Chapter Eight
As Garrett awoke the next morning, he became aware of a wide array of things.
For one, despite his worrisome thoughts the night before, he had slept.
Truly slept in a way he had not in a very long time.
No nightmares, no unpleasantly sharp memories.
Just a peaceful blackness that had wrapped around him like a silk blanket, cocooning him in tranquility.
Such deep slumber had taken him well past his usual wake-up time of four-thirty, and as he sat up, he watched from his cot the brilliant rays of the dawn sun rise up and flood his ranch with warm, yellow light.
He rubbed his eyes as he took in the bucolic view, wondering where his usual sense of urgency to get up and go had gone.
There was always much to do on the ranch.
Fences to mend. Animals to feed. Crops to grow or tend.
The third thing he noticed was that he was alone.
Not just in his cot, which he’d shared with little Louis through the rest of the night, but he was alone in the hay loft; all three of the other cots empty.
The sound of cows chewing and low mooing stole his attention away from the empty cots, and he looked down over the edge of the open loft door.
To his surprise, he found the herd was already eating, having been fed by someone else other than himself already.
“Strange,” he murmured aloud, pulling his blanket back.
Down on the main floor of the barn, he found more surprises. The main holding area for the cows had been mucked out, as had the line of stalls for the horses. They had been fed too, and already turned out to pasture.
“Good morning.”
Garrett whirled around, caught off guard by the unfamiliar voice, and found Isaac approaching with a pitchfork in one hand and a water canteen in the other.
“Good morning,” Garrett answered with a nod, looking the grime- and sweat-covered boy up and down. “You do all of this?”
Isaac took a deep swallow from his canteen, then shrugged.
“Isn’t much different than working on the docks, really,” Isaac replied, as if his tremendous amount of help was no big deal. “Just traded fish guts for cow and horse manure is all.”
Garrett huffed out a laugh.
“Why didn’t you wake me up?” He asked. “I would have helped. I usually do most of this alone.”
Isaac’s brow perked in amusement as his lips twitched toward a smile.
“I did try,” Isaac replied, “But you didn’t budge. Louis told me you helped him last night after he got scared. I figured you were up for a while trying to calm him down and that you probably needed to catch up on your rest.”
Isaac looked Garrett up and down, as if not sure what to make of him.
“I’m surprised Louis went to you when he got scared,” Isaac went on. “He’s not usually so clingy with strangers.”
Garrett’s lips lifted in a side smile as he shrugged.
“I found the little guy huddled behind some hay bales. I think he was just scared and turned around. Didn’t really matter that it was me that comforted him,” he replied.
Isaac huffed out a laugh.
“Yeah, maybe,” Isaac said, even though his tone implied that he didn’t quite believe Garrett.
Garrett just slowly nodded, still trying to accept the fact that most of his morning chores were already done.
“Well, thanks for helping him, no matter how you ended up doing it. I thought taking care of some of the work would make up for you staying up with him. I promise I wasn’t trying to let the day get away from you, though.
I was just coming to try to wake you up again,” Isaac went on, leaning the pitchfork against the barn wall, “Louis just came up from the house, told me that Maria almost has breakfast ready. We should probably head in if we want a chance to eat. The little ones are a bit like wolf pups when it comes to food. Ready to fight over it to get their fill.”
A twinge of guilt moved through Garrett.
He knew there wasn’t much food in the house.
Certainly not enough to keep seven people full and happy.
That was something he needed to fix, and soon.
Based on how thin they all were, he suspected that none of them had been treated to a full belly in quite some time.
Leaving Isaac to wash up in the barn, Garrett walked to the house, and the moment he opened the door, he was greeted by chaos.
Louis and Rebecca were fighting over a wooden toy one of them must have brought along from Michigan.
Jacob was scowling and speaking harshly to Hannah as she was slicing bread at the kitchen table, and Maria was on a stool by the cast iron stove, stirring what looked to be a large pot of porridge.
Garrett grimaced at the thought, hoping he was wrong.
“I hate sleeping in that smelly barn!” He heard Jacob say to Hannah. “I’m not doing it again!”
Garrett shifted his gaze to Hannah, who already looked exhausted despite the day just having started.
“You don’t have to sleep in the barn again,” she calmly replied, “You and Louis can share a room.”
“I’m tired of sharing a room!” Jacob yelled back, stomping his foot. “I’ve shared a room with someone else my whole stinkin’ life! I don’t want to do it anymore!”
“Hannah, can you taste this?” Maria interjected, holding out the wooden spoon sticky with porridge.
Garrett wrinkled his nose at the sight of it, but Hannah simply turned her attention toward her little sister and took a bite.
“It’ll do, thank you, Maria,” Hannah replied, then over her shoulder called out, “Rebecca! Louis! Breakfast is ready!”
“I wish we had some maple syrup or sugar to put in it,” Maria said, sounding disappointed as she started to ladle the gooey, hot cereal grains into bowls.
“We’ll make do, just like we always do,” Hannah insisted.
“Hannah! Are you even listening to me!” Jacob shouted.
“Why are you shouting?” Hannah sighed, pushing the loose black strands from her braid away from her face. “I’m right here, Jacob, and I’m not arguing with you.”
Garrett cleared his throat, and the chaos he walked into ceased at once. Hannah gave him a tired smile. Maria held out a bowl. Louis and Rebecca ran up to him and wrapped their arms tight around his legs, and Jacob just scowled at him.
With an awkward smile he nodded toward Hannah, then reached down to pat Louis and Rebecca’s backs.
“Look who’s finally up,” Jacob grumbled, crossing his arms.
“Jacob!” Hannah scolded, then her shoulders sagged as she came over to Garrett and pried her two youngest siblings away from his legs.
“Come on, you two, don’t bother him,” she pleaded tiredly.
As they let go and took their seats, Hannah gave Garrett an apologetic look.
“I’m sorry, they’re not used to having a man around,” she said, bringing their bowls over to them. “Our father, well. Never mind.”
“It’s alright,” Garrett replied, then said thank you to Maria as he accepted his bowl of porridge.
He took his own seat and looked down at the steaming mush; his stomach twisting.
He wasn’t a fan of porridge. It had been a staple at the orphanage, and he’d gotten a deep distaste for the stuff during his time there.
Still, he blamed himself for not thinking to buy more chickens after his old flock stopped laying a couple of weeks ago.
Or butcher one of the pigs for fresh ham or bacon. He’d just been too busy with the house.
“It’s best to just swallow it down quick,” Louis whispered to him, looking as displeased over the porridge as Garrett felt, “Don’t even chew.”
Garrett barked out a chuckle as he stirred the contents of his bowl.
“Good advice,” he agreed.
“I’m sorry, it was all I could find in the pantry,” Hannah offered, still looking both worried and overwhelmed.
“It’s fine,” Garrett assured her, and did his best not to make a face as he swallowed his first bite. He failed, and earned a giggle from Louis and Rebecca, who were both watching him closely.
“I thought life was supposed to be better out here,” Jacob muttered, staring down into his bowl as he stirred his porridge.
“It will be,” Garrett promised, as Hannah looked ready to break down in tears.
“Since you boys were kind enough to take care of some of my chores, I’ve got some free time.
I’ll head over to the Colson’s chicken ranch and buy some new hens so we can get some more eggs.
Then I’ll get started on butchering one of my pigs. ”
Jacob huffed, but didn’t look any happier as he continued stirring his porridge.
“I’ll get started on adding another room to the house, too,” Garrett went on, “That’ll take longer, but bear with me. In the meantime, Jacob, you can take my room.”
That must have got the boy’s attention, because Jacob looked up at him. There was still a look of deep distrust in his blue eyes, but the hatred that had glimmered there only a second ago had simmered down to a strong dislike.
“You don’t have to do that,” Hannah insisted. “You can’t keep sleeping in the barn, it’s not fair. This is your house.”
“It’s our house,” he corrected, sparing a quick glance at her, “And I want to,” he added, shifting his gaze back to Jacob.
“You don’t know me very well yet, and I don’t know you. But we might have more in common than you might think. I know what it’s like. To want your own space and never be able to get it.”
Jacob’s eyes widened a little, then his stiff, thin shoulders drooped. He said nothing as he finally lifted a spoonful of porridge to his mouth and began to eat.
Garrett followed suit, and though the heavy porridge settled like a brick in his stomach, he forced a smile and gave a grateful nod to Maria.
“Delicious,” he forced out, and watched as the little girl smiled in relief.
Despite hating the taste of it, Garrett cleaned his bowl, even using a hunk of bread to sop up what his spoon couldn’t scrape out. When he finished, he thanked Maria again and carried his bowl to the washing bucket.
“I’ll take care of that,” Hannah said anxiously, rushing from her seat to stop him so hurriedly that she nearly knocked over her chair.
He didn’t stop her as she pulled his bowl from his hands, but wished there was something he could do to remove the worried look on her face.
“I-I’m sorry,” she whispered, taking a quick glance toward the children as if to make sure they weren’t looking at them. “I didn’t know you didn’t like porridge.”
Garrett smiled awkwardly as he reached up to scratch the back of his head.
“Was it that obvious?” He murmured.
“Just to me, I think,” Hannah whispered back, “I think you convinced Maria well enough.”
“It’s not your fault that we don’t have much else at the moment. But I’ll fix that soon enough,” he assured.
“Take the boys with you. Jacob is cranky, but he’ll do as he is told, and Isaac is—”
“Isaac is already doing enough,” Garrett calmly interjected.
“He hasn’t even gotten to come in and have his breakfast yet.
And Jacob needs some more time to adjust. Louis does too.
They both deserve a day or two to get used to the place before I throw them into work.
I’ll be fine, I promise. I’m used to handling things out here on my own. ”
As he watched Hannah’s worried expression grow more intense, Garrett wished that there was something he could say or do to soothe her.
He waited for the right words as they stood close to one another, but they never came.
Knowing he needed to get started with the day, and Hannah no doubt did too, he gave her an awkward pat on the shoulder and left the house, wondering when, if ever, he would get the chance to finally have a moment with Hannah that wasn’t filled with tension.