Chapter 30

The trip home seemed to go so quickly. They crossed the stream where they had rested a few days ago, this time without stopping. There were no strange, gruff travelers today. Before she realized it they were in the village where they had stopped on their first trip. John decided that it would be a courtesy if they stopped at the Inn again and said hello.

“After all,” he said, “we have a free lunch.”

“Lunch! John, we has a huge breakfast three hours ago! How can you think of food?”

He pulled on the reins, halting the wagon in front of the Inn and jumped to the ground. He turned to help her down. “Maybe I didn’t eat as much as you. Guard, Sergeant. ”

She would have hit him for the comment but he would have dropped her if she did so she let the comment pass.

The Inn was as dark as before but not so much that they weren’t recognized. Half dozen patrons and the innkeeper, Nate Ridgeway, called out welcomes to them as they walked in.

Nate yelled over his shoulder, “Bess, two of our best plates. We’ve got friends arriving.” He hurried over and grabbed John’s hand in both his, shaking it heartily and waving them to a table. “Well now, what a fine day this is turning into. We’re glad you came in. Here, have this table here next to the window. Best seat in the house and you can watch your wagon from here. I hope you’re both well and your trip was pleasant.”

John laughed. “Here, you’ll be spoiling us with all this welcome. I don’t want my sister go getting airs about her.”

“I’ll have you know I don’t get airs!” Samantha said in mock indignation. “I get even.”

Laughter went round the room. Bess came out with two steaming plates and mugs of hot coffee. She loved shepherd’s pie and this looked especially good, with it’s potato and cheese top a golden brown. She didn’t know how she was going to eat it. Breakfast, well, her breakfast had been rather large. She took a small bite and found it was delicious. Mentally, she shrugged, she’d eat what she could and ask if she could take the rest with them. They were several hours from home and nothing between here and there. In a few hours, she’d be wanting something to nibble on.

John, on the other hand, had no problem tucking into his. “Oh, lordy, this is wonderful. Nate, give my compliments to the chef.”

Nate laughed. “I’ll do no such thing. Her head’s big enough as it is. I’ll never hear the end of it.”

Bess came from the kitchen and slapped Nate with a towel. The men in the room guffawed. One called, “You’ll be regrettin’ that, me boy. It’s the kennel for you tonight.”

Samantha listened to the banter for a bit but as she stared outside, it faded into the background. Sergeant sat erect on the wagon seat where they had left him. He appeared to be staring intently at something down the road, in the direction they were headed. She leaned close to the glass and peered around until she could see the place where the road turned south, toward home. Someone was coming along the way on horseback. As the rider drew closer, from the corner of her eye, Sam noted that Sergeant stood up on the seat, nose to the air, his tail dropped and his ears pricked. It was a telling posture and she looked at him directly. He knew the rider, she realized. She turned back to see who could possible be coming along this road that the dog would recognize, only to find that the rider, too, had come to a standstill and was staring at the dog. Both man and animal seemed frozen in surprise.

As for Sam, she could only gasp in shock as she also recognized the rider. Reece Lawrence sat astride a black horse in the middle of the road. Then, as if he had heard her gasp, he turned his eyes to the front of the Inn. Moments later, he whirled his mount around and rode out of sight, along the route that she and John had just traveled.

It was minutes before she could tear her gaze away. Sergeant sat back on the wagon seat and continued his watch. Samantha sat back in her seat, too stunned to register where she was or what was going on around her. She looked around the room. John was talking to a man a table away about dogs. Several others appeared to be listening and a few were simply eating their meal in silence. No one seemed to have noticed her behavior at all, so it must not have been strange. She picked at the food remaining on her plate and tried to wrap her brain around what she had just seen.

Reece Lawrence had shown up out of nowhere, purporting to be from another province. He was supposed to be minding her livestock but here he was, traveling into the Outland, in the direction of no province at all. As far as she knew, that road lead deeper into the Outland, in particular to her aunt’s home. There could be no good reason that he would be headed there. And the fact that he had recognized Sergeant and had not stopped to speak was more telling that anything else.

It was with a certain amount of chagrin that she had to admit she had done something terribly stupid. She looked at her brother’s profile. He was a kind and loving brother who always tried to understand her. She only hoped that when he found out. . . no, she only hoped he never found out. She was certain if he did, he would lock her in his kennel and set every dog he had to guard her.

They finished their meal and took leave of the villagers. As the drove off, Samantha looked down the road that had brought them here. There was nothing to see. No one sat atop a horse waiting and watching. There was nothing but the long stretch of road. Sergeant raised up in the wagon bed and looked over the side, along the same road. He watched until it passed from sight and they were headed toward home.

It was a more monotonous journey than previously. Miles of long green tunnel whose walls rustled and swayed in the breeze. Birds chirped madly and flitted from one side of the road to the other. No green garbed men watched them or jumped into their wagon. Sergeant remained in the wagon bed, curled up as if he had partied the night before. She smiled at the thought. She’d not seen any other dogs at her aunt’s so it couldn’t have been much of a party. He had made himself scarce after they arrived and not until they were ready to go had she seen him again.

The second part of the trip seemed to slow. The long, straight road acted as a soporific and she found herself nodding and would have fallen off her seat had John not caught her arm.

“You best get back in the wagon bed with the dog, Sam. You’ll break your neck if you fall off here.”

“I didn’t break my neck when we turned it over.”

“Never tempt God. A second time might be the charm.”

She sat silent for a few moments and then said, “John, I’ve done something stupid.”

He laughed. “Since breakfast?”

“No,” she swatted his shoulder, “seriously. Before we left home, the day of the storm.”

“That’s been a few days. Surely, you’ve done stupid things since then.”

“John Channing, stop it. If you don’t let me tell you now, I might not ever tell you.” She hesitated, and then said in a low voice, “And I don’t think that would be a good thing.”

The tone of her voice drew a sharp glance. He could see something was worrying her. “All right, Sam. What’s bothering you?”

Heaving a deep sigh she told him about the appearance of Reece Lawrence, the fact that she’d let him stay in the barn in exchange for work, and his surprise appearance today. “I can’t think of one reason he would be here, particularly headed toward Aunt Isabel’s.”

John was leaned forward, his foot resting on the front of the wagon frame, his elbow propped on his knee. He frowned in concentration. They road several minutes in silence. Finally, he sat back and pulled on the reins, bringing the team to a halt.
“Why didn’t you just tell me you hired a migrant to do some work for you?”

It was a good question but one she had not been able to answer for herself.

“You spent months after Mom and Dad died, telling us you could handle the farm. You told us you could take care of anything that came up and you would be safe. Yet, you conceal the fact that you hired a stranger to do some work that really needed doing. Why is that?”

“I don’t know,” she shifted on the seat and looked into the trees. “I guess I thought you’d find something wrong with it or try and stop me.”

John snapped the reins and the team started off again. “Well, it appears I would have been right to do so.”

He made no further comment and when Samantha could not stand the silence another minute she blurted out, “Well, what are you going to do about it?”

“Nothing,” he said, not even glancing in her direction. “It’s not my problem.”

His reaction was not at all what she expected and her chagrin couldn’t have been greater. She felt even stupider than she had before. Why hadn’t she told him at the outset? Of course, he was annoyed with her at the moment but truthfully, there had been no good reason to hide the fact that she had hired someone.

Unless she had thought there was something to hide and was hiding if from herself foremost. She sent a furtive look at John. His face was impassive but she knew him well enough to know he was annoyed with her.

“I think I will get back here and lie down. I’m sleepy.” She carefully climbed over the seat and into the wagon bed. There were a couple of bales of hay that had been strewn in the back so it wasn’t too uncomfortable once took a blanket from the storage box under the seat. She lay back and watched the great roof slide past overhead until she drifted off to sleep. Her last coherent thought was that she’d have to fire Reece Lawrence. If he came back.