accents. It makes it a bit hard.”
As she drove along, Jenny offered a little of her history, and then finally she said, “I’d take Jamie to my stepmother. She’s very good with anyone who’s sick, but she just had some babies herself.”
“Babies?”
“Yes, triplets.”
Clay suddenly smiled, and as Jenny watched him, she saw it made him look much younger. “One is all I can handle.” He hesitated, then said, “It’s hard on a man raising a child without a woman.”
Jamie looked up, though her face was flushed. “You do fine, Daddy.”
Varek hugged the child and laughed shortly. “Well, it would be better if you had a mama.”
Jenny kept waiting for him to say more about his wife, but he seemed to steer away from anything so personal. He did say finally, “That was a good squash pie.”
Jenny laughed. “It’s the only kind I know how to cook. I’m having to learn how to live in the country. I’ve always been a city girl.”
“I’ll have to learn too. I’m from Chicago.”
“You lived there all your life?”
“Quite a bit of it. Including the last ten years.” He said no more, and the conversation was rather bland until Jenny pulled up in front of Dr. Peturis’s office. “There’s the doctor’s office. Why don’t you take Jamie in? I’ll do my errand, then run you home again.”
Varek shook his head. “I hate to be a burden to anybody.”
“Don’t be silly. That’s what neighbors are for.” She reached over and brushed the hair back from Jamie’s face. “You go on in with your daddy now, and I’ll be back. And you’ll be well soon.”
Jenny waited until Varek and the child were inside; then she drove to Luke Dixon’s office. She entered and found that Dixon was engaged in conversation with a tall, rawboned farmer. She waited in the outside room until the farmer left, and Dixon said, “Come on in, Miss Winslow.”
“You can call me Jenny.”
“Fine, and I’m Luke.”
“What about Noah?”
Dixon shook his head. “They’re going to charge him with assaulting an officer and resisting arrest.”
“What will that mean if he’s found guilty?”
“It’ll mean going back to prison, maybe for as much as five years.”
“But he didn’t do it!”
Luke Dixon studied the young woman before him, noting the richness of her lips, which were now pressed together almost willfully. Her hair was thick and red with golden lights that gleamed under the overhead lights. He was conscious of the full, soft lines of her body within her dress. Her face was a mirror, he noted, that changed as her feelings changed, the features reflecting the swift changes of her mind.
“Can you help him, Luke?”
“I can try, but you’ll have to testify that he didn’t start the trouble. I can tell you right now that won’t make you very popular, challenging a white man’s word. Two white men, as a matter of fact, over the fate of a black man.”
“What about you?”
“I’m not popular anyway,” he laughed. He smiled then, and she admired the strong bone structure of his face. “Why are you helping him?”
“I just like lost causes. I’ve got the scars to show for it.” Luke suddenly said, “You’re not married, are you?”
“No.”
“Got a steady boyfriend who’d beat me up if I asked you out?”
The question obviously amused Jenny, and she laughed in a way he found very attractive, her chin tilting up and her lips curving in pretty lines. “No boyfriend at all.”
“That’s good. I’ll pick you up at seven.”
“You’re pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
“Actually I’m pretty shy, and I have to put on this act to make people think I’m outgoing.”
Luke could almost see a curtain of reserve fall away, and a teasing expression of gaiety lit her eyes. Luke decided at that moment that Jenny Winslow was a complex and striking woman.
“All right, pick me up at seven,” she said. “You’ll have to come in and meet the family. There’s quite a bunch of us.”
“I’ll wear my graduation suit,” he smiled. “We’ll talk about the case tonight.”
“All right, Luke . . . and thanks.” She put out her hand, and he looked at it for a moment, then took it. He squeezed it firmly but not hard as he nodded.
“Seven o’clock it is.”
Jenny left the office feeling pleased. She had not given romance much thought since leaving New York. There it had been her chief topic of conversation and the center of her thoughts, but it had only rarely entered her mind since moving to Georgia. But she liked Luke Dixon and was looking forward to the evening.
Going back to t
he doctor’s office, she walked into the waiting room and, seeing no sign of Varek and Jamie, figured they were in with the doctor. There was no nurse to ask, and three other patients were waiting, so she simply sat and waited with them. After a short time Varek came out carrying Jamie. He had a slip of paper in his hand, and his eyes sought hers at once.
“What is it, Clay?”
He did not answer but nodded at the door. She went outside, and as soon as they were clear of the office, he said, “It’s the flu, but the doctor doesn’t think it’s dangerous.” Relief flooded his face, and she saw how tense he had been.
“Is that a prescription?”
“Yes. You know where the drugstore is?”
“Sure. Come on.”
She took Varek to the drugstore and stayed with Jamie while he went inside. She found the child, despite her discomfort, was bright and very intelligent. Jenny was tempted to ask about her mother, but she clamped down on that impulse with restraint.
Varek came out, got into the truck, and nodded. She started the engine, and neither of them spoke until they were out of town. As the Studebaker rumbled over the road, he turned and faced her. “I’ve been hearing talk about you.”
“What kind of talk?”
“That you’re taking on the powers that be.”
“Oh, you mean about Noah Valentine.”
“Yes. Why are you doing it?”
She did not answer for a time, and then she turned and looked at him, removing her eyes from the road for a moment. “Because it’s the right thing to do,” she said firmly.
Varek watched her as she drove along, admiring her profile and thinking, She is the kind of woman who won’t back down from a just fight. It was a way he had of summing up people, and he always respected those with enormous certainty and a positive will. There was fire in this girl that made her lovely, and he found himself drawn to her.
She turned to face him and said, “Do you think it’s wrong? You think I shouldn’t do it?”
The Shining Badge Page 6