Taken for English (40 page)

Joseph slapped the rump of Zeke’s stallion. “You go without me.”

On his own horse now, Joseph rode beside Maura, coughing in the swirling dust of the vengeful riders.

H
ow can I drive if I don’t know where I’m going?” Annie took the reins from Rufus on Thursday morning.

“Just go as if you were going to my family’s house for supper. And then keep going. I’ll tell you the turns.”

Knowing she had at least five miles of familiar road, Annie settled in.

“Leah agreed to see a counselor,” she said.

“I’m surprised,” Rufus said. “But it’s probably a good idea.”

“And…I wrote to your brother Matthew about the young man Leah says she’s in love with.”

“Matthew? What were you hoping for?”

“Not what I got.” Annie glanced at Rufus out of the side of her eye. “I thought it might help to be sure if she was reading the relationship accurately.”

“And?” Rufus nudged his hat off his forehead.

“I’m not sure. Matthew didn’t write me back. Leah’s young man did.”

“Seems like that would be reliable information. Why are you uncertain?”

“Leah found the letter before I could open it. So now we’re going to open it during her counseling session tomorrow.”

“I see.”

They listened to the horse clop.

Annie reminded herself to hold the reins firmly but lightly. “You think I overstepped, don’t you?”

Rufus reached over and covered one of her hands with his. “I have not even spoken to Leah Deitwaller. You are the one who has taken time to try to know her. I am not sure it’s up to me to say you overstepped.”

She exhaled relief. “Thank you, Rufus. Ever since I was baptized, I feel so much pressure to make the right decisions.”

“Have you done anything you know is against
Ordnung?”

“No, of course not.”

“Then follow your heart.”

“Do you still think Leah could have started that first fire?”

“Did I sow seeds of doubt in you when I suggested it was at least possible?”

Annie shrugged. “Maybe. I’ve seen for myself how fast she can move and how well she stays hidden. When I caught a glimpse of her at the training burn, I wondered if she had been out to the highway.”

“Have you spoken to the
English
authorities?”

“No. I don’t have proof of anything. I don’t even have good reason to suspect.”

“Was she in Joel’s field last week?”

“I didn’t see her. But I was busy watching the fire.”

“We all were.”

“Never mind.” Annie shook off the grim thought. “I just thought you should know what’s been going on. Maybe you can pray for Leah and me while we open the letter tomorrow.”

“Thank you for asking me to. And I’ll ask you to pray for Joel.”

“So he got off this morning to the new job?”

Rufus drew in a deep breath. “He was eager to go.
Mamm
was not so enthusiastic.”

“My heart tells me Joel is going to be all right.” Annie dared to take her eyes off the road for a quick glance at Rufus. “Are you sure you don’t want to tell me where we are going?”

Rufus smiled. “Just a few more minutes.”

He gave directions one turn at a time until Annie took the buggy onto a narrow stretch that was hardly more than a horse path. When even the path petered out, Rufus asked Annie to take the buggy across open meadow.

“Stop here,” Rufus said finally.

Annie pulled on the reins, and Dolly slowed to a stop. “Where are we?”

Rufus scooted closer to her on the bench and put an arm around her shoulders. With the other he pointed.

“On that little ridge is where I picture the house—facing the mountains, of course. My workshop would be in back, but not so far from the house that I could not hear you call.”

Annie sucked in a gale of air. “This is your land?”

He nodded.

Her eyes widened. The Sangre de Cristos beamed down from their snowcaps. The meadow, a mystery only a moment ago, sprang to life around her. She breathed in the scent of horses to come and listened to the cackling hens she would feed with their children.

He was taking such care to arrange the perfect moment.

“We’d need a barn, of course,” he said. “We’ll want to keep a cow and chickens.”

Annie felt a grin creeping up from her toes. This would be a proposal story they could someday tell their grandchildren.

Ruth systematically—but slowly—pushed a cart up and down every aisle in the grocery store and then started again.

She knew Alan was working. He was not up front bagging, though, so he must be in the storeroom, and it was only a matter of time before he would emerge. Most of the stocking happened in the early hours while Westcliffe’s population still slumbered in confidence they could buy fifty kinds of breakfast cereal or seven brands of dog food later in the day. But Ruth had been in the store at the start of the business day enough to know that some tasks remained for stockers to finish up even after carts roamed the aisles.

And Alan was one of those stockers.

Ruth put a box of tissues in her cart and moved to the frozen foods aisle to ponder the vegetables. Eventually she chose a bag of cauliflower and proceeded to the dairy aisle.

Alan was maneuvering a pallet heaped with yogurts to one side of the aisle.

“Hello, Alan.” Ruth greeted him with warm eyes.

“Hi, Ruth.” Alan leaned one elbow on a stack of boxes and put one hand in the pocket of his blue store apron. “I was afraid you wouldn’t speak to me again. You didn’t seem pleased to see me the other day.”

She waved a hand. “I know you meant well.”

Alan pulled a box cutter out of the apron and sliced into a carton of yogurts. “I guess we’re all a little jittery about the fires.”

“Yes, that’s it.” She reached for a container of sour cream from beside Alan’s pallet. “Are you working all day?”

“I’m off around one o’clock.”

“That’s nice. You can still enjoy the afternoon.” Ruth reached in the other direction and picked up a tub of cottage cheese. “I’m off at two today myself, but I think I’ll go to the library. It would be nice to read something other than a textbook.”

“I know what you mean.” Alan swiftly stacked single-serving yogurt containers on the shelf and sliced open another box. “It’s a little strange to be out of school and actually have a choice about what to read.”

“That’s what I mean!” Ruth chewed one corner of her mouth, mentally repeating cautions to remain casual. “Why don’t you meet me at the library? I know it’s small, but we might find something to recommend to each other.”

Alan eyed her and transferred another batch of yogurt to the shelf. “Yeah. That’s a good idea. I’ll be there.”

Her face beamed, and Rufus allowed himself a moment to bask in it. Perhaps her joy would give him the courage to hang on to the land and the future he imagined would come to be. Their children would learn to gather eggs without disturbing the hens, and Rufus would till Annalise a vegetable garden. He would come in from the workshop at lunchtime and ask how her morning had gone. For decades, they would take their morning coffee out to the front porch and stare at the Sangre de Cristos as they murmured prayers for the day.

“It’s perfect, Rufus.” Annalise sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder.

He opened his palm to her, and she laid her hand in it. Small, slender, feminine.

“You never even gave a hint you were buying land,” Annalise said.

“I did it the summer before you came. I had some savings, and the price was right.”

He knew the words she wanted to hear, and he ached to speak them.

The sound of a car engine wedged into his reverie.

Annalise turned her head, puzzled. “Who would that be?”

Rufus’s suspicion sank his stomach. The car rumbled toward them and slowed to a stop.

“Rufus.” Annalise sat up straight. “The side of that car has a Realtor’s logo on it.”

“Yes, I see.”

The car stopped, and a man emerged from the driver’s door while a man and a woman got out of the passenger side. The driver raised a hand to wave.

“Do you know them?” Annalise asked.

“I know Larry,” Rufus said. “The driver.”

“A Realtor.”

“Yes.”

The stone in Rufus’s gut hardened another layer.

“But this is your land,” Annalise said. “You just told me you bought it more than two years ago.”

“Hello, Rufus,” Larry called. “I didn’t know you’d be out here.”

If Rufus had known Larry would be coming, he certainly would not have brought Annalise out here.

“I’ve got some people interested in your land.” Hands in his pockets, Larry moved toward the buggy. “The people from Denver. I told you about them.”

“Yes, I remember.”

Larry was close enough now that an introduction was mandatory.

“This is Annalise Friesen,” Rufus said.
My fiancée
, he wanted to say. But he had not gotten that far when he had his opportunity.

“Glad to meet you.” Larry extended a cheerful hand, which Annalise accepted. “Rufus has a great piece of land here.”

“Yes, it’s beautiful.”

Rufus saw how hard she was working to cloak her bewilderment in hospitality. He swallowed and descended from the bench.

“Did I misunderstand you when we last spoke?” Rufus said.

“Oh, no, I realize you haven’t made a decision.” Larry gestured to the couple, who stood and gazed across the meadow. “And neither have they. But they came all the way from Denver. It seemed like a serendipitous opportunity to let them see what they could get if they decided to buy out this way.”

“I see.” Rufus glanced up at Annalise, who had shifted in the bench to look at the visiting couple.

Husband and wife stood with their arms linked now, pointing and gesturing.

And smiling.

Rufus stifled the urge to exhale his disappointment.

June 1892

T
hey can’t have gotten too far.” Maura trotted her horse beside Joseph’s as they left the livery and headed down Main Street.

“It might be wise to pause long enough for you to draw me a map of how they might cross the state line,” Joseph said.

“Why? I’ll be with you.” Eyes forward, Maura braced for his refusal.

“This could be dangerous, Maura.”

“I asked for your help, Joseph. I did not ask you to bear the entire load.”

“And if we don’t find them in time? Or Leon won’t listen to reason?”

“Then at least we will have tried. I want to give that much to Belle.” Maura hastened the pace of her horse. “Leon has to see that the price of his choice may be his daughter.”

“Right now he does not see past his anger.”

“I was on the Twigg land in Missouri once, perhaps ten or twelve years ago. My parents used to be quite friendly with Old Man Twigg.”

“Then I hope God has blessed you with a good memory.”

“We will have no trouble asking where their property is once we start to follow the north fork of the river.”

Maura kneed her horse and galloped ahead of Joseph before he could suggest again that she remain behind.