Cast Iron Butterfly

Chapter 4- Debts to be Repaid

Chapter 4

Hazel berated herself for nearly an hour before she made it home. There in the yard she saw her sister Sara playing with the neighbor’s dog.

“Sara, you should not be out playing with that animal, you know how it upsets your breathing so,” Hazel said lovingly to her sister. Sara looked up at her sister from the ground with guilty eyes.

“I know and I am sorry, but he is so fluffy and fun,” Sarah told her sister as if that was excuse enough.

“Go on now and wash up, you can help me fix the meal,” Hazel told Sara gruffly. Sara jumped to her feet and followed instruction. Oh the meal, Hazel would have to be very careful of the portions due to the lack of food left. The girls were laughing and singing as they were setting the meager meal on the table, they both became concerned when they realized that their father had not come from work yet. Hazel went outside and walked to the shed where her father did his work as a blacksmith. She could hear no sounds of metal clanging as she usually did. Swinging the small door open she noted the small empty shed; her father was nowhere in sight.

Hazel went back to the house and fed Sara and tried to put on a happy face. Sara was old enough at 15 to know that something was wrong for her father to not be at the evening meal. The girls heard hoof beats and both raced to the door to see her father climbing down from his horse. His face looked morose, but when he noticed his girls he put a smile on just a little late to pass off as all being well.

After Sara had went to bed that night, Hazel snuck back to the kitchen where her father sat with a bottle of whiskey in hand; whiskey for her father was a rarity.

“Papa, what happened today, where were you?” she questioned him cautiously.

“Oh dear Hazel so much like your momma, you have her spirit you know,” he said sadly as he looked at the half empty bottle of booze. Hazel looked at her father expectantly; he nodded and began talking again. “Haz, I have done something terrible. I went to McDougal for a loan a few months back when winter was just beginning and I cannot afford to pay it back. I went to see him today to beg him more time to repay the loan, but he flat out refused me. He will be here tomorrow to take any possessions he believes is worth repayment, if we have any. I have no way to pay him Hazel, none. I fear what the man will do. The only thing of any value we own is my tools and my horse; both of which we need to survive at all even for a single week,” her father told her dejectedly.

“Oh Papa, I can try to find some work…maybe as a maid or something. You have taken care of us all this time. I will find a way,” Hazel said bluffing. She had no way to make money, no way at all. Suddenly, the deep timber of that terrible man came to her about working something out. Could she sell herself to take care of her family? Her stomach turned flip flops just at the thought of lying with the man and she feared she may vomit.

The following day, Hazel would swear that the day itself was mocking her. The sky was blue without a cloud in sight and the sun was shining on everything with a cheery disposition. Her father would be humiliated today and even if no one would see the exchange it would rot in her father’s soul, she knew. She heaved herself up from her straw bed and would her hair in a bun. As she walked to the nearby creek she thought about what her mother might have done faced with this dilemma. From the memories her father had shared, she believed her mother would have stood straight and faced whatever came her way. She leaned down into the clear running, freezing cold creek and splashed her face, scrubbing at it a little.

Meanwhile back at her home…

McDougal was disgusted by the shack of a home this Thomas lived in. The man only had a few metal working tools and an old mare that wasn’t worth the feed she would require.

“Do you have daughters or a wife? I could take one of them on as a maid and she could serve my home until your debt is repaid,” McDougal asked hoping the man had a wife or daughter that could come work for him to clear up this mess. No man borrowed from McDougal and not repaid it and it would not start with Thomas, he would duel with the man first and the man would die.

“My wife passed many years ago, sir. I have two daughters; Sara and Hazel,” Thomas informed McDougal, but how could he allow this monster of a man to take on of his little girls; especially Sara who is always sickly, he would beat her certainly when she could not work. At that moment Sara came from the house looking strong as could be. “This is my daughter Sara,” Thomas told McDougal reluctantly. McDougal appraised her much as he did the horse. The girl was small and skin and bones, but she looked strong enough to be a mere maid, McDougal thought.

“She will do, she can be a maid in my home until your debt has been paid,” Thomas and Sara both looked horrified and scared. Just at the moment that McDougal spoke Hazel approached and heard his statement. She recognized him, it was the same man who approached her in the forest. Like hell, he would be taking her sister; her 15 year old baby.

“She is sickly most of the time. I will take her place in any debt that father owes,” Hazel claimed with her chin up. It was easy to show this bravado when she was saving her baby sister and not worrying about the consequences that would come later.

“Ah, yes my little thief,” McDougal exclaimed as he dismounted his steed.

“I beg your pardon,” Thomas said as he stepped forward to defend his daughter. Hazel caught his arm.

“No, he is right Papa, I was snipping herbs for Sara’s cough and I was on his land,” Thomas once again looked horrified, but now McDougal for a brief moment looked chagrined but no one noticed as they were all in their own world.

“Hazel how could you?” her father started to reprimand.

“Papa you know how bad her cough gets in the winter. We have all barely slept in a week. I didn’t think anyone would mind a few snipping of herbs. I am so sorry,” she said putting her head down ashamedly. McDougal was astounded at the way the girl bowed down to her father’s small reprimand. Mcdougal regained his thought process and pulled the rolled parchment from his saddlebags. He handed the parchment to Hazel.

“The herbs, I had cook to dry them properly for you, I was hoping to run across you again and give them to you. I noticed the herbs you were after and the ones you had dropped. These did not come from my land,” he said gruffly. He turned back to Thomas. “Hazel will be coming with me directly today after she has had time to make the medicine for the girl,” McDougal stated. There was no room for argument. His statement was final.