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She smiled. “Of course, I did. Besides, I think Walt is going to love it.”
“He’s never had fried chicken?” Earl asked, surprised. “Why have you been depriving this boy his entire life?”
“This is my first time to make it,” she admitted. “I had Mrs. Royal write down a receipt for it on Sunday so I could make it as a celebration meal when branding was finally over.” She shook her head. “I cannot express how thankful I am that you were here in time for me not to have to do it alone.”
“It was a huge job for more than twenty men. What would it have been like to do it alone?” he asked. “I don’t even want to think about it.”
“We don’t have to, since you came to my rescue and handled it for me.” She sat down across from him and joined hands with him and Walt for their prayer.
Once they’d said their amens, Earl took his first bite of the chicken, and sighed happily. “It’s delicious.”
“Oh good. I was worried you wouldn’t like it.”
She’d given Walt a drumstick, thinking it would be the easiest thing for him to eat, and he had lifted it and started gnawing at it. “Do you like it, Walt?”
The boy nodded.
When she tried it, she smiled. “I’ll have to make this again. I’ve never tried fried chicken, but it’s rather good.”
Earl gaped at Charlotte. “You’ve never even eaten fried chicken?”
She shook her head. “The man who raised me wasn’t fond of chicken, so he told me not to cook those receipts in the book. Howard never asked for it, so I never even thought about fixing it. It wasn’t even in my mind that chickencouldbe fried.”
“But you make delicious chicken and dumplings!”
“They were a meal that Howard’s mother was fond of, and I learned to make them from her. Then Walt loved them, so I kept making them.” She shrugged. “I don’t have a lot of experience with food or anything else. The only towns I’ve ever been to are Mountain Home and Cauldron Valley. I’ve been inside one church. Never went to school.” She shrugged. “Maybe someday, I’ll get to experience more things.”
“We’re going to have to find a foreman we trust, so we can head back east on the train. I think visiting my family for a week would be just the kind of thing we’d both enjoy.”
“I’m not sure I want this demon horde of yours around Walt.”
He laughed. “They would just show him how to have a good time. You know, snakes and frogs in the teacher’s desk…tying people into outhouses. Good clean fun!”
“You should be ashamed you ever even considered those things fun.”
“Probably. And yet, I’m not.” Earl winked at her, and Charlotte couldn’t help but laugh.
Walt looked back and forth between the two of them as if he was trying to figure out what was so funny. “Do you want to go visit my family, Walt? There are children your age who would love to play!”
Walt shook his head adamantly.
Charlotte was surprised. “You don’t like other children?” she asked.
He shook his head again.
Earl had to wonder what was going on in the boy’s head. There was something he couldn’t figure out how to tell them. Earl was certain of it.
Walt followed along to help milk the cow as he usually did that night, and Earl decided to ask some questions and see what would happen. “Have other children been mean to you?” he asked.
Walt shook his head, his eyes going to something on the wall behind Earl. When Earl turned his head to see what it was, there was nothing there but some old, broken reins.
Earl set up the stool and handed Walt the pail, and the boy milked the cow carefully just as he’d been taught.
While he milked, Earl kept trying. “Walt, why don’t you talk?”
Walt shrugged.
“Are you afraid to talk?”
