Buch lesen: «A Groom to Come Home To»

Chapter One

Long before she reached the top of Randolph Mountain, Beth Warner knew she had made a big mistake. Earlier in the day when she’d been heading westward toward Lexington, she should have resisted the impulse to visit southeastern Kentucky. She didn’t cherish any fond memories of this part of the country where she had lived for eighteen years of her life. When she’d left over four years ago, she’d hoped she would never have to return, but there was no other way to repay the obligation she owed Shriver Mining Company.

The January day was clear and crisp, but it had snowed recently, and as she turned off the paved highway, Beth looked in dismay at the quagmire that passed for a gravel road leading up the side of the mountain. Deep ruts marked the slippery clay surface of the wet, narrow track. Could her small car possibly negotiate that incline? When she had traveled this road in other years, it had always been on foot or in her father’s pickup truck.

Beth was afraid to tackle the hill, for she had owned the car less than a week, and she wasn’t an experienced driver. Her driving expertise had already been tested to the breaking point on the narrow, serpentine road crossing Pine Mountain from Whitesburg to Cumberland, but at least there had been guardrails along that mountainous stretch. Here, one false move could send her over an embankment. But while she wasn’t inclined to take any chances, she’d come too far to turn back now.

She started slowly, gripping the steering wheel with moist hands, and sat straight as a ramrod while she slowly and steadily maneuvered the compact automobile up the slippery road. She released her breath when she reached the summit. Her hands were clammy, and when she lifted her foot from the accelerator, her leg trembled.

She pulled to one side of the road and parked on the soft needles in a grove of hemlocks. The wind swept briskly across the mountaintop, whipping the branches of the tall evergreens and buffeting her car. Beth slipped off her shoes and pulled on a pair of wool-lined boots, wrapped herself in an insulated coat, and tied a wool scarf around her long, straight, chestnut hair before she looked for the path that would take her to the brink of the mountain. Briers, thick vines and small trees barred the path’s entrance, but Beth walked around the underbrush and into the deeper woods where the trail was more distinct.

A ten-minute walk brought her to the edge of a rock cliff, and from that vantage point, she had an unobstructed view of the rugged mountain hollow where she had been born.

“Just as ugly and wretched as I remember,” she muttered.

Her eyes followed the crooked roadway leading into the small valley that showed no sign of life except for two crows perched in the leafless branches of a poplar tree, their harsh, strident cries echoing from one mountainside to the other. The towering cedars in the family cemetery where her parents were buried stood like watchmen over the hollow. A sparse snowfall had dusted the barren ground and the roofs of the deserted, ramshackle buildings, making the whole scene more desolate than it would have appeared in another season.

Even during the days when she had yearned to leave this hollow, Beth had always been sensitive to its beauty—the flowering redbud and dogwood trees in early spring, the green of the deciduous trees in the summer, and their yellow-and-red foliage in autumn. Today, however, she couldn’t summon any nostalgic thoughts of the past; all she saw was ugliness.

Her birthplace hadn’t changed a great deal from the way she first remembered it; in fact, Beth doubted that it had changed much since her ancestor had built a log cabin here soon after the Revolutionary War. During a rare period of prosperity, when Beth had been a toddler, her father had put siding over the logs and paneled the interior, but otherwise the four-room cabin with a full porch across the front seemed untouched by the years.

The scene was so deeply etched in Beth’s memory that she wouldn’t have been surprised to see her work-weary mother step out the door and draw water from the well in the backyard. Nor would it have seemed unusual to observe her invalid father, John, sitting in his favorite rocker on the front porch with a shotgun across his knees, his keen eyes searching the landscape for any unwelcome intruders in general, and Randolphs in particular. But except for the two crows, and Beth’s poignant memories, the hollow was deserted. After John Warner’s death, her half siblings had sold the property to a Shriver mining company, who wanted the land for the minerals lying beneath its surface.

A cold wind blew up from the hollow, indicating that more snow was a possibility. Beth shivered and headed back to her car. She had intended to go down to the house, but one glance at the road had discouraged her. The difficulty she’d had climbing Randolph Mountain was minor compared to the danger she would encounter on that narrow path. It would be foolish for her to attempt to drive into the hollow, for she couldn’t risk being stranded overnight without shelter.

Beth had often heard, “You can’t go home again,” but she decided that a more accurate adage would be, “You shouldn’t go home again.” She’d yielded to a questionable whim to come here, but it had profited her little. Beth broke into a run as she left the overlook. Warner Hollow was too full of memories disturbing to her peace of mind, and she wanted to leave it as quickly as possible. She raced along the path, determined to escape the past—especially her heartbreaking relationship with Clark Randolph, who had rarely left her thoughts since that day she had first seen him over seven years ago.

As Beth left Randolph Mountain, recollections of the past persisted, and she concluded that she might as well deal with the bitterness she harbored and lay it aside forever. So, all during a sleepless night at a motel in Harlan, Kentucky, she reviewed the chain of events that had brought underprivileged Beth Warner from that stark mountain home and made her into Beth Warner, advanced registered nurse-practitioner and midwife, who tomorrow would be in the employ of Shriver Mining Company.

“Why do you want to go to high school, Beth? You’ll be sixteen in a few months—you can quit school then. Why can’t you be like the other girls around here?” Mary Warner asked in querulous tones. Mary was a quiet, submissive wife. Beth had inherited her petite, finely-structured body, but there the resemblance between mother and daughter ended.

“I don’t know, Mom, but I can’t. You know how I’m always feeling sorry for people who have trouble and wanting to help them. I want to prepare myself to help others, and I can’t do it without more education than I have now.”

“What’s put all of this into your head? Some book you’ve been reading?”

“Maybe…. The teacher loaned me a book on the lives of great women in history, and I can’t get the story of Florence Nightingale out of my mind,” Beth confided. “She overcame all kinds of opposition to become a nurse and she helped so many people.”

“Then you want to be a nurse?”

Dreamily Beth said, “Not necessarily, although it would be a profession where I could reach out and help others, and I can’t do that if I don’t go to school somewhere beyond these mountains.”

“If you want to pattern your life after someone, why don’t you use Granny Warner for a model?”

“I didn’t know she was so important.”

“Well, she was. You’re always complaining about your poor family background, but let me tell you, there has never been a finer woman walked the earth than Granny Warner or my own mother, for that matter. And my father’s people have served in every war this country has ever fought. As far as that’s concerned, you’ve got a lot of good ancestors among the Warners. Why, the family has been in this country since the founding of Jamestown!”

“My brothers don’t amount to much.”

“Well, that’s not Warner blood,” Mary said and her mouth snapped shut, as if she would say no more, for she had always been jealous of John Warner’s first wife.

“Tell me more about Granny Warner.”

“She was the best midwife ever lived in Harlan County—she’s the one who brought you into the world, as well as your sister and brothers. She traveled all over these mountains, any time of day or night, to help women give birth.”

“I’ll never forget the time Luellen was here and Granny came and helped deliver her baby. But women go to hospitals for delivering their babies now.”

“Not all of them—some women still prefer to give birth at home.”

“But I believe that my destiny is some place other than Kentucky.”

Mary continued as if Beth hadn’t spoken. “Granny Warner was trained by Mary Breckinridge, who recognized the need for midwives in the isolated areas of Kentucky, and she organized the Frontier Nursing Service back in the twenties. Your granny was proud to serve with her.”

“I could be a nurse and a midwife, too, I suppose, but it will still take more education than I have.”

Mrs. Warner sighed. “I wish you could be content with your life the way it is, but since you can’t be, do what you think best. It won’t be easy for you to go to high school. The bus line is over three miles away. You’ll have to walk there and back most days, Beth.”

“I wondered if I could stay with Grandma Blaine during the week. The bus passes right by her house.”

“I’ll ask her, but you’d better clear this with your daddy.”

Beth nodded, and she wandered out on the porch, mildly elated, for she didn’t expect any resistance from her father, who had idolized his youngest daughter since the day Beth was born on his sixtieth birthday. John Warner was tall and lanky, a smoothshaven man with bluish shadows beneath his dark eyes. John’s health had never been good after having been a prisoner of war during World War II, and since his retirement from the mine, he had been disabled by heart disease. His portable oxygen tank lay on a table by his side, for John didn’t dare go anyplace without it. Beth sat on the porch floor beside her father and took his hand.

“Why are you looking so serious, baby?” he asked.

“I want to go to school in the county seat this fall.”

“You’re such a smart girl—I figure you know everything now.”

Beth shook her head stubbornly. “Not enough to get me away from this hollow.”

A cloud passed over John’s eyes. “Anxious to leave your old pa, are you?”

She squeezed the bony hand she held. “No, not that, Daddy, but don’t you want me to have a better life than you’ve had?”

“Yes, I do, baby, even if it means you have to leave us. I can’t keep you here forever. I reckon it will cost a heap of money to go to school in the county seat, but I’ll give you all the help I can.”

“Thanks, Daddy, but my teacher told me that there are funds available through your union to aid children of disabled miners. She’s encouraged me to go on with school, and she’ll help me fill out an application.”

“You’ve got the makings of a great woman, Beth, and if you think you need more schooling, go ahead and get it. I wish I’d had more book learning myself. After the war, I could have gone to school under the G.I. Bill, but I didn’t. I’ve been sorry, too, that I didn’t” He started talking about his war experiences, and Beth listened halfheartedly. She’d heard the stories so many times, but she looked at him intently, even while her thoughts turned to the future.

Fortified by her parents’ agreement with her plans, Beth climbed the hill to her hideaway, a playhouse under a cliff that she’d used since she was a child. She always went there when she wanted to think, and she had a lot of thinking to do. She was sure that her maternal grandmother would welcome her, and if her father could contribute a little money, perhaps she could get the remainder she needed from the miners’ union if her former teacher could advise her how to do it.

And the woman did recommend Beth for a grant, which was awarded immediately. More practical help came from a friend, Pam Gordon. Pam had married Ray Gordon when she was fifteen and moved to Pineville in a neighboring county. When Pam heard about Beth’s plans, she insisted that Beth should pay her a visit.

“I’ll help you find clothes that won’t cost you a great deal,” she promised. “You won’t need to buy new things. Since Ray is going to Lexington next week to play with his bluegrass band, we’ll go along, and I’ll take you to a ‘second-best’ store where they have really nice name-brand clothing for much less than you can buy it in retail stores. What you need are jeans and shirts, and if they’re somewhat worn, it won’t matter. High-school kids like them better that way.” She laughed. Under Pam’s guidance, Beth had come home from Pineville with enough outfits to satisfy her school needs.

Now, as she listened to a blustery wind blowing snow around the motel, Beth remembered how frightened she had been on the first day of school when she’d stood in front of Grandmother Ella Blaine’s home and watched the yellow bus approaching.

For a moment, she wanted nothing more than to run back to the hollow and stay there for the rest of her life. She knew what awaited her at home, but if she stepped on the bus, an unknown future loomed ahead. But should she give up her dreams so easily? Florence Nightingale hadn’t.

Fortunately, Beth’s mind was diverted from her own problems when a couple of children, who lived in the house adjacent to her grandmother’s, came out their door. The little boy was walking on crutches, his right leg encased in a cast When they reached Beth’s side, his sister explained, “Bryce broke his leg last week and since this is his first day at school, he’s scared. Mom would have taken us this morning, but the baby is sick.”

Beth looked at Bryce, whose lips were trembling, and his hands were shaking on the crutches.

“Come on, Bryce,” she said. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. I’ll help you onto the bus.”

When the bus stopped in front of them, the driver swung open the door and smiled at Beth. She threw the strap of her knapsack over her shoulder and held Bryce around the waist as he awkwardly climbed the steps. The bus driver took the boy’s hand, and with his help, Beth settled him into a front seat beside his sister.

“You’ll be fine, Bryce,” she told him with a smile, and indeed, the boy did look less fearful now that he’d cleared the first hurdle. With that act of kindness, Beth’s future was launched—not only as a high-school student, but also as a care provider.

The bus lurched into motion before Beth found a seat, and she quickly surveyed the students on board. A few of the faces were familiar—teens she had seen at miners’ rallies on Labor Day—but no one greeted her. Perhaps they felt ill at ease, too. The first few seats were empty, but she moved farther back into the bus, hoping to find a friendly face.

One boy smiled, and said, “This seat is empty. You’d better take it. The bus will be full before we get to school.”

“Thanks,” Beth said, and as she sat beside him on the narrow seat, their shoulders touched, giving Beth a secure feeling.

“I saw you helping that little fellow onto the bus. Is he your brother?”

“No—I’ve never seen him before. I’m staying with my grandmother, and the children are her neighbors. He felt scared and needed a little help.”

“That was nice of you.” His words were simple but his appreciative glance conveyed much more. His brown eyes twinkled with love of life, and she liked his keen and serene expression. On that first day, she had noticed deep dimples in his cheeks when he smiled. He had a bronzed, lean face, with a firm mouth.

“This your first year in high school?” he asked.

“Yes, I could have gone last year, but my folks discouraged me. They didn’t try to prevent it this year—maybe because I’m older.”

“How old are you, anyway?”

“Fifteen, but I’ll have a birthday in December. What grade are you in?”

“This is my senior year.”

Though she could tell he was older than herself, Beth hadn’t guessed he was a senior.

“What do you want to do when you finish?” she asked him.

“Go to work in the mines, I reckon,” he replied. “My daddy is disabled, and the family has been sacrificing to let me finish high school. It’ll be my turn to work now, and help my little sisters. By the way, my name is Clark Randolph.”

Beth turned startled green eyes in his direction. A Randolph! Just my luck, she thought. When the bus slowed down to pick up other students, without speaking again, Beth moved to another seat, then stared out the window as the bus weaved in and out of the narrow streets of Harlan.

Why of all the places on this bus did she have to have sat beside a Randolph? If John Warner heard about it, that would be the end of her high-school days. For as long as she could remember, Beth had been taught that Warners and Randolphs were enemies. No one had ever spelled out why in so many words, but her father’s shotgun was always loaded against the Randolphs, and it galled John Warner that he had to live in the shadow of Randolph Mountain.

By the time Beth had been born, hostilities were confined to fights at dances, or backing opposing candidates in elections, but from the tales she had heard, in the early days of the century, the feud had been a bloody one.

After World War II and the closure of many mines, most of the Warners and Randolphs had scattered to other vicinities, and there weren’t many left in the mountains to carry on the feud. Still, John Warner continued to nurse the grudge and would cross the street rather than come face-to-face with any Randolph. So why did that cute, friendly boy have to be a Randolph?

When the bus stopped at the elementary school, Beth helped Bryce get down from the vehicle, and smiled when a waiting teacher took charge of the boy. “I’ll help you off the bus tonight, Bryce, so don’t worry,” she called to him, and he waved shyly at her.

She’d been so caught up in Bryce’s problem that she’d forgotten for a while the unknown awaiting her. She realized that she didn’t have any idea where to go to enroll, so when the bus stopped at the high school she remained seated while the other students exited. When Clark passed by her, he paused, pointing, “You go through that door and turn to the right to reach the office. That’s where you have to register.” She nodded her thanks, and he motioned for her to precede him down the aisle.

As she moved toward the doors he had indicated, Clark said, “You didn’t tell me your name.”

“Beth Warner.”

The distress in Clark’s brown eyes was quickly replaced by laughter. “Oh, I see,” he said knowingly. “That’s too bad.”

For the next two months, Beth was keenly aware of Clark as she boarded the bus each morning. If she met his gaze, he’d nod hello with a big smile. She’d nod back, but she carefully avoided any conversation with him. Occasionally, as he passed her seat, Clark would tug tenderly on her hair and lay his warm hand on her shoulder, but she ignored him. Her ears were always alert to any comment about Clark by her friends, and she had learned that he lived with his family in the Harlan school district, but that they also had a country home where they spent weekends and summers.

To her surprise, Beth did well academically in school, and soon had friends among girls who were much like her—those with very little money, from large families, and who received scant encouragement at home for furthering their education.

Beth made friends cautiously, but her shy, affectionate smile endeared her to teachers and students alike. That she seemed unaware of her rare beauty—which was accented by a firm little chin below even, white teeth, and a shapely mouth with full lips—made her peers take notice of her.

Beth was attentive in class and studied hard each night. She made above-average grades, for she considered that education was the only way to further her dreams of leaving Kentucky. On Friday evenings, Beth’s parents came to take her home and brought her back to Harlan on Monday mornings. Beth felt guilty when she realized how much her parents looked forward to seeing her each weekend. She understood that the house was bleak when she went away, and her conscience was troubled.

Besides her school studies, Beth was getting some practical experience in being a caregiver, for she had volunteered to spend several hours each night with Angie Reymond, an elderly friend of her grandmother who needed someone to stay with her while her daughter was at work. Angie’s income was limited, and she could only afford to hire a person to stay during the day. Beth didn’t mind sitting with the elderly woman because she could do her homework there as well as at her grandmother’s home.

Several boys at school had noticed her, but none had captivated her thoughts like Clark. Each day on the bus, he continued to show interest in her but she continued to ignore him—not that she personally had any ill will toward the Randolphs, but she didn’t want to irritate her father, whom she loved in spite of his prejudices.

One Saturday afternoon in late October, Beth was walking in the woods atop Randolph Mountain, unwilling to stay inside on such a beautiful day. Autumn was waning, and she wanted to enjoy the last vestiges of the season’s beauty before a windy winter blast rolled down the mountain, bringing drabness and isolation.

She had been climbing steadily, and the afternoon was warm, so Beth pulled off her jacket and leaned against a towering oak as she peered through the trees at the Cumberland River Valley to the west. A haze hung over the valley, but she could see the crowded, narrow streets of Harlan, and her school building in the middle of town.

“Hi, Beth Warner.” The voice startled her, and she looked around wildly. She hadn’t suspected that anyone else would be hiking today. “Look up. I’m in the tree.”

Beth recognized his voice, and she looked upward to see Clark peering over the edge of a hunting platform, loftily perched in the branches of the large oak tree.

“Hi, Clark Randolph.”

“Come on up,” he said, indicating the homemade ladder attached to the tree. “The view is a lot better from up here.”

“Warners don’t talk to Randolphs.”

“Why?”

“Why, what?”

“Why won’t Warners talk to Randolphs?”

Beth thought for a while, and she laughed. “I don’t have the least idea.”

“Neither do I,” Clark said. “Here, I’ll give you a hand.”

Throwing caution to the wind, Beth set her foot on the first rung of the ladder, thus charting her course along a path that had brought her pleasure and comfort, but which had also caused much of the grief and loneliness she was experiencing today. She hadn’t thought of the long-range consequences that day, however.

With an outstretched hand, Clark was waiting to help her onto the platform where he knelt.

“What are you doing up here?” Beth asked, glancing around with interest.

“Looking into your pretty green eyes,” he said.

“Oh, be serious. I mean, what were you doing before I came along?”

“Building a deer stand for hunting season. I had one down the mountain a ways, but it’s crumbled into ruins.” He pointed proudly to what he had already accomplished—a square platform built from rough lumber, with a miniature shack in the middle of it. “I built the little room to sit in if it’s raining or snowing. Most of the time, I’ll sit here on the platform and watch.”

“Do you own this mountain?”

He laughed. “Mining companies own most of these woods, but some of the owners allow hunting.”

“I never come in the woods during deer season.”

“A good idea—it’s too dangerous. But that’s three weeks away. You can ramble around until then.”

Beth sat beside Clark and they dangled their feet over the side of the platform.

“How are you getting along at school, Beth?”

“All right. I’ve been studying hard, and my grades for the first grading period were tops. My parents are really proud of me.”

“I’ve heard how you’ve been sitting at night with Mrs. Reymond. Not many girls would give up their evenings to sit with an old lady. I hear she’s kinda grouchy, too.”

Beth laughed. “She is, but I’m used to grouchy old people. My daddy is grouchy with everyone except me. It’s because they don’t feel very well, so I just overlook it.”

Clark’s admiration for her was evident in his eyes. “You’re a caring person, Beth. I admire that.”

His candor embarrassed Beth, and she didn’t know how to answer him, so she lifted a hand and brushed back her long hair nervously.

“I’ve been wanting to talk to you, Beth, but you acted like you didn’t want anything to do with me.”

“I was afraid to talk to you. My folks weren’t too keen on my going to school in Harlan anyway, and I figured if Daddy heard I’d been talking to a Randolph, that would be a good excuse to take me out of school.”

“So it wasn’t that you didn’t want to be friends?”

Beth shook her head, lowering her eyes.

With a gentle hand, Clark turned her head to face him. “Answer me, Bethie,” his deep voice insisted.

“No, I liked you right from the start,” she admitted, her gaze meeting his brown eyes unflinchingly. “Until I found out who you were.”

“These old feuds are foolish, anyway,” Clark said.

“I’ve never known what caused the trouble. Daddy always gets so angry when I ask him, I’ve stopped mentioning the Randolphs.”

“Best I can figure out, the Warners and the Randolphs fought on different sides in the Civil War, and they wouldn’t let their differences die when the war ended.”

“That’s over a hundred years ago!”

“But it was a common situation in many border states where loyalties were divided. Even after the fighting ended, older people harped on the past and kept the bitterness stirred up.”

“Like my daddy,” Beth said. “He doesn’t have anything else to think about.”

“Then you will be my friend?” Clark persisted.

“If we can keep my family from finding out, but that won’t be easy.”

“We can meet up here until it’s really cold, and then we’ll think of something else. I feel as if I just have to be with you, Beth. Something happened to my heart that first day when you got on the school bus, and I haven’t been able to get you out of my thoughts since.”

Beth felt her face flushing, and she couldn’t meet Clark’s eyes, but she didn’t resist when he took her hand in his. She didn’t doubt the truth of Clark’s words, for hadn’t she felt the same? Some of her girlfriends would talk about crushes they had on boys. Some even believed they were in love. Beth had never felt that way about a boy. But the way she felt about Clark was different. All new. A giddy feeling, yet serious and even frightening. Did she love Clark? Was that what had happened to her?

She hoped not, because Clark Randolph was not the kind of person who could share her plans for the future. He intended to work in the coal mines as soon as he graduated from high school, and she never wanted to marry a miner.

“What about your family, Clark? Is your father a miner?”

“He used to be, but he was hurt in a slate fall when I was just a boy, and he’s not been able to work since. I have two little sisters, and my mother takes care of all of us. She hasn’t had an easy life, but you never hear her complaining. My daddy is a preacher now.”

Clark looked upward at the colorful foliage and the white clouds floating by in a baby-blue sky, then sighed deeply. “Do you know what I think of when I’m out in the woods on a day like this? I think of God. What do you think of, Beth?”