AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The moment her gaze lit on his, she trembled. He searched her eyes, then his focus slipped lower to the area of her lips and back again. Her mouth hung slightly open in shock and she forced it closed.
“You’re making this devilishly hard on me.” His raspy voice released more trembles in the region of her belly.
His hands were steady and sure. She couldn’t fall there when he held her up. Just like he had once protected her, he was unknowingly doing so again. This time, just like then, she didn’t feel worthy. Then, because he had been her enemy up to that point and she couldn’t fathom even the idea of him caring for her. Now, he was too close to the man he was back at school, the grumpy bully, for her to believe he cared.
“Alice,” Josie’s voice came from behind.
Alice jumped away from Kent’s hold and she brushed her hair from her face as she spun to face her sister-in-law. “Yes?” she squeaked past her tight throat.
“Hannah sent a message in with Mrs. Eliza this morning. She wants you to come help her cook for the prisoners. They’ve got quite a few in the jail and the task is more than she can handle on her own. She’d like you to bring her dog back, too.” Josie stared at her, her face unflinching.
Cooking for a bunch of rowdy men in jail was safer than standing there in the presence of the man who’d stolen her heart again. Stolen and held it captive because he wasn’t about to do anything with it. She chided herself for her hopes. If he released her, where would she be? At least he was still speaking to her. Without that, she’d be sullen and alone.
“I’ll go straightaway. Does she need me to bring anything else?” She felt more than heard Kent’s retreat behind her. He would head back to the barn, gather his mount, and head out in a moment. Just like he did every morning. The difference today, she hadn’t said goodbye. She hadn’t wished him well in his endeavors. With her tears and flight from the barn, she’d leave him thinking she was distraught over the puppy and her inability to help the poor animal.
So be it.
“No, she needs nothing but your help.” Josie passed her and headed for the barn.
Leo and Gideon exited the house next and gave her a curt nod as they passed. All of them seemed to take it for granted that she would just be gone all day helping Hannah. Maybe her assistance in the barn wasn’t as needed as she’d assumed if they could so quickly absorb it without her knowledge.
She took the bottle inside and Mrs. Eliza relieved her of it the moment she stepped through the door. “Good morning. You were in and out of here so quickly for breakfast that I missed you while I was gathering the laundry,” she chided. “What’s got you in such a rush these days?”
If only she could tell her. Mrs. Eliza had always been compassionate and understanding. Now, as a grandmother, she was even more so. “I’ve been helping Hannah’s dog all this time, but I’m returning him today.” She’d forgotten until that moment that she would need to take the wagon in order to carry the dog.
“At least you’ll have the time to visit her now. She was always your closest companion. I wonder if you don’t need her to talk to. You’ve kept to yourself lately.” Mrs. Eliza went about gathering different things, putting them into jars, and tucking the jars into a basket. Finally, when Alice had finished scrubbing her hands from the barn, Mrs. Eliza shoved the basket at her. “Here. After cooking for all those men, you won’t want to do anything for yourselves. You can eat while you talk.”
Alice slid the handle over her arm. “Thank you. I wouldn’t have thought of that. We would’ve finished the chore and just let ourselves be hungry. You’re a treasure.” She kissed Mrs. Eliza on the cheek and hoped the woman knew she meant every word.
“Ach, there’s my old Alice back.” Mrs. Eliza grinned. “Now, be gone with ye.”
After living more than half her life there in South Dakota, Mrs. Eliza rarely let her old way of speaking show itself, but when she was particularly happy or sad, it snuck out like a secret to a beloved friend.
“I won’t be home for supper. I plan to spend the day with Hannah. Since I don’t have to feed the puppy tonight, there’s no point in rushing.” And talking with Hannah might distract her from pining over Kent overmuch.
“Good. Enjoy your time, though it be filled with work.”
Alice headed to the barn to hitch a horse to the wagon, saddened by the cavernous emptiness of the barn. When would she see Kent again? She’d promised her father she wouldn’t go to the Douglas ranch, and he had no excuse to visit there.
For the first time in her life, a promise seemed like a physical bond to her soul.
* * *
Alice pulledinto her sister’s front yard and stopped the horse just as Hannah came out. “Oh, you’re here!” She raced around the back of the wagon and threw the bolt holding the back hatch closed, then let the gate fall. Colby’s head raised and he whined as Hannah scooped up the little dog and held him close. “I’ve worried the entire time he was gone.”
Guilt nipped at Alice’s conscience. Hannah could’ve just as easily fed the little dog as she had once they’d discovered Lilly wouldn’t take the puppy. “I’m sorry. I should’ve brought him back to you right away.”
Hannah buried her face in the little dog’s neck. “He was where he should’ve been. I wanted Kent to be able to look in on him often, and he couldn’t do that here. Come on inside.” Hannah took the dog with her toward the house.
Alice quickly climbed down and unhitched her horse, leaving it in the barn where Hannah had her animals. Once the wagon was back where it belonged, she joined Hannah inside.
Colby was curled in a small cradle by the woodstove, nestled in a mound of soft blankets. Alice held in a giggle. “I don’t suppose Blake will be using that dog for work now.”
“I’ll not have it.” Hannah set a half dozen potatoes on the table along with a paring knife. “Here, you skin these and cut them while I do the carrots.”
Alice piled them in a bowl first to wash them and got to chatting with Hannah about the week while she scrubbed and Hannah peeled. She left out a few important details when she told Hannah how she’d met Kent by the river. Some things were for her own mind to mull over.
“Are you telling me you’ve spent the last week seeing Kent morning and evening? Good, then my meddling worked.” She set down her knife and took the sticky peelings in both hands, then deposited them in a waiting bowl of salt water to be boiled and ground into a soup base.
