The High Calling Read online

“No. It wouldn’t come true if I did.”

  They fell silent, watching for more shooting stars.

  “I was just thinking,” Kat said. “You don’t seem like the type of man who will stay single. I think you’ll marry someday.”

  “I suppose so. My family has shoved every suitable girl at me for several years now.”

  “Suitable? What does that mean?”

  Parker shrugged his shoulders. “Money . . . family.”

  “Is that all?”

  “Pretty much. Not very romantic, is it?”

  “No, it’s not. Have you ever been in love?”

  “No. Not ever.”

  “Me neither. Except with Brodie, of course. But I was awfully young then.” Kat got to her feet. “I’m going to look for some more wood. The fire’s going down.” She laughed as he got to his feet. “You English have such good manners.”

  “That’s one of the few things we have left. England’s gone downhill in the past fifty years, but we’re still ever so polite!”

  The two gathered more dry sticks and tossed them onto the fire, watching the sparks shoot up. They both reached for the same stick and their hands brushed. Giggling, they ended up throwing it onto the fire together.

  Parker caught her eyes with his own. Kat’s expression seemed to grow alert with some old memory. Her gaze intensified as he reached out and took her by the forearms, and he saw her full lips swell into a smile. He could not know exactly what she was thinking, but he knew what her face was doing to him. Leaning closer, he whispered, “You’re a temptation to a man.”

  Kat did not resist as he drew her into a kiss. As he held her close he felt the quickening of her heartbeat and the pressure of her lips as she responded to his desires. But then she pulled away, and he released her at once.

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have taken advantage.”

  “You didn’t, Parker. It takes two to kiss.” Her breath was coming faster than normal, and she struggled to find the words she wanted. “I-I’m not suitable for you, Parker.”

  “At the moment,” he said quietly, “I don’t care.”

  “We’re not made for each other,” she said more firmly now.

  “You don’t really believe that, do you, that people are made for each other?”

  “I’m not sure, but I do know one thing.”

  “What’s that?” he asked, already knowing what she would say.

  “I believe God has something for me to do—and I don’t think it’s being Lady Braden. That’s too easy.”

  “Not as easy as you might think, my dear.”

  Kat looked at Parker inquisitively. He was foreign to her in a way that was more than a matter of nationality. She sensed that he was deeply troubled, but she also did not want to hurt him, for he seemed to have a basic goodness in him. “It was my fault,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

  “There’s no fault to it. When a man and woman come together, sometimes that’s exactly what’s supposed to happen. I accept your reasoning that God wants you to do something, but you yourself say you don’t know what it is.”

  Kat could not answer, for he had spoken the truth. With some relief she heard the crashing of brush a short distance away and said quickly, “There’s Clint coming back.”

  “Yes. Well, we’ll talk about this again.”

  She shook her head. “There’s really nothing to talk about, Parker.”

  “I think there is,” he said quietly, then turned and watched as Clint and the dogs came blundering out of the darkness in a rush.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Kat Gets an Offer

  Organ music swelled from the dome-shaped radio with the orange dial, followed by the distant barking of a dog. An excited announcer came on, saying, “Ovaltine presents Little Orphan Annie!” Immediately a group of singers began:

  Who’s that little chatterbox?

  The one with pretty auburn locks?

  Cute little she

  It’s Little Orphan Annie!

  Missouri looked up with irritation. “You boys turn that radio down. You’re going to deafen me.”

  “Oh, Ma, we’ve gotta hear Little Orphan Annie,” Temple protested. The three boys were gathered around the radio, their faces almost pressed against it. Missouri and Kat could hardly stand the unbearable volume.

  “You heard what I said. Turn it down! Come on, Kat, let’s go get those peas shelled for supper. I can’t stand that program anyway.”

  The two women left the parlor, and the three boys, with their ears glued to the radio, listened as Little Orphan Annie set out to rescue someone.

  “I just don’t see why those boys like that program. I can’t hardly stand that radio most of the time.”

  Kat smiled at Missouri. “Well, I’ve noticed you never miss Stella Dallas, Mom.”

  Missouri glanced sharply at Kat, then roughly pulled the sack of peas and plumped it down on the kitchen table in front of her. “I don’t care anything about that either.”

  The daily drama had been taking the country by storm with its syrupy story line and music. The announcer always reminded listeners they were about to hear “the true-to-life story of mother love and sacrifice in which Stella Dallas saw her own beloved daughter, Laurel, marry into wealth and society and, realizing the difference in their taste and worlds, went out of Laurel’s life.”

  Actually, Missouri Ann read no novels, had never been to a theater in her life, and was secretly ashamed of herself for listening to such “a mess,” as she called the soap operas. Lewis had never let her forget that he had come in upon her once when she was listening to the show and crying over the plight of Stella and her daughter. Now she pulled out a bunch of snap peas, ran her finger along one, and let the peas drum into a bowl. “That old radio oughta be thrown out anyhow. There’s nothin’ on it worth listening to.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Kat said as she took a seat and grabbed a handful of peapods. “I think that new program is funny. You know—Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy.”

  Missouri Ann shook her head in disgust. “Imagine! Listenin’ to a dummy talk on the radio! What’s this country coming to?”

  The two women made good progress on the peas as Kat told Missouri about an unusual duck she had seen on the river the day before. After a time, Missouri noticed that Kat had fallen silent. She looked up and said, “What ails you, girl? You look plumb down in the mouth.”

  “Oh, nothing.”

  “I know better’n that. I reckon you’re thinkin’ about that English fella. Have you had any more calls from him?”

  Parker had left several days earlier to go look at other cattle in Texas. “He called yesterday and he said he’d probably call again today.”

  “I don’t know what you two talk about—him bein’ from across the water and all.”

  “He’s very easy to talk to, Mom.”

  “Well, he sure has been persistent.”

  Kat smiled briefly. “Yes, he has.”

  “You’re not serious about him, are you?”

  Kat’s troubled look grew more pronounced. She slowly shelled a peapod and then looked up, meeting Missouri Ann’s eyes. “I like him a lot, but I could never marry him—even if he asked.” She shelled another pod and then shook her head, adding, “Which he won’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because of his family. They’re nobility. They would never accept me.”

  Missouri Ann shot her an indignant look. “Wouldn’t accept you, my foot! They’d be lucky to have a girl like you in their family!”

  “It’s different over there. There are dukes and barons—and the family line means a lot.”

  “Well, I can’t see how the Winslow family wouldn’t be good enough for ’em! As a matter of fact, if you remember your family history, Gilbert Winslow came over from England in the first place.”

  “That was a long time ago. Things are different now.”

  Missouri continued to say what she thought about anyone who would look down upon Katherine Wi
nslow and finally shook her head. “You know I’ve spent plenty of time on my knees asking God what He wants you to do.”

  “Have you got an answer yet?” Kat trusted Missouri Ann’s prayers more than she did her own. She was well aware, as was all the family, that this woman was closer to God than anyone else they knew.

  “I don’t have anything pinned down yet, but God won’t let himself be pinned down. I know one thing. He’s got something for you to do.”

  “You know,” Kat said, “I’ve been thinking maybe I should get a nursing degree. As you know, I’ve just been taking general courses in college up to now, but what if God called me to go to Africa and do medical work? That would be something, wouldn’t it?”

  “Do you think God might be calling you to that?”

  “No, not specifically.”

  “Well,” Missouri said firmly, “a body can’t just call himself to be a missionary. We had a preacher that talked about missionaries going to the heathen. He always said, ‘Some got called and sent—and some just up and went.’ And those that just up and went,” she pronounced firmly, “got themselves into a mess! No, daughter, I reckon you’ll just have to keep on waiting.”

  “I’m afraid of taking a wrong path. If I—” Kat broke off and looked up at the ceiling. Missouri Ann did the same, and Kat exclaimed, “That’s an airplane!”

  “It sure is! And it sounds like it’s gonna fly right in the front door!”

  The two women jumped up and ran out the front door, nearly stumbling over the triplets, who had preceded them. They all stood in the yard looking up.

  A bright red biplane was twisting and gyrating in the air in a most alarming fashion. Then it straightened out and headed directly for the house.

  “He’s gonna land right on us!” Missouri cried out in alarm. “You boys run to the porch!”

  “It’s all right, Ma. It’s Brodie,” Kat called out. She laughed as Brodie turned the plane sideways and waved at her. She waved back and saw him turn the plane upside down and then pull it into a wide loop.

  “That crazy fool’s gonna kill himself!” Missouri cried.

  But Brodie pulled the plane out of the loop and landed it expertly on the field behind the house. The two women and three boys scurried to the back of the house to make sure he was okay. He climbed out before the propeller had even stopped turning.

  The boys ran to meet him, climbing all over him and begging him to take them up in the plane. Brodie was laughing and teasing them, but he told them, “Your ma wouldn’t let you do that until you’re at least a year older.” He put the boys down and pulled his helmet off. “Hello, sweetheart. You surprised to see me?”

  “I’m never surprised to see you, Brodie,” Kat said, smiling broadly. This man brought such life and vitality with him—as if an aura of excitement surrounded him. He was the most vital person she knew, and when he took her hand, she let him kiss her on the cheek.

  “You taste good,” he said. “But I hope you’ve got something to eat. I’m starved.”

  “Come on in the house,” Missouri Ann said. “I reckon we can scrape up something. You boys leave Brodie alone now.” She hauled the three boys off into the house, and when the screen door slammed, Kat asked, “What are you doing here?”

  “I’ve come to see my best girl.” He came toward her, obviously intending to embrace her. She tried to dodge, but he was too fast. He grabbed her around the waist and spun her in a circle, her feet clear off the ground. Kat was squealing and protesting, and then he set her down and kissed her firmly. “After I get something to eat, I wanna take you for a ride.”

  “I’m not going up with you in that thing!”

  “Yes you are. You need to live a little, Kat. But first I need something to eat.”

  ****

  Kat had put on blue jeans after Brodie had warned her solemnly it would be immodest climbing into an open airplane in a skirt. “You might shock my sensibility. You know how sensitive I am.”

  “I know all about that,” she said with a laugh. He gave her a helmet and helped her strap it on. “Now, you get in there, young lady, and I’ll show you somethin’ you’ve never seen before.”

  “Brodie, I told you I don’t want you doing any tricks. None of your acrobatics. You promise?”

  “Well, if that’s what you want, but I do wanna show you what the world looks like from up there.”

  With some trepidation, Kat climbed into the front seat. Brodie tightened her safety belt and put his hand on her shoulder. “Now, you just sit right there.”

  “I think I’m making a big mistake.”

  “No you’re not.” He climbed into the back seat. “Here we go now.”

  Kat sat tensely in the airplane. She had never been in any sort of plane before, and everything about it seemed uncomfortably flimsy. As the engine revved up, the roar of it almost deafened her. The plane started forward, bumping over the ground, and Kat kept her teeth tightly clenched. Suddenly the nose tilted up, and the ground seemed to drop, as if the plane were still and the earth were moving away. Breathless, she felt a moment of panic.

  “Hang on, sweetheart,” Brodie shouted, “we’re gonna grab a piece of sky!”

  The plane continued to climb and soon banked to one side. “There’s your farm,” Brodie said. “How does it look from up here?”

  “Look! You can see the river from here!” she shouted back over the wind.

  Brodie banked steeply to the other side. “Look right down there,” he yelled. “That’s where we saw the bear that time when we were kids. You remember?”

  “Yes. Clint shot it and it’s a rug in his house now.”

  High above the landscape she knew so well on the ground, the new sights delighted her. At her request, Brodie slowed the plane down until it scarcely seemed to move. She saw where the old church house had stood until it burned down, leaving only the chimney still pointing up to the sky. She traced the roads and the cars as they made their way toward town.

  Finally they passed over Summerdale, the small town not far from the farm. It all looked like a living map. “Look,” she said. “I can see the men playing checkers in the town square.” The group of old men gathered there every day to chew tobacco and play checkers and tell lies about their younger days.

  “Let’s give ’em a thrill,” Brodie yelled and, without waiting, plunged the plane into a steep dive. Kat braced her feet and begged him to stop, but they headed right toward the town square. One of the men jumped up and knocked the table away, and the others scattered like quail.

  “Brodie!” she screamed, and at the last moment he pulled the plane up. He was laughing with delight, and she tried to shame him, but instead she began laughing with him. “They’ll hang you for this.”

  “No they won’t. I just wanted to give ’em somethin’ to talk about. I’m gonna fly along the river now.”

  ****

  “Oh, that was such fun, Brodie!” Kat exclaimed as he helped her out of the plane.

  He pulled off his helmet and ran his fingers through his red hair, which shone brilliantly in the sunlight. Squinting against the brightness, he laughed. “Were you scared?”

  “Not after the first few minutes.”

  “Come on, let’s go to town and I’ll buy you a chocolate milk shake. Then we’ll try to stir up some excitement.”

  “I really need to get back to the house.”

  “No you don’t. You need to entertain me. Come on. Let’s ask Clint if we can take his truck.”

  Kat protested but soon found herself seated beside Brodie headed for town, thinking about the old days when she’d been infatuated with this man. I’ve got to be careful, she thought. I can’t let that happen again. He wouldn’t be a good husband for a woman who is looking for God’s will.

  ****

  “Why, Parker,” Missouri Ann said as she opened the screen door. “Come on in.”

  “I should have called before I came.”

  “No need of that. Come on back to the kitchen.”r />
  “Is Kat home?”

  “No, she went to town with Brodie. She’s gone plumb crazy over that flying machine of his.”

  “I didn’t know she was interested in flying.”

  She motioned Parker to a seat at the kitchen table and then pulled a pie out of the upper compartment of the wood stove. “This is fresh peach pie. You eat that in England?”

  “Something like it.”

  “Well, see if this suits your likin’.” Missouri Ann picked up the coffeepot that always remained on the stove, even in the hottest part of summer. “Would you like some coffee?”

  “Why yes, thank you. That’ll be fine.” Parker tasted the pie and exclaimed, “My, this is wonderful!”

  “Well, it’s middlin’, I reckon.” Pouring them both a cup of coffee, Missouri Ann sat down and picked up the conversation. “Brodie came by about a week ago, and he took Kat up in that plane. It would scare me to death, but she enjoyed it. He’s been here every day since. They’ve been flyin’ all over the county. He wants to teach her how to fly, but I told her pa to set his foot down about that. It’s not natural for a woman to be doin’ a thing like that.”

  Parker laughed. “I don’t know about that. One of the most famous fliers ever was Amelia Earhart.” His face sobered. “I met her once. She’s a fine lady.”

  “They haven’t heard from her since she disappeared out there over the ocean, have they?”

  “No, I think everyone’s pretty much given up hope.”

  “What do you reckon happened?”

  “It’s pretty dangerous flying over the ocean. If you go down, your chances of surviving or ever being found are pretty small. But that won’t stop people from flying.”

  Parker ate the pie and lingered over his coffee, thinking about how different this simple kitchen was from the one where the meals were prepared in his own home. This large room was probably the most used room in the house, as the family tended to gather there while Missouri Ann or Kat cooked. A black wood stove dominated one end, and a rectangular table with cane-bottom chairs anchored the center. The walls were covered with pictures chosen by Missouri, and some of the drawings done by the triplets decorated one area. A calendar with a large picture of an angel guarding two children about to fall into a creek was prominent, and he saw that each day was neatly crossed off.