Like Gold Refined Read Free Page B

long,” she said for the fifth time.
    “Don’t rush yourself too much. Slate is working the animals, and I’ve been looking for time to attend to these bridles.”
    Virginia grimaced again, kissed both Jonathan and Martha, and hurried out the door to the motorcar.
    It was not a long drive to the farm, but Virginia did not enjoy it as she usually did. Other times she savored each silent moment, each breath of summer sun, each expanse of blue sky draping over green fields. But her thoughts were not on the quiet nor the scenery. Her thoughts were on the words of her mother. Surely, surely they would not have to forcefully take her grandparents off the farm they loved. Surely there was another way. They were still able to care for themselves, weren’t they? Virginia blinked back tears as she grasped the steering wheel. She would not be content until she saw for herself how things were with her grandparents.
    She was walking up the rock-hard dirt path that led to the fenced yard and the house when the door opened. Her grandmother stood there, silver hair reflecting the afternoon sun. A smile shone from her face, and one hand held the door wide open as though she couldn’t wait for Virginia to reach her.
    She’ll be letting in the flies , Virginia thought and hastened her step. Her grandmother had always detested flies in her kitchen. Pesky, filthy things, she called them. Virginia almost ran up the walk.
    “Now, isn’t this an unexpected blessing?” greeted Marty. “Said to Pa jest this mornin’ we hadn’t seen ya fer a spell.”
    Virginia smiled, carefully concealing her concern at the bruise still visible under her grandmother’s eye. “Yes,” she said, “it has been a while. I’ve been busy with all the little ones—”
    “Yer all alone? How’d ya manage thet?”
    Virginia placed a kiss on her grandmother’s wrinkled cheek and received a moist one in return. “Jonathan is working inside while the babies nap.”
    “I’m sorry ya didn’t bring ’em. They grow so fast. Last Sunday I says to Pa, ‘Jest look at thet little Martha. Growing like a weed. An’ Olivie jest a chasin’ her.’ “
    Virginia smiled again. It was only her grandmother who called the young child Olivie.
    “Bring her in. Bring her in” came a call from inside the house. “Don’t stand there a-hoggin’ her to yerself.”
    Her grandfather’s voice held a tone of lighthearted teasing. Marty began to chuckle and moved Virginia from the porch into the kitchen. Virginia noticed at least two flies sneak in with them.
    Clark sat smiling at them from his favorite chair in a corner of the room. He did not rise to meet her as he had always Like Gold Refined E done, and Virginia felt a knot somewhere deep inside. Was her grandfather ill?
    “S’cuse me for not gittin’ up,” he apologized. There was still a twinkle in the faded blue eyes.
    Virginia placed the jam on the cupboard counter and crossed to where he sat. She kissed his brow and let her arm linger around his stooped shoulders. “Aren’t you feeling up to snuff?” she asked, borrowing one of his own expressions.
    “Fine. Jest fine. Jest lazy, thet’s all. Body gits lazy jest sittin’ around. I should be out hoein’ corn. Then I’d have a bit more spunk.”
    Virginia patted his shoulder.
    “We’re both of us gittin’ lazy,” her grandmother put in. “Neither of us much good fer hoein’ corn anymore.” She chuckled as though the thought was a good joke on the rest of the world. “But sit ya down,” she hurried on. “I’ll fix us some tea.”
    She spun on her heel to head for the cupboard, and Virginia saw her teeter, then put out a hand on the back of a chair to steady herself. Yes , thought Virginia with another tightening of her stomach muscles. I can see why she falls. Uncle Luke is right. She darts around like she was still a young woman .
    “There’s no hurry, Grandma,” she found herself saying as she moved toward her grandmother. “Jonathan said