Winter Wonders Chapter 8
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008Chapter 8
By patty, copyright 2007
Caleb found Connie fussing with feed sacks and muttering to herself in Roy’s barn.
“Time alone will do that,” he chuckled.
“Time alone?” Connie tried to suppress the startle Caleb’s voice evoked in her.
“Ever find your own mouth arguing with yourself when no one’s nearby?” his smile was disarming.
“Yes, lately. Almost all the time,” Connie laughed.
“That what you were about just now?” he winked.
Connie thought about it for a moment or so. “No, not this time,” she decided frank was better than a soft peddle.
“May I ask what had you lend your voice to growling and fussing, then?” Caleb’s question was amicable and completely without threat.
“You,” Connie answered honestly. “Your wife didn’t deserve for you to do that so I had to hear it.”
“And if I tell you that’s our business?” Caleb chuckled.
“If it was just your business then why would you do it so I had to hear it?” Connie’s response was matter of fact.
“Did I invite you to watch, tell you what was between us or ask your opinion?” Caleb’s question was good humored.
“No, but….” Connie started to respond, her ire ignited by the empathy she felt for Lilia’s shame.
“No, nothing,” Caleb cut her off. “Lilia knows why. It will be her choice to share it with you or not. It will be your good manners that keep what you over heard where it belongs. Behind your lips and in your trust until or unless you are invited to comment.”
“What if I don’t hold with men beating their wives for nothing more than stating their mind?” Connie wasn’t about to have her mind dismissed just yet.
“Beating is a long leap from a spanking young’un. You’ll do well to keep that in mind. My Lil knows exactly where she stands where that’s concerned. Thirteen years together will do that – give a couple to know where things stand and what’s the likely outcome of pushing certain lines. She knows the difference between her smart mouth and her welcome insights. Something Roy could give you a few hard lessons about, I suspect.” Caleb laughed outright.
“Mr. Miller, for one thing I’m no young’un,” Connie’s tone became sweet and cordial, “even so, as you so correctly informed me when it came to your wife: what goes on behind closed doors is none of my affair. I’ll request that same courtesy when it comes to what might come up between Roy and me about my manners as an equally a private affair. I will respect your privacy and Lilia’s if you will do me the same courtesy. Come spring, when I am gone, I don’t especially care what you people decide to gossip about.”
It was all Caleb could do to keep from sputtering and holding back laughter.
“I think he’ll keep you.” Caleb set about to cut the prime beef Lilia requested.
“Keep me?” Connie was puzzled by the large man’s remark.
“You’ll see. You’re well matched to Roy. Put some flesh on you and you could be Mary’s twin though you’re a force in your own right. Roy’s always been one to admire a woman with her own mind and spirit. You’re no shrinking flower - that I’ll give you; ought to be an interesting season for you both,” Caleb spoke as much to the side of beef he was cutting into as he did to Connie.
“I’m not here to become Roy’s new wife.” Connie muttered, pretending to search for eggs after giving the pigs an early bucketful of feed.
“How’d you come here?” Caleb’s question was fair. “I never figured Roy for a mail order bride.”
“Mail order?” Connie choked. “No! That’s not how it is!”
“I’ve guessed that young’un. Just not quite sure how things here came about.” Caleb chuckled.
“Well, I’d prefer not to get into it if that’s alright with you? I told Roy the whole story and that was hard enough. I fell upon this place trying to get to Denver, hid out and stole food because I was afraid. Roy found me and now he knows everything, and he’s let me stay on here as a hand,” Connie tried to pre-empt any more questions.
“So you’ve said, in the meantime Roy’s not here, and all I have is your word,” Caleb pointed out.
“It’s true!” Connie’s eyes threatened to betray her with tears.
“You runaway from family?” Caleb pressed
“No!” Connie snapped back when the large man pressed her. “I left of my own accord when given a choice to take to my stepfather’s bed or leave after my mother died.”
“You on the run from the law?” Caleb pretended her first disclosure didn’t upset him.
“Maybe, maybe not, and that’s between me and Roy. He knows, so you just butt out,” Connie hissed, irritated by Caleb’s insistent prying and moved away where further conversation with him became impractical.
Caleb let her go. He was impressed by her candor and spunky nature. He could see in her eyes and feel from her quick unguarded responses that she was vulnerable, funny, strong, bold and honest. He stopped for several moments before delivering the meat his wife asked him to retrieve, to offer a silent prayer that his old friend would see this gamin imp’s intrusion into his life as the gift that it was. ‘He gave you Mary and she was everything you needed to make you years ago. Now look what’s fallen into your lap. She’s perfect! You’re a fool if you let her go.”
Caleb liked Connie, but he’d keep that to himself until he could feel Roy out on his feelings.
Connie had already done what she could in the barn considering it was barely mid-afternoon. Bossy would not be milking ready for hours more even if Connie gave her enough grain so she’d founder. Short of killing Roy’s cow, Connie decided that chinking the lea side of the barn struck her as something Roy had yet to finish, so that was what Connie set herself to do in order to avoid further inquisition. Her diversion lasted less than an hour.
Connie managed only two barrels of creek clay & cut frozen sod before her host’s best friend intruded.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ooooooOOOOOOOooooooo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Lily wants you in the kitchen. I’ll finish this,” Caleb pulled the shovel from Connie’s hand on her third trip to the hardened sod patch Roy was mining to supplement his clay chinking mortar.
“I’ve only done one side of the barn,” Connie objected.
“I can see that. I’ll bet I’ve weather proofed more barns than you have young’un,” Caleb pulled the sod filled wheel barrow away from his hostess.
“It’s my job!” Connie’s tone was haughty.
“Might be that it is, but I doubt Roy would appreciate you sassing his friends least of all me, and I know that if he finds out you’ve ignored my request of you or Lily’s lesson for pleasing his stomach, you’ll be lucky to sit again before spring.” Caleb didn’t even try to conceal his humor.
Connie shoved the handles of the wheel barrow toward Caleb and took the meat he handed to her. “You want the job, you got it.” She grimaced. “Do it right please, I have no desire to have to do it over.”
“Ohhhh my young’un you’re asking for it with that tone, and we both know you’ve got no call to use it.” Caleb’s temper bristled.
“No call? Who dropped in on who with no notice? Who shoved their nose in other peoples’ business uninvited?” Connie snipped back. “Who’s throwing his weight around on other peoples’ property? And you stop calling me young’un!”
“Friends don’t need an invite to visit, deliver provisions or check in on each other out here,” Caleb stiffened. “It’s understood. It’s an obligation. Roy knows it lives it and you’d darned well get it straight too.”
“Fine! You’ve lectured me about the way of life here, and you’ve ordered me to turn over my responsibility to you in favor of going to your wife for gravy lessons. I’m doing it. I hope it pleases you, but if I am to be whipped for work Roy deems inadequate then it better be you who drops his drawers.” Connie swept away, not waiting for any answer. She knew she’d stepped out of bounds, and banked on the few more days Roy would be away to hide all of her insolence with his friend.
~~~~~~~~~~~~ooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Hi,” Connie spoke to Lilia as she re-entered the cabin.
“Hey!” Lila responded. “How come you’re in so soon?”
“He made me,” Connie shrugged and indicated that it was Caleb. “He said you needed to teach me.”
“About Roy’s favorite gravy?” Lilia gasped. “That’s so easy I could talk you through it!” Lilia mused. “What is he thinking?
“You know him better than I do, you tell me?” Connie grumbled.
“He’s a man, that’s the only excuse I have for him,” Lilia’s expression was soft and apologetic. “A good man though, truly.”
“I’ll take your word on that,” Connie sighed.
“Well we have one afternoon and one evening together, let’s not Caleb spoil us getting to know one another OK?” Lilia smiled and embraced Connie. “It’s a rare treat for me to enjoy the company of another woman.”
“Is it just you and Caleb out on a spread like this too?” Connie asked.
“No, Caleb’s built our place up the way Roy once planned to build this one. The hands are all men though some have wives. Most of the married ones live out at the stations though. They keep the wells working, tend the stray cattle and wrangle horses while their wives raise their children and tend the few cash crops they can manage. I only see them once or twice a year.”
“Sounds lonely,” Connie whispered.
“It’s not so bad I have Caleb, my horses and my other pastimes.” Lilia’s laugh was light and genuine.
“My mother was good at things I wish I’d taken time to learn,” Connie shared a wistful memory.
“What kinds of things?” Lilia took the meat and placed it with a small amount of water into a broad and very hot cast iron pan.
Connie moved to the side of the stove top where she could watch. “She was good with a needle and she could draw people. She made things with her hands that people would pay for. I have none of her talents.”
“Did she try to teach you? Did you test your hand?” Lilia’s question was natural.
“No,” Connie admitted, the lost opportunity made her heart lurch, and she couldn’t prevent the equivalent lurch from finding expression in her voice.
“Then, you don’t know that she hasn’t passed on her skills to you. I can help you with sewing and such feminine things. If you’d like to be a horse woman I can help you there. I’ll bet if you apply yourself and want it, you’ll find you can draw with your own brand of skill.” Lilia touched Connie’s shoulder.
“I’ll be happy to get my teaching certificate and forge a life for myself if I survive this winter,” Connie sighed.
“Survive?” Lilia laughed. “Well unless you do something reckless or illness takes you, Roy’s got you safely situated. You’re very fortunate to have come across his path you know?”
“I know,” Connie blushed.
“I think he’s lucky too.”
“Why?” Connie cocked her head her mind unable to quite grasp the meaning.
“He’s been alone far too long, and you suit him,” Lilia smiled.
“How do I suit him?”
“You’re sturdy and spunky. You’ll make him laugh again,” Lilia’s laugh was again light and now infused with something Connie found intriguing. “I’m sure you can’t see it because he’s probably been as stern to you so far as Caleb seems, but you will see, if you watch and open your heart to him. You suit him. I know it, and if Mary could speak she would tell you I am right.”
“She has,” Connie spoke before she realized it.
“She has?” It was Lilia’s turn to whisper.
“In my dreams,” Connie shrugged. “I talk to her, and she talks to me. She asked me to be her Christmas gift to Roy.”
“Oh Connie!” Lilia hugged the young woman. “Please? Please do.”
“I don’t think it is the right thing for me, or for him.” Connie pulled away. “I fell on this place running from everything. I’m a thief! I was going to steal his horse and leave him without.”
“Nonsense!” Lilia put her hands back on Connie’s shoulders and shook her. “Providence brought you here. I believe in my heart that whatever you did before you came here was what you had to do to survive, and may God bless every young woman faced with what ever you had to survive with the good fortune to find someone like Roy.”
“You don’t know,” Connie tried to turn away.
“I don’t need to know, nor do I care,” Lilia’s hold tightened. “I see you here and now, and you can’t hide your heart Constance. You’re bright, funny and good. Don’t you dare hide behind misfortune or let it define you.”
“The water’s boiled away,” Connie’s discomfort forced her to turn Lilia’s attention back to the cooking lesson.
Lilia laughed and took her new friend’s lead back to ordinary things.
“Great!” she laughed. “Now we let the meat release its juices. We’ll add more water to the pan when we can press blood from the beef and we turn it once. Caleb likes the center of his beef red, Roy likes it more so, we’ll make it for Roy today.”
In just a few more minutes after turning the meat, Lilia pressed the 5 inch slab of beef releasing more than a cup of pinkish and blood red liquid. Once she did that she removed the meat from the pan and placed it into a deeper enameled roaster.
“More juices will come out after it’s been in the slow oven for a while, they’ll make the gravy richer, but let’s add water to this now & show you how Roy likes it.”
Lilia pumped a full two cups of water and added it to the large fry pan. Stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan she let the water come to a simmer, then moved the pan off the hottest burner. Next she spooned almost half the hot brown liquid into a bowl she’d placed on the stove top to warm up.
“Here’s the hard part,” Lilia advised her focus now clearly on the work she was doing.
She poured a half cup of cream into the hot beef juices and whipped the mix vigorously, then separated two eggs into another small container whipping the yolks to a soft froth. She added scoops of flour to first the hot cream mixture which she whipped smooth, then she spooned some of the hot mixture into the egg yolks and added flour whisking the mix vigorously as she did.
“The eggs and flour make the gravy a silky texture, but not if you let the eggs cook in the hot juices before you mix them in well or if you let the flour lump,” Lilia explained the rationale behind the steps she was demonstrating. “The trick is to add only a little hot to the eggs a bit at a time as you whip them and make sure to smooth all the flour before you add more.”
“My mother didn’t use eggs, but she did that with four, thickened it in just some of the drippings,” Connie commented with interest.
“That’s really the key, or you end up with a runny mess full of lumps,” Lilia nodded. “Caleb & Roy got spoiled though. Someday I’ll tell you about Clarissa. She was a monster, but she did know how to cook, and the men all raved about how good she was. Some of us had to swallow her lessons like it or not. I’ll grudgingly admit she had skills and I’ve kept some of her lessons.”
Connie couldn’t help but smile. No wonder of Mary & Lilia’s crimes so far seemed centered around Clarissa’s cooking.
“Why would you use recipes from a woman you despise Lilia?” Connie tried to mask her secret knowledge and use what Lilia had just shared to frame her question.
“Because even shrews are right sometimes,” Lilia grumbled. “Funny, though,” she continued, “What works, works. It’s a rare thing for bad memories to attach to the best things. Clarissa’s not really a bad memory, just a challenge I survived.” Then Lilia laughed heartily. “She was a challenge we all survived!”
Connie elected to let Lilia’s disclosure drop there. She’d need to read more of Mary’s journals to grasp her own sense of what Lilia just shared, and she was afraid that questions might betray that she knew more of Clarissa that she should.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oooooOOOOOOOooooo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Caleb came in just as an early supper was ready for the table.
“The barn’s set for winter,” he announced.
“Good,” Connie and Lilia answered in unison.
“Hope it meets Roy’s requirements,” Connie added with some mixed sass and worry.
“I expect it’ll exceed them.” Caleb chuckled. “Seems I had to patch some spots on the west side after I finished the east side.”
Connie blushed.
Lilia just laughed. “You two make a truce now!” she nudged her husband and her new friend. “Sit down and eat.”
They did.
“Wish Roy was here to enjoy this,” Caleb marveled as he dipped into his gravy drowned mashed potatoes and inhaled the rich seasoned beef.
“No doubt he’s roasted a squirrel or rabbit and is letting the fat of their skin drip on his beard like the mountain man he’s turned into.” Lilia laughed.
“A small gift for a man making his living indeed,” Caleb flashed a warning to his wife. “I’ll still wish him this additional pleasure when the time is right.”
Lilia closed her eyes and then spoke. “You are right Caleb. My remark was unkind and glib.”
Connie felt the undercurrent. Before her mind could censure her, she spoke.
“If its God’s will, Roy is enjoying and thankful for his supper tonight, and when he comes home I will try my best to give him one as bountiful as this one. If either gets in his beard he’ll have to wash.”
Both Caleb and Lilia laughed heartily. Connie was so fresh, so sweet and so spunky. They both knew that Roy had his hands full. And now Lilia, having heard Connie’s unwitting disclosure about Mary’s visits in dreams, was confident that it was no accident. Her own dreams were haunted by her long dead friend, and her own prayers had far too many times wished that Roy might find hope again.
“It’s God’s will,” Lilia smiled, then she changed gears instantly.
“Caleb will drag me off home as soon as he can tomorrow, shall I show you how to make pastries first?” she asked Connie.
“Oh please!” Connie pleaded to both Caleb and her new friend. “I can do fritters, but pastries confound me and with the preserves you’ve brought I really could do with a lesson.”
Caleb growled, recognizing collusion and delay tactics when he saw them. He was wrong this time though. Lilia was offering a genuine gift, and Connie was doing nothing more than accept it.
“Don’t you women conspire,” Caleb gave voice to his suspicions.
“Please Sir,” Connie countered. “I know how to make fritters, I know how to make biscuits, but I’ve never made bread, pies, or pastry. I swear to you!”
“Caleb, my love,” Lilia leaned over to her husband. “We’ll make some dough, roll it, oil it and layer it three or four times, then we’ll put some preserves on the layers and fold it.”
“That’s it?” Caleb asked, his skepticism was completely unhidden.
“Well I might tell Connie some things she should know about Roy, but if we’re so late leaving we get home after dark you can paddle me for lying to you. All right?” Lilia offered.
Caleb chuckled. “I suspect you’re both due a spanking just on principle. For now I’ll accept all promises.” Then Caleb turned his attention to Connie. “Promises and sass are two different things. You keep that in mind, alright?”
Connie blushed and nodded. Caleb’s strength of character was appealing, maybe more so than Royal’s was because he at least listened and let her get things off her chest. For the moment at least, she’d said her piece and was content to just appreciate the recent turns in her life.
After supper, Connie implored her company to relax and let her see to the evening’s chores. It took some doing, but Lilia helped and Caleb relented. He would help Lilia with dishes and let Connie see to settling the animals for the night and bringing in wood for the fire.
Bossy was very cooperative, there were eight eggs, and every beast offered their own version of thanks for their feed.
Connie dropped to her knees as she sifted oats for the sow. She didn’t get up to sniff and snuffle her feed as usual, she only looked up to snort, and Connie immediately saw why. Twelve tiny pink creatures were nudging and punching the sow’s belly, suckling at their mother’s bounty.
“Holy cow!” Connie whispered in awe as she stepped in the pen lifting the trough closer to the new mother. “That’s quite a family you’ve got there.” She picked up one of the piglets and held it to her chest sniffing its scent. “Puppy breath! You smell like a puppy!” Connie cuddled the tiny wriggling ball of muscle and strength. The piglet’s breath smelled of mother’s milk. Awe and sentiment let her go as soon as she gave the baby back to its mother. It wasn’t just going to grow and wean, it was going to become supper someday. Maybe it might grow and survive to become a breeding sow, but that wasn’t likely on such a small spread. Most stock was bred for food and that was the way of it.
Connie couldn’t believe that Roy didn’t know his largest pig was pregnant, and she was surprised he hadn’t warned her that the sow was so near her time. What if there’d been problems? How could he keep that from her being as he’d left her to manage the place?
“Bet Caleb would let me give him a piece of my mind and see this my way,” Connie spoke to Royal’s permanent presence in his barn. “You should have given me notice you old rat.”
Chores done, and more than enough wood piled into the leather tote, Connie stomped up onto the stoop and kicked out of her boots before entering the cabin. Instead of intruding on a private moment between Lilia and Caleb, she found Caleb snoozing in Roy’s Rocker and Lilia sitting on a pillow by the hearth sewing the clothes Roy had given her to make fit.
“Shhhhhh” Lilia warned pointing t her slumbering husband, her eyes glinting with her silent smile.
“The sow’s born a whole brood! Twelve since Caleb was in the barn!” Connie whispered. “I’ve never seen such a wonder, and they smell like puppies! What are you doing?”
“Shhhhhh! I’m making what few of these dresses I have time to fit you. I love it when stock animals give birth too. It’s odd how the babies draw us so. I’ve yet to smell a new born puppy, but I’ll trust your senses.” Lilia whispered.
“It’s the first milk.” Caleb’s sleep heavy voice intruded. “Every mammal carries that same smell on its breath until weeks after it’s weaned. Kind of smells like coffee.”
“Yes! It does!” Connie marveled. “Milder, but no question it’s definitely the smell of coffee.”
“So, I’d say that’s a sign that one of you’d best get up and put some coffee on.” Caleb’s body stiffened in a wake up stretch.
“It’s near bed time husband,” Lilia objected.
“It’s going to be a late morning thanks to your promise to this imp. I’ve had a good rest these last two hours. Coffee will suit me just fine now.”
Connie was the one who tossed the burnt bark liquid from earlier in the day and scoured the pot for a fresh brew. In doing so she noted that coffee was one provision that Roy might run short of before spring. He had a sack of beans in his root cellar, but it seemed, so far at least, that use was going to swiftly exceed supply.
“Promise me you’ll be back here with more coffee before spring, and I’ll make you more now,” Connie issued an edict to Caleb.
“I’ve brought him more beef than he can use and given him hens he doesn’t need; why should I bring him coffee?” Caleb’s question was less than genuine.
“Because the coffee stores are low and you’re asking me to spend them on what amounts to little more than an evening’s indulgence. I’ll make a full pot, you’ll drink a small heavily creamed and sugared taste and the rest will go to waste.” Connie spoke calmly and matter of fact.
“Alright!” Caleb contained his annoyance. “Before the winter is over, I’ll bring coffee. You have my word.”
“Dunno if I can trust you Mr. Miller,” Connie grinned & Lilia laughed outright.
Caleb stood, took both women by their arms and delivered four very sound swats to each just where they belonged.
“Caleb!” Lilia complained.
“Hey?!” Connie’s objection was less sure.
“Behave yourselves!” Caleb closed one discussion and opened another. “Remember the exploits you and Mary got up to Lil? Why don’t you share them with Connie?
Connie’s heart swelled. “Yes, please do!”
Thanks to Caleb, the evening wasn’t as tortuous as Connie first thought it might be. Instead of being the one forced to share her secret knowledge of Roy & Mary, her guests were the ones who spoke of them and shared fond memories. She didn’t need Mary’s diaries after all that evening. Caleb & Lilia shared Mary and Roy with a richness and candor that Mary’s diaries only hinted at so far.
Having met them now, what more she read about them would be richer. Lilia as it turned out was at least as boisterous and brazen as Mary, and Caleb seemed almost more human than Roy. Roy spanked, Caleb did too, yet so far Caleb seemed more inclined to be reasoned with than Roy did.
After Caleb and Lilia took to Roy’s bed and closed the door, Connie managed to find enough energy and time to light the lamp so she could open Mary’s diary where she’d last closed it. The written words were in fact richer now. Roy and Caleb didn’t just seem like ‘like minded’ men, their unique personalities came alive, and Lilia in particular had become far from a follower of Mary’s wayward ideas. Connie marveled at the discovery. It gave her much more insight into Mary to know that she was so protective of her friend even in her private diary. It softened her in Connie’s mind.
May 21, 1867
Oh! It is only hours since I relaxed under the mistaken perception that I was a loved and trusted wife. The way he warned me to behave myself this morning; the way Caleb warned Lilia! In front of the whole camp! It was wrong of him. It was wrong of both of them. Lilia is as angry as I am. We will have more time to think tomorrow, because it seems we are likely to have to hold camp due to weather again.
The strong winds from the south, even though they are warm, warn that more bad weather is approaching us from the north. The older folks say they smell snow. I trust their instincts now as they are always right.
Please God don’t make us camp too long. Please allow that the only storm I must cope with is the one in my heart….
