Beyond These Hills (15 page)

Matthew heard the loud voices before he reached the kitchen. Rani and Charlie were again engaged in one of their difference-of-opinion discussions, as Rani called them. Matthew groaned and rubbed his hands over his eyes. He'd had a busy day getting ready for the guests at the lodge, and he was hungry. All he wanted was to eat supper, take a nap in his favorite chair afterward, and wake up in time to go to bed. Instead he'd probably be playing referee between his wife and son for the remainder of the evening.

“We're not going to discuss this any further, Charlie.” His wife's stern voice drifted through the kitchen door.

“But I want to talk about it.” Matthew's ears pricked up at the anger in his son's voice.

“I've told you it's out of the question, and I don't want to discuss it.” Rani's voice grew louder.

“I'm not a child anymore, Mama. I'm seventeen, and I should be able to make my own decisions. You know I want this, and I'm going to do it whether you like it or not.”

“You most certainly are not. You're not of age yet, and you'd have
to have your parents' signature. We're not about to sign anything for you right now.”

“But that's not fair. It's like you're holding me a prisoner. When I'm eighteen I'll do it anyway.”

“We'll face that when the time comes, but for now you're still living here. And as long as you do, you'll follow the rules your father and I have set.”

“Well, I won't be here much longer if you continue to treat me like a child.”

Matthew's heart dropped to the pit of his stomach. Rani and Charlie's arguments in the past had been heated, but they had never progressed to this point. Matthew stepped into the kitchen. “What's going on in here?”

Charlie and Rani faced each other in the middle of the room. Rani held a wooden spoon that she pointed like a weapon at Charlie's angry face. She dropped her arm to her side when she saw Matthew.

“Charlie and I are having a difference of opinion.”

Matthew nodded. “I think all of our neighbors within a mile probably know that. What's this about?”

Charlie glared at him, and Rani shook her head. “It's nothing for you to worry about, Matthew. Charlie thinks I'm trying to keep him from growing up.”

Matthew turned to his son. “And what do you want to do that your mother doesn't approve of?”

Charlie darted a glance at his mother and lifted his chin. A defiant look flashed across his face. “I want to join the navy.”

Matthew didn't know what he expected his son to say, but it definitely wasn't that. “The navy? Where did this come from? I haven't heard a word about that.”

Rani sank down in one of the kitchen chairs and tossed the spoon onto the table. “You've had enough to worry about with our court case and trying to hold on to our land. I thought Charlie would get over wanting this, but he hasn't.”

Matthew frowned and shook his head. “But why the navy?”

Charlie gritted his teeth and clenched his fists at his side. “Because I've always liked reading about ships, and I want to get out of this valley and see the world. The navy is my ticket to do that. I'm tired of feeling like I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere and missing out on what's going on outside these hills.”

“But this is your home. Your mother and I worked hard to make this farm a success so we could leave it to our children. That's why I'm fighting to keep it—because I want you to have part of it.”

Charlie shook his head. “Well, I don't want it. I hate this farm, and I hate living in the Cove. If you had any sense, you'd sell and get out of here before they come and force you out. You can't fight them forever, Poppa. Give up and take their money. Then we can put this farm and everything else in this valley out of our lives.”

Rani jumped to her feet, grabbed both of Charlie's arms, and gave him a hard shake. “How dare you speak to your father like that? He loves you more than you'll ever know, and he's worked hard to give you what his father never gave him—love, a home, an inheritance. For you to speak to him like that breaks his heart, and it does mine too. You owe him an apology.”

A crushing pain seized Matthew's chest, and he grabbed the back of one of the table chairs to steady himself. He gritted his teeth and took a deep breath. Rani and Charlie stood nose to nose a few steps away, but neither noticed his discomfort.

Charlie jerked free of his mother. “Well, I think both of you owe me an apology. You're making me stay in a place where I'm miserable and you won't let me make my own decisions about what's best for my life. But you can't do that forever.” He pointed a finger in his mother's face. “I'll show you.”

With that he turned and ran from the kitchen. Rani rushed to the kitchen door. “Charlie!” The only answer was the slam of the front door.

The pain in Matthew's chest eased and he wiped at the perspiration
on his brow. Rani sank down at the table, propped her elbows on the table, and covered her eyes with her hands. “I'm sorry you walked in on that. I've been trying to spare you this problem. I thought it would be one more of Charlie's whims that would pass with time, but it doesn't seem to go away.” She reached over and covered his hand with hers. “And I'm really sorry he said he hates it here and doesn't want the farm. He didn't mean that.”

Tears glistened in Rani's eyes, and Matthew squeezed her hand. “Yes, he did, Rani. I've always known this day would come. He's just like my father. I was struck speechless by how much he looked like him standing there arguing with you. For a moment I felt like that little boy again, listening to my father scream at my mother about how he hated living here, how we had ruined his life by tying him down, and how he was going to leave us so he could go see what was going on in the rest of the world.”

A tear trickled down her cheek. “Matthew, I'm so sorry Charlie said those things.”

He shook his head. “I couldn't change my father, and I can't change my son.” He reached over and wiped the tear from her face. “Don't cry, Rani. I love you more today than I did the day we married. I just wanted us to raise a family and be happy on this little piece of land God gave us. Now we're going to lose it, but that seems like nothing in the face of losing our children.”

Her eyes grew wide. “Matthew, we're not going to lose our children.”

He sighed. “I think we already have, Rani. Charlie is stubborn. He won't give up any more than my pa ever would. We'll wake up one morning and Charlie will be gone just like my pa did so many times. It's not the navy he wants. He wants to get out and show the world he's a man. I hope he doesn't end up dead on some tavern floor like my father did.”

Rani closed her eyes as fresh tears streamed down her face. “Oh, don't say that. I can't stand to think something like that.”

“I know. Neither can I.” He took a deep breath. “And then there's Laurel.”

Rani's eyes popped open. “Laurel? What are you talking about?”

She listened without speaking while he told her of Laurel's afternoon. “Andrew seems like a nice young man, but he's different from Laurel. I'm afraid he'll hurt her. She's never known anything but life here, and he's lived very differently from her. He's only here for a short time, and I don't want her to get too attached to him. I just don't know how her sweet spirit can deal with a broken heart.”

Rani got up from her chair and knelt beside Matthew. She reached up and smoothed his silver-streaked hair away from his face. “You're such a good man, Matthew, and I love you with all my heart. I don't know what the future holds for us, but I do know one thing. God won't abandon us. He's got good things coming our way. We just have to trust Him and see what He has planned for us.”

Matthew nodded, leaned down, and kissed his wife. The pain in his chest had subsided, but it had been replaced by a nagging fear in the pit of his stomach. At that moment it became clear to him that life as they had known it in the Cove had come to an end. Soon his family would be scattered to the winds. He didn't know if he could bear it or not.

Charlie didn't appear for supper and Rani made excuses for him to Laurel and Willie. Matthew tried to enter into the conversation around the supper table, but he found his mind straying at times to the days when he and Rani were young and excited about the life they were building together. Then the thought would return that everything they'd accomplished had turned to sand and was trickling through his fingers.

Later when he lay beside Rani in bed, he listened to her steady breathing and thanked God for the strength her presence gave him. He kept an ear peeled for Charlie to come home, but he hadn't returned by the time Matthew drifted off to sleep.

At breakfast Rani informed him that Charlie's bed hadn't been
slept in and some of his clothes were missing. Matthew nodded and continued to chew the mouthful of eggs that tasted as if they'd turned to dust in his mouth.

All day he hoped to see Charlie with a contrite look on his face walk back down the road to their house and act as if nothing had happened. But Charlie didn't come home. By supper time they had all arrived at the same conclusion. Charlie was gone and wasn't coming back.

Chapter 8

T
he house had been like a tomb all day long. Nobody spoke as they went about their chores. Every once in a while Laurel caught a glimmer of tears in her mother's eyes, and her heart pricked for the pain she had to be feeling.

How could Charlie hurt their parents so? And what about her and Willie? Did he care so little for them that he could leave without telling them goodbye?

Now with supper over she and her parents sat in the parlor, and the thick silence that covered the room threatened to crawl into her body and squeeze the life from her. She glanced at her parents and blinked back tears.

Her father sat in his favorite chair, his Bible open in front of him. Laurel was sure he hadn't turned a page since he'd first opened the book. Her mother sat across from him in another chair. She'd been mending the same sock for the last twenty minutes. Willie had slunk off to his room soon after supper, and she had no idea what he was up to. He seemed to be taking Charlie's departure harder than anyone else in the family.

Just when she thought she could bear the silence no longer, the roar of a car engine broke the silence. She jumped to her feet and ran to the open front door. Her heart pounded at the sight of Andrew's
car approaching the house. She didn't move until the car had stopped and Andrew had climbed the steps to the front porch.

He smiled at her, and for the first time she noticed a dimple in his cheek. It winked at her, and her chest tightened. A sweet smell tickled her nose, a result of the pomade that gave a damp look to his slicked-back dark hair. She let her gaze travel to his broad shoulders and down his arms to the rolled-up sleeves below his elbows. His fingers flexed, a hint that he was as nervous about his visit as she was.

His gaze raked over her before he swallowed and spoke. “Hello, Laurel. I hope this is a good time for a visit.”

She pushed the screen door open and smiled at him. “Good evening, Andrew. Come on inside. Mama and Poppa are right here.”

Her parents rose from their chairs as he entered the room, and Andrew stepped over to shake her father's hand. “Good evening, sir.” He turned to her mother. “Good evening, Mrs. Jackson. It's good to see you again.”

Her mother smiled. “Welcome to our home, Andrew.” She motioned toward the sofa. “Have a seat.”

He glanced around for Laurel, and with a smile she eased down on the sofa and patted the cushion next to her. “Yes, have a seat, Andrew.”

He waited for her parents to be reseated before he dropped down beside her and cast a nervous glance in her direction. She almost laughed when he swallowed and his Adam's apple bobbed. He certainly didn't look like a confident government employee tonight. He looked more like a scared schoolboy. His gaze drifted around the room, and his eyes widened in surprise. “I really like your house. We have electricity at the CCC camp, but I didn't realize the homes in the Cove did.”

Her father nodded. “I put in a Delco battery system when we opened the lodge. I thought that would make our guest rooms more comfortable. Of course we have tents for those who really want to rough it.”

“I see.” Andrew started to say something else, but he stopped and pointed toward a framed picture of a mountain covered with fall foliage. “That's a beautiful photograph.”

“It's Mount Guyot, the second highest peak in the park. Laurel made that picture a few years ago,” her father said.

Andrew stared at her, his eyes wide. “You made it?”

Her face grew warm, and she ducked her head. “Yes, one afternoon at sunset. It's one of my favorite photographs.”

He stood up and walked over to study it more carefully. When he turned, he smiled and shook his head in disbelief. “It's absolutely amazing, Laurel. It looks so professional. Do you have more?”

She waved her hand in dismissal. “Lots of them. It's my hobby.”