Page 26 of The Heart’s Charge

Mark set his hammer aside and accepted the glass. “That was kind of her.” Although he would have appreciated the gesture more had the lady seen to the task herself. But that wasn’t Abner’s fault. Mark nodded to the boy. “Thank you for the delivery.”

Abner shrugged.

Mark lifted the glass to his lips and took a good, long swallow, expecting the kid to scamper away and return to the house now that his job had been completed.

But he didn’t. Instead, Abner strolled over to the dismantled railing and hunkered down to examine one of the spindles. “You fixin’ it?”

“Yep. Trying to, anyhow.” Mark set his half-full glass on a floorboard near the house, then joined Abner in a crouch. “I’m a mediocre carpenter at best, but I figure I can repair some of the spindles, replace others. Make it safer for the little ones. It might not be the prettiest job ever, but when it’s finished, it should be sturdy enough to hold up to Ted’s romping.”

Abner craned his neck around to look at Mark. “How’d you know he used to climb on the railings?”

Mark chuckled as he tipped his head toward the place where the railing had started to buckle. “See how the paint’s practically worn off that section? And how it bows out away from the house?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, having once been a rather adventuresome tyke myself, I know all about the temptations of railings. Hanging. Swinging. Turning flips over them.” Mark rose to his feet and peered over the railing to the ground beneath. “Especially when there’s a soft patch of grass on the other side to break my fall.”

Abner stood as well, walked to the railing, and peered over the edge to see for himself. He had to lift up on his tiptoes, but when he settled back down on his heels, he measured Mark with a look.

“Why’d ya assume it were Ted and not me?”

Mark winked. “Easy. You’re the oldest. You have to oversee the others. Frolics aren’t exactly your thing. Ted, on the other hand, is a Texas tornado trapped in a four-year-old’s body. He’s constantly in motion. Running, jumping, spinning. To be honest, I’m amazed your teacher manages to keep him contained in the classroom in the mornings.”

“She doesn’t.” A touch of a smile quirked Abner’s mouth for the first time. “She lets him and the twins play with the alphabet blocks and dominoes while she gives Ruby and me our morning assignments. Then, while we work in our readers, Miss Eliza sits on the floor with the little ones and goes over the different letters on the blocks. She counts the dots on the dominoes with them too. Quill and Prissy can already count to twelve and say their letters, but Ted’s more interested in building houses with the blocks and knocking them down than learnin’ anything.”

“You might be surprised,” Mark said as he leaned against one of the supporting pillars near the railing. “Just because he doesn’t learn the same way you do doesn’t mean he’s not learning.”

“Maybe. Seems like he’s just makin’ things harder on Miss Eliza, though. She has to trick him into learnin’. Tellin’ him things like he can’t knock his wall down until it’s five rows tall or only lettin’ him play with dominoes that have six dots on ’em.”

“Sounds to me like Miss Eliza is a smart lady.”

“Yeah.”

“What about Miss Katherine?” Mark probed gently, hungry to learn more about the woman Kate had become. He knew the girl she’d been ten years ago, but who was she now? “Does she help with the schooling?”

Abner shrugged again. “Not really. She mostly tends the little ones after Miss Eliza shoos them outta the schoolroom.”

“Is that why you’re so protective of her? Because she cared for you when you were little?” Mark forced casualness into his tone, trying to disguise how interested he was in the answer. “I remember how you guarded her at the door yesterday when I showed up unannounced.”

“Miss Katherine didn’t care for me when I was little.” Abner’s voice grew quiet. Small. “No one did.”

Guilt stabbed Mark square in the chest. He hadn’t intended to dredge up painful memories for the kid. He floundered for a moment, debating whether it would be better to apologize or pretend there was nothing shocking in Abner’s revelation.

Before he could choose, though, the boy filled the silence. “The other kids were brought here,” Abner explained, “by family that didn’t want ’em or do-gooders tryin’ to help. Not me.” He kicked at one of the loose spindles, his attention fixed on the ground.

Mark matched his soft tone. “How’d you get here, Abner?”

He lifted his face, and his eyes took on a fierce glow. “She chose me.” His jaw tightened before his gaze dropped again to the porch floor. “My ma worked in a saloon in Llano. Took men to her room every night, spent whatever she made on drink the next day. Blamed me for stealin’ her looks and knocked me around whenever she got frustrated. I learned to stay outta her way. Earned my keep by cleanin’ spittoons and runnin’ errands for the owner, until my ma bashed him over the head with a whiskey bottle during one of her spells. Trammel didn’t even wait for the doctor to stitch up his head before he kicked us out.

“Ma was cussin’ and hollerin’. Makin’ a scene. Slapped me across the face when I tried to calm her down. She woulda hit me again, but Miss Katherine scooped me up and pulled me outta Ma’s reach. Ma lit into her good, but Miss Katherine didn’t balk. She held me tight and told my ma that she would have her arrested for saltin’ a child. She took up for me. No one had ever taken up for me before. Made me feel safe. I didn’t wanna get down for nuthin’.”

Mark struggled to keep his emotions masked, not wanting the kid to see the pity welling inside him.

“They argued for a while,” Abner continued. “I don’t know ’bout what. All I remember is my ma shouting about how she never wanted the brat anyway and if Miss High-and-Mighty thought she could do better, she could keep him. I raised my head and called out to my ma, but she kept walking and never looked back.

“I was so scared, sure the nice lady would put me down and leave me too. But she didn’t.” Abner lifted his chin and stared into the yard. “She held me tighter. Promised that everything would be all right. Told me she and her friend were starting a home for children just like me. That I could come and live with her.” A half smile tugged at his mouth. “I didn’t believe her, of course. But I wanted to. So bad that I wrapped my legs around her waist and my arms around her neck so she couldn’t put me down.

“That’s when the church lady stepped out of the crowd. Miss Eliza was with her. I think they’d been meeting with the lady before Miss Katherine left to get me. I knew who the church lady was. Trammel used to talk about her. Said she was a meddlin’ do-gooder who wanted to close down his den of inkwitty. She didn’t like drinkin’ or gamblin’ or what the girls did upstairs. Said we were all of the devil. That church lady took one look at me, at the mark on my face, and told Miss Katherine that if she and Miss Eliza wanted her charity money, they couldn’t take me to Harmony House. She said a child born in sin and bearing its stain had no place in a Christian foundling home. I knew then that Miss Katherine would let me go. Money and power always won. With my ma, with Trammel, with everyone. The church lady had both.