Jody Hedlund by A Noble Groom

Author:A Noble Groom [Groom, A Noble]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter

11

The sun burned the back of Annalisa’s neck as she knelt around the new hill of soil Carl had hoed. Sweat trickled between her shoulder blades, making her dress stick to her skin. And her lower back cramped with the weight of bending over for so long.

The work of planting the corn was more difficult this year than in the past. With the growing heaviness of the baby, she had a harder time getting up and down to move from one hill to the next. Even though she’d trained Gretchen to drop six of the dried corn kernels in each of the holes Carl had dug, Annalisa still had to shuffle along behind the girl and cover the seeds with the right depth of soil.

Annalisa brushed her fingers across the coarse, dry soil, covering the kernels before giving the ground a firm pat. Then she sat back and wiped her sleeve across her damp forehead.

Carl stopped and rubbed his fingers over his eyes. He swayed slightly but caught the hoe and leaned against it.

Annalisa glanced to the jug of water at the edge of the field. They’d been out in the sun all morning and it was past time for a water break.

It was also past time for more rain. So far, the other crops had been slow in growing due to the dryness of the past couple of weeks. But now that the chance of a frost was mostly behind them, they could plant the corn and the rest of the garden vegetables.

She had no doubt the rains would come. They usually did, flooding the river and turning the land into a lush, dense wilderness in spite of the lumbering that had taken the white pine years earlier.

Carl straightened and tipped his hat lower as if to keep the bright rays off his face.

Gretchen chattered behind him. For some reason, he’d been quiet today, his usual banter and smiles gone.

Annalisa had just assumed he was focused on the planting and too busy to pay attention to Gretchen.

But as he took a step forward and swayed again, this time like a man drunk on beer, Annalisa’s stomach lurched. Something was wrong.

“Carl, are you all right?” she called, struggling to stand to her feet.

He swiveled toward her and clutched the hoe as if it was the only thing keeping him from dropping to the ground.

“I think it would be good for you to rest now.”

“I’ll be fine in a minute.” His eyes were glassy, almost unseeing.

He rubbed his fingers into his eyes again and started around a stump to the place where he would form the next hill. Yet he only made it two steps before he crumpled to the ground.

A scream slipped from her lips, and she lunged forward, tripping over the clods of dirt. She scrambled next to him, her blood running as fast as a flooded river.

“I want you to take Gretchen and go away from here.” His breath came in labored gasps, and he pressed a hand to his forehead.

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