by Ann Shorey
She felt Mr. Beldon’s eyes boring into her back and turned to see him watching her with razorlike intensity.
He raised an eyebrow. “You realize, Mrs. Craig, if you speak of this, the town gossips won’t believe a word you say.”
Ellie cringed at the truth of his words. Maria ran to the carriage, pink-cheeked from the sun and carrying an armful of flowers. Settling into the space between them, she held the bouquet under Ellie’s nose.
“I’ll give these to Uncle Arthur to make him feel better.”
“Well, aren’t you a thoughtful child.” Mr. Beldon flicked the reins over his horse’s back and set the phaeton moving toward the road.
A musty smell, like that of a locked room, arose from the sunflowers. Ellie turned her head away and sat with her arms wrapped around her waist, trying to stop the trembling that rippled over her body. The sensation of Beldon’s hands on her remained, like palpable stains. How could she have been so foolish?
Although the phaeton clipped along the road at a good pace, the minutes seemed to crawl until they reached the farm. Mr. Beldon reined his horse to a stop with a flourish. Before he could get out to help her down, Ellie bolted from the carriage and stood below the step, cradling her sewing basket and the two towel-wrapped loaves of bread. She kept her head down, avoiding his eyes. Behind her, she heard the back door open.
Maria’s face brightened. “Papa!”
28
Matthew stood at the top of the steps staring between his wife’s flushed face and Marcus Beldon’s smug expression. A sick feeling gripped his stomach. In the hours since his arrival home, he’d heard from the twins how Beldon had insinuated himself into Ellie’s life, offering to take her to Molly’s. No one knew better than himself how naïve his wife could be.
An expression of guilt painted itself over Ellie’s face.
She hesitated, then followed Maria up the stairs and hugged him. “Thank goodness you’re back.”
His arms encircled her, feeling her softness under his fingers. He held her lightly, resting his cheek against the top of her sunbonnet. So often he had dreamed of her during the uncomfortable nights on the circuit and now here she was in his arms. A pang of desire shot through him.
He lifted his head in time to see Beldon turn his carriage and roll out of the farmyard. Desire curdled into doubt. “I hear you’ve been spending a great deal of time with him.”
Ellie didn’t need to ask who he meant. She stared at the ground.
Matthew lifted her chin with his thumb and stared into her eyes. “Of all people, why Beldon?”
Her cheeks flamed. “He offered to take me to Molly’s, so I said yes. At the time I didn’t see the harm.” She drew a shaky breath, then blurted, “He said he would help me find my family in Texas.”
He dropped his hand, incredulous, “And you believed him? Don’t you know—”
“I do now. He’s evil, Matt.” Tears gathered in her eyes. “I should have listened to you.”
He remembered all the times he’d decided against burdening her with the man’s actions. Then he recalled that when he did tell her Beldon was spreading rumors about them, she’d argued in Beldon’s favor.
Stepping away, he narrowed his eyes and surveyed Ellie. “What’s changed your mind now?”
“Things he . . . said.” She mumbled her reply and pushed past him into the house, colliding with Graciana, who stood just inside the doorway.
Ellie took a step backward. She put her hands on the child’s shoulders. “Oh dear, did I hurt you? I didn’t see you standing there.”
Graciana sidled next to Matthew and slid her hand into his. “No ma’am,” she said. “I’m not hurt.” She clutched her rag doll with her free hand.
“This is Graciana Largo,” Matthew said, answering the question in Ellie’s eyes. “She will be staying with us until—” He broke off. “We have much to discuss. Let’s wait for later.”
Clearly tired of being ignored, Maria stepped in front of Graciana and held out her bouquet. “I picked these for my Uncle Arthur. Do you want to come with me when I give them to him?”
“No, thank you. I want to stay with Uncle Matthew.”
“All right.” Maria skipped toward the parlor, calling Arthur’s name.
During supper, Matthew surreptitiously watched Ellie. She moved about the kitchen more than necessary, jumping up to bring one thing or another to the table. Graciana had insisted on sitting next to him. It pleased him to note that Ellie seemed to have accepted the girl’s presence without objection. It wasn’t unusual for families to take in orphaned children, but he’d worried that Ellie was still too obsessed with losing Julia to want another child in the house.
Ellie joined Maria and the boys in asking questions about his journey, but only half listened to his answers. Not until he told the story of going to Kentucky to visit his father did he have her full attention.
“You took a steamboat to Marysville? You were needed here. You would’ve been back a week sooner. And I wouldn’t have—” She stopped in midsentence.
“It had to be the Lord’s leading. So much happened as a result.” He opened his mouth to tell her about his father, and then what occurred on the dock at Oakport, but she didn’t give him the opportunity.
“I believe the Lord wanted you to take care of your family, and you decided to go skylarking.” She pushed back her chair and gathered soiled plates. “You can’t imagine how hard it’s been . . .” Ellie’s voice choked. “The children, Uncle Arthur, the farm—” She clunked the plates into the basin and turned her back on him.
Graciana shrank against his side and hugged her doll. Matthew glanced at her and then at the stunned faces of his children. He and Ellie never quarreled in front of them.
He’d pictured an enthusiastic homecoming. Instead, he’d arrived to find Ellie gone off somewhere with Marcus Beldon, Arthur sitting on the porch with a broken leg, and the boys filled with complaints about their mother’s behavior.
He walked to the worktable. “I wrote you a letter explaining everything before I left on the steamboat. It should have arrived by now.”
“Well, it didn’t.” She wouldn’t look at him.
Arthur picked up his crutches. “Believe I’ll go sit on the porch and watch the storm come in. The cool air will feel good.”
Glancing at their parents, the children slipped upstairs.
Maria stopped halfway up the steps and ran back to hug Matthew. “I’m glad you’re home, Papa.”
“Me too.” He kissed her blonde head. “Graciana will share your room. I put her things in there when I got home.” He held his hand toward the dark-haired child. “You go with Maria. I’ll be right here if you need me.”
She nodded and followed Maria, glancing back once as if to make certain he was still there.
Wind whipped the curtains at the window, pushing the scent of rain into the room. Ellie kept her eyes focused on the stack of dirty dishes in the soapy water.
Matthew spoke to the back of her head. “I’m going to sit with Arthur for a bit. You go on up when you’re ready.”
She flashed a teary, blue-eyed look at him. “I’m glad you’re home too.”
He barely heard her whisper over the rattle of cutlery in the tin basin. He squeezed her shoulder, then walked out onto the porch. Light from the kitchen lamp shimmered on raindrops falling past the roof. Matthew stood at the top of the steps and gazed into the gray dusk, hearing water splash onto the dry ground of his farmyard.
Arthur spoke behind him. “Just in time.”
“The rain?”
“That too.”
Matthew turned toward Arthur, lowering his voice so it wouldn’t carry through the open window. “Do you think Beldon’s offers to drive Ellie to town were innocent?”
“I wouldn’t have allowed it otherwise.” Arthur made a derisive sound in his throat. “Course, I thought that Forsythe fellow’s actions were innocent too. Guess you’d better not depend on me for good judgment.”
Matthew pinched his lip. “I saw Ruby.”
Arthur’s jaw dropped. “Where is she? Is she well?”
“She seemed well enough—a little thin, maybe.”
The older man clamped a hand over Matthew’s knee. “Tell me all about it.” In the dim light, his eyes looked overly bright.
“The Shakespeare troupe was in New Camden. Ruby was with them.”
“How’d you find that out?”
“I went to the play.”
In spite of the seriousness of their conversation, Arthur chuckled. “And you weren’t struck dead, were you?”
Matthew shook his head. “I deserved that, but no, the Lord let me live through it.” He smiled.
“Go on,” Arthur said. “Ruby was there?”
“Yes, I talked to her afterward.” His eyes held Arthur’s. “She wants to come home, I’m sure of it, but she’s afraid you wouldn’t have her.”
“She sent me divorce papers. She don’t want to come back.”
“Ruby’s not happy, anyone could see that. She made a dreadful mistake, and now she’s reaping what she sowed.”
Arthur gazed out at the rain, silent. After a few moments, he cleared his throat. “I miss her. Reckon if she came back, I’d let her stay.”
Matthew’s heart lifted. “I hoped you’d feel that way.”
“Will you tell her when you’re back that way?”
“I can’t. They were packing up to leave, and I don’t know where they were going next.” Regret tinged his reply.
When Matthew climbed the stairs to bed, he smiled at the sounds of the two girls chattering in Maria’s room. He hoped they’d become friends. When they found a home for Graciana, the transition would be easier if she already had a playmate.
Wearing her nightdress, Ellie waited for him in the rocking chair. Her blonde hair hung over her shoulder in a thick braid. “I’m sorry I lost my temper,” she said when he closed the door. “It’s been a . . . strenuous day.” Her lower lip trembled.
“Finding a strange child in your kitchen must have been a shock.”
Ellie shook her head. “That’s the least of it.” She closed her eyes for a moment and then said, “Tell me everything. You went to Kentucky—is that where Graciana came from?”
Matthew settled on a corner of the bed and hooked one arm around the bedpost. Ellie’s golden beauty moved him as it never had. He regretted all the times he’d made light of her fears of abandonment.
“I missed you so much!” he blurted.
“I missed you too.” Her face softened. “Every day. Now, please, tell me about that little girl.”
Raindrops pecked at the window pane as Matthew began his story with an account of his visit to his father’s farm, and how his father had urged him to go back and wrest control of his church from Marcus Beldon. Then he described finding Graciana hiding on the dock at Oakport.
He shook his head. “I couldn’t just leave her there. She has no one. Her mother was a Mexican woman who passed away several years ago. Her father died last winter.”
“Was he from Mexico too?”
“I don’t think so. She said he was light skinned and had white hair.” He swallowed. “Anyway, some neighbors arranged for a slave woman, Graciana called her ‘Aunt Polly,’ to get her away from the border area where the war is being fought. My best guess is Aunt Polly was taken by slave catchers once they crossed the Ohio. All the child knows is some bad men took her.” He massaged the back of his neck to reduce the tension crawling over his back and shoulders. “Graciana is afraid of being left again. You noticed how she sticks to me like a burr.”
“Yes. I can hardly blame her, now that I’ve heard her story.”
“We’ll take care of her until we can find a family who wants her. I know you’re already burdened with our youngsters.”
“Mrs. Carstairs.”
“What?”
“Penelope Carstairs. She recently lost a baby. Maybe they would welcome Graciana.” She straightened. “And Matt, our children are not a burden. I love them. While Graciana’s here, I’ll show her the same love.”
“You’re a surprise to me at times.”
Ellie eyes twinkled. “That’s not all bad.”
After the family finished breakfast the next morning, the boys headed for the barn to start the chores. Maria gathered the breakfast plates and carried them to the basin. Without saying a word, Graciana pushed her chair away from Matthew’s side, stacked the cutlery on the serving platter, and joined Maria. The two girls studied each other for a quiet moment, then Maria smiled and moved to one side so they could share the workspace.
Matthew watched them, the corner of his mouth quirked in a grin. He spoke to Ellie in an undertone. “I was afraid Maria’d be jealous while Graciana stayed with us. Looks like I worried for nothing.”
An odd expression crossed Ellie’s face. “Did you notice how much those two look alike? Maria’s taller, and fair-skinned of course, but see their profiles?”
He squinted at the girls. “Hmm. Maybe. Hard to say.” He pushed his pewter mug toward her. “Any of that coffee left?”
Ellie brought the coffee boiler to the table. When she leaned over him to fill his cup, her breast brushed against his shoulder. Matthew leaned away. Sleeping next to her last night had resurrected desires he’d hoped were under control.
After another glance in the girl’s direction, Ellie took a chair opposite Matthew. “How are you going to spend your first day back?”
“On the farm. I want to see what the boys have done while I’ve been gone. And I need to check Samson. Looked like he favored his left rear hoof some before we got here.” He flexed his shoulders and blew out a deep sigh. “I’m glad to be home. Riding circuit’s for young sparks.” Matthew shook his head. “Never again.”
She reached across the table and clasped his hand. “Your decision is an answer to prayer. I need you here. We need you here. The church needs you here. Did Uncle Arthur tell you Mr. Wolcott’s been holding services in the rear of his store?”
“No. When did he start that?” He lifted his mug. Did he see a flicker of disappointment in her eyes when her hand fell away from his? He blew on the surface of the coffee to cool it.
“It’s been three or four weeks now. Molly and Karl have attended, and she says that quite a number of folks from your congregation are there.”
“You haven’t gone?”
She shook her head and pointed toward the back porch where Arthur went to sit after breakfast. “Uncle Arthur fell just before the first meeting. There’s been no way to get to town.”
“You could’ve asked Karl when he came out to tend Arthur.” He felt a surge of meanness. “Or didn’t you want to hurt Beldon’s feelings?”
Ellie’s face reddened. “Mr. Beldon’s feelings had nothing to do with it.” She pushed back her chair and stood, her voice changing from friendly to curt. “If you’re going out to check on Samson, you’d better get started.”
Matthew saw the hurt in her eyes, and regretted his gibe. “Ellie, I . . .”
“What?” Her lower lip trembled.
He couldn’t think of anything to say to turn things around. “Uh, I’ll come in at dinnertime.”
29
“Are you still hungry, Graciana?” Ellie asked. “There’s plenty more corn mush.”
“No, thank you, ma’am.”
Ellie covered the pot on the stove and walked back to the table. “You’ve been with us for a week now. Why don’t you call me ‘Aunt Ellie’?” She smiled. “That’s friendlier than ‘ma’am,’ don’t you think? After all, you call Reverend Craig ‘Uncle Matthew.’”
“Papa said for me to call grown-ups ‘sir’ and ‘ma’am.’”
“I was taught that too. But adults who are friends can be uncle and aunt—even if they aren’t your real relatives. So . . . can I be ‘Aunt Ellie’?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Graciana blushed. “Yes, Aunt Ellie.”
“That’s better.” She patted the child�
��s shoulder, then pulled out a chair opposite Matthew. Leaning her forearms on the tabletop, she studied his face. His eyes flicked away, then met hers.
She took a deep breath. “You haven’t left the farm since you got home. We didn’t even go to church Sunday.” Her heart pounded. She felt a flush rise in her cheeks. “What are you hiding from?”
“I’m not hiding.” A muscle twitched in his jaw. “Ben stopped by last week. He knows I’m home.”
“Did you tell him about your decision not to go back on the circuit?”
“What is this? Have you suddenly become my conscience?”
Graciana glanced from Matthew to Ellie. “Can I go visit Samson?”
“Certainly.” Matthew’s expression warmed. “He looks for you every time I go into the barn.”
“I like him.” She skipped out the back door, her doll tucked under one arm.
Grateful for the diversion, Ellie watched the child run past the black walnut sapling and disappear into the barn. “She certainly has a way with animals. She could probably harness King George and not get stomped.”
“Not that I’d want her to try.” Matthew turned his attention back to Ellie, his jaw tightening. “There’s no need for you to tell me what to do. I planned to go to town today. Ben and I discussed me preaching at the meetings behind the store.” He frowned.
Ellie squeezed her hands together in her lap. Since Matthew’d been home, they’d done nothing but snipe at each other. She longed for the days when they could resolve their differences with a kiss.
She reached for his hand across the table, but he stood and headed for the door.
“While I’m in town, I’ll pay a call on Mrs. Carstairs. We need to find a home for Graciana before she becomes too attached to us.”
The idea of losing Graciana brought unexpected tears to Ellie’s eyes. The child already felt like a member of the family.
Ellie stood on the porch and watched as Matthew rode past the willows and over the bridge. Graciana came out of the barn and watched him too. She held her doll by one arm, its head brushing the dusty ground, its owner looking forlorn.
