Free Dorothy Garlock by High on a Hill

tear the hide off your butt.”
    Those had been Marvin’s last words before he had stomped out of the house.
    Now, bent over the washtub in the yard, Tess thought about the man she had met in the woods. He hadn’t tried to take hold of her or belittle her. He seemed to be genuinely sorry he’d scared her and wouldn’t have been bad-looking without the whiskers. Because of her brothers’ scraggly, un-shaven faces, she had come to despise whiskers.
    Digging her bare toes into the earth to brace herself as she pulled the heavy overalls from the water, she held the legs to the roller of the wringer attached to the tub and used both hands to turn the crank. After she hung the overalls on the line, she gazed north toward the only neighbors within five miles who were not Carters.
    Not for anything did she want Marvin to know that she was excited about meeting and talking to a woman who wasn’t a Carter. She had to think about what she would wear and make up an excuse for the visit. She remembered that Aunt Cora took an offering when she made a call. What could she take that a woman from town would appreciate?
    The idea hit her. No woman in her right mind would turn down fresh raspberries, and she knew just the place to get them.
    Marvin chose the day for Tess to call on the neighbors. A day earlier she had hurried to finish the noon dishes and had gone to the woods to pick the berries. Later she bathed, washed her hair and ironed her one good dress. With both fear and anticipation she had looked forward to the visit.
    At midmorning Tess reached the edge of the woods. She stopped and stood for a while in the shadows, whipping up the nerve to go on to the house. She looked down at the print dress she had starched and ironed. The dress was all right, but she wished that her shoes were not so worn. She hoped the lady she was about to meet would think she wore her old shoes because she had to walk through the woods.
    Taking a deep breath and reciting to herself what she was going to say, Tess started across the clearing toward the house. During the more than five years since she had come home from Aunt Cora’s, she had not been this close to their neighbors’ house. She could see at a glance that it was a well-kept-up place. No rubbish cluttered the yard, as it did over at her place. Cut wood was not tossed in a pile but was stacked neatly near the back door.
    Tess’s heart was pounding like a sledgehammer. What if the woman was insulting when she called on her? What if she refused the raspberries? What if she slammed the door in her face?
    Oh, Lord, why had she ever thought she could do this?
    Knowing that Marvin would be watching from somewhere nearby, Tess forced her feet to move forward. As she approached the house, she could see a woman and a man working in freshly turned earth. The man was making furrows with a hand plow. They were planting a garden. The woman, wearing an old straw hat, straightened, holding her hand to her back, and called to the man.
    “Will two rows of beans be enough, Jack?”
    He nodded, then motioned toward Tess. The woman turned to see her in the yard and came toward her, taking off the straw hat. Her dark brown hair, cut in a short bob, shone in the sun.
    As she approached, Tess could see that she was young and pretty and … smiling.
    “Hello,” Annabel called before she reached Tess.
    Tess completely forgot what she had rehearsed to say. She could only nod and stare.
    “Hello,” Annabel said again. “You must be our neighbor on the south.”
    “Tess.” Tess finally found her tongue. “Tess Carter.”
    “Annabel Donovan.”
    Tess accepted the hand that was extended without looking at it. She couldn’t take her eyes from the woman’s smiling face.
    “I’ve been wanting to meet my neighbor.”
    “You … have?” Tess stammered. Relief made her weak.
    “I … ah … brought some raspberries.” She lifted the bucket she had been carrying by the bail.
    “Oh, my. I love raspberries. Do