An imperfect promise, p.10
An Imperfect Promise, page 10
A smile bloomed just for him on her soft rosy lips. Then she turned to Thomas. “I’d like that. We’d all like that.”
For the first time since coming to Nebraska, John relaxed and let himself think of something other than his troubles. It would be no skin off his back to help Thomas as Gini had suggested, and he could use the help. “If you think Thomas could use some extra training, I’d be happy to teach him how to ride and rope, how to handle cattle.”
Gini hesitated, and her mouth flattened. “We rely on him a lot, but it’d be good for him. If he’s supposed to come with me to get milk anyway, I might as well leave him here to work with you.”
“Talk to Miss Esther about it. I think it’d be good for him. If he’s needed at home, it doesn’t have to be every day.”
Boy and dog both lay in the sun, tuckered out from their play.
John just couldn’t get Gini out of his head, especially with that red hair shining like a halo around her face. She wasn’t married. He’d have to be careful how much he talked with Thomas about his pretty caregiver. It would be too easy to ask questions and raise Thomas’s suspicions about John’s interest when there was nothing to them. Or maybe he was more worried those suspicions would be hopes and that it would hurt Gini? Either way, it couldn’t happen. He couldn’t put her in danger, and she was needed at the orphanage.
A stray red curl slipped from the confines of her ear and fell over her temple as she set the pup back on the ground, and he held his hand back from brushing it into place so he could see her face, feel that hair under his fingertips…
“I need to get back to the orphanage. As much as I’d like a walk with you, Thomas isn’t ready to go yet, and I should leave.”
“Miss Gini?” Thomas stood with the pup in his arms. “Can I come over here during the day and help Mr. Dowd? Sir, would that be all right with you?”
Gini’s face clouded for a moment, but she hid it quickly. “I have to check with Miss Esther first, and it wouldn’t be every day. You still have your studies and your own chores, but it would do you good to learn from John. He says he’s willing.” She nodded to John and turned to leave as Thomas let off a whoop that had Trip whimpering.
John scratched the back of his head. He wanted to make the visit last longer. What could he say that would encourage her to stay?
Gini was already headed for the pasture, and Thomas was distracted, as near teenage boys often were. “Thomas, we’ll talk later. You should probably run and catch up to Miss Gini. I got a few things I need to do. You can come over and start helping me tomorrow if Esther approves.”
Thomas glanced all around him, finally finding the shape of Gini. “Yes, sir! See you tomorrow!” He took off at a sprint and caught up to Gini in a few moments.
She turned around and glanced over her shoulder at John, waving. He raised his arm in one last goodbye and couldn’t force himself to do anything but watch her. An unexpected emptiness swept over him as they disappeared over the horizon.
13
The following week, Gini stood in the room she shared with Esther, trying to find something to wear. She tossed aside two of her skirts that were dull and shabby and picked up the one dress she owned. None of them were nice enough. She wanted a dress that might be in some way attractive, but she didn’t own one. Her most flattering dress had been beige at one point but was now cream colored with age, over ten years old, heavily altered, with frayed sleeves and threadbare elbows. She’d made some beautiful gowns for others in her time as a seamstress’s assistant, but not a single stitch had been for her. There simply wasn’t time. It was only function that allowed her to sit in the front of the seamstress shop. If Dewey had her way, and a way to light the back room, Gini wouldn’t be allowed to sit up front, looking as she did.
Her fingers held small callouses along the side from pulling a needle. But she knew of nothing else she could do to help her young charges. Most orphanages received funding from wealthy benefactors, but not theirs. It was too remote and had no such castoffs from parents who wanted their children’s births kept quiet. The children at her orphanage had been abandoned because life had been too difficult for their parents to bear, or they weren’t wanted because of an infirmity. In most cases the parents didn’t want to give up their children, but they just couldn’t take care of them. Sadly, many of these youngsters wouldn’t ever be adopted or know the love of a parent, except Gini and Esther.
She picked a black full skirt and white shirtwaist from her meager offerings on the bed. Both had once been parts of other worn dresses, but they had been cut and altered. It was the same outfit she wore every day to work, but it was clean and simple. Mrs. Dewey would say it was timeless, if it were on anyone but Gini. On Gini she would call it dowdy, and she was right. It was at least an inch too long on the arms, and the skirts hung a little low on her hips, too big for her tiny frame. Gini fastened the hook and eye closure on the skirt and pinned her hair back from her face. She looked critically at herself in the mirror and heard a movement behind her.
“Miss Gini? I…don’t like that man that comes and looks at us. He came one day last week and one already this week.” The mention of the man brought to memory what she’d learned about Mrs. Dewey. She had to speak to the sheriff about it.
Gini turned to find the oldest girl, Magdalene, waiting by the door. Magdalene had been abandoned just before the Gregorys had left, and though she’d known her parents, she couldn’t remember much about them. She had hair as dark as night, pleasant brown eyes, and a dimple when she smiled.
“Come in and sit. Tell me what’s on your mind.” Gini shoved her skirts out of the way and made room on the bed.
Magdalene glanced warily behind her. “Are you sure you have time?”
Gini’s heart clenched. She was always so busy with work. If only she could be here when the children needed her. “I always have time for one of my children. Tell me.” Gini sank onto her bed and patted next to her for Magdalene to do the same.
She sat where Gini had indicated and took a deep breath. “He has a look about him. It’s angry all the time. He sits up on the porch like he owns everything, and when he does watch one of the children, it isn’t kindness he shows. It’s anger or greed or… I don’t even know how to explain how he looks at me and Anna.” Magdalene shivered.
She needn’t say more. Gini had suspected he wasn’t there to adopt. If he was there to try to court one of her daughters—especially after what she now realized about him—her temper bubbled.
“I’m glad you came and told me. Miss Esther and I have talked about him and how we should handle his visits. The fact is, we’re worried the state could shut us down if he complains that we aren’t accommodating him. I think it best that you, Anna, and the others stay as far away from him as possible. Keep all the children together, and stay close enough that he could watch if he had a mind to, and far enough away that you could run and get Esther if you need to, like in the yard by the fence. That gives you plenty of space, and we can’t be accused of not letting him see the children.” Gini clamped her fists into the folds of her skirt and whispered, “I wish we had more help out here. With just me and Esther, she has to be everywhere at once.”
“We help Miss Esther. She isn’t all alone.” Magdalene sat up straighter.
“I know you do, and I’m ever so grateful.” Gini pulled her small pocket watch from her skirt. “Oh, I do need to get going, or I’ll be late.”
“Thank you, Miss Gini. Don’t you worry. We’ll be careful if he comes back today.”
Gini touched the seventeen-year-old’s shoulder. She likely had precious few days left with the young lady. The state would make them send her away at her eighteenth birthday. Gini said a quick prayer that they’d done enough for the girl to make her own way once that happened. “I know you will. Thank you again for telling me.”
Later that day, Gini rushed through her work duties unable to concentrate any more than from one stitch to the next. The man she’d seen last week in the tree had to be the same man who had spoken to Mrs. Dewey, but was he also the man invading their front porch? How were these men connected, and why were they bothering with the orphanage? Was Mrs. Dewey wanting to adopt a child? If so, why send a man to do the job? Especially that man. And what did tampering with John’s fence or animals have to do with it all? She was so confused. It seemed silly for Mrs. Dewey to be considering adoption, since the old woman couldn’t abide children. She turned away from the bright window, and the hair on her neck tingled to life as Mrs. Dewey stared at her.
Gini cleared her throat and tried to calm her racing thoughts. If Mrs. Dewey allowed one of the children to come with Gini to work, the way she treated the child might prove Mrs. Dewey was behind something. If she said no and had no interest in the child, then perhaps the men were different.
“Mrs. Dewey, would you mind greatly if I brought one of the children in with me one day? She’s blind and misses me while I’m away to work. She’d stick to me like tar. Sarah is new to the orphanage and struggles during the day without me.” She bit her lip. Would Mrs. Dewey see right through her suspicions?
Mrs. Dewey set down the bonnet she held and squinted at the ceiling, a mock smile splitting her face. “Blind, you say? Hmm. Oh, you know I really don’t like children in my shop. Are you sure she’d be quiet and wouldn’t touch anything? I don’t want to have to be hushing her if someone comes in. Will she chatter all day and keep you from working?”
Unease slid up Gini’s spine. The Mrs. Dewey she knew would’ve said no before she’d even finished asking. “No, ma’am. She won’t touch a thing and will be as quiet as a mouse.”
Mrs. Dewey pursed her lips and glanced up to the ceiling once again. Her smile shifted to something almost malicious, and she touched her temple. “Then I suppose you may bring her in. But don’t make a habit of it. I don’t want to have children around at my age.”
Gini finished her day with a sick dread in the pit of her stomach. How she hated talking to the sheriff about something so serious. But she couldn’t keep it to herself any longer. John might not want help, but the problem was now bigger than just him—it could involve her children, and that meant the sheriff had to know.
She shoved the heavy door open, and Sheriff Rainer sat behind his desk, his nose in a stack of papers. He glanced up briefly as she walked in, and moved his finger to a point on the page.
“Miss Gini, what can I do for you today?”
She took a fortifying breath and sat in the chair in front of his desk. Every thought in her head had swirled around Mrs. Dewey and the man in black all day, but now that she was here, what could she say? That she’d been eavesdropping and caught a conversation she shouldn’t have? In that light, she didn’t sound as credible as she’d like to.
“Sheriff Rainer, I heard something at work last week, and coupled with what has happened out at the orphanage and at John Dowd’s, I felt I need to speak to you.”
He shoved the papers aside and leaned forward in his desk. “Something is going on at the orphanage? Is Esther all right?”
She should’ve known his first concern would be Esther. It brought a slight smile to her lips, but he needed to understand so much more. “Esther is fine, but there’s a man, a strange man, who keeps appearing and sitting on our porch. He’s brusque, rude, and makes my children feel uncomfortable. But that’s not all. I’m fairly certain he’s the man I saw at Mrs. Dewey’s last week, a man who admitted, I think, to setting fire to John’s fence and trying to kill his horses.”
Sheriff Rainer looked her deep in the eyes. “You’re fairly certain…what does that mean? I can’t arrest a man because you think he might be a vandal. John hasn’t reported anything amiss out at his place, so I can’t do anything about that. As to a man sitting on your porch, it’s your porch. Ask him to leave if he isn’t there to adopt. I can come out and talk to him if you’re feeling threatened, but until you ask him to leave, I can’t really do anything. I’m sorry.”
She’d hoped he’d jump right up and follow her home and take care of the problem. He’d only made her more apprehensive. “If John comes in and reports the things that have happened, then can you do something?”
Sheriff Rainer’s lips flattened apologetically. “I’d still need to be sure it was the same man. Talk to John. There’s no guarantee they’re one and the same.”
Gini stood and clutched her small purse. Worrying about the visit with the sheriff had done no good. She’d still have to deal with the problems on her own. “Thank you for your time, Sheriff.”
He nodded as she turned to leave. Though Mrs. Dewey seemed involved, she didn’t know enough to say anything further, but now it was more important than ever that she go to work and pay attention. Her orphanage and John’s ranch could depend on it.
14
Four days later, after a long day sewing and dealing with her prickly boss, Gini walked out into the glorious afternoon sun. Her shoulders and feet felt immediately lighter, and though the town was dusty, she breathed deeply. Her shawl slipped off her shoulder as she treaded down the boardwalk past the butcher and the post office to the edge of town, and she pulled it around her to ward off the chill as she left the cover of the buildings. Even that wouldn’t dampen her spirit. The summer was fading fast. Days were getting shorter. She’d need to get the money for the roof by next week, or there wouldn’t be time to fix it. She picked up her pace toward home. As had become her custom, she perused the tree where the man had hidden when she passed it. She breathed a sigh of relief. It was empty.
On the porch, sitting in one of the two chairs, was the man she now was almost certain was tied to Mrs. Dewey, and just as Magdalene had said Tuesday morning, he presided over the porch as if he owned it. Bile rose hot in her throat. He stared at her with pure disdain as she approached, his head notched up as if he were someone regal and she a mere servant. Her skin prickled as she neared him, and only the sound of the children playing in the back of the house drew her closer. Her instinct was to run to John, but he was too far away. Lord protect me from this man and whatever intent he has against my children. And, Lord, help me to say what I should and no more. You know I tend to say more than I ought when my fire is up…
Gini stepped within a few feet of the porch stairs. “Sir, can I help you with anything?” How many times had she prayed for help, for a man to join them in their work at the orphanage and for protection from situations such as this one? If no one else could deal with it, she must.
He blinked slowly and tilted his head, his cold stare bringing more shivers that she had to control. She wouldn’t show him how frightened she was by his presence.
“No, Miss Pear. I’m just sitting here watching how the children play together.”
Questions raced through her. Had he known her name from one of the children? This was the first he’d been there while she was home, and she’d never spoken to him. Where had he heard of her orphanage? How could he justify sitting there, obviously lying, since there were no children in sight, though she’d rather he not watch them anyway. Everything about him set her on edge.
He frowned over the yard, looking back and forth, then leaned forward and craned his neck to see farther around the house.
“Sir, while I understand your desire to adopt, this is a highly unusual way of choosing a child. Might I suggest you sleep on it for a few nights and come back when you can tell us which child you might be interested in adopting, rather than sitting here and scaring all of them?” And us.
Gini’s heart pounded against her stays. She’d never spoken to a potential parent in such a way, but most who had come looking for children to adopt were fairly open books. Since she’d been on the other side and observed parents as a child waiting to be adopted, she could tell almost immediately what their intentions were. Not so with this man. He was too much a mystery for her to trust him with her children any longer.
The man growled at her and stood so quickly the chair flew back into the wall.
“How dare you speak to me like that! You’re nothing.” He took a step forward and raised his hand to strike, taking another stride toward her.
Gini screamed and held up her arm over her face. When the blow never came, she peeked at him over her elbow. He glared over her shoulder. She turned as John cleared the rise almost to their property, lugging a large milk pail. As soon as his feet hit level ground, he looked up, and she’d never seen a man so angry in all her days. She turned as the strange man ran down the porch stairs and untied his horse, hopped on, and rode away as quickly as the poor horse could carry him.
15
John hauled the milk over the last rise, and the expansive orphanage rose up ahead of him. He saw Gini standing by the front porch, looking tired and angry. Her arms jutted at harsh angles from her hips, and she held her head high. John did not envy that man. He’d never had occasion to feel Gini’s temper, but it appeared she was giving some of it to the stranger in black. Then the scene changed. The man stood prepared to strike her. John stopped short, along with his heart.
The man stared straight at John and froze midstrike. His face left nothing to question. He wanted John dead. A chill ran through John’s blood. He’d never felt a threat like that from a man before, and Gini was far too close to the belligerent man for John’s comfort. Gini slowly dropped her arm as the man raced across the yard to his horse. She seemed stuck in a trance. John dashed up the slope, sloshing milk over the edge of the pail. He had to touch her and be certain she wasn’t harmed. He set the milk down a few feet from her and took a step closer, reaching out for her.
“Miss Gini? I’m here now. Are you all right?” He whispered to avoid alarming anyone who might be nearby, though the place looked deserted but for Gini.
She turned, and her terror-filled face ripped through him. Her trembling shoulders spoke a need louder than words to his soul. He took another step forward, not quite close enough to touch her. Not close enough for him.
