Till Morning Is Nigh by Leisha Kelly

Author:Leisha Kelly
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2007-09-30T20:00:00+00:00

The Cattle Are Lowing

Some time in the night I heard the back door open and shut quietly. I slipped from between the covers, knowing it would be Samuel, and he would be hungry and cold by now. He was still by the door, pulling off his boots, when I entered the kitchen. I was on my way to the cupboard drawer to get a match when he took hold of my arm.

“Julia.”

Just my name. Nothing else. I turned toward him, and he pulled me into his arms. He felt so awfully cold, like ice. I hugged him, felt his deep intake of breath, and he held me tight to his chest, still not saying anything more.

“What’s wrong?” I couldn’t wait. The silence felt like knives inside me. Was George still missing? Or dead?

“Juli, I’m sorry to be so long.”

“Did you find him?”

“No. I tried. I wanted to come home hours ago, but I couldn’t seem to let it go. Not after last year . . .”

I understood and reached my hand to his head. Samuel had found George back then, had stopped him when he’d been about to hang himself. All these Hammond children would have been fatherless then, if Samuel hadn’t tried so hard for George’s sake. And now I knew he was feeling broken, to have to come home alone.

“Surely he’s all right. Just getting foolishly drunk someplace trying to forget—”

“I looked. Everywhere Ben and I could think he might have gone to find liquor or anything else.”

“Ben Law?” The sheriff. Samuel was awfully worried to have called for his help. And rightfully so. “Surely George wouldn’t do anything too stupid—”

“Suddenly leaving like this was stupid enough,” Samuel replied. “Who knows what else he might do? He’s been by Fraley’s. And he got two quarts of Buck’s home brew. That’s enough to fell an ox. Who knows the shape he’s in now?”

I squeezed him, petted his hair. “Honey, maybe he’ll just sleep it off and then go home.”

“We checked by there. Several times. Ben said he’d keep on checking, but there was nothing else I could do.”

“There isn’t. George is a grown man.”

“Not really, Julia. I guess I’ve known that all along. I think Emma did too. That’s why she wanted me to watch for him, and us to look out for his children. She knew he’s no older than Franky inside somehow, maybe not even that old.”

“Oh, Sammy.”

“I’m serious. George is not all right, honey. I’m not sure he ever has been.”

“But there’s nothing else you can do. Not tonight. Please. Come and get some rest.”

“What are we going to do?”

“He’ll be home. It’ll be all right.”

He was quiet for a moment, and I felt his heart thundering in his chest as I held him. Samuel cared so deeply, so completely. I hoped there was some way George Hammond could understand what a gift it was to have such a friend. I’d thought he’d understood last year. He’d seemed to, to recover, to be grateful for life even, and the blessings God had given him and his children in enabling them to carry on.

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