Lynna Banning - The Hired Man

* * *

Somehow Eleanor guessed Cord wouldn’t know what to make of French toast. It didn’t seem like the kind of thing a man like Cordell Winterman would eat, and she was certain sure it would never have been served on trail drives in Kansas. If, she thought with a dart of unease, that’s how he’d spent his time after the War. He’d never really said.

Molly and Danny waited patiently while she dipped the slices of day-old bread in the milk-and-egg mixture and plopped them onto the hot iron griddle. Before the first slice was ready to turn, she heard Cord tramp up the front steps.

But when he stepped into the kitchen she could tell something was wrong.

Chapter Eight

“Good morning,” Eleanor said.

“Morning,” Cord grumbled.

Well! That wasn’t like Cord at all! Usually he grinned at Molly and ruffled Danny’s shaggy hair.

“Morning, Cord,” her children sang in unison. “Hurry up,” Danny added. “We’re about to starve.”

He sat down heavily and tilted the chair back. “Eleanor?”

Her stomach turned over. He sounded angry about something, but what? She flipped the French toast slices onto a platter and set it down before him. “Yes, Cord? What is it?”

“Your front door,” he said tersely.

Danny pounced on the platter, speared a slice with his fork and flopped it onto his plate.

“What about the front door?” she inquired as she laid three more slices onto the griddle.

“Ma, we got any syrup or honey?”

“What? Oh, yes. In the pantry, Danny. Why don’t you fetch it? It’s on the middle shelf.” Maybe Cord would forget about the front door. She watched him stab his fork into a slice of nicely browned French toast.

Or maybe not.

“Your front door...” He paused to dribble the honey Danny had found over his plate.

“Yes? What about my front door?” Her appetite was fast fading. The expression on his face was... Thunderous was the only way she could use to describe it. Like clouds before a storm. A bad storm.

She couldn’t stand this suspense one more minute. “Just what is wrong with my front door, Cord?” It came out sounding more strident than she’d intended, but it certainly got his attention. She sat down across from him, folded her hands on the table and waited.

“The door...” he said between bites of honey-slathered French toast “...should be...” He chewed and swallowed and cut another bite.

“Should be what?” she said, her voice tight.

He looked up from his plate with narrowed blue eyes. “Should be locked at night.”

“Locked! Why, I’ve never locked the door in all my years on this farm! Nobody locks their door out here in Smoke River.”

“Eleanor,” he grated. “I’m asking you to lock the door at night.”

“Why? Give me one good reason and maybe, maybe, I will consider it.”

Cord sent her a hard look. “Molly and Daniel,” he said. “That’s two good reasons. And you. That’s three reasons.”

Eleanor stared at him like he had green cabbages for ears.

“That’s ridiculous,” she shot out.

“No, it isn’t,” he shot right back. “We’ll continue this discussion after the kids finish breakfast.”

Danny straightened up in his chair. “But we gotta stay and do the dishes!”

“I’ll do the damn dishes!” Cord shouted. Danny and Molly gaped at him, their eyes widening. Eleanor’s eyes narrowed. He reached out his fork for another slice of French toast and found his hand was shaking. Yeah, he was het up about her front door, but maybe he was madder than he thought. Very rarely did he allow any anger he might feel to show on the outside. It was one of the hard lessons he’d learned in prison.

Maybe that was why he’d just drifted when he got out. He hadn’t wanted to get involved with anything that made him feel anger or desperation or...anything much at all. There was safety in being numb.

“Very well,” she said primly. She pointedly removed his empty coffee cup from the table.

He pushed back his chair, stood up and grabbed the speckleware coffeepot off the stove. Then he grabbed his cup out of her hand, sloshed it full and sat down again.

Eleanor’s frown etched deep lines into her forehead. “Cord, what is wrong with you this morning?”

Cord caught Danny’s eye. “Kids?” He tipped his head toward the back door. “Outside.”

“C’mon, Molly. Let’s go find the kittens.”

“No! I wanna see what’s gonna happen.”

Danny blinked at his sister. “Molly,” he whispered. “What do you think’s gonna happen?”

“I think he’s gonna spank Mama!”

Eleanor made an involuntary jerk, shooed both children out the back door and moved toward the sink. When the door slammed shut, she sat back down and stared at her folded hands, waiting until Cord looked at her.

“It’s not the door, is it? It’s something else.”

He clamped his jaw shut. “Well,” he said after a long minute, “it is and it isn’t.”

“All right,” she said as patiently as she could manage. “What is and isn’t it?”

Cord swallowed a double gulp of coffee and pushed the cup around and around in a circle on the table. “I think...”

He made an effort to keep his voice calm. Stay rational. Don’t let too much show. “I don’t care what people in Smoke River do. I think you should lock your front door at night.”

She just stared at him, her eyes looking more like hard agates every second.

“And the back door,” he added. “You’ve got no way of knowing who might come snooping around, Eleanor. You’ve lived a very protected life.”

“This is something you learned at some point from people who weren’t exactly honest.”

“That’s partly true. The rest I learned just living somewhere that’s not a little town like Smoke River. This place is...well, it’s like a little bit of heaven. Peaceful and quiet. Nothing much goes wrong here unless it’s some mercantile store getting painted pink. Most places aren’t like this.”

She sat without moving for so long he thought maybe she hadn’t heard him. Then she absentmindedly reached for his coffee cup and downed a big swallow. “All this upset is about locking my doors?” An unexpected little spurt of laughter escaped her. “The children think you’re going to spank me!”

He chuckled at that. “Maybe I would if I thought I could catch you.”

He rescued his cup from her fingers and stood up to pour some coffee for her. Before he set it down in front of her he reached for the brandy bottle she kept on the top shelf of the china cabinet and dolloped some of the liquor into her cup.

* * *

Monday morning Cord decided he needed to go into town for another pound of nails and some hinges, and he timed his trip so he’d be riding back when Danny would be walking home from school. He had an idea. He knew Eleanor wouldn’t like it, but it was a good idea anyway.

Sure enough, half a mile after he left the mercantile he spied the boy trudging along the dusty road, his satchel slung over one drooping shoulder.

“Hold up, Danny.” Cord reined up his bay mare and waited. The boy looked up and his dusty, heat-flushed face broke into a tired smile.

“Didn’t know you was comin’ to town today, Cord. You see that Miss Fanny lady at the mercantile?”

“Nope. Wasn’t looking for Miss Fanny. Bought some nails and some sugar for your ma. Glad I ran into you, though.”

“Oh, yeah? Why’s that?”

Cord leaned down and spoke quietly. “Thought you might fancy a ride on Sally here.”

Danny’s eyes lit up. “Oh, boy, would I? You mean it?”

“I never say things I don’t mean, son. Now just hold on a minute, all right?” Before the boy could say another word he slipped out of the saddle and was unbuckling the cinch.