A Man for Glory Page 16

  When the butter had sat for a while, she would wrap it up in the waxed paper for the trip to the general store tomorrow. The eggs would be wrapped in newspaper and layered in a box to travel. Essie liked to help with the eggs and Glory had given her several lessons in the importance of not cracking the fragile shells. The child seemed to have caught on well, and took great pride in her chore.

  They worked together in the kitchen all morning, stopping only to begin dinner, for the menfolk would be in shortly after noon for their meal. Cade liked a full meal at noontime, as did most of the farmers, since they worked hard during the morning hours and needed the sustenance of a good midday meal.

  She brought out a Mason jar of chicken, canned up last fall, when she’d culled out her old laying hens and butchered them. A kettle of chicken and dumplings would set well with Cade, she decided. Essie was sent to the garden to pull a dozen carrots, Glory instructing her to find the ones with the biggest shoulders showing aboveground.

  “That’s one for each finger and two extra. Is that right, Glory?” The child stood at the door, double-checking Glory’s orders, and received a nod of approval.

  “That’s exactly right, sweetheart. There are twelve in a dozen and you have ten fingers and thumbs. So ten and two extra make twelve. You’ve done well with your arithmetic, haven’t you? And while you’re out there, see if there are any peas on the vines. I don’t think the strings are too tall for you to check between the leaves.”

  Essie beamed at the pride aimed in her direction and danced out the door and off the porch to perform the task.

  Glory found a medium-size metal bowl, a blue-speckled one like the coffeepot she used every day. She had three such bowls, which she used often in the garden during harvesttime.

  She carried it out to the porch and called to Essie to come and get it, for it was a good size to put the carrots and peas into. The air was clear, the sky without clouds this morning, and she inhaled deeply of the fresh breeze, her eyes on the corn she’d planted just beyond the tomato plants. It was ready to tassel out, and they’d have sweet corn for supper by the end of the month. She’d planted five rows, enough to keep them in fresh corn and have some left over to can up for winter.

  She knew that Harvey had also planted several acres with field corn just before he’d been arrested and taken to town, and there would be enough in that crop to fill the corn crib in the fall.

  She thought of him, could almost see him working in his fields, and rued the day he’d been taken from their lives. The children had adjusted well to being without him, for Cade had filled the place of a father, and allowed them to get used to his being here gradually. She thought of Harvey’s death, of the crime he’d been accused of, and wondered anew if he’d had any knowledge of such a sum of gold.

  Surely he’d have spoken of it to her, or she would have somehow come across a trace of it in the house or barn. Unless he’d been guilty of the crime and perhaps buried it on the property. She knew it was still spoken of in town; she had borne the looks of those who wondered at her own innocence in the matter.

  But after all, if Harvey had been a bank robber, he’d surely paid a high price for his crime. Somehow, she couldn’t believe that he would have been the one chosen to hold the gold, to hide it or be responsible for it. He’d been an ordinary man, a man of moderate intelligence, but not what she would have considered the type to mastermind such a robbery. Harvey had not been what Glory would call a leader of men.

  As opposed to Cade McAllister, who could do most anything he set his mind to, Glory thought, looking up as his tall figure caught her eye. He was in the pasture, surrounded by his foals and the three mares, and as she watched, he circled the three of them, his casual manner belying his close attention to them, checking for readiness, his mind on the breeding to come.

  Cade’s attention was caught by the sound of horses coming from the road. He looked up, attuned to the visitors he had been expecting. Earl Bradley and one of his hired hands appeared, four cows ambling between their horses, heading for their barn, if he wasn’t mistaken. He lifted a hand in greeting.

  “Hey, there, Earl. Didn’t expect you till tomorrow, but today will work as well. We’ll just put these young ladies in the pasture with the horses for now.” He opened the gate and the men readily guided the cows into their new grazing area.

  “Buddy and I will be putting up some new fencing in the next week or so,” he told Earl.

  “They’ll do well right here for a while,” the farmer said, dismounting to close the pasture gate. He leaned on it and Cade joined him.

  “Those are good-looking heifers. I’m glad you were willing to part with them.”

  “I’ve got more than I need, and if they all breed true, I’ll have enough to take to the stockyards next year. There’s those that really like young beef, and I’ve got a goodly amount of young steers.”

  “I’m hoping to get a good bull,” Cade told him.

  “Well, mine is available till you get one of your own. In fact, you might get a young one in the spring, and if he looks like his daddy, he’d be worth setting aside when it comes time to cut them and do your branding. Have you got a brand yet for your place?”

  Cade shook his head. “Hadn’t thought of it, to tell the truth. I’ll want something that includes Buddy. I won’t use just my initials or name. This is his place, after all. When he’s old enough, I’ll turn it over to him.”

  “You’re putting a lot of work into it, McAllister, to just turn it over to a boy later on. Not only work, but hard cold cash, too.”

  “We’ll run it together for a lot of years, I figure. But if the boy turns out to be as good a rancher as I think he will, he’ll have the know-how to run a big spread.”

  “The piece that butts up against your property is available, probably could be bought for taxes in a couple years. The fella that had it walked away and left it empty. There’s even a cabin on it, not much to look at, but pretty sturdy. Looks to be watertight and well built.”

  “I took a look at it one day when Buddy and I were out riding the property line, checking on fences and deciding about what land to fence for pasture. It seems a dirty shame to me for it to sit empty over there. If I buy the land down the road a ways, I’d probably need to hire someone to live over there.”

  “You got any men in mind to hire on here?” Earl asked him.

  “No, not yet. I’m not earning enough to hire help, but another year or two should make a difference. We’ll have hay to sell this fall and the corn crop looks good. I thought about raising wheat next year on some acreage out back.”

  Earl nodded, his approval of Cade’s plans apparent. “I’ll put the word out that you might have extra hay. There’s always fellas needing feed for their stock. Harvey Clark made sure he had plenty of hay to cut. Usually three cuttings a year.”

  “Yeah, we’ll cut for the third time in September. I’ll not have Buddy here to help with it though, for he’ll be going to school in town this year.”

  “You could keep him home till the hay’s in,” Earl suggested, as if schooling wasn’t nearly as important as a crop of hay.

  “I know a lot of the young boys help out at home till October or so, but I think it’s important for Buddy to be regular in his schooling, this first year especially.”

  “Problem is that the boys turn into young men and then they get to thinking they should go to the big city and make a lot of money, and some of them leave for greener pastures.”

  Cade smiled as he considered the boy he’d taken as his son. “I don’t think Buddy will turn out that way. He’s a born farmer. You ought to see him with the foals. He’s got a real knack for training.”

  “These young’uns are lucky to have you here lookin’ after them, McAllister. It could have turned out different for the missus and these children.”

  “I’m the lucky one,” Cade told him, his grin wide as he thought of the woman he’d married and the children who had become his own. “Glory’s a good
wife, knows her stuff, with cooking and sewing and putting food away for the winter months.”

  “Folks hereabouts are happy that she ain’t alone, that’s for sure,” Earl said. He turned then and mounted his horse, his farmhand having gone to the horse trough to water his mount. “We’ll be gettin’ back home. Good luck with the fencing.”

  Cade held up a hand, halting his departure. “I’ll stop at the bank and drop by your place tomorrow to pay you for the heifers.”

  “Not anything to worry about. I’m in no hurry.” Earl Bradley turned his gelding and rode toward the man who waited for him, then lifted a hand to Glory, who was watching from the porch. She waved at them, then headed to the pasture.

  Cade leaned on the gate and waited for her to join him. “I thought heifers would be smaller,” she said as she approached, looking at the three who grazed just a few feet from where Cade stood.

  “No, they get their full growth pretty young. By the time they’re ready to have their calves late next spring, they’ll be full-grown cows.” He covered Glory’s hand with his own, holding it in a firm grip. “You’ll beat them to it, Glory, for it takes cows eleven months to have a calf, and we’ll have our child before our pasture fills up next year.”

  “I suspect you’d like a boy, wouldn’t you, Cade?” She turned to look up at him, her eyes sparkling, because she obviously was thinking of the baby she carried.

  She was too much to resist and he bent to kiss her, brushing his lips across hers as he looked down into her eyes. “I’ll take whatever we’re given, Glory. Every man probably wants a son, but I already have Buddy and he’ll not take second place when we have a boy born to us. He’ll always be our firstborn, no matter how many children you and I manage to bring into the world. I think a little girl, with dark hair and blue eyes, would be just about perfect. I’d like a little Glory running around here, and Essie would no doubt love to have a baby sister.”

  A tear trickled from Glory’s eye and left a damp trail on her cheek. “You really don’t care, do you, Cade? It’s all right if we have a girl? I’d thought you’d be set on a son, and perhaps you will be the second time around if this one is a girl.”

  “You won’t mind doing this again?” he asked, thinking of her queasy stomach and the early-morning and late-night retching he’d heard several times.

  “You have no idea how happy I am to be giving you a child. My mama said it was what a woman was made for, that it was the high point of her life to bear children.”

  “Your mama was a wise lady, wasn’t she?”

  Glory nodded, looking a bit lost at this very moment.

  “You need another woman to talk to, don’t you, sweetheart?” He hadn’t thought of it before, because Glory seemed so capable, so well equipped to cope with her everyday life. But this was a different thing altogether. A young woman bearing her first child was sure to be in need of another female to speak with. He wondered if she’d considered any of the ladies in town for just such a friend. And then thought of an even closer woman who might be just the ticket for Glory.

  “Have you ever met Earl Bradley’s wife?” he asked.

  She nodded. “I’ve seen her in town a few times, and when she had extra apples, she asked Mr. Bradley to bring me a couple of bushels one time a year or so ago. She seems very nice. They have four children, all of them school age.”

  “Maybe we could ride over and you could pay her a visit one day,” Cade said, and then enlarged on the idea. “I have to stop by there tomorrow on the way home from town to pay him for the heifers. It would be a good chance for you to spend a few minutes with her, maybe, and see if you might become closer neighbors than what you’ve been before.”

  “I always thought Etta Bradley was a nice lady. Maybe I could take her some strawberry jam or ask her about her garden.”

  Glory sounded eager to fall in with his idea, and Cade felt a sense of accomplishment that he’d neatly solved the problem of her being so much on her own. He put his arms around her, drawing her close, and bent to nuzzle her throat a bit, the faint scent of her soap drawing him there.

  “You sure smell good, honey. You’re always so clean and pretty. I’m proud of you, did you know that?”

  “Me? You’re proud of me? And here I was just thinking a little while ago how smart you are and how you know so much and have such a knack for doing things.”

  “We’re lucky to have each other, Glory.” He held her close, thinking ahead to the times in the coming months when he’d lay his hands on Glory’s belly and feel the baby move.

  “I’d like to let my folks know about us, Glory. I want my father to know that I’m to have a child with you. Maybe we can even ask them to visit, if you like.”

  She leaned her head back, looking up at him. “Would your mama like me, do you think?”

  “She’d think you were top-notch, Glory. I’ll sit down and write a letter tonight after supper and tell them all about you and the children and the farm. They’ll be pleased, for I haven’t written to them in months.”

  Essie had apparently decided that nagging would get her bedroom in order, for she sat at the supper table and spoke of the lack of space for her dolly’s bed, and her solitary window looking out upon the lane beside the house while Buddy had a wealth of windows in his room. When she spoke of shelves, Cade took the bait.

  “What are you trying to tell me, sweet? Are you feeling left out of the general scheme of things?”

  She looked puzzled. “I don’t know what that means, Pa, but I sure do need some more room to put my stuff.”

  “I got the message, Essie. Give me a few days to work on the pasture and I’ll get back to pounding nails and tearing out the wall for your room.”

  Glory touched the child’s hand. “Sometimes we have to be patient, Essie, because men have plans made days and weeks in advance, and Cade is no different than any other farmer. His livestock has to come first, for that’s where he makes the money that we live on. He has to take care of his new heifers and the foals and provide for them. I fear you’ll have to wait your turn. And in the meantime, we’ll pick out material for your new curtains tomorrow and work on them, along with Buddy’s. Maybe we can make you a new set of pillowcases to match your curtains. Would you like that?”

  “And a piece of flannel for a quilt for my baby?” Essie asked, reminding Glory of her promise.

  “Yes, a bit of flannel for your dolly’s new quilt. We’ll piece together some squares of fabric I’ve put aside from other things I’ve made and we’ll put a pretty top on the quilt for her. You can help me tie it with yarn.”

  Essie beamed, her mind obviously working at top speed. “And then when my room is finished, I’ll be all ready to fix it up real pretty, won’t I?”

  “But first, we need to clear off the table and do up the dishes, Essie. I’ll get the dishwater ready and you can bring the plates and silverware to the sink for me. And while we’re doing that, Buddy, I want you to finish your reading in the history book the teacher in town lent to us. I’d like to be able to return it to her tomorrow. You only have one more chapter to go, right? It’s about the war between the United States and Great Britain. You’ll find it interesting, Buddy.”

  He looked sheepish as he met Glory’s gaze. “I’ve already read it, Glory, a couple days ago when I ran out of stuff to read. I didn’t know all that stuff about our country having to fight for freedom. I guess I didn’t appreciate the guys who were running the country, and all they did to make the government strong.”

  Cade’s brow rose as Buddy spoke. “I didn’t know you were interested in history, Buddy. I always thought that Benjamin Franklin was one of the smartest men that ever lived. And Thomas Jefferson was a good president. I have a book about his life somewhere in my things. I’d forgotten about it, but I’ll get it out for you.”

  “Not tonight,” Glory said, reminding him of his prior commitment for the hour after supper. “I’ll find the writing paper and see if we don’t have some envelopes in the des
k. Mr. Clark used to keep a supply of them in his top drawer.”

  “Who you gonna write to, Pa?” Buddy asked.

  “I’m going to send my folks a letter when we go to town in the morning. They don’t know about my new family, and I need to catch them up to date on the happenings around here. They need to know they have two new grandchildren.”

  Essie’s eyes grew large as she heard his words. “Is that me and Buddy, Pa? Are you talking about us being grandchildren?”

  “You’re sure enough their grandchildren, Essie. The both of you. They’ll be so pleased to know that I have a son and daughter now.”

  “I guess I hadn’t thought about it that way, Pa,” Buddy said wonderingly. “We’re really your children, aren’t we? Almost as good as blood kin?”

  “Better, maybe. For we chose each other, and when you have blood kin, you just have to take them whether it’s your first choice or not. In our case, we made a family, just the four of us, and shaped it to suit us. Glory and I are your folks, just as much as your real mother and father were.”

  “And come next spring …” Glory hesitated, looking to Cade for guidance, and he took her hand and stood behind her, his arm around her waist.

  “Come next spring, there’ll be five of us, Buddy. Listen up, Essie, for this is important. Glory is gonna have a baby, too. We’ll have more than new foals and calves in the spring. We’re gonna have a real baby of our own before then. You’ll have a new brother or sister and there’ll be one more McAllister living here with our family. What do you think of that?”

  “Really? We’ll have a real baby? A sister or maybe a brother?” Essie was bursting with smiles and giggles. Buddy looked solemn, eyeing Glory wisely.

  “We’ll have to take good care of Glory, won’t we, Pa? Make sure she doesn’t work too hard and stuff like that.”

  “How do you know about that sort of thing, Buddy?” Cade asked, truly puzzled that the boy would be so perceptive.