by Delia Parr
She cocked a brow. “Such as?”
“Such as explaining why I stayed far longer in Clarion than I’d hoped,” he offered.
Distracted by the feel of his shoulder pressed against her own, she pressed her lips together in a vain effort to stop them from tingling. “I don’t expect you to explain everything you do, Thomas.”
“But there are some matters that I want to explain,” he insisted. “As you know, I went there to convince Micah’s father to end this needless estrangement between them. Unfortunately, the man’s no better than a fool led astray by his own pride. In the end, I’m afraid I couldn’t even convince him to come to Trinity for a visit to talk to Micah and meet his only grandchild.”
“He sounds an awful lot like Graham Cade,” Martha admitted, then summed up Oliver’s news about his grandfather’s death, although she did not feel comfortable discussing the terms of the man’s will. “I’m very pleased that you tried to help Micah. I suspect he’s very grateful that you tried to resolve his trouble with his father, even though it didn’t turn out well.”
Moved by Thomas’s concern for his family, Martha was convinced that she was incredibly blessed to have this man’s love. “You have a good, good heart.”
“I hope you’re as understanding when I tell you about the tavern.”
She squinted her eyes and furrowed her brow. “What about it?”
“Dr. McMillan asked me the other night if I was interested in joining him as an investor in the tavern, which is why I was in his office this morning when you came seeking advice about Samuel.”
Martha cocked her head. “What did you tell him?”
“I’ve agreed to invest in the tavern in principle, but I didn’t want to sign the papers until I talked with you.”
“With me? Why?”
“Because I know how hard it was for you and your brother when he had to sell the property and move away because he couldn’t afford to rebuild after the fire. I didn’t want you to think I wanted an interest in the property as some sort of ploy to persuade you to marry me any sooner than you want to. With all the growth I expect to see in Trinity in the next few years, the tavern is a particularly good investment for anyone, once a few problems are addressed. Would it bother you overmuch if I did?”
“No, I don’t think so,” she ventured and gave him a smile. “Telling me Bella had escaped again, on the other hand, would bother me to no end.”
He chuckled. “Bella’s safe and sound in her stall, at least she was when I checked on her a few hours ago,” he said and took her hand. “Because of a few problems at the tavern, we’re considering asking your brother to come back with his wife to Trinity to work for us and operate the tavern again, but for a portion of the profits, too.”
Her heart leaped with joy. “James might be moving back?”
He squeezed her hand, as if trying to contain her excitement. “It may happen soon or it may not happen at all, so I’d ask you to keep all that I’ve told you in strictest confidence. By all rights, I probably shouldn’t have even told you.”
“I will, of course,” she promised, although she had every intention of praying that James and Lydia would be living back in Trinity soon.
When Thomas pressed a gentle kiss to her lips, Martha found she didn’t want to pull away. But after a lingering moment, Thomas whispered, “As much as I’d like to continue this, I’ll probably have to get you back home soon. But there’s still one thing I need to tell you before I do.”
With regret shining in his eyes, he told her that he would be leaving for New York the following week to sell off his remaining investments there and would be gone for perhaps as long as a month. “Will you spend some time with me if by some chance Oliver and his family return East before I have to leave?”
“I’ll try, but I doubt very much that will happen. To be perfectly honest, with all that’s happened in the past two days, I’m hardly able to think beyond the next few hours,” she replied, then told him that Aunt Hilda had left earlier that morning and made him promise to keep that news to himself for now.
“She’ll be sorely missed, but I suspect you’ll miss her more than most, won’t you,” he noted before his expression turned very serious. He cleared his throat, as if preparing to discuss something very important to both of them.
And indeed he was.
“Just in case this is the last opportunity we have to be alone together before I leave for New York, I have something I need to say that you might not like to hear,” he said and cleared his throat again. “Courting you hasn’t always been easy, and frankly, it’s getting harder.”
She nearly choked. “I beg your pardon?”
“I said that it hasn’t been particularly easy for me to court you.”
“Really?” she snapped, annoyed that she had heard him correctly the first time. “Courting young Samantha last year must have been so much easier for you. Up until the moment she refused to join the others to help put out the fire at the tavern and dashed your plans to announce your betrothal that very night, she never challenged you at all,” Martha charged, without adding that the beautiful young woman was half his age and more interested in the life of ease that he offered her than in Thomas himself.
“No, she didn’t,” he admitted. “She didn’t have a single thought about anything beyond the latest fashion or care a whit about anyone other than herself, either, which meant that marrying her would have proven to be a grave mistake at best. Fortunately, she saved me from myself by ending our betrothal before it really began, leaving me free to marry a far wiser, far better woman than I deserve.”
He edged a bit closer to her and joined his hand to hers. “You challenge me, Martha. You always did. You have a clear and honest view of the world and your place in it as a godly woman, and you’re more worried about other people most of the time than you are for yourself, but you always have been. You’re unlike any woman I’ve ever known, and I love you with all that I am or hope to be.”
Overwhelmed, she blinked back tears. Every word he had just whispered, every beautiful, loving word, would be branded on her heart forever.
Before she could find her voice, he tightened his hold on her hand. “Forgive me if I’ve upset you by asking you repeatedly to marry me and go to New York with me, but it’s only because I’m afraid if you don’t, by the time I get back you’ll change your mind about marrying me at all, like you did once before.”
The pain in his eyes and in his features was so deep, she knew it had to have come from deep within his heart. Her rejection so many years ago still haunted him.
The pain of their broken courtship so long ago came back to haunt her, too, and she realized that beneath the aura of self-confidence and charm that usually surrounded the man who was sitting beside her, he was just as uncertain of himself as any other man might be. But he was also being open and honest with her, which made him all the more dear to her and determined to be honest with him, too.
“I made a mistake all those years ago, but not when I ended our courtship. We never should have courted in the first place, but I was young and you were so handsome and a man so far beyond my dreams that I couldn’t imagine turning you away. Once I realized that we had very different views on how we would live our futures together, I knew we had to live that future apart. I’m sorry, I know I wasn’t fair to you back then,” she said, praying she would find the right words to convince him that all of that pain belonged in the past.
“But this time,” she continued, “it’s different for both of us. You’ve given me the time I needed to carefully consider marriage. And while all my concerns may have felt unfair, I didn’t accept your proposal until we’d resolved them. Can you put the past aside and trust me now that I’ll keep my word and marry you as soon as I find my replacement?”
She waited for him to respond, one thudding heartbeat after another. She clung to the fact that he was still holding her hand.
Finally, he looked directly in her eyes. “I’ve had
time to think about my proposal and your concerns, too. And you’re right in one regard. You still aren’t being fair to me by expecting me to wait, possibly for years, while you find a midwife to replace you before I can claim you as my wife and helpmate. I promised you the other day that if you’d marry me now, while you were still following your calling, that I’d be patient and understanding when you were summoned away. I renew that promise now. I’ll even give you more time to consider it.” He paused and grew very serious.
“I want you to marry me when I return from New York, whether or not you’ve found a woman to replace you. Forgive me, but I’m afraid I can only give you until then to make up your mind and no longer. Marry me then, or . . . or I’ll ask you to set me free. This is my final proposal to you, and I’d like you to either accept it or send me away right now.”
Surprised by the passion that simmered in his gray eyes, she was shocked by his demand, which was nothing short of an ultimatum. She swallowed hard and looked away. In all fairness, she could not expect him to wait for her indefinitely. Would any man? Should any man?
The answer that slipped from the very depths of her soul made her heart quiver and left her with a dilemma unlike any she had ever confronted before: Marry Thomas and trust in the promise he made to be patient every time she was summoned away? Or set him free, afraid he would not be able to keep that promise, and lose him?
Her heart pounded, and she drew a long breath. “I accept your new proposal, Thomas.” She swallowed hard. “I’ll either marry you the very day you return, or I’ll set you free, as you’ve asked, to find and marry a woman who deserves you so much more than I do.”
His expression softened, and he accepted her promise by pressing both of her hands between his. They sat together in silence, side by side. No more words or promises were necessary.
24
Martha needed time by herself to fully absorb all the ramifications of Thomas’s new proposal before her children returned.
Anxious to avoid customers in the confectionery, she decided against using the front door and walked to the alley, but the moment she turned the corner of the building, she spied Bella tethered next to the back door licking off the remains of several baking pans and felt an all-too-familiar dread pool in the pit of her stomach.
How or why that troublesome horse was here mattered a whole lot less than the simple fact that Thomas was not here to get her back into a stall at his house. He had already left to check on his cabin at Candle Lake.
Which meant Martha had no choice but to do it herself.
She blinked back tears of frustration. “At least she looks tethered well,” she grumbled and proceeded very, very slowly down the alley so she would not spook the horse. She also kept her distance from the horse as she tugged all the baking pans away. She cautiously set them inside the back door, never fully turning her back on the mare, and noticed the crude note tied to the horse’s mane.
Whispering gentle words, she reached out to work the note free. She got a head-butt on her arm in the process and stepped well beyond Bella’s reach to read the scribbled message:
I found your horse behind the new bank.
Ask Mr. Dillon to put the reward on my account at the store.
Luke Morgan
She crumpled the note and glared at the horse. “For goodness’ sake, Bella, why can’t you run away to someplace where you can find a decent home and folks won’t keep bringing you back here for a reward that isn’t supposed to be a reward anymore? As soon as my son gets back, I’m going to ask him to walk around town until he finds someone willing to take you for free so I can be well rid of you.”
When Bella snorted and pawed the ground with her front hoof, Martha lost her temper. “Fine. Have it your way. That’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’m going to give you away and . . . and I’m going to put up posters with your new owner’s name!”
“I’ll take her, Widow Cade!”
Still fuming and thoroughly embarrassed that anyone witnessed her diatribe, Martha turned about to find Will standing in the middle of the alley wearing a wide grin. “What on earth would you do with a horse, considering you think all horses are dumb and useless?”
He shrugged, then approached and handed her his school report. “She likes me, so I guess she’s not that dumb.” He walked around her to stand alongside Bella and stroke the mare’s neck. “I wanted to keep her the first time I found her, but Mr. Samuel said I couldn’t ’cause she belonged to someone else. He’ll let me keep her now if she belongs to me. I know he will.”
Martha glanced at his school report, smiled at his achievements in the classroom the past school year, and returned it to him before she put her hands on her hips. “I doubt you’re able to ride a horse or know anything about taking care of one.”
Will arched his back and stiffened his shoulders. “Can’t be too hard to learn. You did.”
She suppressed a grin. “And just where do you think you’re going to keep her?”
“Right in that pasture where I found her a couple of weeks back. Me and Mr. Fancy can build a fence for now and a lean-to near the cabin for when it gets cold. We got lotsa time for that now ’cause school’s not in session,” he insisted, and his eyes began to sparkle.
Truly tempted to give the boy what he wanted, she had to be certain he could handle the responsibility of owning the animal. “Before I give you Bella outright, you need to prove you’re up to the task of caring for her and that she won’t keep running off, so I’m going to hire you to take care of her for the rest of the summer. I’ll tell Mr. Sweet at the general store that you’ll be stopping by from time to time to get feed for the horse. And you’ll have to give her some sweets now and then so she doesn’t keep running back here.”
He narrowed his gaze. “How much you payin’ me?”
When she cocked a brow, he shrugged. “If you’re hirin’ me to take care of your horse, you must be willin’ to pay me, but if she was my horse, you wouldn’t hafta pay nothin’.”
“I’ll discuss your wages with Samuel, after you get his permission, of course,” she insisted, rather doubtful that Samuel would consider this idea for more than half a minute before rejecting it. “In the meantime—”
“I’ll take her with me,” the boy countered. “Don’t worry about Mr. Samuel and Mr. Fancy. Nobody can resist her once they get to know her. ’Cept for you,” he added with a grin.
“Take her,” Martha replied, “but if Samuel upends this plan of ours, just walk her back to the stables at Mr. Dillon’s, and I’ll find someone else who wants her.”
“Mr. Samuel won’t do that,” Will insisted. He untied the horse, turned her about, and walked her past Martha. Bella was just as docile as you please.
Still stymied by not knowing the name of the anonymous giver of this “reward” in the first place, she went back inside. With all that was happening in her life right now, this was one problem she could do without, and now it looked like she could—at least until Samuel nixed it.
Trouble, however, was waiting for her back in the kitchen. Cassie was still sitting at the table, as pale as a sugarloaf, and she had a bloody towel wrapped around one of her hands. A paring knife and the pile of carrots she must have been peeling lay on the floor, splattered with blood.
Blinking back tears, Cassie offered her a tremulous smile. “Poor Miss Fern. She almost swooned when she saw all this blood.”
“What about you?” Martha asked, but before she could reach the girl, Jane flew down the steps and hurried straight to her daughter.
“I’ve got what I need now,” Jane stated. Noting Martha standing there, she nodded toward the water pump. “I could use some fresh water and a clean cloth, as well as some bandages to wrap Cassie’s hand. Miss Fern is just changing out of her blood-stained gown, but I’d rather not wait for her to help me.”
Struck by the oddity of following orders instead of giving them, Martha secured everything Jane had asked for, placed them onto the table, and removed th
e ruined carrots to give her more room to work.
Jane had already removed the bloody towel and quickly used a fresh towel dampened with water to clean her daughter’s hand. When she did, Martha saw that the girl had sliced the flesh from the tips of her four fingers, which were thankfully no longer pulsing out huge amounts of blood. While the injury itself was not serious enough to be life-threatening, it did pose the possibility of easily becoming infected.
Jane poured a good amount of honey onto the tip of each finger and wrapped each with bandages to keep the healing honey in place. “I hope you don’t mind, but since you weren’t here, I helped myself to some of the lavender you had in your room to make her some tea to help ease the pain.”
“Not at all. I’ll heat some water,” Martha responded, quite impressed not only by how calmly and efficiently Jane was handling the emergency, but also, again, by her apparent knowledge of healing remedies, particularly the honey. Curious to know how Jane had acquired such knowledge and skill, she asked her point-blank.
“Credit should go to my mother, I suppose,” Jane said. The crisp tone of her voice left no doubt that she had no interest in saying anything more, leaving a silence in the air as uneasy as it had been when Martha asked her to consider being her replacement. Martha did not know if Jane’s reluctance to discuss the matter further was due to some sort of strained relationship with her mother or not, but she was wise enough to let the matter drop for now.
Fortunately, the tea was ready, and Martha turned her attention to Cassie. Martha placed the cup onto the table in front of her and asked, “Would you like some honey in your tea?”
“Just cream, please.”
Although she had never heard of anyone putting cream into lavender tea, Martha smiled and added the cream. “Why don’t you let your mama take you upstairs so you can drink your tea and rest awhile? Don’t worry about all this, Jane,” she added. “I’ll clean up here and finish up the carrots, but I’d be grateful if you could check on Miss Fern while you’re upstairs.”
