When the Rain Comes (Love Journeys South, Book 2)

Chapter 2. Introductions in Jail.

Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage. ~ Richard Lovelace

Chapter 2.

Introductions in Jail.

Early the next morning Nan set off with Jimmy to see her eldest son. The sun was not yet fully risen when Jimmy hitched up the wagon, helped his mother inside, and once more promised his father that no harm would come to her.

For a long time Nan and Jimmy rode in silence. There wasn't much to say. Jimmy didn't want to discuss what it was exactly that Seth could have been involved in that would have put him in jail for five whole years.

"Besides," he mused to himself, "Momma might think I am accusing Seth, and then she will tell me I have no right to do that because I'm just as much a black sheep as he is. Everyone in Apple Wine knows Jimmy Carthwrite to be the local drunk and womanizer."

This thought brought out a sigh from Jimmy. It's not like he enjoyed being addicted to alcohol, it was just he couldn't seem to find the strength in him to stop drinking that stuff.

"It's all Catherine's fault," he bitterly concluded. "Why can't I be good enough for her? Why?"

The deep sighs that heaved out of Jimmy had Nan turning to him. For a few seconds she studied him. Third child, second son. Jimmy would be nineteen in the end of autumn, that was about half a year from now. Only eighteen! Sometimes she forgot that. He drank more than most men twice his age. Why had both her eldest boys turned out so bad? The other three were alright and stayed out of trouble and on the right side of the law, and they had had the same thirteen years without a father figure in their life. So where was the difference? 

"Jimmy," she said at last. "Penny for your thoughts. You keep sighing and sighing. Beat any woman at this rate, I can tell ya that."

Despite himself, Jimmy let out a chuckle. "Just thinking 'bout Seth and how what he could have done to git himself five years. That's quite bit. The sheriff mentioned something about theft and illegal trade, but five years? I mean, Seth could only have been up to real mischief for two years at most. He's only been living apart from us for that long."

"And those thoughts are causin' you to sigh like that?" Nan raised her eyebrow.

"Why? They can't?"

He had tensed and moved a quarter of an inch away from her. Nan knew he was putting up his defenses and with a laugh dropped the subject. She and Jimmy were still on difficult terms. Ever since she had refused to pay his gambling debts and kept him locked for several weeks their relations were strained. Her near death experience had helped put some closure in the gap, but Nan could see plain as day that Jimmy was still cautious around her, around his father, around everyone. He didn't trust anyone fully. 

"I don't think he even trusts himself," Nan mused as she continued casting sideways glances at her son. He was actually pretty good looking. He had the blue eyes of his father, but the facial features were from his mother. She wasn't sure where the wavy, chestnut hair came from, it certainly didn't run in either the Mendelles or the Carthwrites. Having Spanish roots, all of Nan's family had hair black as coal, while Sam, with his Swedish ancestry from both parents, came from a family of blonds and redheads. 

"Although his father was only half Swedish, so maybe Jimmy is the only one in this family who inherited the actual Carthwrite blood. It's a pity Sam's father never knew much about that side of the family." Now it was Nan's turn to let out a sigh. Jimmy was healthy and robust, having spent his whole life working hard on a farm. He didn't have any health problems and been such a bright child until the liquor took hold and turned him into something strange and mysterious. So many times Nan had tried to understand her boy, and every time she had failed.