Redemption by Carolyn Davidson Read Free Book Online

he asked. “I know I don’t tell you often, but I do.”
    “I don’t remember you ever tellin’ me that,” Jason said bluntly. “You just holler a lot. Especially when we get a new housekeeper.”
    “Yes, I suppose I do,” Jake said. Frustration struck him a low blow as he shut the door, lending it a push that vibrated through the floorboards. He turned his chair back to the parlor and rolled to his desk. The single sheet of paper lay there with but a single word written on the top line. Without a word, he picked it up and crumpled it in his hand.
    He would not, could not ask the woman to takeJason in hand. It would not only ruin her reputation to be hanging around his house, but make him look like an absolute failure as a father. He could not transfer his responsibility so readily, let her take the boy shopping, tend to his needs. Some way, he’d figure out another plan.
    “I KNEW the meaning of it, Pa.” Jason’s eyes were bright with the joy of accomplishment as he waved his spelling paper before Jake’s face. “See, there it is. Exemplary . I knew how to spell it, too.”
    The moments spent with the boy late last evening had borne results, Jake thought, and for a moment he shared Jason’s exhilaration. The spelling paper bore a bright red score at its top. An A was written with a flourish there, and Jake looked at the precise lines of the grade Miss Merriweather had given the boy.
    “I’m proud of you, son,” Jake said, holding the paper in his lap. He wondered when he’d last said those words to the boy.
    “Are you, Pa? Really?” The brown shirt was dingy from wear. How many days had Jason donned it early in the morning. Four? It exuded an odor of boyish sweat and a definite doggy smell.
    “I think you might want to put that shirt in the trash bin,” Jake told him. “How about you taking a bath today?”
    “A bath?” Jason cringed. “It’s only Thursday, Pa. I took a bath last Saturday.”
    “No,” Jake said, correcting him. “It was a week ago Saturday, I believe.”
    “I don’t think it’s healthy to be scrubbin’ up all the time,” Jason said earnestly. “It lets all the germs into your skin.”
    “What do you know about germs?” And where on earth had he gotten that idea?
    “Miss Merriweather has been teachin’ us about science stuff.”
    “Well, if you ask your teacher, I’m sure she’ll tell you that a little soap and water never hurt anyone.” His words were firm, implying a stance he would not budge from, and Jason appeared to get the message.
    “Do I hafta get the tub out? Or can I just wash in the basin like you do?”
    “I wash in the basin because I can’t get in and out of the tub easily,” Jake told him, and wished for a moment that he might soak his body beneath hot water and allow the warmth to penetrate his skin.
    “I could help you,” Jason offered, and Jake was hard put not to smile at the eager offer. The boy would collapse under his father’s weight should he attempt such a project.
    “Let’s just concentrate on your own.”
    Jason’s shoulders slumped as the ultimatum wasdelivered, and he trudged away toward the kitchen. “I’ll get out the kettles to heat the water,” he muttered.
    Then Jake could only hold his breath and watch as his son poured the hot water into the round wash tub. The chance of Jason being scalded was slim, since they only heated the water until it was barely hot enough to allow steam to rise. The danger was in the kettles, and the fact that Jason was not tall enough to handle them readily.
    Another housekeeper was becoming a necessity, Jake decided. The boy was in need of help. He scanned his mind for another prospect for the job, and came up blank. As Cord had said, he’d already gone through all the widow ladies and the women who were willing to work outside their own homes. His reputation had been blackened by the stories those women told—tales of his foul moods, the angry tirades he’d aimed in their direction