Love Inspired Historical February 2016 Box Set

by Karen Kirst

  That was because she had been one of their own. Perhaps a part of her always would be. Peppin was the one place in all of their travels that had felt like home to her. Despite the changes it had been through in the five years since she’d left, it had still felt that way when she’d visited there. She wasn’t entirely sure her mother shared that feeling. “You must be pretty convinced this is the right thing to do if you’re willing to return to Peppin.”

  “What I’m not willing to do is lose you again.” The emotion in Rose’s voice made Adelaide reach out to take her hand. To Adelaide’s surprise, Rose clung to it. “I know we don’t always get along, but that is truly something I couldn’t bear. Those few hours you were missing were some of the hardest I’ve ever lived. Now, it’s going to be difficult to let you out of my sight. So, you see? Even if Everett wasn’t concerned about my safety, as well, I’d still insist on going to Peppin with you. However, I do find it encouraging that you didn’t immediately agree. I thought for sure you’d jump at the chance to spend more time with Chris. Is it possible that you’re beginning to see him for who he really is?”

  Adelaide pulled her hand free. “Actually I think I am.”

  Granted, she still found the situation with Amy suspicious, and the string of women he’d shamelessly admitted to pursuing after she left town was disconcerting. However, he’d had a relatively believable explanation for that with the whole mail-order bride problem. She could hardly fault him for trying to find some way to avoid his father’s matchmaking. Wasn’t she trying to do the same with her mother? Maybe so, but she hadn’t involved herself with a bunch of men to do so. She’d only involved one.

  Relief filled her mother’s voice. “I’m so glad you’re coming to your senses. Trust me. Marrying a man like that would be worse than never marrying at all.”

  Adelaide couldn’t believe her ears. Had her plan worked already? She offered a disbelieving smile and somehow managed to keep her tone casual. “You mean you’d rather I become a spinster?’

  Rose laughed. “Oh, my dear, that will hardly be necessary. I’m sure I can find the perfect man for you. I don’t think Bertrand is quite out of our reach yet.”

  “Mother, I’m not marrying him. I told him that. I told you that.”

  “Well, we can talk about it later. Now, tell me about you and Chris. When are you going to break things off again? Your stepfather insists we travel with him for safety’s sake, so it would probably be better to do it after we arrive in Peppin. Don’t you think so?”

  “I think you sound far too giddy about the prospect of this. I don’t understand how you can continue to be so hard on Chris when he’s been nothing but kind and respectful to you. Isn’t it time to ease up a little—especially after everything he did to help us yesterday?”

  “I do appreciate his help. However, that doesn’t change his lack of character in other ways. Nor does it make up for the negative impact he’s had on my relationship with you.”

  “Negative impact?” Adelaide shook her head in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

  “You resented me for encouraging you to break off your engagement with him. I know you did. That’s why there’s so much distance between us now…”

  “That isn’t… I mean, yes. It was frustrating that you constantly belittled him to me and discounted whatever feeling I thought I had for him. But that is only one small part of why there’s so much distance between us.”

  “But the distance started after I made you leave him.”

  “After you made me leave Peppin,” Adelaide corrected. “You made Papa promise not to uproot me again, then you did exactly that out of the blue and only weeks before graduation. When we arrived in Houston, you expected me to start over in a new city as though I hadn’t left my friends, my home—and, yes, my fiancé—behind in Peppin. You married Everett, who I admit, has been a blessing, but decided that I wasn’t good enough to fit in his world. At least, I assume that’s why you made such a concerted effort to turn me into your idea of a perfect socialite. Well, I’m not a socialite, Mother. It isn’t who I am. It isn’t who you raised me to be. I can’t just change on a whim to suit your purposes.”

  “My purpose is to make sure you marry a man who is dependable, financially secure, and too busy loving you to even glance at another woman.”

  “I don’t want that.”

  Rose laughed in disbelief, then shook her head. “Of course not. You want a man like Chris, who sparks another girl the second you leave town. A man who, according to his father, has a bride standing by in Norway in case he finally gets bored enough to marry her.”

  Adelaide bit her lip to rein in her temper before responding. “I meant that I don’t want to get married. Why would I, after watching what you went through with Papa? Oh, for a while I thought that things would be different with me and Chris, but I think some part of me always has been and maybe always will be skeptical of him. I know that I can’t risk marrying him. That doesn’t mean that I don’t…” She swallowed hard, not entirely sure of where she’d been going with that statement and completely unwilling to find out. Her mother had no such compunction.

  “You have feelings for him.”

  “What? No. I…” Everything within her seemed to freeze as her mother’s words reached her heart and reverberated their truth. Flabbergasted, Adelaide sank onto the settee without a sound. How could this have happened?

  Her dismay was echoed in Rose’s eyes. Rather than the condescending tone Adelaide might have expected, her mother’s words were filled with empathy. “Oh, Adelaide, already? It’s only been five days.” Rose shook her head. “This is more serious than I thought.”

  Now that was something they could agree on. Adelaide bit her lip and glanced away. This wasn’t only serious. It was unacceptable. She still didn’t want to get married. She especially didn’t want to marry Chris. That meant any feeling she might have for him were pointless. In that case, she wouldn’t have feelings for him anymore. There. She’d decided. Crisis averted…right?

  “Adelaide, please keep your head about you and your eyes open. We’re going back to Peppin. This is your chance to find out who he really is—good or bad. If there’s something about him that isn’t aboveboard, we’ll find out. There’s no hiding a bad reputation in a small town. Agreed?”

  Adelaide nodded. “Agreed.”

  Now, how on earth was she going to convince Chris to keep their pretend courtship going in Peppin when he’d already told his father that their relationship was over? More important, how was she going to keep him from discovering the inconvenient inclination she felt toward him? It was imperative that he didn’t find out. It would be too mortifying for him to know that the only person their little deception had worked on was her.

  *

  Chris’s eyebrows lifted at the sound of raised voices that drifted through the house. The words were too muffled by all of the walls between the library and the breakfast room for him to decipher the specifics of what was being said, but it didn’t sound pretty. Lifting his cup of coffee, he met Everett’s gaze. The man offered him a comforting nod. “It’s all right. This has been a long time coming.”

  So Chris hadn’t been imagining the tension that filled the air when Adelaide and her mother were in the same room. “How do you handle—” he stopped himself just short of saying “them” and settled for “—all of this?”

  Everett shrugged. “I just love them, I suppose. And wait for the day when they work out their differences. Trust me. This is far better than their usual silence. At least they’re finally talking to each other.”

  That was certainly one way to look at it. His heart went out to Adelaide, though. After what had happened yesterday and the tough time she’d had last night, an argument with her mother hardly seemed an ideal way to recover.

  While waiting for the women to end their discussion and finish packing their bags, Chris and Everett went over the plan one more time. It was a simple one. The Holdens and Adelaide would escort C
hris to the train station with his suitcase. He would buy two extra tickets at the ticket booth, then at the last moment Adelaide and Rose would join him on the train. Their luggage would be sent along later. All of this was arranged to make it harder for them to be followed. It also meant that the women’s real goodbyes to Everett would have to be said at the house instead of the train station. Chris waited by the front door to give them the privacy to do just that.

  Adelaide went first, then hurried over to join him. Placing her hand on his arm, she kept her voice and her gaze lowered. “Chris, my mother still thinks that you and I are a couple. I don’t suppose—I mean, I know you already told your father—”

  “I’ll do it.”

  Surprise lit her eyes as she finally met his gaze. “Really?”

  “Of course. My father might not like it, but he’ll just have to deal with it for a little while. What matters is that this will give me a good reason to stay close to you while you’re in Peppin.” It wasn’t until her eyes widened that he realized he should probably explain. “For your safety, of course.”

  “Right. Safety,” she said, as though reminding herself.

  He was about to ask if she was all right when Everett decided it was time to hurry them all out of the house. Noticing Adelaide’s slight hesitation as she first caught sight of the carriage, Chris caught her hand and threaded his fingers through hers. She eased closer to his side and held on until they reached the station. Once they stood beside the waiting train, Everett put an arm around the waist of each of the ladies. “Let’s all face Chris as though we’re saying goodbye to him. Now, I want both of you to listen to me. Everything has been arranged. As soon as y’all arrive Chris will take you to the sheriff’s office so that the local law enforcement will be aware of our situation. Chris will then move to his parents’ house so that y’all can stay in his apartment above the mercantile. Neither Chris nor I will accept any arguments about that. This arrangement will be far safer than having y’all stay at the hotel where strangers can come and go as they please.”

  Chris gave the women a reassuring nod. “We know our customers well at Johansen’s Mercantile. We do get a lot of out-of-towners passing through, but those people will be obvious to us, so we’ll have a better chance at spotting anyone suspicious. There will always be someone from my family in the store to keep watch when it’s open. I’m sure Sheriff O’Brien and Deputy Bridger will be willing to keep an eye on the place when it’s closed.”

  “Stay in Peppin with Chris until I come for you myself. Don’t leave with anyone besides me. I won’t ask anyone to bring you back to Houston—not even Chris. Understood?” He waited for them each to agree before continuing. “Good. Now, enjoy your break from the city. Visit with your old friends. Try to relax.”

  Rose lifted her chin. “You be careful while we’re gone. Don’t take any unnecessary chances. Do you hear me, Everett Holden?”

  “I hear you, sweetheart.” Everett shook Chris’s hand as the conductor called all aboard. “Take care of my girls.”

  “Yes, sir.” With a final nod, Chris ushered Adelaide and her mother onto the train. They had just enough time to take their seats before their journey began. The tall buildings of the city gave way to rural fields of rice and cotton, then pure wilderness. Finally, the train wound through the rolling meadows that made up the foothills of the Hill Country before pulling to a stop in Peppin.

  Chris left the women to get settled in his apartment while he walked over to his parents’ house, carrying everything he anticipated needing for the next few days. He’d already seen Sophia and August at the mercantile. The younger two boys were still in school. That meant his parents were the only ones to greet him when he stepped inside their colorful Queen Anne house. He set his suitcases down in the foyer to receive his mother’s hug. She didn’t let go any too quickly. “It’s so good to have our boy back in town, and staying with us, too! It will be like old times.”

  “Yes, but hopefully it will only be for a few days. I’m sure August will be glad to have our old room back to himself after that.” Chris reached out to shake his father’s hand. Olan used his grip to pull Chris forward for a quick hug. Afterward, Chris searched his father’s face. “Pa, how are you feeling?”

  Olan waved Chris’s concern away. “I’m fine. I told your ma that the doctor said my heart condition wasn’t as serious as we thought.”

  Chris sent his father an exasperated, disbelieving look while Marta slipped an arm around her husband’s waist to grin. “Isn’t that a blessing?”

  Chris ignored his father’s warning look to say, “It’s a blessing that Pa doesn’t have a heart condition at all.”

  “What?” Marta looked back and forth between them in confusion.

  Chris sighed. “Do you want me to explain, Pa?”

  Olan grimaced. “I reckon you might as well now that you’ve betrayed my confidence. Besides, I don’t remember much of what the doctor told me. I was too busy being angry to listen, I guess.”

  They moved to the parlor where Chris pulled one of the chairs closer to the settee where his parents sat. He explained the specialist’s findings to both of them and was relieved to see that his father was actually listening this time. Once Chris finished, Marta stared at Olan with tears in her eyes. “How could you not tell me this?”

  “I’m sorry, Marta.” Olan ran his fingers through his hair, then captured his wife’s hand in his. “I know I should have said something, but what man wants to admit to his wife that he’s been fluttery and swoony like a woman?”

  She lifted her chin. “One who is honest? And, for the record, I have never fluttered or swooned so it has nothing to do with being a woman. No, there is something else going on here—something else you’re keeping from me, from all of us. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be so anxious. What is it?”

  Olan pressed his lips together, staying stubbornly silent.

  Marta crossed her arm. “Take your time, dear. I’ll wait as long as it takes.”

  Olan released a sigh, then began a reluctant explanation. “Remember how much damage that hailstorm did to the house and the mercantile back in October? Well, it took all of our savings to repair everything. Once our savings were gone, our personal finances got pretty tight. I didn’t want to do anything to the business that might weaken it for when Chris takes over. Unfortunately, that meant I fell behind on the mortgage payments for our house. Mr. Wilkins at the bank has been nice about everything. With his help, I’ve managed to catch up somewhat so we’re only a month behind now.”

  Taking the news in stride, Marta softened. “Olan, that isn’t so bad. We were in far worse spots than this back in Norway.”

  “I know. That’s why I didn’t want it to happen again here.” Olan rubbed his reddening eyes. “Our whole family has worked so hard and done so well, even the little ones. I didn’t want anything to jeopardize that. If I’d just been more frugal, saved more and maybe been a bit more hard-nosed when it came to giving money away to charities and extending credit at the store, then we wouldn’t be in this spot.”

  Chris shook his head and leaned forward to capture his father’s gaze. “Don’t do that to yourself, Pa. You did what you thought was best at the time, and that’s all anyone can do. It’s all anyone can expect from you, including yourself. What’s more, I’m so proud of you for your compassion. It is a gift to have a generous heart. This town respects you for that. Maybe it’s time to be a bit more generous to yourself by not so judging yourself so harshly…and by keeping a little more of your own money.”

  His father laughed despite the tears in his eyes. “Ja, maybe I can do that.”

  “I will help you,” Marta said. “We are a team. That means you don’t have to bear this alone. We’ll figure out all of it together. Agreed?”

  “I agree.”

  “The specialist said he was going to send his notes to Doc Williams, so you might want to follow up with him in a couple of days,” Chris added. “He also said that it’s important that
you talk to someone about what’s troubling you. I think that’s a good idea in general for you to do that regularly. I know you can always talk to Ma.” Chris smiled when Marta vigorously nodded. “You can talk to me, too, especially if it has something to do with the store. Also, I think Doc would be a good listener. He has to keep everything you say confidential, anyway. Hopefully, he can also help you find some healthy ways to manage your anxiety.”

  “I’ll ask him about it, to be sure.” Olan took a deep breath. “Thank y’all for being so understanding. I truly am sorry for not telling y’all everything to begin with, especially about my health. However, despite what Doc said, I honestly was convinced that I was dying.”

  Marta smiled. “Well, we are overjoyed that you aren’t.”

  “Hear, hear,” Chris said with a nod. “Sophia and the other boys are going to be so relieved.”

  Olan nodded. “I’ll tell them this evening.”

  Chris stood. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I promised I’d take Adelaide and her mother to the café for a late dinner.”

  He left before his father could offer more than a frown. He wasn’t ready to get into any discussions about his relationship with Adelaide quite yet. He’d wired his parents ahead of time so they already had a general idea of what was going on. The specifics could wait…but only a couple of hours, because Sophia had already extended their mother’s invitation for Adelaide and Rose to join them for supper later that evening. Keeping in mind what had happened the last time Adelaide had come over for supper, Chris didn’t want to give his parents any ideas.

  He had to admit that, despite his parents’ probable disapproval, part of him was looking forward to continuing this charade of a courtship with Adelaide. Perhaps that was why he’d agreed to it so easily even though it was taking time from his increasingly urgent search for a bride. That woman wouldn’t be Adelaide. He simply had to keep that in mind and not let his heart get tangled in the web they’d begun to weave.