Family Ties

Chapter Seven

Ruth had finished with her uncle's shirts, and had moved to the kitchen. There she was once again watching Heath and Timothy. She couldn't help smile and sigh both at the same time when she saw the young ten year old boy working alongside Heath Barkley. She remembered the day Timothy was born. He'd been born a month early and wasn't supposed to live, wouldn't have lived if it had been left up to the doctor. The "good" man had turned his back on Timothy saying that he, the doctor, had better things to do than fight to save a child already doomed to die. It had angered Ruth and a young woman who had been a faithful friend at the time. Together, they'd fought to keep Timothy alive in spite of it all. She remembered the first day he walked and the first word he said. Then her mind wandered to another memory…and she shook her head.

"Where will you go?" Elizabeth Johnson, a young friend of Ruth's, asked as she helped pack Timothy's bag while Ruth threw some of her things into a bag.

"I don't know." Ruth looked around the room she had shared with Timothy. "But, I know this much. I'm not stayin' here another minute, and no one can tell me different. And don't you stand there and try to tell me different."

"But iff'n yer husband comes back," Elizabeth asked with fear in her eyes as she switched subjects mid-sentence, "and yer talkin' 'bout goin' north, Civil War's not been over that long. Your speech will tell them yer from the south, and nobody will help ya. Besides, yer only…" Elizabeth started to argue only to have Ruth stop her.

"First off, he's my ex-husband, and he's a no good liar and cheat. How many times has he run off now? How many times since we got together has he left me ta fend fer me and Timothy by myself?" She looked at her friend as if to say 'do you really dare answer that?' She then continued talking. "Don't worry about him and; secondly, don't tell me how old I am! I already know that! What difference does that make? I can name you a thousand young women ma' age raisin' youngin's. As fer as ma' speech goes, how many accents can I do? Mama always said it was a talent I had; I'll just use it." She wasn't about to admit she had been desperate enough to get into the money she'd been saving, gone to the court clerk, who was said to be more than to do one a favor if they had enough money, and gotten the man to push the divorce through for her. How he did it was something she didn't ask, as he handed her the papers validating the fact she was now legally free from the man she'd married. Only now, with rumors that that same man was back in the area, she had to flee…she was tired of his coming and going. She was tired of all the stories of his adventures and she was definitely not going to stand by and watch him get drunk so he could tell her about all the different women he'd met. "Don't ask me where I'm goin' exactly..." She did her best to smile at her friend, "that way ya can honestly tell folks ya have no idea!"

Ruth sighed again as she turned away from the window and walked over to the counter. Over time her speech had changed, not that she'd purposely tried to make it change, it just had. And, she'd seen many places and met various people. Now, she couldn't help but sigh. Ruth was tired of all the constant moving and not having anyone to really laugh with, visit and go to parties or other events with. Most of all, she was tired of feeling like the only family ties she and Timothy had was the one between the two of them.

Ruth shook herself out of her thoughts. They weren't helping anything, and there was lunch to fix. Heath Barkley and Timothy would be coming in for lunch soon. She needed to get to it and stop wasting her time.

~oOo~

"I moved the whole pile by myself, mama!" Timothy sat down at the table just as Ruth was setting the food she'd prepared on the table. He went on to tell Ruth everything he and Heath had done.

Heath couldn't help but smile one of his rare huge smiles. The boy hadn't said more than a two words at a time while they were working outside, and he'd just spoken in a complete sentence like he, Heath, had been told the boy had done for Jim and Ruth. "Yes, we did. Your son is a hard worker, Mrs. Duncan." Since his uncle had told him about the divorce, Heath wasn't too surprised when the woman literally cringed.

"The name is Ruth, or Ruth Randall, haven't gone by Duncan since I divorced my husband." She said as she handed him his plate and then turned back to the stove. Her uncle and Nick would be home soon and would need to be fed as well. "I've told Timothy for a long time he was more than capable of doing such things."

Heath then began talking to Timothy again, asking about his likes, dislikes and other small things. He didn't know what to think as the boy went back to being as quiet as could be, giving only one or two word answers. However, as he began looking from Timothy to Ruth, Heath realized that Ruth-whether intentionally or unintentionally, would cringe slightly or actually seem to be holding her breath every time he, Heath, asked a question. He also realized the boy was keeping one eye on her and the other on him. It only made him wonder even more just what Ruth and Timothy had been through, and what they were afraid of. However, he didn't press the issue at the moment. Why should he? After all, Ruth barely knew him or any of the Barkleys. There was only one thing to do…convince Nick they needed to stay longer than they'd originally planned.