Read Elm Creek Quilts [10] The Quilter's Homecoming Online

Authors: Jennifer Chiaverini

Tags: #Historical, #Adult

Elm Creek Quilts [10] The Quilter's Homecoming (38 page)

BOOK: Elm Creek Quilts [10] The Quilter's Homecoming
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Oscar shifted in his seat. “Don’t I get any say in this matter?”

“No, son, you don’t,” said Mrs. Jorgensen. “You’re Henry’s employer, not his father.”

“Even so,” said Henry, “I value your opinion.”

Elizabeth waited to hear what he would say. Oscar Jorgensen knew the valley better than anyone. He knew about the probability of devastating drought, crop failure, and plunging prices for food that made it barely more profitable to farm than to let the land grow fallow. But he also loved the land, felt the rhythm of the seasons in his blood, and would always respect those who could do the same.

“I say, take the offer before they change their minds,” Oscar declared. “You’ll never get land in the Arboles Valley at that price ever again.”

Henry grinned. “I thought you were going to try to talk me out of leaving because you need me too much.”

“I considered that, but I figured you wouldn’t listen.”

Henry stood, took Elizabeth’s hands in his, and pulled her to her feet. “Darling—”

“You don’t have to talk me into it,” she said. “Yes. A hundred times yes. Once for each acre.”

The matter was settled quickly. Within a month, the Nelsons moved from the cabin to the adobe home on Triumph Ranch. Eleanor and Thomas played in the shade of the orange trees as Rosa’s children had before them. Since it was too late for spring planting, Henry agreed to work for the Jorgensens through the apricot harvest. In the meantime, he planned for the next season.

As she awaited the birth of her baby, Elizabeth sorted through the belongings the Barclays had been forced to leave so abruptly. The furniture was well made and in good condition, far sturdier and more comfortable than what she and Henry had grown accustomed to in the cabin. The kitchen was fully furnished with all the dishes, pots, pans, and tools a farm wife could ever need. Many items of a more personal nature had been abandoned, too, and Elizabeth could not touch them without thinking of Rosa’s desperate flight to the canyon. How had she decided what to take and what to leave? What in that last moment had become most precious to her?

She bid a last farewell to her absent friend as she put away Rosa’s belongings to make room for her own. Some things she packed up to give to Carlos, whom she felt would be glad for mementos of his sister, nieces, and nephews. Other things—toys, dolls, clothing—she saved for her own children. She was sure Rosa would have given them freely, generously, just as she had the land and the home.

But what she searched for most was the photograph album and the portraits Rosa had shown her of the first quilters of Triumph Ranch. She longed to hold her children on her lap and show them the women who had lived in their old cabin, just as she now told them about the children who had once lived in their adobe.

She never found the album. Nor did she find the quilts the women had made, stitching their hopes and prayers into the fabric, the patterns of their unspoken regrets and unanswered questions like fingerprints upon the cloth. Elizabeth knew the quilts had once comforted frightened children hiding in a canyon, and that they now graced a loving home on a vineyard where a happy family rejoiced in everyday moments—fresh strawberries for breakfast, a hair ribbon, a game of tag, a bedtime story.

Elizabeth knew the quilters of Triumph Ranch, past and present, rejoiced in their happiness.

BOOK: Elm Creek Quilts [10] The Quilter's Homecoming
3.05Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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