Chapter 7
CHAPTER 7
A shley was happy to note that Lisa had trusted him enough to help her with her hair. Yes, she didn’t completely trust him. Not that he could blame her. They barely knew each other. He had taken a risk in letting her have his knife while he slept. But in order to gain trust, one had to give it. And he suspected the simple act of letting her control the knife had opened the door to the pleasant day they had shared. It was nice to know that she didn’t feel the need to run off in order to escape him. Now that she knew he wasn’t going to hurt her, she might let him help her get to her destination.
He was sure someone was expecting her. Despite how things were up here on the hillside, there was a decent settlement in town. At last count, he believed there were over 300 people who made their home close to the ocean. It was only those who chose to make their home in the hills that were isolated. He liked the isolation. He didn’t want his life to get entangled with other people. The best way to ensure peace was to be alone.
That wasn’t to say he was a complete recluse. He did interact with others. Most of the conversations he had, however, were restricted to a few sentences, and he made sure to keep all of the interactions to the basics. Say, someone needed meat or wood. He could provide those. In return, he usually received some form of bread or dessert, or he received an item of clothing he could wear. Exchanges like that were never personal. Which made them safe.
Speaking with Lisa today was the most personal he’d gotten with anyone in a very long time. Granted, he hadn’t told her what made him run from Rhode Island. And she, in turn, hadn’t told him what had brought her out here, nor did she tell him who she was expecting to see while she was here. He noticed that she had avoided most of his questions while he’d been combing her hair. But the conversation was still something far more intimate than what he was used to.
He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. In a way, it was comforting to meet someone who had come from back East. They were strangers in this wilderness. He knew a lot more about survival than she did, but he’d also had a few years under his belt out here. That all being taken into consideration, he was glad to know he wasn’t the only one who had braved the unknown to make a life out here. Most of the people he’d met here had either traveled here from the Midwest or had grown up in the area. Life along the East Coast was wildly different from here. They wouldn’t believe how rugged life was out here if he tried to tell them, but Lisa would if he chose to discuss it.
However, he chose not to talk about it. His goal was to get her to the person expecting her. Then he could get back to his quiet, uneventful life. So he cooked the steaks and gave one to her, along with what was left of the bread and cookies Nona had made. Lisa ate with so much gusto that he was relieved. She had to be feeling good with an appetite like that.
They said very little while they ate. The fact that she stayed on the bed while he sat in the chair wasn’t exactly conducive to a conversation, but that actually worked in his favor. The less they talked, the better his chances were that he’d not interfere with her life in a negative way. So far, everything he’d done was to better her circumstance. God willing, it would stay that way.
After they ate, he checked on the wood to determine how much to set aside for himself and how much to set aside for others who would need it to cook. This time of year, they wouldn’t need it for heat, though the warm temperatures wouldn’t last much beyond a few months. Before they knew it, it would get chilly in the nights again. He mentally calculated his progress and how much more he should set aside for the upcoming winter. Then he took care of his horse and checked on the chickens. When he returned to the cabin, he was relieved to note that Lisa was asleep. He hadn’t realized that she made him anxious until he saw her sleeping. With her asleep, he didn’t have to come up with something to do or say.
Yes, he would make it his mission to help her find the person she had come to see, and he was going to do it the next morning. He didn’t know if he could keep up the appearance of a normal person two days in a row. He had done well today, but he figured that was because he hadn’t expected her to run out to help him with the wood. She had startled him. And having done that, she had made him forget who he was and why he had no business spending a considerable amount of time talking to someone else.
As he drifted off to sleep, he planned out what he would make for breakfast and the questions he would ask so he knew where to take her. He even dreamt of taking her to town. Except, in the dream, she kept pointing out all the people she had come to this small town to see, and every time he thought he found the right person, it turned out he was wrong. She grew frustrated with him and started pounding the seat of his wagon. “What’s wrong with you?” she asked. “Don’t you know a woman in a green dress and a white bonnet when you see one?”
He was about to respond that she hadn’t told him to look for a woman wearing those items when the knocking sound came again. This time, it happened without her pounding the seat. It was then he realized someone was knocking on the door of the cabin.
He bolted up from the floor and ran for the door before Lisa could get out of bed. He nearly tripped on the blanket wrapped around his ankles but managed to free himself of it by the time he reached the door. He gave a quick glance at Lisa. Good, she was still asleep. He opened the door and slipped outside before the visitor could see her.
He started when he saw that the visitor was Preacher Ryder. Just what he needed. Of all people, it had to be the twenty-two-year-old preacher. Boone would have been difficult enough to deal with if he found out Lisa was here, but the preacher would be impossible.
“I didn’t realize you were still sleeping,” the preacher greeted. “It’s already 10:30.”
Ashley pushed his hair from his eyes and cleared his throat. “I was up late. I caught a wolf the other day, and it put me behind gathering wood. It takes time to cut the meat and preserve it.”
“I bet. I’ve never hunted, but enough people have told me about the process. It takes a strong man to stomach all of that blood. I’m afraid I don’t have that kind of strength.”
“You get used to it.” Ashley dared a peek through the window. He hoped all of this talking didn’t wake Lisa up. Turning his attention back to the preacher, he asked, “Do you need something?”
The preacher nodded. “I’m in town for the next couple of weeks and hope you’ll attend church. It’ll be at the schoolhouse. I like to have service early, but since I know it takes you folk on the hillside about a couple of hours to get to town, I’m going to start it at noon.”
Ashley resisted the urge to grimace. How many times did he have to tell the preacher no before the preacher left him alone?
“I just got through talking to the Griffins,” the preacher continued, “and they said they’ll be there. They think the world of you. Boone couldn’t stop talking about all the things you do to help them out. People like you ought to be going to church.”
No, people like him would be better off staying away from it. Ashley shifted as he searched for a polite, but firm, way to tell the man he would not go to church. He could lie and promise to go, he supposed. But the preacher would only hunt him down and demand to know why he hadn’t shown up.
“I appreciate the invitation,” Ashley began, “but I have so much to do here. The work never ends. There’s a lot more I do than catch, skin, and cook up animals for food. I also cut trees to make wood for myself and others to burn.” He gestured to his horse. “I have my steed to take care of. Then there are the chickens.” He searched for other things to add to his list of stuff he often did. Noting his clothes, he hurried to add, “Laundry never gets done, no matter how many trips I make to the stream. As you can see, the work never ends around here. By the time I go to town and back, that’s four hours I lose.”
“Yes, I know you’re a busy man, and I understand the trip is a considerable amount of time, but I don’t get to this town often. This is the only time you’ll get exposure to the Good Book until August when I’m due to pass through here again.”
Ashley hid his frustration. Why couldn’t the preacher stop pestering him?
The preacher’s eyebrows furrowed, and he shifted so that he could see through the window.
Ashley mentally cursed himself for arguing with the man. Lisa, no doubt, had heard them, and it had woken her up. He should have just said he’d go to church and let the preacher head on his merry way.
He hurried to step in front of the preacher. “Alright, you talked me into it. I’ll be in church this Sunday.” He took the preacher by the arm and turned him around. “I don’t want to keep you from the other people you need to talk to this morning.”
He tried to lead the man to the horse, but the preacher pushed Ashley’s arm away and went to the window. Ashley gritted his teeth. He never should have let the man stay this close to the cabin. Ashley’s gaze to the window, and he saw Lisa getting up from the bed. If she opened the door, things would get worse.
“She’s my sister,” Ashley blurted out.
The preacher turned back to Ashley and scanned him up and down.
Ashley had to force himself to remain still. Darn it if the preacher wasn’t good about making him feel like the very coals of hell were about to pour down on him for lying.
The preacher frowned then went to the door and knocked on it.
“She came for a visit,” Ashley tried again. “We weren’t together like you’re thinking.” He made his way to the door, but the preacher stopped him before he could touch the door handle.
The door opened, and Lisa tucked the disheveled red hair from her eyes. She’d slept in her dress again, but considering how wrinkled it was, even the fact that she was fully dressed didn’t help at the moment. Recalling his own disheveled appearance, Ashley inwardly groaned. This looked bad. Really bad. Of all mornings for him to sleep in, this one had to be it.
“What’s your last name?” the preacher asked her.
Her eyes grew wide. “P-pardon?”
Ashley mouthed the name Carver. Lisa’s eyebrows furrowed. He made another attempt to give her the answer the preacher needed, but she still couldn’t seem to make it out.
The preacher looked at him and frowned. “This is not your sister,” the preacher told Ashley. “It’s no wonder you don’t want to go to church.” He turned to Lisa. “Miss, do you mind explaining what you’re doing here?”
Lisa’s face grew white, and in that moment, she realized she should not have opened the door. She stared at the preacher. Ashley could see the struggle in her eyes as she tried to figure a way out of the mess the two of them had unwittingly stumbled into.
“It does no good to lie,” the preacher said. He pointed to the sky. “He already knows what’s happening, so you might as well tell the truth.”
“We didn’t do anything wrong,” Lisa finally replied, a slight tremble in her voice.
Ashley winced. He couldn’t blame her for being scared, but that tremble only made things worse. “We didn’t do anything,” he spoke up and stepped over to her so the preacher had to look at him. “Alright, I did lie about her being my sister. The truth is, I don’t know her, and she doesn’t know me. She came into town on a stagecoach. I found her unconscious among the trees over in that direction.” He gestured to the section of the forest closest to the cliff. “She was cold and wet. She was near death. I brought her here to recover. I haven’t touched her.” For emphasis, he pointed to the sky. “And if He was here, that is exactly what He would tell you.”
“She seems plenty healthy to me,” the preacher argued.
“She’s doing a lot better now,” Ashley insisted. “In fact, I’m going to help her get to the person she came out here to visit.”
The preacher rolled his eyes, and he clucked his tongue. “Sin is bad enough, but when you add more sin to it, you only make things worse.”
“He did find me out there in the trees,” Lisa inserted. “You’re right. I’m not his sister. I don’t know his last name. But I did come here on the last stagecoach. I went up to the cliff to see the ocean. I heard that there was nothing more beautiful than the Pacific Ocean, so I thought I should see it before I die. But it was raining, and I got cold, and I thought I’d rest among the trees. The next thing I remember, I woke up in this cabin.”
The preacher seemed as skeptical by her version of events as he’d been about Ashley’s.
“She got lost,” Ashley added. “I’m going to help her find her relative who lives here.”
“Oh, no, you don’t,” the preacher inserted, his tone sharp. “I will not tolerate this kind of behavior. You are not going to use this poor woman and then get rid of her. What if she’s expecting a child? There will be no bastards as long as I’m around.” Ashley and Lisa started to protest that they hadn’t been intimate, but the preacher raised his voice to drown them out. “The moment you two went to the same bed, you knew there were going to be consequences. Everyone knows how children are made.”
Lisa’s face turned a bright shade of red, and she lowered her gaze before the preacher noticed the tears in her eyes.
“You shouldn’t judge a situation so quickly, Preacher,” Ashley barked. “Just because something looks a certain way, it doesn’t mean you’re right.”
The man narrowed his eyes at him. “You lied to me when you said she’s your sister. If you lied to me about that, you’ll lie about anything.” This time he pointed an accusing finger at Ashley. “You will do right by her.” He took a deep breath and straightened his coat. “It’s a good thing I came when I did. Now I can see why God made the mayor of this town too sick to meet with me this morning. It gave me time to come up here to see what’s going on before you had a chance to get rid of her.”
Lisa gave up on trying to hide her tears. She brushed a few of them from her cheeks then retreated into the cabin.
Ashley couldn’t blame her. The preacher had managed to ruin both of their lives in under five minutes. He really should have woken up earlier that morning. If he had, none of this would be happening right now. This was why he hated interacting with people. All he did was ruin their lives.
“I’ll wait here while you two get ready to go to town,” the preacher told him.
“You’re going to make us go to town?” Ashley blurted out. It wasn’t enough he was putting him and Lisa through this; he was going to escort them to town and make them get married right away?
“I don’t have the Book of Common Prayer with me, and we need witnesses.”
“You’re a preacher. You must know the wedding ceremony by memory. As for witnesses, why can’t Boone and Nona do it?”
The preacher let out a sigh and shook his head. “If I wasn’t here, you’d be doomed to Hell for sure.”
Ashley would have laughed at the absurdity in that statement if he wasn’t in shock. He had been doomed years ago. “Fine, Preacher. We’ll do it your way.” He headed for the door so he could get dressed but stopped. “You’re wrong. I know you don’t believe me, but the book you claim to love says not to make hasty judgements, and you refuse to listen.”
The preacher stiffened. “Don’t you use the Bible against me. I spent years in seminary studying it.”
“Studying it and applying it are two different things,” Ashley replied then stepped through the doorway.