“Rissa, why don’t you go on out and see to the dogs?” Ben asked his daughter as he came down into the living room where his daughter was curled up on the couch with a book. It was the same spot that he often found one of his daughters. Both were heavy readers, especially with little else to do for entertainment. “Give me about an hour,” he told her, glancing uneasily toward the door to the kitchen. He just hoped that Ruby hadn’t headed out somewhere. He needed to talk to her.
“But I’m readin’ my book,” Clarissa protested, looking up just as Ben turned his head to look back at her. He raised his eyebrows, and his ten year-old daughter got up with a huff and went to put her book back on the shelf, then crossed her arms over her chest as she headed for the back door and her sneakers. “Fine!” Rissa said, and Ben had to take a deep breath to keep his temper in check. She was ten, and just getting into that time period where things were likely to be difficult both for her and for her parents. He had to be understanding, even if he didn’t understand.
Ben was sure that Clarissa had heard the conversation between Ruby and Charlie. There was no possible way that she could have missed it, with Ruby shouting the way that she’d been. He could only hope that Rissa knew to keep her mouth shut and not to be spreading rumors about her sister. Charlie was sensitive enough right now without having anything else sparking her insecurities, and the last thing that she needed was to have Clarissa telling people what was going on with her pregnancy.
When Clarissa had left the room, and he’d heard the back door slam, Ben took a deep breath and went into the kitchen. Sure enough, Ruby was standing at the counter, putting together some dough for bread. The work inside was as never ending as the work he had to do on the homestead, and he didn’t want to take Ruby away from doing what she had to do. But when she’d slapped the dough into a bowl and covered it to rise, he cleared his throat. “I wanna talk to you in the garage,” he told his wife. They were going to be having a very serious talk, and he didn’t want to have Charlie overhearing it. His older daughter was feeling vulnerable enough without overhearing another fight between her parents.
