Chapter 13

13

L eah stretched and shielded a yawn, careful not to move her lower body. Miriam's light tap sounded on the bedroom door, so she called, "Come in."

The sweet, perky face appeared in the doorway, framed by blond wisps that had escaped the knot on her head. "Are you up for some company?"

"Oh, yes." Leah didn't even try to hide her eagerness.

Miriam pushed through the doorway with a leather sack, a bowl, and two knives. "I need to peel potatoes for the evening meal and thought you could keep me comp'ny if you're up to it."

"I believe your offer earlier was for me to help , so I intend to hold you to that. I feel lazy lying in this bed all day when you're both so busy."

As soon as she finished speaking, the irony of her statement sank through her. Three months ago, she wouldn't have thought twice about lying around all day. Her life had been full of leisure and reading, with a party thrown in here and there for spice. What a different person she was becoming.

A better person.

Miriam didn't sit until she settled Leah comfortably against the pillows, knife in hand, a rag in her lap to catch the peelings, and the bowl in between them.

Leah picked up a potato and looked at the knife, trying to determine the best way to go at this. Finally, she held the underside of the potato in her left hand, and the knife in her right, blade facing away. She skimmed the top of the potato with the knife, stroking away from her body. After the first slice, only a few small brown strips of potato peel had been removed. She frowned at the potato. This might take longer than she'd thought.

"What are you doing?"

When she looked up, Miriam was watching her, curiosity marking every line of her face.

"Trying to peel this potato." She worked to keep annoyance from sneaking into her voice.

"Did you bump your head when you fell?"

Leah gave her a dark look. "No." Miriam's humor wasn't always funny.

Understanding flowed over her friend's face, and she covered a giggle with her hand. "You've never peeled potatoes before, have you?"

Leah pushed down her defenses. "I'm sure I can do it."

Miriam nodded. "Of course you can. Here, hold your knife like this." She demonstrated turning the knife so the blade faced toward herself. "And peel the potato toward you, but watch your thumb. You want to take just the top layer off and not get very much of the white meat."

Leah studied as Miriam peeled a continuous strip that wrapped all the way around the potato almost two times before breaking. That looked easy enough. She tried the same and came away with a peeling about the length of her thumbnail. Maybe it was a little harder than it appeared, but she would get the job done.

They worked in silence for a few minutes before she had the hang of it enough to talk while she worked. She really wanted to know the story that had brought the Bryant family to such a remote part of the country. Besides, it was probably better for the potatoes if Leah asked the questions and Miriam did most of the talking. The work took quite a bit of focus.

"So, have you always lived in the Montana Territory?"

"No, we moved here when I was five." Miriam kept her eyes on the potato slipping around in her hands. "We used to live in Kentucky, on a little farm near Lexington. Pa and Mama came out west to claim land under Lincoln's Free Homestead Act."

She had a faint memory of her father talking about the Free Homestead Acts. He'd said they weren't a good idea, that they would encourage Europeans to come to America to claim the free land. At least that hadn't been the case with the Bryants.

Miriam continued. "We just had ten acres back in Kentucky, and Pa was a tobacco farmer, but he always wanted to raise cattle and horses on a big ranch. He finally had the chance to make his dreams come true."

Leah smiled. "Not everyone gets that chance, but I'm glad he was able to. He certainly picked a beautiful place to build a ranch."

Miriam had already peeled three potatoes to Leah's one, despite the fact she was doing most of the talking. "Yep, it is a pretty place. Pa got the ranch started and taught the boys how to tend to things. Winters are hard, though, and we lost him in a snowstorm almost six years ago."

"Oh, Miriam, I'm so sorry." She knew so well the pressing ache of losing a father.

The girl shrugged, but the act didn't seem nonchalant. "It was hard. Hard on us all, but especially Mama. She loved Pa so much, she never was the same after he died. She took sick the next fall and died of a fever, but I think it was really a broken heart that took her."

"And how old were you when she passed?" Leah asked quietly.

Miriam sighed. "I was eleven."

"Oh, Miri… You were just a girl." Leah laid the potato in her lap and released her own sigh. "I was sixteen when my mama died, but I had Emily to help me through things."

"Who's Emily?"

"She was my governess growing up, but she stayed on to be my companion after Mama died. I don't think I would have made it through those years without her." This wasn't the topic she'd planned to discuss though. She had to turn the conversation to something less painful. "So do you raise both cattle and horses here?"

Miriam nodded, not seeming to mind the switch. "Mostly cattle, but we have three broodmares now. Gideon likes the horses best, even though they're a lot of work to raise and train before they're ready to sell."

Leah hesitated to comment on the man, but finally said, "Gideon seems like a hard worker who can do most anything."

Miriam looked up from her potato long enough to flash a proud smile. "He's remarkable. A natural born leader. I think that's why he and Abel always got along so well. Gideon was the leader and Abel the doer. They both had a sixth sense when it came to animals too. I think that's why it was such a shock about the bear." The tenor in Miriam's voice dropped with her last few words.

"The bear?"

Miriam swallowed. "That's how Abel died. He tangled with a grizzly, we think, but we never saw the bear. Gideon found him in the woods after his soul had already gone to be with Jesus."

She had no idea what to say, no words to ease that pain, so she allowed silence to settle over them except for the scrape of knife against potato. She looked up to check on her friend a few times, and when a tear rolled off the end of Miriam's button nose, Leah leaned over to stroke her shoulder.

A few minutes later, Miriam set the last of the peeled potatoes in the bowl and rolled her shoulders, reaching to massage her neck. Her lips curved into a timid smile through the mist in her eyes.

"Leah, in case I haven't said it enough, I hope you know how excited I am you're here. I haven't sat and peeled potatoes with another woman in years. It's good for the soul, I tell ya."

Maybe she could ask one more question. "Don't you have any female neighbors close by?"

"Nah, most of the spreads around here are 160 acres or more, so the houses aren't very close together." She began gathering the potato bag full of peelings and the knives. "To the east is John Stands-alone and his son. John's half Sioux and they keep pretty well to themselves. On the other side is a trapper fellow we call Skeet. He comes over for dinner every now and then." She flashed another smile, this one brighter than before. "If we're lucky, he brings his fiddle."

Miriam leaned over and dropped a kiss on Leah's forehead. "I'll bring you more willow bark tea in a minute, then you get some rest, all right?"

That sounded like an excellent idea, as Leah sank back against the pillows. Her leg didn't hurt so much when she visited with Miriam, but it ached ever so much now. And she was so tired.

Everything hurt. Her head. Her underside from lying flat in this infernal bed for two days. And most especially her leg.

Leah reached for her Bible and riffled the pages without much direction. She needed to pull herself out of this mood, but it was hard to make herself do anything with the continuous throbbing in her leg.

If only there was a doctor anywhere in the vicinity. Gideon seemed to know what he was doing when it came to splinting her leg, but surely a doctor would have also given medicine for the pain. The willow bark tea helped, but it also put her to sleep. It seemed like she'd been asleep for a week now.

A thud sounded from the other room, and she glanced toward the door. What was Miriam doing in there?

She forced her eyes back to the pages and flipped to Psalm chapter twenty, one of her favorites. Before she'd read more than the first line, Miriam's light knock sounded on the door.

"Come in, Miriam. You don't have to knock, you know." Bad Leah. She was a guest in their house and Miriam was doing everything possible to make her comfortable, including waiting on her hand and foot. She couldn't take the misery from her own silly mistake out on that sweet girl. Leah forced out a small smile as Miriam almost skipped into the room.

"We have a surprise for you, Leah."

Behind the little magpie came her brother, and Gideon's tall frame seemed to shrink the room. His broad shoulders tapered down to a trim waist, and he exuded strength.

Miriam stared at her like a puppy eager to run outside and play, and even Gideon had a sparkle in his emerald eyes.

She couldn't help but smile back. "What's the surprise?"

"You'll have to come in the other room to see it." This from Gideon as he moved closer to the right side of the bed. "Do you think you can manage that?"

She regarded him, trying to keep the surprise from registering too strongly on her face. "I don't think I can walk yet, if that's what you mean."

Was that a mischievous sparkle in his eyes? "No need. I can carry you, I reckon'."

She shouldn't allow it, but she did want to see the surprise. Since Miriam was there, maybe it would be acceptable for him to touch her. But only because she couldn't walk herself.

Leah bit her lip as she nodded. "All right."

As Gideon neared, his presence surrounded her. Good thing Miriam had helped her with a sponge bath that morning.

Gideon slipped a strong arm around her back, and another under her knees. The splint on her leg kept it sticking out at an awkward angle, and Leah bit her lower lip hard to keep from crying out at the fire in her bone. She forced herself to focus on Gideon's arms. She'd never been so close to anyone this strong before. The men whose arms she'd daintily touched as they escorted her in the ballroom were like twigs beside Gideon's massive trunks. And his chest was strong enough to shield her from anything.

From the shelter of Gideon's protection, she took in the familiar surroundings of the sitting area and kitchen. He stopped for a moment while Miriam fussed with something, then he gently set Leah on a soft…bed? They had, indeed, brought a bed into the main room.

A glance at Miriam's face showed pure enthusiasm. "Now you don't have to lay in that bedroom all by yourself. You can talk to me while I work, and take your meals with us and everything."

Thankfulness overflowed from Leah's chest. What kind people these were. She returned Miriam's smile through the mist clouding her eyes. "It's perfect. Thank you."

Gideon shuffled his feet for a moment behind Miriam, then turned toward the front door. "Reckon I'd better check on the animals." He glanced toward his sister. "Be back for the meal."

Leah watched from bed while Miriam straightened the kitchen and swept the cabin floor. The younger woman did most of the talking, with Leah asking questions about her childhood and what it was like to grow up with siblings. As much as she enjoyed the conversation, she still felt guilty she wasn't able to help with the work. When they settled into a comfortable silence, an idea came to her. "Miriam, do you get to read much?"

The girl looked up from scrubbing a grease mark on the floor. "Sometimes I do in the evenings. We don't have many books, but I've read the Bible and Pilgrim's Progress so many times they're fallin' apart."

Leah smiled. "Have you ever read An Old Fashioned Girl ? It just came out a few years ago, but it's one of my favorites."

Miriam's forehead wrinkled a little. "I haven't heard of that one."

"If you'll go look in my smaller trunk, you'll see a stack of books. Bring that one and I'll read to you while you work."

Her green eyes grew wide. "Oh, that'd be like heaven. That'll make even cleaning out the stove a treat."

Miriam returned a few moments later with the leather-bound book in her hand and an expression of awe on her face. "Leah, you have so many books. I've never known anyone with all those books that weren't for schoolin'."

Leah held back a chuckle. "Miri, you are welcome to read any one of them any time you want. Once I can finally get out of this bed, I'll do some of the work and let you lie around and read all day."

Miriam's face was almost giddy as Leah opened the book and began the adventures of Polly, a girl not so unlike Miriam herself.