Lost and Found Groom by McLinn, Patricia (most difficult books to read .TXT) 📗

kids out, then carried two-thirds of the groceries into the house for her.

“Thanks, Luke.”

“Welcome. Expecting Daniel for dinner?”

Caught off guard, her voice skidded up. “No.” She cleared her throat. “What on earth made you think that?”

He nodded toward two steaks showing at the top of one of the bags he’d carried in.

“I eat steak,” she declared.

“Two at a time?”

“I often cook things two at a time and eat the second portion as leftovers,” she said with great dignity.

“Uh-huh.”

She started to protest that she was telling the absolute truth, when she caught the glint in his eyes and firmly shut her mouth.

“So, do you think he’s coming back, or did you scare him off for good?”

Her resolve to ignore his prodding evaporated in a spurt of irritation. “Scared him off? I–”

“Yeah, you might be right,” he interrupted with a solemn nod, as if her protest had been an answer. “You might have scared him off for good with your too-strong-and-too-smart-to-be-needing-anybody-anyway-anytime-anywhere act. It wasn’t a bad act when we were kids, but you’ve got it down pat now,” he said in spurious admiration.

“Luke Chandler, you–”

“ ’Course, I’m one who’s hoping he comes back.”

That surprised her enough to silence her sputtering.

“Yep,” he said with a nod as he headed toward the door. “The man won’t ever be much on horseback, but he’s got potential for mending fence, as you saw for yourself last week.”

*

Ellyn tapped the tip of her pen against one item on the yellow legal pad on the table between them.

“If you could break that out into a sidebar,” she said, “I could package it with the line drawing of Fort Big Horn before the Indians burned it down.”

“I could do that, but then–Oh, darn.” Kendra gave Ellyn an exasperated shake of her head as she jumped up to get the phone. “How many times is this thing going to ring today? You’d think with Matthew at co-op–Hello?”

“Kendra? It’s Luke.”

“Hi, Luke. What can I do for you?” She let enough chill into her voice to remind him she was not amused by his comments the day before yesterday.

“Fran asked me to call. She thinks you better get down here, to the church.”

Fear immediately overrode any other emotion. “Is it Matthew? Is he–?”

“He’s fine. It’s nothing like that. It’s, uh, well, I drove Marti in to pick up Emily because I had a stop in town, too, and . . . It’s Daniel.”

“Daniel?” Nothing in Luke’s tone indicated he was kidding. Still . . . “He’s back East.”

“No, he’s here, at the co-op. Got back this afternoon from what I hear. But . . . Well, I think you better get down here.”

“Luke, if you’re–”

“Kendra. I’m telling you straight.” His voice left no doubt. “You better get down here.”

“Luke, you’re scaring me. What’s wrong?” she demanded, even while she stretched the phone cord to reach her jacket on the hook by the back door. She tended to slip her car keys into pockets–yes, there they were. Ellyn stood, looking worried. Kendra gave a small shake of her head to convey she didn’t know what was going on. “Is he hurt? Is it–”

“No, I told you, nothing like that. The kids are mostly gone, and he’s just playing the piano, but. . .”

“But what?”

He paused so long that her lungs began to hurt with her held breath and half-thought worries.

“It’s Chopin.”

Air rushed out of her in surprise, and she gulped more in. “Chopin? I don’t understand.”

“You will when you get here.” He sounded grim.

“I’m on my way.”

Ellyn announced she was coming with. “And,” she added, taking the keys from Kendra’s hand, “I’m driving.”

On the way into town she insisted Kendra fill in the gaps of the conversation she’d half heard. Repeating it did nothing to ease Kendra’s mind or to give order to her jumbled thoughts.

Luke waited in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs, outside the basement meeting room used for the babysitting co-op. Piano music seeped out of the closed door.

“What happened, Luke?”

“I don’t know how it started. I’d dropped Marti off, and swung ’round to the supply store for a mortar drill bit. When I came back, Fran and a couple of parents were here in the hallway and the kids were sitting on the floor inside, quiet as mice, everybody listening to that music.” He tipped his head toward the door. “Fran asked me to call you, and she went in and started scooting kids out to their folks.”

“She didn’t think–” Kendra couldn’t even voice the possibility that Daniel would hurt the children.

“Naw. She didn’t want to disturb Daniel.”

Through the door’s glass insert, Kendra spotted Fran and Marti sitting to one side with Matthew and Emily in their laps, all four of them listening to the music coming from the old, vaguely out-of-tune upright more often used for “Happy Birthday” or “Old McDonald.” Despite that–or maybe partly because of it–the music had a power and pathos that tightened her throat.

The piano blocked her view of Daniel, so she saw only the top of his dark head.

“You know the classics, Luke?” Ellyn asked.

“Can’t say I know them. But Chopin . . . Somebody once told me she figured Chopin wanted to make you hear pain in beautiful music.”

Kendra looked around, but Luke didn’t meet her eyes.

Ellyn laid a hand on her arm. “I’ll take Matthew home with me, Kendra. You come by later if you want, or we’ll keep him overnight, whatever you need, okay?”

“Okay. Thanks. Both of you.”

Kendra inhaled, then eased the door open. The motion caught the attention of all four listeners. In a flash, Matthew slid off Fran’s lap and trundled toward her with a big grin. The others followed more sedately.

“Dan’l,” Matthew announced, pointing a chubby finger toward the piano.

She laid a finger across her lips, and wonder of wonders, Matthew obeyed as they all exited.

The music never faltered.

Letting the door swing silently closed again, Kendra scooched down to her son’s level.

“Dan’l,” he repeated emphatically.

“Yes, Daniel’s back.” That acknowledgment seemed to satisfy him. She concentrated on keeping her voice even and calm as she quickly told Matthew that he’d be