by Janette Oke
Angela raised her head.
“You’ve got something on your mind,” Thomas continued.
Angela did not deny it. It would be wrong—and foolish—for her to do so.
“I—I had a proposal for marriage,” she answered, trying hard to hold her voice steady.
A glimmer lightened her brother’s face, and Angela breathed a little sigh of thanksgiving. Thomas looked pleased—not upset.
“And you have given an answer?” prompted Thomas.
Angela could not speak. She simply nodded her head, but there was a gleam in her own eyes now.
“I take it from the shine in your eyes that the answer was yes,” said Thomas.
Angela nodded again, a smile blossoming on her full mouth, her cheeks flushing faintly.
“When?” asked Thomas simply.
“No date has been set,” responded Angela. “We really have not had much chance to make plans at all.”
“I know,” nodded Thomas. “He’s been terribly busy.”
“And it wouldn’t seem right to—to hurry into marriage with circumstances as they are, and all.”
Thomas looked a bit puzzled. “Circumstances?”
“With his father just being buried and—”
Thomas jerked upright, his whole body tensing. His eyes looked startled and unbelieving in the dim light of the lamp.
“What are you talking about?” he demanded.
“Carter wouldn’t want to marry quickly. His father—”
“I know about his father.”
Angela understood then. Thomas had not been thinking of Carter Stratton when she had announced that she was to marry. Thomas had thought she was speaking of someone else. But who? Who other than Carter would Thomas have assumed to be the one? Who had already been given Thomas’s blessing? And why were his eyes now filled with concern?
“I—I don’t understand—” began Angela.
Thomas had dropped his head and was running a nervous hand through his thatch of blond hair. At last he looked up, his eyes dark with anxiety.
“It’s not that—I mean—” He hesitated and took a deep breath. “Are you sure? I mean, do you really—?”
“Of course,” said Angela with more confidence than she felt. After all, wasn’t her marriage to Carter going to solve problems for all of them?
Thomas looked at her for a long moment.
“Then you have my blessing,” he finally said, but to Angela, his voice sounded weary.
She reached out to squeeze his hand, flashing him a smile so that she might receive one of his in return.
He managed the smile. And he responded to the pressure of her hand. But Angela wondered if both were forced.
“I—I wonder,” he finally managed, “if it would be wise to just—just keep your secret—for a—a while—until—until we get this matter of the land settlement behind us.”
Angela nodded. She had forgotten about the will. Although she wasn’t sure she understood exactly what Thomas was saying, she was content to abide by his wishes.
Chapter Nineteen
Carter
It was difficult for Angela to keep her secret from Mrs. Andrews on Christmas Day. But each time she was tempted to bring up her engagement, she remembered Thomas’s request and fought back the urge. She didn’t let herself think about the fact that Thane seemed to be avoiding any eye contact with her. She had enough on her mind already.
At the end of the day, the family bundled up with robes and blankets and started off for home. They were filled with turkey and trimmings and new memories of fun and laughter with their good friends.
But as Angela reflected on the day, she felt a stab of pain. This would likely be the last Christmas spent with the Andrews family. Surely Carter would expect to celebrate Christmas in their own home in the future.
Angela brushed away tears that started to spill. She loved the Andrewses. They were like family.
———
January turned bitterly cold. Angela hated to send the youngsters off to school. A few mornings she did keep them at home, putting them to work on their lessons at the kitchen table.
Carter had not been to call. Angela kept telling herself that it was much too cold for anyone to be out, but she did wonder about his absence.
The trial date was drawing closer. Angela could hardly bear the suspense. She was tempted to bundle up and head for the nearby farm. Surely Gus would be able to give her some news. Perhaps she would even be lucky enough to visit at the same time Charlie was making one of his calls.
But what would she do if Carter should be there? So Angela did not head across the field. She knew Thomas would oppose her going out in such weather. She stayed put, trying to ignore her troubled thoughts, and waited.
Thane dropped in a couple of times in spite of the weather.
“I hear you’ve been missing me,” he said to Sara with a wink. “Or is it just the lemon drops?”
Sara denied the charge with a shake of her blond pigtails, but she did smile brightly when Thane produced her favorite candy.
Thane and Thomas set up the checker board by the cozy kitchen fire and spent the next hour noisily challenging each other. Angela felt a strange comfort in the familiar banter that accompanied the game. She had to admit that she had been missing Thane’s visits, too.
By the trial date, the weather had eased some. Angela dressed the children in extra layers and sent them off to school. She fought the urge to hitch the team and head for town. From the reports she had received, the trial was to be held in the town hall. But this word had not come to her from Carter. He had not mentioned the hearing, nor had he called since his pre-Christmas proposal of marriage. Angela began to wonder if she had dreamed it, after all.
Thomas must have noticed her agitation, but he made no comment.
“I think I’ll go on into town,” Thomas announced at the dinner table one evening. “Do you care to come along?”
Angela paled. “I don’t think so,” she answered slowly.
So Angela watched him go, feeling that whatever word he brought back would somehow affect her.
If Carter only had brought it up, Angela kept saying to herself, I might have been able to explain to him how important the little place is to Charlie.
At other moments Angela tried to see Carter’s point of view and found herself feeling put out with Charlie. He could have taken his money and gotten a nice little place in town, she protested during her inner debates. He didn’t have to take Carter’s land.
But no matter which way Angela argued, she could not find peace of mind.
When Thomas returned from town, he told her the matter still had not been settled. Angela felt more agitated than ever.
Thomas did, however, bring with him a note from Carter.
“My darling Angela,” he wrote in bold, firm script. “The days have been unbearably long since I last saw you. I cannot wait until this ordeal is over and I will be free to call again and we can make our plans. It shouldn’t be long now. Things went well today—in my favor, I might add, and I propose that soon I will be granted the land that is rightfully mine. This fool of a little man really doesn’t have a logical argument on his side. So please bear with me. I will call the moment I am free to do so. With my deepest affection, Carter.”
Angela was relieved to hear from him but troubled at his assessment of Charlie.
He’s not a fool of a little man, she argued to herself. He is a dear, good friend and he does have right to the land. It was left to him.
But Angela would not have shared her thoughts or her words with anyone. Not even Thomas. To do so would have been to put some blame on Carter.
“It will all be over soon,” she said out loud, pretending to find comfort in that fact.
Angela hoped that Carter would call, but two days passed and still he had not visited.
“That trial must be dragging on and on,” she fumed in exasperation. Thomas nodded and went back to the farm account numbers on his sh
eet of paper.
It was Charlie who eventually brought the news.
When she heard the knock Angela jumped to her feet, brushing first at her hair and then at her skirt, sure that Carter was on the other side of the door. But when Thomas opened it, it was Charlie who stood there, a grin on his face.
“It’s over?” asked Thomas.
Charlie grinned wider.
“Come in,” welcomed Thomas.
Charlie moved into the kitchen, pulling his worn hat from his head as he did so. He beat the hat against his leg a couple of times to shake the loose snow from its brim, then tossed it toward the corner and moved to the warmth of the fire.
Angela held her breath. She couldn’t have said a word if the kitchen had been on fire.
“How did it go?” asked Thomas, though Angela felt that he already knew.
“I licked ’im,” boasted Charlie. “Licked ’im fair and square.”
Angela had never heard Charlie gloat in such a fashion before. For a moment she felt sick to her stomach.
“So you got your land?”
“They said the will stood—the way it was written.”
Thomas nodded, looking from Charlie to Angela. He wasn’t sure how to respond.
“That’s good,” said Thomas.
Angela said nothing.
“Yeah,” said Charlie, slapping his thigh with a heavy mitten. “Yeah.”
Then Charlie turned the conversation abruptly. “You busy tomorra?”
“No,” said Thomas.
“Wondered iffen you’d bring thet big team of yours and help me move my shack. I figured as how, iffen I could get about four big teams, I could skid it right on over here.”
“You’re going to move it?”
Charlie turned to Angela. “Remember how you once said to me thet I’d be welcome to live here?”
Angela nodded. She had said that—but things were so different then. What would Carter think about her harboring the enemy? Angela was sure Carter would consider Charlie the enemy now.
“Well, I thought as how I’d like to have thet shack right up there in the corner by the garden—iffen the offer still stands, thet is?”
Angela felt that it was hardly the time to tell Charlie they themselves might not be living on the farm for long. When she married, the children would go with her, and Thomas would go off to do his research work. She opened her mouth to speak, but Thomas shook his head. She closed her mouth quickly and turned to the stove.
“I don’t understand,” said Thomas slowly. “Of course you’re welcome here. But you don’t want your shack on your own land by the creek?”
Charlie began to chuckle as if he had just played a delightful joke on someone.
“Don’t have any land by the crick,” he informed them.
“But I thought you said you won.”
“I did. I did,” said Charlie with shining eyes. “They gave me the land—then I took the deed—and I looked young Mr. Stratton straight in the eye an told ’im thet I’d move my shack and he could have his land fer all I cared—an’ I handed thet deed right back to ’im.”
“But—but if you didn’t care about the land, why did you go to court?” asked Thomas incredulously.
Charlie’s eyes began to snap. “I weren’t gonna be pushed around by some young city-slicker,” he sputtered. “The land was mine. Fair and square. It was given to me by the owner. The inheritor doesn’t have no say so in the matter. He needn’t think thet he can jest walk in and stomp all over folks.”
“But court cases cost—”
“Didn’t cost me,” said Charlie, his eyes twinkling again. “Cost ’im. He had to pay the court costs.” Charlie continued chuckling. “An’ he got hisself laughed at, too. The whole court room was laughing. Here he spent all thet money, I won the case, and then I give it back to ’im. Iffen he’d asked face-to-face like a man in the first place, I’d a give it to ’im to begin with, but bein’ ordered around by a bunch of papers don’t sit well with me.”
Poor Carter, Angela thought. No wonder he hasn’t come around.
Then Angela felt anger toward both men begin to seep through her. Carter was wrong to try to muscle his way with Charlie. But Charlie was equally improper to let the whole mess get to court just to prove his silly point. In Angela’s thinking they had both acted like spoiled children. She turned her back and headed for the stairway.
She stopped mid-stride, realizing she was being just as foolish herself. Never return evil for evil, she heard the words clearly in her memory. Her mama would have been ashamed of the way she was acting.
It took a moment of silent prayer for her to regain her composure, but at last she was able to turn and speak evenly.
“Cup of coffee, Charlie?” she asked and even managed a small smile.
———
It was almost the end of January before Carter finally got around to calling. Angela had begun to think she would never see him again. But when he came he was just as solicitous as ever, as though he had not been absent for an entire month. He seemed to take up right where he had left off, offering no explanation or apology for his long absence.
“I hear the trial is finally over,” Angela eventually said.
“Yes,” he nodded, seeming pleased with himself. “I have all my land back in one piece.”
Angela wondered if he had noticed the small shack tucked away by the back garden. If so, he made no comment.
“I am leaving soon for Atlanta again,” he informed her. “I have workmen coming to start on the house, but there are a few more things I need to finalize.”
He beamed at Angela, and she knew he expected her to be happy at the news. She simply nodded her head in acknowledgment.
He took her hand. “What special thing might I bring you, my dear, as an engagement gift?” he asked.
Angela was taken by surprise. She had not thought of an engagement gift and had no idea what would be appropriate.
“I—I don’t know,” she stammered. “Perhaps you should do the choosing.”
Her answer apparently satisfied him. He nodded as though it made the best of sense.
“How long will you be gone?” she asked.
“I have no way of knowing. I do hope it won’t take too long. I can’t bear to be away from you. Perhaps I can arrange for us to take a trip together later on. There are so many things I want to show you. There is so much shopping for you to do for your trousseau. There is so much for you to learn about the proper running of a house.” He flushed slightly and then hurried on, “Of course, I know you have kept house for years. But now you will have help with the work—it will be the supervision you will need to learn.”
Angela couldn’t imagine herself supervising rather than doing the work herself.
“We have so many things we need to talk about,” he went on.
“Yes,” agreed Angela. “We do.”
“Would you like me to look for an extra housekeeper while I am there?”
“An extra housekeeper?”
“For here. For the children.”
“Oh, but the children won’t be staying here,” Angela quickly said, wondering why it was necessary to explain this to Carter.
“You have some place else for them?”
“Why, they’ll be with me,” replied Angela.
“But my dear,” responded Carter with one of his measured smiles, “I plan to take you to live with me.”
Angela nodded. “Of course.”
Carter seemed to catch on at last. “You mean,” he said slowly, “that you propose to bring all of them along with you to my house?”
Angela nodded, her stomach beginning to churn. By the look on his face she realized he really had meant to leave the youngsters here on their own.
He shook his head slowly and then his eyes began to twinkle. “How you tease,” he laughed, giving her a playful shake.
“Carter,” said Angela, her back straightening, “I am not one to tease about such serious matters.”
<
br /> She looked directly into his eyes and saw her own image reflected in them, a bit of a girl with honey blond hair. Her blue eyes held his steadily, and her small frame did not flinch. Carter shifted his weight to his other foot.
“You can’t be serious!” he finally exclaimed.
“They go—or I stay,” stated Angela simply. “I haven’t been much of a mother—but I am the only mother they have. I will not leave them until they have been properly raised.”
Carter shifted again. “I can’t believe you,” he said at last, his eyes narrowing. Then he smiled, but not his sweet, charming smile. “I’m afraid, my dear, that you are all set to be an old maid. No man will marry a woman who brings along three younger siblings—even if she is pleasing to the eye.”
Angela swallowed hard and nodded. “Then so be it,” she replied with all the courage she could muster. She moved to get his hat and coat and handed them to him without a word.
He looked at her, anger filling his eyes, and then he began to laugh, a coarse, bitter laugh that made Angela shiver. She felt as though she had been struck, but still she did not flinch.
“Good night, my dear,” he said.
“Goodbye, Mr. Stratton,” she replied and turned back to the fire until she heard him leave the room.
It wasn’t until Angela was in the privacy of her own bedroom that she allowed the tears to flow. She didn’t bother to remove her clothes before throwing herself onto her bed and letting the sobs shake her slender body.
“He’s right,” she cried into her pillow. “He’s right. I will be an old maid. No one will ever, ever marry me with three others to care for. I know it. I know it.”
Angela cried long and hard, but in the end she wiped her tears and resolutely got up to prepare for bed.
“I don’t care,” she told her image in the mirror. “I am quite ready to be an old maid. I made Mama a promise—and with God’s help I will keep it. I will raise them. I will. I will. And I will never—never look at another man again. How could I have been so foolish? Why did I say yes so quickly? Mama taught me more sense than that. Thomas was right. I never really knew Carter. I did not realize the kind of person he really is. I am just so thankful—so thankful—that I found out in time to prevent—to prevent a—a tragic mistake.”
