Loving Liza Jane (16 page)

A fleck of the jaw and a twitch of a cheek told her what she wanted to know; they were nervous, and for good reason. Their secret was out. Judgment day was upon them.

She glimpsed at a dreary summer sky. “Despite our lack of sun, we can’t complain about the temperature now, can we?”

All four boys shook their heads, awaiting their sentence, their faces drained of color.

“Well?”

Wrinkled brows hovered over pleading eyes, as each one pondered how to respond to her one-word question.

“Don’t you have anything to say?” she asked, studying their serious faces. Finally, Gus Humphrey opened his mouth to speak.

“I ain’t…What I mean to say, Miss, is that…” His pathetic start had Liza almost feeling sorry for him. Almost, but not quite.

“Miss Merriwether, I got a—a powerful need,” said Todd, his eyes suddenly gone hazy and bloodshot while he held back tears, his booted feet now marching in place like a beaten down little soldier.

Amusement climbed to the surface, but she pushed it back down.

“Well, what exactly is keeping you from heading out to the privy, Todd?” she asked, simple as could be.

As if he’d just been stung by a giant honeybee, he made for the outhouse, holding the front of his pants as he danced along. The other boys watched him go with longing in their eyes. “Now then, you were saying?” she asked Gus, her eyes drilling holes into his pitifully worried ones.

He cleared his throat and started again. “I—I was about to say that I—wasn’t even th—.”

“Oh my,” Liza said, hastily checking the dial on her wristwatch. “I’m sorry to break this up, boys. I’m sure we might have had a rather informative conversation.” To this, she cleared her throat. “But, well, just look at the time.” She tapped her watch with her fingertips.

“Huh?” Gus asked, clearly mystified.

“I must get inside to plan the afternoon lessons. You boys scoot out to the yard now, or you shall miss the remainder of your playtime.”

She headed back for the corner of the building, waiting for the boys to soar past her. When no one moved, she turned around, only to find three boys with blank expressions. “Well, stand there if you must, but time is wasting.” She gave them a smile, lifted her skirts, and headed back inside, her heart lifting in exuberance with every step she took.

***

Ben studied the looming clouds as he followed the carved path from barn to house. Distant thunder and streaks of lightning filled the western skies. The rain had managed to hold off the entire day, but now it looked as if they were in for a drenching. Inside the house, he hitched his flannel shirt over a long nail by the door and hung his hat beside it. A stiff breeze had cooled the afternoon air.

Moving to the basin, he pumped in a goodly amount of water, doused his hands and face, lathered them up, and then hurriedly rinsed and dried himself. He would go pick up Molly at Emma’s first and then swing by the school. No way would he allow Liza and Lili to walk home in weather such as this.

Emma had promised him a room for his prospective bride and even volunteered her services to care for Molly until the woman arrived, claiming she would welcome the change of pace that caring for a little one would bring.

Dumbfounded by her offer, yet relieved beyond measure, Ben thanked her. “I promise you it won’t be long,” Ben had said. “I’m sorry I can’t tell you the precise day of her arrival, but I’ll pay you a fair price for your trouble,” he added.

Emma had waved him off with the promise. “What are friends for, Ben Broughton, if not to lend a hand?”

Everything seemed to be working in his favor, he decided.

Although Emma had thought his notion of a mail-order bride extreme, she hadn’t tried to talk him out of it as Jon had. If anything, she’d agreed his situation warranted a solution. “Perchance this is just what you need, Benjamin, a woman to help you carry the load.”

“Perchance what he needs is a brain in his head,” muttered Jon from behind. Ben did his best to ignore him, and Emma only half acknowledged the remark.

The entire exchange between Ben and Emma had taken less than five minutes, with him handing Molly over to her and promising to return shortly with everything she would need for the week, and Jon watching from the sidelines, his expression dour.

“Tell me something, Miss Browning,” Jon finally said, emerging from the shadows and leaning over the counter to better eyeball Emma. “Don’t you think the idea of this marriage is a bit ridiculous?”

With nary a flinch, the woman had matched his gaze, her back as straight as a finely hewn pine board. “Benjamin Broughton is a reasonable man, Mr. Atkins, or should I say Reverend?” She’d raised a sculpted brow at Jon, something in her steely eyes holding out an unseen warning. “He certainly is capable of making his own personal decisions, don’t you think?”

“Even reasonable men make poor choices, Miss Browning,” he had added, equally challenging.

The hushed verbal match made Ben wonder if the two of them had forgotten he existed in the same room.

She swept Jon over with a scathing look. “I couldn’t agree more. However, in the case of Mr. Broughton, I believe he has more sense than your average, ahem, levelheaded man.”

Whatever she’d intended by the statement, she’d managed to put Jon Atkins off with it. Perhaps it was her expression, something in the way she’d defied him with a mere look, her blue-eyed, China-doll face a direct conflict with her frozen glare. Whatever the case, Jon seemed rankled afterward, which was strange coming from a man adept at making a typical female swoon under his charm. Moreover, the notion that Jon had met his match in Emma Browning gave Ben a fair amount of satisfaction.

The road to town seemed filled with children hurrying home from school. If it weren’t for the dark clouds, he’d have allowed Lili to walk home with Liza, but no telling what the skies held. No, after picking up Molly he would swing by the school and insist they accept a ride.

A bolt of lightning streaked across the sky at that precise moment, followed quickly by a crash of thunder. Ben jerked in spite of his usual sense of calm, thankful that he’d thought to use the fold-up top. At least they would all stay dry on the journey home.

By the time he reached Emma’s, the rain fell in sheets, nearly blinding him. Throwing the reins over the hitching post, he made a dash for the covered porch. Emma opened the door as soon as he lifted his hand to knock.

“No need to knock, Ben. This is a public establishment, not my private living quarters. I live upstairs, remember?”

He gave a sheepish grin as he wiped the rain from his shoulders and stomped his feet on a rag rug. “I’ll try to remember that. How was Molly for you?”

“As perfect as an angel,” she said, pointing to the crib set up in the room off the parlor. He could see even from a distance that his baby slept soundly. Even the next round of thunder did not rouse her.

“Sounds like quite a storm,” Emma said, peeking out the parlor window.

“It’s coming down hard now. I best get over to the schoolhouse and fetch Liza and Lili. I dearly appreciate this, Emma,” he said, heading for the little room where Molly napped. “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t offered.”

“Don’t give it a thought. Bring her by in the mornin’, preferably after I’ve served my guests their breakfast.”

“I’ll drop her off after I take Lili to school. How would that be?” He lowered his voice to a whisper when he drew near his sleeping baby.

“Fine.”

Ben gave Emma a quick perusal. He noted that she’d tied her blond hair back in its usual bun. Several strands had escaped it, however, indicating that she’d done her share of bending and reaching during the day, probably tending to Molly.

No one could ever accuse Emma Browning of being lazy. Her faded cotton dress bore plenty of stains, evidence of her work-filled days. Still, the raggedy garment fit her curvaceous frame perfectly, making him suddenly wonder just why it was she’d never married. Surely, men found her attractive enough. Even he had noticed her lovely features, although he’d never voiced it. No point in misleading her.

“How’s the teacher settling in?”

Ben hadn’t so much as welcomed Liza into the neighborhood, having decided that walking over there just might be a breach in propriety. “I expect well enough.”

To avoid Emma’s silent appraisal, he bent to lift his sleeping daughter. Molly stretched and curled into his embrace, her downy blond head snuggling deep into the curve of his neck, her little hands tucking between her and Ben’s broad chest. Soft breathing meant he’d barely disturbed her. Never would he tire of holding his daughters in his arms like this, no matter how old they became.

Throwing a blanket over her, he smiled over the top of her head and mouthed another thank you to Emma before heading out the door and into the rain-soaked afternoon.

The schoolyard looked deserted save a scruffy, long-haired cat hunched under the porch steps seeking shelter from the storm. Jumping off the rig’s platform, he threw the blanket over Molly’s head and made a run for the schoolhouse, hoping to find the teacher and Lili waiting inside. Yet, when he turned the doorknob, he found the building locked up tight.

Sighing, he ran back to the wagon and again climbed aboard, uneasy about the notion of them walking in open fields in the midst of an electric storm.

Deafening thunder reached his ears just as streaks of lightning lit the darkened skies. Keeping the blanket over his now fussing baby, he tipped his face into the driving, blinding rains and turned the rig around, heading for the dirt trail that led toward home, hoping to come upon the wayfaring pair.

***

Liza and Lili hovered in the cave to which Lili had led them. “Ain’t it just plain wonderful in here, Miss Merriwether?” Lili asked, her adventurous spirit almost contagious.

Almost, but not quite.

Liza managed a weak smile while watching the torrential rains through the cave’s small opening. Pools of water collected on the outside, but because they’d had to step up to the opening, they were free of any danger of getting any wetter than they already were. One thing was certain; the cave had served its purposes for keeping them safe and dry. She could only hope that Mr. Broughton would understand when she delivered his daughter later than she’d promised.

“It’s—well, lovely, I suppose,” Liza said in response, adjusting her position on the rocky floor, seeking out a place with which to find some measure of comfort. “I dearly hope nothing else has sought shelter in here.” Liza looked behind her, dismayed to find nothing but inky blackness that seemed to go on forever. “How far back does this cave go?”

“I don’t know. Me an’ my friend Lenora Humphrey found it last summer.”

“Gus’s sister.”

“Yes. She ain’t nothin’ like her brother though.”

Liza wondered how Lili’s father, with his refined English inflection, handled his daughter’s Kentucky accent.

“Isn’t, Lili. You mustn’t say ain’t.”

“She isn’t like her brother,” Lili conceded. “We are nearly best friends, Lenora and me. But I also got Eloise Brackett for a best friend, and Rosie Bartel, and then there’s Sarah Jenkins,” she rattled on, “but she’s thirteen, which is a might old for a best friend.”

“Age doesn’t matter that much if you have things in common,” Liza said, leaning into the cool, rock-strewn wall and temporarily closing her eyes to ward off a bullying headache.

“My papa is twenty-nine. He’s really my best friend.”

Liza had wondered about his exact age. Now she needn’t wonder anymore.

“As it should be.”

“Is your papa your best friend?” Lili asked.

“My papa died, but I suppose he would have been.”

“You don’t have a papa?” The child’s eyes grew wide with disbelief. “Do you got a mama?”

“Nope, I’m afraid not. I lost them both to a fire—when I was very young.”

Wondering if the girl would now demand details, Liza braced herself.

“Who adopted you?”

Liza laughed lightly. “Well, my aunt and uncle never actually adopted me, but they raised me and treated me exactly as if I were their daughter, and I love them very much.”

“Do you miss them?” Lili asked in rapt wonder.

“I certainly do. But I’m happy I came to Kentucky to be your teacher.”

Comfortable silence filled the next few moments until another round of thunder shook the ground. Liza drew the child into her embrace, happy when Lili didn’t resist.

“I don’t have a mama, either.” The words came out on a hoarse whisper.

Liza’s heart took a tumble. “I know that. And I’m very sorry for your loss.” She fingered the child’s long golden braid.

“Papa says that there ain’t no point to being mad at God about takin’ ar mama, either, because God knew ’zactly what He was doing.”

“I believe he was right in telling you that,” Liza said, swallowing hard.

“God took my mama to heaven just as soon as my sister was born.” Lili sucked in a long, laborious breath after letting loose of the words. “But I don’t blame Molly!” That she added in particular haste.

“Well, of course you don’t. I’m sure no one would accuse you of such a thing.”

“One time Andrew Warner said, ‘I bet you wished your sister wasn’t born.’”

“Oh, Lili.”

“I kicked him,” she announced matter-of-factly. “And then he cried and ran to Mr. Lofthouse.”

Liza certainly didn’t condone violence, but in this case, it seemed warranted.

“Then what happened?”

“Mr. Lofthouse didn’t do nothin’—anything,” she self-corrected. “When I told him what Andrew said to me, he just told that boy to leave me alone.”

“Well, that’s good.”

Another lull filled the space between them, Lili’s hot breath seeping through the material of Liza’s sleeve. “Sometimes I wish my papa would find me a new mother.” Liza’s breath hitched at the unexpected declaration. “But then I feel guilty when I think it.”

Apparently, Lili’s father still hadn’t disclosed his plan to send for a mail-order bride, and it peeved her plenty. Did he plan to wait until the woman arrived to make the announcement? She couldn’t imagine what it would feel like suddenly to be introduced to your new mother. However, the matter was none of Liza’s business. Hadn’t Mr. Broughton clearly stated as much when she’d tried to interfere?