The River Widow(55)
“Really? You just said you’re staying because of the farm.”
“The farm, yes, is part of it, but there are some things more important than land and money.”
“You’ve been staying because of the girl? They know you’re attached to her, but they think you’re staying on until Les’s estate goes to probate.”
“They’ll fight me tooth and nail?”
She nodded brusquely. “Jesse is thinking of building us a new house there, up on higher land, farther from the river.”
“But he’s going to inherit this farm, the much better farm.”
“Believe it or not, he wants to live on his own—I mean with me—away from his parents for a while. He can take care of your old place over there and help out here, too.”
“So he has proposed.”
“Yes.”
Adah’s temples throbbed with conflicting emotions. If Esther married Jesse and moved into the Branch house, at least Adah would gain the possibility of a faint friendship or a comrade, even a suspicious one. On the other hand, the situation practically shouted that Adah’s replacement was already in the works. “My best wishes,” she said dryly.
“Oh, cut it out. Lack of sincerity doesn’t suit you.”
“I was trying to be . . . polite.”
“You and I don’t have to be polite to one another.”
Adah saw a chance, but she nearly choked on her words. This could backfire, and yet she pushed on because desperation was in the driver’s seat now. She put a hand to her heart. “So . . . don’t you see? It’s so clear to me now. In many ways, you and I want the same thing . . .”
Esther bristled and then thrust out her chest. “Maybe . . . maybe we want the same thing in the end, but don’t go thinking that I’d do something about it. If you get nothing and have to stay, it works well for me, too. You’ll always be Daisy’s mother.”
“Unless they send me away. Then you’ll get the job. A job you don’t want.”
“I’d never help you leave with her, if that’s what you’re thinking. And you’re lucky I won’t say anything about your idea.”
“What idea, Esther? I’m simply pointing out that we might benefit from each other. You must sense this. Otherwise why would you protect me?”
“Like I said, as long as you’re here, Daisy thinks of you as her mother.”
Adah’s lungs emptied. “It lets you off the hook.”
“Maybe,” Esther said again slowly, her expression closing up. “But I have to grant you one thing: if they get sick of you and send you off, Daisy becomes my responsibility. Mabel says she’s too old to take care of her. But don’t go getting any ideas. Whatever happens, happens. I’m not a part of it. As far as I’m concerned, this conversation never took place.”
While the so-called family sat down for supper and dug into the pork chops, scalloped potatoes, and canned butter beans, a storm swept in—one that brought fierce wailing winds, a dark-green sky, and much cooler air, as if some soulless spirit had descended from a place frozen in ice and time.
Was it Lester’s spirit? Adah shivered as she ate in silence and listened to mundane comments about the storm and the food.
When thunder roared out of the blurry skies and joggled the house, Daisy whimpered, hopped down from her chair, and went to Adah. As Adah was lifting the girl onto her lap, Buck said, “Oh no, you don’t.” Today Buck’s eyes were rheumy and heavily lidded. Probably he’d been sampling his moonshine. His eyebrows fell down over his eyes like a pair of hairy worms, and his cheeks were russet.
Daisy stopped still. But she looked up at Adah with pleading eyes, and Adah’s confidence died. Fixed on them now, he said through one side of his mouth, the other side, as usual, full of partially chewed food, “You’re too big to be sitting in somebody’s lap. You go on and git yourself back in your own chair, young lady. We don’t have no crybabies ’round here.”
Daisy did as she was told, and Adah bit down so hard on her lip she thought she might draw blood. It hadn’t taken long for Daisy to submit almost entirely to the whims and wishes of the other adult Branches. Fear and recrimination would do that to a person, especially a child.
For the rest of the evening, the storm punished the land, and rain fell like so many hard little stones, then soaked into the earth, turning the ground into mush. Later it was decided that the roads would be too slick and maybe even impassable over creeks, and it was too risky for Jesse to drive Esther home. Mabel told Adah to make herself a pallet and give up her room and bed to Esther.
As the rain continued to hammer down and darkness encroached, Adah donned a sweater and helped Daisy into hers; then they took blankets and pillows out to the covered back porch. There, they watched the rain. The thunder and lightning seemed to have passed, and Daisy was no longer afraid. Adah reread The Cat Who Went to Heaven , and Daisy barely made it through. She fell asleep under Adah’s watchful eye, Adah’s hand placed on the girl’s back. But sleep eluded Adah. She gazed out into the rain and soon could see the pale glow of the moon as it fought its way up the sky through fog and clouds.
Esther was a confusing woman, not what Adah would consider to be a nice person, but for some reason she had confided in Adah. And the two women were in agreement on one thing: Adah was the right mother for Daisy.