“A sound plan,” Aidan said. “Congratulations. May you know the wonder of having a daughter as loving, loyal, intelligent, and beautiful as you, darling Zee.” He kissed her forehead and then ushered Delia from their room.
Zylphia turned, cuddling against her husband’s chest. “I can’t believe it’s real,” she whispered. “I know it is, but I still can’t believe it’s real.”
He held her close, all that mattered in his world in his arms.
* * *
Geraldine peeked out the front window, as she needlessly plumped up a throw pillow on the settee. Attempting to find something to do in the front of the house, she looked around and frowned to find the living room clean, dusted, and ready for company. At the knock on the front door, she gave a small squeal and spun to race to it. She flung it open with a broad smile, her smile faltering at the sight of Zylphia. “Oh, hi, Zee,” she said, as she peered over her cousin’s shoulder.
Zylphia chuckled and slipped past her. “Don’t let your mother see how anxious you are for the arrival of the group from Darby.” Clarissa had told Zylphia one day, while working in the kitchen together, about Geraldine’s letter-writing courtship with Nickie.
Grabbing her cousin’s hands, Geraldine spun Zylphia around in a small circle. “How can I not be excited? I haven’t seen him in months and months. We’ve only had letters.”
Zylphia smiled with memories and said, “Courtship letters are wonderful.” She pulled her cousin in for a hug. “One day you’ll enjoy rereading them.” When Zylphia released Geraldine, she winked at her. “But I understand wanting to see him too. I remember my separation from Teddy, and it was horrible. And then, one day, he was in my arms again.”
“That’s what I dream about,” Geraldine said, then sighed as her mother called her name. She scampered to the back of the house to the kitchen with Zylphia on her heels. “Zee’s here, Mama!” she called out as she entered the kitchen. She attempted to quell her expectant anticipation and ducked her head as her mother watched her with a calculating gaze.
“I thought I heard her voice,” Clarissa said with a smile to her cousin. “I had hoped your mother would join us too. I haven’t had enough time with Delia.”
“Mother will be here shortly. She was playing with Breandan, and she said she’d come once he was taking his nap.”
“Oh, how wonderful for her to have time with him,” Clarissa said. “I would love for her to have known my children when they were young.” She looked to a small area in the kitchen where Little Colin played by himself contentedly. “I’m thankful she’s had so much time with Little Colin this summer.”
Geraldine stilled as she heard the neighbors talking and then sighed when no knock came at the door. She met her mother’s knowing gaze and flushed. “I’m excited, Mama.”
Clarissa ran a soothing hand down her daughter’s arm. “As you should be,” Clarissa said with a smile. As a resounding knock interrupted their conversation, Geraldine shrieked and spun to the front door, while her mother laughed. When Geraldine stared at the front of the house but did not move, Clarissa asked, “Should I answer it?”
Geraldine nodded and stood beside Zylphia, twisting her fingers. Zylphia scooped up Little Colin when he began to fret.
When they heard voices in the living room, Zylphia rushed to the front hall, leaving Geraldine behind. “Amelia! Sebastian!” Zylphia called out. Setting Little Colin to play on the ground, she flung her arms wide to pull Amelia in for a hug before kissing Sebastian’s cheek. “Oh, it’s been too long since I canvassed for the vote in Montana in ’14!”
Amelia beamed as she beheld Zylphia. “I should have realized you would be here too. It seems all the McLeods have traveled for this wedding.”
Zylphia laughed. “Any excuse is a good excuse to escape Boston in the summer.” She looked to the gaggle of children behind Amelia, Zylphia’s gaze focusing on the tall, handsome man framed in the doorway. “Nickie! I can’t believe how big you are.” She opened her arms, and soon she was enveloped in a group hug from Amelia and Sebastian’s children.
Geraldine had followed Zylphia on silent feet, quietly watching her cousin’s reunion with the Carlin family before she was pulled into hugs by Amelia and Sebastian.
“Zee,” Nicholas said in a deep baritone. “It’s wonderful to see you haven’t changed.” His gaze flit over her and then to the woman standing a step behind her, before focusing on Zylphia again. “I had hoped you’d be here.”
She grinned at them. “The only other place I’d rather be is Tennessee, but my good friend Rowena is there, sending me telegrams and reports about how the vote is expected to go.” She shrugged. “Besides, Tennessee in the summer is not nearly as pleasant as Montana.”
Everyone laughed and followed Clarissa into the sitting room. The comfortable room felt as though it were bursting at the seams with the arrival of Amelia, Sebastian, and their seven children.
Geraldine sidled closer to Nicholas, but he sat on the floor to play with Little Colin. She fought to maintain a placid expression but knew she was unsuccessful when her mother stared at her with concern. “Geraldine, will you fetch the lemonade from the icebox? Nickie, could you help her?”
Nicholas looked up with a startled, almost fearful expression and nodded. “Anne, come help too,” he said to his sister. The two of them talked and bickered as siblings do, largely ignoring Geraldine as they brought out two pitchers of lemonade and glasses.
Geraldine tried to stand beside Nicholas when they were in the dining room, after serving the lemonade, but he stepped aside, ostensibly to talk more with Zylphia. Swallowing her drink in two gulps, Geraldine moved to the kitchen and then the backyard, to hide in the shade as she fought a breaking heart.
Chapter 25
Araminta hefted Lily to her other hip as she entered the workshop through the ajar door. She paused a moment, as her eyes adjusted to the darker interior. “Jeremy,” she called out. She soothed Lily as she fussed and waited for Jeremy to walk toward her.
“Minta?” he called out, as he set aside a chisel and walked to her. “What’s the matter?” he asked, as he ran a hand over Lily’s back.
“Can you leave? Eleanor’s mother visited, and she was awful. I’ve never seen anyone so mean.” Her eyes filled with tears. “Eleanor needs you.”
“Where is she?” Jeremy asked, his voice panic laden.
“My house. Last I saw her, she was in her room.”
Jeremy squeezed Minta’s arm and raced from the workshop, almost barreling into a Mrs. Harrington. He sputtered his apologies before running to Eleanor. When he arrived at Colin’s, he raced up the front steps and barreled inside. He ran to the small room she’d been staying in and gasped in dismay to find her room empty. “No,” he whispered.
Looking around, he sprinted into the kitchen, where he leaned on the kitchen counter, gasping and panting as he caught his breath. After a moment, he poured himself a glass of water and stared out the kitchen window. He smiled with relief as he saw Eleanor outside, sitting on a blanket in the shade. After gulping down his water, he eased open the kitchen door. “My love,” he called out to her, as he walked toward her.
Her head jerked up, and tears coursed down her cheeks. “Jeremy,” she whispered. “I … What are you doing here? You should be at work.”
He knelt in front of her, his brows furrowed with concern. “Minta was worried about you. Came to fetch me from the workshop.”
“There was no need,” she whispered. When he touched her cheek reverently, she turned her face into his palm.
“There was every need. Your mother was here, and she abused you.” His jaw tightened with anger when he saw the truth of his words as he beheld the reddened area on her cheek. “She hit you?” As her shoulders slumped in defeat, he shook his head. “No, my love. Her abominable actions do not reflect on you. They are her shame. Not yours.”
“How can you say that?” she asked. “Something in me makes her act as she does.”
He
shook his head as he smiled at her with adoration and devotion. “No, my darling. It has nothing to do with you and everything to do with her.” He waited for her to nod her understanding. “Can you tell me what happened?”
Eleanor spoke in a low halting voice as she described her interaction with her mother. “I was so embarrassed to have Araminta see how my mother treats me. To see how little regard she has for me.”
“Her inability to see the treasure you are is an indication of her failings as a mother and as a person. Not yours.” He cupped her head. “What I find remarkable is that you are such an extraordinary woman, in spite of your mother.” He kissed her tenderly on her forehead. “In spite of your father.” He kissed one cheek. “In spite of your aunt.” He gently kissed her bruised cheek.
“Jeremy,” she whispered, as she fell forward into his arms, a sob bursting forward. “Before she came, I was sitting on my bed feeling sorry for myself.” She sniffled. “I’ll have no one on my side of the church at our wedding. No one will walk me down the aisle.” She flushed as her chagrined gaze flit to his. “Then, when she appeared here and acted so badly, I was irate with my mother. Told her I disavowed her, and she was never welcome in our home. I know they will not attend our wedding.”
“I’m so proud of you for standing up to her and for speaking your truth. I know we will have much more peace if you do break all ties with them, but I will not hold you to your vow if you decide in the future you would like a relationship with your mother.” He kissed her forehead again. “I know how strong the bonds of family can be.”
“Of a good family. Of a loving family,” she whispered, as she kissed his cheek.
Stroking a hand over her head, he murmured, “I’m glad Araminta was here for you. I’m so sorry that I wasn’t.” He groaned, holding her tightly to his chest as his fingers played in her long hair and caressed her back. “Oh, my love. My darling. I’m sorry. I never thought about your fears regarding the ceremony …” He kissed her head. “I’ve been consumed of dreaming about what will happen after we marry.” He sighed, easing her back to look into her eyes. When he saw her blush, he smiled. “I’m sorry for not considering how hard the ceremony itself could be on you.”
She shook her head. “I want to marry you. I want a life with you,” she whispered. “I’m being selfish.”
“No, you’re not. Everything you feel has merit. I want you to share with me how you feel. I want to find a way to make it better.”
“I’m acting like a foolish, self-centered bride. Worrying about myself as I envision walking down the aisle alone beside one side of the church that is vacant because the bride’s family can’t abide her marriage.”
He cupped her face, tilting her head until she met his entreating gaze. “Hush. Your concerns are never foolish. You are not selfish for having dreams and worries.” He ran a thumb over her soft skin. “Never speak of yourself like that, Ellie.” He waited until she nodded. “We’ll think of something, my love. I promise.” He squeezed her tightly to him, stilling when she gave a soft yelp of pain.
“Ellie?” he asked, as he ran a hand over her. “What is it?”
“Something stabbed me,” she said, pushing away from him and sitting up.
He flushed, pulling an object from his pocket. When she stared at it in confusion, he whispered, “It’s your hatpin. The one you lost the day we first met. The day I knocked you over.” As she continued to gape at him, his flush brightened.
“All this time, you’ve kept it?” she breathed, her hand rising to trace a feather-soft caress over his face.
“Yes.” Jeremy turned his face into her gentle caress. “At first, I told myself that I would return it to you the next time I saw you. I soon admitted to myself how I was lying, and I wanted to keep something of yours near me always.”
“How have I not been stabbed by it before? How does it not prick you?” she asked.
“I fashioned a small piece of cork to go on the end of it. It must have fallen off,” he said, his lips quirking with a smile as she watched him in wonder. His eyes shone with sincerity. “I love you.”
She gasped and then giggled as he tumbled them backward to lie on the grass, her head pillowed on his shoulder while she ran a hand over his chest. “I love you too, Jeremy.”
* * *
That evening Geraldine snuck out of her parents’ house to the backyard. She wandered to the rear corner, away from the light cast from the lamps near the upstairs window in her parents’ bedroom. She sat on the grass and fell backward, staring at the stars. She remembered Nickie writing about how bright the stars were down in Darby and wondered if they were truly that much brighter away from the meager city lights of Missoula. She sniffled as she thought about her unsatisfactory reunion with Nickie today.
Why had he avoided her from the moment he entered her house? He hadn’t even hugged her hello, unlike every other member of his family. A glance in her direction seemed more than she deserved. Unexpectedly her mother had attempted to help her, and he had foiled her mother too. A tear slipped out as she recalled her mother asking the two of them to go to the kitchen to fetch the lemonade in the icebox. However, Nicholas had insisted Anne come along, and he’d focused all his attention on his sister. As though Geraldine were beneath his notice.
Huffing out a frustrated breath, Geraldine swiped at her cheeks. She liked Anne, but Geraldine had desired a moment or two alone with Nicholas. Why couldn’t he understand that? Was everything he wrote in his letters a lie? Was she a fool to have believed him?
She froze upon hearing light footsteps in the backyard. Scooting farther into the shadow of the tree, she held her breath to see who would be bold enough to risk her father’s wrath. When the light shone on Nicholas skulking across the lawn, her breath caught. “Nickie?” she called out in a low voice.
His head jerked in her direction, and he smiled. He sat cross-legged in front of her, raising his hand and then dropping it to clasp it in front of him. “Deena,” he breathed. “You’re more beautiful than I remember.”
Shaking her head in confusion, she looked at him. “How can you say that? You ignored me from the moment you arrived.”
In an instant, he was on his knees in front of her, although his face was almost completely in shadows. “I never ignored you. I knew exactly where you were every moment.” He tilted his head. “Tell me you understand.”
She shook her head, her blue eyes filled with confusion and disillusionment. “No, I don’t. You wouldn’t hug me hello. You wouldn’t take my hand. You refused to speak with me. You wouldn’t be alone with me in the kitchen, as my mother suggested.”
He made a low growl and rubbed at the back of his head, an action she’d seen her father do when he was frustrated, since as far back as she could remember. An action Nickie most likely learned from his time with the McLeods as a boy.
“I promise you. I wanted to pull you into my arms and never let you go.” He swallowed. “But my parents aren’t aware of the extent of my attachment.”
She gasped, hitting him on his shoulder. “You were the one disappointed that I had yet to inform my parents of my interest in you. Why would you hide”—she fluttered her hand between them—“this from them?”
“Right as I was going to tell my mother, she talked about a friend of hers whose daughter married too young. She went on and on about how tragic it is for girls to marry too young. For girls to be interested in men too soon and then lose their ambition. She said she’d be very disappointed in me if I caused a woman with ambition and dreams to lose her way. That I should have more respect for the woman I’m interested in than to entice her to give up her dreams.” He ducked his head. “I lost my courage to tell her that I cared for you.”
Geraldine pulled her knees up to her chest, her long skirts covering her legs. “Would you want me to give up my dreams for you?”
Gripping her hand, he shook his head. “No! You know I don’t,” he rasped. “Or, at least, I hope you know I don’t. I’ve meant eve
ry word I’ve ever written you. I want you to go to university. To study for as long as you want. But I also want to know that we have a chance.” He shifted so his expression was visible in the light and looked at her with adoration and hope. “I dream that, even though you are far too good for me, and deserve more than a man working in a sawmill, that you would still take a chance on me.”
She made a sound of distress and moved to him, stilling before she threw her arms around his neck. “Oh, Nickie,” she whispered. “I was so afraid you had toyed with me in those letters. That you didn’t really mean what you had said.”
He smiled, cupping her silky cheek. “No, my Deena, no.” He leaned forward, his peppermint-tinged breath wafting over her. “For the past few months, I’ve only dreamt of you. The hope of us has eased my torment.” His breaths stuttered. “I won’t lie and say I don’t have times when the terrors sneak up on me.” He closed his eyes and turned his face into her palm as she cupped his cheek. “I do. But the thought of you, the memory of the words you’ve written in your letters, soothes the agony.”
“Oh, my Nickie,” she whispered. Her breath caught as he leaned forward, pressing his lips to hers in a chaste kiss. She kissed him with innocent passion and then gasped as he deepened the kiss.
After a few moments, he backed away to pull her into his arms. “If your parents have any sense, they are watching from the upstairs window. I have no desire for them to see any more of our courtship than necessary.”
She giggled and leaned farther into his embrace.
“Are we all right, my darling?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Although I would like to inform your mother that we are interested in each other.”
“After the wedding,” he agreed, sighing with pleasure as she settled against his chest.
* * *
Clarissa fought a smile as she watched her husband move with stealthy grace to the side of their bedroom window. The curtain rustled in the faint evening breeze, and he swore softly as he got tangled in it. “Gabe, quit spying on our daughter.”
Triumphant Love: Banished Saga, Book Nine Page 39
