In Wilderness Found

Chapter 12: This Man Is Not Abner

“Let me help.”

“Absolutely not.”

Madison crosses her arms over her chest and her eyebrows furrow.

“I need to earn my stay!” She tells him, exasperated. 

A deep frown is etched onto Ellis’ face as he attaches the plow to Guilford, his horse. “You don’t. You’re a guest.”

The early morning sun sends soft rays down around the farm as Madison and Ellis bicker beside his crop field. 

She lets out a dramatic sigh. “And a very unexpected one, so I should pitch in. You don’t think I can handle a little garden work?”

He looks at her now, equally exasperated as he crosses his arms over his own chest. “I’m sure you can. But you’re still a guest, no matter how unexpected.”

He takes in the aggravated look plastered across Madison’s soft features. Although he doesn’t know her very well, he somehow knows that she won’t give in. “Listen - if you’re going to insist on helping, why don’t you gather the eggs for me?”

Madison wants to roll her eyes at the effortless chore he’s given her, but she nods in agreement. She tries not to feel offended that he won’t let her plow up the fresh new row of soil in his field; she hopes that he’s just being polite and not just denying her because he thinks she’s incompetent. 

As soon as Madison heads to the barn to get a basket for the eggs, Ellis turns toward the plow. It’s not that he doesn’t think Madison could do it. He appreciates her knowledge of farm work and he knows she’s perfectly capable of using the plow, but he just doesn’t really want her to. 

He takes the rough, splintered handles into his gloved hands and gets to work. The fragmented wood rubs painfully against his palms with every push, despite the gloves, but he’s used to it.

In the barn, Gal follows Madison’s every move while she gathers the eggs from the hens. Once she’s successfully plucked up eight eggs, she takes them inside Ellis’ small root cellar beside the cabin. 

She gently wraps them in burlap and sticks them in a larger basket. That menial chore didn’t take quite as long as she’d wanted it to. She needs to keep herself distracted, or she’ll be forced to come up with a plan for leaving this place, which she doesn’t quite feel ready to conquer yet. 

Madison slips out of the cellar and walks to the field where Ellis is laboriously following behind Guilford with the old plow. Sweat has already started to bead on his brow, and he wipes the back of his hand across his glistening face.

“Got the eggs. Need help with anything else?” She pipes up.

Ellis turns to stare at her with his lips pressed together in a frustrated line. “No.”

She ignores him and starts to look around the farm from where she stands. An overgrown apple tree sits close to the field and she points to it. “That needs trimmed back. It’s a little late, but it will be blooming any day now.”

“Alright?” He huffs.

“Got any shears? I can do it.”

Ellis sighs deeply. “You really don’t need to do that.”

“I want to. Tell me where I can find a stool and some shears and I’ll be out of your way for at least an hour.”

Ellis debates arguing with her, but he ultimately chooses defeat. “Fine. My tools are in the barn. There’s a footstool in there, too.” 

Madison finds the metal shears easily, and she takes them off their spot on the barn wall. Ellis keeps his tools orderly, and she is somehow not surprised by that.