Come from Away by Genevieve Graham

Author:Genevieve Graham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

PART THREE

Grace

TWENTY-ONE

She wished she could see it like they did. She wished she could accept his story, go back to how it had been before all this mess started. But try as she might, she couldn’t. Rudi hadn’t just lied to the family, he’d lied to her. She’d been gullible enough to believe the handsome trapper she’d dreamed about was a good man. Fool me once, she thought. She wasn’t about to be stupid like that again.

He’d finished fixing the shed—she’d overheard her father commenting on what a fine worker he was—and started on the decrepit old barn. She still saw him once in a while, carrying things, speaking with her father, but she never spoke to him. At the same time, she no longer hid in her window. Now she made sure he saw her scowling down at him. The last thing she wanted was to forgive him and fall back into that naive trance she’d been in before.

Fortunately, the past two days she’d been too busy to worry much about him. All the men—except Rudi—had been harvesting ice, which they did every February. It was an exhausting job, and it had to be done efficiently. Grace and the other women cooked meals to bring the men throughout the day to keep their strength up. Working long hours, the men cut through two-foot-thick layers of ice using seven-foot saws, then they sliced it into hundreds of one-foot cubes. Using massive tongs, they hoisted the cubes onto a sleigh as quickly as possible. If they were too slow, the blocks could freeze back onto the surface of the water. When the fully loaded sleigh arrived at the ice house, every cube was added to create a house-high stack, then packed with sawdust to retain the cold temperature through the rest of the year. As long as the weather cooperated, ice harvesting was a fun, friendly event that most of them anticipated every year. It was also back-breaking work, and Grace imagined they could have used Rudi’s strength, but her father insisted they had to keep him hidden from view. Until when, she had no idea.

“Here you go, Tommy,” Grace said, handing him a bowl of chili with a biscuit on the side. “How you keeping?”

He wiped an arm across his brow, sheepish. “Some of those old fellas are still stronger than me. I have to work twice as hard to keep up.”

A group of her father’s friends stood round the wagon, laughing about something while they enjoyed their meals.

“I think it’s all an act,” she told Tommy. “I doubt we’ll see any of them for the rest of the week. They’ll all be laid up and crying for attention.”

“Now you’re just trying to make me feel better,” he said, tasting the chili. “Oh, that’s good. So good.”

She stood beside him, scanning the ice, enjoying the sunshine and the view.

“Rudi’s not here,” he said, his mouth full.

“Of course he isn’t. Why would you say that?”

One eyebrow lifted wryly. “You gonna tell me you weren’t looking for him?”

“Why, I ought to slug you for that.

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