by Lisa Harris
“Hurry down, Miss Lidia. Adam’s coming.”
Lidia froze. Ruby and Anna jumped with excitement below her. For the first time all morning, Lidia regretted agreeing to watch the girls while their parents went into town. Surely she hadn’t heard them correctly. Adam was supposed to be on his farm finishing the sap harvest. Not here. Not now. The girls continued squealing with delight as they watched their older brother and his black stallion approach the back of the gray-shingled farmhouse.
Her jaw tensed as he drew closer. He looked so handsome wearing Levis and a tailored work shirt with his Stetson pulled low across his forehead to block the sun’s warming rays. He pulled on the reins as he approached the tree, then jumped off his horse, his eyes lighting up as his sisters enveloped him with their hugs, greeting him with more excitement than a fireworks display on the Fourth of July.
The wind ruffled his hair when he took his hat off, and she could see the shadow of stubble covering his jawline. This wasn’t the Adam who kissed her in the moonlight beneath a blanket of stars. That man had vanished, taking with him a piece of her heart. She fought against the sense of panic that swept over her, not knowing what he would think when he realized she was hovering above him. She’d known he would show up eventually, but she planned to be ready to see him at that point. Not perched in the top of a tree with her skirt caught on a branch.
She tugged on her dress again, but the material wouldn’t budge—and neither could she. Lidia closed her eyes. He hadn’t noticed her yet. Maybe if she couldn’t see him, he would disappear.
“Lidia?”
Facedown on the limb, she peeked through her lashes, her stomach feeling as if it were lodged in her throat. Adam shook his head, his eyes widening with surprise.
Oh Lord, how do I manage to get myself into such embarrassing situations? And just when I think I’ve finally got things in my life under control.
“Adam. Hello.” Swallowing hard, she pulled on her dress again, but no matter what she did, it wouldn’t release its grip.
He folded his arms across his chest and looked up at her. “If I remember correctly, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen you in this position.”
Lidia sighed. “It does seem that climbing trees has become somewhat of a habit for me, doesn’t it?” And a rather unladylike habit at that!
“Are you coming down?”
She gnawed at her lip. “I can’t.”
“What do you mean you can’t?”
Ruby jumped up on her brother’s back, her arms firmly around his neck. “I think she’s stuck.”
“She was fixing our swing for us,” Anna added, sitting on the wooden seat. “The Miller boys broke it.”
“Is it true?”
Lidia tried to slow her quickened breathing. “That the Miller boys broke the swing?”
“No, that you’re stuck.”
“I’m afraid so.” Lidia closed her mouth and tried not to let the irritation sweep over her. She could see the smirk that covered his face. “It’s not funny, Adam.”
“I’m sorry.” He held up his hands. “I’m not making fun of you, it’s just that …”
“That what?”
“Never mind.” His smile melted into a solemn look. “Do I need to climb up and help you?”
“I think it might be necessary since I can’t reach the spot where my skirt is caught without falling off the branch.”
“Did you know you can see all the way to the Connecticut River on a clear day from there?” Adam set Ruby on the ground then easily shimmied up the trunk of the tree. “My brothers and I used to spend hours up here.”
She tried to ignore the way the familiar sound of his voice pulled at her heart. Why did it have to be today, of all days, for Adam to decide to visit his family? She’d played out the moment in her mind a hundred times. He’d arrive at his parents’ farm surprised to see her, but one look into her eyes and he’d realize that he’d been wrong. Nothing would stand between them and their future together. She shook her head. What had happened to her resolve to forget the man who couldn’t forgive her? Daydreaming was going to get her nowhere except in trouble. At least where her heart was concerned.
Adam perched beside her on one of the branches and worked to unfasten the fabric. “I think this will fix things, and it’s not even torn.”
“Thank you.”
Finally free, Lidia sat up. His face was only a few inches from hers, and her heart beat ferociously at his nearness. She was afraid to look at him, though, knowing she’d never again see the look of interest in his eyes that she’d once seen. Instead, she’d see the pain and know that her brother was responsible for putting it there.
Avoiding his gaze, she studied the intricate pattern of the bark and waited to follow his descent down the tree. As soon as he was on the ground, he reached up to help her. His arms encircled her waist. She was sure he could hear her heart as she worked to steady herself once her feet hit the grass. Raising her face toward his, she forced herself to look him in the eye. For a moment she found what she was looking for. They were back under the winter stars in his maple grove, before everything had gone so wrong. The world around her disappeared until it was only the two of them.
“Lidia, I …”
Her pulse quickened. “What is it?”
He took a step away from her and shook his head. Whatever she’d seen in his eyes was gone. She could hear the girls playing again and feel the warm sun pressing against her face.
Anna sat in the swing while Ruby pushed from behind. Lidia tried to focus on the girls, but all she could see was Adam. In spite of what passed between them, she could feel the tension dissipate.
“The girls are happy. Why don’t we talk?” He motioned her toward the back porch, no doubt wanting to converse in private as to why she was still here at his father’s farm.
“All right.” She matched his long stride, trying not to notice the strength of his profile. Instead she sent up a prayer that God would help him understand what she was about to say.
“I’m surprised to see you here.” Adam stopped at the bottom step and leaned against the wooden railing. “I assumed because I didn’t hear from you that everything was fine at the mill.”
Lidia swallowed the lump that was growing in her throat.
“I don’t know what you’re going to think about this. …” Lidia fought to keep her composure. “When your father learned that my brother and I had lost our jobs at the mill, your parents decided to hire us both to help out on the farm.”
Adam raked his fingers through his hair, not sure he’d heard Lidia correctly. “You’re working for my parents?”
Lidia nodded. “The crop was so good last year that your father is planning to turn some of the pasture into additional fields, and with little Daria, your stepmother needed some extra help around the house—”
“My father never told me he was planning to expand his planting this spring or that he was hiring new workers.” He shook his head, working to keep the anger out of his voice. Had he been so caught up with his own projects that he’d failed to listen to his father’s plans? He was the eldest son. If his father needed help he should be the one filling in the gap. He would have found a way to make it work.
He kicked a pebble with the toe of his boot and watched the thin wisps of dust fill the air. When he’d first glanced up to see Lidia perched above him in the tree, he’d almost forgotten the last dark moments that had transpired between them. Instead the warmth of her kiss lingered in his memory, and with it the feelings he’d tried to forget.
But that wasn’t enough. He appreciated all that Lidia and her brother had done for him and admittedly owed them a lot, but how could his father consider hiring the siblings of the man who killed Samuel? He understood the need to forgive, but to go out of his way to give them jobs? It simply didn’t make sense to him.
“I was afraid you’d be upset when you found out.” Lidia’s voice broke into his thoughts.
Upset didn’t begin
to describe his feelings. “My father … where is he?”
“He went into town with your stepmother. They asked me to watch the girls while they were gone.”
He gripped the porch railing with his hand. “I don’t understand. You lost your job at the mill? Why didn’t you let me know? I would have gone and spoken to your overseer for you.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered. They’d already replaced us and made it clear that what we had done wasn’t acceptable.”
“I’m sorry. I …” He wasn’t being fair to her, and he knew it. He should have stopped by the mill on his own accord.
She looked up at him with those big, brown eyes that were now rimmed with tears, and he cringed inside. When he’d watched her leave his farm with his father, he’d convinced himself that he could forget her. But now she stood before him even more beautiful than he remembered. Some of her hair had come undone from its braid, leaving auburn wisps of curls that framed her face. He didn’t want to feel this way toward her—this attraction. No matter what feelings she invoked inside him, nothing would change the fact of who she was.
“And the harvest?” Lidia asked.
Adam raised his brow at her question. “I finished yesterday. I wanted to stop by and talk to my father about the sugaring off celebration. I haven’t seen him since …”
“Since the day you found out my brother murdered Samuel.”
“I guess there’s nothing more for us to say then, is there?”
Lidia picked up the hem of her skirt and strode away from him, toward Ruby and Anna.
An hour later Adam felt his shoulder muscles burn as he swung the ax into the log behind the wooden shed on his father’s property. The weather was still a bit chilly, but he was drenched in sweat.
His father rounded the corner of the structure and stopped beside him. “We’ll have enough wood to last us until the turn of the century if you keep up this pace.”
Adam threw the log onto the pile before plunging the blade into another thick piece of pine. “I wanted to talk to you before I went home.”
“So your sisters said. Didn’t expect to find you hiding out behind the shed, though.”
“I’m not hiding.”
“Then what is it?”
The blade cracked through the wood, splitting it down the middle. “I’ve been to the sheriff’s office. I gave them the information I have on Samuel’s killer.”
“You mean Lidia’s brother.”
Adam wiped the moisture off his forehead with the back of his hand. “Why did you hire them?”
“They needed work, and I needed extra help around the farm.”
“Don’t make me feel guilty. I’ve tried to put the past behind me, but that doesn’t mean I have to accept them into our family. For you to go and hire them …“Adam swung the blade to finish splitting the piece he was working on. “How could you even consider such a thing?”
His father tossed the fallen section onto the woodpile. “I don’t understand your reaction, Adam. Lidia and her brother lost their livelihood because they helped you save your maple harvest.”
“So now we owe them?”
“Yes! But I wasn’t doing them a favor. Michaela and I had already decided we needed extra help around the farm.
I want to expand this year, and with Daria taking up a lot of your stepmother’s time, it seemed to be an answer from God that helped all of us.”
“But why them?” The wood groaned as the blade forced it apart. “There are dozens of other people in town who could use the work.”
“If you could forgive, you might be able to see that Lidia is a wonderful, godly woman.”
“I know she’s a wonderful person.” The confession left an ache that radiated deep within him. That was the very reason why he had to stay away from her.
“I convinced the sheriff to raise the bounty on Jarek,” Adam confessed.
“Why?”
Adam pounded the ax into the side of a stump. “Because I want him to pay for his crime.”
His father took a step toward him. “And what about Lidia?”
“Her brother deserves justice.”
“Yes, I suppose you’re right, but how do you think she feels knowing that her brother will likely be sentenced to death?”
Adam shrugged, unable to answer.
“You’re willing to lose Lidia?”
Adam cringed at the question. It was the very thing he was afraid of. That one day, he was going to regret just how much he’d lost in his search for justice.
nine
Lidia let out a deep sigh of contentment as she watched the festive scene unfold before her from the Johnsons’ front porch. The social gathering of friends and neighbors during the annual sugaring off had always been one of her favorite times of year. Laughter from the children mingled with the spirited sounds of a fiddle playing the chorus of yet another lively tune. Tonight’s activities reminded her of good memories from the past with her family. And that God had blessed her with hope for a future again.
She watched Koby dip a paddle into the vat of maple syrup, then lick it clean. The grin on his face told her she had made the right decision in accepting the Johnsons’ generous offer of employment. While she still considered herself merely one of the hired help, the Johnsons treated her as if she were a part of the family. It was a feeling she’d missed since the deaths of her parents.
“Are you enjoying yourself tonight?”
Lidia drew her gaze from the mesmerizing dance of the bonfire that crackled in the crisp night air and smiled at her new employer. “Very much, thank you, Mrs. Johnson.”
It was hard to believe that Michaela Johnson would soon be a grandmother. Her eldest daughter, Rebecca Hutton, who now lived in Boston with her husband, had recently announced that she was expecting the Johnsons’ first grandchild. Even with one-year-old Daria in tow, Mrs. Johnson always looked lovely with her pinned-up hair full of reddish highlights and her glowing fair skin. But it was more than her outward beauty that had impressed Lidia. It was what radiated from the inside—her contentment with life and generosity toward others as she managed a household of five children still living at home. Mrs. Johnson leaned against the rail beside her. “I was afraid it might be too cold, but it turned out to be perfect weather.”
“Yes, ma’am, you’re right.” Lidia gazed at the cloudless sky. Above them, the stars glimmered in all their brilliance, covering the festivities in a canopy of lights. “I know I’ve said it before, but I can’t even begin to express to you how much it means to me and my brother that you and Mr. Johnson took us on. I know it couldn’t have been easy, with what happened with Samuel—”
“That’s not true.” Mrs. Johnson laid a reassuring hand on Lidia’s shoulder. “You’ve been an incredible help already. I must have told Eric a dozen times that I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Still, I do appreciate it.”
Mrs. Johnson smoothed down the front of her lavender dress, its design simple, yet elegant—perfect for the festivities. “There’s plenty of food and no excuses not to indulge tonight.”
Lidia glanced at the wooden table that was laden with meats, salads, sandwiches, and doughnuts, as well as the customary pickles to counteract the sweetness of the syrup. “I promise to make myself a plate in a little bit. For now, I’m just enjoying watching all that’s going on.”
A short distance across the lawn, Adam walked up to the table and began filling his plate. Lidia felt her jaw muscles tense. So far she’d managed to avoid him, something she knew she wouldn’t be able to do forever. Of course, more than likely he had no desire to see her either, but she refused to have her evening spoiled by him.
He looked up and his gaze swept past her, before returning to linger on her face. Her breath caught in her throat, and she wondered if she would ever forget him. But there was nothing in his eyes tonight that hinted that he still cared. Sadness filled his expression. Was he sorry that he’d changed his mind about calling on her? When he
turned away without saying a word to her, the answer was clear.
Lidia turned back to Mrs. Johnson. “Why do you think Adam still hangs on to so much guilt regarding his brother’s death? It wasn’t his fault.”
“And it wasn’t your fault either, Lidia.”
Her fingers gripped the wooden rail. “I know, but it’s hard not to feel responsible. Jarek is my brother.”
“I learned a long time ago that bitterness will only bring you pain and heartache. Adam has his own lessons to learn, but don’t torture yourself over things you can’t control.”
“Still, I can’t imagine how he must feel, and …” Lidia paused, not sure she should reveal her feelings toward Adam.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know. I shouldn’t even bring it up, but before Adam found out who I was he looked at me differently. Maybe nothing would have ever come from it, but there was something in his eyes. Sometimes I wish …”
“That he still cared for you.”
Lidia nodded. “He was a complete gentleman while Koby and I were at his place, but one night … there was something romantic about the frosty air and the brilliance above. When I looked into his eyes, I knew he cared about me. He kissed me and told me he wanted to call on me once I was back at the mill. But all that changed when he found out the truth about my brother. Then nothing mattered anymore except that I was Jarek Kowalski’s sister.”
“I’m so sorry, Lidia.” Mrs. Johnson turned toward Lidia, her eyes filled with concern. “Unfortunately, I don’t think Adam even talks to his father much anymore. He’s done a good job of closing himself off from people.”
Lidia fingered the soft fabric of her skirt. “I’m praying he can someday put the past behind him and give me a chance, but I know that can never be.”
“I wouldn’t say that. Give him some time. Adam’s a fine man who needs to deal with what happened, but we’re praying there will come a day when he finally lets go of his guilt. Then he’ll be ready for love.”
