Maude Page 8

  I said, “I have to wait for Lulu to get back from school. Let’s just sit here and talk a spell. I’ll get us some tea.”

  “That would be real nice, Maude.” He led his horse over to the water trough and let it drink. He stood next to it and patted its neck. The horse nickered and rubbed its nose against George’s arm. I liked the way he treated his horse. I disapproved of the rough ways some men had with their animals.

  He came back up the steps and sat in the rocker that had been James’s favorite place to spend warm evenings. I almost asked him to move to the other chair, but thought better of it. I nodded toward his horse. “That’s a beautiful animal, George,” I said.

  “His name is Pawnee. He’s been in my family for sixty years.”

  I’d never heard of a horse older than thirty. “Sixty years? How is that possible?”

  He laughed. “What I mean is, his bloodline. This one is only four years old. My grandfather was in the cavalry and rode Pawnee’s great-great-grandfather into battle in the Civil War.”

  Tennessee and Missouri had been split, brother–against-brother, during the terrible war. I asked, “Which side did he fight on, George?”

  “Why, he fought for the North, of course.”

  “I was just wondering.” I fetched two glasses of cool tea, and we sat there and talked for over an hour. I told him a little about my childhood and my marriage.

  He told me a little about himself. “I live in Kennett, Missouri, Maude. I’m the sheriff there. I used to be a deputy, but when Sheriff LeBeck retired a few years ago, they elected me to the job.”

  “We don’t have a sheriff here. The mayor fills in. It’s such a small town, we never needed one. I don’t know what they would do if anything really bad happened. I guess they could call the marshal from over at Union City. Is that dangerous, being the sheriff there?”

  “Not really. The most we have is a fight at the saloon sometimes. I generally go over if they call me and talk to the boys and they give it up. Sometimes I have to throw one in jail until he sobers up. We never had any real trouble.”

  “What would you do if that happened?”

  He pushed out his lower lip and rubbed his chin. “I don’t know. I guess I’d have to think up something.”

  “We don’t have a saloon here. I guess that’s why we don’t need a sheriff.”

  “What does a man do if he wants a drink?”

  “I’ve heard that some of the farmers have stills. I’ve never seen one, but I know for a fact that there’s more than one man in town who finds liquor when he wants it. Almost all of us who live here go to the Baptist or the Holiness church. Drinking isn’t very popular in these parts.”

  I thought about the night Lulu was born and the smell of whiskey on the doctor’s breath, but I didn’t mention it.

  “Well, I like a drink every now and then myself. I suppose it’s just as well I live in Kennett.”

  That didn’t sit well with me, but I didn’t say anything more about it. “How big a town is Kennett?”

  “We got a real nice place there. Got a bank and a hotel, new schoolhouse. It’s a good place to live.”

  “I like it here. It’s what I’m used to, I guess.”

  When Lulu came up the walk, George stood to greet her. “Good afternoon, Lulu. I’m George Foley, Bessie’s brother.”

  She looked up at him with a frown. “I remember you.”

  I was a little embarrassed. “Be polite, Lulu.”

  Lulu stood there, waiting for the grown-ups to say something. When no one spoke, she asked me, “Is it all right if I go visit Gramma?”

  I nodded. “Go ahead.”

  Lulu wheeled around and ran up to the house. I said, “I’m sorry, George, she’s a little shy.”

  “That’s all right, Maude. She’ll get to like me after a while. Most folks do.”

  I stood. “It’s been a nice visit, George. Say hello to Bessie for me when you get home.”

  He stood and reached out and took my hand and kept hold of it. I wanted to pull it away from him, but I just stood there. He smiled at me. “I’d like to come visit again tomorrow, Maude, if that’s all right.”

  I wasn’t very impressed with him, but was too polite to refuse. “I guess so, I’ll be here.”

  After he left, I went up to the house to talk it over with Mom Connor. “He wants to come back tomorrow, but I don’t really like him all that much, Mom. What should I do?”

  “Give him a chance, Maude. You haven’t found anyone here in town who pleases you, not that there’s much to pick from. Most of the unmarried men here are two, three times as old as you. You can’t be a widow forever. You’re only a girl. You ought to have a life of your own.’

  “I’m satisfied with what I have, Mom. Why do I need a man?”

  “I’m getting old. I won’t always be here. What are you going to do when I’m gone?”

  I’d never thought about such a thing, and it scared me. I’d come to think of my mother-in-law as a permanent part of my life. “You’re fine. It’s going to be a long time before you get old.”

  “No, it isn’t, Maude. It’s not only my arthritis anymore. Doc Wilson says my heart is getting weak. My sister over in Nashville has been after me to come live with her. She lost her husband last year. Her children are all married and moved away. You and I, both of us, need to think about the future.”

  I wanted to cry. “I’ll take care of you, you know that. I’ll move up here to the house like you asked me before.”

  “That wouldn’t be fair to you. You’re young. You and Lulu deserve more than nursing an old woman. It could be years before I die. By then, you’ll have lost your chance to find someone.”

  I tried to think of other arguments, but there weren’t any. After Lulu was asleep, I spent the rest of the evening sitting on the porch and staring at a sky that was looking the same way I was feeling. There wasn’t a star to be seen.

  The next afternoon, George showed up again. I decided I would give him another chance to court me, but I still had my doubts. I don’t know what I was thinking, but this time I agreed to go for a buggy ride. He drove me out over the rolling Tennessee hills for several miles. It was a beautiful day, and we talked about everyday matters like the weather and Lulu’s school work. He got me back to the cabin in time to meet Lulu coming home.

  My ten-year-old girl knitted her eyebrows together and ducked her chin down into her chest. She looked at him with a sour face and ran into the cabin without even saying hello.

  That embarrassed me, and George saw the look on my face. “Don’t worry about Lulu, Maude. She’ll warm up to me. I mean, if we see more of one another. Can I come by tomorrow?”

  I was still looking after Lulu. It wasn’t like her to be rude like that. “I don’t know, George. I’ll have to think about it.”

  He put his hat on. “Well, I’ll stop by, and if you got other things to do, you can tell me, and I’ll be on my way.”

  “All right, George.”

  I went inside and hugged Lulu to me and kissed the top of her head. “You don’t think much of Mr. Foley, do you, Baby?”

  “He isn’t going to stay here. He’s going to go back to Missouri where he lives. If you married him, I’d have to leave all my friends. Tell him he can’t come here anymore.”

  I thought it over. “Maybe you’re right. I’ll tell him tomorrow that it would be best if he stopped coming here.”

  Lulu hugged me and craned her neck to kiss me on the cheek. “I’m going to see Gramma. Holler if you want me.”

  “All right, Baby.”

  I made up my mind I would tell George that I didn’t want to spend any more time with him. I went up to the house. Lulu and Mom Connor and I began fixing dinner. We were a family already, the three women of the house, and didn’t need a man to make us whole.

  Mom Connor sat in a chair stringing the green beans that Lulu brought in from the garden. The sound of the snap-snap as she broke off the ends of each one was so regular it was al
most music. Lulu peeled potatoes while I breaded the chicken. Lulu tilted her head and smiled a little. “Mommy is going to tell Mr. Foley that he shouldn’t come around here anymore,” she said with satisfaction.

  Mom Connor looked from Lulu to me, her eyes wide with surprise. “What do you mean, child? Your Mom can’t do that.”

  “She can if she wants to.”

  Mom Connor dropped the bean she was stripping back in the bowl. She lifted the bowl off her lap and plopped it down on the table so hard it almost broke. Both Lulu and I jumped, startled by the bang of glass against wood. Mom Connor shook her head. “You can’t do that, Maude. You have to marry him now.”

  I was dumbfounded. “What on earth are you talking about? I hardly know him.”

  “You went out in that buggy alone with him, clear out of town. Half the women in the church saw you. They been planning the wedding party all day.”

  “Wedding party? But he hasn’t even asked me to marry him. What if he doesn’t want me?”

  “He wants you. Just look at him. He gets all mushy-faced when he’s about you. If he hasn’t asked you yet, he’s going to before he leaves.”

  Lulu jumped up. “No! We’re not going to marry him and go live in another town in another state with people we don’t even know.”

  Mom Connor frowned at her granddaughter. “Sit yourself down and be quiet, young lady. You don’t know anything about this. This is grown-up business here. Your Mom went out in a buggy with a man and out of town, and was gone for two hours. It doesn’t matter if she never so much as touched his hand. She’s got to marry him now. If she doesn’t, she’ll be put out of the church, and no decent woman in this town will speak to her.”

  Lulu’s eyes popped open, and she plunked back down in her chair.

  I began pacing the room. My hands covered with the flour from the breading smeared the front of my skirt. “I don’t want to marry him.”

  “I’m sorry, Maude, but you have to, and you know it’s true. There’s no way you can live here if you don’t. I hate to see you leave as much as you hate to go. Maybe you can talk him into staying here with you. You can keep the property. Live in the house and rent out the cabin or do it the other way around if you want. I’m leaving all this to Lulu anyway. I already told the preacher where my will is and what’s in it. I’ll put in there that she won’t get it if you leave town. Maybe that will make him want to be here.”

  Lulu felt better, thinking she wouldn’t have to move away from her friends, and relaxed a little. I could feel her watching me for my reaction.

  I knew Mom Connor was right. The town was too small for me to outlive the gossip. If George asked me, I’d have to marry him. If he didn’t ask me---? “Oh, my God, Mom, what if he doesn’t ask me? What am I going to do then?”

  “If he hasn’t asked you by tomorrow night, I’ll pay a visit to Bessie. She’ll make him see what he has to do. If he doesn’t, she won’t be able to live here either. All the women will blame her for bringing him here.”

  I couldn’t say anything. I just stood there with my head down, staring at the planks in the floor as if I were looking for an answer to the mess I’d gotten myself into.

  When George drove up the next day, I managed to smile. I refused his offer of another ride and invited him to sit a spell. I talked with him about things that didn’t matter, and all that time, what really was important was running through my mind. I pretended to pay attention, but inside I wanted to scream. I forced myself to sit on the porch with him and sip tea and chat as if nothing at all hung on what he had to say. The only words I needed to hear were the ones that concerned getting married, and even if he said them, I would hate to hear them. I tried to ease my mind. I told myself he was very handsome, that the other women would envy me his tall, slim build and his cheerful manner. They would think I was crazy if I didn’t want to marry him.

  As it got close to time for Lulu to get home, he hadn’t even talked a bit about the future. I began to panic. He stood and made polite references to leaving. I stood, too. George reached out and took my hand and clasped it in both of his. Other than taking my elbow to help me into the buggy, it was just the second time he’d ever touched me. I braced myself, waiting for the proposal. “Well, I’ll be leaving tomorrow. I sure have enjoyed knowing you, Maude. If I ever get back over this way, I hope I have your permission to call again.”

  I just nodded a little and pulled my hand away from his. He smiled that warm smile of his and turned to go. I watched his back as he walked away and climbed up in the buggy. I stood there without moving a muscle. Mom Connor, who’d been leaning against her back door listening for the sound of the buggy driving off, popped out the door. She met me on the pathway and gave me a questioning look. I looked up at her with the saddest eyes she could have ever seen and just shook my head. Mom Connor gasped. She asked me to go over every word that was said, and I told her there wasn’t anything to be gone over but talk about the weather and such.

  Mom Connor pinched her lips together. “I’m not one to interfere, and you know that, but I have to do something about an intolerable situation.” She turned around with more energy than I’d seen in her for years, went back in the house, and let the door slam behind her. She loved me too dearly to see me hurt, even if I had done something wrong when I should have known better.

  But how could I have known? My mother would have taught me the customs of courting a man if she’d lived, but she didn’t live. I never really had the opportunity to be courted by anyone. Our families had arranged my marriage to James before I was old enough to think seriously about what it meant.

  After about an hour, she came back and found me in the yard, hanging up clothes. She said, “Sit down, Maude. Let me tell you what I saw.” We went up on my porch and sat down.

  “I marched right over to Bessie’s as fast as these old knees would let me. The front door was propped open, and I could see Bessie moving about in the kitchen. I didn’t knock on the screen door, but called out loud enough for her to hear me, ‘Bessie, you and me got to have a woman-to-woman talk.’”

  I sucked in a breath. “Did the neighbors hear you?”

  “No neighbors around that I could see. Bessie smiled at me that way she has that makes you feel happy, wiped her hands on her apron, and hugged me. ‘Come on in,’ she said. ‘We’ll sit a spell and have something to drink. We can talk about the wedding.’”

  “I was flabbergasted she didn’t know. I told her, ‘I’m not in a sitting frame of mind, and there doesn’t seem to be any wedding coming up. Is George back here yet?’”

  “She said, “I heard him ride up. He’ll be out in the barn. I guess he’s putting the horse away.” She caught the way I was upset and asked me, “Did Maude turn him down?”

  “I told her he left without asking, so you couldn’t have turned him down if you wanted. Bessie’s face turned white. She’d talked to the other women and knew what would happen if her brother left town without marrying you. She said, ‘He didn’t even ask her?’

  “Not a word about it. Matter-of-fact, he told her pretty-as-you-please that he was leaving tomorrow and asked if he could call again should he ever get back here.

  “You should have seen her face! She looked like she was about to bring down the wrath of God on George’s head. I almost felt sorry for him. Her face turned beet-red, and she pressed her lips together, put her hands on her hips, and nodded her head up and down while she glared out in the direction of the barn. She said, ‘Don’t you worry about it, Sister Connor, George isn’t leaving tomorrow. He’ll be back over to see Maude in the morning.’

  Mom Connor patted my hand. She told me, “You rest easy, girl. Bessie and I will see to it that this turns out the right way.”

  I was surprised by the mean look on Mom’s face, like one of those tigers in picture books, and at the same time it made me feel better. If Mom said it would be all right, it would be all right.

  Chapter 11

  A few years later, George told me w
hat happened that night. I thought part of it was funny, and part of it was sad how Bessie made him marry me.

  As best I can remember it, this is what he said:

  “When I came in the house that night, I was whistling my favorite song, all relaxed. Bessie put dinner on the table while John dried his hands on a towel, ignorant of what’d been going on around him.

  “I told John, ‘I’m going to miss seeing the two of you when I leave tomorrow. It’s been a real nice visit.’

  “John’s mouth was open and his lips were making an answer he never got to say. Bessie pulled back her right arm and landed a tight-fisted punch on my face. She was no little flower, and it knocked me back against the wall. I managed to stay on my feet and leaned there, rubbing my chin.

  “John grabbed Bessie’s arm and pulled her away. He said, ‘Lord Almighty, Bessie, what’re you doing?’

  “Bessie ignored him. She kept her eyes on me. She jerked free, ran over to me and began punching my shoulder and trying to land another one on my jaw. I held up my hands to push away her fists aimed at my face.

  “I was able to defend myself without hitting back. I didn’t know at the time what I did that made her so mad, but since I grew up with her temper, I wasn’t the least bit surprised. John ran over and grabbed her in a bear hug and lifted her off the floor so she couldn’t break free. He said, ‘Stop it, Bessie, what in the world has got into you?’

  “Bessie kept staring holes through me. She shouted, ‘Maude Connor was my best friend from the day I got to this town, and if you think you’re going to disgrace her by taking her out on a buggy ride with no chaperone and then leaving her here without marrying her, you got another think coming. I’ll cut your throat in your sleep before I’ll let that happen, even if I have to come all the way to Kennett, Missouri to find you.’

  “I knew very well she meant it. I held up both hands in front of me. ‘All right, Bessie, all right.’

  “Bessie was on fire. ‘You get your pitiful self over there in the morning and ask that girl to be your wife.’ She jerked one arm free from John’s grip and pointed her finger at me, wagging it so close to my nose it almost touched me. ‘Or else.’