by Regina Scott
He kept Fleet inside the house in case the dog tried to follow her, walked her to the wagon and lifted her onto the bench. She offered him a bright smile.
“Don’t look so worried, Simon,” John said behind the reins. “I’ll take good care of her.”
“See that you do,” Simon said, stepping back. “Keep an eye out for cougar. Remember that the roads will be in bad shape with the melting snow. Don’t go through any puddles that look too deep—you could lose an axle. And watch the horses on that turn below the lake. They always want to take it too fast.”
John looked at Nora and then grinned at his brother. “Yes, Simon. Now, if you don’t stop talking, we won’t get to Seattle until after dark, and you know how dangerous it is then.”
Simon stepped back and let them go.
There he went again, he thought as he headed back to the house for Fleet. Seeing the darkness instead of the light. But how could he not think things through? He didn’t want anything to happen to Nora.
He came into the cabin to find Fleet nosing about at the foot of the ladder. Something dark flashed against the wood.
“What have you got there?” Simon asked, squatting beside the dog and picking up a black rock. It looked a lot like the one James usually slipped into Simon’s stocking at Christmas, only this stone had cracked, opening a V at the top and making a point at the bottom.
It almost looked like a heart.
Simon sat back, absently rubbing Fleet’s fur as he fingered the rock with his other hand. The basalt was warm in his grip, the surface smooth. Was this what had happened to him? Being around Nora had opened his heart, warmed it, smoothed the rough edges. She made him better, made his life better.
Small wonder he had fallen in love with her.
It had crept up on him, little by little, but he could not deny it any more than he could deny the trees growing on the hillside, the mountain rising in the distance. He loved his kind, gentle, whimsical wife, the woman who made him see that there was more to life than work, the lady who brought him beauty in the form of a three-legged cow and a talking dog.
And as soon as she was home, he was going to tell her. It was a dangerous undertaking. He would be letting down his guard all the way. Yet how could he not take the risk, when the result was Nora as his wife?
Christmas may have been yesterday, but the best present would be Nora, sweet Nora, returning his love.
Tomorrow seemed a long ways away.
Chapter Twenty-One
Nora settled into her seat as John drove the wagon down the forest road. The snow was melting, leaving white piles here and there like scattered pillows. Heavy clouds threatened rain. She pulled her cloak closer.
She wanted to be good company to John as he drove, so she kept up her end of the conversation. Still, her mind kept going to Simon.
Yesterday his gifts had been so thoughtful, his mood so joyful, that she’d hoped she might hear a declaration of love. Yet no such words had come from his mouth. And she hadn’t had the courage to ask.
She knew why the question was so hard for her. She couldn’t bear to hear him confirm that admiration was all he could muster. Her whole life she’d waited to be loved—by her parents, by her brother and his wife, by a suitor. She didn’t know if she had it in her to keep waiting any longer. Simon and his family had given her something she’d never expected—kindness, appreciation. They had made her realize it was possible to feel loved. Could she settle for less from Simon?
She must have grown silent, for John glanced in her direction. “Don’t worry. Simon will be fine for a night without you.”
Were her thoughts so obvious? “Of course he will.” Nora smiled at her brother-in-law. “But I’d appreciate it if you would check on him and Fleet. The two of them sometimes disagree. And perhaps help him with Britta. She likes someone to talk to her while she’s being milked, and Simon might be too quiet and in a hurry to get the job done. And do remind him to eat dinner. He gets so busy working he forgets.”
John chuckled. “I think Simon is starting to wear off on you. You sound just like him, looking for problems.”
Nora blushed. “Perhaps everyone worries about those they love.”
There—she’d said it aloud, admitted it to Simon’s brother. She was in love with Simon. She felt the rightness of it deep inside her. She could hardly wait to get back to him.
For a moment, it seemed as if John had sensed her thoughts, for he called to the horses to pick up their pace.
“I’m very happy to hear you say love in connection with Simon, Nora,” he said. “My brother needs someone who loves him.”
“But he has all of you,” Nora protested. “I’m not sure why he doesn’t realize he’s loved. Your mother called him a blessing.”
“He is, Nora,” John insisted. “Make no mistake. Drew can be bullheaded. Simon keeps him from doing anything stupid. James can’t take the world seriously. Simon helps him see the dangers he might miss. I can get lost in my own thoughts. Simon brings me back to reality. And he’s a steadying influence on Levi and Beth.”
He was a steadying influence on her as well. Sometimes her enthusiasm led her down paths before she thought. Simon helped her see problems, even when she didn’t want to think about them.
John glanced ahead to where the trees gave way to stumps surrounding Seattle. “Listen, do you mind coming to the post office with me before we go to your brother’s? We can stop at the Kelloggs’ store as well. I’d like to give Lancelot and Percival a rest before making them climb that hill.”
“I could walk from the post office,” Nora offered, but John would hear none of it, so she agreed to his plan.
He picked up the mail and a newspaper, then took Nora by the Kellogg brothers’ store to see if she had any commissions. The mercantile was crowded with shoppers—burly miners and sawyers, ladies wrapped in warm cloaks, bonnets on their heads. A few of the customers glanced her way as she passed, and more than one frowned.
“So it’s true,” the shorter Kellogg brother said when she asked after her customers. He handed her a sheaf of notes left for her and shook his head. “You have no interest in farming.”
Nora frowned at the dapper, mustached man who had given her space to ply her trade from his store. “We are farming. Simon and his brothers have cleared most of the land. They intend to plant this spring.”
“Not if he isn’t married to you,” Kellogg warned.
Not married to her? Even if Simon found he could never love her, they would still be married.
“I don’t understand,” Nora said.
Kellogg waved a hand, and several more of his customers glanced their way from among the piles of food tins, saw blades and bolts of cloth. “It was in the last two issues of the Puget Sound Weekly. Simon and Nora Wallin are not living together as husband and wife. He has to forfeit the claim.”
Nora’s stomach sank. Clutching the notes Kellogg had given her, she ran out to the wagon and John.
“Look in the paper,” she begged him before he could come around to hand her up. “See if there’s anything about me and Simon.”
John frowned, but he reached for the paper he’d tucked behind the seat. “Why would there be anything about you or Simon in the newspaper?”
Nora shifted from foot to foot, her green skirts swinging in the chill air. “Mr. Kellogg said there was. He said Simon’s going to lose the claim.”
“What?” John snapped open the paper and scanned the pages. Then he gasped. “There it is, a legal notice. ‘To Whom It May Concern—It has been brought to the attention of the Land Office that Simon Wallin of Seattle is not living as a husband. The one hundred and sixty acres claimed for his wife, Nora Underhill, will be forfeit unless they make an appearance before the registrar by five in the afternoon on December 27, 1866, to prove they are husband and
wife.’”
Nora caught the sideboard, feeling faint. “That’s tomorrow.”
John nodded, lowering the paper. “Who told them?”
Nora shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. I won’t let Simon lose that acreage. He’s worked too hard for it. You all have.” She looked to John. “Go back to Wallin Landing, John. Show Simon that article. Tell him I’ll find us a passage on a southbound ship tomorrow, if I can. I’ll wait for him in Seattle.”
“Right.” John jumped up on the bench and gathered the reins.
“And, John,” Nora said.
Her brother-in-law met her gaze.
Nora did not hesitate. “Tell Simon I love him, and I won’t let him down. Ever.”
* * *
Simon took Fleet with him up the hill to the new acreage. He and James were going to see about one of the bigger trees. He helped his brother hack away at the trunk to make a groove for the big saw. Then James pounded in the wedges.
Simon knew he should be helping, but he couldn’t seem to keep Nora off his mind. The glow on her face when she’d seen his presents, the joy when she’d instigated that family snowball fight and the warmth of her in his embrace all combined to make him dream of a future together, in a true marriage.
He never would have thought such a thing possible. Most likely it wouldn’t have been possible with anyone but Nora. She accepted him as no one else ever had, yet helped him be the best man possible. It seemed to him he felt a hand on his shoulder, a presence encouraging him.
Your ways are higher than ours, Lord. You knew what I needed in a wife. Help me be what Nora needs in a husband.
“Ahem.”
James’s cough made Simon meet his brother’s gaze. As usual, laughter danced in James’s deep blue eyes. “A little help here, brother?”
James had positioned the big saw and stood waiting at one end. Simon moved to take up the other. Before he could give it the first shove, Fleet started barking.
Turning, Simon saw the dog hopping about near the path to the main clearing.
“Someone must be coming,” James said, leaning on the handle.
“Simon!” John loped out of the trees. His face was nearly as red as his hair as he veered around the stumps to reach his brothers’ sides, Fleet bounding along beside him.
“There’s trouble,” he said as he came abreast of them.
Simon dropped the saw’s handle and grabbed John by the shoulders. “Nora? Is she all right? What happened?”
Fleet came to pace around Simon as John put a hand to Simon’s chest and gasped in a breath. “Nora’s fine. We’re the ones in trouble. According to the Land Office, you and Nora are not husband and wife.”
Simon frowned in confusion, and John went on to explain what he and Nora had read in the newspaper.
“We could lose it all,” he concluded with a wave of his hand that took in the cleared field and the woods beyond, “if you can’t convince the registrar your marriage is real.”
Simon shook his head. “First I have to convince Nora.”
James chuckled. “Oh, I don’t think that will be much of a problem. When we set our minds to it, Wallin men are irresistible. Even you, Simon.”
“That’s not the issue, James,” Simon informed him, his mind whirling.
John opened his mouth, but James spoke first.
“Will you quote me the problems, then? Let me guess. You look at Nora and see the potential for heartache and loss. But I can tell you that love is worth the risk. And Drew would say the same thing.”
“Actually—” John began.
Simon ignored him, more focused on James. He could not let his brother’s comment stand. “You’re looking at it the wrong way. What if I disappoint her? What if living with me doesn’t make her happy? What if I fail her?”
James clapped him on the shoulder. “I hate to be the one to tell you, Simon, but you’re human. You’re going to fail at some point. And then you ask her pardon and work to make things better. That’s what the rest of us imperfect mortals do.”
Simon pulled away from him. “You make it sound so simple.”
James laughed. “There’s nothing simple about it.”
Fleet opened his mouth and said, “Noooo-ra!”
James stumbled back. “He talks!”
Simon stared at the dog. “Nora always claimed he did. I never believed her, until now.” He bent and rubbed the dog’s dark head. “Good boy, Fleet. You know what’s important, don’t you? It’s Nora.”
“You can’t actually be talking to a dog,” James said, collecting himself. “Not the ever-logical Simon Wallin.”
Simon straightened. “Right now, the only person I need to talk to is Nora.”
“And she wants to talk to you!” John stepped between his brothers rather forcefully. “Simon, I’ve been trying to tell you something. Nora said she loves you. She wanted me to make sure you know it.”
And just like that, light pierced his heart. He laughed, and both his brothers frowned at him as if suddenly worried for his sanity. But Fleet wagged his tail and gave a happy yip.
“Don’t you see, John?” Simon said. “The land doesn’t matter. Nothing else matters. Nora loves me.”
John grinned. “Congratulations, Simon. So, are we headed for Seattle?”
“I am,” Simon said, turning for the path down the hill.
“I pushed Lancelot and Percival pretty hard to make it home in time to tell you,” John warned him, following him to the path. “They’ll have to rest before they can make another trip.”
“Then I’ll take the oxen,” Simon said, lengthening his stride as he started down the hill. Fleet ran through the bushes beside him, his bushy tail waving overhead like a victory flag.
“They won’t make it before nightfall,” James called from behind John.
“Then I’ll bring a lantern to light the way,” Simon replied.
“You’ll need someone to hold the lantern, and someone to bring them back to Wallin Landing if you head for Olympia,” John said as they detoured around a stump.
“I’ll hold the lantern and walk beside them if it gets too dark,” Simon said, his boots slipping on the muddy path in his hurry. “And you can fetch them back from the livery stable.”
“Drew’s not going to like it,” James predicted.
“Drew has enough to worry about with you all.” Simon looked back to scowl at his brothers. “I have to get to Seattle and Nora. You know that. Why do you find every flaw?”
John and James shared a glance, then grinned at him.
“Now I know you’re in love, Simon,” John said. “You overlooked every problem. You just have to tell Nora and get to Olympia before the Land Office closes tomorrow.”
* * *
Nora climbed the hill to her brother’s house, reasonably pleased with herself. A lumber schooner was heading south on the morning tide tomorrow, and the captain had agreed to carry her and Simon. So long as Simon arrived in Seattle before eight in the morning, they could reach Olympia in time. She could sleep on the sofa at Charles’s house and be ready to go when Simon arrived to take her up.
But Charles had other ideas.
“Nora!” he cried when the severely gowned housekeeper answered her knock and escorted her to the parlor as if Nora would not know the way. “Meredith, dear, come see! Nora has returned to us.”
Meredith, who had been busy arranging place settings in the dining room, hurried in and enfolded Nora in a hug. “Nora, dear, I’m so glad you’re back. It’s been so long.”
She smiled at the housekeeper. “Mrs. Yearly, this is Charles’s sister, Nora. She lives with us. Will you make sure her room is just as she left it?”
A thin whippet of a woman, Mrs. Yearly frowned. She had a long nose in a longer face, and her
black hair was drawn back so tightly that Nora wondered her brown eyes didn’t cross. “Room, madam?”
As Nora had chosen this house for her brother in part because it had only one formal bedchamber, she wasn’t surprised by the housekeeper’s confusion.
“It’s all right, Mrs. Yearly,” Nora told her. “I’ll just be spending the night.”
Meredith’s face fell. “One night? That’s not nearly long enough.”
“No indeed,” Charles agreed. “You must stay a fortnight at least. I won’t hear no. After all, we are responsible for you. We cannot have you gadding about where you might endanger yourself.”
A fortnight? What was he thinking? She had to go to Olympia with Simon and then return to Wallin Landing. And even if that hadn’t been true, she had no intentions of living with Charles and Meredith, servants notwithstanding.
But she already had enough on her mind without starting a fight with her brother. “Simon might have something to say about that,” she replied, laying her trump card on the table.
Neither Charles nor Meredith quailed this time. Meredith went so far as to wave a hand. “Simon, Rupert, Everest, Henry—I cannot keep up with your beaus.”
Nora frowned. “I have no beaus, only a husband. You remember—Simon Wallin.”
Charles laughed. “Always a tease, my dear sister.” He turned to the housekeeper, who was watching them with a frown. “Mrs. Yearly, might I hope we still have some of that excellent salmon for dinner tonight? It’s Nora’s favorite.”
Nora doubted he had any idea of her preference in food. He had never asked nor paid the least attention to her while they ate.
“I’ll go down to the market and fetch some myself, sir,” his housekeeper promised him, standing taller as if proud of her ability to serve. With a nod of respect to the ladies, she hurried from the room.
The moment she was out of earshot, Meredith turned to Nora. “Really, Nora, you would do well not to mention that man’s name in front of your brother. You know how it upsets him.”
That was precisely the point, but Nora decided not to mention that either. “If it’s too much trouble to sleep on the sofa, I can check at the boardinghouse.”
