Before dressing Pearl, Maddy poured the last of her own Italian talc into her hand and gently rubbed it all over the baby’s body. Tomorrow she’d have to start using the infant powder they had purchased, which wasn’t as silky. Maybe she could get more of the imported powder soon. If my finances straighten out.
Looking on the bright side, she and the Sneeds had options—those from Philip and those proposed by Caroline—and they’d agreed to pray about what the Lord would have them do. Maddy planned on initiating another discussion after church today. They had to do something…really soon.
She gathered her purse and a small bag with things for Pearl before picking her up and heading downstairs. Happy, Pearl peered over Maddy’s shoulder and babbled all the way down, one little fist tapping her mother in the chest and the other waving in the air.
Sarah and Frank sat at their favorite table in the dining room. Frank got up and held out his arms, so Maddy handed him the baby before she went into the kitchen to get the water to mix with the infant food.
Caroline turned from looking out the kitchen window. “How is your daughter today? I didn’t hear her crying during the night.”
“It’s amazing.” Maddy poured some of the powdered mixture through a funnel into the bottle, then added water, using the enamel dipper. While she stood shaking the bottle so it would all dissolve, she continued, “For some reason, she’s sleeping longer here. Maybe it’s because of the cleaner air or the lack of outside noise. Even with the windows open, we don’t hear anything in our room except the wind through the trees and the other sounds of nature. What a blessing the stamping machines didn’t come on this morning.”
“Everything but the saloons and the hotel shut down on Sunday. Now go sit with the Sneeds, and I’ll bring your breakfast.” Caroline grabbed a plate and started filling it with food while enticing aromas wafted toward Maddy. “Frank said he’d help Sam move the tables and chairs when you’re finished.”
Pearl wasn’t the only one sleeping better in Golden. So was Maddy. She didn’t feel the tension she had in Boston and on the train trip. Coming to New Mexico had been a good decision. Here the only cloud in her sunny sky was…Jeremiah Dennison. And she didn’t really know what to think about him.
“Ya gonna go with me today, Jerry?”
“Nope.” Jeremiah hated to put a damper on Philip’s optimistic outlook.
Not a Sunday went by that the older man didn’t invite him to go to church with him. He did agree to drive Philip down to the hotel, but that was as far as he would go. He didn’t need all that off-key singing and loud preaching by a man pacing and ranting in front of the crowd. He’d had enough of that when he was a boy, and it hadn’t meant a thing when his mother was killed. Her God didn’t protect her. He just let her slip away, leaving Jeremiah as a confused little boy with two men who didn’t give a fig about him. And he had the scars on his back as proof.
Well, he wasn’t that little boy anymore. He’d made a way for himself in this world, and he’d done a good job of it. First, the gold mine that provided the means to buy his ranch. And with all the hungry people in and around Golden, his cattle brought in plenty of money.
He’d even been selling some of his beef in Albuquerque and Los Cerrillos. Most people ’round here considered him a wealthy man, and it wasn’t some far-off God who helped him achieve it. His own sweat and aching muscles had given him everything he owned—except his friends, and most of them were Christians. But he wasn’t going to waste his time in a boring meeting when he could get so much done out at the ranch.
Philip hobbled across the porch using the cane Jeremiah had carved out of a tree limb. When he reached the few steps, Jeremiah held his other arm as Philip carefully placed each foot on the next step down but quickly pulled his arm free when they were on the ground headed toward the wagon. Philip did allow Jeremiah to help him up onto the seat.
“Sure a purty day, ain’t it?” Philip took a huge breath that expanded his chest, filling out the usually loose shirt.
Seemed like just a regular day to Jeremiah. Nothing special. Sunshine. Not a cloud in the skies. The afternoon would be downright hot. He picked up the reins and clicked his tongue at the horses. They set off down the deeply rutted road.
Philip held onto the seat with both hands and shifted his weight with every movement of the wagon. He didn’t look the least bit uncomfortable. Sundays were always special to him, since he left his house so seldom.
Guilt knifed its way through Jeremiah, leaving a trail of honest remorse. He needed to make sure Philip got out more. It wasn’t that much trouble.
Then Jeremiah argued with himself. But he did spend a goodly chunk of his time fetching things for the old man. Hadn’t he just worked more than two weeks overseeing the construction of those blasted rooms? Rooms that could soon house that woman and her baby? Maybe even those servants of hers? That would make for a crowded house.
But it wasn’t his problem. He wasn’t going to build another room onto that adobe. His own house needed work, and he planned to concentrate on that when he wasn’t running the ranch.
Jeremiah gritted his teeth to keep from saying what he thought about the whole Mercer situation. He’d missed his chance to rescue Philip from that woman’s clutches. Why did he even try to protect the stubborn miner? With the dressing down Philip gave him yesterday, the old man sure didn’t seem to appreciate all Jeremiah had done for him.
Yet, as he usually did, Jeremiah helped Philip up the steps to the boardwalk in front of the hotel. The old miner headed toward the dining room, and Jeremiah went far enough inside the lobby to make sure Philip got safely to a chair.
After Philip dropped onto the seat closest to the door, Jeremiah glanced around the crowded room. He narrowed his eyes when he encountered Madeline Mercer holding her baby and talking to Caroline Oldman.
The hotel proprietress stood with her back toward him, so he took his time studying the other woman. She didn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable in the midst of all those church people. Of course, getting to know the good people in a town would help them accept her so she could pull off her confidence game.
His breathing accelerated, but he wasn’t sure if it was with anger or something else altogether. In a white dress with yellow flowers scattered over it much like the way the wildflowers bloomed in patches over the sand of the desert, she appeared innocent and sweet. Her hair was piled on top of her head, but curls framed her face, accenting the freckles on her cheeks. The way she held the baby so close affected the rhythm of his heart, making it faster and somewhat erratic. Heat boiled in his belly as he longed for what he couldn’t have. He would have liked to keep staring at the woman’s beauty but knew he needed to stop. His treacherous senses battled with his mind. He knew he couldn’t trust her until he’d found out what she really wanted from Philip.
Shoving his hands into the front pockets of his trousers, he started to turn away when she looked up, straight into his eyes. Their gaze held for a suspended moment while everything else around him clouded. He could get lost in the soft gray of her eyes that resembled the morning mist rising from a welcome spring in the desert. And he felt like a very thirsty man.
Suddenly he broke the spell, and his boot heels beat a rapid tattoo on the floorboards and out the front door. He left the wagon tied to the railing in front of the hotel and made his way down the cobblestones to the livery. Someone else could drive Philip home.
Swede was at the church service, so Jeremiah went to the stall where Lightning munched on hay. Letting the horse out, he saddled the stallion and rode toward his ranch as fast as he could. He’d get busy on some of the work needing his attention. That would help him push that woman out of his system.
At least, he hoped so.
Maddy stared at the rancher’s receding back. Didn’t Jeremiah attend church with Philip? The answer to that question entered into Maddy’s mind, unsettling her. The way he’d looked at her before he whirled around had been intense, giving her a sense
of a connection of some kind. But a sour expression marred his face when he left, not the smile that was tilting up one side of his expressive mouth when she first saw him.
If her life in Golden was to be successful, he’d have to get over his animosity toward her, which was completely uncalled for anyway. She had nothing but respect for Philip Smith, and she’d never do anything to hurt him. That’s why the decision about what had to be done was so hard. Thankfulness for Caroline Oldman’s suggestion warmed her heart and lifted her spirits.
The strum of a stringed instrument brought her out of her musings. A young Mexican man sat on a wooden stool beside a lectern in front of the rows of chairs. He held a musical instrument that Maddy had never seen before. It had strings like a guitar, but the body was deeper and shaped differently too. She turned her attention back to Caroline.
Caroline’s eyes met Maddy’s, then she cocked her head toward the man. “That’s Carlos. Most of the Mexicans in town work in the mines and are Catholics, but Carlos helps Sam with his carpentry jobs. Since they’ve been working together so much and discussing God while they do it, he started coming to our services. It’s been nice to have him leading our singing and accompanying it with his vihuela.” She led the way toward two empty chairs on the back row. “Before he started attending here, our singing was rather off-key, but he keeps us together.”
Maddy had never seen a Mexican before coming to New Mexico Territory, but two couples with small children sat on the row in front of them.
Caroline leaned toward her. “Those are Carlos’s brothers and their families. They’ve only recently arrived from their homeland, and they come to the service with him.”
All the differences in this town fascinated Maddy. And to think that God had brought her across such a vast country to this place…
When Carlos started singing “Tell Me the Story of Jesus,” everyone chimed in. Although the hymn was one she’d sung in her church back in Boston, the music didn’t resemble the solemnity of those occasions. Instead, the enthusiasm expressed by this congregation lifted her heart, and she felt as if Jesus was standing beside her instead of way up there in heaven.
Carlos didn’t stop playing after they finished. He merely used a few chords to move right into “Blessed Assurance,” one of Maddy’s favorites. The singing in this simple service lifted her soul higher than it had ever been in her church back home.
Maybe coming to this church was a large part of God’s plan for her. She could hardly wait to hear Caroline’s husband preach.
When Carlos came to sit beside one of his brothers, Sam Old-man laid his Bible on the lectern and stood to the side of the podium. He quoted verses without even looking at the open book.
“’For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.’ I believe the Lord told me to share these three verses from Jeremiah 29 with you today.”
Maddy was glad he paused because she was still thinking about how those words applied to her. Without being able to seek God’s counsel in her life, she’d be in the clutches of evil right now. She knew she was here in Golden for a specific purpose. And even though God knew what the expected end would be, she didn’t. Hearing these words brought a peace that completely surrounded her.
When Sam continued, his sermon didn’t sound like any she’d heard before. He brought Father God and Jesus into the room with them. The words weren’t some standoffish memorized recitation. He spoke from his heart straight to hers.
Pearl squirmed in her arms, but Maddy was so entranced she hardly noticed. She simply lifted her baby against her shoulder and automatically patted her back until she settled into slumber. But Maddy didn’t take her eyes or her mind off the words being spoken to her as if they were almost a new language. Words more understandable than all the religious rhetoric she’d heard before.
When Sam finished his sermon, he asked if anyone wanted to make Jesus their Savior. Maddy felt as if her relationship with the Lord had shifted during the brief time he spoke.
Then Carlos went to the front and strummed a few chords before starting the first line of “I Am Thine, O Lord.” While everyone sang the words prayerfully, Maddy expressed them anew to God as though it were the first time she’d ever asked Him into her life. She wouldn’t have missed this service for anything in the world. A fitting beginning for her new life in this place.
After the service ended, the men moved the tables back into the dining room. The women headed to the kitchen to start bringing the food they’d prepared for all to share, placing it on a long table that ran along one wall. She’d heard the Sneeds talk about an “all-day singing and dinner-on-the-grounds,” though she’d never experienced one. Maybe this was something like that. She looked forward to getting to know more of the people in the town.
The men outnumbered the women here, even in church. Some appeared to be cowboys, but others weren’t. Maybe they worked in the mines or one of the other businesses.
The Sneeds filled their plates, and Sarah sat at a nearby table, but Frank shifted Pearl from Maddy’s shoulder to his. “Go ahead and get your food. We’ll save you a seat by us.”
She hurried to comply. When she returned, a stranger sat across from her. He stood when she set her plate down and waited until she was seated to return to his chair. He hadn’t taken his eyes off her since she arrived back at the table, and his perusal felt intense.
Frank cleared his throat. “This here’s the sheriff, Bill Brown. I met him while we were moving the tables before the service.”
Maddy nodded. “Pleased to meet you, Sheriff.” She picked up her fork. She never would have guessed he was a lawman. Without a badge and gun, he looked like any other man in the room. Knowing the sheriff was a Christian was comforting. Her thoughts jumped to the one man in town she was acquainted with who wasn’t. Such a shame for an upstanding citizen like Jeremiah to run from attending the service. Had he decided that before he brought Philip, or had her presence made him leave so precipitously?
“Just Bill.” The sheriff’s lips curved into a smile. “Especially at church.”
That helped her relax.
Frank shifted Pearl higher on his shoulder. “And this is Madeline Mercer.” He trained his attention on the lawman. “We’ve come from Boston.”
The sheriff, Bill, took a bite of food and chewed a moment. “I already knew that. News travels fast in a small town.”
She laughed. “I’m finding that out.”
He trained his piercing gaze on her. Was he trying to discover something about her? If so, what?
Maddy lifted a fork full of roast beef and closed her lips around it, the flavors teasing her tongue. For some reason, the beef out here tasted different from what they had in Boston—stronger, more full-bodied.
“But I didn’t hear anything about Mr. Mercer. Will he be joining you?”
The food stopped halfway down her throat, and she had to cough to get it dislodged. She took a quick sip of lemonade. What exactly should she tell the sheriff? Not the complete truth, that’s for sure, but how could she do it without lying? After her experience in the service, Maddy knew she faced a true moral dilemma.
Chapter Sixteen
Jeremiah tried to get some much-needed bookwork done. He really tried, but his mind wouldn’t settle on the numbers marching across the pages. He’d rather break a wild horse than spend time indoors looking at paper, and his brain wasn’t in a cooperative mood today. Finally he slammed the book closed and shoved it into the top drawer of his desk. I don’t need this right now. He grabbed up a pad and rushed out the door, leaving it swinging on its squeaky hinges.
After going around to the back, he paced off the dimensions of the space he wanted to add to the ranch house. There’d be plenty of room. He headed to the toolshed attached to the
back of the barn. He slammed the tablet and pencil down on his workbench and slashed lines across the paper approximating what he’d envisioned for the addition. He marked doors and windows, then dropped the pencil and picked up a few pieces of scrap lumber. Using his ax, he began to chop away, forming the wood into pointed stakes.
Visions floated behind his eyes. The kind of woman he longed to marry. Someone to share his life with, instead of having to return to an empty, lonely house every night. A good mother for his children. And he really wanted to have children—a boy to bounce on his knee, a girl to cuddle in his arms.
Why did this vision now have a face instead of some vague outline? More important, why was that face crowned with lustrous brown curls? Why did laughing gray eyes twinkle at him? And the woman cradled a baby girl against her chest. A very womanly, gently curved chest.
The ax slipped and barely missed his leg. He hurled the offending instrument clear across the shed, the blade sticking in the opposite wall. Blast it all! He wasn’t a Christian like Philip, but he was a good, moral man. A conniving woman like Madeline Mercer shouldn’t be having this effect on him.
He almost wished he believed in going to the saloons. But after the beatings he’d endured whenever his father and uncle returned from a night spent in debauchery, he’d vowed never to let whiskey and wild women come near his mind or body. He wondered now if keeping that promise might not be as important as he’d thought. But then a sickening sensation in his gut let him know he’d regret going back on his vow—in every way that counted.
He stuck the head of a hammer in his back pocket. When the handle rubbed against his back, he ignored it. Loading his arms with stakes, he started pounding them into the hard earth, marking the corners of each room. He’d use twine to connect them later.
Love Finds You in Golden, New Mexico Page 14
