“You’re writing a lot of letters lately,” said her mother, finding Melody at the kitchen table. The parlor clock struck the hour of two o’clock in the A.M. Cleantha looked out the kitchen window. “It’s snowing again. Would you like a cup of warm milk?”
“I’ll get it,” Melody said, setting aside her paper and pencil. “Sit down. Are you having trouble sleeping? Maybe a little rum and honey?” she asked, unearthing the rum bottle from the lower shelf of the pantry.
“Yes, thank you. That would be nice. Who are you writing to tonight?”
Melody poured milk into a saucepan, set it on the cook stove, and began stirring very slowly. “I received another letter from Ollie Miller. She sent you her recipe for apple fritters. They’re in Boise for the winter. Jerry, I told you he and the boys are musicians and acrobats, anyway, they’ve found work playing for weddings and parties, keeping busy. Ollie’s rented a small store downtown. She’s opened a bakery. They’re living above the shop. She hopes to make it a permanent residence.”
“Sounds like she’s done traveling,” Cleantha said.
Melody poured the warm milk into two cups and brought the bottle of rum and pot of honey to the table. “Jerry’s the one who kept her traveling. I think if she can show him she can make more money staying in one place, he’ll settle down. I don’t know about the boys, Mick and Jim. But I want to keep in touch with her.”
“Yes, of course, you do. I hope to meet her someday,” Cleantha said, doctoring her milk with rum and honey. “And your Van? Were you writing to him?”
Melody sat down in her chair, unable to meet her mother’s all-seeing eyes. “I thought I’d tell him about Ollie and Jerry. They really took to him.”
Her mother sipped her toddy and licked her lips. “And you? You really took to him too?”
Squirming a little in her chair, Melody hesitated. “I…I did.” She looked up to meet her mother’s penetrating gaze and tipped her head, cheeks on fire. “You know I did. I want to talk to you about something that’s been on my mind.”
“Hmmm, I thought as much. I’m enjoying my newfound leisure, but I’m a little confused and a lot suspicious. I appreciate your taking over the laundry and so forth but…several times of late I’ve caught you staring off into space with a dreamy look on your face.”
Melody leaned over her cup of milk and confessed, “It’s Jewel.”
Her mother jerked back. “Jewel? Your brother? What about him? Is he in some kind of trouble? Has he involved you in one of his tangles?”
Shaking her head, Melody quickly replied,” No, nothing like that. He certainly doesn’t come around here. I’ve seen him in town. He stays out at the mill with the other millworkers in the mill shacks. And that’s my point; he’s not here. He’s never home. I know he’s been a bit wild in the past, but at least he was home. Now he’s gone. If…if I left too, well, you and Daddy would be all alone. There wouldn’t be anyone here to look after you.”
Hand over her mouth, her mother started to giggle. Melody set the bottle of rum on the counter behind her.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Cleantha said and slapped her hand. “You didn’t worry about us when you left home and went off to school. You went a-roving with a traveling show all around the country doing God only knows what. Now you sit there and tell me all of a sudden you’re worried about your father and me being left alone?
“You need to be out doing something, your father and I know that. You need occupation, a challenge, something that pushes you to your limits and gives you satisfaction. Doing dishes, laundry and feeding chickens will never be enough, but really, dear, I do hope your traveling show days are over. You are…are…a wonder and a delight, and my wish for you includes so much more than becoming someone’s wife and housekeeper. I wish for you a life of satisfaction, passion, and fulfillment.”
Melody bit her lip and considered her mother’s assessment. “So, what you’re saying is, in the past I’ve been a thoughtless, ridiculous, selfish little brat. And I have a lot to learn about being a grownup.”
“Oh, pooh, I have a long way to go before I become a grownup. No one ever quite achieves absolute adulthood. If they do, they become so boring and righteous no one wants to be around them.”
Cleantha drained her cup of milk and took Melody’s hand. “Let me guess the real cause for all this soul searching and self-deprecation. You’ve lost your heart to a certain person, and you’re hoping, but not at all certain, but desperately hoping, and at the same time, scared to death he’ll ask you to share his life. The problem is, the life this person leads is not the life you’ve ever wanted. At least it’s not anything you thought you would want. Which means you’ll have to adjust, leave home, create a home of your own, create a life that fulfills you—start from scratch. You, my dear, have to decide what you really, really want, then go get it.”
“He is good and kind and brave. And…and…he’s beautiful. Too beautiful for someone like me. He has the most beautiful eyes.”
“I beg to differ with you, my dear. No one is too good, or too beautiful for you. You deserve beauty, kindness, and a person of valor and principle. A knight in shining armor is not good enough for you. I can’t wait to meet kind and brave Mr. Beautiful.”
»»•««
“What are you doing out here?” Buck asked, startling Van and causing him to knock a tin cup off the work table. Luckily it was empty. Van picked it up and set it on the frame board above the table. “It’s colder than a well digger’s jewels out here. You know it’s snowing?” Buck said.
Van grinned at his father. He had the little potbellied stove burning red-hot here in the tack room, but yeah, he was still cold. “I was looking over this chart you made of the sleeping arrangements for our guests.”
“I think it’ll work,” Buck said, bending over the paper Van had laid out on the table.
“Yeah, it’ll work,” Van said without enthusiasm.
“Okay, spit it out. What’s wrong with it?”
“Nothing’s wrong with it. The Longtrees have a cabin. Royce’s brother Quinn and his wife Tru, and their boys have a cabin. Cabe and Birdie and Joy have a cabin. Royce, Cleantha, Jewel, and Melody have a cabin. Don’t want Melody’s mother having to do stairs. Jo and Ryder are in a cabin, that’s good, don’t want her doing stairs either. Rafe and Doreen are in the house in Gabe’s room. I’m in the house in my room, and you and Idella are in your room. It’s good.”
Buck tipped his head to the side and stared at him without blinking for a long moment. Van rolled up the sheet of paper and handed it to him. Unable to stand the knowing look in his father’s eyes, he went over and shut down the damper on the little stove. It shuddered in protest.
His father leaned his hip against the work table. “Doesn’t leave a fella any place but here in the barn or down at the spring if he had in mind to do a bit of sparkin’ I guess.”
Van kicked the kindling bucket. “That isn’t a problem.”
“No? Then what is it?”
“All right, all right. Yeah, it’s part of the problem, but I’ll manage just fine, thank you. It’s…it’s…the thing is Dad, if…if I were to say, take a wife…live here, because this is my home, where would…where, which cabin would be our home? We need the cabins for our guests. A man needs a house for a woman, a family. I don’t have one. I have this tack room. I sleep in here most nights. Cold nights like tonight. I can’t ask a woman to do that.
“The tough woman I’m thinking of would do it. Hell, she slept in a barn with her damn horse for a couple of years, so she’d probably sleep in here with me if she were fool enough to take me up on my offer. What I have to offer isn’t much, at least not from a woman’s point of view.
“I have a whole lot of doubts she’d accept an offer from me. She’s more apt to laugh in my face and punch me in the arm. This woman presents a challenge on all fronts. She’s smarter than me, fearless, reckless, self-reliant as hell, independent, stubborn and the most beautiful, wild creature I’ve ever seen riding a horse. Fool that I am, by the tone of her letters, there is a chance she might take me up on my dare to hitch her wagon to mine.”
Buck stood there, lips pressed tightly together, and then burst out laughing and slapped Van on the back. “I love it,” he said and turned to leave. “Come inside, go to bed. We’ll work it out. You’ll see. We’ll work it out. Been meaning to talk to you about expanding this operation anyway. Could be we could add a wing to the house. We enclosed the back porch and added onto the house for Jauna and her kin. But you’ll need a proper house, not a cabin or an addition. I’ll draw up a few ideas. You draw some ideas. Then when this wild woman of yours gets here, she can tear them apart and draw up a plan of her own. That’s the way most women work. You’ll get used to it, even think it’s cute once in a while. But most of the time it’s annoying as hell when their plans turn out to be better.
“Miss Melody McAdam, I never met the lady. Jo mentioned her, said she’d left with a traveling show. I can’t wait to meet your wild woman. Can’t wait. You’ve got me all excited, son. I’ll never get to sleep now.”