Amethyst (37 page)

“Should I bring anything?”

“No, we’ll come right down so I can eat and get started mowing again. I figure I should be done with the field here by today, if all goes well. I’ll take the mower over home tonight.”

“Where are Ada Mae and Joel?”

“Out with McHenry. He’s teaching them to split shakes for the roof of his house and barn. Mrs. Robertson sent along a dinner basket for all of them.”

“I need to go get Per out of trouble again.” She’d heard Ruby scolding him. Maybe it wasn’t just her. Per seemed to get his share of scolding too. Looked like she’d been right. Ruby must be in the family way again. She turned to watch Jacob stride down to the barn where he would check over the mower, fix any broken blades, oil it well, harness up the alternate team, and head on out. The other men were out raking and turning the first day’s cutting. By the day after tomorrow they’d be making haystacks.

She returned to the kitchen, where Ruby was washing dishes and Per was sitting in the rocking chair, whimpering. “So what did you do now, little guy?”

“He tried to pull the tablecloth off the table and got bopped on the head with a cup and saucer.” Ruby shook her head, then stretched her neck from one side to the other. She sighed when they heard Mary set up a squall. Mary went from placid to shrieking in two seconds, as if once she woke up and realized she was hungry, her mother better be there immediately. At least she’d slept through dinner today.

Opal picked Per up and took him to the rocker outside so that Ruby could nurse Mary sitting in the other rocker. “Come on, let’s rock.”

“ ’Ock?”

So you can fall asleep and take a nap, and we can all have some peace
. Earlier he’d pulled Ghost’s ears until she yipped, and he’d been scolded for that. “Poor Per.”

“Po Pa.” He’d yet to learn how to say Per, although he had Pa down well.
R
s were hard for him to pronounce. As soon as they sat down, he leaned against Opal and stuck his thumb and first finger into his mouth. She pushed the rocker with one foot and relaxed with the rhythm.

“Opa?”

She stroked the hair back from his forehead. “What?” She laid her cheek against the top of his head.

“Opa.” His voice slurred as he mumbled a few other syllables.

It took so little to help him go to sleep. She rocked a few minutes more, then slid her other arm under his bottom and stood. She paused a moment to watch his face, but he was sound asleep. After putting him in his bed, she left the room, closing the door behind her. Returning to the kitchen, which included the whole west side of the house, kitchen and parlor all in one big room, she saw that Ruby and Mary were sound asleep in the inside rocker.

Gently taking Mary from Ruby’s arms, Opal nodded at Ruby’s start. “I’m going to put her to bed, and you are going to put you to bed.”

“But I…”

The circles under Ruby’s eyes made Opal shake her head. “You nothing. I can do what needs to be done.”
Even though I’d rather go weed the garden than bake for the crew
.

Later that evening she looked up from the book she was reading. “Mr. Chandler invited me to go along with him and Joel and Ada Mae for a ride up to the butte to watch the sunrise in the morning.”

“Should be beautiful.” Ruby rubbed her forehead. “I think I’ll go on to bed.”

“I’ll be along soon.” Rand looked up from the leather bridle he was braiding. He had three long strips of tanned cowhide nailed to one end of a board and laid one over the other just like Ruby used to braid her sister’s hair.

“What are you making?”

“A new headstall. We need a couple new bridles. Think I’ll do this as a hackamore.”

“I noticed the harness is getting pretty worn in a couple of places.”

“You’d have thought I’d get all that kind of thing caught up in the winter, especially as housebound as we were this year.”

“Yes, but we spent half our time hauling wood and melting water.”

“True.”

Ask him. No, don’t be nosy
. She marked her place with her finger. “Rand, is Ruby in the family way again?”

He looked up from his braiding. “If she is, she hasn’t told me.”

“She’s so crabby. Both times she was that way before, she was like this.”

“Might just be tired from having Mary and nursing her.” He paused to think. “She’s worried about you.”

“Me? Why?”

“The two of you wear matching circles under your eyes. You’ve been sad for so long now.”

Opal swallowed hard. This wasn’t the way she wanted the conversation to go.
What’s there to be happy about?
But she didn’t say it. “Think I’ll go on to bed if I’m going to go sunrise-seeing.”

“Good night.”

Wouldn’t Ruby know if she was pregnant again? She thought about that as she undressed and crawled under the sheet. The summer quilt now lay folded at the end of her bed, and her coyote quilt lay across the chest Rand had made for her to replace the trunks destroyed when Dove House burned. The lace curtains at her windows fluttered in the night breeze. She lay on her back and locked her hands behind her head. The feel of her braid reminded her that she’d not done her one hundred brush strokes for her hair every night for quite some time. Tonight she’d not even taken time to unbraid it and rebraid it loose for the night. She’d not read her Bible for some time either. Too tired. Just too tired. If Ruby felt as tired as she did, no wonder she was crabby.

Which brought up another thought. Was she crabby too? Is that what Rand meant?

How come Jacob was suddenly being so friendly again? Especially after acting like a stranger and not a friend. And Atticus. Where was he, and what was he doing? She rolled over on her side and sucked in a deep breath, then let it all out. There was more to life that was confusing than that made sense.

Night still reigned when she woke. What would Bay think of being whistled to in the darkness like this? She slid into her clothes, unbraided, brushed, and rebraided her hair. She didn’t need light to do any of that. Carrying her boots, she tiptoed down the hall to the kitchen. She needed to hurry. The eastern sky was beginning to lighten.

Within moments she was loping Bay up the road, not even bothering with a saddle. The cool wind in her hair, the cloppityclop of hooves, Bay snorting, pulling against the reins—it all felt good.

“I think you’ve missed being ridden as much as I’ve missed riding.” She patted her horse’s shoulder, wanting to hug it and the trees now coming alive from the shadows. The others met her at the road.

“Good morning.” She pulled the snorting Bay down to a walk.

“We better hurry, or we’ll miss it.” Jacob grinned at her, touching the brim of his hat.

“Our cat had kittens last night,” Ada Mae announced, “in Virginia’s bed. She was some upset.”

Opal glanced over her shoulder. Ada Mae rode behind her, with Joel bringing up the rear. Jacob led the way up the cut. Strange for him to be leading the way. She was always the leader on horseback. But now he looked at home in the saddle, no longer a beginning rider. She smiled to herself. All three of them rode like the wranglers they’d become.

Bay dug in as the cut steepened, and Opal leaned forward to help her. She probably should have saddled up, but feeling the warmth of the horse’s hide through her pants, the ripple of muscles, the wonderful fragrance of horse still made her want to laugh out loud. Why had she waited so long?

Because Rand had told her not to ride out and see all the dead cattle.

So why didn’t I at least ride around the pasture? Because. Because. Because if I couldn’t ride where I wanted to, I didn’t want to ride at all
. The thought burst on her brain as Bay crested the butte.
Talk about dumb. What was the matter with me?

The other two came right behind her, and they lined up facing east as Jacob was. The horses were breathing hard, and one coughed, making Ada Mae giggle.

Opal breathed in the splendor of the rising day. Moment by moment the clouds brightened from purple gray to fire flung with abandon across the skies. The glowing brass rim emerged above the line where land met sky, and then rose in the daytime arc of warmth and life.

“Ohh.” Opal looked to Jacob, then back to the spectacle. “Thank you.”

“I didn’t do it.”

“No, but you brought me here.”

“God flung out this gift for us to enjoy.”

“True.”
And He keeps on doing it
. The thought made her lay back against Bay’s warm back.
Even if I don’t appreciate it
.

“Pa, can Ada Mae and me ride over to that tree?”

“If you want.” Jacob dismounted.

Opal swung her left leg over Bay’s rump and slid to the ground, sending tingles up her feet. She rested her cheek against Bay’s neck. “Thanks, old girl,” she whispered.
I think I might want to live again
.

“Over here.” Jacob crossed his ankles and sank to the ground, patting a place beside him. His horse began grazing as if they’d done this every day.

Opal sat down where he indicated and propped her elbows on her knees. “I’d forgotten.”

“Easy to do.”

“Everything looked so dark.”

“That’s why we have the sunrise, and the Son, S-o-n, too. See the grass bending before the wind?”

She nodded. “I saw waves like that on the Atlantic Ocean when the Brandons took us out there. Never ending.”

“I never knew grass could look so alive until I came out here. And the dew—just think, the garden of Eden, the whole world really, was watered by dew before the Fall.”

“Really?” She looked up to see him looking at her rather than the dew. That strange feeling started in her middle again. Like butterflies cavorting in the sunshine.

“Now look at this.” He pointed to the carpet of blue they sat upon. “Out there where the grass flows, you wouldn’t see these, but right here there are so many they all blend together. See, they are just opening to the sun.”

Opening to the sun. She liked the sound of that. They could hear Ada Mae and Joel laughing as they trotted back. A crow scolded them for invading his territory. A male grouse called from the thicket, and another rooster answered the challenge. Dueling roosters.

She fingered the little flowers, picking one and holding it to her nose. Not much fragrance. Not like the strawberries she and the others picked, but such a rich color.

“Thank you, Jacob.” His name felt comfortable on her tongue. She smiled into his eyes. “Now we better get back.”

“I know, but we’ll do this again.”

“Yes.”
But it won’t be the same. Nothing on the prairie stays the same.

“Come on, Pa, we’re hungry.”

“And I have to help Ruby.”
Or she’ll yell at me again. I’m going to ask her today
.

Jacob stood and reached out a hand. She placed hers in it and allowed him to pull her to her feet. At Bay’s side he cupped his hands to help her mount. She knew and he knew that she could swing up using a hank of mane. So why did this feel so good?

CHAPTER THIRTY