Beyond These Hills (9 page)

He covered her hand with his. “It's because I had a good teacher.”

“Hey, Poppa, are we gonna sit here all day, or are we going to Grandpa's for dinner?”

Matthew grimaced at Willie's loud voice and turned to see his nose pressed against the rear window of the truck. Matthew sighed and put the truck in gear. “Sit down, Willie, before you fall out.”

“Well, I was just wond'rin' if you was asleep or somethin'.”

“Sit down, Willie.”

“Okay, don't get mad. I'm just asking.”

Matthew's face grew hot and then hotter at the sound of Rani and Laurel's giggles. “Willie…”

“I'm sittin'.”

Matthew took a deep breath. “All right, everyone. If you're all ready, we'll go to Simon and Anna's now.”

As the truck pulled out of the churchyard, Matthew cast a glance at his wife and daughter beside him and then to his two sons in the back of the truck. Laurel's obvious unhappiness over her discovery about Andrew troubled him. He needed to think of something to take her mind off the young man who'd appeared in their valley.

Then there was Willie. He had no idea how he was ever going to tame that boy, but even more of a concern was Charlie. The older he got, the more sullen he became. He never knew what Charlie was thinking. There was something in Charlie's eyes that frightened Matthew. It was a look he remembered from his childhood—the cravings and wanderlust in his father's eyes that had led to his destruction as well as that of Matthew's mother and brother.

The fear he'd harbored for several years rushed through him, and he gripped the steering wheel tighter. He'd vowed he would be a
better father than his abusive, drunkard father had been, and he'd tried. But there were some things born in a person you couldn't fight. Rani wasn't aware of his concern about Charlie, and he hoped he would never have to tell her.

Andrew pulled his car to a stop behind the Jacksons' truck in the yard of a log cabin. He studied the sturdy structure with a chimney at one end that reached from the ground to far above the wood-shingled roof. A black two-door Chevrolet coupe sat underneath a tree at one end of the front porch where Simon Martin sat in a rocking chair. He rose to his feet as they pulled into the yard, walked to the edge of the steps, and smiled.

“Get out and come on in,” he called out.

The two boys jumped from the back of the Jacksons' truck and raced toward the porch. The younger one said something Andrew couldn't hear. Their grandfather answered and pointed to the corner of the house. Both boys whooped and dashed around the house.

Andrew inhaled a deep breath, opened the car door, and stepped out. His stomach churned as he walked toward the front porch. Now that the family knew about him he couldn't believe they still had insisted he come. This just didn't seem right. He couldn't imagine his father extending an invitation like this to one of his opponents on an important matter before Congress. In fact, he'd do everything in his power to find the person's weak spot and use it against him. Was that what Reverend Martin had in mind?

Laurel and her mother stopped to give the reverend a hug. “Where did Charlie and Willie run off to?” Laurel asked.

Reverend Martin laughed. “They asked where Noah was. I told them he was checking on Molly's new litter of puppies at the barn, and they took off to find him.”

Mr. Jackson turned to follow his sons. “I'd better go down there too. I promised Willie we would get one of the puppies. I'll go see if he's picked out the one he wants when they're weaned.”

Mrs. Jackson shook her head and laughed. “That Willie. He's been so excited over the expected puppies and Noah's visit. All he and Charlie have talked about is getting him to take them for one more ride in his car before he leaves this afternoon.”

“Maybe he will.”

Laurel had already disappeared inside the house. Her mother followed. Andrew swallowed his disappointment when Laurel didn't even look back at him. Reverend Martin stood at the top of the porch steps, his hand resting on one of the posts. When Andrew reached the top of the steps, the old reverend held out his hand. “Welcome to our home, Andrew.”

Surprised again, Andrew grasped his hand and shook it. “Thank you, Reverend Martin.”

The pastor's dark eyes twinkled as he laughed. “None of that Reverend Martin stuff. I'm Simon to my friends, and I sure hope you're going to be my friend.”

Friends? That was totally unexpected. He had hoped he would make friends in Cades Cove, but the reality was that he probably wasn't going to be welcomed by many of the residents. Maybe this invitation was a pretense to put him at ease. Simon Martin and Matthew Jackson didn't want him to succeed, and he was sure they would do everything they could to keep their neighbors from selling their land.

He arched an eyebrow. “Why would you want to be friends with me?”

Simon laughed again. “Because you seem like a nice young man.”

“But that doesn't make sense. I'm here on a mission that you oppose.”

Simon's eyes narrowed and his hand squeezed Andrew's shoulder. “Andrew, when I was a young man, God called me to the ministry.
I've tried to serve Him ever since. That calling has put me in opposition to a lot of the things that go against the teachings of the Bible. I've come in contact with people who have let sin take over their lives to the point where they're almost destroyed, but I've always let them know I hate the sin in their lives, not them. Now you've come here on a mission I don't support. It's your job, and I respect that. I don't like your job. I don't want you to succeed, but that doesn't mean I don't like you. I was honest when I said I wanted to be your friend. We all do. You may not understand that now, but maybe in time you will.”

Andrew shook his head in amazement. “That's quite an amazing statement, sir. I'll think about what you've said.” In an effort to change the subject, Andrew pointed to the car beside the house. “Nice looking car. Is it yours?”

Simon threw back his head and laughed. “Heavens, no. You won't catch me driving one of those things. I'd probably run over somebody. It belongs to Noah Campbell, our adopted son. Noah came to live with us when he was just a boy. He's a preacher over at Pigeon Forge now, but he's been visiting us for the last week. He's going home this afternoon.”

Before Andrew could respond, a raspy voice called out from inside the cabin. “Simon, I hear we got comp'ny. You gonna bring him inside so's I can meet him or not?”

Simon laughed, walked to the front door, and held it open for Andrew to enter. “Come on inside and meet another member of our family.”

As Andrew entered the house, he inhaled the most delectable smells he had encountered in a long time. His stomach growled at the scents drifting into the room. He'd overslept and skipped breakfast this morning, and his stomach was reminding him of it. His face grew warm and he glanced at Simon. “Something sure smells good.”

Simon nodded, walked across the room to a chair where an elderly woman sat, and put his hand on her shoulder. “Anna sets the
best table in all the Cove, and we have this lady here to thank. She taught Anna everything she knows about cooking and about a lot of other things. Andrew, this is Granny Lawson.”

Andrew's gaze raked the woman as he eased across the floor and came to a stop in front of her. Even seated and with her shoulders stooped, Andrew could see that she had once been a tall woman. Her white hair was pulled back in a bun at the back of her head, and her eyes sparkled behind the lenses of her wire-rimmed glasses. She held out a wrinkled hand and Andrew grasped it.

“Hello, Mrs. Lawson. I'm happy to meet you.”

A cackle burst from her lips. “Land's sakes, boy, I ain't been called Miz Lawson since the preacher hitched me and my husband 'bout seventy years ago. Ev'rybody in these parts just calls me Granny, and that's what you need to do too.”

Andrew smiled and nodded. “All right, Granny. I'm still happy to meet you.”

She shifted in her chair and tilted her head to stare up at him better. “Laurel tells me you're the latest one the gover'ment done sent here to make us give up our homes.”

His face warmed, and he glanced at Simon. The preacher shrugged. “I wouldn't quite put it that way, but I have come to talk with the people in the Cove about their options.”

Granny's eyes grew wide, and she pushed her glasses up on her nose. “Options? We ain't got no options, son. The gover'ment says we cain't live in the middle of no park and that we have to move. Now that may sound easy to do to folks up in Washington who ain't never had to face losing their home, but I'm here to tell you it's a hard, hard thing for somebody who done lived as long as me in this here valley.”

Her voice trembled on the last words, and Andrew's heart pricked. Simon motioned to a chair beside Granny, and Andrew eased into it. “How long have you lived in Cades Cove, Granny?”

“Why, I was born here. I'm gonna be ninety-one years old this
week, and I remember about eighty-eight of those years in the Cove. It was always like a big fam'ly a-livin' together in this valley. We knew each other, and we took care of ev'rybody. I was a midwife here 'til I got too old to handle the job. That's when Anna took over for me. She asked me once how many babies I'd delivered, but I lost count years ago of how many I brung into the world in these mountain cabins.”

“A midwife? That must have been interesting work.”

A laugh rumbled in Granny's throat. “I guess you could call it that. Sometimes it got real inters'tin' when a baby decided to be stubborn. But I reckon ev'ry cabin in the Cove had one of my babies a-livin' in it at one time or another.” A sigh rippled from her lips. “Now they's all gone. Just scattered like leaves in the wind.”

Andrew glanced up at Simon. He was standing behind Granny's chair, his hand on her shoulder. She reached up and squeezed his fingers, and Simon's Adam's apple bobbed. A twinge of sorrow for the plight of these people flowed through Andrew. What would they do when they left their homes? They would be strangers in new communities without the support of friends they'd known all their lives. Outside their remote valley the only thing greeting them was a depression where jobs were scarce and many families struggled every day to put food on the table. Even with the small amount of money the government would pay them for their farms—and Andrew knew they wouldn't get nearly what the farms were worth—it would be a hostile new world for them.

“I'm sorry, Granny.” There were no other words he could think of to reply.

Matthew Jackson walked into the room from the back of the house at that moment. He walked over to Granny's chair, leaned down, and kissed her on the cheek. “Hello, Granny. How are you feeling today?”

She reached up and patted his cheek. “Just fine, Matthew. Noah and me had us a church service right here at home whilst all of you
was gone. I shore am glad that boy came to visit. It ain't been the same since he left to go off to school. Now he's got his own church. Married and gonna be a daddy soon. My, my, who would've thought how things would turn out?”

Simon and Matthew both laughed. “I think you were the one who always told him to follow the plan God had for his life. He's done just that,” Matthew said. He reached down and grasped one of Granny's arms. “Anna says it's time to eat. Simon and I will help you to the table. Andrew, follow us.”

The two men lifted Granny to her feet and guided her carefully to the door that Andrew assumed led to the kitchen. He watched the three as they inched along and thought about how evident it was that this family loved each other. It was in every look they gave, in every word they spoke, in every movement of their bodies. He'd never encountered that closeness before.

To his father, Sunday was just another workday. To the public Congressman Brady extoled the virtues of family values, but in private it was an entirely different matter. Their family had ceased to be many years ago on the banks of the Potomac River.

Tears threatened to flood his eyes, but he blinked them back. He couldn't think about that time now. He had other concerns to address. He'd been sent here to talk the Cove residents into selling their land, but at the moment that didn't seem as important as something else.