CHAPTER 6
Daniel stepped outside into the sunshine and immediately adjusted the kerchief at his neck. It was the warmest day he had experienced in Kentucky thus far, and Keturah was already at the rubble of the tornado-stricken barn, working to clear the broken timbers. His heart ached to see her take on such work. It spurred him into action as he moved alongside her, lifting a beam from the pile.
But when Keturah looked up, her brows pulled together. “Ye do not need a waistcoat an’ all workin’ in this heat. Ye will only ruin it. Me father most often worked in his shirtsleeves.”
Pausing, Daniel glanced down at his attire. Out of habit, he had dressed as he had each day on the trail, only neglecting his coat due to the heat. But Keturah was right. Not only was summer pushing spring out, but they would be partaking in tough, manual labor thatcould easily damage his clothing. Not to mention that it was only him and his wife in the valley. If she was comfortable seeing him in his shirtsleeves, it would make sense to dress appropriately for the work and weather. “True.”
Daniel turned back to the house, mentally kicking himself as he went. Why had he not thought his choice through before he stepped outside?
Quickly, Daniel shed the extra clothing items and tossed them upon the bed. Then he darted back out to assist his wife.Wife. The word made him smile. While their relationship was not one born of love, he longed for the loving family he had never experienced. At least Keturah had somewhat accepted him when she took him in marriage. Now he only had to prove himself. And he was off to a rocky start.
But he was determined, so he dove into the work with Keturah. Despite how his muscles ached and sweat trickled down his back, he relished the togetherness of them working side by side, moving beam after beam. This was how a man and wife were meant to be. Their camaraderie would provide the foundation upon which their love could be built. Plus, if he could show his wife he was reliable, maybe she would learn to trust him with her affections.
Slowly, they cleared the damage inflicted by the tornado. Though how much harm had the disaster done within Keturah? Not only had it taken her last remaining relative and left him for her to find amongthe rubble, but it had placed her in a hopeless situation that had driven her to marry a practical stranger. Daniel chanced a glance in her direction, but there was no reading her stoic expression, so focused was she on the task at hand.
“Once we clear the damage, we will begin to rebuild?”
Keturah frowned in his direction before she swept her gaze over the sea of splintered wood. “Aye,” she agreed and bent for another beam.
“How do you get wood out here?” Daniel lifted a timber onto his shoulder and followed her.
Keturah raised an eyebrow. “The trees.” She stretched the word out, indicating he should have known.
Daniel grimaced inwardly. But how would they get the wood cut down into these beams? “Do you have the tools needed to square them off?”
Keturah’s frown deepened, and her forehead creased in thought. “Aye. Father knew how to use them. I have watched him but was never taught meself. The timbers dinnae have to be squared off or flattened, though. We can built it with rough logs. Then the only difficulty will be the notches so that they lock into one another. But that can be done with an ax.” She shrugged a shoulder.
She feigned nonchalance, but realization swept over Daniel. Keturah had been in search of a husband who was more knowledgeable than her. Someone who couldbuild her a sturdy barn. Instead, she was stuck with him. Daniel swallowed.
“We will figure it out,” he assured her. Though inside, he prayed the words were true.
Keturah gently closed the door behind her and stopped to take a deep breath of the cool night air. The refreshing feel of it against her cheeks was a welcome change from the suffocating cabin. While her husband was trying to be helpful, she might have started climbing the walls had she not excused herself for a moment.
After hours spent sifting through the rubble, separating broken timbers from wood and objects that could still be of use, Daniel had asked to see the tools her father used to turn rough timber into usable beams. Answering his plethora of questions, she explained what she had witnessed and how she thought the process would go. Now, the man still seemed obsessed with the subject as he bent over page after page, drawing out specifics for the rebuild in a notebook he had brought with him on his journey eastward. Though she doubted a single one of his ideas would work. How could someone who knew nothing of double-pen barns devise a plan of how to construct one? Daniel was not even a carpenter by trade. Many times, she had urged him to agree to build a simple, rough-hewn barn. But Daniel was insistent that she should have the same quality of barn that had stood before.
Keturah shook the thoughts from her mind and stepped into the dim light of a half moon. Crickets chirped all around her as the dew clung to her petticoats and bullfrogs croaked in the distance. Out here, the world was at peace.
As her heart and mind began to settle, she walked over to the corral where Cinnamon grazed near the fence. Keturah rested her forearms atop the top rail and watched the mare pick at the damp grass. After a moment, the animal ventured over to ensure she had not brought anything more enticing to munch on. “Sorry, girl. No apple tod—” Her apology died on her lips when, as she shifted, her boot knocked into an object that made a clinking sound.
Brows pulled together, she bent to identify the source of the sound. Her hand clasped onto Cinnamon’s damp bridle, where it lay in a heap on the ground. But as she lifted it, her confusion turned to ire. For the moonlight revealed the headstall had been chewed right through. Until she could find the time to fashion a new one from some of the old leather harness they’d recovered that morning, the bridle was completely useless. Tears formed in Keturah’s eyes, and she slapped the item against her side and shook her head. Thanks to her husband’s naiveté, that was one more task added to her endless to-do list.
She bit her lip to keep the tears from falling. Howcould this be God’s plan for her? How could it be that when all she desired was to save the homestead, He had brought her a partner who was more of a hassle than a helpmate?
May 26, 1782
“Scamper! No!” Keturah dropped her seed pouch and brought one knee up as the pup dashed after a squirrel. Both animals went careening toward the tree line. At the end of the row, Daniel chuckled. She frowned at him from where she knelt in the dirt. “It is not funny. He is goin’ to chase away all me squirrels.”
One corner of her husband’s mouth lifted in a grin, and his gaze took on a mischievous gleam. “Yersquirrels?”
Keturah shrugged a shoulder and diverted her attention back to dropping cucumber seeds every so far in the little trench Daniel had hug with the pick ax. “I enjoy watchin’ ’em play as I work in the mornin’s.” She lifted both her gaze and a brow at her husband. “I listen to the birds a’singin’ as well.”
Daniel glanced around the valley they called home. The late-morning sun had pushed out the thick fog of earlier and dried the last of the dew. Purple and white wildflowers peeped out from the tallgrass near the trees. “It is quite peaceful here. I understand why so many people want to come west.”
Finishing out the row of cucumbers, Keturah dusted her hands on her apron and moved beside her husband. Varieties of trees, now full and green, filled the hillsides that rose up on either side of them. Several yards away, a red-breasted robin hopped about in search of worms. Meanwhile, Scamper’s squirrel chattered away from the treetop, angry that its search for whirligigs had been interrupted. The corners of her mouth lifted. “Aye. There is little better than a Kentucky mornin’. ’Cept for maybe the sky painted red at sunset.”
Beside her, Daniel’s stomach rumbled. “And maybe a nice meal.”
Keturah chuckled. Her husband might ask a million questions, but he was rather easy to get along with. “I suppose I could feed ye,” she teased and bumped her shoulder against his. Then, with his hand at the small of her back, they headed toward the cabin.
