Page 28 of The Unlikely Wife

“Will you behave?”

“I’ll behave as best as I can.” She smiled, then broke free of his grasp and darted back to the house.

He sat up and brushed the leaves and pine cones off of him. One thing he had to give Selina credit for: he never knew what she would do next. And that both frightened and excited him.

Selina rose before the sun and the roosters again. After a breakfast of flapjacks, fried taters and ham slices, she followed Michael from the hog pen as he headed toward the barn. Something butted her knee, almost knocking it out from under her. “What do you think—” She whirled and looked down, smiling. “Why, you little cutie. You wantin’ some attention?” She knelt down on one knee and scratched the pink pig behind the ear with a small chunk out of it.

“That’s Kitty,” Michael said.

“Kitty?”

“Don’t ask. Abby named her years ago.”

“Y’all got a lotta animals with weird names. A cat named Miss Piggy. A pig named Kitty, and a horse named Lambie. Abby name them, too?” She played with the tip of Kitty’s nose.

“Yes. None of us had the heart to say anything so we let her name them. But we were sure glad when she outgrew that stage. Having a horse named Raven and a bull named Taxt were…” He left the sentence hanging.

“Taxt? What’s that?” She shifted her attention from Kitty onto Michael.

“A taxt is a mule deer fawn.”

“Abby gave a bull a cute critter’s name like that?” She stood, and Kitty leaned into her leg.

“Remind me to tell you a few of her other names sometime. Right now I need to go and check on the orchards.”

“What kind of orchards?”

“Apple, plums and pears.”

“Oh. I’d love to see them. Would ya mind iffen I tagged along? And after I’ve seen them, would you mind directin’ me toward Sadie’s house? I told her I’d come in a couple a days to help do her cannin’.”

“Sadie lives on the other side of our orchards so that’ll be fine. I’ll saddle up Macy for you.”

“That’s mighty nice of you, but I don’t use a saddle. And I can get Macy ready myself. All you have to do is show me which bridle to use.”

“You don’t use a saddle?” His eyebrows shifted above his blue eyes.

“No. Ain’t never had one before. Never could afford one. We were lucky to have a horse. It was given to us by Mr. Clark. He couldn’t take her with him when he moved so Pa ended up with her. Was right neighborly of Mr. Clark to think of us.”

They stepped inside the barn and Kitty scooted on past the door.

Michael grabbed two halters from a room filled with tack. “I’ll get the horses.”

“No need to get mine. I can do it.”

He looked at her as if questioning whether he should let her or not, then he nodded and handed her a halter.

He led Selina to one of the stalls. She stepped inside and closed the door. “Mornin’, Macy. You wanna break outta this here cell and go for a ride?”

Michael stopped on his way to fetch his horse. “You act like she’s in jail.”

“She is. How would you like to be holed up here day after day?”

“Well, it’s not like she can’t go outside when she wants.”

“Yeah, but it ain’t the same. She can’t up and leave whenever she wants to.”

“Most horses can’t.”

“I know. I sure am glad I ain’t a horse. Couldn’t stand bein’ cooped up all day. I gotta get out and go for a walk and enjoy all of God’s creation. Why, did you know that there are a million different types of bugs alone? Some of them even prettier than a coon’s face.”

“A coon’s face?”

“I guess y’all call them raccoons here.”

That dip in his cheek made an appearance again even though his smile wasn’t any bigger than a minute. “Never thought about all the different kind of bugs there are.” Humor trickled through his voice and sparked his eyes.

“My mama used to say that beauty could be found anywhere and that the most beautiful things were often hidden. A person just had to look for them.” She glanced over at Michael. “Ain’t you never taken the time to notice how many different type of bugs there are? Or how the mornin’ dew drops on flowers twinkle in the sun like night stars? Or how the stripes in the hundreds of kind of leaves are different? Why, there’s a whole world out there with all kinds of beauty in it to see.”

“Can’t say that I have. I’ve usually got too much going on to take time for things like that.”

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