Chapter Two
There had to be at least a dozen children outside the orphanage when McColl and Victoria pulled up in the wagon. Some were sitting in the shade reading, while others were running around playing a very loud game of tag. However, every head came up at the sound of the wagon wheels. The moment the children saw who it was, "Mrs. Barkley!" and "Mr. McColl!" resounded throughout the orphanage's yard. Father James walked out of the building when he heard the children's cries of delight. He waited until both his visitors were out of the wagon before he spoke. "Hello, Victoria, McColl," the friendly priest smiled as Victoria and McColl walked towards him loaded with the boxes they'd brought with them.
"Hello," Victoria and McColl both answered at the same time.
After following the good father inside the building, the two put the boxes in the back room where Victoria and the good father started unpacking the items. While Father James and Victoria were busy with the boxes, McColl made his way outside and up on the roof to do some the repairs that needed doing. The jobs McColl was doing for the orphanage were jobs that Heath had done in the past. However, Heath had injured his leg and Father James wanted Heath to have plenty of time to heal properly before he, Father James, had him to do anything else. Since McColl was more than willing to step in, everything had worked out fine.
When McColl heard small footsteps behind him, he turned his head and smiled. One of the young boys, a ten year old red head by the name of William Thayer, now knelt beside him. "May I help, Mr. Duke?" The child, who had somewhat of a learning problem, never called him by the last name of McColl, but insisted on addressing by the term of Mister. It made McColl chuckle every time the child addressed him, though he made sure he kept a straight face. He didn't want to hurt the child's feelings.
"Sure you can," McColl picked up the small bag of nails he'd brought up with him and handed it to the young boy. "When I need a nail, you can hand me one."
The child's face lit up and he eagerly took the small brown bag that 'the cowboy', as the other children called Duke McColl, handed him. He then watched as the older man began moving the shingles around and handed him nails as he needed it. After a few minutes, the young boy surprised him when he piped up and said, "Father James said I could have a birthday party next week. Will you come?"
The fact that William would want him at his birthday party flattered McColl and he would have said yes in a heartbeat, only he knew he'd be busy on the ranch. That being the case, he apologized and told him he had other commitments to keep.
"You think if I ask real polite like Mrs. Barkley would come?" asked young William.
McColl didn't even try to hide his smile at that one. William was definitely different than many children he'd known through the years. "Well, I'd say that's something you'd have to ask her, though I'm pretty sure she'll say yes if she's able to."
William gazed down at the children playing in the yard. When he saw Victoria and the good priest walk out into the yard, he sat the nails down and looked at McColl. "Will you be okay if I go talk to her right now?"
It was all McColl could do not to bust up laughing at the serious look that had come upon the young's mans' face as he asked the question. It was even harder to answer the lad, only McColl managed to do it. "I'll be fine. Go ahead and leave." Only after the young boy disappeared down the ladder did McColl start chuckling as he said softly, "If I'm so old I can't handle a hammer and nail by myself then I need to be buried, and I'm not that old yet!" He then went back to chuckling as he continued with the work in front of him.
~oOo~
"Would I be okay?" McColl and Victoria were both roaring with laughter as they traveled down the road that led away from the orphanage. They were talking about William and all the help he'd given McColl. "How old does he think I am?"
"Do you want me to answer that?" Victoria couldn't help but laugh even louder as she asked the question. It's not like the young child, who was sincere in his desire to help, hadn't offered his help to her as well. While she had accepted the aid, Victoria had politely helped the child to see that white hair didn't mean one had lost their ability to do things by themselves either.
McColl shook his head. "Not really," he chuckled and then let silence rein for a bit before he said, "The boy's so eager to help and so polite. I'm surprised he doesn't have more friends at the orphanage." He felt bad about that one, though he didn't know what he could do about it either, other than be friendly to him.
"I'm not." Victoria replied after a few minutes of thinking. "He's a talkative one and more than a bit eager to help. From what Father James told me, the young boy's already had a hard life. I fear he might actually be trying to get acceptance without realizing it."
McColl didn't have to be told how hard of a life William had had so far. That's one thing that he and the boy had discovered earlier on; they shared a hard life. The biggest difference though was McColl had had a wonderful aunt and uncle to take him in when his parents had passed away. It was too bad William didn't have someone like that to take him in when his mother had died. If only the child's father hadn't up and disappeared before he was born, things might have been different. Though, not seeing where he could help on that one, McColl changed the subject.
"I don't think Jarrod's very happy that I'm seeing you as much as I am." He said as he thought on the looks that Jarrod's eyes had been sending him the past few weeks.
At the mention of Jarrod and the messages he had been sending the past little while; that is, all the non verbal messages he'd sent, Victoria stiffened and spoke in the tone she always used when something upset her even in the least bit. "Jarrod is a full grown man who needs to accept his mother is more than capable of making her own decisions, even in the matter of who she sees and who she doesn't!" She then softened her tone. "I know he means well, only I'm tired of this. Every time I so much as look at a man, the mother hen in my oldest appears."
McColl shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I can't say I rightly blame him. He's got a fine lady for a mother; he just wants to protect you."
Victoria turned her face away for a few seconds, to hide the fact that she was blushing, before she turned her eyes back to the road in front of them, her head held high. "Thank you, but I don't need protecting."
McColl starting smiling wide as he remembered all the times Victoria had stood next to Tom and then her family as they grew older. It was a fact he was more than willing to acknowledge. "You sure do know how to stand your ground."
The statement earned him a smile from Victoria. Afterwards, the two slipped into silence, their minds on things that they needed to get done once they got back to the ranch only to have their thoughts interrupted as they heard a horse behind them and heard young William's voice calling to them.
