Measure of Grace (12 page)

“No!” she said in a whisper. “You don’t understand! He’ll—”

“Diana!” bawled the man as he drew up. “How dare you talk to a man without my permission!”

Taking a step toward him, Tom said, “Mr. Morrow, I—”

“You shut your mouth!” boomed Stu in an eruption of anger.

“I wasn’t addressing you!”

Embarrassed, Diana said, “Papa, Tom and I went almost all the way through school together. He was two years ahead of me, but we became friends. I saw no harm in talking to him.”

Scowling, Stu stuck out his palm. “Gimme the money for Dennis’s cough medicine. You go immediately into the store with your mother and siblings.”

Tom noted the people passing by, looking on, and decided to proceed with his plan. “Mr. Morrow,” he said, “I’ve always liked Diana very much, and I’m asking you to allow me to take her on a date.”

“She’s too young to date anybody!” said Stu.

“But sir,” said Tom, “many young women her age are already married.”

Stu said, “Diana, get going!”

“Mr. Morrow,” Tom proceeded, his heart pounding, “Diana deserves the opportunity to date young men. I’m asking you for permission to date her.”

There was a dead silence as Stu weighed Tom with a sharp, penetrating glance. In that brief instant of time, Tom’s and Diana’s eyes met. Tom saw the pain and longing there; something akin to the longing in his own heart.

His beefy features suffused with a purplish red, Stu said in a dead level tone, “I’m gonna give you a chance to walk away in one piece, boy. You gonna take it?”

I don’t stand a chance against this big brute
, Tom thought.
Guess I better walk away and let him cool down
.

“Diana!” roared Stu. “Go!”

Not daring to look at Tom again, Diana handed her father the money and headed down the street. The small crowd that was observing the scene stood in silence, wondering what Tom was going to do.

Turning to his cousin, Tom said, “Come on, Kent. Let’s go.”

“You stay away from my daughter, boy, y’hear me!” said Stu, then stomped past them toward the pharmacy. The crowd broke up.

“Sorry about the scene, cuz,” said Tom. “Everybody in these parts knows the man is a brute to his family, but no one knows what to do about it.”

Kent nodded silently.

Tom put an arm around Kent’s shoulder. “Let’s go.”

They had only taken a few steps when Tom saw Diana standing at the door of the general store, looking at him. He smiled at her.

She smiled in return and moved inside.

At the Morrow farm two days later, Diana sat on a chair next to the kitchen table, holding a wet cloth to her mouth while a tearful Deborah looked on.

Potato soup was cooking on the stove, filling the room with its pleasant scent.

Martha was at the cupboard, taking iodine and salve from a shelf.

Turning about, she set them on the table and bent over a pale-faced Diana. “Let me look at it again.”

Diana removed the cloth to expose the split upper lip that was oozing blood. Martha took the cloth from her hand and dabbed at the flow. “Now, tell me … why did your father hit you?”

“When I went in the barn to tell Papa lunch would be ready in half an hour, he was whipping Daniel with a belt. I was afraid he was going to seriously hurt Daniel. I asked him to stop. He stopped long enough to curse at me and hit me on the mouth with his fist. The blow knocked me down and stunned me. When my head cleared, he was still beating on Daniel, and blood was running from my lip.”

Martha shook her head and wiped at the cut again. “Deborah, honey, wet another one of those pieces of cloth on the cupboard for me, will you?”

While a teary-eyed Deborah followed her mother’s order, the three of them talked about the beatings Stu had given Martha and all the children when they made him angry. Martha commented that he was hardest on Diana because she was the oldest of the children, and on other occasions she had tried to interfere when her father was savagely beating on her siblings, and he had struck her for it as he had done today.

Handing her mother the freshly wetted cloth, Deborah sniffed and said, “And how about the times Papa has been beating on you and Diana tried to interfere, Mama? He hit her every one of those times, too.”

Martha used the wet cloth to clean away the blood and applied iodine to the cut. “Diana, I’m so sorry for the way your father treats you.”

Barely moving her lips as she spoke, Diana said, “If it weren’t for you and my brothers and Deborah, I’d run away from home, Mama. I don’t know where I’d go, but I would do it.”

A look of pure terror crossed her mother’s face. “Oh, please, Diana, don’t even think that way! Your father would track you down, and—what he would do to you when he caught you is … is unthinkable.”

Tears ran in rivulets down Martha’s cheeks, and she brushed a shaky hand across her eyes in a futile attempt to stem the flow.

Diana’s heart was immediately contrite at having caused her mother more pain. Martha was about to put salve on top of the iodine when Diana wrapped her arms around her and hugged her close. “I’m sorry, Mama. I didn’t mean to upset you. I said if it weren’t for you and my siblings, I would run away. Believe me, I would never do anything to cause this pitiful, hurting family any more grief.”

As she spoke, Diana rubbed her hand over her mother’s stooped back, trying to smooth away some of the pain. By her loving touch, the bond between the mother and her daughter grew stronger.

Deborah joined them, and all three held to each other for a long moment.

When their tears were dried, Martha went back to work on Diana’s lip, coating it with salve. When she was finished, the bleeding was in check, and the three of them talked about the incident in town with Tom Wymore two days ago.

“I’m so glad Tom didn’t push your father any further,” said Martha. “He would have been in real trouble if he had.”

“With Papa’s temper,” said Deborah, “that’s for sure. Papa would have beaten him up good.”

“That’s what would happen to any of those young men who have shown interest in you, Diana,” said Martha. “It’s too bad. There are at least ten young men who have shown interest in you in the last couple of years, most you have known since you were quite young.”

Diana nodded and wiped away a fresh tear. “Every one of them told me they would not make an attempt to date me because of
Papa. He has them frightened and intimidated. I… I especially like Tom. And he feels the same way about me. He proved that two days ago. But since Papa is so set against me dating, nothing can ever come of it.”

“At least Tom showed that he wasn’t afraid to ask Papa if he could date you,” said Deborah.

“Yes. I admire him for that. But like Mama said, I’m glad he didn’t push Papa any further.”

Deborah looked at Martha, her brow deeply lined. “Mama, why is Papa so mean?”

Martha licked her lips, shook her head, and said, “Honey, I don’t know. He wasn’t like that when he courted me, or I never would have married him. He started showing his mean streak not long after your sister was born. But I can’t tell you why.”

Tears were trickling down Diana’s cheeks. “Mama, it’s only natural that I want romance, love, and marriage. But … but it will never happen as long as I live in this house. My only hope is to leave home and get away from the Richmond area altogether. In fact, I’ll probably have to get clear out of Virginia.”

Martha’s features pinched. “Oh, honey, I can’t stand the thought of your leaving home.”

In her heart, Martha wanted to encourage Diana, but what could she say? Diana was right.

Deborah’s voice trembled as she said, “It’ll be the same for me, Mama, when I reach Diana’s age. I’ll have to leave home for any chance to fall in love and marry. Papa will never let it happen.”

“The thing that frightens me about it is that if either one of you left home, your father would find you, and probably beat you half to death. You know how angry he—”

Martha’s words were cut off by the sound of Stu and the boys climbing the back porch steps. All three looked toward the back door, eyes showing their intimidation.

The door came open, and Stu’s huge frame appeared first, followed by Derick, Daniel, and Dennis.

“Lunch ready?” boomed the big man, removing his dirty old hat and tossing it on a wall peg by the door.

“Just about,” said Martha, moving to the stove. “I was patching
up Diana’s lip. You men get washed up.”

Stu’s face took on a sour look as he stomped to the small table where the wash bowl sat beside a bucket of water.

While their father was washing his hands, Derick and Daniel slipped up close to Diana.

“I’m sorry Papa hit you, Diana,” whispered Daniel. “I feel bad that you had to get hurt because of me. But thanks for trying to protect me.”

Diana smiled in spite of the pain it caused. “I’d do it again,” she breathed softly.

“That’s the kind of sister you are,” said Derick in a low voice. “You’re the best sister a guy could ever have. But I’m sorry about your lip.”

Stu whirled around with a towel in his hands and roared, “I’m not deaf! I heard what you boys said. Don’t be feeling sorry for Diana. She had no business interfering when I was disciplining Daniel!”

The boys’ eyes widened, fear etching itself on their young faces.

Fixing Diana with a hot glare, Stu pointed a stiff finger at her and shook it. “If you ever do it again, I’m gonna beat you within an inch of your life!”

The look in her father’s eyes put a chill down Diana’s spine.

O
N
W
EDNESDAY MORNING
of the following week, the Morrow family climbed into the wagon and headed for town to buy groceries for the family and grain for their cows and horses.

It was a beautiful fall day, with the sun shining down from a nearly cloudless sky, highlighting the brilliant colors of the leaves on the trees.

Dennis sat between his parents on the wagon seat, and the other four sat in the bed as usual.

As Stu guided the wagon onto the road and headed toward town, he turned his head so all could hear. “I’ll leave you girls off at the general store with your mother, and I’ll take you boys with me to the feed store. We should be able to wrap it all up in an hour or so.”

Dennis looked up at his mother. “Would you get us some hard candy, Mama?”

Martha smiled down at him, patted his head, and said, “I think we can manage that.”

Holding the reins with both hands, Stu jutted his jaw. “No candy, Martha.”

Martha’s brow furrowed as she looked at her husband. “Stu, I thought we settled this issue. The children haven’t had candy for over a month. Didn’t we agree that they could have some next time we went to the store?”

“Well, yeah, but I changed my mind after Daniel had to go to the dentist with that cavity two weeks ago. Candy makes cavities, and dentists cost money. No candy.”

“Daniel’s cavity couldn’t have been caused by candy,” Martha argued mildly. “He hasn’t had that much. Neither have the rest of them. A little candy now and then isn’t going to—”

“I said no candy!” he snapped.

Dennis laid his head against his mother’s arm and began to sniffle.

“Enough of that, Dennis!” said Stu. “Dry it up! Right now.”

At that instant, Stu looked up ahead and saw two wagons standing abreast in the road. One was headed toward town, and the other, the opposite direction. He recognized his neighbors, Shamus and Maggie O’Hearn, in the wagon that was headed toward town. He couldn’t make out who they were talking to in the other wagon.

“Oh, look!” said Martha, pointing with her chin. “It’s Shamus and Maggie. I can’t tell who the other people are.”

Derick—who was known to have extra keen eyes—was up on his knees, looking between his parents. “It’s that Pastor Bradford and his wife.”

Stu’s countenance fell.

Martha saw it, and silently hoped he wouldn’t make a scene. The wagons were blocking the road.

Soon the Morrows were drawing near, and Martha mentally released a sigh when she saw the Bradford wagon backing up. By the time they reached the spot, the Bradford wagon was in line with the O’Hearn vehicle, giving ample room for the Morrow wagon to get by.