by Dina Chapel
“I don’t know yet, but it’s not up to you.” Mandy looked to be fighting back tears. “You can’t just get rid of me like the others. I won’t let you.”
“You’re not making any sense, Mandy, least not to me.” Hank was trying to understand, but she was beginning to get sassy with him, and he wasn’t going to stand for that. “I will say where you go and don’t go, though.”
Mandy stamped her foot then and Hank raised his eyebrows.
“I’ve a good mind to tan your hide right now, young lady, since those cuts and bruises don’t seem to be modifying your bad behavior in the least. Is that what you’re aiming for? Do you need your backside warmed to remind you who’s in charge here?”
“You can’t be in charge of me if you don’t want me no more!” Mandy practically shouted at him and then burst into tears.
“Why would you think I don’t want you?”
“You’re going to give me away to the Hendersons; you’re sending me away. I heard you talking to Mr. Henderson about me.” Mandy was shaking her head as she spoke. “You told him I couldn’t have kids, you told him you didn’t have a use for me---” Mandy’s voice broke at these words, and she stopped speaking.
Hank couldn’t keep the smile from his face. It was tempered only by the fact that Mandy was so clearly deeply distressed by her misunderstanding of the situation. That fact alone kept Hank from laughing out loud.
“Tillie.” Hank stated. “Mandy, we were discussing Tillie.”
Mandy’s mouth fell open. “Our goat?”
Hank nodded, waiting for the information to be fully absorbed by Mandy. She had gotten herself into such a state, he was sure she needed a few minutes at the least to get herself onto the same page as he.
“But...I thought...” she stammered.
“I’m getting a good idea what you thought, Mandy.” Hank face took on a stern demeanor. “I’ve a good mind to put you across my knee right now and give you the spanking of your life for thinking such a thing.”
Mandy was still shaking her head in disbelief. “You said that I couldn’t have kids!” Mandy didn’t seem ready to let it go until everything that she had overheard had been explained by Hank.
“Baby goats are called ‘kids’, city girl,” Hank teased.
Mandy smiled and looked down, and Hank noticed a faint blush creep up her neck onto her cheeks. He knew that moniker always embarrassed her.
“I didn’t know that.”
“You don’t say.”
Mandy peeked up as Hank smiled down at her, then he became serious again.
“You’re my wife, Amanda.” Hank reached for Mandy’s chin and tilted her face up to his. “I took a vow. 'Til death do us part. I will not trade you away or give you away or leave you somewhere. I will always take care of you, cherish you, keep you near to me.”
Hank gave Mandy a moment to absorb what he had told her and to let the true meaning behind his words sink in. She seemed to be doing so and gathering her thoughts.
“When you grow up on your own, being moved from one home to another and no one family really to say is your own, no one place you ever feel is home,” Mandy glanced at Hank as he listened intently, “you’re just never sure who you can trust.”
“There just isn’t anyone that has to be kind because they’re your family. Not because of what you do for them, or anything like that. Just because.”
Hank smiled at her. “Because they love you. That’s love, Mandy. That’s love you’re talking about.”
Mandy gave Hank a look of complete disbelief. Then tears sprang to her eyes. She began to slowly shake her head.
“Really?” She still didn’t seem to quite believe what Hank thought she already understood.
He had just assumed that his actions spoke for him. Everything he did on the farm and around the cabin and in their lives together was for her. He assumed that she already knew that he loved her, even though he couldn’t recall ever saying the words, now that he thought about it. And she needed to hear them. She needed to hear those words.
“Yes’m.”
“So that means...” Mandy searched Hank’s face for the answer she already had.
“Yes, Mandy. I love you.” When Hank smiled at her and opened his arms wide, Mandy flew into them without a moment’s hesitation.
The End