Page 58 of A Steadfast Heart
A wagon pulled out from the churchyard, the horse’s harnesses jangling. Kaitlyn glanced toward the sound. It was the Cummins family. David stood near their own wagon, where he’d been keeping company with the two Cummins boys, and Drew was still with the men. David’s shoulders drooped, and he kicked at the gravel. Definitely unhappy.
Kaitlyn made her way across the church grounds and stood next to him. “Missing your friends already?”
David sighed. “They’re gonna be gone so long.”
“Really? Where are they going?”
“Back east.”
“East, hmm?” Kaitlyn tensed. “Have you ever wanted to go back east?”
“Never thought much about it.”
“It’d be natural to wonder, since your mother came from there and your grandparents still live there.”
David squinted at her, his cheeks flushed. “How do you know? Did you read my letter?”
She nodded. A few days ago, she’d been in his room putting up laundry. It had been open on his desk.
“That was private!” David glared at her.
Kaitlyn shoved her hands into the pockets of her skirt. Private between Drew and his father-in-law, not David. Mentioning that wouldn’t help. “It’s natural that you would wonder about your grandparents.”
“He didn’t want me, not till I grew up and I wouldn’t cause him any trouble.”
That’s how Kaitlyn had read the letter as well, but there were other interpretations. “Maybe he meant you could come visit when you would be old enough to not be homesick.”
David dropped his gaze, his toe drawing lines in the dust. “He came out here when Ma died.”
David’s flat tone told her a lot. The visit hadn’t gone well. “Did he? What did he say?”
“He yelled at Pa. Called him a murderer for bringing his daughter out here.” David looked up at her, his eyes moist. “But Ma died in a train wreck.”
Kaitlyn’s breath caught. So much pain and confusion in that statement. She laid a hand on David’s shoulder. “He didn’t mean it literally. He meant that this land is a hard place, too hard for his daughter to survive.”
“But that’s just stupid. Look at all of us, doing just fine. You too, and you’re even a city girl.”
“People say and do things when they are grieving that make no sense, not even to themselves sometimes.”
David pulled away from her and ran his foot along the marks he’d left earlier in the dust, his shoulders hunched over and his arms crossed in front of himself. What had happened that day? David hadn’t told her everything, that much was clear.
“Did your grandfather say anything else?”
“He said that he never wanted to see us—me and Jo and Tillie. That we’d been too much for her, no wonder she’d left.”
She wished she had that man in front of her right now. She’d tell him a few things that were too much for him to hear.
Kaitlyn looked down at the boy so carefully not meeting her eyes. “That is not true. Not even a little bit. Even he knows it. That’s probably why he sent that letter to your father. He’s realized that he’s cut himself off from three parts of his daughter that are still living, and he wants to fix the bridge he burned.” She smiled at the boy. “Like I said, people say stupid things when they’re grieving.”
David blinked a few times, then looked away from her. “I thought it wasn’t true. I’d never hurt my ma.”
“If you want to visit your grandfather, you could talk to your father. I’m sure he would make arrangements.”
David backed away from her, his hands clenching and unclenching and his eyes wide. “No! I won’t talk to my pa, and you can’t either. You shouldn’t have been reading my letter anyway. You’re not getting rid of me.”
She seized his hands before he could run. “I’d never try to get rid of you. I love you and your sisters, all of you. I just thought you might like to see your grandfather back east. For a short trip, not forever.”
His expression calmed a bit, but his eyes were still wide. “McGraws belong in the West, just like Pa says. So don’t you go bothering him about something that ain’t gonna happen. And stay out of my mail!” He yanked his hands from hers and ran down the boardwalk.
