An Errand
In the morning, she utilized her indoor washroom, dressed in one of her more cheerful gowns, had a bit of breakfast, and then headed back over to the school to find that the book was still sitting on her desk. It crossed her mind that Caroline might come into town to pick it up, and it would’ve made perfect sense for her to simply leave it there since the school was always unlocked. However, by noontime, when the book still hadn’t moved, Hope decided the neighborly thing to do would be to drop by the Pembroke house and leave the book. It didn’t matter much that five miles’ distance didn’t quite make one a neighbor.
With all of the money she’d saved up living with the Howards, Hope had purchased a small pony trap and a little dappled mare to pull it. The barn Judah had built her was the perfect size for both, and Hope loved having a companion of sorts to talk to on days when there were no children around and she had no reason to go into town. Now, she hitched Whinny up to the cart, tucked Ginny’s book under her leg so it wouldn’t fly off the seat, and headed out in the direction Caroline had taken her when she’d gone to the barn raising so many months ago.
The weather was perfect. Hope had wrapped a shawl around her shoulders and worn a hat that covered her ears, but it was just a bit crisp and not at all cold. As she rode along, part of her hoped she’d run into Caroline on the way into town so she could just hand the book off and not have to worry about seeing Judah. Or maybe he’d be out in the field with Paul or off at a neighbor’s house building something, now that her house was finished. There were lots of reasons to think she might not see Judah at all—and lots of reasons to hope she might.
She did pray no one saw her headed out of town. Most Saturday mornings were busy with wagons coming and going, heading to the market or to the square to get supplies, so there were other buggies on the road, but she didn’t recognize any of the faces headed to town and hoped none of them recognized her either. She had an explanation for what she was doing, but that didn’t mean people wouldn’t speculate. If there was one thing she’d learned about the Texans she’d taken up with, these folks sure did like to make assumptions.
The stories of Judah’s two wives had haunted her ever since he’d revealed the truth to her, and Hope had even had a few bad dreams where she came across a burnt out cabin in the woods with lots of children’s bodies scattered across the yard or a woman’s corpse on the dining room floor. She was glad to know the truth, but at the same time, her imagination was so vivid, those sorts of stories always stayed with her longer than they should’ve. It was hard to think about how much more difficult the entire situation must be for poor Judah. She thought if she were him, she’d be a hermit, off somewhere away from civilization, avoiding everyone and rude to those who stumbled across her path. But he was pleasant almost all of the time, and she remembered marveling at how polite he’d been even to those who were rude to him. It was a testament to his character, she thought.
As Hope drew nearer to the place where she thought she should turn, she slowed the pony down a bit and looked around. She’d tried to etch a sketch of the road into her mind at the time in case she ever needed to find Ginny and George’s house. She was fairly certain she had the right junction when she noticed an apple tree with long, twisted branches off a little ways into an otherwise well-tended farm field. She decided to give it a try and turned the corner, hopeful she’d be able to find her way back to this main thoroughfare if she found out she had been mistaken.
Thinking back, she recalled Caroline had said their house was about two miles down the road, so she tried to keep track of about how far she’d gone. Sure enough, she saw a house up on the left in the distance and knew for certain it had to be the Pembroke place. Brady had mentioned how fancy it was, and Caroline had even said something about her brother building her the house of her dreams. The large two-story structure with a wide porch and intricate gingerbread looked slightly out of place on the open, rolling farmland. This had to be it.
She pulled into the drive and wound her way back to the house, which sat a short distance off of the road. Stately trees stood on all sides, and she could tell Judah had been careful about where he placed the structure, which didn’t surprise her in the least. The barn was a fair distance behind the house, and in one of the trees, she noticed something curious but didn’t have too much of a chance to figure out what she was looking at since she could feel eyes on her the moment she brought the cart to a stop.
Hopping down, Hope grabbed the book and secured Whinny to the hitching post, thinking there was no reason to go to too much trouble since she would only be a moment. With a deep breath, she made her way up the walkway to the porch and gave a slight rap on the door, certain it would open directly.
When Judah pulled the door open, Hope muttered, “Crud,” under her breath and then felt a crimson fill her cheeks. He looked every bit as enticing as he always did and part of her wanted to run back to the pony cart before she did something idiotic—again.
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