The Brides of Chance Collection Part 54

"Obadiah and Hezekiah?" Eunice chimed in.

"Obie's in the far pasture. Hezzy took a mind to go a-huntin'. Come suppertime, they'll find their way back home."

Seeing the disappointment on the girls' faces, Lovejoy rubbed her hands together. "Now if that's not perfect, I don't know what is. You gals cain surprise your men with the best meal they've et in ages."

Lois burst into tears. "Oh my-a real stove!"

"I left my gatherin' bag back on your wagon," Lovejoy told Daniel when he headed toward the door. The man had a fair stride, but Lovejoy never minded stretching her legs for a brisk walk. She marched right alongside him toward the buckboard. "Isn't it wondrous?"

"What?"

"The MacPherson land. Soil's vital 'stead of worked to death." They came to a halt, and she finished her thought. "Lots of promise in these here acres."

Daniel stared just over her shoulder in silence, as if he needed to come to terms with something important.

She surveyed the property and smiled. "I reckon this place is just one stripe short of the rainbow."

Steady and smooth as could be, he cinched his hands around her waist, pulled her close, and lifted.

Chapter 5.

The missing stripe is on that skunk waddling up behind you."

As if his actions hadn't been enough to startle her, Daniel's words took Lovejoy by complete surprise. He carefully set her in the back of the buckboard and speedily joined her there.

"Poor little polecat. Must be a mama, worryin' over her kit if she's out scroungin' food in the daytime." Lovejoy opened her gathering bag and pulled berries free from the twigs. By tossing the berries in an arc, she managed to coax the skunk into meandering in the other direction.

"Little?" Daniel gawked at her. "It was big as a barn cat!"

"Gotta admire a mama who loves her young'uns." She wiped her palm on her skirt and nodded to herself as she nimbly slipped off the back of the buckboard. "A papa, too. Clear as water, you hold your daughters dear. 'Member to let me know if 'n they need more cough elixir, and thankee again for carryin' us all here."

Daniel tipped his hat, climbed from the bed of the buckboard onto the seat, and headed back toward home. If he stayed here talking to that crazy woman, she might start making sense.

Back home he halted the buckboard in the yard and went to the main house to check in on his girls. Dressed in the little gingham ap.r.o.ns Alisa had made them for Christmas, they were "helping" Miriam make corn bread. Miriam glanced up at him. "Lovejoy's medicine worked. I'll have to find out what she put in it." She lifted the bowl and let Polly sc.r.a.pe the last of the batter into the pan. "Bryce is in the barn. Something's wrong with Raven."

Satisfied his girls were fine, Daniel strode to the barn. Of all the Chance brothers, Bryce had a gift when it came to dealing with animals. Most often he'd take care of things without asking for help or an opinion. Raven was t.i.tus's mare, though. He put plenty of store in that horse, and Dan decided to see if his help was needed.

Bryce sat in a corner of the stall wrapping one of the mare's forelegs. "She's started nodding up."

"I didn't notice her favoring her leg."

"Neither did t.i.tus." Bryce shrugged. "Nodding up means a foreleg. When a horse nods down, it's a rear leg. I felt her, and she's got a hot spot. We caught it early, and I mudded her. She ought to fare well."

Daniel studied the sleek black mare. Bryce wasn't a braggart in the least. Daniel s.h.i.+fted his weight. "You've a way with animals. If you're of a mind, I'll bring up a family vote in favor of sending you to vet school."

Bryce shook his head. "It'd be a waste of money. I have the hands and the instinct, but I don't have the brains. I wouldn't mind apprenticing for a season to pick up more knowledge, but in the long run, I'm content where I am."

Late that night Daniel tugged the covers back over his precious little girls, walked through the "hallway" into his cabin, and sighed. Hannah's quilt topped his lonely bed. All around him life continued. His brothers had married and were having children. Lovejoy Spencer was undoubtedly playing matchmaker with her charges and the MacPhersons.

Bryce's words echoed back: I'm content where I am.

Well, I'm not. My little girls don't have a mother. Daniel wanted to grow old with Hannah, but all he had was the gnawing emptiness left by her death. G.o.d, how could You do this to me?

Heavenly Father, thank Ye for all Thou hast done for me. Lovejoy tumbled into the pallet and snuggled beneath the quilt. Going to sleep wasn't easy. The day rated as being one of the most exciting of her life.

After Daniel left, she and the girls had set to work. They'd spruced up the cabin, weeded what little garden existed, planted a summer crop with the seeds they brought, and fixed supper.

"You gals may as well talk out loud 'stead of whisperin'," she said.

Eunice and Lois giggled guiltily. Lois said, "They couldn't tell us apart."

Tempy snorted, "You couldn't tell them apart, either."

"Well, we only saw them once when they come to buy a hound," Eunice said.

"And they'd only seen you that once," Lovejoy pointed out with a laugh.

"We didn't ask them to marry up, though," Eunice staunchly insisted.

"You've got a point there. I 'spect it'll take a few days for you to iron out who makes your heart sing."

"Oh, I don't need no time a-tall." Eunice sighed. "Ain't no man in the world for me 'cept Obie. He's got the cutest smile, and he loved my squirrel stew."

Lovejoy and Tempy exchanged a look across the pillow they shared and burst out laughing. "That was Hezzy!"

"Yeah. Obie's the one who et five of my biscuits." Lois ruined the solid tone of her a.s.sertion by tacking on a tentative, "Right?" When everyone else started giggling again, she said plaintively, "Well, they're both big and have beards!"

"Yes, you're right," Lovejoy sang out. "But Hezzy has a mustache, and Obie doesn't."

"Coulda just said so and saved us all this trouble," Eunice grumbled.

Lovejoy didn't want the girls to go to bed embarra.s.sed, so she decided to give them cause to feel better. "Cain you jist imagine the men out in the barn? They're probably tryin' to figure out how to tell Eunice and Lois apart."

"And they have it real tough." Tempy snorted with glee. "After all, neither of them have mustaches!"

Two days later Lovejoy stretched to pick a few more flowering stems. "Now take a look here, Tempy. Yarrow. 'Tis good for wounds. Widow Hendricks called it *Nosebleed' 'cuz a few of these tiny leaves in your nose stop a bleed."

"Lovejoy, I'm sure this is important, but you're staying here for a while. There'll be time enough for me to learn it." Tempy gave her a pleading. "Can't we do this some other day? I wanted to go riding with Mike."

"I'm trying to keep the two of you apart," Lovejoy confessed. "I don't want you to mistake a spring fancy for enduring love. A bit of distance lets the heart be wise."

"I already traveled the distance, and my mind's made up."

Lovejoy rested her hands on her hips. "Let's suppose you're right. Jist for the sake of laying the whole feast out on the table, let's see what all you're dis.h.i.+n' up. I grant you and Mike are a right fair match when it comes to smarts. He's got a sound head on his shoulders, and the two of you'll throw off a pa.s.sel of young'uns that're clever as racc.o.o.ns."

"Then what's the holdup?"

"What's his favorite vegetable? Does he rise up early of a mornin' in a fine mood? When money's tight and you both need shoes, who's gonna stay in the old ones?"

"We can learn those things as time pa.s.ses."

Lovejoy shook her head. "Once you speak your vows before the parson, it's a done deal. If you wake up a month or year later and decide that man with his head on the pillow beside you makes you want to pack your bag and run away, you cain't. You're stuck. Best to be sure the table's solid afore you put your cookin' on it."

"Lovey, you know I've never been one to leap 'lest I looked first-"

"And I aim to make sure you're not changin' that habit this time," Lovejoy interrupted. "Anybody cain put on a fine show for a few days. It's when time moves on and wears off the polish that you see what you got for every day."

"I met Mike back in Hawk's Fall. I saw how gentle he acted with his ma when she was dying. It near tore him up, watching her go, but he knelt at her side. His pa's getting cash money from the sons, and since Mike's the only one who can write, I know he's behind it. That's plenty enough for me."

"We've always been honest to the roots, Tempy. I don't want that a-changin' 'twixt us. Truth be told, I wouldn't have brung you out here if 'n I didn't think G.o.d was pointin' this way."

"Then-"

"Now you simmer down and let me speak my piece." She gave her sister a stern look. "When you marry up, you don't jist git the man, you take on his kith and kin. Obie and Hezzy aren't the sharpest knives in the kitchen. They're bigger and stronger. If 'n they've got tempers, 'tis best we determine that now."

"The two of them are as dangerous as Asa Pleasant's new kid goat." Tempy's eyes lit with humor. "And they eat just about as much!"

"Supposin' you tied the knot and had to sit down to supper with them three men. Could you put up with livin' in Eunice and Lois's ap.r.o.n pockets? There's but one cabin."

"I reckon Mike's seen the Chance spread and knows they give their brides a house of their own. He'd not want me to have less."

"You're doing a lot of plannin' and hopin' and wis.h.i.+n', Temperance Linden."

"I've also been doin' a fair bit of praying."

"Are you asking G.o.d's will, or are you too busy tellin' Him yourn?" Her sister blushed, and Lovejoy knew her question hit a tender spot. She didn't belabor the issue. Gathering more yarrow, she said, "Even if things are sunny 'twixt you and Mike, you cain't verra well get hitched so quick. Obie and Hezzy would start pressurin' Lois and Eunice, and the four of them ain't even sure who likes whom yet."

"At least they've decided who is who."

Lovejoy winked. "As Mama used to say, *Wonders never cease!' "

Tempy picked up a sunny, young dandelion, blew the dust from it, then ate the flower. "The only reason I'm not fighting you about waiting to marry Mike is because once I wed, you'll go back home. I can't imagine you not being in hollering distance."

Her sister's words made Lovejoy's steps falter. She exhaled slowly. "They'll need me back home; you won't. 'Tis the way of things. When you was born, Mama gave you to me. G.o.d gives us folks to love, but He never promises how long we'll have 'em. You're a growed woman, Temperance. I love havin' you 'neath my wing, but you're starting to test your own wings. Time's comin' soon when you'll want to fly and have your own nest."

"I'll always have room in my nest for you, Sis. Just like I'll take on Mike's kin, he'll take on mine. You know you're welcome."

Lovejoy laced hands with her sister and walked along the meadow. " 'Member when we memorized that pa.s.sage from Ecclesiastes? It's been running through my mind. *To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven....' "

" *A time to be born, and a time to die,' " Tempy said. " *A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.' " She reached over with her other hand and tugged at Lovejoy's gathering bag. "I think that verse is for you. You catch babes and dispatch the old'uns to heaven. You garden and gather."

Lovejoy blinked back her tears. "Time's a-comin', my baby sis. Time's a-comin' for you to love and for me to leave and go home to Salt Lick Holler. I know it in my heart. So long as you're wed to a man who'll cherish you, I'll thank the Lord and leave you in His hands."

"Whose? G.o.d's or Mike's?"

"Sweetheart, Mike has Jesus in his heart. If he's in G.o.d's hands, and you're in Mike's, then you'll be in G.o.d's keeping as well."

Chapter 6.

With the weather being nice, folks of Reliable were showing up for church each Sunday, same as they had since Miriam arrived. Dragging benches out into the barnyard for the service didn't take much time. Daniel helped-not because he wanted to attend, but because Hannah would have wanted him to rear their daughters that way.

"What are the two of you fiddling with?" he called to t.i.tus and Paul.

t.i.tus must not have heard him because he kept whistling-until he banged his thumb with a hammer and let out a yelp.

Dan posed the question again. Paul picked up the hammer and pounded in a nail as he explained, "It's too hot out here for our wives. We're setting up a canopy."

"Could have told me," he grumbled. "My girls could use some shade so they don't freckle."

Logan overheard that comment and hooted. "You're fretting over your daughters' ladylike complexions? Oh, brother. Just wait till-"

"Just you wait till you have daughters," Gideon interrupted.

Dan cleared his throat. "While we're at it, we probably ought to put up shade for the MacPhersons' brides."

"Actually..." t.i.tus scowled at his banged-up thumb as he spoke. "I've been thinking we need to have a real church building."

"You thinking of saving souls," Dan asked, "or saving your fingers?"

"He might not have any fingers left if he helps build the church." Gideon chuckled.

"We could donate half an acre over where the road forks between here and the MacPhersons," Paul suggested. "In fact, if we made an announcement today at church, we could have one built so they'd be wed in a church."

Daniel scowled. "Forget that nonsense. If they're following through with that c.o.c.kamamie plan Delilah cooked up and marrying those girls on a whim and a letter, they'll need houses, not a chapel."

"Delilah's plan was brilliant." Paul stopped hammering and looked mad enough to spit nails.

"The only reason you're saying that is because it kept them from courting her." Daniel stared straight back.

Tension crackled for a moment, then Paul grinned. "So you figured that out, did you?"

"Even Bryce figured it out," Logan said as he nudged a bench to rest parallel to the others.