A Home at Trail's End (29 page)

On Sunday morning, Mr. and Mrs. Kincaid rode Beau and Bella back to the church, where they were warmly greeted by family and friends. Sitting with Eli and JT and Ruth, listening to Reverend Holmes' sermon, which was even more positive than the last one, Elizabeth felt very nearly perfectly happy. She probably would have been completely perfectly happy if she hadn't noticed something on the way to church.

Just as they were passing the brushy section near the creek, she'd observed the foliage moving. Eli had suggested it was the wind, although there didn't seem to be any breezes blowing. Then he said perhaps it was simply her imagination. And although she conceded that was possible, she felt fairly certain that wasn't it either. Somehow she knew that woman was still there. And the child. And somehow she was going to reach out to them. In the meantime, she would keep praying for them.

After church, while Eli was hitching the team to the wagon, Clara told Elizabeth that the children were welcome to stay with her and Asa for a few more days. “If you and Eli would like some more alone time.”

“I don't think that's necessary,” Elizabeth quietly told her. “Eli and I are both anxious to have the children settled in the home with us. I can't wait for them to see their rooms.”

Clara smiled. “What did you think of everything?”

“It's all so wonderful and amazing. I could hardly believe it.” Now Elizabeth began to gush, thanking her mother for all her sweet little touches. “One week from today, I want to have you all over for a thank-you dinner.”

“That will be fun,” Clara told her. “But I thought today you might want to join us for Sunday dinner. We had so much food left over from the wedding! We shared some with Matthew and Jess, but we want to send some of the food home with you. Also, the children's clothing and things are at our house. You'll need to pick them up.”

“I'll check with Eli, but I'm sure we'd like to come,” Elizabeth said. “Especially since I haven't got our kitchen very well set up yet. However, we might not linger much afterward. Eli hopes to get our livestock moved from Malinda's this afternoon.” Elizabeth waved to her sister-in-law, who was approaching. “I know she'll appreciate it.”

“Are you all settled in yet?” Malinda asked as she joined them.

“I haven't unpacked much,” Elizabeth admitted. “But I feel completely at home. And we're taking the children home with us today.”

“Already?” Malinda frowned. “I thought they were going to spend a few days at your parents'.”

Elizabeth shrugged. “I'm eager to have my family all under one roof.” Now she told Malinda about the loft bedrooms. “One for JT and one for Ruth.”

“Oh, my. I look forward to seeing this house. When will I be invited over?”

“Give me a few days to get unpacked,” Elizabeth told her. “How about coming over for tea? Sometime when the children are in school? I think I should have everything unpacked and put to order by midweek. How about Thursday?”

“I'll be there with bells on,” Malinda promised.

“And Eli and JT will be by your place later this afternoon to pick up our livestock,” Elizabeth promised. “And we've got the wagon, so we'll pick up the chickens and anything else we left behind on our way home from church.”

It wasn't long until they were on their way home, with Elizabeth and Eli in front of the wagon and JT and Ruth in the back. Ruth was as chatty as a magpie, talking about yesterday's wedding and how many days until Christmas and a dozen other unrelated things. Meanwhile, JT seemed to be unusually quiet. Finally, worried that he might be coming down with something, Elizabeth decided to get to the bottom of his sullenness. “Are you feeling quite well, JT?”

“I feel fine, Ma.”

“You seem rather quiet.” She turned to peer at him, seeing that he had a slightly perplexed expression. “Is something wrong, son?”

“No. Nothing's wrong.”

“It's about Eli,” Ruth blurted out.

“Ruth!” JT glared at his little sister.

“I'm sorry,” Ruth told him. “But you should tell Mama and Eli about what's troubling you.”

Elizabeth glanced at Eli to see that he was looking a little uncomfortable. She wondered if JT could be having second thoughts about their marriage. However, it was a little late for that. Even so, perhaps this wasn't the best time to have a conversation like this. She wasn't sure what to do.

“Go ahead and tell them, JT,” Ruth said. “Or else I will.”

“Ruth!” JT sounded truly irritated.

“If you have something to say,” Eli began slowly, “maybe you should just get it out in the open, JT. I'm sure it's something we can all sort out together. We're a family now.”

“Come on,” Ruth urged.

“All right,” JT grumbled. “I was just wondering, now that you and Ma are married, what are we supposed to call you? Do we still call you Eli? Or do we call you Pa?”

Eli's countenance relaxed. “Well, I think that's up to you and Ruth,” Eli said. “I'm comfortable with you calling me Eli if that's what you'd prefer. And I'd be rightly honored if someday you feel like calling me Pa. I realize I have some big shoes to fill, but I do want to be your father. When I married your mother, I married you children too. We are a family now.”

“Well, I want to call you Pa,” Ruth declared.

Eli turned to smile at her. “I am truly honored, Ruth.”

“I reckon I should call you Pa too,” JT said. “If you really don't mind.”

“I do not mind in the least. Like I said, I am honored.”

Elizabeth let out a relieved sigh. Well then, that was settled.

Chapter Twenty-Two

A
fter dinner at Elizabeth's parents', they loaded up the wagon and continued on toward home. Elizabeth tried to act calm, but she was so excited about how JT and Ruth would react to the finished house. “Here we are,” she said as Eli pulled the wagon in front.

“Oh, my!” Ruth exclaimed. “It's bigger than Grandma and Grandpa's cabin, isn't it?”

“Yes, but there are four of us and only two of them,” Elizabeth pointed out as they climbed from the wagon. “And instead of unloading everything right now, do you want to go in and look around first?”

The children didn't argue, and she and Eli exchanged glances as they followed them into the house. Their reactions were similar to Elizabeth's, although Ruth was much more vocal and JT used his comments sparingly.

“And now you need to go up the stairs,” Elizabeth told them. She and Eli waited down below, listening as the children exclaimed over the two separate bedrooms. A short argument erupted over who got which room, but eventually both JT and Ruth decided that the spaces were identical, and JT flipped a coin to determine who got what.

“I love my room,” Ruth declared as she came down the stairs. “And the bed is really comfortable.”

“I didn't know we'd have our own rooms,” JT said happily as he rejoined them. “Thanks, Eli.” He chuckled. “I mean, Pa.”

“Yes! Thank you, Pa!” Ruth told Eli.

Although Elizabeth was glad the children accepted Eli enough to call him Pa, it was a bit unsettling too. The last man they'd called Pa had been James. And, the truth was, she wasn't sure she was ready for this. And yet she didn't want them to keep calling him Eli either. Really, she should be thankful.

“Let's get the wagon unloaded,” Eli said to JT. “And then we'll change out of our church clothes and go fetch our livestock.”

Elizabeth pointed at Ruth. “And let's get changed out of our Sunday clothes too. Then you can help me get those chickens all settled.”

“Do you think they're glad to be home, Mama?”

“I'm sure they are.”

“I think so too. Especially since some of Malinda's hens were bossy toward ours,” Ruth said. “As if they thought they were better.”

“Well, our hens were newcomers. Maybe they didn't like that.”

“Or maybe they were jealous.”

“Jealous?”

Ruth giggled. “Because of Reginald.”

“The rooster?”

“Yes. Because Reginald probably liked our hens better than Aunt Malinda's.”

Elizabeth laughed, thinking that could be beneficial to increasing their numbers. “Say, Ruth, now that we're home and settled, we won't collect the eggs for a while—maybe even a whole week.”

“No eggs for a whole week?” She frowned. “What will we have for breakfast?”

“Oatmeal. Or biscuits and gravy.”

“Like on the Oregon Trail?” she asked.

“A little like that. But don't worry, we won't starve. And it'll only be one week without eggs. Maybe not even that.”

“But why don't you want to eat eggs, Mama?”

“Because I'd rather hatch some chicks.”

“But it's not springtime.”

“That's true. But the climate is mild here. I think we can raise some young chickens in the winter. And thanks to Reginald the rooster, we might have some fertile eggs in the next few days. And if we let the hens sit on the fertile eggs, we'll have baby chicks right around Christmas.”

“Christmas chicks!” Ruth clapped her hands. “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

On Wednesday morning, after the hens had three undisturbed days of egg laying, Ruth carefully collected about a dozen eggs, and she and Elizabeth began candling them to see if any were fertile.

“See?” Elizabeth held the first egg up to the bright light of a kerosene lamp. “This one doesn't show any veins, so it's not fertile,” she explained. “Put it in the bowl for later.” Ruth handed her the next warm egg, and to their delight, it showed the faint traces of veins inside. “This one goes back in the basket,” Elizabeth told her.

“Should we keep the basket near the stove to say warm?” Ruth asked. “Until we're done candling?”

“Yes. But not too close. We don't want to cook our chicks.”

By the time they finished candling, they had discovered eight fertile eggs. Elizabeth marked each one with a spot of ink. “So when you see the spotted egg, you know not to bring it back in the house again,” she explained to Ruth. “Now take these precious eggs back to the hens, and hopefully we'll get a few more before the week is out.”

Elizabeth knew that it was unlikely that all the fertile eggs would safely hatch into chicks. But the more eggs they left with the hens, the greater the chance their chicken flock would grow. And at least one of the chicks was sure to be a cockerel. It was exciting to see that their farm could become productive. Besides the possibility of chicks, Elizabeth was hopeful that Goldie might be with calf, but they wouldn't be sure for a few more weeks.

She stood on the porch, watching as JT helped Ruth onto Molly's back. Then he climbed up behind her, taking the reins as they both called goodbye. “Have a good day at school,” she called back.

Because they'd had several rainless days, Eli had the team out today, felling timber to use for fence rails. Elizabeth went back inside the house, which she'd spent the past two days putting to order. She smiled in satisfaction at how much homier it looked with curtains up, dishes on shelves, the clock on the mantle, and all the other housekeeping amenities that made a house a home.

She went to the dry sink, and removing the washtub from beneath, she filled it with hot water from the kettle on the stove and then happily went to work washing the breakfast dishes. Elizabeth had never disliked housework—not like some women she'd known—but she usually preferred being outdoors. However, she was so thankful to be in her own home, she relished every mundane little chore these days. Just the same, she had promised to join Eli by midmorning. She wanted to help him get as many fence rails into place as possible today. “It's like making hay while the sun's shining,” she told him at breakfast. “I'll do whatever I can to help get our fences up. As long as I don't have to wade through the mud.”

After she finished her housekeeping, she put on her split riding skirt and barn jacket and work boots. Then she wrapped a couple of buttered biscuits in a piece of linen and slipped it into her pocket for Eli. And grabbing her old felt hat and riding gloves, she headed out to where Eli was felling timber.