Catching Kent (10 page)

“
Sure.” He scooted over,
careful not to aggravate his ribs. “Sit down.”

A big smile crossed his face as he
hurried over to sit beside him.

Grinning at the boy’s enthusiasm, he
asked, “What song do you want to learn?”

“
I don’t know. What do you
think I should learn?”

After a moment, he said, “I suppose it
depends on what you already know. What do you currently play that
you’re good at?”

“
I can do the
scale.”

“
Anything else?”

“
No.”

He studied the boy. “You probably want
to play one of the songs I did last night, don’t you?” When Eli
nodded in excitement, he offered a sympathetic smile. “I’m afraid
you have to start with a foundation before you can move up to
complicated songs. Since you only know the scale, we’ll start with
a song that is simple.”

Eli’s smile faltered.

“
I know it’s disappointing,
but you can’t get to where I am if you don’t master the basics.” He
flipped through the book and selected a song that would be suitable
for him. “I should warn you that you won’t get to where I am
overnight. This is going to take time and dedication. Of course,
there’s nothing wrong with playing from time to time for fun, but
you won’t be as good as I am if you’re not serious about
it.”

“
I want to be as good as
you.”

He set the book down and motioned to
the page with the music on it. “Then we better get
started.”

***

Rose spent all afternoon in the
kitchen with Harriett, carefully following her instructions as she
cooked the beef stew. Soon, it would be time for everyone to
eat.

“
I can’t wait for Kent to
taste this,” she told her sister as she stirred the stew which
she’d just taken off the cookstove. “It smells wonderful! Thank you
for the recipe.”

“
You’re welcome, but don’t
assume Kent will take one bite of it and fall madly in love with
you.”

Her cheeks grew warm. “Who said I
expected such a thing?” Harriett shot her a pointed look and she
sighed. “Alright. You know me too well, but it was Ma’s cooking
that made Pa fall in love with her.”

“
It was more than her
cooking. It was also her sweet and gentle spirit. He says she has
the biggest heart of anyone he knows.”

“
And he loves her more
today than the day they married.” Sighing wistfully, she clasped
her hands together and imagined that Kent might one day say that
about her. “Isn’t that romantic? And she was a mail-order bride,
too. What do you think the chances are that love can form from
something as simple as two strangers meeting and deciding to get
married?”

“
Well, if you think about
it, everyone who gets married have to meet each other at some
point, so they were strangers to begin with.”

“
You know what I mean. She
came off the train and he saw her being rejected by the man she
came to marry. He took a moment to talk to her and knew she was the
one for him. It’s just like that with Kent, Harriett. When Pa
brought him here and I talked to him, I just knew he was meant for
me. It took Pa all of a couple minutes to figure it out, so why is
it so hard to believe that the same would be true for me, that I
wouldn’t need much time to know who I’m meant to be
with?”

Turning from the biscuits she was
making, Harriett wiped her hands on the apron and shook her head.
“There’s one problem with your analogy.”

“
Oh?”

“
Ma said she fell in love
with Pa right away. Kent can’t say the same about you.”

Groaning, her shoulders slumped. “Why
must you make sense?”

“
I’m sorry, Rose. I didn’t
mean to discourage you.”

“
No, you didn’t discourage
me. It’s just that I can’t understand why Kent is stupid enough to
not know a good thing when he sees it.”

Her lips curled up into a smile and
she laughed. In a low voice, she admonished, “That’s not
nice.”

“
I’m not trying to be mean.
I’m stating a fact. He and I are meant to be together, but he
refuses to acknowledge it. In my opinion, that’s not a very
intelligent thing for him to do, though I do adore him
so.”

“
Even though I still think
it’s nice of you to suggest he’s lacking wisdom, I hope for your
sake you’re right. I’d hate to see you with a broken
heart.”

“
I won’t be broken hearted.
Once he realizes the truth, he’ll make me his bride.”

Harriett turned back to the biscuits
and shook her head. “I suppose in time we’ll find out which one of
you is ‘lacking intelligence’, as you put it.”

Undaunted by her sister’s pessimism,
Rose added the last of the salt to the stew.

Chapter Nine

Once Mr. Larson said grace at the
dining room table, Kent picked up his spoon and dipped it into the
stew.

“
I heard Eli played a song
today,” Mr. Larson told Kent as he buttered his biscuit.

“
I haven’t had many chances
to practice,” Eli inserted.

“
You did fine,” Kent
assured Eli, recalling how uncertain the youth had been while he
attempted the simple song on the piano. “It takes time and hard
work to get to where you want to be. I wasn’t born playing the way
I do now.”

“
That can be said about
anything,” Mr. Larson replied. “And to be fair, Eli, I’ve kept you
busy out in the fields. It’s not like you had a lot of time to play
the piano. You’ll have more time this winter.”

“
Will you be here to give
me more lessons?” Eli asked Kent, his wide eyes hopeful.

Lifting his spoon halfway to his
mouth, Kent glanced around the table. He ignored the confident look
on Rose’s face. “I’m afraid not, Eli. I need to head out to
California as soon as my ribs heal.”

Mr. Larson smiled at his son. “You’re
a smart boy. You’ll be able to teach yourself.” Glancing at Kent,
he asked, “How are you feeling?”

“
Much better, sir. Thanks
for asking,” Kent replied, touched by the older man’s
concern.

Many times since Kent arrived here, he
wished his father had been like Mr. Larson. Mr. Larson was the kind
of man who would never force his son to do anything he didn’t want,
one who could accept his son’s path in life, especially when it
came to choosing who he’d marry.

Kent put the spoon in his mouth and
paused. The stew had looked good. It’d even smelled appealing. But
it tasted awful. He couldn’t understand it. Up to now, all the
meals had been among the best he’d ever had.

Adam gagged on his spoonful of stew
and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Harriett, what’s going on? Did
a mouse die in here?”

“
Adam!” Mrs. Larson
admonished, her eyes warning him to be polite.

“
Sorry, Ma, but this isn’t
anything like the stew Harriett makes,” Adam replied with a
bewildered shrug.

“
That’s because she didn’t
make it,” Rose said, lifting her chin in the air and crossing her
arms. “I did.”

“
Ugg. That explains it.”
Eli shoved his bowl away. “I’m sorry, Ma, but I won’t eat
it.”

“
Me neither,” Adam agreed.
“If you want to send us to bed without supper, then we’ll accept
our punishment, but we don’t want to get sick like we did last time
by forcing this garbage down our throats.”

At the mention of them getting sick
from Rose’s cooking, Kent brought his napkin from his lap and spit
the stew into it. As much as he hated to criticize a lady’s
cooking, he wasn’t going to risk a stomachache later by being
polite.

“
I was only trying to
help,” Rose insisted, her cheeks pink.

Despite his best intention to not let
anything she said or did affect him, Kent felt a slight twinge of
compassion on her behalf. From the way her face fell, he knew she’d
done her best. And apparently, cooking wasn’t one of her
talents.

Mr. Larson turned his gaze to Adam and
Eli. “Apologize to your sister then you may go and clean out the
stalls.”

Kent knew Mr. Larson intended to
punish them by making them clean out the stalls, but the relieved
expressions on her brothers’ faces told him they would much rather
do that and go hungry for the night if it meant they didn’t have to
eat the stew. He knew he was going to regret it, but he knew he’d
have to eat the stew in front of him. He couldn’t stand the sad
look on her face. Every time he’d seen her, she’d been cheerful.
Annoying perhaps, but cheerful all the same. And God help him but
he couldn’t stand to see a lady cry.

Taking a deep breath, he dipped his
spoon into the bowl as her brothers hurried out of the room. He
focused on how relieved he’d feel after he was in California and
forced himself to eat the stew, stopping once in a while to eat the
biscuits and mashed potatoes to help him stomach it. The others
brave enough to eat the stew did so at a slow and methodical pace,
seeming to follow his example as they also switched between the
stew and the other foods on the table. By the time Harriett set
down her rhubarb pie, there seemed to be a silent agreement that
they were all relieved the worst was over.

Kent fully expected to get sick later
that night, but he didn’t. He did have trouble sleeping, however.
While Adam and Eli slept, content as could be despite their
growling stomachs, Kent laid on his back, hands folded over his
chest. The moonlight cast shadows from the nearby tree across the
ceiling. At first, he just watched the way the shadows danced,
almost hypnotized by the display.

But then the shadows soon formed
images, images he tried to will away but images that persisted.
There was a wine glass, a gun, a train, a ship, a carriage, a
mansion, a piano, a grave. He swallowed the lump in his throat and
closed his eyes, not bothering to stop the tear that trickled down
his cheek. His uncle’s death had prompted him to return to America.
Without his uncle, his life held no meaning because with his
uncle’s death, he lost the only person who loved him, the only
person who cared enough about him to see who he was instead of what
he could do for him. His uncle gave him a place to belong, a reason
to keep going. And now he had no purpose. All he could do was wait
until he could pass on into the next life and see his uncle
again.

***

Rose got up from her bed and walked
over to her sister whose eyes were closed. “Are you asleep?” she
whispered. Her sister didn’t respond, so she gently shook her arm.
“Harriett?” she asked in a louder voice.

Harriett mumbled and rolled
over.

Disappointed, Rose decided not to
bother her sister anymore and went outside so she could watch the
stars. There was no point in staying in bed if she couldn’t sleep.
After she retrieved her robe, she slipped it on and tightened the
strings before she left the bedroom. The house was still, making
her footsteps sound loud as she tiptoed down the stairs. She headed
for the front door and stepped onto the porch, surprised to see her
father resting in one of the chairs, his feet propped up on the
railing.

He glanced in her direction. “Rose,
what are you doing up?”

She shrugged and sat in the chair next
to him. “I couldn’t sleep.”

“
You still upset about
supper?”

The reminder made her face grow hot.
“I followed Harriett’s directions perfectly. The stew tastes good
when she makes it. I don’t know what I did wrong.”

He chuckled. “Well, you do know how to
make memorable meals.”

“
That’s not a good thing,
Pa.”

“
I was only jesting. Try
not to let the stew bother you. It really wasn’t that bad. Besides,
there are some things you make well.”

“
It’s not hard to make a
sandwich or fry up some eggs. Even Eli could do that.”

After a moment, he directed his tender
gaze toward her. “There’s more to a woman than how she cooks.
There’s also her kindness, integrity, and generosity. A man can
forgive a woman’s simple meals if she has a good heart.”

She swallowed and studied her hands
which were folded in her lap. “You can tell I like
Kent?”

“
I think everyone knows how
you feel about him.”

While she had made her intentions
known to Kent and revealed her feelings about him to her sister,
she didn’t realize her father had picked up on them.

“
Rose, the only person you
can be is yourself,” her pa softly said. “You’re not Harriett, and
you shouldn’t try to be. The kind of young man who’ll want Harriett
isn’t the same type who’ll want you.”

“
You think Kent prefers
Harriett?”

“
I didn’t say
that.”

“
You think he prefers me?”
she pressed, hoping he’d say yes.

He offered her a sympathetic smile. “I
don’t know. He guards his feelings. There’s no telling what he’s
thinking, nor is it our business to know.”

“
He feels alone. Even when
he’s in a room full of people, he feels alone.”