Growing Old with Kitty
by
Lilyjack

Chapter 14

"Juliet"

"Mr. Blessing, why don't you come eat with us sometime? I'd enjoy your company, and heaven knows those boys and their questionable manners sure could benefit from your influence," Kitty had suggested amiably just the second day after she started working at the Sweetwater Ranch.

Much to her surprise, and to the utter amazement of his cowboys who sat with open mouths, forks hanging suspended in midair, Leland Blessing took Kitty up on her invitation and appeared at the breakfast table the next morning. After they'd recovered suitably, murmuring cordial greetings to their boss , the men dove back into their breakfast of spicy sausage and fresh scrambled eggs, hot biscuits and sawmill gravy, and Mr. Blessing had joined right in the conversation without a hitch, making Kitty beam happily. Matt smiled at her pleased expression, knowing she was the reason his curmudgeonly boss was being sociable.

It was hard to resist Kitty Russell's charms, Matt thought as he helped himself to another fluffy biscuit. Even Cookie seemed less moody and morose with Kitty around to help. For just a moment, Matt worried that Cookie's affections might be transferring from his girl in Beaver Township to Kitty, but when he looked at her sitting right next to him at the table, eyes shining up at him, he thought maybe he had a pretty good edge over the competition. He surely to goodness hoped so, anyway.

After breakfast, Kitty and Cookie were clearing the table when Mr. Blessing touched her elbow and motioned for her to come with him.

"I'll be back in a minute, Freddie," Kitty called, and she followed her boss to a little arbor where small, delicate red roses grew riotously over a sturdy wooden bench.

"Have a seat, Kitty," he invited as he lowered himself stiffly. "The old knees ain't what they used to be," he groaned, sighing as he sat heavily beside her.

She chuckled ruefully, "I know what you mean. The older you get, the more aches and pains you acquire in places you never even realized you had."

"Now what would a young girl like you know about that?" he demanded in a mock-stern voice.

"Oh, now, Mr. Blessing..." she amended. "You'd be surprised at the things I know."

"You're probably right, my dear." He gazed at her curiously. "You seem wise beyond your years. I've never met anybody quite like you before."

She winked at him, claiming, "I'll take that as a compliment, sir."

"Matthew is right. You're not like all those other foolish little gals."

She opened her mouth in surprise. "Has he been talking about me?"

"Well, yeah, actually he come to me to ask if he could take you to the dance Saturday night." He chuckled, rubbing his nose.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Blessing, I didn't mean for him to bother you. I told Matt I would ask you about my hours. About what time I could leave to go..."

Leland Blessing held up a hand. "Now don't you apologize, young lady. It tickled my fancy, that young scudder comin' to me to ask my permission like I was your pa or somethin'..."

"Well, what was the answer?" Her voice was laced with suppressed laughter.

"I said, of course, as long as he got you back home at a respectable hour!" He patted her arm and they laughed together.

Then Kitty's expression sobered and she placed her hand atop his. "I wanna thank you again, Mr. Blessing, for givin' me a chance. I don't know what I woulda' done..."

"Now, let's don't get maudlin over a little matter like givin' you a job. I could tell you were a good risk, right from the get go."

"Is that right? How could you tell? You just met me."

"Well, Matthew liked you, too. And I've always said he's a purty good judge of character." Blessing took off his hat and scratched at his steel-gray head a little, squinting at her in the morning sun. "And you reminded me a little of my wife. She was no nonsense, a straight-shooter, with a good head on her shoulders. I admire that in a woman."

Kitty folded her hands in her lap, spoke softly, "She must have been very special to you, Mr. Blessing. She must have been some kinda' woman to make you love her so much."

"Yep," his voice strangled out. Blessing turned his head, rubbing a hand over his mouth. "That she was."

Kitty sat very still and quiet, waiting.

Mr. Blessing took a shallow breath, then spoke in a hushed voice, his eyes not meeting hers. "Juliet Moon. That was her name. Before she married me, o' course. I told her she was my Juliet, just like in Shakespeare, and that she hung the moon." He laughed self-deprecatingly. "You ever read Romeo and Juliet?" he asked her.

"No, sir, I can't say that I have. But you evidently have," she encouraged him.

"Oh, yes, many a time. Used to read it by candlelight at night after my chores were done-when I was a boy," he explained. "Only went through eighth grade in the little one-room school I attended, but I kept right on learnin' on my own once I finished up. I read everthing I could get my hands on. Read until I fell asleep most ever night, tired as I was after plowin' and hoein' and such. Farm work is hard work. My ma fretted somethin' fierce, worried I would strain my eyesight. But mostly she let me be. She knew how I loved to read."

"Where did you meet your Juliet?" Kitty asked softly.

"Church," he laughed. "Can you imagine an ornery scoundrel like myself in church? Yep, I set out to find me a bride, a helpmate, after I bought this here land. Trouble was, there weren't too many women around in those days."

"Still aren't too many," she observed, and he nodded in agreement.

"You're right, but it was even worse back then. To find a respectable woman, you had to go to church, my buddies told me. "So off I went, spit and polished up. I must've been a sight for sore eyes." He shook his head.

"Was it love at first sight?" Kitty knew a little something about love at first sight.

"Oh, no, nothing like that a'tall. You see, my Juliet, she was a plain girl, not somebody a feller would notice right off. I know that sounds terrible, but..." His voice faltered for a moment, but then he looked into Kitty's kind, knowing eyes and explained, "Sometimes you got to get to know a person before you notice how beautiful they really are. Does that sound plumb crazy?"

"No, Mr. Blessing, it doesn't. I think I know exactly what you mean."

"And my Juliet, why, she was the preacher's daughter!"

"Oh, my!" Kitty exclaimed in mock consternation.

"You bet! I didn't think I had a prayer at winnin' over her mama and daddy."

"But you did..."

"Yeah," he answered softly, and his eyes got a faraway look in them that told Kitty he was not looking at her anymore. He was remembering his Juliet Moon, the reverend's daughter. "She was what you would call a...a bluestocking. A lot of men wouldn't appreciate a woman with a fine mind, an educated mind, but I felt like I'd found my soulmate." His eyes misted with tears, and Kitty knew that he was admitting to her things he'd probably never spoken of before.

"I think I know how that feels, Mr. Blessing. " Her voice lowered to a whisper. "I realize I look awful young, but..." She smiled earnestly. "I really do understand."

His lips turned up at the corners as he answered, "I bet you do, young lady. I just bet you do."

"Once you find your soulmate, a body should never let go of them."

"I didn't, I guess. I mean, I don't think I've ever let go of her, even after all this time." And Leland Blessing closed his eyes and his mind drifted forty years past, and he was sitting in the little cabin on the edge of the bed he'd painstakingly carved for Juliet before they were wed. And he was watching her take down her thick brown hair, brushing it a hundred strokes like she did every night. Brushing the strands until they shone in the candlelight, and she was gazing at him in the mirror at the same time. Watching him with her soulful brown eyes that could speak volumes to him even from clear across the room. He remembered how he'd been so surprised by her passion on their wedding night, how she'd unfolded for him like an exotic flower with her sillky woman's skin and fragrant hair and quiet urgency. He remembered how he'd whispered Romeo's words in her ear as they lay in the bed together side by side, his voice hoarse with emotion, ""Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night."

And then he opened his eyes and he was no longer in the cabin, but sitting in Juliet's flower garden with a lovely, surprisingly wise young girl he wished were his daughter. His and Juliet's. Leland Blessing cleared his throat self-consciously. "Of course you can go to the dance," he abruptly stated. "Leave whenever you like, but...you better be back at a respectable hour, now, you hear?"

She beamed at him, "Yes, sir!" Then she impulsively leaned over and kissed him soundly on the cheek, saying, "I'd better get to fixing dinner, or else Freddie will be cooking up beans and cornpone again!"

"Good gracious, go then!" he groused good-naturedly. "Oh, and I laid something for you on your bed, my dear."

"What is it?" she asked in surprise.

"Now, where would the fun be in that if I told you?" he said with narrowed, calculating eyes. "You'll find out when you go home tonight. Now get on back to work."

"Yes, sir, Mr. Blessing. Will you come eat dinner with us?"

"Hmph..." he grunted wordlessly, but Kitty knew she'd see him again come dinnertime.

tbc

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