“Julie, are you through with this?” Jill took the empty bowl from her sister’s hand. “Evan said we could play the Victrola and dance, but first Ruby May and I had to gather up all the dirty dishes and put them in the dishpan to soak.”

“Have you finished, Miss Meadows?” Ruby May asked.

“Yes, thank you.”

Jill tilted her head toward Julie. “She’s starting Evan out right.”

“I never asked him—” Julie sputtered.

“He’s crazy about her,” Jill confided. “Someday I’m going to find a man who’s crazy about me.”

“Jill, there isn’t room to dance in the parlor.”

“Of course not. Papa and Evan figured it out. Evan will set up the Victrola out here on the porch and when it gets dark, Papa will bring the lanterns from the barn. Open the door, squirt,” she said to Joy.

“Your Evan gets along well with the family,” Eudora said.

“And I’m so glad they all like him. And he’s about as fond of them as he is of me,” Julie said with a little laugh.

“I’d not go that far. Every few minutes he looks around to see where you are. You’re lucky, Julie.”

“No one knows that more than I.”

Thirty minutes later, Evan had carried the Victrola to the porch and the lilting notes of “The Missouri Waltz” drifted on the evening air. Evan took Julie’s hand and pulled her out onto the hard-packed earth beyond the porch.

“I’ve been wanting to hold you all day,” he whispered in her ear and drew her close to him. They danced for a while, their steps matching perfectly. “Do you think anyone would notice if I kissed you?”

“Evan Johnson! Course they would. Don’t you dare.”

Julie looked around to see Jack and Ruby May, Joe and Jill, and the Taylors dancing. Then her eyes opened wide with shock.

“Evan, look. Papa’s dancing with Eudora.”

“So that’s why he suggested we dance in the yard. It’s a good sign, honey.”

“She’s such a nice person. I wish Papa would fall in love with her.”

Dr. Forbes was looking at Evan’s supply of records and when the music stopped, he replaced the record, carefully wound the machine and came across the yard to tap Evan on the shoulder.

“My turn.”

Evan released her reluctantly. “Don’t forget that she’s my girl.”

The music playing was “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows.” Dr. Forbes was not as graceful as Evan, but Julie enjoyed the dance and the easy chatter. She danced next with Dude Merfield, and he told her that Jack had the potential to become a great ball player if he had the desire.

“Do you have the desire, Mr. Merfield?”

“No, ma’am. I’ve no desire to make a career out of playing ball. I like the game and I like traveling around with the league, but in a month I’ll be going back to my regular job.”

“Which is?”

“I’m a cartoonist. I draw pictures for newspapers.”

“You’re an artist! And you get ideas by traveling with the ball team?

” He smiled. “Not many people ask me that. But yes, I do.”

“What does your family think about your travels?”

“I’m not married, ma’am. My brothers and sisters live in Tennessee, not far from where we grew up. My sister is a nurse. She works for Todd’s father. She had worked for him for a while before she went to help out during the war.”

“What an experience she must have had.”

The dance ended. Julie was claimed by Thad, and Dude moved on to dance with Eudora.

By ten o’clock, Joy and Sylvia were asleep on a quilt on the porch and Jason dozed in a chair. Dr. Forbes and Dude were the first to leave.

“I sure did have a good time, ma’am,” Dude said to Julie. “But that don’t mean I’m goin’ to go easy on that brother of yours tomorrow.” He grinned and hit Jack on the shoulder.

After the Taylors left, Jethro announced that he would take Eudora home.

“Can I go?” Jason was ever alert to the possibility of riding in the car.

“No, you can’t,” Julie said quickly. “You’re so tired you can’t see straight. It’s time you were in bed.”

“I had a wonderful time, Julie. Oh, my, I’ve never danced so much. This is the first time since my school days, and that was a long time ago,” Eudora said.

“Come out again. We all enjoyed having you.”

“Thank you. I hate going off and leaving you with all those dishes to wash.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll have Jill and Ruby May to help me.”

Julie stood on the porch, leaning back against Evan. His arms were around her, his lips nuzzling her ear.

“Do you think she likes Papa?” Julie whispered, watching her father help Eudora into the car.

“It’s obvious that she doesn’t dislike him.”

“Tonight he could see the difference between her and Mrs. Stuart.”

“He’d have had to be blind not to see that.” Evan’s lips traveled from her ear to the line of her jaw.

“He deserves to have someone really nice.”

“So do I.” His hand moved up under her breast.

“Jill is crazy about her. Always has been.”

“I’m crazy about you and have been since I saw you again.”

“I worry about Jason, if Papa remarries.”

“I worry that it’ll be a while before we can marry.”

“We’ll take Joy with us. Do you think Papa would let us take Jason? Would you mind?”

“What’s one more? We’re going to have a dozen kids anyway.”

“I had such a good time tonight. It wouldn’t have been possible if you hadn’t been here.”

“I had a good time, too.” Evan locked his arms around her and buried his nose in her hair. “But I wish you were going home with me.”

* * *

The Sunday afternoon ball game was not as exciting as the Saturday night game. The league team won eight to three and left town on the evening train.

Jack didn’t hit another home run, but he did have several base hits and earned the reputation of being the best ball player in Fertile.

Chapter 29

S
EPTEMBER MOVED EASILY INTO OCTOBER
and harvest time. The hay had been put up; the garden vines, dried long ago, were dotted with large yellow pumpkins. Apples had been individually wrapped in pieces of newspaper saved for that purpose and were stored in a barrel in the cellar.

Evan hired Ernie Hovelson, a man from town, to help with the harvest, and between the two of them, Jethro, Joe and Jack, when he wasn’t in school, all that was left to be done on the two farms was to pick the corn.

Jethro counted out five rows and drove the team to straddle the middle row. It was called the down row. In years past, Julie sat with Joy on the wagon seat and drove the team. Her brothers picked on one side and threw the ears in the wagon, her father on the other. The down row was left for Jill and Jason to pick. This year, with Evan and his hired man to help, Jill and Jason drove the team after school, which let out at noon during harvest, and Julie stayed in the house to cook meals for the men.

The last day of the corn harvest was to be one the Jones family would never forget. The day was cloudy, a cold wind blowing from the northwest. It was dusk and in another half hour or so the last of the crop would be in the wagon.

Jethro told Jill that Jason could handle the tired team and she could go to the house and tell Julie that they would be in for supper in an hour. Jill jumped off the wagon, wrapped her heavy sweater around her and walked across the field to the woods that separated the Johnson farm from theirs.

The man, who had tied his horse to a stump a half mile away and had come through the woods to watch the girl on the wagon seat, couldn’t believe his luck. The tempting little vixen had been in his mind for the past several months and at last he was going to catch her alone. The temporary relief he’d felt after he’d had the girl at Centerville a few weeks ago had long since vanished.

One other time he’d felt like this, and that was while he was down south making plans to marry. For three weeks after seeing that girl, he’d not been able to think of anything but conquering her, going inside her, using her.

He had ended up choking the life out of her. She had been an obsession with him as Jill was now. He had no desire to kill again. He wanted a baby out of Jill. He had been careful not to relieve himself for a couple of weeks, waiting for this opportunity. He was sure that when he let go the fluid that carried his seed, it would be powerful.

The light in the woods was dim, but Jill could see clearly and was unafraid. She walked the path between the two farms made more distinct recently, since not a day went by that Evan wasn’t at the Jones farm. She jumped over a pile of horse manure, then suddenly a steely arm snaked around her waist, jerked her off the path and dragged her backward into the woods. She let out a piercing scream before a hand was slapped over her mouth.

“I’ll not hurt you if you’re quiet.” The words were whispered against her ear. The arm around her waist loosened and she lurched, but was held tightly against him by the hand over her mouth. A cloth was wrapped around her eyes. The instant the hand was removed from her mouth, she let out another scream, then her mouth was full of cloth and she was sure that she was going to die.

Jill’s heart was whamming, but it didn’t seem to be pumping enough air into her lungs. When he threw her to the ground, there was no doubt in her mind that he was going to kill her. He checked the blindfold to make sure she couldn’t see and then flipped her over. He sat on her thighs, holding her hands out from her body, then drew them to the top of her head and tied something around them.

“I got to see your titties, pretty thing, before it gets too dark.” The hoarse whisper again.

Jill felt his hands spread her sweater, rip open the bodice of her dress. A knife cut her chemise to expose her small breasts. She writhed and tried to hit him with her tied fists.

He laughed.

“Just as pretty as I thought. Now let’s see what’s under that skirt.” He moved down, holding her legs apart with his. When he threw up her skirt, she could feel the cold air on her legs above her stocking tops. Finding a hole in the crotch of her drawers, he ripped them, exposing her most private parts.

Jill thrashed about and screamed inside,
Papa, help me!

“Be still, damn you. As horny as I am, this’ll only take a minute.”

Jill’s ears were ringing. Cruel fingers were inside her, pulling her apart. Panic consumed her. She screamed inside, kicked and tried to buck him off her. He laughed again, seeming to enjoy her struggles.

“You could learn to like this, little wildcat. I could teach you a lot of things.”

He laid something long and hard against her breasts, nudged them with it, rolled it over them, then trailed it down to between her legs and began to push it into her.

She almost strangled on the gag that had been jammed in her mouth.

Help me! Please, God, don’t let him do this.

Suddenly the weight was lifted from her. She heard a yell, a snarl, the stamping and whinnying of a frightened horse. A heavy boot hit her thigh and she rolled to get away from the struggling bodies beside her. Her clothes were around her waist, her bare thighs and buttocks scraped against twigs and stones. With her bound wrists, she tried to tear the cloth from her eyes, but it was knotted too tight.

“Goddamn you! Goddamn you!” an angry voice was saying. Then came a piercing cry of someone in pain, followed by the sound of dull thuds.

“Oh, my God!” Then, “Whoa, Ranger. Whoa, easy, boy.”

Jill became vaguely aware that someone was trying to soothe a frightened horse.

Help me get away.
Jill prayed with a grim, terrible strength of will and began to crawl as fast as she could away from the sounds made by the man and the horse.