Through the rain, they hustled toward the covered porch. The two-story farmhouse was light-colored and typical in structure, from what she could tell at night. Ellis didn’t hesitate to knock, though the wait lasted an eternity.
Finally, the front door opened halfway. Behind the screen door, a woman held a kerosene lamp. She wore a house robe and slippers, a long braid draping her shoulder. Yellow flickered over her elongated face.
“Mrs. Gantry?” Ellis began.
“Yes?”
“Ma’am…I realize it’s late to drop by—”
“Who’s down there?” a gruff voice cut in, startling Lily.
In lieu of answering, Mrs. Gantry made way for her husband—presumably. He arrived barefoot in a long, plaid nightshirt that covered his hefty paunch. The back of his hair stood on end as if molded by a pillow.
Lily reflexively lowered her eyes a little.
“Well?” he barked, this time at Ellis.
“I do apologize if we woke you, sir.”
“This damn well better be important. Come mornin’, I got fields to tend to,” he said as Mrs. Gantry set the lamp on the entry table. She receded into the background, looking timid but curious as her husband continued. “And if you’re out to sell something, you can keep right on going.”
“Not at all, Mr. Gantry. We’ve come about something else entirely.”
The man slid his gaze toward Lily, who smiled amiably to no reaction before Ellis went on. “You see, we’re here about a child you and your wife recently took in. A boy named Calvin. From the Warren County Home for Children.”
Mr. Gantry appeared dubious. “Yeah. What about it?”
While “it” could have been in reference to the topic, Lily couldn’t help balking at the idea that he was referring to Calvin.
At least the man had inadvertently confirmed the adoption. The realization sent Lily’s mind wandering past the couple and into the house. Was Calvin upstairs, tucked into bed? Would he come running if she hollered his name?
She held herself back as Ellis presented the essentials of their predicament—of a child taken in error, a loving mother all alone—ending with hope for a solution, if only the couple would meet with Geraldine.
Mr. Gantry folded his arms over his nightshirt, his raised sleeve exposing a torpedo tattoo on his forearm. Surely from his time in the Great War, it suited his abrasive bearing well. “I see the problem you all got,” he acknowledged. “Now this here’s mine. I gave up good money for that boy. Bought him fair ’n’ square.”
Lily must have misheard. “Bought him?”
“That’s right. Had fees for his shots and paperwork, and all that business. So, I got no interest in talking to no woman. I don’t care what her story is. Boy’ll be working the farm, like I got him for.”
Lily made no effort to hide her disgust. No wonder his grown sons had up and left, rather than staying to help work the land. She glanced at Mrs. Gantry, who cowered with a look of shame before slinking out of sight.
“I’ll pay you,” Ellis said, preventing a retort from Lily.
Mr. Gantry squinted an eye. “What’s that you say?”
“Whatever you spent, I’ll reimburse you in full.”
Laying the groundwork, that had been the plan. But that was prior to learning of Calvin’s servitude.
Mr. Gantry studied Ellis through the screen. He was still leery but plainly, horrendously tempted. “That’d amount to twenty dollars.”
“Done.”
Ellis answered too quickly to have given it thought. The farmer appeared to catch that himself. He curled his bottom lip in a wry, calculating way. “Course, that’s not including food and clothing and other troubles we gone to. Kids can be expensive, you know.”
Ellis fell silent for several breaths. “How much?”
“Oh, I’d say doubling it to forty would be more in line.”
It was clear from the tension in Ellis’s jaw, if not the fisting of his hands, that his polite front was wearing thin. This was a human being, a child, they were bargaining over.
But if the men went to blows, Lily realized, even that option would vanish.
“Forty, you say?” Her question pulled Mr. Gantry’s attention. She reduced her pace to feign thoughtfulness. “It would…be a stretch. But I think we can manage it.”
“All right, then.” He nodded smugly. Then he opened the screen door, holding it wide, and wiggled the fingers of his free hand. “Let’s see it.”
She looked to Ellis. He had told her earlier: with his account blocked, after buying gasoline for the trip, he had a mere three dollars to his name. As for Lily, she didn’t have