she stepped down from the train carrying Nellie. Dewey and Ben Roland came behind her, then the girls, and lastly Oliver hanging onto Virgil and John Paul’s hands.
She stood on the platform looking around. The place had the look of a small town, nothing like Coal Creek. Several minutes stretched by before she spotted Martin coming toward them.
He was wearing a dark suit that she didn’t remember him having and looked different than when she’d last seen him. She hoped he’d smile or stretch out his arms so the children would run to him, but he did neither of those things. Instead his brows hooded his eyes and his shoulders were squared back, almost as though he were spoiling for a fight.
Determined to make this day of arrival less scary for the children, she forced a smile.
“It’s good to see you, Martin,” she said.
“Yeah, you too.” He glanced at Oliver and Ben Roland. “You boys get those bags and carry them out front. I’ve got a wagon to take you to the house.”
As the boys hurried off with the bags, Eliza moved the others toward the station house. “This afternoon, we’ll need to get a few cooking supplies. Is there a general store—”
“Dunning Mercantile is here in the square, and the trolley runs a few blocks from the house. You can take it back and forth.”
“Good. Very good.” She couldn’t help but notice how he spoke as if she were a stranger, as if they’d never lain side by side in a bed or created eight beautiful children together. Trying to push the thought from her heart, she remained silent for a moment then said, “If you want, I can get some apples and make your favorite—”
“I’m not gonna stay. I’ve gotta get back for work.”
“Isn’t this where you work?”
He shook his head. “The plant’s over in Altoona, and I’ve gotta be close by. Wolff said you were gonna need a place with four or more bedrooms, and over by me there’s nothing much that size.”
“Will you come back tonight?”
Again, he shook his head. “It’s too far. I’ll be back in a few weeks. Two, maybe three.”
Eliza nodded and said nothing. It was too soon to judge him. Possibly he really did need to work, that he was in fact a changed man, but already the doubts were there. She missed Caldonia more than ever.
——————
THE LARGE GRAY HOUSE WAS on the far edge of town nine blocks from where the trolley dead-ended and turned back toward the square. All alone at the end of the street, it stood two stories high with black shutters on the windows and a front porch that was as deep as a room. It was as stately as the houses that lined Edgewood Drive in Charleston, but those houses had electricity, maids to sweep the walkway, and gardeners to tend the flowers. This house had none of those things. It was simply big.
As the kids carried the bags to the porch Martin told the wagon driver to wait, because he’d be going back to the train station. He pulled a key from his pocket and handed it to Eliza.
“I think you’ll find most everything you need inside, and there’s money on the kitchen table. Now you can write to your new friend Wolff and tell him you got what you wanted.”
“Martin,” she stammered, “I hope you don’t think I—”
“Don’t bother explaining, Eliza. I’ve already heard the story.”
As she stood there watching the wagon turn and disappear down the street, Eliza felt a chamber of her heart slam shut. It was the last place she’d kept open for Martin, a tiny wedge of space. Now it was forever locked away. Whatever she’d once hoped for was as impossible as snow in July.
There would be no more looking back; no remembering what once was. If Martin was to hate her, then she would leave it be. From this moment forward, she would live only for the love of her children. She stepped onto the porch, slid the key into the lock, and pushed open the door.
She surveyed the furnishings as she and the children went from room to room: overstuffed chairs in the parlor, plump beds in the upstairs rooms, and the kitchen cupboards filled with dishes and tableware as if someone had just walked away and left the house as it was. On the kitchen table there was a huge carton of food with a card wishing them happiness in their new home. It was from