them.”
“If you’re going to run out on us like this, you might at least wait until your brother gets back from the fields and say a proper good-bye. You owe him that much.”
“I’m sure you’ll be only too happy to tell him where to find me.” Carrie climbed into the rig so quickly that the wheels creaked.
Griff climbed in beside her and picked up the reins. “Goodbye, Mrs. Bell.”
“Wait.” Mary crossed the yard to where the rig stood beneath the trees. “You’ve made your point, but you can’t go through with this, Carrie.”
“Why not?”
“Well . . . because. You know how much there is to do around here, especially with Henry working part-time at the mill. I don’t know how to milk the cow or work that infernal cook stove. And who’s going to help with the washing and all?”
“I suppose you’ll have to figure it out. Teach your boys to do the milking and such. I would advise Caleb not to punch Miranda in the gut while he’s milking her, though. She’s liable to punch back.”
Mary dropped her gaze. “I’m right sorry about that. But Henry punished him for it. You can’t still be mad about that.”
Taking up her shawl, Carrie nodded to Griff. “Let’s get going. I want to be settled before dark.”
“All right, you win.” Mary stamped her foot. “Since you’re making such a fuss about it, I’ll let you have your room back. The boys can bunk in with Henry and me until we can figure out something else. I never dreamed you’d cause such a ruckus.”
“And I never dreamed I’d be set upon with snakes and fists and ordered about like some hired girl. There’s room in a house for only one mistress, and since you are Henry’s wife, I must be the one to go.”
Mary clutched her apron. “If you won’t stay on my account, think of Henry.”
“I am thinking of him. He deserves to come home to a peaceful house. Now he can.”
She nodded to Griff. He snapped the reins, and the rig rolled down the lane.
FOUR
Carrie watched the farmhouse grow smaller and smaller, floating in the mist like something in a dream. Memories rattled around in her head like marbles in a glass jar—long evenings before the fire reading aloud with Henry, cold mornings in the barn, milking Miranda while a litter of warm gray kittens tumbled about her feet. She remembered the summer Henry saved enough to take her to Nashville on the train. The spring morning she’d looked up from her knitting to find a bearded and bent Uriah McClain at her door, come to pay a condolence call on his best friend’s widow nearly ten years after he lost his leg and Frank lost his life at Shiloh.
She and Uriah had talked for hours, reminiscing about happier times. Despite their shared sorrow, Uriah’s visit had been a balm to her soul, a blessing connecting her, however briefly, with her lost love. She could never thank Mr. McClain enough for returning Frank’s personal effects. Even now, they were the most precious of her possessions.
“Are you all right?” Griff glanced at her from beneath his mist-dampened hat brim. “You want to go back? It isn’t too late to change your mind.”
“I’m fine, and I won’t change my mind.”
He laughed and then instantly sobered. “Forgive me. I don’t mean to make light of your troubles. You sounded so determined just now, you reminded me of myself in my younger days. My father always said I was stubborn as a Missouri mule.”
She frowned. “That isn’t a very flattering comparison.”
“Between you and me, or you and the mule?”
She couldn’t help laughing. Griff Rutledge certainly had a way of seeing the humor in any situation. One of many qualities she was coming to appreciate in him.
At last they passed the train station, quiet now in the late afternoon light. Griff turned onto the main street and guided the rig past the Hickory Ridge Inn, the barbershop, and Nate Chastain’s bookshop. A line of buggies and wagons waited outside the mercantile. Scents of cinnamon and baking bread wafted from the bakery across the street. Sheriff Eli McCracken glanced up from his conversation with the postmaster as they drove past. He nodded to Carrie and touched the brim of his hat before resuming his conversation.
Griff drew up front of the Verandah. “Go ahead in. I’ll see if I can find someone to help me unload. That walnut chest is heavier than I thought. I’d hate to drop