The Rightful Heir

by Angel Moore

  “You need to forgive your mother. It’s the only way to move forward with your life. Hurt and anger, even bitterness, will keep you trapped in the past. Bitterness is a root that chokes the life out of your heart.”

  “She kept me away from here. From Grump. I might even have gotten to know you without the strife of the inheritance hindering our friendship if she’d been open with me.”

  “Forgive her and remember the good things. There had to be good things.” She watched his face as his mind searched for and found things that made him smile. “No one should only be remembered for the bad they’ve done.”

  She sat at the desk. “I’ll write the article now, if you don’t mind. Then I’ll get started clearing out my things.”

  “There’s no rush.”

  “Just the same, it has to be done.” She pulled her pencil from its place over her ear and opened her notes.

  Even with her head bowed over the desk, she could see his restlessness as he moved around the office doing one thing and then another.

  Unable to focus on the article without her mind wandering to her uncertain future, Mary Lou took a full hour to complete the story. She slid it under the magnifying glass on the desk.

  “I’ve finished.” The finality of the words hit her. She was done. Finished. What was next?

  * * *

  Jared came downstairs after lunch to find Mary Lou removing her personal belongings from the desk. Her movements were deliberate and steady. Unlike his heart that quivered in his chest at the thought of her leaving. But there was nothing he could do. He’d known she wouldn’t stay, but he’d offered anyway. He couldn’t help himself.

  “You don’t have to do that now.” He sat on the front corner of the desk while she sat behind it with the drawers open and papers askew.

  “I do.” She put more papers on the desktop. “For me. I have to prepare for the next stage of my life.” She stopped for a moment. “Whatever that may be.”

  He caught sight of her lists among the things she stacked. “Did you finish the things on your lists?”

  “Most of them.”

  He pulled them free of the other papers. “You accomplished everything on this one.” He held up the list about getting Andrew released and writing the Christmas articles.

  “I don’t have to finish the other things.”

  She reached for the paper but he read aloud, “‘Find somewhere to live in case the judge gives Jared the paper. Search for a new job. Save money for the time between jobs. Deep clean the house before moving out.’” The more he read, the more he hated this day.

  “You’re embarrassing me.” She sat in the chair, watching him read her deepest fears. The ones he’d brought into reality.

  “You have nothing to be embarrassed about. I’m the one who put you in this position.”

  Mary Lou shook her head. “What else could you do?”

  He didn’t know what he could have done differently, but he wanted her to know he’d tried to find a way to keep from hurting her. He went to the composing table and got his journal. He put it in her hand.

  “Open that to any page and read. I’ve read your deepest concerns. You should read mine.”

  “I don’t want to.” She pushed the book back at him.

  “I’ll read them to you.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  “‘Find a way to make Mary Lou smile. Practice spelling. Ask Tucker Barlow about hiring Andrew even if he isn’t cleared. Find a way to kiss Mary Lou again.’”

  “Stop, Jared. We can’t go back there. I told you it would tear us both apart.” She pulled a key from her reticule and opened the locked drawer on the left side of the desk. Another stack of papers from the drawer joined the ones teetering on the desk next to a rolled parchment tied with string.

  “Why do you still have that?” He toyed with the string that held her copy of the deed to the Record.

  Mary Lou sat back in the chair. There it was again—the fresh sadness of loss. “It’s not valid anymore, but Judge Sawyer left it on the desk. I want to keep it as a memento of what can be achieved by hard work.” She pulled several of her notebooks from the drawer and held them in her lap, seemingly trapped in the memories they held.

  “Can I help you?” He stood. Watching her felt so awkward, not helping seemed unkind, and offering to help seemed heartless. There was no good answer.

  “No, thank you. I’ll have it all out of your way in a few minutes.” She swooped her hands across the desk to rake the piles of paper into some sort of order. One handful at a time, she added them to a small crate by the desk. She reached out again and the deed rolled onto the floor and under the desk.

  “Let me get it.” Before he had time to bend, she was on her knees under the desk. She grabbed the deed and banged her head on her way out from under the desk. “Ouch!”

  Jared knelt beside her to see if she was injured. “Let me see.”

  “You don’t have to help me.” She sat on the floor, bent over under the desk and holding the crown of her head.

  “Please, Mary Lou—” He tried again but she cut him off.

  “What is this?”

  He twisted to see what she was pointing at under the top of the desk. “It looks like a drawer.” He leaned out to look at the drawer side of the desk. “There is no front for this compartment.”

  She ran her hands along the edges of the small boxlike shape. On the third side she stopped and reversed direction. “I think I found a keyhole.”

  “Let me see.”

  She laughed. “Really? There’s not enough room for me under here, and you’re already pushing in too close.”

  He didn’t want to, but he backed away. “Do you have a key for that?”

  “I didn’t know this existed.” She fumbled with the key that opened the drawer on the front of the desk. “This one doesn’t work.”

  “Let me try.” He held out his hand.

  “I’ll let you look at the key, but I promise you it doesn’t work.” She showed him the key in her open palm.

  “Try the other end.” It was intricate and much smaller than the opposite end.

  “Why?”

  “Just try it. Trust me.”

  It took a bit of maneuvering, but she got the key into the lock. “You were right.” She tugged on the box and it dropped into her hands. She passed it out to him.

  He left her under the desk and sat in the chair to explore the contents of the secret compartment. “There are several things in here. Photos of my parents. And Grump.” He became absorbed in the treasures she’d found until she came out from under the desk on her knees.

  He offered his hand to help her up but she refused. “I’m fine.” She pivoted to use the desk to pull up to her feet, and then he saw it. She was trying to tuck something into the pocket of her skirt.

  “What is that?”

  “It’s nothing.” She faced him and held something behind her back.

  “What did you tell me about always being honest?”

  “This is something, but it’s mine. It was wedged between the box and the desk. It’s private, and I don’t wish to share it.”

  He pointed at his journal where it lay across her lists. “We’ve already shared our private thoughts.”

  “This is different.” She went to step around him and her skirt snagged on the crate that held her papers, tripping her.

  Jared caught her in his arms and the paper she held fell to the floor. He made sure she was steady on her feet and bent to pick up the document. As if drawn by a force he couldn’t resist, his eyes fell on the words at the top of the page.

  Last Will and Testament.

  He looked up at her.

  “Don’t read it. It doesn’t matter.”

  He unfolded the pape
r to see his grandfather’s name and last wishes. The wording of the document was much like the will he’d given to Judge Sawyer. The signature was the same. He was certain of it. And according to the date, it was only three years old.

  “Mary Lou, Grump gave the paper to you.” A weight like none he’d ever known lifted from him. He took a deep breath. The first one since the judge had ruled in his favor.

  “It doesn’t matter. Mr. Ivy wanted you to have it. I was only a second choice to a man who had no one else.” She shrugged one shoulder. “He’d rather have had you.”

  “There’s a condition on your inheriting. ‘Mary Lou Ellison as sole heir to all my earthly possessions, including the Pine Haven Record, conditioned upon the inclusion of my grandson, Jared Benjamin Ivy, as joint heir should he ever return to Pine Haven.’”

  Jared placed the will on the desk and stepped close to her. He put his hands on her elbows and grazed the outside of her arms with his palms coming to rest on her shoulders. “I’m glad he had you. You are sunshine and joy. Spunky and fun. A man with you in his life will always be a happy man. No sorrow can live in your presence.”

  Her breath caught in her throat and he took a step nearer to her. “Don’t you see what this means, Mary Lou?” He moved his fingertips up the curve of her neck to her cheeks. “Grump wanted us both to have the Record.” He laughed. A warm laugh that came from his heart. “He knew we needed to be together. By leaving his legacy to both of us, he bound us to each other with his love.” Jared raised his eyebrows. “He knew the two people he loved most in the world were meant to be together.”

  Her words were barely more than a whisper and her eyes glistened in the afternoon light. “How could he know that?”

  “Maybe he thought that as much as he loved you, I would love you, too. He was right. I do love you, Mary Lou.”

  “You do? I don’t know how he could have known I would love you—but I do.” She reinforced her words with a nod and her eyes grew wide.

  Jared smiled. “Doc Willis reminded me that God is in the details.” He leaned closer still. “I’m very glad He is.”

  He met her lips with his and she wrapped her hands around his shoulders.

  The kiss she shared with him was filled with her side of the story. A story the two of them would share for a lifetime. A story not meant for the Pine Haven Record but sure to be told to their grandchildren. A story of how Grump played matchmaker.

  Epilogue

  Mary Lou and Jared arrived at the Christmas Eve social about a half hour before it was scheduled to begin.

  She found it hard to believe it had been over a month since they’d settled the ownership of the Pine Haven Record. The afternoon she’d found the second will, the sheriff had come by the paper and told them that Judge Sawyer had missed the train. It seemed the conductor had been more concerned about his schedule than an unhappy judge. The delay had allowed Judge Sawyer to amend his decree. He’d met them at the land office and ensured the new deed was drawn up to reflect their joint ownership.

  Jared left Mary Lou just inside the door and went to interview Mr. Willis, the owner of the barn, for the article they would write about the social.

  She made notes about the decorations Peggy Dismuke and a group of ladies from the church had used to turn the Circle W barn into a festive setting for the town to celebrate Christmas.

  Large wreaths of green adorned with red bows hung over the doors at the front and back of the barn. The children of Pine Haven had made paper chains and cut out stars that hung between the beams that supported the loft. Lanterns lit the interior with a soft, warm glow. Pinecones and berries were nestled in lush greenery on the serving tables.

  Jasmine Willis stood at the bottom of a ladder and handed Doc Willis a sprig of mistletoe tied with ribbon. He hung it on a nail on the beam that crossed the center of the barn.

  Mary Lou stood by the punch table and swayed to the cheerful music as the band practiced one final time before the guests would arrive. She jumped when Jared came up behind her and whispered in her ear, “You look lovely tonight, Miss Ellison.”

  “You really shouldn’t startle me like that, Jared.”

  “Well, the only way I know for you to stop being startled is for you to get used to having me near.”

  He led her to a chair. “I’d like to talk to you about something important.”

  “You would?” She strained to look up at him. “Then why don’t you come down here where we’ll be eye to eye.”

  He nodded. “I think I can manage that.” He knelt on one knee in front of her. The music slowed and faded to silence as the musicians saw what he was doing. The few workers who were putting the finishing touches on the decor turned to watch.

  Mary Lou couldn’t breathe. He took her left hand in his and held up a beautiful ring with an oval emerald at its peak pinched between the thumb and forefinger of his other hand.

  “Mary Lou, would you like to wear this?” He slid it on her finger. “For the rest of our lives?”

  She wrapped him in a hug. “Yes! Yes!” She didn’t loosen her grip when he stood and lifted her to her feet.

  Andrew arrived just in time to witness the moment and called out from the doorway of the barn. “It’s about time you kept your promise to take care of her!”

  Everyone laughed and resumed their work as the band played a lively tune.

  Mary Lou relaxed her arms enough to look into Jared’s face, but she didn’t release him.

  He winked at her. “Were you surprised?”

  “You have my permission to surprise me anytime you want to, Mr. Ivy.”

  He got punch for both of them and they sat close, talking for ages about the best time for a wedding. He kept saying New Year’s Eve, while she extoled the romance of a Valentine wedding.

  She had every intention of letting him have his way. But she wouldn’t tell him just yet.

  Several people stopped by during the course of the evening to congratulate Jared and offer her their best wishes.

  Darkness had fallen outside and Mary Lou checked her watch for the time. She was about to close the cover when Jared reached for it. “May I?”

  “What is it? You’ve seen this watch every day since you moved to Pine Haven.”

  “Where did you get it?” He ran his finger across the carving on the outside of the pendant where it hung at shoulder height, pinned to her cape.

  “Your grandfather gave it to me on my twenty-first birthday.”

  Jared smiled that smile that told her he was discovering something deeper than a surface story. “Is it engraved?”

  She was puzzled now. “Yes.”

  He pulled his watch from his pocket and opened it. “My mother gave this to me when she was dying. She said Grump had sent it for my twenty-first birthday but she’d hidden it.” He held it out for her to see. “Does yours have the same inscription as mine?”

  She almost cried when she read, A broken heart is an open heart.

  Unable to speak, she nodded.

  “So when I said Grump knew we needed to be together, I think he knew our hearts would be broken in the process.”

  “He must have.” She was amazed at how God had taken her on a journey from being a young girl no one wanted to the happiest of women with a heart that had to be broken so it could expand enough to hold all the love that would come into her life.

  “Would you care to dance, Miss Ellison?” He could still make her blush with his charm.

  “I would like that very much.”

  As they twirled around the barn floor on the Circle W Ranch with almost everyone in Pine Haven, Mary Lou felt wrapped up in a world all her own. Jared led them to the center of the floor and looked up at the mistletoe. She followed his gaze and at her smile he dropped a tender kiss on her lips.

  He looked in
to her eyes, with one hand on her waist and the other holding her hand aloft. “We got off to such a rocky start. When did you decide you might be able to like me?”

  “You may not believe it.” She let him spin her and came back into his arms.

  “Try me.”

  “When I saw you weeping at Mr. Ivy’s grave. I knew then what a caring man you are.”

  “It was so hard to come here and find that he was gone. I wanted to know him and share his legacy with him.”

  Mary Lou smiled up at Jared. “His legacy is in good hands.”

  * * * * *

  If you enjoyed THE RIGHTFUL HEIR, look for these other Love Inspired Historical titles by Angel Moore.

  CONVENIENTLY WED

  THE MARRIAGE BARGAIN

  Find more great reads at www.LoveInspired.com

  Keep reading for an excerpt from MONTANA COWBOY DADDY by Linda Ford.

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  Dear Reader,

  Life can turn suddenly and present an uncertain future.

  Without Grump’s love for Jared and Mary Lou, they would never have met. The tapestry of God’s plan is bigger than we can see from our finite perspective. Grump’s commitment to build the newspaper to provide for the people he loved ultimately became a legacy bigger than he’d ever imagined.

  Thank you for reading The Rightful Heir. I hope you enjoyed the characters’ journey from suspicion and mistrust to faith and commitment—and to their happily-ever-after.

  Please look for another Pine Haven story soon.

  I’d love to hear from you. You can reach me through my website at angelmoorebooks.com. You’ll find the latest news and links to connect with me on social media.

  May God bless and guide you through life’s situations with His wisdom and peace.

  Angel Moore

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