Eight

As the sun sank toward the tree line, Theo’s conscience began to bother him more than the ache in his bones. Clothilde Trahan had most likely arrived home and been asked to explain how she came to return without the items she went to town for.

He should put the girl out of her misery and just take the basket to her. Joe had probably run out of candy by now, and Flo surely had nothing new to read. There was no sense in the two of them paying the price for their niece’s silliness.

Yes, that’s what he ought to do. Just a quick trip to the Trahan place, and he’d be on his way. Leaning against the porch rail, he tried to come up with a good reason why he shouldn’t.

In short order, he decided there were any number of reasons for going straight home now that the dinner hour was coming soon, not the least of which that his mama had promised a big mess of shrimp étouffée and hush puppies for supper. He did love fresh-caught shrimp cooked up over rice, and his mama’s cornmeal, green onion, and spice concoction made for the best hush puppies in south Louisiana.

His stomach growled at the thought. Yes, indeed, forgetting all about today and heading for a meal made for a hard-working bayou man was just the thing to end the day better than it started.

Still, there was the matter of the basket.

Scanning the horizon, he almost hoped he might see a flash of yellow that would tell him the girl was at her games again—spying from the thicket until he left so she could sneak up and fetch the lost basket. That would certainly get him off the hook, and he could go home with an empty stomach and a clear conscience. Unfortunately, no sign of anyone, male or female, greeted him.

Theo sighed and shoved the hammer into his belt as he turned his attention back to the work at hand. He’d done a fair job of patching the Breaux-sized hole in the roof and weathering it in. Tomorrow he’d begin the tedious process of lining up the shingles and hammering them in place—again.

This time he would use twice the number of nails to make the roof stronger, not that he planned to take another dive through the thing. Of course, with Clothilde Trahan on the loose, a man never knew.

Anything could happen.

Theo wiped his brow and looked off toward the west. Dark clouds had been gathering all afternoon and now rode in great gray clumps along the horizon. Their fat bodies stretched as far as the eye could see, covering the sun and leaving the earthy scent of rain in the air.

Unless he missed his guess, the night would be a stormy one. At least the cabin’s front room would stay dry.

He thought of the abandoned iron bed and the feather mattress upon which he’d landed. Someday if I marry up with that girl, I’ll have to have that bedstead for our home.

Theo nearly fell off the ladder. Where in the world had that come from?

Climbing down with care, he decided he must have hit his head on his way through the roof earlier. Nothing could be further from possible than for him to marry up with any bayou girl, least of all that one.

He’d wed himself to that donkey she’d told him about before he’d shackle himself to her.

For just a moment, he put aside his plans and allowed himself to wonder what it would be like to wake up next to the fiery beauty every morning until the Lord took him home. On first consideration, the idea did have some appeal, at least in the abstract.

He chuckled. Life might be entertaining, but it would never be boring. With his luck, they’d end up with a dozen daughters just like her. Now that was a sobering thought.

No, surely the Lord had better things for him than a trip down the aisle with a certain hardheaded busybody, even if she was the prettiest thing he ever laid eyes on. Mama told him God only held the best for each of His children, and in Theo’s estimation, the best had to be something other than a life spent never knowing when he’d fall through the next roof.

Besides, he still had roads to travel and adventures to live. There was plenty of time for him to settle down someday.

Life as a married man could start after he’d seen the world—starting with Canada. He’d get there before the first snow fell and stay through the spring. After that, who knew? Alaska maybe, or perhaps he’d just hop a ship to parts unknown.

He’d always wanted to see the world. No better time than the present.

But first he had a mess of shrimp and hush puppies to eat, and if he didn’t get home on time, there’d be nothing left but the crumbs.

That decided, Theo left the basket on the porch rail and headed for home. If she wanted it, she’d find it.

He got close enough to the home place to smell the shrimp frying before he turned around and headed back to the cabin to fetch the basket off the porch rail. The Lord might be willing to let Theo see the world, but it seemed as though He was telling him he needed to clear up a bit of business with Clothilde Trahan first.

Stomping his way to the Trahan place under protest, Theo clutched the basket in his hand. As he neared Joe’s home, the first fat drops of rain hit him square on the head.

“Great,” he grumbled as he stopped to pull the magazine from the basket and slide it beneath his shirt.

The candy fit easily into his pants pocket. Basket empty and Trahan treasures secured, Theo set back on his way as the rain began to come down in earnest.

He arrived at the Trahans’ front door, soaked to the skin and starved. As he knocked, he smelled the unmistakable scent of shrimp étouffée. His stomach groaned, and so did he.

Why the Lord seemed to be picking on him today was beyond understanding.

A thought occurred. He could leave the basket right here and take off for home without any member of the Trahan family knowing he stood on their porch. He removed the slightly damp Godey’s Ladies Book from beneath his shirt and placed it in the basket, then dumped the penny candies in after it.

Now to find a place to leave the basket where it wouldn’t get wet. The porch rail was out of the question as the rain poured down upon it. A swing sat at the far end of the porch, but it might be days before someone thought to look all the way down there.

“Come on in here out of the weather.”

Theo jumped and nearly sent the basket and its contents flying across the porch. He gathered his wits and turned to see Flo standing at the door, an apron tied around her waist and a dish towel thrown over one shoulder.

“Well, actually I just brought—”

“Is that Theo Breaux?” Joe Trahan pressed past his wife to shake Theo’s hand. “How’s it going, boy? You come by to share supper with us?”

He thrust the basket in Joe’s direction. Rather than take it, Joe stared at the item as if he’d never seen it, then turned his gaze on Theo.

“Did my niece know you’d be visiting tonight?”

“No, I don’t think so,” he said, although it was just a guess.

Flo looped her hand around the basket’s handle and smiled. “Well, thank you for bringing this by, Theo. Especially in this weather. I’m so pleased to have something new to read. And Joe, isn’t it nice that Theo would go to all this trouble to bring your penny candy by tonight?”

Relief flooded Theo’s aching bones. “It was no trouble, really.”

Joe took a step toward Theo and grasped him by the elbow. “Flo, set another place at the table. Theo and I’ll be in just as soon as we talk some business.”

Theo made a weak attempt to protest, but Flo had already disappeared inside. He turned his attention to Joe. Maybe he could talk his way out of staying. Surely Joe Trahan wouldn’t hold a man to a dinner invitation he didn’t want to accept.

“I appreciate the offer,” Theo said, “but I really ought to get on home.”

Joe tightened his grip on Theo’s elbow past the point where it felt neighborly. Theo looked down into the older Cajun’s eyes and saw something that surprised him.

The man looked positively angry.

“I’m glad you stopped by, young man.” He motioned to the swing on the far end of the porch. “Go sit down. I was speaking the truth when I told Flo you and I had some business to discuss. If you hadn’t had the decency to show up at my front door tonight, I would have been at yours before bedtime.”

From the look on Joe’s face and the urgency in his words, there was something big going on down at the schoolhouse. The last thing Theo needed was to try and make sense of another set of building plans.

It was hard enough to make out the chicken scratching Joe wrote on the pages he regularly gave Theo. Generally Theo would smile and do the best he could, then take the papers home for his brother Alphonse to decipher. Tonight of all nights he just didn’t have the strength to deal with it.

“Honestly, sir, it’s been a long day,” he said with the best smile he could muster. “How about I come a little early for coffee in the morning? We can talk all you want then, eh?”

Joe leveled a hard stare in Theo’s direction. “After I finish with you, I’m not sure you and I will be having coffee in the mornings anymore.”