A Gentle Giving by Dorothy Garlock

Author:Dorothy Garlock [Garlock, Dorothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
ISBN: 9780446359900
Publisher: Warner
Published: 1992-12-31T13:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

16

“I have no right to ask you anything,” Smith said.

“I want to tell you. I don’t want you to think that Papa was a bad man. His appearance would lead one to think that he was, but he went out of his way to be kind. I’ll never forgive myself for not going into town with him that night to deliver the clock he had fixed. Papa always tried to shield me from anything unpleasant. He told me to go on to bed and I did. If I had gone with him, I might have been able to prevent what happened.”

She suddenly became aware that his hand was covering hers and slowly pulled it free.

“I only know what Mr. Frank told me. He said that Papa shot two men, but he didn’t think that he had killed them. He said the men had taunted Papa, made insulting remarks about me, and then stripped off Papa’s shirt and bared the hump on his back.” Willa’s throat clogged and she swallowed repeatedly before she could go on. “It was probably just more humiliation than Papa could bear . . . at the moment.”

“They hanged him for protecting himself?”

“You see, Papa was a hunchback, and about five years ago big lumps grew on his face, distorting his features. It didn’t matter to me that he was not . . . pleasant to look at. He . . . was dear to me. I loved him for what he was on the inside. And . . . he loved me. Some people are not tolerant of someone who is different. Papa and I learned to keep to ourselves. As a result, some thought I was uppity. It wasn’t that at all.

“When I was younger, I wanted to be included in parties and picnics and other social gatherings. Unfortunately mothers were afraid their sons would want to court me and girls didn’t want to associate with the daughter of a hunchback. Now I realize they were waiting for me to grow a hump. It was ridiculous, of course. There was no danger of that even if I had been Papa Igor’s real daughter.”

The shadow of hurt he saw in her eyes cut him to the quick. His hand on the table formed a fist.

“Do you have other kin?” he asked.

“Not that I know of. My real father left me and my mother when I was a baby. My mother called him an irresponsible boy.”

Willa told him about how she and her mother had come to be with Igor Hammer and about the schools she had attended.

“At times, due to Papa’s teachings, I knew more than the teacher and, of course, that rankled the teacher and made a wider gap between me and my classmates.” She tried a weak little laugh that didn’t quite come off. “I soon learned to keep my knowledge to myself.”

“I take it you didn’t stay very long in one place.”

“No. We traveled from town to town selling and fixing clocks, and Papa and I continued to do that after Mama died.

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