Where Courage Calls

Faith could only blink in slight shock at the quick exchange that sent Joe scampering off to town and left her arm entwined with her fiancees, in a very short amount of time. But she composed herself a little more and smiled as she motioned towards the cart that had brought her here, where her bags lay in the back. "Well, that's a lot of fuss over very little but of course, a glass of water would be fabulous in this heat."

She disentangled her arm from its hold with Ezekiel's and grabbed one bag from the cart, pulling it down and holding it while she waited for her new fiancee to retrieve the other. She smiled gently and began towards the house, glad she had picked the lighter bag with her clothes in it and not the one that was being held by Ezekiel. She entered the house and sighed slightly at the mess, though definitely understandable. A house full of men, with no one with any real cooking talent and obviously no love for a clean home. She wasn't sure where to place her bags, so she left it against the wall near the entrance.

The kitchen itself seemed clean, which was a pleasant surprise and she supposed she had one of the younger brothers, Obadiah she thought it was, to thank for that. Apparently he had been doing the cooking, so at least he had tried hard. "Well, looks like a good home." She turned with a gentle look and actually felt a little shame for her actions previously. "I am sorry for what I said before, I should not brought up such a subject. I understand your mother has died and I wasn't quite sensitive when I spoke to you earlier."
 
Ezekiel swung the second piece of luggage off the back of the wagon and trudged after Faith. Faith...a slow grin spread over his face as he recollected the way that woman fussed and fumed earlier. What did a city girl know about raising a family or keeping a ranch running? Either she was the bravest kid he'd come across, or the most foolish. She was certainly obstinate, and hopefully that would be enough to sustain her out here. Trusting, too. Zeke knew a few too many who'd take advantage of a girl like her just to satisfy their own lusts. As attractive as those blonde tresses of hers were, and those feisty little lips, he had no intention of compromising her. She was lucky.

Faith was taking in her surroundings when Zeke stepped inside. Where were the boys? The house was never this quiet. Then the quiet pattering of feet ran across the floorboards upstairs and he understood the situation perfectly. Lots of things always went into hiding when a female was present. Life just worked that way. With another half-hearted grin, Ezekiel picked up the other suitcase leaning against the wall and made for the stairs while she wandered into the kitchen. Before he'd gotten halfway up them, Faith was walking back into the sitting room and talking to him. He back-tracked a couple steps and bent over the railing so he could see her.

"Aaah, don't trouble yourself over it, Faith," Ezekiel said easily. "We all say things we don't mean when we're taken off guard like that. Now come on upstairs and I'll show you your room."

Just like the main floor, the upstairs had only two rooms. The first room had two sets of bunk beds against the outer walls not taken up by the stairwell or the wall separating the two rooms. A trunk sat at the end of each, and both trunks had two buried heads as the four boys arranged and rearranged their clothes to hide the odd toy or Sunday School drawing they didn't want Faith to see. As the two adults emerged from the stairs, Japheth jerked himself out of his trunk and danced back and forth with his arms out to his sides.

"Don't peek! No peeking!" he insisted. Ezekiel laughed and swatted him to the side with the lighter suitcase. "You got yourself plenty of time to clean, Jay. Faith don't come on duty until after the wedding."

Eli's head popped up next, a look of disappointment briefly flickering across before he perked up again. "Y'all really gonna do it?"
 
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Well, at least everything so far wasn't too bad. They seemed to have survived okay, with minimal breaking of furniture and everything was... well, clean-ish. It was obviously being looked after by men but they had coped so far, Faith had to give them that. With a laugh, she met Ezekiel's grin with her own. "Alrighty, I'm coming on up then." Gathering her bags in one hand and the edge of her skirt in another, she headed on up the stairs. Well used, by anyone's standards but not rickety, not a jot of wobbling as she made her way. Good to know the house was in good order then, if in need of some care.

Standing on the landing of the stairs, there were two bedrooms that annexed off into the top floor. One had a closed door, with sent a frisson of apprehension through her. That was probably it. She'd be staying there and suddenly, she wasn't too sure about all this. But she kept her chin high, just powering on through like nobodies business. She peered into the other room and grinned at the four boys attempting to tidy their trunks and rooms, a laugh bubbling out of her mouth at Japheth's silly movements as he tried to hide the room they were working on.

"That's right, you've got at least until the wedding to get everything in ship shape!" Faith smiled good naturedly as Eli's head popped up and she almost sighed at the disappointment on his face. The poor boy had a crush on her, not too much younger than her but she was getting married. No time to get sidetracked now. "Yes, weddings on now. Ezekiel... May I call you Zeke? You've got a mighty difficult name on the tongue. Do we have a date for the wedding, for tomorrow is Sunday after all."
 
"You can call me Lee!" the seven year old burst out before Zeke could say anything. He looked up from where he'd been digging in his chest, his face beaming above the lid. He then proceeded to point out the other boys and announce their nicknames for her benefit. "And that's Jay, and that's Obie, and that's Eli, and that's Zeke but you don't have to worry about him none 'cuz he's always gone."

"Shh!" Obediah hissed, tossing a torn and wrinkled paperback across the room at Levi. "She won't marry him if she knows that and then I gotta keep doing the cookin'--"

"Obie," Eli said in a warning tone, elbowing the lad next to him and nodding toward Faith.

All during this exchange, Ezekiel said nothing but kept his head down and clomped through the room to the closed door. He jiggled the handle open while balancing the bag in his hand and shoved his shoulder against the door to open it. It was slightly dusty, having not been attended to at all since Ma had gotten too ill to leave her bed. The sheets had been washed after, though, and Zeke earnestly hoped Faith would be all right sleeping in a room where someone had died.

It still smelled faintly of Ma and it caused a smile to flash across his features. Ma always smelled of lilacs and fresh soap. All too soon, his kid of a wife would mask it with her own scent as the room became hers. He breathed in deeply one last time before setting the bags just inside the doorway and stepping back out so she could peruse the room at her leisure. When was the wedding, she was asking him. Did she not understand the exchange he'd had with Joe just moments ago?

"If you don't have any complaints, we'll get ourselves hitched as soon as you've changed out of your travelling clothes and get your glass of water. We can't have you staying here overnight with three eligible bachelors and we ain't got the funds to put you up for the night in a hotel. Joe's gone to find the preacher now and we're gonna meet him at the church just as soon as you're ready."
 
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