Henry realized that something was missing and had been missing for a long time in their home. Cora’s joyous laughter! His sister was such a happy girl and her merry laughter used to fill their home in Akron and even when she was annoyed or irritated by one thing or the other it would last for a brief moment and then her laughter would once again be heard.
But it seemed as though from the moment they had come to Last Chance, Cora had stopped laughing. And she had stopped sharing with him. True they were busy with building their new home and getting settled in but Henry knew that something was amiss.
He and Cora were very close and many times when they were young and even recently they would gang up against Michael who stood no chance against their united front. But lately Cora seemed lost in a world of her own and rarely smiled nor made any contributions to family discussions. She seemed to be an outsider and Henry felt that the girl had built a wall around her and which he was unable to penetrate.
He tried to cheer his sister up with jokes and gifts but apart from a polite smile and thanks, she seemed to totally ignore him. One day as he and Michael were putting the finishing touches to their new house, he broached the subject to his sibling. His parents had been invited to lunch by the Willards and Cora had been invited but she had claimed that she was unwell and no amount of coaxing or begging could get her to change her mind. Immediately her parents left home, she had locked herself in her room.
“Michael, I am worried,” Henry began, pausing from plastering the house with smoothened clay to cover all the rough patches.
Michael looked up. “What are you worried about? We are making good progress and in about a week or two this house should be ready for us to move in, or rather for the old folks and Cora to move in. We will stay here for a day or two just as we make repairs to the cabin.”
Henry shook his head. “I am not worried about the house, it is Cora who has me really worried.”
“How do you mean?” Michael frowned slightly, his eyebrows drawn together in a straight line.
“Just listen to that?” Henry waved a hand.
“Listen to what? Apart from the birds calling out to each other there is silence all around us.”
“Exactly,” Henry hit his right hand with his left fist. “That silence is what I am talking about.” He sighed. “Do you remember when we were constructing the smaller barn in Akron?”
“Yes.”
“What is different from now?”
Michael twisted his lips. “Cora’s laughter and joy,” he said at last.
“That is what I mean. Cora has not laughed, not since we moved to Last Chance. She seems to be a shadow of her former self. She just picks at her food. When Ma and Pa are not looking a large amount of food ends up in her pockets.”
Michael leaned against the wall. “Cora is growing up and I know that young women go through a lot of emotional turmoil especially when they are about to get married and leave home. I know that Cora is probably reacting to all that is going on, what with Andrew showing a great interest in her. It will not be long before Pa and Ma agree to his courtship and then the turmoil of wedding plans will begin. Every normal girl goes through all that.”
“I hope you are right,” Henry said, but he was not convinced that it was wedding or engagement jitters that were making his sister miserable. Cora despised women who ‘got vapors’ as she called nervousness. He shook his head. Cora was not nervous, she was sad, deeply sad and he vowed to find out what was ailing her.
Cora was crying in her room, glad that her parents were away and her brothers were working on the new house. She had already prepared lunch for them and all they had to do was serve themselves.
She was reading the letters that Louis had written to her and one made her even sadder. Louis was a very noble man and she just wished her parents would see him for what he really was and not just judge him for his lack of material things. It was his reply to the letter she had written asking him to consider running away with her.
My Love, My Dove,
I feel your pain every day but like I have told you over and over again let us be strong. God is on our side and I am quite convinced of that because instead of our love diminishing because we are absent from each other, it is growing stronger. Every Sunday when I see you in church, my heart rejoices because when we share a stolen glance I see the love shining in your eyes and I am sure you see my love in my eyes too. I long for you Cora, and I long for the day when we will be together.
Running away together is a very tempting idea and eloping can be justified because of what we are going through right now. But my love, I want you to think about the deeper implications of this. You love your parents and your family so much and being parted from them in such a way will cause you a lot of anguish. I know you are ready to make a home with me wherever we may go but your heart will be deeply wounded in the process and my greatest desire on earth is never to see you going through pain again. This pain is for a brief moment my love, but think about the joy that will eventually be ours.
More than that we both share a deep faith in God and eloping will be tantamount to saying that we have lost our faith in God and that is why we have taken matters into our own hands. Separation from our families is painful, but separation from God is ten times worse. Be patient, my love. Waiting and winning you in the right way is the only way that I can prove my love to your parents. Remember First Corinthians the thirteenth chapter where Apostle Paul tells us that love is patient, love is kind, love bears all things, hopes all things and believes all things. Let our love win this war for us, Cora. Let us rest in the arms of Jesus and all will be well.
I love you so much, my dearest heart, never have any doubt about that, but elopement is not the answer. Hold on, believe in us, believe in our love, believe in our God.
Your own beloved Louis.”
“Oh Louis,” Cora wept. “How much I love you. You are the most noble of men that I have ever known,” she whispered as she kissed his letter. “I wish I could talk to you and just pour my heart out to you when we are standing face to face.”
As Mary and Walter continued to praise Andrew and his family, Cora withdrew more and more and spoke even less. Henry was deeply worried. He had noticed that whenever Andrew visited, Cora made herself as scarce as possible and she winced when the man even tried to hold her hand. If it was not so sad, he would have laughed at Cora’s antiquities to avoid Andrew’s touch. She would cover her hands with flour and so avoid shaking his hand, and when he took to kissing her cheek, she began smearing lard on her cheeks before presenting herself to him. In church she was no better, because immediately the service would be over she would be among the first to go to the Sunday School hall to serve lunch to the congregation.
Summer was coming to an end and the nights were so hot that Henry found it difficult to sleep. He envied Michael who fell asleep immediately when his head touched his pillow. He sat up in his bed and pulled his shirt on. He needed a drink of water and walked barefoot on the wooden floor which had been made by splitting logs into flat faced puncheons.
As he passed Cora’s door, he heard a muffled sound coming from inside and he stopped, glad that his feet made no sound. He heard his sister blowing her nose silently and the crying went on for a long time.
For two days, Henry listened outside Cora’s door and each time he heard her crying. His sister was miserable and he was determined to find out what was wrong. He knew that Cora would never open up in the presence of their parents, nor Michael and he thought about taking her away from the homestead because he knew that once they were alone, Cora would share her grief with him.
Henry knew that every two days, Cora took the wagon to town to deliver her mother’s butter and the cakes and pies that she baked to the general store. She was quite adept at handling the horse that pulled the cart that he and Michael had built for running small errands, he had taught her how to do it and she was a very smart girl. The best time to get Cora alone would be when she was going into town and so the next time she prepared herself to go to town he was there.
“I need to get some things from the store,” he announced, helping her onto the front of the cart. Cora loved the moments that she drove the cart to town because it gave her time to think, and she also got the chance to get away from her mother’s insistent nagging and chatting about Andrew Willard.
The first few minutes of their trip were done in deep silence. Henry was steering the horse so Cora sat back and closed her eyes, pretending to doze off so her brother would not talk to her. She could no longer stand any small talk from her family and she felt like she was slowly going out of her mind.
“I miss your laughter, Cora,” Henry said quietly, throwing a quick glance at her to see if she was awake, then he put his eyes back on the road. He saw her small fists clenching and unclenching on her lap and he knew that she was awake. “What happened to you, Cora? Why are you so sad all the time?”
“Nothing,” she said hoarsely, then cleared her throat. “I am fine.”
“You are not fine,” he shook his head. “For a while now I have been listening outside your door and you cry so much in the night. What is wrong? Why are you so unhappy? I thought you were the one who urged our parents to move to Montana, but it seems as though ever since we got here all you do is cry. Besides that, you have lost a lot of weight and Michael thinks it is because you are getting wedding jitters.”
Cora snorted. “Wedding jitters indeed,” she scorned.
“Cora, please tell me what is wrong.”
Cora twisted her lips. She also missed the times she had shared with her favorite brother. In the days past whenever she was hurting or sad, she would always go to Henry and his wisdom and kindness would soon have her smiling again.
“I am so afraid for you, Cora. If you carry on like this then you will waste away and that would hurt us all.”
“Nobody cares about what I feel so I really don’t care if I waste away and die, what is the worth of life if all it brings each day is pain?”
“I care, and you know that very well. Remember how you always came to me for solutions? You don’t do that anymore and have chosen to suffer alone. What is making you cry so much?”
Cora was silent as they entered the town and immediately they finished their business and were on their way once again, Henry repeated his question. He stopped the cart just outside town to let the horse graze for a little while. He turned to his sister. “Cora, it is just you and I, tell me what is going on with you and why you are in so much pain and sorrow.”
“There is only one man for me, Henry, but you, Michael and our parents made sure that you had humiliated him because he does not have material goods.”
“Are you talking about Louis Albert?”
Cora looked at her brother, tears in her eyes. “Yes Henry, I love Louis Albert with my whole heart and I don’t care if you choose to tell Ma and Pa. Nothing you do or they say can hurt me any more than it already has hurt me. I don’t care anymore, just do what you want and go and tell Ma and Pa that I am still carrying a torch for Louis Albert.”
Henry looked at his sister who seemed so broken and defeated. “Cora, Ma and Pa had valid reasons why they did not accept Louis’s proposal.”
“What valid reasons? The fact that he is older than me?”
“Thirteen years is a big age gap, Cora, the man could almost be your father.”
“But he is not,” she pointed out. “Louis is a noble man, a kind hearted man who is a true
Christian, not like the other man that you are all pushing in my direction.” She tightened her lips. “Just know this one thing, Henry, if it comes down to Ma and Pa accepting Andrew’s proposal then it will be the last time any of you will ever see me again.”
Henry looked into Cora’s eyes and her words struck a deep cord. “You cannot mean that.”
“I mean every word that I am saying. I love Louis Albert with my heart and soul and if I cannot be married to him then I will not marry any other man. I would rather spend my days as an old maid or if the worst comes to the worst and our parents think of forcing me to be married to Andrew Willard then I would rather die.”
***
The temperature in the mine was cold and Louis pulled his thick pullover closer. He was grateful for the thick rubber boots that covered his feet. Reuben was a good friend and had sold him all he needed at a very fair price. Reuben had also helped him to make a special hat out of canvas. It had a leather brim on which he hung his teapot lamp which he was using to light the way. The lamp was made in the shape of a teapot and a wick burned out of the open sprout. The lamp had a hook that he inserted into his hat, and the tallow that he had filled it with made the wick burn brightly.
He had been coming to these same mines for weeks now but so far he had found nothing, apart from a few particles of gold dust. The mine had been abandoned when all gold ran out and it was now inhabited by bats and other small rodents which scurried to hide when he approached. This was one of the mines that had produced the largest amount of gold in Last Chance but like many others had had a short life. Now no one came to it because some of the old miners said the ground was unstable and the mine could cave in at any time.
None of this deterred the young man however, his one desire was to prove to the world that Louis Albert was a man like other men and he could strike gold and become rich like other men, and win the woman of his heart. He knew that Cora would gladly live with him in a hole if need be, but her parents were another matter altogether. They seemed to place a lot of value on material wealth and had seemingly been blinded by the Willards’ wealth. He, however, did not blame them because they were new in Last Chance and had not discovered the kind of person that Andrew Willard was. His parents were good folk but the son was a rotten apple, diseased to the core.
Being in the boarding house he heard things, and he knew that Andrew was a very immoral man and a drunk, besides the gambling that he did and what was worse, he cheated at cards and used violence on anyone who dared oppose him. Just the thought of Cora his darling, the love of his heart ending up in the claws of such a wicked man made him shudder. Andrew would destroy the gentle Cora, and that made Louis the more determined to find the gold that would endear him to her parents. Cora belonged to him, with him and he would do anything it took to ensure that he won her parents over and married her.
He put his shovel and pick axe on the floor, as well as his hat, taking care not to put the lamp off. He always carried a thick stick on which he had wrapped pieces of canvas that he dipped in tallow and he now lit the crude torch and stuck it on the wall of the cave that he had ventured into. Reuben had worked this mine and had told him that it was a very deep mine but so far Andrew had not even ventured halfway. The mine gently slopped downwards and Reuben had warned him never to enter it during the rainy season.
“The place can get flooded real fast and many a man have drowned in those caves,” he heard the old man’s voice. It was summer and there were no signs of rain and that was why Louis worked in this mine. He was quite safe for now and he got down to work, first lifting the pick axe to strike at the rocks that lined up the walls of the cave. He knew that gold usually lay deep in the rocks and so it had to be dug out and his pick axe was quite sharp. He worked silently for a long while, humming hymns softly to cheer his heart.