A Touch of Autumn(42)
Livvy charged out the barn door and hurried around to the side of the building, where she fell against the wall. Angry tears rushed down her cheeks. Must that woman always humiliate her? There was no telling how many people overheard her remark. Certainly Carrie Ann had.
The barn door creaked and Livvy stood still, hoping no one would see her.
“Livvy, where are you?” Charles’s quiet call reached her ears.
Oh, no. He must have heard Hattie Brown. She couldn’t face him, now. She simply wouldn’t answer.
Charles came around the corner and took her hands. “Hey, what are you doing, hiding out here? Those kids are getting a little rowdy in there. I can’t say I blame you.” He grinned and squeezed her hands.
Maybe he hadn’t heard, after all. Livvy took a deep breath.
Charles reached out and smoothed a stray curl from her brow. “How about I tie the horse to the back of your buggy and you and I go for a drive. Then I’ll take you home.”
“That sounds wonderful.” She darted a glance toward the barn. “But I have to gather up Mama’s baskets first.”
“I’ll help. Come on.” Hand in hand, they walked toward the barn where he opened the door and let her pass through.
Somehow Charles managed to block everyone who made any attempt to come near her. They gathered all of Mama’s things and headed out to the buggy.
“How old is the youngest Brown girl?” Charles asked out of the blue as they headed out of the Bineses’ yard.
“Annie? Fifteen, I think. Why?” Annie Bines was cute as a button and one of Livvy’s favorites of the younger bunch.
“She’s a nuisance, that’s why.” Charles gave her a pained look. “The girl follows me around at every community function. What’s her problem?”
Livvy giggled, remembering her own crush on her Sunday school teacher when she was Annie’s age. “I think she’s enamored of you, Charles.”
A look of horror crossed his face. “No! How do I fix that?”
“You can’t. Don’t worry. It will wear off eventually. My crush on Bennett Lane did.”
“And who is Bennett Lane?” His brow furrowed in mock anger.
“He was my Sunday school teacher when I was Annie’s age. I was devastated when he proposed to Lucy Porter, but once I saw that it was serious, I ignored him until they moved away.”
“Ah, so a young girl’s love doesn’t last.”
“It depends on how young the girl is. If she’s twenty, it might last forever, but at fifteen, I don’t think you have anything to worry about.” She gave him a shy smile. After all, she was twenty when she’d fallen in love with him.
“Hmm. And how did you get so knowledgeable about these affairs of the heart?”
“Now you’re teasing me. I’m not knowledgeable at all.”
“Have you never been in love, Livvy? I mean really in love. Not the fifteen-year-old kind.”
She grew silent, and warmth flooded her face. She simply couldn’t answer him. It wouldn’t do for him to know unless he cared about her, too. In this case, she hoped Mrs. Couch and Mrs. Brown were right.
A sudden burst of wind howled through the trees. Livvy shivered and drew her coat closer about her shoulders.
Charles reached over and spread the carriage blanket around her legs. “We’d better forget the ride and get you home. It feels as if it’s getting colder.”
“You don’t think it’s a norther, do you?” What her ma called a blue norther could come roaring down from the north, bringing extreme temperatures.
“I don’t think so. It’s early for that. But it’s definitely getting colder.” He urged the horses to a gallop and soon the church came into view.
Charles pulled around to the back door of the parsonage. “Why don’t you go inside? I’ll take care of your horse and buggy and head on to the school. I’ll see you at church in the morning.”
“Thank you, Charles. I enjoyed the ride, short as it was.”
“Not as much as I did.” He smiled. “Good night, Livvy.” He waited until she was inside, then she glanced out the window and watched him drive over to the stable.
Only later did she realize that she hadn’t thought once about her humiliation. And somehow, it seemed rather insignificant now.
* * *
Charles stepped out the front doors of Quincy School and felt a strong gust of dry wind. Worry tightened his stomach. If this continued, any fires that started would be very difficult to put out.
When the winds had come up two nights before, the night he’d driven Livvy home from the Bineses’ house, he’d hoped they’d bring rain, but the only clouds in the sky were soft and billowy. And the wind showed no sign of letting up.