Eden Page 14

  “She used to sit at the table at night and work on her sums and letters and I used to wish I could be as smart as she was.” Her eyes brightened then as another memory entered her mind and she spoke it aloud.

  “When the Schraders didn’t know it, she let me see her books, too, and taught me some of the words she could read, and pretty soon I was doing pretty well myself at it. Until Jacob caught me one day in the hayloft with a book and he beat the livin’ tar out of me for wasting my time with such foolishness.”

  John gritted his teeth and managed to speak calmly, even though his heart raced and his hands itched to be alone for five minutes with the beast who had so abused this child bride of his. “So did you quit looking at the schoolbooks?”

  She cast him a look of total disbelief. “My word, no. I just was more careful where I was when I was reading them. I can do pretty good, John. My writing isn’t much to brag about, but then I’ve never had any reason to write down many letters or numbers, only just to practice on Jane’s slate once in a while. But I know all the letters and I can read a bunch of words. I remember real well, though. Like with what groceries we need and such, so I don’t have to do any writing.”

  She looked at him pensively, her heart in her eyes. “So do you think I can look at your books? Can I see if there’s any words I can read, maybe? I’d be real careful of them, John, and make sure my hands are clean when I open the covers and everything.”

  He felt his throat tighten, knew that the tears he had failed to shed for any number of years were too close to the surface to bear, and reached for her, pulling her into his lap. She settled there, as if she had been born for such a place, curling against him, her breath warm against his chest through the fabric of his shirt. It was almost more than he could bear, that this blessed child should have been so neglected and unfairly treated. And his voice threatened to tremble as he spoke.

  “Sweetheart, anything I have is yours. If you want to look at those old books, and read them you’re more than welcome to them. Maybe we can read them together if you want to. There’s some good stories in there, real exciting stuff, and I think you’d enjoy it.”

  She hugged him, her arm sliding around his chest to grip the flannel of his shirt, anchoring herself as close to his sturdy form as she could get. “John, you’re so good to me. I just don’t know how to tell you how much I appreciate all you do for me. And if you’ll read with me once in a while of an evening, I’d sure take pride in it.”

  “Whenever you like, Katie,” he said quickly. “And now I want you to tell me more about Jane? Did you get along well together? Is she still living out there at that place?”

  “Far as I know, she is. I just hope that old Jacob don’t take it out on her ’cause I’m not there anymore to do all his scut work. She didn’t have to do as much as I did, but then she was blood-kin, and I was just a throwaway.”

  “A throwaway! Whoever called you that?”

  She laughed, a sound that held not a smattering of cheer. “That wasn’t the worst thing I got called, John. But that’s all right. I like sweetheart and honey a whole lot better and those seem to be what I’m gettin’ called these days.”

  Her arm tightened against him, her face turned fiercely into his chest and she sighed. “John, I just like you so much. I don’t know what I’d do without you. You make me happy.”

  “You provide your own happiness, sweetheart,” he said quickly. “I just give you a place to be yourself, and you’ve done the rest. We all have to do the best we can with what we have, and that’s what you do. Give you a nest and you settle right in, I’ve noticed. And that’s what I wanted for you; a place of your own to fix up any way you wanted it. All you do here is what makes you happy, and I don’t have an awful lot to do with it, just sit back and enjoy you.”

  “You enjoy me?” She peered up at him, surprise lighting her face.

  “You bet I do. I like to watch you sashay around the stove and table and I like to see you with that churn, making butter for us, and I especially like to watch you when you’re getting ready for bed at night and you’re washin’ up and scrubbin’ yourself to a fare-thee-well, just like you’ve been covered with dirt all the livelong day. And you’re already the cleanest little bit of woman I’ve ever laid eyes on.”

  He hugged her closely, his heart beating at a furious pace as she softened and curled into his warmth. “I like everything about you, Katie girl. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

  “John…I don’t know what to say. Nobody’s ever talked to me like you do. Like I’m somebody worth something. I used to think about what the preacher at the church said, one time when we went there on a Sunday morning—even though that only happened a couple of times that I can remember—anyway…” She paused, thinking and then she bit at her lip.

  “John, do you think there’s really somebody up there in the sky who cares about us folks living here in the world? That this God fellow the preacher talked about really is there? Or is he just a story like Jacob Schrader said he was? Could he really care about people like you and me?”

  John held his breath for a moment and then made an offer that surprised him with its simplicity and wondered for a moment why he hadn’t thought of it sooner. “Would you like to go to the church in town where the minister preaches on Sundays? The same fella that married us? I’ve never heard him, but Berta goes every week and she seems to hold him in good regard.”

  “I could maybe go with Berta someday?”

  He shook his head. “No, I won’t let you go to town alone, sweetheart. I’ll take the both of you if you’d like to go. I don’t trust things enough to turn you loose, even with Berta to look after you. I’d feel better if you went with me in the wagon or maybe Bill will let us use his buggy.” And no one would be giving her long looks of appreciation with Berta along. Katie was blossoming and he wasn’t about to turn her loose where other men could look their fill and perhaps approach her with foolishness in mind.

  As if she had been considering the idea of a Sunday morning in town, Katie sat up suddenly, her face glowing. “I’ve even got a dress that’ll look just fine for Sunday to go to meeting, John. When I went there the one time or two, the ladies were all dressed in pretty things. I think my new shoes will be just like the other women are wearing. Can we go, do you think?”

  “I said we’ll go, Katie. If you like, we can ask Berta to ride with us and go on Sunday morning.”

  She sighed and settled back in his lap, his arms holding her close and he felt the shiver of anticipation she could not withold. “You cold, honey?” he asked, knowing that it was not a chill that had caused her to tremble.

  “No, not cold, John. Just excited, I think.”

  “Could you get excited about going to bed with me, you think?”

  She looked up into his face, her eyes wide, her cheeks pink. “John, I can’t do that love stuff tonight, not with my woman’s curse on me. Don’t ask me to do that, please.”

  He hugged her tightly and laughed. “Going to bed is for more than making love, Katie. Besides, I can make love to you by holding you close and rubbing your back a little and kissing you. It doesn’t take any more than that to keep me happy.” And then he thought quickly. “Well, for a few days, anyway. After that, when your woman’s time is over, then we’ll talk about the making love thing again. Will that work?”

  She giggled and he was touched by the simple laughter that marked her a girl, for he suspected that there hadn’t been much in her short life to bring that sort of sound from her lips.

  “Anything you say is all right with me, John. I like sleeping in your bed. You know that. And when I’m done with this messy stuff, I’d be honored if you’d want to do the loving thing again with me. I sure didn’t know what it was all about, but I think I could get to liking it real quick.”

  Satisfaction soared through him as he rose and carried her in his arms, across the wide floor to the bedroom door and into the small area that had seemed to be a
place of infinite pleasure last night. Just having Katie in his bed was like a miracle. Just the presence of her soft, curvy little body next to him had been a temptation he could not resist. And now that he had tasted the essence of her beauty, known the joy of coupling with her, his time here in this place loomed ahead as a part of marriage he planned to enjoy.

  As they lay together beneath the quilts, their bodies tangled in a most comfortable fashion, he said as much to her. “Katie, did you ever hear about a story of two people called Adam and Eve and a place they lived called Eden?”

  “You mean like the town? Like the Eden where we met, where we got married?”

  He chose his words carefully. “Not exactly. This place was a garden, and it was made special for a man and woman to live in. It was way back, so many years ago we don’t even know for sure just when it was, but this fella named Adam and a woman called Eve lived in the place, and called the whole shebang The Garden of Eden, and it was a beautiful spot, just made for two people to be happy in.”

  “Did they live there forever?” she wanted to know, peering up at his face in the faint light that glowed through the open doorway from the fireplace.

  “No, not forever, but while they were there, they were happy. Anyway, I was thinking about something else.”

  He was silent and he felt her prodding him, poking a finger in his chest. “What were you thinking, John?”

  “Well, I was thinking that we’re living here in this little cabin, just you and me, and it’s gotta be kinda like the Garden of Eden. A place for a man and a woman to live and be happy and have some joy of their own that belongs to them and nobody else. I like to think that maybe we’ve got our own Eden, right here, Katie.”

  She was silent and he bent to her, touching her cheek with his fingertips, only to feel a damp spot. “Katie? Are you crying?”

  “Oh, no,” she said with a half laugh. “I was just thinking how lucky I turned out to be, what with having you to take care of me. And—”

  “I’m the lucky one, Katie girl, and don’t you forget it. You’ve brought me so much joy. And I didn’t even know what that word meant before I found you in the saloon that night. I just lived from one day to the next and did my best to be a man and do a good job at whatever I set my hand to. And then, there you were. And I knew that you were the woman I wanted in my life for all the years to come. And it was the smartest idea I ever had.”

  Errant thoughts of another time and place, of betrayal and lies besieged his mind for a moment and he pushed them aside, holding them in abeyance, as if they had never been. And hoped that he was not being foolish in giving his trust so readily.

  Katie’s voice was soft, the words like music to his ears. “I think it was the best thing in the world that could ever happen to a girl, John. I’m so glad it was me that fell in the door of the saloon that night. I thought sure I was at the end of my rope, and then you were there and I just knew you’d take care of me.”

  He held her close, his big hand in the middle of her back, holding her in a sudden frenzy of emotion that startled him. Whatever there was about this woman, this particular woman, of all he’d ever seen in his lifetime, he didn’t know. But she struck a chord within him that resounded with a melody he felt to the depths of his soul. That he should have been the recipient of such a blessing was almost not to be believed, but since fate had sent her to him, John Roper was not dolt enough to refuse such a gift.

  “Close your eyes, Katie. Morning comes early and that calf is gonna be waiting for you to get yourself out there right early.”

  She mumbled a word against his chest and he recognized that she had already gone close to slumber without his admonition. He buried his face in her hair, catching the scent of soap and woman that surrounded her and his joy was complete.

  BERTA ANNOUNCED IN EARLY April that it was time and past to get the kitchen garden put in, with a resultant flurry of activity that astounded Katie. She was enlisted to help, and felt a sense of real joy that her knowledge of gardening and working out of doors would be a bonus to the hardworking housekeeper and cook from the big house.

  So it was that Shorty, one of the cowhands, was drafted to plow up the space that had long years ago been designated as right and proper for the kitchen garden, a plot of nearly half an acre, not far from the back porch. He turned up on a fine, sunny morning, complete with horse and plow and Berta went out to show him the place she wanted to have ready for planting.

  Although he could have done without her guidance, being a man who had plowed many a patch in his lifetime, he bore with her gracefully, and between them the space was roughly plowed by early afternoon. Along with the able help of Katie, who lugged bottles of water to and fro, and helped with the dinner arrangements while Berta supervised outdoors, it was a productive event.

  After dinner was cleared away, Katie and John having joined the men in the big kitchen for the meal, the dishes were washed and put up and then Berta found two rakes and she and Katie began to work. With the promise of his return in the morning, once chores were out of the way, Shorty left them to it, and they raked industriously at the big clumps of dirt, smoothing the area for gardening. The huge piles of weeds gathered and before long Bill Stanley appeared, pushing a huge wheelbarrow, then filled it with the residue of their raking and lugged it away behind the barn.

  It would take longer than the two of them could manage easily, Berta said as she and Katie quit for the day in time to put together a supper of sorts, but do it they would, with some help from reluctant cowhands. In two days of hard work the area was smooth and weed-free and Berta announced that it was time to haul out the seeds she’d collected from last year’s crop and then decide what they might need to add to the mix from the general store in town. It was an exciting project to Katie’s mind, for she had always been the laborer who did the dirty work in the past, and now she was given a voice in what might be planted and how much of each crop she would want for her own use in John’s kitchen.

  That she was truly married, a real part of such a project gave her confidence a boost such as she’d not expected, and between Berta and John, she made a list of the foods she’d like to store up for the following winter, given Berta’s help with the canning process. A good space was designated for corn, for all agreed that it must be a staple. Not the field corn that the men strewed across a five-acre lot in the north pasture, one fit for crop feed, but a small, carefully tended patch for the house.

  The first seeds to go into the ground were peas and carrots, and then Berta planted a long row of morning glories along the fencerow, where they could twine as they chose through the scrub there. Another spot was designated by the outhouse and string was placed in upright rows to contain the plants as they grew, providing a screen for the necessary building.

  Green beans were next and Berta announced they would plant a new crop every two weeks for a couple of months, ensuring a steady supply for the entire summer, lasting until fall, when the remainder would be canned up quickly. Tomato plants had been ordered from the general store, since growing them from seed took forever, so Berta said, and one morning found John with the reins in his hands, atop the wagon, with Berta and Katie by his side on the wide seat.

  Clay Thomas, a new ranch hand had volunteered for escort duty, but something about the man’s manner put John’s teeth on edge, and he’d put a stop to that plan. Clay had sent long looks in Katie’s direction more than once when she worked outdoors, and John had vowed to keep an eye on him, sensing that the man might have ulterior motives where the young woman was concerned.

  Now, with Bill Stanley’s approval, John organized the shopping trip, their destination Eden, the general store being the first stop.

  They arrived midmorning and Katie and Berta went inside while John settled the team at the hitching rail. Berta’s list of supplies needed was long, for they’d been so busy with the gardening they hadn’t been to town for over two weeks, and the flour bin was almost empty. Sacks of sugar and coffee, t
ins of lard and canned peaches were soon piled on the counter of the bustling store, and as Katie held the list and tried to decipher Berta’s writing, the order was filled.

  She’d watched as Berta wrote down the necessary items they would purchase, looking over her mentor’s shoulder as they thought of what was needed and so recalled easily just what each item was. Delighted at her own prowess with the words written on the paper before her, she checked each item off as Shandy Peterson brought it to the counter. Stacking them high, he stood back and she beheld a satisfied grin on his face, for the items were many and his store stood to make a tidy profit on this order.

  Katie’s words were soft, spoken beneath her breath, pleased by the excitement of the shopping trip. “This is more fun than a…” Her voice trailed off as she thought industriously just what such an occasion could be compared to. It was certainly more enjoyable than many a day she’d spent in her short life, not as wonderful perhaps as her evenings with John or the meals they shared over the oilcloth-covered table in his cabin, but nevertheless, a day to remember fondly.

  “You sure don’t require much in the way of entertainment, young’un,” Berta said with a laugh. “Buying supplies is hard work, and once we get back and we have to lug all that stuff into the pantry and sort it out to store it, you’ll change your tune, I warrant.”

  Katie only smiled, well aware that the happiness she’d found in Berta’s kitchen was worth any hard work that might fall to her. Shandy loaded up the supplies in cardboard boxes and when John approached the counter, the storekeeper was ready to begin carrying out the merchandise. Together the two men loaded the back of the wagon and then Shandy brought flat boxes of tomato plants from the back of the store and placed three of them carefully at the far end of the wagon, positioning the boxes of supplies so that nothing would fall on the fragile stems.