A Quiet Life Read online

  The men came in for dinner while the fish was still in the pan. Grace turned to greet them. “Only a few minutes until it’s ready. Sit yourselves down and rest.”

  Neither man took a seat. Matthias searched her with those deep blue eyes of his as though she might hold the answer to a thousand questions. Justus hung his hat up slowly and looked at his brother. “That’s not fish we smell, is it?”

  Matthias moved his head side to side without taking his eyes off Grace.

  “Do you suppose the woman went and made us a pie?”

  “It’s been years,” Matthias said, “but a body doesn’t forget the smell of apple pie.”

  Both men crossed the room in a few long strides. Their mouths hung open like little boys in a candy shop as they hovered over the pie. Grace moved to the side to protect her dessert.

  Justus smiled mischievously. “She’s not big enough to stop us both if we wanted to eat it, is she?”

  “Nope,” Matthias answered. He remained stoic, as though nothing could be more serious than getting a slice of that pie.

  “It’s for later,” Grace said firmly. She felt the corners of her mouth twitching at their childish behavior.

  Justus backed down and took a seat at the table. “I can wait because I know it’ll be worth it.”

  “Thank you,” Grace said. Her eyes stayed on Matthias, who was still watching her pie hungrily. “Will the dessert be safe while I tend to the fish?” she asked him.

  He shook his head and a hint of a smile showed up.

  Grace leaned slightly closer and whispered, “If you wait, I’ll give you a bigger piece.”

  The smile disappeared as he turned to her but the hunger remained for a moment. Grace quickly turned her attention to keeping the dinner from burning.

  Matthias took his seat at the table and Justus said, “You know I heard that, right?”

  Grace didn’t turn around so she didn’t know what wordless answer Matthias had given. She didn’t know who ended up getting more of the pie either. After they ate the fish, with dumplings and squash, she served up three similar slices. Both men got up to help themselves to seconds and when she went to clean up, the entire pie was gone.

  She smiled at the empty pie pan. The way the men devoured her cooking made her feel as though she was earning her keep. The three of them had sat at the table enjoying each other’s company before the men went to take care of the outside chores. Grace busied herself making the kitchen spotless. She was nearly done when she heard the front door open behind her.

  Justus stood inside with his hat in his hand. He didn’t hang it up before he came closer to Grace. “That was the finest dinner we’ve had since Ma died,” he said.

  “Thank you. I’m so happy you enjoyed it.”

  “I had something I wanted to discuss with you.”

  She put down the towel to give him her full attention.

  “The preacher in town visits out this way a couple times a year, no more’n twice usually, but we expect him any day now. I’m sure you know a wedding would make it proper for me and Matthias to move back into the house.” He nodded towards the two doors opposite her own. “If that’s something you’d be agreeable to consider, you wouldn’t have any trouble finding a willing groom and I just thought I’d mention it so you’ll have time to think on it before the preacher gets here. Goodnight, Grace.” He hastily put on his hat and exited the house before she could reply.

  The first thing Grace did was restrain the impulse to laugh at the fact that he’d called his short speech a discussion. Then she puzzled over what she might have said if he’d given her a chance. He’d said a few sentences and then left. And he’d left her good and confused. Was that a clumsy proposal or simply a warning that one was coming? Why wouldn’t he come right out with it? Unless… he wasn’t the groom he’d meant.

  Grace felt herself get a bit light-headed at the thought of Matthias asking her to be his wife. Then she chastised herself for the ridiculous notions a pair of pensive blue eyes put into her head. The man had known her for two days and she’d been too sick to talk for part of that time. Most likely the only offer she might receive was a marriage for show regardless of the groom. Most likely the brothers were still trying to hash out which of them should be saddled with her. She hoped the preacher wasn’t in too big a hurry to visit.

  ~~ ~~

  Matthias woke up the next morning, a Sunday, planning to enjoy the day of rest more than usual because they would begin to bring in the grain on that Monday. It would be easier than the last few years with Grace fixing their meals and helping out. She’d volunteered to milk the cow and do a few other outside chores.

  He thought of how lovely the purple flowers had looked in her hair the night before and the sound of her laugh when Justus pretended his slice of pie was smaller. There were other reasons he’d enjoy this Sunday more than the last.

  “Ouch!” It was not a good idea to think about a woman while holding a razor to his face. Matthias tried to focus on the day ahead. He’d already tended the animals with his brother. Now they were cleaning up for breakfast. They’d bring out their bible afterwards and have a family church service. How different would it be with Grace there? Was there some way he could convince her to take a walk with him later?

  “Ow!” A tiny spot of red appeared next to the blade. Matthias hadn’t cut himself in years and now he’d done it twice in one day. He concentrated on listing the books in the bible in his head until he finished to keep a steady hand. He put on a clean shirt for Sunday and made his way to the house.

  Justus was standing outside the front door. Matthias didn’t have to ask why he hadn’t gone in. He heard it, too. Grace was singing and they didn’t want to risk interrupting the beautiful hymn. When she stopped and didn’t immediately start another song, Justus said, “We’re going in now, aren’t we?”

  Matthias only nodded.

  “We’ll ask her to sing more later though, right?”

  “I hope she’s willing.”

  Grace was setting up large stacks of pancakes again. Sizzling on the stove hinted there might be a side of sausage. Both were as delicious as expected and disappeared quickly. The men pitched in with cleanup and then the three of them returned to the table in honor of the Lord’s day. Justus read from the bible. He began in the book of Revelation but was partial to Proverbs and read several of those as well. They had some silent reflection, which was usually the end. Grace was the one who suggested they add a few hymns.

  Justus sang with her. Matthias preferred to listen. He would not have refused to join in but was glad neither pressed him to do so. When their service concluded, Justus went to his workshop in the barn. That was his typical Sunday activity. Matthias generally liked to take Goliath out for a ride. He felt that appreciating the vastness of the prairie was a good way to appreciate the one who had made it. He had a hankering for a different companion that Sunday.

  “Grace?” he said quietly. She had reopened the bible but looked up at him. “I won’t interrupt if you’d rather read.”

  She closed the book. “What do you need?”

  “I don’t… I aim to walk a spell and I thought perhaps you’d like to see some of the land with me.”

  “I would like that,” she said with a smile. “Let me get my bonnet.”

  Matthias stood by the door, not realizing how much he was abusing his hat while he waited. Grace came out of her room tying her bonnet under her chin. He said nothing as he opened the door and she fell into step next to him without asking where they were headed. He walked around the house and past the first field.

  His horse never asked him to share his thoughts. Grace was likely expecting conversation and Matthias felt sorely out of practice. “I thought we’d start towards that big tree,” he said. “There’s a bench where my parents used to watch us swing when we were boys.”

  Grace looked thoughtfully at the distant tree. “How long have you been on this land?”

  “Most of my life. Pa took
the claim when we were so young Justus barely remembers the journey.”

  “And, um, how long has it been just the two of you?”

  “Ma died twelve years ago. It was us and Pa for nine years before we lost him, too.”

  “Justus said the Griggs visit in the summer.”

  “Their place is about thirty miles west. I suppose we could pay calls more often but they don’t seem to be itching for company any more than we are.” A disturbing thought came to him. Was Grace lonely? Was she reconsidering her haste in asking to stay with a pair of reclusive farmers in the middle of nowhere? “I… I guess you must be accustomed to having more people around,” he said.

  Grace was slow to answer. A steady panic grew during the pause. He was sure that she had come to realize how insufficient two quiet men were as company for a young woman. “I am,” Grace said at last. “I am used to more company. I didn’t know it was overwhelming until I got here.”

  “You don’t regret then… You still think this life would be enough for you?”

  She smiled shyly and seemed afraid to look at him. She said, “Yes,” but he heard the hesitation and didn’t want to ask what was missing. Grace brushed her fingertips along an extra tall tuft of grass between them and almost appeared to be reaching out to him. Matthias shook off the illusion.

  “Grace,” he said, “did something happen with the Mitchells?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Matthias pulled his hat lower against the sun. “The man claimed you were useless and I didn’t believe it then and now I’ve sampled your cooking. Seems he must have had other reasons for wanting you off the trail.”

  “He never let me cook,” she said with a thoughtful nod. “Insisted that was his job alone. I’m afraid I caused friction between him and his wife. He thought my presence would get the hands riled and he forced me to stay out of sight as much as possible. The Mrs. thought I should be helping her serve them. Neither was shy about saying they’d be glad to be rid of me. I still…” She stopped walking as the words failed her and she gave a puzzled shrug as she began moving again.

  Matthias believed he understood what she couldn’t put into words. It was difficult to comprehend feelings on an act of careless abandonment that had brought about the current happiness. Had God used the likes of Silas Mitchell to perform a miracle? It was an intriguing thought for a Sunday at any rate.

  A heavily-knotted rope still hung from a thick branch of the wide tree. Matthias regularly stopped at the old bench nearby. He knew it was wide enough for two because his parents had sat there together. It suddenly appeared much smaller and he walked towards the rope instead.

  Grace put her hand on the rope and pulled it back before she let go. It swung back and forth as she said, “Mama used to say it wouldn’t be ladylike for me to swing on the rope that some of the boys had hung on a tree near the school. I suppose I’m too grown to try it now.”

  “What do girls do for fun?”

  “We can swing if there’s a seat. I liked to swim most myself. I did like to watch the boys on the rope though.” She nibbled on her bottom lip as though considering something and suddenly propped both hands on her hips. “Turn around,” she commanded.

  Matthias did as he was told. “Why am I looking over here?” he asked.

  “Because,” a voice from behind him said, “I aim to try this rope just once and I don’t want an audience if I fall.”

  The idea that she might fall off the rope was ridiculous. But even more ridiculous was the woman wanting to do something she thought she might hurt herself doing. If she did fall, he wanted to help her up again. How could he do that standing there with his back to her?

  Grace walked past him and sat on the bench.

  “Done already?” he asked.

  “The skirts do get in the way. I think I’d rather swing with a seat. But this still seat will do for now.” She slid over to one side. “Won’t you sit, too?”

  Matthias looked at the scrap of wood she offered to him. He tried to sit with as much space between them as possible and nearly toppled off the side. Grace caught hold of his arm but let go quickly, likely realizing she was too tiny to keep him from falling. He felt steadier when she wasn’t touching him anyway.

  “Did you do that on purpose?” she asked.

  He simply looked at her for clarification.

  “To make me feel better about thinking I’d fall off the rope?”

  That fool grin was back. “Only if it worked.”

  She laughed her pretty laugh. Maybe it did help her to feel better about something.

  “Hardly a cloud in the sky,” he observed. “Hope the weather holds for tomorrow.”

  “Surely we have a few dry days ahead.”

  “We could pray about that.”

  Grace nodded and closed her eyes. Matthias silently prayed for the rain to wait – or at least not start without enough warning – and for Grace to want to be his wife by the time the preacher showed up. Those were the only two things on his mind as he watched a gentle breeze wave the long grass over the prairie. He felt he had as little control over the second desire as he did the first.

  She began to sing next to him, a quiet hymn that sounded like a far more reverent prayer than his own. When she was finished, he told her it was a lovely song and kept his eyes on the long grass. He wasn’t sure how long she’d be willing to sit in stillness and peace but he felt true contentment with her by his side.

  The breeze was gentle and it seemed as though the grass whispered to him as it swayed. He glanced at Grace after a time and noticed that she was smiling at him, smiling as though he’d done something funny. He arched his brow in a question.

  “I was trying to imagine you swinging on that rope as a boy and I just couldn’t do it. I think you must have been born serious. Bet you didn’t even cry, just lay in your cradle waiting patiently for your mama to tend to you.”

  “Am I too serious, Grace?”

  She put her hand over her mouth and her eyes were so wide he could tell she was busting with the effort not to laugh. It occurred to him that he may have picked a bad time for such a somber inquiry.

  He pulled her hand down and said, “I’m not so serious that you can’t laugh at me.”

  She moved her head up and down as the laughter faded from her face. Matthias couldn’t think of anything besides the fact that she wasn’t pulling her hand out of his. He wanted to kiss her something fierce and was looking for something in her eyes that said she would let him. She cast her eyes downward and he didn’t know if that was shyness or reluctance. The moment stretched on and on until finally she said, “Somehow it’s easier to picture Justus as a boy.”

  Justus? Matthias fixed his eyes back towards the barn where his brother was probably still building something. His heart nearly stopped at the realization of how self-centered his long hours alone had made him. Here he was thinking how blessed he was that this pretty woman had practically dropped out of the sky as a potential bride and it never occurred to him that Justus might be thinking the same. They never talked about that sort of thing.

  Their pa had suggested to them a few years back that when they started thinking about finding wives, they could spend a winter in town to look for candidates. At the time, all three of them had thought Pa could stay to look after the farm if the younger men were gone. He died a few months later and the brothers hadn’t discussed the idea since.

  Matthias had simply assumed Justus wasn’t in a hurry. He was only twenty-four. But what if he’d been waiting his turn, waiting for Matthias to head to town first since he was the older brother? He thought about how Justus had been beating him back to the house for meals and how he’d also gotten his whiskers under control. Was Matthias in competition with his brother for this woman? That could not end well.

  “Is something wrong?” Grace’s concerned voice broke into his thoughts.

  He was still holding her hand. He let it go to use one hand to hold his hat while the other worked through
his hair. “I was… thinking… I think someone’s coming.” He could see what looked like a single rider in the distance. It had to be Rev. John.

  ~~ ~~

  Rev. John was a middle-aged man with plenty of spring in his step and very little hair on his head. He had a round middle that he attributed to his wife’s fine cooking. But it didn’t seem to slow him down at all. He rode in that Sunday afternoon eager to fill the social void that didn’t exist. He talked at length about everything that had happened in town since his last visit.

  There had been births and deaths and marriages. The search for a new schoolteacher ended well and there was talk of sprucing up the building. Everything that fell from his lips came out as wonderful news. Even a spate of vandalism had afforded a chance for the community to come together and to learn a valuable lesson.

  The preacher wasn’t fazed in the least to find a new inhabitant at the Baker homestead. In fact, he found the story of Grace’s arrival something of a lark. The part about all of her money leaving without her was omitted from the story but he’d have likely found a silver lining in that, too.

  Grace found the man mostly tolerable except for his penchant for winking at all of them. She didn’t mind having an extra mouth to feed as this one was nearly as appreciative as the other two. He spent nearly two hours of the evening sermonizing to the captive audience. Grace didn’t know if he was concerned about the state of their souls so far from a real church or simply eager for the chance to reuse his best material on those who weren’t around for regular Sunday sermons. At any rate, she flopped into bed that night feeling awfully exhausted for having just finished up a day of rest.

  Visions of earlier in the day kept her from falling asleep as quickly as she would have liked. When Matthias took her out for a stroll, she’d thought he might make some intentions known, even if only practical intentions. But it felt the whole time as though he was searching her for something and he must not have found it. He seemed more distant the rest of the day. His eyes stopped following her around and she felt the loss.