Wings of a Dove (21 page)

    She didn't know why James hated Delaney so. Delaney and she had both come to the farm under the same conditions, but James was ever generous and kind to her, while he was hateful to Delaney. Of course, Delaney was just as hateful in return.

    But this time had been worse than the others, because now Delaney was eighteen. He had turned eighteen a few months ago, and Allie had sensed he was making up his mind about something.

    She knew what turning eighteen meant to Delaney. He was free of his contract. She also knew what it meant to James. He had expected Delaney to leave as soon as he was free, but Allie had known he wouldn't. He wasn't ready yet. Delaney had an ambition. He had worked hard at his studies and read the newspapers Miss Ferguson gave him from first word to last. Everybody else thought Delaney was odd, devoting so much time to book work, but she knew he wasn't. She was proud of him.

    Delaney didn't know it, but she had an ambition, too. It wasn't as grand an ambition as his, but she worked just as hard at it. She didn't expect she'd ever be famous or rich. She didn't expect she'd ever even be pretty, but she did know she was smart. She was smarter by far than most of the girls her age in school, and her secret ambition was to study hard, so she wouldn't fall too far behind Delaney.

    Delaney had smiled when he caught her reading the newspapers he had discarded in the barn, but he didn't know why she read them, or that she read every one. She didn't really understand all she read. Some of it was too complicated, and some of it sounded really foolish and trivial, considering all else that was going on in the country, but she understood a lot more about what was happening beyond the Case farm than Sarah and even James.

    Allie frowned. James would not approve of her ambition be  cause he did not approve of Delaney. Nothing Delaney could do would have made James think well of him, but it was an undeclared and accepted fact that Delaney's help was now necessary on the farm. Because of Delaney, Papa Case had been able to cultivate more fields, and those fields had been producing well. More land planted meant more work, and Delaney had never spared himself in doing what was expected of him. The result was that Papa Case was faced with the prospect of allowing some of his truly fruitful fields to lie fallow if Delaney chose to leave and go his own way.

    She had accepted the fact that Delaney would go his own way someday. She was just so glad he was not going yet.

    Allie swallowed against a tightness in her throat she knew was not related to exertion. Smiling when she realized Delaney had seen her, she waved and started running toward him again. She was so glad he had come home.

    One glimpse of Allie's slight pale-haired figure running toward the wagon, and tension knotted Delaney's stomach. Slapping the reins against the mare's back, he urged her to a faster pace, never taking his eyes off Allie as the distance between them narrowed. His heart was pounding like a drum. Something was wrong.

    Delaney strained his eyes in an attempt to determine Allie's expression. Was she frightened? Anxious? He could make out no more than her slight figure, clothed in the familiar cotton dress, running toward him as she waved wildly. With the exception of a few inches in height, it was a figure mostly unchanged from the child of ten Allie had been three years before. Her unusual silver-gold hair was longer now, flying out behind her as she ran; and as she drew closer, he could see that her delicate, fine-featured face was pulled into a grimace as she labored for breath.

    Reining up sharply as she neared, he was about to jump to the ground when Allie startled him by smiling broadly. Surprised by the warmth of that smile, he waited until she came to an abrupt halt beside the wagon before reaching down to lift her up onto the seat beside him. She was grinning now, and he felt the sudden urge to wrap his hands about that skinny white neck and choke her.

   ''Allie Pierce, you scared the hell out of me running toward me like a maniac! I thought something was wrong!"

    Halting his angry tirade as the smile vanished from Allie's lips, Delaney shook his head and picked up the reins. Using those seconds to restore his clam, Delaney turned back to Allie. Suddenly he was even more annoyed with himself for having wiped the sparkle from her dark eyes. He offered her a quick smile.

    "All right, let's start again. What brought you out here on the run, Allie? I can't believe you're that happy to see me."

    Allie flushed, momentarily averting her face, and Delaney's smile faded. Something
was
wrong, or at least had been wrong until she saw him. He had seen Allie behave like this a few times during the past three years, but never with this intensity. Gripping her small chin with his hand, he guided Allie's gaze back to his face.

    "What happened, Allie?"

    Allie shook her head and attempted to avert her face again, but he was having none of it. Realizing she could not evade his question, she shrugged.

    "Nothing happened. Nothing bad, anyway. I wanted to talk to you before you got to the house. And I was glad to see you."

    "So glad that you had to come running at me like the devil was at your heels?"

    A wobbly smile broke across Allie's lips. "Yes."

    Moved by the honesty of Allie's short reply, Delaney fell silent. Unconsciously sliding his arm around her narrow shoulders, he looked directly into her sober brown eyes.

    "I wouldn't leave for good without telling you first. Don't you know that, Allie? Even if I didn't tell anybody else, I'd tell you."

    Allie studied his face so earnestly that he could almost feel the touch of her serious dark eyes. She finally nodded. "Yes, I know that now."

    His throat constricting as Allie leaned against his shoulder, Delaney lowered his head and rubbed his cheek against the warm pale silk of her hair.

    "Allie, I always thought you were a smart kid."

    She glanced up, embarrassed. "I guess you were wrong."

    Relief removed the tension that had knotted his stomach, and     Delaney squeezed Allie's shoulder. "Now, what did you want to tell me that couldn't wait until I got home?"

    Allie's smile slowly turned into a frown. "I… I wanted to tell you that you don't have to worry about James when you get back, Delaney, or Papa Case, either. Mother Case talked to both of them while you were gone."

    "I figured she would."

    "She reasoned with them, Delaney. You know she's the only one they listen to."

    "I know."

    "She can't make James like you, or make Papa Case feel the same way about you as she does, but it'll be better when you get back, you'll see. Even Sarah" Allie grimaced unconsciously” even Sarah got a firm talking-to, but I don't think she listened too much. She never does."

    "You don't have to worry about me, Allie. I can take care of myself, and I can handle anything James and Papa Case dish out."

    "I know you can, Delaney, but"

    "But…?"

    "But I want you to be happy."

    Delaney again felt the touch of an emotion that was reserved for Allie alone. He covered it with a short laugh and a quick wink. "
You
make me happy when you smile."

    "Oh, Delaney." A full smile spread across her face and Allie shook her head. "I want you to be happy for yourself. I told James that he"

    Delaney stiffened. "I don't want you getting in the middle, between James and me, especially now."

    "What do you mean, 'especially now'?"

    "Especially now, when I have some things to talk about with Mr. and Mrs. Case." Delaney paused. "I've taken a position in town, Allie."

    Allie's small face went still. "It's about your goal."

    "It's the first step. I'm going to be working on the
Cass County News
three afternoons a week, whether the Cases approve or not."

    Allie's eyes were suddenly suspiciously bright. "And you're going to be famous someday."

    Somehow Allie's faith in him didn't make him smile this time.

    "That part is still between you and me. I have to learn to walk before I can run."

    "You'll do it, Delaney."

    Delaney nodded. "We'll see, won't we, Allie?"

    "They'll all see."

    The thought that Allie believed in him almost more than he believed in himself touched Delaney deeply. The feeling was still with him when he turned the wagon into the yard.

    "It's out of the question, Margaret. Three afternoons a week! Just who does the boy think he is? With the traveling time from here to town and back, that would leave most of the work for those three days to James and me. And how would he get to town, Margaret? Tell me that. Am I supposed to provide him with transportation, too?"

    Margaret Case took a deep breath and stared at her husband's lined face. She had no heart for this conversation this evening. Supper was over and it would soon be dark, and she would have gone to bed if she hadn't felt it would alarm Jacob.

    She had seen trouble in Delaney's face when he returned from town, and in Allie's, too, as she had ridden into the yard seated beside him in the wagon. It had merely been a matter of waiting until Delaney decided to speak. He had done that after supper, just before everyone had risen from the table.

    The tension that had followed Delaney's quiet announcement had been so thick that she had realized it would be a mistake to discuss it as a group. She had sent the others off to do their chores, and she was now faced with Jacob's adamant disapproval. She was not up to it.

    She had felt very weak today, increasingly weak over the past month. She had tried not to show it, but she was afraid the keen eyes of her family had noticed the paling of her skin, just as had she, and the fact that her clothes were beginning to hand on her frame. Allie had taken on a larger share of the chores in the kitchen and could not seem to do enough for her comfort.

    Margaret felt love well in her heart for the child who had come to them in such an unusual way. Allie had been a true gift solace for hearts saddened by loss and with love to spare. She knew she could not love her more if the child had been her own    flesh and blood, and she wanted only the best, the very best for her.

    Sadness touched Margaret's mind. Sarah, her own dear daughter, just was not capable of half the love this endearing child had to give, for Sarah loved herself best of all. It was obvious to Margaret that her fondness for Allie was shared by the other members of the family, with the exception of Sarah. Sarah was jealous of her and could not understand how Allie, dear plain little Allie, could inspire so much love.

    How Margaret wished the same could be said for the boy who had come to their family with Allie. In truth, she could not truly understand her men's objections to Delaney. Was it that they felt threatened by his silent strength, or was it that they did not quite know what to expect of him?

    In all candor, Margaret had to admit that she suffered doubts about the boy, as much as she truly loved him. She was uncertain where all his bitterness and his strictly controlled anger with fate would take him in the end.

    "Margaret."

    Snapped back to the present by her husband's anxious, softly spoken summons, Margaret attempted a smile. What was it he had asked her? She was so tired.

    "Margaret, this work Delaney has taken on in town will put us all to a disadvantage. We cannot allow it."

    "Jacob dear, you don't seem to realize that Delaney has already accepted the position."

    Margaret saw her husband's stubborn flush. Inwardly, she despaired. Dear Jacob, as loving, generous, and considerate a husband as he was, could also be as obstinate as a mule. It was a side of him she had viewed infrequently until Delaney came to them. Since then she had fought long and hard against Jacob's inflexibility with regard to the boy, but now she was weary.

    "Jacob dear, if we oppose him, we'll lose him."

    A sound in the doorway told her that James had stepped into the room the moment before he spoke.

    "It would be a small loss, Mama." Margaret's heavy eyelids closed briefly at the sight of her son's stiff, unyielding countenance. Not James, too. She did not have the strength to oppose them both.

    "James, this discussion is between your mother and me."

    James's fair face flushed. "Is it, Papa? I'm almost twenty years old. I'm an adult. I'll be taking over this farm one day, and I think it's about time I had some say in what goes on around here."

    "James, dear, your opinions are of little use to us in this matter." Smiling in an attempt to soften her harsh statement, Margaret continued. "You cannot speak objectively about Delaney because you dislike him. You know it's true."

    Concern touching his expression at his mother's weak voice, James nodded. "That's right, Mama. I don't like Delaney Marsh. I never have and I never will. He's not to be trusted. He's taken all of you in, and I have the feeling he's about to make us all pay."

    "James is right, Margaret. This is my home, and I make the decisions. If Delaney doesn't agree with them, he's free to leave."

    Margaret did not miss the satisfaction that flooded her son's face at his father's words. She closed her weary eyes briefly once more.