Beyond These Hills by Sandra Robbins Page B

respectful to them—just like they were with Andrew today. I’ve seen the strain it’s put on Poppa at times, and I wondered why he kept being so nice. Now I understand.”
    â€œYour pa is a fine man, Laurel. I knowed he was gonna be when he was a little boy and tryin’ so hard to be the man of his family after his pa died. This argument with the government’s been hard on him, maybe more so than anybody else in the Cove. Because deep down he knows we won’t win.” She paused and stared back at her mountains. “So we keep tryin’ to hang on to what’s ours, but we don’t take it out on people like Andrew. Just try and remember Andrew didn’t make this here problem anymore than we did. We just happen to have dif’rent notions about the outcome. But no matter what happens when this thing is settled, I want folks to say we acted like Christ in ev’rything we did.”
    Laurel scooted out of her chair and eased onto the floor at Granny’s feet. She leaned forward and laid her head in Granny’s lap like she’d done so often when she was a little girl. The soft stroke of Granny’s fingers on her hair filled her with a longing for childhood days when she thought her family could make everything in her world right.
    No matter how much she wished, though, she wasn’t a child anymore. She was a woman with three strong women in her life. Maybe someday she would be like her grandmother, mother, and Granny. She hoped so.
    â€œThank you, Granny. You’ve given me a lot to think about.”
    Maybe it was possible for her and Andrew to be friends. There was something about the young man from Virginia that fascinated her. At least she’d thought so before she knew who he really was. Now she knew why he had come to the Cove and her emotions were tangled in a heated battle. Her head told her to keep her distance from the young man whose brooding eyes made her pulse race, but her heart still whispered that her first impression had been right.

Chapter 6
    O n Monday morning Andrew whistled a familiar tune as he drove toward the farm he’d chosen for his first visit. A map of Cades Cove with the locations of the farms still to be purchased lay in his briefcase. He’d studied it so much he knew exactly where every holdout lived. This morning’s visit would be to the Ezra Nash farm. The Nash family had farmed their land for generations and Ezra had been outspoken with other agents who’d tried to talk with him. Andrew hoped today would be different.
    He pulled into the yard of the neat cabin and looked around. It sat at the end of a road off the main loop. The view of the mountains from the yard was one of the most magnificent he’d seen since arriving in the Cove. He stepped out of the car and took note of the outbuildings. A barn and what he supposed to be a henhouse and a smokehouse sat to the rear of the cabin. A long open-sided shed in the field next to the house looked like it contained beehives. He’d heard that some of the best honey in the mountains came from Cades Cove, and he made a note to get some before he went back home.
    Andrew climbed the steps to the front porch and peered through the screen door. The front door stood open with a cast iron doorstop pressing it against the inside wall. Andrew knocked and called out. “Hello, anybody home?”
    Footsteps sounded from the back of the cabin and a woman appeared behind the screen. She wiped her hands on her apron and stared at him. “Can I help you?”
    â€œMrs. Nash?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œI’m Andrew Brady with the Park Service. I need to talk to your husband. Is he home?”
    Her eyes narrowed and she glanced over her shoulder. “Ezra, somebody from the Park Service here to see you.”
    A tall man wearing overalls appeared next to her. “I’m Ezra Nash. You wantin’ to see me?”
    Andrew smiled. “Yes sir. I’m