Part 1 (1/2)
Sweet Annie.
CHERYL ST.JOHN.
Dedicated to my friend Anita Baker, who, though she hasn't walked since 1974, has run a good race, and fought a good fight.
She has enriched the life of each person who knows her.
I look forward to dancing together on streets of gold.
Prologue.
Copper Creek, Colorado.
1878.
The expansive spring sky was that vibrant shade of purest blue that always made Annie's chest ache with an unexplainable sadness. The color stretched in all directions like a heavenly canopy dotted by only the merest whispers of fleecy white clouds. Surely, if a person stood on one of those snow-capped mountain-tops in the distance, he could reach out and touch that mysterious and elusive glory.
Sounds of laughter and music slowly drew her attention back to earth, back to the grown-ups scattered on her parents' lush green lawn in chattering cl.u.s.ters. She observed the boisterous children who dashed about, playing games of tag and hide-and-seek.
Several were intent on an impa.s.sioned battle of croquet beneath the sun-filtering leaves of the ancient aspens. Annie watched with a familiar mixture of yearning and bereavement in her ten-year-old heart.
”Are you warm enough, darling?” Her mother's concerned voice wasn't enough to divert her attention from the game, but she nodded in reply.
”Would you like some more lemonade?”
”No, thank you. Can you push me a little closer to the players, Mama?”
”One of those wooden b.a.l.l.s might fly up and strike you,” her mother said in her most discouraging tone. ”You're safer right here.”
”I got out of my chair this morning, and I made it to my dressing table all by myself,” she said, knowing the effort would displease her mother, but desperate to a.s.sure her she wasn't completely helpless. ”I know I could stand under one of the trees there for a while. I could hold on to it. Please, Mama? Please let me?”
Mildred Sweet.w.a.ter tucked the plush lap robe more tightly around Annie's legs. ”I'll not have you upsetting yourself this way, child. You know you can't walk and play like other children. There are roots sticking above the ground, and you could trip and hurt yourself. No more foolish talk like that. You're safe in your chair. Hold your sweet new doll. There-isn't she the prettiest thing?” Mother glanced about and spotted Annie's brother. ”Burdell, come and keep your sister company.”
The boy obediently moved to stand beside Annie's wheelchair, and Mildred glided gracefully back into the crowd.
”You don't have to stand there, Burdy,” she told him with a disgusted wave of her hand. ”Go on and have fun with your friends.”
No one but Annie could have called him by that nickname without getting a fist in the teeth. At sixteen he was already taller and broader than their father, and possessed a chip the size of Colorado on his shoulder. But he never treated Annie with anything less than devotion. ”I don't mind,” he replied. ”I know it must be hard sittin' in that chair all the time. It's something you're going to have to accept. I wish it wasn't so.”
Annie sighed, glad for his company and his loyalty, but resentful that he looked at her the same way their parents did. She glanced distractedly at the delicate Dresden doll in her lap-an addition to the ponderous collection that already ladened the window seat in her room.
He stayed beside her until she noticed his friends glancing their way, and she shooed him off to join them. The gangly boys tramped toward the creek, and she envied them their independence.
Sometime later, two riders approached the house. They tethered their horses near the gate and walked toward the festivities. One was Gilbert Chapman, a man she'd seen visit her parents before. The other was an unfamiliar lanky young man who looked younger than Burdell. Annie observed with interest as Mr. Chapman introduced the boy to her parents and a small gathering, then moved on to talk with someone else.
Left alone, the young man observed the croquet game for a few minutes, then spotted her. Hands jammed in the pockets of his trousers, he ambled his way to where she sat. Compared to her brother's compact st.u.r.diness, he seemed all legs and angles and booted feet. A breeze caught his s.h.i.+ny black hair and lifted the locks away from his forehead. ”Hey,” he said.
Annie looked up into eyes as bright and blue as the sky. ”h.e.l.lo. I haven't seen you before. What's your name?”
”Luke Carpenter. I'm visiting my Uncle Gil. What's yours?”
”Annie. This is my birthday party.”
”Happy birthday. Pretty doll.”
”Thanks. That your uncle's horse?”
”No, he's mine.”
”What's his name?”
”Wrangler. He's a Swedish Warmblood. They were bred as cavalry horses originally. Part Spanish, part oriental.”
”You sure know a lot about horses.”
”Some.”
”So, he's from Sweden?”
He chuckled, and a long dimple creased his lean cheek. ”Nah. He's from Nebraska. Wanna see 'im up close?”
”Oh! Can I?”
”Sure. What's wrong with you?” he asked as he pushed her chair toward the gate. ”I mean, why can't you walk?”
”I was born with a misproportioned limb,” she said, knowing as she spoke them, even before he leaned forward to see her face and raised a brow, that her mother's fancy words sounded ridiculous. ”A gimp leg,” she clarified. Her mother would have a fit of apoplexy at the coa.r.s.e term.
”Oh,” he said simply.
”Mama and Papa have had me to all the best doctors in the East. There isn't an operation that can fix what's wrong. My bones aren't made right in my hip.”
”Does it hurt?”
”No. I can walk a little, but it's clumsy and Mama says I shouldn't embarra.s.s myself.”
Her chair came to a stop a few feet from the horse. ”Can you ride?”
She gaped up at him with surprise, and a hopefulness she hadn't dreamed sprang up so strong, her chest hurt. ”I don't know. Is it dangerous?”
”No more dangerous than most things, I guess.”
She stared up at the enormous s.h.i.+ny brown animal wistfully. Oh, what a birthday it would be if she could ride him! Her, lame Annie Sweet.w.a.ter, on a horse. Oh, glory be! ”Can I see if I can sit on him?”
He glanced back at the party; no one was paying them any attention. ”Reckon so. How will we get you up there?”