To Stand in the Breach by Danielle Grandinetti

Author:Danielle Grandinetti
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hearth Spot Press

Katy left Joey to make his decision as she squatted beside the cow and rubbed infection-fighting ointment onto the cow’s udder. She respected Joey’s turmoil, but wouldn’t give him an easy way out. Not if he desired to build trust between them.

Honestly, the question hadn’t been meant as a gauntlet. She’d actually been attempting a compliment. His broad shoulders framed by the weathered barn walls cast a wonderfully protective image that caused warmth to fill her like Daideó’s coffee. However, Joey’s reaction had flagged the question as important. Now she needed to know what he hid, or how could she trust him with more of her secrets?

She frowned as she completed her ministrations. There was talk of a new treatment for mastitis—a treatment for any infection, really, human or animal—called an antibiotic. About six years ago, a professor by the name of Alexander Fleming had discovered something called penicillin, but Katy wouldn’t feel right passing along the cost of the medicine until she knew for certain it would work. If she had that inheritance, this was another way she could use the money.

“It’s not that I don’t admire dairy farmers.” Joey handed her an empty pail and slipped a milking stool beneath her, helping her sit with a gentle touch.

Was he finally about to open up to her? She gave him an encouraging smile and his hand lingered on her arm before he stepped back. She turned her attention to milking, hiding her flushed face against the cow’s side.

“Farming is hard work.” Joey spoke slowly, quietly. “It takes its toll. Especially now.”

She waited for him to continue, but when he didn’t, she attempted a prompt. “I reckon hard work isn’t why you chose not to be a farmer.”

“True.”

Katy passed him the full pail, unease growing at Joey’s reticence. She instructed him to dump the bad milk while she put the cow in her stall and brought out the next one.

Joey returned, swinging the empty pail. “I miss it sometimes.”

She ducked under the second cow to rub in the ointment. His statement sparked an idea. What if she gave him a task? Perhaps he would talk to her then. She sat free of the cow, resting her elbows on her knees. “Milk this one, won’t you?”

Joey raised his eyebrows, but Katy pushed to her feet and secured the third cow farther down the aisle, then massaged ointment in the cow’s udder while she waited for Joey to get his hands busy to see if her hypothesis was correct.

“I want to do good for people. Help people.” The splash of milk in the pail and the cow’s moos of discomfort punctuated Joey’s words. “I used to have to stand up for Lily when we were in school. The other boys teased her, and I hated it. One day, it came to blows. Bloody nose, dirt-stained, scraped up, the whole bit. Lily found me sitting in the barn waiting for my punishment from Dad for getting into a fight. Without a word, she handed me the peppermint stick she’d been hoarding since Christmas.

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