This is the longest chapter I have written yet for this story and I have been building to it for a while so pleeeeeeeeeeease tell me what you think.
Chapter 4
Sunday promised to be a welcome rest for most of the men on the ranch. Although there were still duties to perform, these were mainly done by the family, as the Monroes were strict about not working on the Lord's Day.
Mrs Monroe rapped on the door of the men's dormitory promptly at 7.30 am. Danny rolled over and groaned. 'For a Sunday this is not much of a lie in!' he though as he snoozed in bed and listened to the other men begin preparing for their day.
"Hey Danny", Ian, one of the other labourers called, "you getting up or what?"
"Yeah Danny, Mrs Monroe don't like it if you're late for church and you ain't gonna make it for nine if you don't get your butt outta bed soon". That was Simon, a scruffy redheaded kid about Danny's age.
Danny groaned. 'Those two again!' He had been on the Monreos' ranch less than a week and he had already had enough of Ian and Simon. They thought they were the resident bad boys of the place, not tied down, always talking about the girls they had been with or the misdemeanours they had committed. Sure Danny liked girls and having fun, but he was growing tired of that life and of being around people like these two. Losing his job, although he knew Mac had not wanted to do it, had been a harsh wake-up call for him. He had always taken his work seriously, but he didn't want so much instability in his life again. Living life one day to the next with no certain future had a lot less appeal when you were forced into it.
"What denomination?" Danny asked the room in general from the depth of his covers.
Frank took pity on him, "It's Baptist, I'm sure the reverend would understand if you follow another branch though. He won't turn you away."
Danny grimaced. To be honest he wasn't really one for church and anyway he was Italian, they were Catholics. But he forced himself out of bed anyway. He thought he should show some willingness to follow the family's rules, even if he was planning on snoozing through the entire service.
The church service, which was held in the nearby town, finished promptly at 10.30 and it was with some relief that the mass of people exited the small room that had been fast becoming stifling. Danny exited alongside Frank, loosening his tie as he walked, and took a breath of fresh mountain air. He closed his eyes and took another deep breath, lifting his face up to the warm sun.
"Makes you feel cleansed, don't it", commented Frank, misconstruing Danny's relief for piety. He smiled back though, not wanting to seem disingenuous.
"You got any plans for the rest of the day?" he asked back.
"Told Rosie I would take her to the Sunday school in town, Mr Monroe's letting me borrow the truck. You're welcome to come if you want", he offered.
"Naw, that's ok," he answered beginning to walk towards the road again and leaving Frank behind, "think I'll stick around here for the day. Thanks anyway though!"
Mrs Monroe always made a special late breakfast on Sundays for those who were still on the ranch and her pancakes and waffles were legendary in the area. Danny had to admit, they were good, and there was a more relaxed atmosphere at the big table when they were not all destined for a backbreaking work in the fields or exhausted from ten hours of labour.
There were not many people left that Sunday, as a local fun-fair in the nearby town had drawn most of the labourers away for the day to try their luck in strong-man competitions and coconut shies. The Monroes usually stayed on the farm though, as the basic care of the animals still needed doing despite it being a Sunday and the workers' day off.
It was after breakfast, and Danny had decided that he would go and explore the countryside around the ranch to get a feel of the place where he was now to live.
He sauntered across the yard in front of the barn, and almost ran into Lindsay as she exited the barn,
"Whoa", he let out as he narrowly missed getting hit by the door being quickly flung open.
"Oh God, sorry did I get you?" she gasped covering her mouth with her hand.
"Not quite", he joked; "what are you up to?"
"Just finished feeding the cows", she gestured behind her, "you didn't want to go to the fair?"
"Thought I would just take a walk, you know, get to know the place a bit". He suddenly had an idea, "do you want to come with me, show me the lay of the land a bit?"
Lindsay bit her lip and glanced behind her as if she was on a knife-edge deciding whether to come. Danny decided to push a bit more,
"Come on, please?" He said. How could she resist those baby-blues? She smiled and placed her bucket on the ground near the barn door then nodded her head gesturing with her hand towards a small trail that led out of the farmyard and towards the wooded base of the mountains in the distance.
They walked for a while in silence. Danny had hung up his jacket and tie after breakfast and the cool spring air felt good on his still aching muscles. He looked sideways at Lindsay; the soft breeze was playing with her hair, lifting the curls and making her repeatedly brush them out of her face. The style of her dress was different to those he was used to seeing in New York, a little longer and less fitted, but it flattered her well and together with its light blue colour presented a very appealing picture.
"You know, your uncle has mentioned you a few times," he said to break the ice. "He thinks very highly of you. I know he wishes he could come and visit more often."
"Yeah, I wish he could too", she answered. "He loves it in the city though, I know he was never very keen on staying in Montana. He has talked about you too, in his letters."
"Mac's been like a father to me. I'm so lucky that he took me under his wing when I was a boy. I would probably be dead in the gutter now if it wasn't for him."
"What do you mean? Why?"
"My Father died when I was really young, and so my Mother packed up our house in Italy and booked three places on a ship that was going to America. I don't know how she did it, she didn't speak any English and she had two young boys by the hand and the few possessions she couldn't bear to leave behind."
"One of them was you?" Lindsay asked.
"Yeah, the younger one. I don't have many memories of living in Italy. I grew up mostly on Staten Island." Danny stopped walking. Their gentle stroll had taken them quite far from the ranch and they were headed towards a rocky outcrop on the edge of the woods that covered the mountains. He perched on one of the flat rocks and Lindsay took a seat next to him.
"I didn't know you had a brother", she started again. Danny looked uncomfortably at his hands as they fiddled in his lap before looking up and staring straight into her curious eyes.
"He died", Danny explained softly. "His name was Louie. He was a couple of years older than me, and he was always in some sort of trouble". Danny smiled sadly, reminiscing over the past. "I remember this one time, he can't have been more than twelve, he loved baseball and whenever the neighbourhood kids would play in the street he would insist that they play with his lucky ball. He even had his name written on it. Anyway he hit the ball and it smashed straight through the side window of Mr Peroni's bakery. He decided to go in after it and had one of his friends give him a leg up and managed to jimmy the window open and slip through. The window was about six feet above the ground and he fell through straight into a huge sack of flour on the other side where Mr Peroni was waiting with his lucky ball in his hand. I swear I never laughed so much as seeing Mr Peroni march Louie home by the ear covered head to toe in flour. He looked like a ghost."
Lindsay was laughing as well by this point and Danny couldn't help but notice how it made her eyes even brighter and the playful dimples she got in her cheeks.
He sobered quickly though and Lindsay caught the sad look on his face return.
"How did he die", she asked softly.
"I was ten" Danny started looking out into the distance with a haunted look in his eyes, "Louie was fifteen by this point and his escapades weren't so innocent anymore. He got mixed up with a bad crowd and they would drink too much and fool around. They were drunk one night and messing around at the docks when he fell in and hit his head. There was nothing anyone could do. It broke my mother's heart."
"I'm sorry", she said, laying a hand on his arm and giving it a light squeeze. The unexpected contact startled him out of his memories and he looked at her again with a genuine smile, one that she mirrored. "So how did you meet my uncle?"
"My ma started was working as his housekeeper shortly after Louie died and I used to go and hang around the house after school. He didn't have the offices back then as he was just starting up and he used to work from home. He would give me pocket money to run errands and do simple jobs for him; my mother liked it as it kept me out of mischief. I would ask questions about what he was doing and how the things he built worked and he started to teach me what he knew about engineering."
"So are you an engineer as well now?" She asked
"Naw, not yet." He said in his Staten Island Drawl, "I became the office boy when I left school and then apprentice Engineer. Mac's been teaching me what he can whilst I take night classes at the University. I'm twenty-four now but I still have a lot to learn. Hopefully when I go back someday", he paused looking resolved, "when I go back I will get my job back and qualify".
"You miss it, don't you." It was not a question
"I miss my mother, and my old job, and the city. Have you ever been to New York?"
"No." she looked wistful, "I've never even left the state. My mum's not keen on it, she says I have no reason to go anywhere, she doesn't really understand why I would want to."
"But you do want to, I mean, I get the sense that you don't see yourself living in Montana for the rest of your life", he gently questioned her.
She looked up at him as she thought about what he had said.
"I love my mum", she said slowly, "but she doesn't understand that I don't want her life. I want to see some of the world, and experience it."
"Where would you go?"
"Europe, I would love to see the ancient ruins in Greece and the beautiful view from the Amalfi Coast. I've only read about these places in books though. I want to see the rest of this country too. New York, San Francisco, The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia".
"Well I have never been to any of those places either, except New York of course".
"My Uncle Mac said I was welcome to visit him in New York, but I never have, he sends me books and journals to read though".
"Which reminds me he gave me something to give to you, told me not to do it in from of your mother though so I haven't had a chance yet. Do you want to come and get it now, it's in the men's dormitory with my other stuff?"
"Sure" she replied, smiling brightly. He got up off their rock and held out a hand to help her up. As he grabbed it he couldn't help noticing that they weren't like any woman's hands he had held before; they were strong and calloused like his, hands that knew hard work and her grip was surprisingly strong for her size. 'I like it', he suddenly thought, and then quickly let go once she was vertical. He shouldn't be having those thoughts about his boss' daughter.
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