Heart of Stone (14 page)

I
t was no surprise to Laura when Jesse came to her the next morning and agreed to stay on. One day at a time was all he could promise. She said she understood but didn’t explain how. She’d been living one day at a time for as long as she could remember.

He collected his horse and stabled it in the carriage house while Laura consulted with Anna and Rodrigo and came up with a list of chores that Jesse could tend to. She thought about the gazebo she’d always wanted and asked if he did any carpentry.

“I can do just about anything. Had to. Grew up making ends meet.” His barb was obvious, but Laura ignored the attitude.

Laura hadn’t seen nor heard from Brand again, which was a relief. She had no notion of how he would react to her taking Jesse in. She was writing out the menu that morning when someone tapped on the front door. By the time she reached the entry hall, the tapping had turned to pounding.

She brushed the lace curtain aside and found herself peering down at Sam and Janie.

“We thought you weren’t home,” Janie explained when Laura asked why they were beating her door to death.

She ushered them in, expecting Brand to come up the walk behind them, but Brand wasn’t there. She looked up and down the street.

“Where’s your father?”

Janie shrugged. “He told us to go outside and not to make any noise.”

“Does he know you’re here?”

“No,” Janie said.

“Yes,” Sam said at the same time.

“Sam?” Laura crossed her arms and stared down at him.

“Well, I kind of told him we were going to walk over and see you.”

“Kind of?”

“Kind of softly,” he admitted.

The children looked more disheveled than usual. Janie’s hair had been braided but more strands were sticking out of the braids than in. Sam had a dirty smudge around his mouth. He had on short pants and one of his socks was sagging down his leg. One suspender was missing entirely. Janie’s sash was untied and trailing behind her.

“Where is your aunt?” Laura led them to the kitchen table where she’d been working on her menu for next week.

“Mostly in her room bawlin’.” Sam had wandered into the dining room and had his nose pressed to the glass in the breakfront cabinet where Laura kept her china.

She walked over to him, gently pulled him back, and used her sleeve to wipe off the spot left by his nose.

“You sure got lots of dishes,” he said as she led him back into the kitchen.

“Is our brother here?” Janie had already made herself at home at the table.

Laura paused. “Your brother?”

“The man who came to the church on Sunday. Papa told us that he was our half brother and we wanna see him,” Sam said.

“How do you know he’s here?”

Sam wandered around the kitchen. “Yesterday at the mercantile
we heard Mr. Barker tell Papa that Mr. Rodrigo said Jesse Langley was here.”

Laura wondered why Hank bothered to print the
Gazette
when Harrison Barker was perfectly capable of spreading the news.

“Is he?” Janie had her elbows on the table and her chin propped on her fists.

“He is.” Laura wasn’t about to deny it to them and lose their trust.

“Can we see him?”

“He’s busy right now.”

“Doing what?”

“Cleaning the tack room. After that he’s going to muck out the stalls in the carriage house.”

Jesse had done every task she’d given him over the past two days without complaint. He kept to himself, ate his meals in the tack room, and didn’t engage in conversation with anyone. Silent and sullen, but he was still there. She tried to imagine Jesse face-to-face with Brand’s other children.

She looked down at Janie and Sam, wondering if it would do them more harm than good to meet Jesse.

Glancing out the window toward the carriage house, she thought of Jesse. He’d searched for Brand for a year. Fed on revenge and hate. Now he was left with nothing but anger and loneliness. She knew them both well, but she had replaced them with something tangible. She’d built a new life for herself. Yes, loneliness still had a way of creeping up on her, even with a house full of guests. Still and all, she believed anger was a waste of time. The sooner Jesse learned that the better.

She suspected that no matter how much he protested otherwise, he wanted to get to know Brand. Perhaps even be a part of his life.

These children were Jesse’s kin. Maybe they would prove to be the bridge between Brand and Jesse.

There was only one way to find out.

“I’ll introduce you to him on one condition.” She walked to the dry sink where Rodrigo kept a dishpan full of soapy water.

“What is it?” Sam crossed the room and waited beside her.

“You let me clean you both up a bit first.”

A few minutes later, the dirty smudges on Sam’s face were gone. He was spit shined and polished, his hair still damp from where she’d wet it down so that she could part it. He’d been remarkably still the entire time.

“How old are you, Sam?” Laura asked as she held him at arm’s length, inspecting her workmanship.

“Nine.”

“Hmm.” She made a great show of frowning.

“What are you thinking, Mrs. Foster?”

“Oh, just that you’re old enough to make sure you look presentable before you leave the house. Anyone who’s a man of his word should be manly about other things. Like washing his face and making certain his clothes are neatly worn.”

“He doesn’t wash behind his ears, either,” Janie piped up. She took his place before Laura, ready for her turn.

Laura dipped a rag into the dishpan, wrung it out, and caught Janie’s chin gently between her fingers. She tipped the child’s face up. Her hand faltered as she stared down into Janie’s innocent blue eyes. She had to take a deep breath, to steel herself and keep moving as if her heart wasn’t aching with heavy memories of lining up her sisters and doing the same for them.

“You look funny,” Janie said as Laura rubbed the rag around her hairline.

“I was just thinking,” Laura said. “Or trying not to, actually.”

“About what?” Sam asked.

“Something I don’t like to remember.”

“Why?”

Because it hurts.
“No reason.”

“Can I go outside?” Sam stood by the back door, looking out the window.

“Not yet. I’d rather we surprise Jesse together.” There’s safety in numbers, she thought. No telling how Jesse Langley would react.

She brushed out Janie’s tangled locks and by the time she finished, the little girl’s hair was parted in a straight line and two new braids trailed over her shoulders.

Laura stood Janie beside Sam and looked them over.

“How do we look?” Janie wanted to know.

“Passable. And a sight better than when you came in.”

“Am I old enough to wash myself too?” Janie asked.

“You’re old enough to try.” Laura wondered if Brand had even noticed the state they were in before they left. Hadn’t Charity recovered from her shock yet?

“Let’s
go
,” Sam prodded.

“All right. Let’s.” Laura took a deep breath and opened the back door.

The carriage house was cool and dim inside. The pungent scents of leather, horse, and dusty straw filled the air. Dust motes danced on a ray of sunlight that filtered in from the windows high on the side walls. The children were unusually solemn as Laura led the way across the open space between the buggy and the stalls toward the tack room in back.

The door was closed. As she raised her hand to knock, the door swung open and Jesse Langley filled the doorway. He looked at Laura and then down at the children. They stared up at him in silent awe. Laura knew that wouldn’t last long.

“You need something?” He ignored both McCormicks.

“I do. You have guests. I brought them to meet you,” she said.

Anyone who knew Brand well would immediately recognize Sam as his. Jesse stared at them both for a second before his expression imperceptibly tightened.

Before anyone could say anything, Sam stuck out his hand.

“I’m Sam. We’re brothers.”

Jesse stiffened. His gaze shot to Laura.

“What is this?”

“This is Sam and Janie McCormick. Your half brother and sister.”

Janie smiled up at Jesse with a gap between her teeth and stars in her eyes. “Now I’ve got two big brothers. How old
are
you, anyway?”

Jesse stared at Laura. “Get them out of here,” he mumbled.

“But—”

“You heard me, ma’am.”

“I thought—”

He stepped back and shut the door.

“That
was rude wasn’t it?” Janie said. “Aunt Charity says there’s no accounting for rudeness and that people should at least know their manners.”

Laura curbed the urge to knock on the door and toss Jesse Langley out on his ear, but she reminded herself what he’d been through and how he’d ended up here in the first place and calmed herself down.

She reached for Sam and Janie’s hands and marched them out of the carriage house and back into the kitchen.

“What now?” Sam asked, his footsteps dragging.

“Cookies,” Laura told them.

“It’s kind of early for cookies,” Janie observed.

“It’s never too early for cookies,” Sam told her.

“My thought exactly,” Laura agreed.

Rodrigo was in the kitchen when they walked back in. She settled them at the table with cookies and milk and then marched back out to the carriage house. The tack-room door was still closed. She didn’t knock gently.

Jesse opened the door. “What now?”

He sounded surprisingly like Sam.

“I’m here to remind you that for the time being, I’m your employer. I suggest you rephrase that.”

“You need something,
ma’am
?” He waited.

“I do. I need you to be civil to those children. They came over
here on their own to meet their half brother and the least you could have done was say hello.”

“They’re nothing to me.”

“They are children. All I’m asking is that you spend five minutes talking to them.”

“Forget it.”

A
cross town at the McCormick house, Brand had withdrawn to his office.

He knew that God never gave anymore than one could bear, but as he sat down behind his desk, he thought to himself,
This time He’s pushing the load.

Yesterday the church board had called an executive meeting and excluded him. He was convinced they were going to ask him to step down, as was their right. He wished they’d heard him out first. It may not have done any good to try and explain to those who had already made up their minds, but surely some were still undecided.

Afterward, Hank and Amelia had stopped by to tell him that they were behind him. She was on the board and assured him the majority wanted to wait and see how the congregation reacted before they took a vote of confidence.

He thanked them, assuring them everything would work out for the best, but when he closed the door and they were gone, doubt crept in.

He had a family to feed and shelter and no idea where he would go or what he’d do if he lost his position.

The Larsons had told him Laura found Jesse Langley passed out cold in the alley beside the Silver Slipper on Monday and had taken him in. Though the news surprised him, it only increased his admiration for her.

He turned to his Bible for solace. As he began reading, there came a soft knock at the door.

“Come in,” he called, expecting one of the children. Or both. They’d been suspiciously quiet since he’d sent them outside to play.

But it was Charity. “I need to talk to you, Brand.”

“Quite a shock we had, eh, Sis?” He stood up and came around the desk to join her.

“It wasn’t just seeing that young man standing there claiming to be your son,” she began.

“It’s not an idle claim. He is my son.”

“Do you mind if I sit down?” She indicated the chair in front of his desk.

“Of course not. I’m sorry this has been such a shock.”

“No, it’s me who’s sorry,” she said softly. “All of this might have turned out differently if I’d said something to you years ago. You might have found Sarah Langley and been there to raise your son.”

A lone tear slid down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away. “But then you wouldn’t have married Jane. You wouldn’t have Janie and Sam and…I love them as if they were my own. I can’t imagine a world without them.”

“What makes you think you could have done anything? You were only a child when Sarah disappeared.”

“I was seven.” She took a deep breath before she went on. “Of course, I knew who the Langleys were. Everyone did. They were teased a lot about being half-breeds at school. One day I was outside Father’s study and I heard him talking to Mr. Langley. Father told him to take his family, leave town, and not come back. He said he didn’t want his son’s life ruined. I thought Mr. Langley meant to hurt you in some way.

“I peeked around the door and saw Father take a roll of money out of the safe. When he handed it over, he told Mr. Langley to make certain no one ever found out where they went.”

Brand’s heart stuttered. He knew his father had been unhappy when Sarah caught his eye, but he would have never have believed the man capable of this—that he would stoop so low as to pay Mr. Langley to move his family out of town and to hide their tracks.

“It all seemed so secretive and strange. I didn’t understand then, but the minute I heard what Jesse Langley said in the church,
I knew what it all meant. Father paid that man to take his daughter away, even though she was going to have your child, Brand.”

Shaken, Brand sank into his own chair behind the desk. His gaze fell on the Bible he’d closed not five minutes before. His father had always been an authoritarian and unyielding. But he was gone now. There was nothing Brand could say, no way he could confront him.

It all comes down to forgiveness.

His father had done what he thought right for his son, but that didn’t make it right. His father should never have played God.

“I’m so sorry, Brand,” Charity said.

“Sis, there’s nothing to forgive. How can I blame you for not telling me something you couldn’t fully understand?” He got up and went around to her side of the desk again. “Don’t forget, you were only as old as Janie is now.” He couldn’t help but smile a little. “In fact, she looks a lot like you did at that age.”