| |
William wiped at a flake of snow that had stuck to his nose as he waded gingerly through the snow. He wanted to check on the yearlings he and Thomas had penned in the pasture. He was worried with the early winter they might not get enough water. The creek ran through one corner of the pasture, but with the cold weather he wasn’t sure if they could get through the ice.
He had fallen into a routine the last few days since moving back into the workshop. As soon as he was up in the morning he would go up to the house for breakfast, and then help Thomas with his chores while Anna cleaned up. Afterward, he would usually sit and read while Thomas did his schooling. Now that he was getting stronger, he wanted to pull his weight.
He hefted the axe in his left hand as he waded into the deeper snow past the barn. It was going to be a good trek down the hill, but it would be good for him. Thomas had been doing a great job; he was a good lad... he just didn’t have the strength to do all of the work by himself.
The air was crisp. He could feel it’s sting as he breathed through his nose. It seeped in through his clothing. He was fairly chilled by the time he reached the pasture, despite the extra layers he had put on.
He smiled, remembering how upset Anna had become when she realized how few clothes he had with him. He had tried to explain that you can’t pack a full wardrobe on a horse, but she was still distressed, pulling out some of Clay’s clothes for him to wear. Her husband had been larger than him in the waist, but the shoulders were a good fit, especially for the coat he was wearing.
Reaching the fence, he looked out over the pasture. He could see the cattle down by the creek. There were trees overhanging the creek that extended out, providing a natural windbreak for them.
He climbed the fence cautiously, he was still incredibly sore, and shuffled through the snow across the pasture. As he started across; he smiled, thinking back to the last time he drove cows. They used to sing at night as they rode around, so the cows wouldn’t worry as they approached.
He began to sing out an old hymn, it had been his grandfather’s favorite; “What a friend we have in Jesus... all our sins and grief’s to bear. What a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer...”
The cattle watched him suspiciously as he continued singing. A few of them even stamped their feet nervously as he neared them.
Frowning, he stopped singing, and the cattle settled down as soon as he stopped.
Disgusted, he moved past them, muttering “critics” under his breath.
The creek was frozen over, so after looking around briefly, he started chopping a large hole in the ice. The cattle, more interested now, moved closer to the edge, watching.
He was almost done when he heard a horse approaching. Turning, he smiled, Earl was riding across the pasture.
Finishing the last few blows that opened the hole, he stepped back, the cattle crowded around the hole, drinking thirstily. He turned to face Earl who had just pulled up.
Earl looked at him closely, his nose wrinkled. “That you I heard caterwauling out here?” He dismounted, leading the horse the last few feet.
Grinning, William shrugged, and offered his hand, “Not a connoisseur of music?”
Earl shook his hand, and then stepped back, grinning. “Not sure what a “conie sewer” is, but if it means do I like to hear animals suffering, no.”
They shared a laugh as they both looked out over the fields.
“Going to be a hard winter,” Earl remarked suddenly, “...cain’t remember the last time I saw snow this early.”
“Not even Thanksgiving yet,” William agreed
Earl snorted a quick laugh, “Terrible thing when the government has to tell people to be thankful. You’d think they didn’t know better.”
Nodding thoughtfully, William chuckled, “I’d not thought of it like that...”
“Eh, doesn’t matter.” He looked sharply at William, staring intently in his eyes, “You staying on to help the widder?”
Raising an eyebrow, William met the stare, “Do you approve?”
“Very much so.” Earl nodded, “I was hoping she would have some help about. She needs it. She’s a good girl.”
“Yes sir, she is.”
Earl blew out a breath, gesturing to the surrounding woods, “This is a good ranch. Plenty here to take care of the widder and the boy.” He shrugged, “Need to be run right. I try to help when I can.”
William nodded in agreement as he looked around. Though well built, the ranch needed the kind of attention that Anna hadn’t been able to give.
“What are ya looking for here?” Earl asked suddenly. “I see many a man out wandering with nothing going for them. That ain’t you. Don’t seem so anyway. My brother...” he grunted out a quick laugh, “James sets store by you... says yer good people. Cain’t figure why you’d be wandering with no purpose.”
William stared at the tree line for a few moments before shrugging. “I don’t really know...” he turned to face Earl, meeting his gaze, “I’m just waiting for the Lord to show me what He wants, I guess.”
“Humph.” Earl wrinkled his nose, “I’ve seen men miss what the good Lord had for them ‘cause they were looking off in the distance, when it was right under their nose the whole time.”
With that he turned sharply and led his horse away, leaving William to stand watching his retreating form.
******************
WILLIAM SAT IN THE chair by the fireplace after dinner watching Earl and Thomas play checkers. He was glad to see Thomas get beat for once, and vowed not to ever play Earl.
It had been a strange evening. Earl had stayed for dinner, but there had been an uncomfortable silence among the adults all evening. Only Thomas seemed oblivious, keeping a constant barrage of conversation going.
He sighed, looking around; Anna was in the kitchen cleaning up after the meal. He understood his reluctance to talk with Earl after their earlier conversation, but she had been strangely silent as well. He wondered what Earl had said to her.
He wasn’t ignorant; he knew what Earl was hinting at. Anna was a wonderful woman, but he doubted she had any amorous feelings toward him.
To be fair, it wasn’t just him. She was obviously still in love with Clay. That coupled with her insecurity... he doubted...
“Are you alright?”
Startled, he looked up. Anna was standing next to his chair, a cup in her hand. “I brought you some tea.”
He smiled as he accepted the cup, “Thanks, I was lost in thought there.”
“I noticed.” She laughed, looking over her shoulder at Thomas and Earl. “Guess they’re having a good time.”
“What?” he asked in mock sincerity. “You’re not?”
They shared a quiet laugh as they watched the game for a few seconds. Without Earl looming over him like a matchmaker, it was easy to talk with Anna. William sipped the hot tea, burning his lip in the process.
“That’s hot...” Anna broke off, smiling. “But I guess you figured that out already.”
William grunted as he blew gently on his tea. “Are you playing the cello tonight?”
“I’m not sure,” Anna yawned, “May have to get to sleep early. Besides, I think I’ve played everything I know three or four times. Aren’t you getting tired of it yet?”
“Nope, I could listen to it...”
“Ma, Look, I won!”
Thomas had jumped from his seat, and was walking around the room crowing about his victory.
William smiled, and gave a short round of applause, as Thomas sat for a rematch. He looked over at Anna, “You’re probably going to have to run Earl off if your intention is to get to bed early.”
She was watching Earl and Thomas, a thoughtful expression on her face. “You know,” she finally looked over at him, “You always talk about how much you love the cello, but you’ve never talked about why.”
“Why what?”
“Why do you like the cello?” she looked at him, meeting his gaze, “Most men wouldn’t recognize the sound, even Earl calls it a fiddle.”
William smiled, feeling his face heat with embarrassment, He shrugged, noncommittally
“Was it a girl?” She smiled coyly, “Come on... you can tell.”
“Yeah, I guess it was.” He shrugged again. “It’s stupid. I was probably ten, and there was a little girl in school that played. I liked her, so I made my parents take me to concerts.”
“Hers?”
He grinned, “The first few of them were hers. School concerts... but after that they took me to many others.”
“Oooh, a budding romance.” She leaned in dramatically, and whispered, “What happened?”
He shrugged again, “We moved. Never saw her again.”
Anna recoiled in mock horror, “That’s it?”
“That’s the story.”
“All of it?”
“Yes Ma’am... nothing to it.”
“And you still like the cello? What was that, twenty years ago?”
He chuckled softly, “Twenty or twenty one. I can barely keep track of how old I am anymore.”
“That’s how us women handle it, we stop keeping track.”
They fell into a comfortable silence, watching as Earl and Thomas argued back and forth over a move. Finally, Anna asked exasperated, “Really? That’s all?”
He smiled, “I told you.”
“Gotcha!” Earl suddenly exploded in laughter from the table, pointing at the board. He grabbed his checker and made several jumps. “Triple jump, that’s all your pieces. Game.”
“Awww...” Thomas looked dejected as he stared at the board. “Rematch?”
Earl stood, stretching. “No pardner, I gotta ride back to the ranch. Better get a start.”
They said their goodbyes and William walked Earl out to the barn to get his horse. As he climbed up into the saddle, Earl looked him in the eye, “Don’t forget what I said to you.”
William nodded, and watched him ride off into the night.
******************
“WHY DO I HAVE TO READ all the time? You don’t have to read to be a rancher.”
William smiled as he looked up from his Bible. He vaguely remembered saying the same thing to his teachers when he was in school. He tried to remember what his teachers had told him. “Well it’s important for more than that.”
“Like what?”
“Lots of things...” He trailed off, but couldn’t think of anything.
“A successful businessman should be able to read contracts and write letters to his representatives.” Anna spoke from the kitchen.
William looked over at Anna and smiled, thankful she had rescued him. “Exactly... listen to your Ma.”
“I won’t have to read them poetry though.”
Anna rolled her eyes, going back to her cooking.
“Well...” William began, thinking hard, “One day you will want a wife to help you on the ranch, poetry is so you can get her.”
“Ewww, I don’t want a wife.”
Anna snorted laughter from the kitchen.
William nodded sagely, “I understand, but one day you will, and you will be glad you know some poetry.”
Thomas eyed him skeptically, “Keats?”
“Well, that is one.” William shrugged, he still couldn’t get the picture of the woman using her dead lover’s head as fertilizer in her basil patch, “but there are others. The point is that one day, when you like girls, you can use poetry to get a wife.”
“Do you have a wife?”
“No, I’ve never been married.”
“Do you like girls?”
His eyes flickered to Anna who was at the stove, shaking with mirth as she listened to them talk. “Yes, I like girls.”
“So you haven’t found one you like yet?”
“Well, there was a little girl a long time ago...” He smiled, “I was your age, Thomas.”
“Did you tell her a poem?”
He scrunched up his face as he thought, “Nope, never really spoke to her.” He smiled, remembering his and Anna’s conversation. “She did play cello though.”
“Like Ma?”
“Yeah”
“But you never talked to her?”
“Nope.”
“Humph.” Thomas shook his head, and looked back down at his book.
“We’re not supposed to be talking about me though.” He smiled, glancing around the room. The rifle on the mantle caught his eye. It was a Spencer .56. It had been Clay’s rifle that he had brought west, a gift from Anna’s father for the trip. Anna had teared up one night when she had told him the story. She was anticipating the day she could give it to Thomas.
“One of these days we are going to have to teach you to hunt.”
Thomas looked up, his eyes wide with excitement, “Really?”
Anna turned from the stove, her face concerned. “Thomas has never shot a firearm...” she walked toward the table, wiping her hands on her apron.
“I shot Mr. William’s pistol.”
William studied Anna’s face; it was difficult to tell if she was angry. He could only see one side of her face. Maybe he should have asked her first.
“Well...” She finally offered tentatively, “He is getting old enough to learn, are you sure you wouldn’t mind?”
“Will you, Mr. William?” Thomas had jumped up in his excitement, watching him expectantly.
Smiling, William winked at Anna and nodded. “We can probably do that... with one condition.”
Thomas looked as if he was going to burst, “What?”
William grinned, gesturing to the books on the table. “Finish your poetry without complaining.”
******************
