Taken for English (45 page)

“Why can’t my father ever leave well enough alone?” Belle set the basket on the kitchen counter and began to unpack it. “I have nothing left of the family I thought I would spend my life with, and that’s not enough. How long is he going to punish me?”

“This business between the Twiggs and the Dentons—”

“A feud,” Belle said. “You can call it what it is.”

Maura turned her palms up. “It wasn’t always that way. The people of Gassville remember better days.”

“But no one will ever forget that it was a Twigg who shot Sheriff Byler.” Belle opened the icebox and set a plate of ham slices inside.

Maura fiddled with the edge of the towel lining the basket.

Belle reached for her handkerchief again. “I think maybe you’re the only friend I have left in this town.”

“I’m sure that’s not true,” Maura said. “You teach half the children in town. So many families know how lucky they are to have you in the classroom. You’ll see. Things will be better once school starts in the fall. Gassville will see better days again.”

Belle looked at Maura’s face for the first time since she arrived. Maura was saying the right words, but the sentiment was absent from her countenance.

“What about Joseph?” Belle asked. “Are you…will you go with him?”

“He wants me to.”

“Love is powerful.”

“But not simple.”

Maura’s roast was tender and juicy, just as it should be. Her baking powder biscuits were lofty and fluffy. The green beans had a just-picked flavor that made Joseph homesick. The potatoes were free of lumps and nearly floating in butter, just the way Joseph liked them.

Yet the pall over the meal nearly strangled him.

Maura’s eyes followed her father’s movements more than anything else. No matter how many times Joseph tried to catch her glance, she had another place to look, something to fetch from the kitchen, a dish to pass. By the time she brought out cherry pie and coffee, the three of them were eating in near silence.

Woody dabbed his lips one last time and scraped back his chair. “I believe I will retire early. You young people enjoy the evening.”

“Are you all right, Daddy?” Maura asked.

“I’m fine. Just tired.”

Joseph waited until Woody was well on his way up the stairs before speaking.

“Come with me, Maura. Your father would want you to be happy.”

“How could I be happy without him?” Maura stacked the dessert dishes.

Joseph stilled her motion with both of his hands. “Can you be happy without me?”

Tears welled in her eyes. “I understand that you can’t stay in Gassville,” she said. “You’ve tried our
English
ways. They are not your ways. But my father…and Belle.”

“You haven’t answered the question.”

She looked away, refusing to meet his eye. “No. Probably not happy. But I will have a fulfilling life.”

Joseph cleared his throat. “In case you should have any uncertainty, I want you to know I feel the same. I know I cannot remain here, but without you…”

“Hannah is waiting for you. She loves you, and she knows the ways of your people.”

He shook his head. “I will not marry Hannah Berkey.”

“You should.”

“No, I shouldn’t. She deserves better.”

“Better than you? She will not find such a man.”

“She deserves a better love than I would give her. She would know my heart was elsewhere.” Joseph laid his hands in his lap under the generous drop of the tablecloth. “I will set out tomorrow. First thing.”

Maura exhaled. “I know you must go.”

“But I will come back. Belle’s father will get well. They will find their way back to each other. With time she will believe that happiness is possible once again.”

“Perhaps. And my father?”

“I pray God makes His will clear.”

A
tap on the shoulder made Ruth turn around just as she finished ordering her sandwich at the Main Street bakery on Saturday.

“Bryan! Hi.”

“I hope I didn’t startle you.”

“No. I’m sorry I didn’t see you come in.” Ruth gestured to the handwritten menu above the counter. “Are you going to have something to eat?”

“I think I will. Let me buy your lunch, too.” Bryan asked for a roast beef on rye. “We never got to have the dinner I promised you in Walsenburg.”

The clerk took the twenty-dollar bill Bryan offered and counted back change. Ruth and Bryan moved to one of the small tables to wait for their food.

“The bread is so good here,” Ruth said. “I confess it’s better than anything I make.”

“I’m glad I ran into you.” Bryan pulled two napkins from the dispenser on the table. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you about a couple of things.”

“Oh?” Ruth hung her purse on the back of the chair.

“I’d still like to take you to dinner—a proper date.”

“You just bought my lunch. Thank you, by the way.”

“You’re welcome. But I’d still like to spend more time getting to know you.”

The clerk came around the end of the corner and set their plates in front of them. Ruth rearranged the two halves of her ham sandwich and the dill pickle.

“Maybe it’s just as well we didn’t go to dinner,” she said. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt Bryan Nichols. “My life is…well, a little inside out right now.”

Bryan bit into his sandwich and chewed, not moving his eyes off Ruth. After he swallowed, he said, “Is this because of what Alan said to you?”

“What do you mean?” Hoping to appear less nervous than she felt, Ruth bit into her own sandwich.

“He flipped out about that water strap. He said he was going to make sure you knew it could just as well be mine. I couldn’t talk any sense into him.”

“He did make that point rather adamantly.”

“You don’t believe him, do you?”

She set her sandwich down and put her hands in her lap, where it would be less obvious that she could not hold them still. “No, I don’t. I’ve learned to trust my own impressions about people. And I trust you.”

“Good.”

“Alan makes me unsettled, though. I think I might talk to the sheriff.”

“I’ll go with you,” Bryan said quickly. “As soon as we finish eating.”

Ruth perked up. “Really?”

“That strap is a small thing, but I know it’s not mine. I haven’t been able to get it out of my head.”

“I’d love to have you come with me,” Ruth said. “It might mean something coming from a person who actually knows Alan.”

“It’s the right thing.”

She smiled. “You’re a good man, Bryan Nichols.”

“I am glad to hear you say that. I hope it means you will reschedule dinner.” He chomped into his sandwich again.

“I’d better not.” Ruth winced inwardly. “It wouldn’t be right.”

Bryan chewed slowly. “It’s Elijah Capp, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” she answered. “And I don’t think it will ever be anyone else.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to back out?” Elijah asked.

“Why?” was Annie’s retort. “Do you want to back out?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You’re giving up your only mode of transportation.”

“Amos has a buggy for the business.” Elijah stroked the horse’s neck one last time. “I’m not sure how much longer he’ll let me work for him since he knows I’m leaving the church, but he’ll let me use the buggy until the time comes.”

Annie signed the check. The price of a horse and buggy would make a serious dent in her bank account once the check cleared, but it was time. She could not ride her bicycle around the hills all winter.

“Are you sure Rufus is going to understand this?” Elijah folded the check in half without looking at it and tucked it into his shirt pocket.

“Is there something about your horse that you don’t want Rufus to know?”

“Of course not.”

“Then leave Rufus to me. I want to surprise him.”

“Taking care of an animal is a lot of responsibility.”

“Save the lecture for your own
kinner
someday.” Annie ran her hands along her new pitchfork. “I’ve mucked enough stalls with the Beiler sisters to have some idea what I’m doing.”

Elijah grabbed the strapping around a bale of hay and tossed it onto the floor of the garage. “I wish you’d let me come by and do it for you.”

“I don’t want to get dependent. You won’t be here much longer.”

“Until I go, then. I won’t leave before Ruth does.”

“I’m sure she doesn’t want you to.” Annie surrendered the pitchfork, and Elijah used it to spread hay.

“Are you sure you’re ready to drive on your own?”

“I have to do it sometime, don’t I?” Annie kicked at the hay, remembering the first time she stumbled into the Beiler barn accidentally and hardly knew what to make of the horses and cow and buggies she saw there. Whatever Rufus decided about his property, she could at least bring this much to their marriage. It was an old horse and an old buggy. He could not object that she had splurged unnecessarily.

“What have we got here?” Ruth paused at the end of the driveway. “Is this what I think it is?”

“Ya.”
Annie took the horse brush off the hook where Elijah had hung it and began running it through the horse’s mane.

“The garage is a barn now?”

“The lot is zoned for horse property. I hope you don’t mind parking the car in the driveway.”

Ruth grinned. “If Elijah was going to sell to anybody, I’m glad it’s you.”

Annie looked from Ruth to Elijah. Their eyes locked on each other. If ever two people belonged together, it was Ruth and Elijah.

Ruth’s phone rang, and she reached into her bag to find it and look at the caller ID. “It’s the sheriff.”

“I have Alan Wellner here,” the sheriff intoned.

“But I only just spoke to you a few minutes ago.” Ruth’s chest tightened. “I didn’t realize things would move so fast.”

“Don’t worry,” the sheriff said. “We didn’t have to make a scene. We found him at home, and he agreed to come in for questioning under his own volition.”

“That’s good, I guess.”

“It’s very good.”

Ruth took in the puzzled expressions on the faces of Annalise and Elijah. She had not yet told either of them that she had decided to talk to the sheriff.

“What are you charging him with?” Ruth was almost afraid to hear the answer. At least no one had been hurt in any of the fires.

“Nothing yet. We don’t know that Wellner did anything. We have only the opinions of you and Mr. Nichols that he might have.”

“Yes. Right. Sorry.”

“I made it clear this was not an arrest. We’d only like to have Mr. Wellner answer a few simple questions to determine if we consider him a person of interest. The thing is, he said he won’t talk to us unless he gets to talk to you first.”

“Me?” Panic welled. “I thought you weren’t going to tell him where the lead came from.”

“We didn’t.”

Ruth swallowed her anxiety. Alan must have figured it out for himself. If they had asked him about the strap, it would not have been difficult.

“You’ll be perfectly safe,” the sheriff said. “I’ll have an armed officer in the room with you at all times, and I’ll watch through the glass.”

“I don’t want him to get hurt,” Ruth said.

“We all hope it won’t come to that. He seems calm for now, just adamant that he must speak to you.”