Mary Connealy (21 page)

“Did you like your other one?”

Cassie froze, her eyes wide as a startled deer. “Of…of course.”

Belle shook her head. “I didn’t figure you did. Worthless man. My husbands have all been pretty much worthless. Made more work for me.”

“Well, I’m trying to work, but Red won’t let me do much, and he hovers. Can I ask you a question?” Cassie had a look like she was scared to death of the next words she planned to say.

“Sure.” Belle braced herself. This was going to be more overly personal details about having a baby. The girl was just full of questions and strange information.

“The way you talked to Red, and Muriel and Seth for that matter, how…how did you work…work up the courage to speak so boldly? I’ve never known a woman to be so…so …”

“Cranky?” Belle fought a smile.

“No, well, yes, a little I guess, but I wish…I mean, do your husbands like it? Did they tell you to act that way?”

Belle set her tin coffee cup down with a
click
and rested her arms on the table. She bent closer to Cassie. “No man tells me how to act. I act as I like, and he can put up with it and keep his mouth shut or get out.”

Cassie’s eyes got wide, and Belle wondered if the girl was going to tell Belle to get out. But those eyes studied her. Quiet, watchful.

“What are you thinking?” Belle had spent most of the last fourteen years shut up in her mountain valley. Truth be told, she hadn’t been around women much…nor men…save her children and the husbands.

“I’m just trying to remember the way you look straight into my eyes. The way you speak as if you don’t give one tiny fig if I like it or not. That’s…that’s …”

“Arrogant? Rude? Stupid?” Belle arched one brow.

“Wonderful.” The word was breathed quietly. “Did your mother act like this or did one of your husbands ask it of you?”

Belle was torn between snarling and smiling. The thought that one of her husbands would order her to be so contemptuous of him was really pretty funny. “My mother was a perfect Southern lady. My husbands have been content to let me be however I want to be as long there’s plenty of hot food and I let them slink off and hide come chore time.”

“Griff said a woman’s place was in the home and it was shameful to do men’s work.”

Belle didn’t respond but just stared straight into Cassie’s eyes, wondering if the girl would realize that she’d just insulted Belle mightily.

“But I think it’s wonderful. I wish I was more like you.”

And just like that, Belle had a sister. Not a child like her girls, but a woman who didn’t look down on her. Even admired her. Belle wanted to take Cassie home now more than ever.

The door opened fast and Red came in, breathing hard.

Belle suspected he’d recognized her horse and figured she was here to kidnap his wife. Well, Belle knew for a fact Cassie wouldn’t want to be kidnapped, and it made Belle so curious it was killing her. How could Cassie be
happy?
Was Red an actual
good man
or was Cassie just that gullible?

Belle had to admit the ways of God were a pure mystery.

The little pang of jealousy surprised Belle as she studied Red. His eyes were sharp. His chest heaving as if he’d sprinted. But he didn’t say a word except to greet her.

“Belle, you’ve come for a visit. Good to see you. You should have brought the girls.”

Belle had tried to be casual with Cassie, but because she didn’t know how to be much else than blunt on the normal course of things, she said, “I came to check if she was all right.”

“I’m glad you did. And you can see, she’s fine.”

Belle turned back to Cassie, who was busy staring at Red as if she were trying to think of a way to trick him into kissing her.

“It defies reason, but she does seem to be fine.”

Red laughed as he poured himself coffee then settled onto the floor by the fireplace before Belle even realized there were only two chairs in the house. “I spent the morning trying to help a critter bent on killing me even though I was trying to save his life.” Red was off telling them both about a rambunctious steer that had gotten its horns hung up when it was trying to climb into a really tight clump of aspen trees. When Red tried to get him, the steer had fought as if Red were planning on turning him into a steak dinner.

Red was obviously here to watch out for his wife. But he wasn’t rude about it. In fact, he was so kind and friendly, and had so obviously been working hard all morning, that Belle was nearly unable to believe Red’s story.

A sudden flash of insight told Belle that
all
men weren’t worthless. And didn’t that mean that the problem was really with
her
because she picked such a poor lot? It was a sad thing to admit.

Belle stared into her cup of coffee while Red told his story, Cassie hanging on every word, laughing given half a chance. Red made the story alive and funny with his arm movements and exaggerated tones. Belle realized she’d never had this long a conversation with one of her husbands. Oh, she’d talked at them and they’d talked at her, but they didn’t interact. She expected nothing of them and they gave her exactly that. Would Anthony be different if
she
were different? Maybe. Belle had never considered it before.

When Red finished his tale, Belle decided since she had a chance at talking to a man who might have some sense, she’d see if she could learn anything. “How’d you build this sod house? How do you make it weathertight?”

Red leaned forward. “Is your house giving you trouble? Maybe Cassie and I could come up for a day and give you a hand. I don’t suppose Anthony—”

“Anthony is nothing.” Belle wondered now if that was completely fair. “And you can’t come because the pass is getting ready to blow shut. You might find yourself trapped in there for the winter.”

“So why are you out here? Aren’t you afraid of getting snowed out?” Red looked straight into her eyes.

Belle had dealt with too many weasel men in her life. She wasn’t used to this kind of straight talk and respect. She could give Red nothing less than the truth. “I just needed to make sure about Cassie.”

“I’m all right, but thank you for worrying.”

Belle turned to Cassie. “I—I haven’t been able to stop worrying about you. You remind me of myself when I was younger. Married to a man who wasn’t much use. Then alone and forced to marry again. It was hard. I felt like I could protect you from that life.”

“I don’t need protection from Red.” Cassie’s cheeks pinked up again.

Belle realized that what Cassie needed was a husband who would kiss her. Well, Belle could give her no advice or guidance that didn’t include a skillet. She saw the way the man looked at Cassie and the way Cassie looked back and suspected Red would figure everything out on his own and soon enough. She’d be switched if she’d give advice on that. And anyway, she’d never tried to get a man to do such a thing in her life. Avoiding a husband was the trick she’d perfected. She laid her hand on her belly. Nearly perfected.

“You’re going through the winter with a house that isn’t tight?” Red sounded worried, as if he were considering following her home and helping out.

“We’ll be fine.”

“Do you know how to drive straw into the chinks to stop the wind?”

Belle shook her head.

“Come on outside and I’ll show you what I do. It makes a big difference. And I use mud to plug up holes, too.” Red stood without a single grunt or groan, no whining that Belle was making work for him or nagging him.

“Can I come, too?” Cassie asked.

Red smiled at her, a private kind of smile that made Belle’s heart ache in a way it never had before. She didn’t even know why it hurt.

“Sure. Come along, Cass honey. Get your coat, though. It’s sharp out today.” He even helped Cassie on with her coat.

Red insisted on telling her about how to chink the cracks in her house.

Belle had never had a man…outside of someone from the Bates’ store, do anything to help her. Belle went home alone, no kidnapping necessary, riding hard in case of a sudden storm, confused by Red’s kindness and Cassie’s longing for her husband to kiss her.

The gap hadn’t closed, but a storm was brewing in the west, and Belle’s heart pounded to think she’d have been trapped away from her children all winter. She did a ragged job of tarring the house and chinked the holes with hands full of straw, showing her girls how to help her.

Anthony had gone back to sitting on the roof, but their activity so close seemed to disturb him, and he climbed down and walked up to the Husband Tree to find peace. She watched him go, trying to imagine wanting him to kiss her. She put up with what she had to because a man had his rights, but she avoided it whenever she could. As he strode away, Belle considered all she’d learned today. Mainly, if all husbands weren’t no-account, then she’d either picked in ignorance or deliberately married bums. And either way it added up to her being an idiot.

And a tiny, guilty part of herself wondered if she hadn’t been so bossy and rude, if maybe William or Gerald or Anthony might have stepped up.

Looking up, she saw Anthony planting his backside down to sit and lean against the Husband Tree. She decided she’d give the man a chance to be a man.

“You like me, don’t you, girl?” Cassie leaned her head into Rosie’s flank.

The ornery cow slowed her kicking if Cassie wedged her head in the exact spot Red had shown her. Rosie kept chewing on her manger full of hay, but her tail quit twitching for an instant and Cassie took that for a yes.

Rosie liked her. And miracle of miracles, Harriet seemed to be beginning to like her. It wasn’t that the sow wasn’t fully prepared to kill Cassie at the drop of the hat. That was a given considering a mama sow’s temperament. But Cassie was slopping Harriet every day and staying well away from the little pink piglets, and as her part of keeping the peace, Harriet had quit rushing the fence, woofing and snarling with her jaws gaping.

It was a start.

The chickens didn’t seem to care about her one way or the other, but Cassie had learned chickens were close to the dumbest creatures God had ever put forth upon the earth. Red said they were only close to the dumbest because he’d worked with sheep before. He said sheep were just waiting, watching for any possible opportunity to kill themselves with their stupidity, which was the reason he didn’t have any—they’d all died.

Even Buck was starting to like her. Sort of.

Red had given her riding lessons every morning that week, and she was learning that there was no great trick to riding a calm, well-broken horse. A horse was a living creature, though, with a mind of its own, and Buck had boosted Cassie out of the saddle once. When she’d fallen, Red had almost had a heart attack, and he’d declared no more riding until after the baby was born. But Cassie had wanted to continue, and in the end he let her ride, but he insisted on leading Buck every step of the way. She was now riding him twice a day down to the creek when Red took him for water.

She was also leading Rosie down, which Red let her do completely alone, and she had taken over the milking and most of the barnyard chores so Red was free to ride herd on his cattle. Red acted like Cassie was his dream come true because she was helping him so much.

Cassie had also found a barn cat that had the temperament of a rat rather than a pet. The cat slinked around the edges of the farm, only showing itself by accident. Cassie started putting out milk for it, but Red said not to bother. It lived on mice and that was how it should be. Cassie sneaked and put milk out anyway. The tiny defiance made her almost giddy. The milk was now gone every morning, but the cat still wasn’t a lick friendlier.

Rosie chose that moment to kick the bucket of milk right into Cassie’s face. Dodging the hooves, Cassie fell backward onto her seat.

Red was just entering the barn. He rushed over to her side and stepped between her and Rosie. “Maybe it’s time for you to give up some of your outside chores, Cass. Now that the babe’s getting closer, you oughta be more careful. I think—”

Covered with milk, Cassie wailed, “You think I’m too stupid to learn anything.”

Cassie clamped her mouth shut on the criticism of her husband. How had she dared to speak to him like that? She thought of Belle and her straight talk. Belle would certainly criticize if she thought it was deserved. But she certainly wouldn’t whine.

“Now, Cass honey.” Red slid his hands under her arms and lifted her to her feet. “Stupid’s got nothing to do with it. Think how long it’d take me to teach the chickens to milk Rosie.”

Cassie was on the verge of tears, but the image Red drew made her giggle instead.

“You’re much better at this than our hens would be.” He pulled a handkerchief out of his back pocket and swiped at the milk dripping off her head. “It’s all in who you compare yourself to. From now on, if you’re feeling like you’re bad at something, pick the chickens to compare yourself to, ‘cuz you’ll come out of that contest feeling brilliant.”

“So you’ll let me keep doing it?”

Red hesitated. “For a fact, my ma milked the cows up to the day I was born, or so I’ve been told.”

“Then it must be all right.”