A Whisper of Peace (13 page)

V
ivian licked her fingers, then giggled to herself. Had she ever displayed such poor manners? But who would have believed rabbit fried in bear fat could be so delicious? She didn’t want to waste a single morsel.

Lizzie bobbed her head at the picked-clean bones on Vivian’s plate. “The rabbit . . . you enjoyed it?”

“Oh yes. It’s the best meal I’ve had since Clay and I arrived in Alaska—even better than anything we ate on the way.” Although initially queasy, Vivian prided herself on observing the entire preparation process and then cutting the skinned, gutted rabbit into pieces herself. With Lizzie’s supervision, she’d then cooked the meat to perfection. Lizzie was an excellent teacher.

She heaved a deep sigh. “I feel badly, though, for having such a wonderful lunch when poor Clay is eating dried beef and yesterday’s corn bread.”

Lizzie used her finger to pry loose a tiny bit of meat from the last bone on her plate. “It was his choice to return to the village.”

Vivian nodded thoughtfully. Yes, it had been Clay’s choice to leave. He’d almost given the impression of one escaping when he’d darted back toward the village. Clay’s drive to complete the mission school—to begin his ministry—was admirable. He pushed himself so hard. Regret mingled with guilt twined through Vivian’s middle. She’d spent too much time away today. She needed to return and assist him, as he’d requested.

Giving her thumb one last swipe with her tongue, she pushed away from the table. “Let me help you clean up, and then I should go back.”

Lizzie dumped the bones from Vivian’s plate on top of her own. “I don’t need your help. Go.”

The dismissing words would have hurt Vivian if she hadn’t already spent quite a bit of time with Lizzie. She’d learned the native woman was often abrupt, but Vivian didn’t believe Lizzie intended to be unkind. “Are you sure?”

“Take the snare we made and set it up in the brush near your hut. Check it in the morning.” Lizzie, plate of bones in hand, headed out the door. Vivian scurried after her as she continued. “Maybe you’ll be able to serve your man rabbit for breakfast tomorrow.”

Heat filled Vivian’s face. She caught Lizzie’s arm. “Lizzie, Clay isn’t my man. He’s my brother.”

Lizzie gawked at her, her face more expressive than Vivian had ever seen it. “Brother? But I . . . I thought . . .” Lizzie jerked loose of Vivian’s hold and darted toward the dog pen.

Vivian followed, hoping Lizzie might complete her thought. But the dogs provided too much of a distraction. They lined up along the fence, wagging their tails and yipping in excitement. Lizzie tossed the bones over the enclosure. Snarls and sharp barks erupted as the animals scrambled to retrieve a treat. Only half of them secured a bone, and the lucky ones hunkered low, snarling over their prizes. One brown-faced dog tried to snatch the bone from another male, and he got his paw nipped for his efforts. Whimpering, the unsuccessful dog slinked to the corner of the pen to lick his wound.

Vivian pointed to the injured dog. “The poor thing . . . Why didn’t you wait until you’d killed a second rabbit? Then there would be enough bones to go around.”

Lizzie sent Vivian an odd look. “I throw in fewer pieces so the dogs establish leadership amongst themselves.”

Vivian stared at Lizzie in shock. “But that’s so . . . heartless!”

“Not at all.” Lizzie spoke matter-of-factly. “Some of them have to follow. Otherwise they’d never be able to pull my sled as a team.”

Vivian gazed at the sad dog in the corner of the pen. “But it doesn’t seem fair.”

Lizzie shrugged and whirled for the cabin. “Many things aren’t fair. Learning is often hard. But hard-won lessons usually serve us the best.”

Vivian turned away from the pen and hastened again after Lizzie. “I’ll go now, but I’ll try to come back tomorrow.”

Lizzie dropped the empty plate into the wash bucket by the back door with a tinny clang, then headed for the table. “I won’t be here. The salmon are running. I’ll miss securing my catch if I don’t go soon.”

“But I thought you planned to leave by winter.” Vivian reached for the skillet in the middle of the table, but Lizzie snatched it up first. She followed the native woman back to the wash bucket.

“I do.” For a moment, Lizzie paused in her endless rush of busyness and stared out the open door, as if seeking something. “But if Denali doesn’t show me favor, I might have to . . .” Her voice drifted away, her eyes clouding.

Vivian touched Lizzie’s sleeve. “Lizzie, why do you want to leave this place? It’s your home.”

Lizzie shot Vivian a sharp look. “You left your home to come here—to Gwichyaa Saa. If Clay is . . .” The strange blush crept across Lizzie’s face again. “Your brother, he has no authority over you. So why did you come?”

Vivian blinked twice in surprise. “I came to teach.”

“And your reasons are important to you?”

Vivian contemplated Lizzie’s question. If she were successful at teaching, if she could help Clay in the saving of souls, perhaps God would finally forgive her. She nodded. “Yes. They’re important.”

A knowing smile curved Lizzie’s lips. “Yet you don’t share the reasons with me.”

Vivian bit down on her lower lip. She couldn’t share the deepest reason. Not without divulging the horrible thing she’d done. Lizzie would certainly run away in revulsion if she knew Vivian had killed her own father.

Lizzie pointed to her chest. “I have reasons, too. But I think it’s not as important for you to know them as it is for me to know them. So I will keep mine inside, as well.” She picked up a bucket. “You need to go, and I need to fetch water. I’ll return from my fish camp in four days. Come back then if you’d like to learn to dry the salmon.”

“Four days? But what of your dogs?”

Lizzie shook her head, clicking her teeth on her tongue. “The dogs go with me, of course.” She marched around Vivian and out the door, calling over her shoulder, “Come back in four days’ time. You still have much to learn.”

Clay sat on the floor, rubbing his aching hip and staring up at the ragged hole in the roof. He silently berated himself—how could he have been so foolish? He should have known poking that hole would weaken the roof. Why hadn’t he taken the time to place several branches crosswise and used them as a support before climbing across the sod? He’d been too impatient to complete the task, unwilling to admit he needed help.

Proverbs 29:23 flitted through his mind like an admonition:
“A man’s pride shall bring him low . . .”
He slapped the hard-packed floor. His pride had plummeted him from the roof to the hard ground below. Even so, the Lord had watched over him. Other than several scratches and bruises, he didn’t believe he’d done any real damage to himself. He’d heal. It would take more effort to correct the damage done to the roof and the stovepipe.

He glared at the bent pipe pointing at the patch of blue sky. “Another delay.” Groaning, he pushed to his feet. Chunks of sod, shattered bits of tree branches, and tufts of grass littered the floor beneath him. He hung his head, discouragement weighing him down. His father wouldn’t have made such a mess.

Sighing, he limped into the sunshine in time to see Vivian step out of the trees. A smile graced her face, and she hummed a cheerful tune. Her lightheartedness in the face of his despondence stirred his anger.

Balling his hand on his hip, he scowled at her. “It’s about time you showed up. Didn’t I tell you to hurry?”

The tune died on her lips. “I would’ve been here sooner, but I stopped to put out a snare Lizzie and I made so—” Her eyes widened, and she dashed forward, reaching for his face. “Clay! What happened to you? You’re all beat up! Did the villagers attack you?”

Her fingers traced his cheek, the touch bringing a fierce sting. He pushed her hand down. “You and your ridiculous imagination. No one attacked me. I fell through the roof.”

“You—you what?”

“Fell through the roof.” He ignored her aghast expression and pointed, disgusted. “Trying to get the stovepipe up. The roof collapsed on me, and I bent the flue pipe. So now I’ve got another mess to fix before I can move on to chinking.”

“Oh, Clay . . .” Her dismayed tone matched his feelings. “I’m so sorry.”

Clay set his jaw. “Sorry doesn’t fix it.” The hole seemed to mock him, proclaiming his incompetence. “It means more time before I can open the mission for classes.” He shook his head. “I’ll need to weave some branches in where I broke through to strengthen the roof support before I lay on more sod.” Clay retrieved his hatchet from his hut and then turned toward the woods. His right hip ached worse than a bad tooth, and it stabbed when he put pressure on the leg, but he kept moving. “I hope I can find some dead branches so I don’t have to cut down a sapling or two—not sure I’m up to it.”

Vivian caught up to him and grabbed his arm. “Clay, please, come to my hut and let me tend your wounds.”

Her fingers dug into his flesh, and he grimaced. “I don’t have time! I need to—”

Her hold tightened. “I know, I know, you have all of these other tasks waiting. But you’re bleeding! Mother well equipped me with bandages and salve. Let me help you. Please?” She tugged at him, trying to draw him back toward the huts.

Clay glowered down at her. If a few scratches upset her this badly, she’d be useless to him in a real emergency. Impatience sharpened his tone. “I don’t need tending. I need to collect branches.”

Her fingers fell away from his arm. Tears glittered in her eyes. “But you’re hurt, Clay. And I . . . I need—I want t-to help.”

Looking into her fright-filled face, Clay suddenly understood. He grasped her by the shoulders and gentled his voice, hoping she’d accept his tender tone as apology for his earlier impatience. “I’m not hurt that badly, Vivian. I won’t bleed to death over a few scratches. Your father—”

She jerked loose, backing away from him with her eyes as wide and terrified as a cornered rabbit’s. “H-how do you know about my father?”

Clay shrugged slowly, his muscles complaining. “Pa told me years ago when I asked how he’d died—said he’d bled to death after cutting his leg with an axe.” He held out his arm. A tear in his sleeve revealed a scratch, the blood already dried into a jagged scab. “But look. Just scratches. So you don’t need to be troubled over me.”

She worried her lower lip between her teeth, her brow furrowed into lines of distress.

Clay sighed. “If I let you put some bandages on these
scratches
”—unconsciously, he emphasized the word, revealing his inner frustration—“will you then allow me to gather the branches I need?”

She nodded rapidly, twisting her fingers together at her waist. “But I want to come with you. May I come with you? I’ll carry the branches for you.”

“All right. But hurry. I have work to do.” He followed Vivian to her hut, but his thoughts railed against the delay.
Lord, when will I be able to begin the ministry of my heart?

Chapter Eleven

L
izzie pulled her handmade dip net from the water and flung the wildly flapping salmon onto the bank. Her dogs, tethered well away from the edge of the river, barked in excitement. She decided not to quiet them—hearing them celebrate the catch encouraged her to keep working. Over her two days at the fish camp, she’d brought in almost seven dozen fat salmon. She wanted to catch ten dozen—half of what she’d caught last year—and then she would return to her cabin.

Ignoring the ache in her shoulders, she swung the net into the water again and waited for the tug that signaled a catch. From upriver, chattering let her know groups of villagers from Gwichyaa Saa were also at work, catching salmon. They would remain at their summer camps for weeks, drying the salmon and enjoying one another’s company. Mama’s childhood stories of going to fish camp with her parents had always stirred Lizzie’s envy. As a girl, she’d wished she could be part of the village merriment. She still carried a desire to belong, but not with the villagers. Never again with the villagers.

As soon as she’d caught what she wanted, she would load the fish onto travoises and give her dogs the chore of carting the fish to her cabin. There, she would dry the salmon in her drying hut and then turn her attention to the chores that had gone neglected over her time away. If she had a family, the duties would be distributed, but—her heart panged—only she bore the responsibility for gathering food, tending the garden, and caring for the dogs. And she still had a coat to complete.