by Emily Woods
“But how … how is he going to change his mind?” James asked frankly. “I have already tried speaking to him.”
“He was in control of the situation. Am I right?” Marv asked. When James nodded, he said, “You need to be the one to take charge. Go see him. Talk to him. Tell him what’s on your mind.”
Fear coursed through James’s veins like ice. Talk to him? After everything that had happened the day before?
“He will see reason, lad, as long as you are honest and upfront about your feelings. He’s a fool to think someone couldn’t fall for his daughter. She’s too lovely. If he senses you were trying to hide them at all, he will put up a wall and you’ll have to try again. It might take some time or some coaxing, but I really believe he will listen to you. He’s a reasonable man … most of the time.”
“You really think I should go and talk to him?” James asked, resolve starting to wash over him.
Marv nodded. “He will respect you for taking charge, for being courageous. And I think you will find that you will feel much better yourself if you do.”
James finished his breakfast before it became cold, and then left a hefty sized bank note on the counter.
“Mr. Connor, I think you forgot this,” Marv said as James strode toward the door.
James smiled. “That’s for you, Marv. For everything you’ve done for me since I got here. It’s not nearly enough, but I hope it’s a start. I mean it. Thank you very much.”
Marv’s face was dumbfounded as James, grinning, stepped outside into the sunlight.
Setting his shoulders, and with a renewed sense of hope, James looked toward the Langston ranch. He took a deep, steadying breath.
He loved Marigold. He was going to do this for her.
A joy he had not felt in some time bloomed inside of him as he started walking up the street, determined that one way or another, he was going to get Mr. Langston to understand.
Chapter 5
The Langston estate appeared less than an hour after leaving town. He wondered if it might be time for him to invest in a horse to make traveling to all of these ranches out of town far easier and faster. With a mental note to speak to the traders next time they were in town, James stepped onto the path leading up the slowly rising hill to the house.
He had been here just a few times before. Every time, Mr. Langston had been the one who had invited him for dinner. It was a very large ranch made of stone and thick cut logs with a large lodge where the family lived. The barn was also made of stone and logs, fortified and sturdy, with ample space for horses, cattle, and pigs. He was always most impressed, however, by the amount of land that stretched out on all sides from the lodge. The ranchers could be gone for days at a time herding the cattle, and Marigold said she had yet to explore every acre her father owned on horseback.
James was not unaccustomed to wealth. In New York, his parents owned quite the manor that had been passed down for a few generations. His family had quite a lot of money in England before moving to the United States to expand their metalworking business. James never had any interest in taking over the family business, instead leaving that for his eldest brother to handle. He always wanted to be a doctor and was grateful his family’s established wealth allowed him to get the very best training from around the country. But where their wealth was in items and stored in banks, the Langston’s wealth sprawled out before him in a golden sea of land and trees and animals.
He was certain he would always be astounded at it all.
The front door was made from strong hardwood with a small iron knocker set into it. He lifted it, knocked it a few times against the door, and stepped back to wait.
Now that he was there, James was starting to feel very nervous about what was to come. He knew it was the right thing to do, that he needed to do it in order to be with Marigold. It was for her sake as well as his. But it didn’t help the feeling of his heart in his throat or the sickening churning in his stomach.
The door swung inward, and James was surprised neither Marigold nor Mr. Langston met him.
Instead, two girls no older than ten or eleven stood there, their hair as fair as Marigold’s, their eyes varying shades of blue. Marigold’s two youngest sisters.
“Oh,” James said, smiling down at them. “Hello, Lily. Elizabeth.”
The two girls looked at each other and broke into a fit of giggles, hiding their faces behind their hands.
Elizabeth, the older of the two stood up, her eyes wide and bright. “Good morning, Doctor Connor. How can I help you today?”
He smiled at her, inclining his head. “I was wondering if your father was home. I must speak with him about something very important.” He kept his tone light to not worry the girls that something might be wrong. He knew it would not do well for them to see the doctor appear at their home and needing to speak urgently with their father.
He smiled again, reading their faces correctly, their giggling subsiding.
“Don’t worry, ladies. All is well. There was just something I needed to ask your father. Something personal. Some advice.”
Both the girls visibly relaxed, and James chided himself for not being more careful. Who knew what they remembered about their own mother’s passing? Had he just forced them to relive it, even in the smallest way?
The girls stood aside and allowed him to pass before them into the house. They started down the narrow hall that lead to the back of the lodge.
Everything was immaculate inside. The wooden floors beneath his feet were smooth and polished, the walls adorned with paintings of trees and grass and the sky. There was one he knew Marigold had painted herself of one of her favorite horses, Bella. The furniture was all luxurious, comfortable, and handmade.
He felt so much closer to Marigold as he walked through her childhood home. Little touches of her could be seen everywhere. The fresh flowers on the windowsills. The basket of bread on the middle of the long dining table. Even the stitching of her sisters’ dresses.
The girls stopped just outside a door James had never been through before.
“This is Father’s study,” Elizabeth said. Little Lily giggled into her hands.
“Thank you,” James said, and with that, the two girls ran off back down the hall.
He lifted his hand to the door and hesitated.
“Lord … please give me the words to say …” he whispered.
Then he knocked.
“Who is it?” came Mr. Langston’s voice. He sounded far less angry than he had the day before.
“It’s James Connor, sir,” James said, pleased his voice did not shake. “I would like to speak with you.”
“Connor?” he heard, and then heard the creaking of a chair followed by footsteps. The next moment, the door was pulled open.
Mr. Langston was certainly in a far better mood than the day before. His face was amiable, his eyes kind as he looked down at James.
“Why, this is quite a surprise,” he said. “Come in. I imagine you want to get back to your clinic.”
“Indeed,” James said, truly hoping the impending conversation would not take long at all. He stepped into the room.
It had a large window along the back wall that had astounding views of the back half of his property. The land rolled on and on, undisturbed, for as far as the eye could see. He could see some cattle there, grazing happily in the sunshine.
The room itself was filled with shelves of books, each one packed tightly. Books of all sizes were stacked atop the shelves, and the desk Mr. Langston walked around was covered in them.
“You are quite the reader, Mr. Langston,” James said.
Mr. Langston gestured to the chair across the desk from him, which James took.
“Yes, well, my family didn’t have any money to send me to school when I was young. So I stayed home and worked on our farm, reading at night as a way to learn what I wanted to know. Along the way, I picked up economics, biology, and mathematics. I guess you could say I am a self-taught sort of man.”
&nb
sp; “It’s very impressive,” James replied.
He tried to wipe his clammy palms on the knee of his trousers without Mr. Langston noticing.
“Well, I am sure you didn’t trudge all the way up here just to discuss my book collection, am I correct?” Mr. Langston replied.
James swallowed. He was grateful Mr. Langston was no longer glowering at him or staring at him with such dislike. He had hoped he would be able to get through what he needed to say without him losing his temper like a stick of dynamite being ignited.
“There’s … something very important I need to talk to you about,” James began slowly, calmly. He would attempt to keep the conversation as civil as he could.
“Ah, I suppose you were looking for me to get a letter to the trader with an updated list of supplies you need?” Mr. Langston said, pulling a long sheet of parchment out from beneath a book. “Let’s see here …”
“Uh … no, sir. It’s not that.”
He lowered the parchment. “Did you need another set of hands for Mr. Green’s follow-up procedure for his knee? I could ask Marv if his eldest son might be interested. Heard he might want to learn more about how to run an apothecary –”
“No, sir, I’m sorry. That’s not it either …” James replied.
“You’ve got me, then, son. What is it that’s bothering you?”
James stared at Mr. Langston for the span of a few heartbeats. He was confused, elated, and terrified. This man who was sitting across from him could be his father-in-law someday. The thought made it all that much more real to him.
Which was exactly what he needed.
“Mr. Langston,” he said, his voice growing more confident. “I am in love with Marigold.”
Mr. Langston’s reaction was not as shocked as James may have initially expected it to be, but he didn’t wait to hear his reply. He pressed on.
“I have been for some time, only I just realized it yesterday. It wasn’t until you said anything to me, sir, that I realized just how much I really loved her.” He swallowed nervously, but knowing that since he had started, he had to continue. “I think I was afraid, honestly. My life before coming to Utah was a very different one. I had my family all around me. My dearest friends that I had known for most of my life. I was engaged to a wonderful woman … who didn’t love me, but some other man.”
He shifted in his chair, looking all around the room.
“I thought that was what love was. Allowing someone to do as they wished, even if it meant you had to suffer. Or just a nice feeling. Believing someone was good and would make a good wife.”
He shook his head.
“Marigold completely changed my mind about all of that. When I am with her, it’s as if … as if my very heart is on fire. There is this insatiable desire to see her smile, to know that she is happy. I thought love was an ideal. Something to hope for but never truly experience. How could something so pure, so true, be an illusion, I wondered? But only those who ever experience it would ever truly understand …”
He laughed lightly. “I suppose I am making little to no sense right now. And for that, I am sorry. It’s just … I have spent a great deal of time praying since I arrived in Utah, and God has showed me so many things …” He smiled. “I do believe He lead me here. And not just as a way to get away from the difficult life I left behind in New York. I believe He brought me here to be with all of these wonderful people in Bear Springs. And in meeting these people, caring for them … I met Marigold.”
James’s face fell as he looked at Mr. Langston. He was sitting there, his hands resting on the desk, his gaze attentive.
“I know how deeply you care for your daughter, Mr. Langston … I do,” James said. “I respect your desire to protect her from harm. I know that if I were in your shoes, a father, I too would be the same way with any daughters I might have …”
He sat up in his chair, leaning forward, intent on conveying his point as clearly as he could to Mr. Langston.
“But I promise you, Mr. Langston, that I will be a good man for Marigold. I will care for her as if she were made of porcelain. I will never let anything bad happen to her. I would be able to provide her a good home and a stable life. My parents have left me a sizable inheritance for when I married. Your daughter would never have to want for anything, be it comfort, food … anything she would want, she would have.”
James looked at his hands, clasped so tightly together in his lap. He was trembling.
“I promise you I will make you proud. She would never find a man who would ever be able to love her more than I do, and I know I will love her more and more every single day of my life.”
Mr. Langston took a deep breath as James fell silent. He rose to his feet and went to stand in front of the window. He produced a pipe from his pocket, lit it with a candle on the desk, and puffed a few lazy clouds into the air.
“So …” he said quietly, eventually turning back around to face James. “Is this your way of proposing? Of asking for my permission for her hand?”
James hesitated, and with a start, realized that was exactly what he was doing.
His intention had been to convince Mr. Langston to allow him to pursue a relationship with his daughter, but as he spoke, he had made it clearer and clearer that would never be enough. He needed her forever and always.
“Yes …” James said, almost breathlessly. “Yes, that’s what I am doing.”
Mr. Langston surprised James as his face split into a small grin.
“I understand …” Mr. Langston said, resuming his seat in front of James. “I have been doing some thinking and praying of my own these last two days. I was too harsh on you, boy, and for that, I am sorry. I know I can get a bit carried away when it comes to my girls, but you are a good man, Mr. Connor. James. I have nothing but the utmost respect for you and what you have done for this fine town. As for my daughter …” he sighed heavily. “I do believe you would care for her better than anyone else could. Aside from me, that is. I hope you can see I just couldn’t bear the thought of her getting hurt … and the idea she might not be around as much anymore is a sobering thought.”
James smiled, a great weight lifting from his shoulders.
“I do understand,” James replied. “I hope you know it would never be my intention to take her away from you. I am certain you will still see her a great deal.”
Mr. Langston nodded his head. “And her sisters will miss her as well.”
“And she will miss you all, too.”
“This is harder than I expected it to be,” Mr. Langston said. But he cleared his throat, straightened up and nodded his head. “But … there comes a time in every young child’s life when they must leave the nest to begin the next chapter of their own lives. My baby girl is not a baby anymore … but she is still my daughter. And I will do right by her.”
He stared intently down at James, and for a second, James wondered if he had changed his mind.
“You have my blessing, James Connor, to marry my daughter Marigold.”
Mr. Langston smiled, and even though it was a sadder, tight smile, he still held out his hand for James to take.
James took it and the two shook, laughing heartily.
Chapter 6
“You better go, Mr. Connor. Find Marigold. Tell her the news.”
A new rush of panic flooded through James. Would she speak to him after the way she was feeling the night before?
“Where might I find her?” James asked.
“Down at the barn, most likely,” Mr. Langston said, turning away. He cleared his throat again. “Don’t want to keep her waiting.”
James could see Mr. Langston wished to be alone.
“Thank you …” James said, and he truly meant it. He hoped Mr. Langston understood just how much. “For everything.”
“Go on,” Mr. Langston said, smiling.
James excused himself from the room and did everything he could not to run down the hall and out into the sunlight.
What was
she going to say? How was she going to react? Even he hadn’t been expecting this sort of outcome when he first arrived at the house. He had hoped to simply convince Mr. Langston he would be a good match for his daughter. But what else could that have meant when he probably would have been back there asking for her hand in marriage soon after anyway?
Marigold’s sisters were out playing in the front yard as he walked past.
“Did Father answer your questions?” Elizabeth asked. “Did you get the advice you wanted?”
“I did, yes,” James replied, grinning at her. “Elizabeth, is your sister Marigold in the barn?”
“I think so,” the young girl replied. “She wanted to give the horses a good brushing before lunch today.”
“Wonderful –” he said and turned to leave, only to be caught around the wrist by tiny fingers. “Oh … yes?”
“Are you going to marry my sister?” Elizabeth asked.
James hesitated, but smiled at her. “Children are much smarter than grownups sometimes …” he said, kneeling down to her height. “Would it be all right with you if I married your sister?”
Elizabeth considered his words for a moment.
“Yes. You have been very kind to us. And to her. I think she really likes you.”
“You think so?”
Elizabeth nodded her head firmly. “She told me.”
James grinned. “Well … then I should probably go and tell her that I like her, as well.”
Elizabeth waved him on with Lily behind her watching with eyes as large as saucers.
The smell of warm hay greeted him as he stepped into the barn a few minutes later. It was dark, and the sound of horse hooves on the floor, their snorts and whinnies, filled the air.
He didn’t have to search long to find Marigold.
She was standing just inside the barn doors that lead out to the pasture, the sunlight streaming in behind her, making it look as if she were enveloped in starlight. She was humming softly with a large wire brush in her hands as she meticulously brushed the mane of a large chestnut just inside the pen.
