The Shepherd's Voice (16 page)

Which, he figured, made him as bad as his father had suggested.

Akira straightened and looked at him. “Next week I’ll be taking supplies up to Brodie and the others. Would you mind going to town tomorrow to get a few things we’re short on?”

“No.” He glanced away so she wouldn’t see the yearning in his eyes. “I don’t mind.”

“Gabe?” Her voice was soft, gentle. “What’s wrong?”

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

After a lengthy silence, she said, “‘Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.’ Second Corinthians, chapter five, verse seventeen.” She stood. “Look it up. It’s talking about you.” Then she walked away.

Gabe stayed beside the river long after night had blanketed the valley.

Hudson leaned back in his chair as he read the last paragraph of the senator’s letter.

… and despite my best efforts, I have been unable to persuade any of my colleagues in the Senate to support your proposal. While it may be that a dam and reservoir south of Ransom are possible in the future, we have no legal grounds to force Miss Macauley from her land. Unless you are able to convince her to sell her property to you, I’m afraid there is nothing further I can do.

Hudson crinkled the paper in his hand and tossed it across his office. Senator Quincey Fortier was a sniveling, worthless, spineless excuse for a man. He was even less of a senator. Nothing further he could do for Hudson, indeed! Just wait until the next election.

He stood and strode to the window. The mill was silent, the workers long since gone to their homes for the evening. Looking toward town, he saw the lights of his mansion on the hillside. Pauline wasn’t waiting up for him, of course. She never did. They’d barely spoken to each other since the day Gabe had come to the house.

Hudson shook his head and frowned.

That interview certainly hadn’t gone as he’d expected. Gabe had stood up to him. Not in the rebellious, angry manner of his youth, but with a quiet confidence. He’d reminded Hudson of Clarice.

His mood darkened.

If only Gabe hadn’t gone to work for Akira. This was her fault.

All of it. But she wouldn’t win. He didn’t care what he had to do, she wasn’t going to win. Nobody got in his way.

Nobody.

Akira should own a truck,
Gabe decided as he drove the team toward Ransom the following day. With any luck, the parts for the Wickham’s Ford would have arrived at the hardware store by now.

Charlie had said Akira was free to use it once it was repaired. Until then, their only means of transportation was by wagon or horseback.

Akira didn’t seem to mind not having an automobile or a gasoline-powered tractor or any number of other modern conveniences. She didn’t have a telephone. She didn’t have an electrical stove—but then, she didn’t have electricity, either. She didn’t even have a bathroom with running water.

Yet she was content with what she had. He wondered if she ever worried about anything.

With Hudson resolved to get his greedy hands on her land, she
should
be worried.

Gabe frowned. Why did his father want Akira’s land? Was he determined to take it from her because she’d helped Gabe? No, that couldn’t be the reason. He knew Hudson had offered to buy the land and she’d refused to sell before Gabe returned to Ransom. So it didn’t have anything to do with him. Or rather, it hadn’t until Gabe refused to help his father. Now, knowing Hudson as he did, the reasons would have become personal.

He should leave. It would end the gossip, and maybe it would keep his father from doing anything to hurt Akira.

Maybe.

His arrival in Ransom put a stop to his ruminations. He drove
the wagon to the feed store. From there he would go to the hardware store and then the dry-goods store. If he could afford it, he planned to buy himself a new hat and a pair of overalls that fit him better than the ones Akira had given him.

Inside the feed store, he received a less than warm welcome from the proprietor who watched him with a suspicious gaze.

Making sure the ex-con doesn’t steal anything.

He shouldn’t be surprised. He’d grown used to those looks after his release from prison, but being with Akira at Dundreggan had caused him to forget, however momentarily, what many folks thought of him.

He made his purchases as quickly as possible and left the store.

Things were a little better at the hardware store. Zachary Sebastian was inside, and he greeted Gabe in a boisterous manner, slapping him on the back while shaking his hand. The farmer looked a great deal like his sister, except his face was deeply etched with wrinkles from a lifetime spent in the sun and wind. His hair, sparse as it was, was the color of granite, and liver spots dotted his scalp.

“Am I glad to see you,” Zachary said. “I could use your opinion about something. Come over here and take a gander at this. I’ve been thinking of ordering me a new tractor. Sure does help a body make a decision when he can talk it out with another fella.”

“I don’t know much about tractors.”

“Don’t matter none. It’s the talkin’ that helps, not the advice.” Zachary grinned, displaying a gap where he’d lost a tooth.

They spent the better share of the next half-hour turning the pages of the catalog, comparing models and prices. They also discussed the weather, especially the drought in what had come to be known as the Dust Bowl.

“Goes to show we could be worse off than we are.” Zachary
looked toward Richard Martin, the hardware store’s manager, who was standing on top of a ladder at the back of the store. Raising his voice, he said, “Ain’t that right, Martin? Things could be worse than they are.”

“I reckon so,” the man answered, “though I sure hope it don’t get worse.” He turned around and sat on the top step of the ladder. “Don’t know what I’d do if Mr. Talmadge ever decides to close the store.” He glanced nervously at Gabe, then back at Zachary.

Understanding hit Gabe like a sledgehammer—Richard Martin feared for his job, simply because Gabe was in the store. A store owned by Hudson.

“I’d better get on with my errands. It’s a long drive back to the Macauley ranch. Good luck deciding which tractor to buy, Mr. Sebastian.”

“You call me Zach. We’re old friends.”

It wasn’t the truth, but it made Gabe feel a bit better.

“Say hello to Miss Macauley and Mrs. Wickham for me.”

“I will. You do the same to Miss Jane. Oh, and thank her for the Bible. Tell her I’m reading it every day.”

Zach nodded and smiled. “She’ll be mighty pleased.”

Turning around, Gabe asked Richard Martin about the parts for the Wickham truck and was told they were in. The store manager fetched the order from the back room. Gabe paid for the parts and, after a final farewell to Zachary, left the hardware store.

Beneath the branches of a tall silver maple growing near one end of the barn, Akira gripped the saddle horse’s hoof between her thighs and spread salve over a cut on the animal’s leg.

She wondered if Gabe was on his way back from Ransom yet. She wondered if he might learn to feel something more for her than
gratitude. She wondered what she would do if he decided to leave Dundreggan.

“It’d break my heart to see him go. Don’t let him go, Lord. I don’t want to lose him. He’s become mighty important to me. Mighty important.”

Eyes closed now, she set down the horse’s leg, then straightened, placing her fingers in the small of her back and bending slightly backward, stretching out the kinks. When she opened her eyes again, she saw Nora walking toward her, carrying something wrapped in a towel.

“I baked a rhubarb pie,” Nora said. “Care to have a bite with me?”

Akira smiled as the delicious odor reached her nose. Rhubarb pie was her favorite. “I’d love some. Thanks. Give me a second to put Wally up.”

She untied the halter rope, then led the horse into the corral where she turned him loose. A short while later, she joined Nora on the front porch of the main house.

She savored the first bite of the pie. “This is delicious, Mrs. Wickham.”

“What it needs is some ice cream.”

“Mmm. Sounds heavenly.”

Nora closed her eyes
.
“We have a freezer packed in one of our trunks.” She smiled softly. “Can’t tell you how many summer evenings we’ve spent, all taking turns on the crank, Charlie, Mark, and me. Nothing quite so good as just made ice cream on a warm summer night.”

“No, indeed.”

“Maybe I could find it. Charlie would know right where it is, but I’m afraid I don’t. I was so ill when he lost his job and we were forced from our home.”

There was an uncomfortable silence and Akira sought to change the subject. “If I’d known you had a freezer, I’d’ve had Gabe buy some rock salt while he was in town.”

Another period of silence followed.

“I like that young man,” Nora said after a spell.

Akira felt a fluttering sensation in her stomach. “Me too.” She kept her gaze turned away lest the other woman see more than she should.

“I didn’t expect to, you know.”

“Yes, I know. No one did.”

“It isn’t going to be easy for him, Akira. And it isn’t only ’cause he went to prison. There are folks who remember him from before.”

“Was he really so bad?”

“Some would say so. Young, handsome, rich, and full of anger.”

“Poor Gabe.”

Nora touched her shoulder. “Be careful. I’d hate to see you get your heart broke.”

It might very well be too late already.