Cora's Deception (9781476398280) (10 page)

“Aaron, ya comin’?” Pa’s deep voice called
him.

“I’ve gotta go.” Aaron stepped back from
Cora. “See you when it snows.”

~*~

Cora stood where Aaron left her while Mr.
Reid’s fiddle sang in her memory. Five Starks as dark silhouettes
moved toward the woods until the night swallowed them from her
sight. All at once, the yard became dark and lonely with the only
light coming from the new cabin. She turned and ran toward it.
Tonight would be the first time in almost forever she’d sleep in a
real house. One of the mattresses had been carried up the ladder to
the loft room she’d share with Eliza.

Cora slipped on her warmest flannel
nightgown before climbing into bed beside her younger sister. A
candle burned on the floor beside her. Ben’s snores coming from the
second loft room sounded loud.

“Did you have fun tonight, Cora?” Eliza’s
soft voice came in a whisper.

Aaron’s dark, tousled hair and intense blue
eyes filled Cora’s mind. She’d had more fun than she’d ever tell
Eliza. “I suppose so. Why? Did you?”

“Oh, yes. More than ever before.” Eliza’s
light brown eyes sparkled in the candle light. “How would you like
to do something Rebekah told me about?”

“I don’t know. What is it?” Cora yawned. “Do
we have to do it right now?”

“Yes, before we go to sleep. When you move
into a new house, you name each corner of the room after a
different boy. Then whichever corner you see first in the morning
is the boy you’ll marry.”

Trust Eliza to come up with something silly.
“All right. I’ll name them all George.”

“No, you can’t.” Eliza spoke aloud then
whispered. “That’s cheating.”

Cora smiled. She might as well play along if
she wanted to get any sleep. “All right. Starting in the corner
behind us to our right is George, Aaron, Ralph, and Joshua.”

“Joshua Browning in Saint Louis? He’s
shorter than I am.” Eliza snorted and clamped a hand over her
mouth. “Oh, Cora, what if you see his corner first?”

“I won’t marry him even if I do. It’s just a
game.”

“A game that might come true.” Eliza pointed
at one corner and another as she named them. Mine are Henry, Bob,
Aaron, and Ralph.”

Cora laughed. “Henry and Bob? And you think
Joshua is a bad choice. Besides, why’d you say Aaron?”

“You said Ralph. And you shouldn’t care
anyway since I didn’t say George.” Eliza frowned at Cora. “You’d
better not see Ralph’s corner, either.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll turn away from that
corner.” Cora turned her back to Eliza and blew out the candle.

Darkness brought silence until Eliza’s
whisper reached Cora. “I think Ralph is the best looking boy I’ve
ever seen and the most fun. Good night, Cora.”

“Night.” Cora lay staring into the dark
while visions of Aaron and her dancing played through her mind.
Ralph wasn’t the best looking man around. Maybe, if she wished hard
enough, they’d get a big snow real soon.

Chapter 9

C
ora opened her eyes to find Eliza sitting on the floor beside
her.

“You’re not supposed to look at me!” Eliza
frowned. “I can’t believe you did that.”

Cora laughed. “If you don’t want me looking
at you, why are you sitting right in front of me?”

“I wanted to see which corner you saw first.
Oh, Cora, now we’ll never know who you’re going to marry.”

“You really are a ninny, Eliza.” Cora
stretched and yawned. “You’ll know well enough when I marry
George.”

Eliza crossed her arms. “I hope you never
marry him.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t like him, and if I marry
Ralph and you marry Aaron we’ll be sisters-in-law. We could live
next door to each other.”

“Sisters-in-law?” Cora laughed as she threw
the covers back and crawled from the warm bed. “Brrr. It’s cold in
here.”

“I thought you liked Aaron.” Eliza sat on
the bed and draped the covers over her while Cora dressed.

Cora spoke from the midst of her dress. “I
like him well enough, but it’s George I’m marrying.”

As the dress fell into place, Eliza frowned
at her. “Are you honestly and truly in love with that…that…? Oh, I
don’t know how you can even stand to be around him. All he wants to
do is talk like a book and make everyone think he’s the biggest
toad in the puddle. He isn’t anything like John. Who would ever
believe they’re brothers?”

“Eliza!” Cora struggled to keep from
laughing. She should be angry, but Eliza was so serious. She really
believed those outrageous things about George. Finally she settled
on a shrug. “Don’t worry, little sister. We’ll live in St. Louis so
you won’t have to put up with him.”

“That’s another reason I don’t want you
marrying him.” Eliza hung her head.

Cora stared at her sister. Eliza would miss
her if she left with George? Love for her sister spread through her
heart, and she sat on the bed with her arm around Eliza. “Don’t
feel bad. It isn’t as if we’ll never see each other again. George
will bring me back to visit.”

Eliza made an unladylike noise. “Sure he
will—if he wants to.”

Deep in Cora’s heart, the truth of Eliza’s
words settled, but to agree would be disloyal to George. “He’ll
want to see John.”

Cora stood and crossed the room to the
opening leading downstairs. She turned and looked at her sister.
“Tell me which corner you saw.”

A saucy grin lit Eliza’s face. “Ralph’s, of
course.”

~*~

By midmorning, slow, steady rain drove the
cold deep into Cora’s bones, bringing depression and a longing for
St. Louis.

Father came inside, dripping rain from his
oilskin coat. He held up a load of boards before dumping them in
the middle of the floor. “Time to shut out the cold.”

Cora shivered. Past time as far as she was
concerned.

Ben came in, followed by John. Each added
their load of boards to the wet pile. Cora peeled potatoes for the
noon meal, but kept watch on the men’s activities. Father used an
auger to drill holes through the boards and log walls while Ben
held one end of a board and John held the other. Ben occasionally
winced and pressed a hand to his head, but otherwise he seemed fine
after his encounter with Mr. Stark’s corn liquor.

When Father had all the holes he needed, he
used a mallet to drive a locust peg into each until it was flush
with the smooth board. After they had one wall finished, Cora added
a stick of wood to the stove and crossed the room.

“This looks nice, Father. A lot nicer than I
expected.”

Father laughed. “When we get the logs
chinked, you won’t feel the cold wind at all.”

Cora ran her hand down the wall. The side of
each board had been beveled so that the one above and below
interleaved, creating a weather-proof seal. Aaron had told her the
boards would stop the wind. Already, she could tell a difference.
“I can see that now. Aaron said you’d use clapboards. But how will
you chink them?”

“There’s some sticky red clay down on the
creek bank that’s just what we need.” A twinkle flashed from
Father’s eyes. “If you want to run down and get some, we’ll let you
work on the outside while we get the inside ready for you. All
you’ll need do is daub it between the logs.”

“I don’t think so.” Cora laughed and moved
away.

“That’s a woman for you. Afraid of a little
dirt.” The men’s laughter followed her back to the kitchen.

The rain slowed to a drizzle by late
afternoon while the men worked their way along the west wall. Three
days later, the drizzling rain changed to snow as the men finished
paneling the house.

“Now that ought to keep out the cold.”
Father stood in the kitchen.

John folded his arms across his chest and
nodded. “Yep, I’d say we did a pretty good job.”

Cora looked from one
member of her family to the next. Warmth fueled from her love for
them filled her heart. She tucked away the memory of Father, John,
and Ben so proud of their work. Mother and Vickie set hot chocolate
in front of everyone at the table. Then they all gathered around
and listened while Ben read from
Treasure
Island
, a book they’d almost finished for
the second time. She tucked the memories of the moment away to
bring out later when she was in St. Louis with George.

That night Cora lay under a mountain of
covers staring at the darkness. Snow continued to fall while her
excitement stirred. Would there be enough for sledding? She went to
sleep with a smile.

Ben came inside from chores the next day.
“Hey, Cora, if it doesn’t start snowing again, we should have good
sledding weather tomorrow.”

“Wonderful!” A romp in the snow would be so
much better than confinement in the dark house. If only the Starks
and Newkirks came.

Cora woke early the next day and reached for
a candle.

“Oh, no you don’t.” Eliza’s voice came out
of the darkness. “I got dressed without light and so can you.
Father said to conserve our candles because they have to last until
spring, when he and John go back to St. Louis.”

“When are they going back?” Cora fell
against the mattress and pulled the covers tight against her
chin.

“As soon as they can travel. Father said
they’ll probably be gone a month.”

How did Eliza always know everything before
anyone else? Cora threw back the covers and jumped from bed to
dress. Midmorning, she heard the jingle of harness bells.

She grabbed her coat, struggling into it as
she ran to the door.

“Better button that up good before you come
out.” Ben flashed a grin as he brushed past, hurriedly buttoning
his coat. He went outside, closing the heavy door behind him.

Eliza slipped into her coat and reached for
her long, woolen scarf. Cora followed Ben, sweeping past her little
sister.

Esther held Ben’s hand as she climbed from
the wagon turned sleigh. Cora laughed. Oh, what fun! You have a
sleigh just like St. Nicholas.”

Esther’s laughter rang out. “Probably not
exactly like his. My father made this one from an old wagon. Is
everyone here?”

“No, but here they come now.” Eliza pointed
toward the woods.

Three dark figures emerged from the
white-covered forest. Esther spoke in a soft voice. “They’ll be
frozen by the time they get here. Isn’t there something we could do
inside until they warm up?”

“Mother has hot cocoa. We could play a game
or something.” Ben stepped closer to Esther as they watched the
Starks cross the snow. Aaron pulled a sled.

“Hey, are we in time?” Ralph called to the
others.

“You’re just right.” Ben answered.

“I didn’t know you had a sled.” Eliza took a
few steps forward and met Ralph.

He grinned at her. “Didn’t ’til the other
day. Aaron studied on it all the way home from your dance, and this
is what he come up with.”

~*~

Aaron frowned. Ralph needed to learn to keep
his mouth shut.

“You made this?” Cora made it sound like
he’d done something great.

His cheeks burned from more than the cold
and he nodded.

“I wish I’d made one.” Ben frowned. I never
even thought, but we could have used it.” He looked from the sled
to Aaron. “Looks like a nice one too.”

Aaron nodded. “Thanks.”

“No problem, I mean it.” Ben turned toward
the house. “Let’s go in and warm up before we start. Mother
promised hot cocoa and she’s probably got some sweet bread.”

Aaron hung back waiting for the others to
get a head start. His heart pounded at what he was about to do.
“Cora.” He’d said her name to himself more times than he’d admit to
anyone, and still it sounded strange and wonderful on his lips.

She stopped and turned back, her eyes wide.
“Yes?”

“I was wonderin’.” He looked at the cabin
behind her. Anywhere except in her eyes where he figured he’d see
rejection. “Maybe you’d ride along with me? On my sled?”

Her eyebrows lifted. She’d say no. His heart
sank. Shouldn’t have got his hopes up.

“That sounds like fun.”

His gaze snapped to hers. A smile lit her
face. She’d said yes? His heart took up a rapid pounding. He’d made
the sled for her. He wanted her to be first to ride it with him
guiding, and she’d said yes. He stifled the impulse to shout and
nodded. “All right. Reckon we better get inside afore we freeze
standin’ out here.”

Inside Aaron joined the others around the
Jackson’s store bought table. He’d never seen so many fancy things
in one place before. A cabinet with glass doors held doodads that
just sat there looking pretty. Ralph’d better steer clear of it
just as he intended to so none of it got broken of his doin’.

Ivy stood close to the kitchen stove. She
got her skirt and feet wet even after he’d had her ride on the sled
most of the way. Mrs. Jackson pulled the rocking chair close to
her. “Ivy, you’re soaked. Sit here and let the fire dry your
skirt.”

Ivy dropped into the chair and Ralph
snorted. “Weren’t no sense her gettin’ so wet. Ma told her to wear
my other britches, but she reckons she can’t wear britches and
catch a feller too.”

Ivy’s head snapped up and her eyes flashed
blue fire. “Ralph, you’re tetched in the head for sure. Just shut
your mouth up.”

Ralph grinned and moved away. “Ooeee! We’re
hot as a goat in a pepper patch, ain’t we?”

Ivy stuck her tongue out at him. She settled
back in the chair. When she took off her boots, snow fell out. Both
her stockings were wet.

Mrs. Jackson frowned. “You really should
take those stockings off so they can dry.”

Ivy’s cheeks turned red and she glanced at
Ben then shook her head. “No, they’ll dry all right. I’ll stretch
my feet out to this warm stove.”

Ben called everyone to the table. “Let’s all
sit down and have some hot cocoa. I’ll be right back.”