by A. J. Goode
Behind them sat Hannah and another woman. The woman wore a pale yellow dress and a large straw hat to shield her eyes from the sun, but Will would have recognized Victoria anywhere, even without her usual mourning colors.
She turned toward him, and their eyes met. He froze.
Slowly, her full lips curved upward in the tiniest of smiles and she nodded in his direction.
It wasn’t a true greeting, but it was enough for Will.
Victoria had come back to Serenity.
Chapter 24
Victoria thought her heart might burst. It was beating so hard in her chest that she could barely draw a breath.
“Are you all right?” Hannah asked.
She nodded shortly. When the buggy stopped in front of the Visser’s home a few minutes later, it took every ounce of her self-control not to leap out and run back to the store for another look at Will.
He was every bit as handsome as she remembered. She had hoped that the long weeks away from each other would dim her feelings for him, but the mere sight of him had sent her emotions spiraling back into confusion.
Hannah gave her arm a squeeze while Robert helped Micah step down. “I’m so glad you came with him instead of Uncle George,” she whispered. “I’ve missed having you here.”
“I’m only here to visit, Hannah. I told you, I’ve accepted a teaching position in Ann Arbor.” Victoria accepted the young man’s hand to step down from the buggy. She hurried forward to help Micah, but the only danger he seemed to be facing was the threat of asphyxiation as his younger brothers leaped on him to hug him tightly.
“Easy, you heathens!” Hannah cried. “He’s still weak. Edward, why don’t you take him right inside. Micah, do you need to take a rest before supper? I’ve cooked all your favorites.”
“I’ve been resting on the train, Hannah,” he laughed. “And dreaming about your cooking. Did you really make ertwensoep for me?”
“And babelaars. With poffertjes for breakfast tomorrow.”
He groaned and rubbed his belly. “Stop torturing me by talking about it! Let’s eat!”
Hannah leaned over to kiss his cheek. “Are you strong enough to sit at the table, or should I bring you a tray in bed?”
He rolled his eyes in reply and darted through the door with surprising speed. Hannah shot a worried glance in Victoria’s direction.
“The last doctor we saw said to let him lead as normal a life as possible,” Victoria reminded her. “He can’t run and play as much as other boys his age, and he’ll need to rest more often and get more sleep, but you shouldn’t treat him like he’s at death’s door.”
Hannah hugged her and turned to follow her brothers into the house. At the last second, she turned to smile at her. “You should stay out here for a little longer, Victoria,” she whispered, winking slyly. “There’s someone headed this way to welcome you back.”
Victoria knew without turning that Will was striding toward her. She put her hand to her chest to quiet her heart’s pounding.
“Hello, Victoria.”
“Hello, Will.”
Silence.
“Won’t you turn and look at me?”
Slowly, she turned. “I-- It’s good to see you again,” she told him. It was true. His thick dark hair was just as wild and shaggy as she remembered, and his warm eyes were still just as inviting. She longed to sink back into his arms once more and feel the beating of his heart against her cheek.
“It’s good to see you, too. I thought -- that is, Hannah said you weren’t coming back. I thought her uncle was going to collect your things.”
“Micah asked me to travel with him,” she explained. “He’s been through an awful lot. I think he was afraid of the journey.”
“How long are you staying?”
“I’ll be returning to Ann Arbor on Sunday.” She looked over her shoulder into the house and then back at him. “I really should go inside now, Will. I need to tell Hannah everything that the doctors said.”
“Of course.” He stepped off the porch but turned back. “Victoria, may I -- may I call on you later this evening? I feel bad about the way things ended. I’d like to talk to you.”
She hesitated. “I don’t --”
“Please? The tiger lilies are blooming along the trail we walked on back in March. I promised to show them to you, and I always keep my promises.” He smiled at her, and she felt a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.
“All right, if it means that much to you,” she told him.
“It does. It really does,” he said, walking away with a spring in his step.
# # #
Hannah had outdone herself with the welcome home meal, and it was gratifying to see Micah shovel in some impressive amounts of food after so many months with no appetite. But the train trip and a full belly made an exhausting combination for him. Hannah had made up a bed for him in the parlor so he wouldn’t have to climb the stairs just yet, and he was asleep in the bed almost before his head hit the pillow.
Will returned shortly after that. Victoria debated taking a shawl, but decided against it. The summer heat was still too oppressive for her to need any kind of wrap.
They walked side by side in silence. As they got closer to the woods, she saw that the burnt area beyond the school was covered with rich, thick grass and scattered dandelions. “It’s almost as if the fire never happened!” she exclaimed.
“Nature has a way of healing itself,” he said.
The trail led them into the quiet woods, where the trees offered shade that did nothing to cut the heat. She dabbed at her forehead with her handkerchief.
“Warm?” he asked.
“A little.”
He led her to the same rock they had shared the previous spring. Instead of the tiny spring flowers they had seen then, they were surrounded by vibrant blooms of orange tiger lilies and bright red poppies. “It’s beautiful,” she sighed, taking her seat.
“No, Victoria, you’re beautiful.”
“Will, don’t --”
“I have to. I’ve been a fool for much too long, and I need to tell you how I feel. Just promise me you’ll hear me out, then if you still want to go back to Ann Arbor you can go.”
“I’ve accepted a teaching position there,” she told him. She couldn’t remember if she’d told him that already or not, but it seemed like an important thing to say at the moment. Her head was spinning. Will was standing much too close to her, and for some strange reason she found herself wondering if he had always smelled this good.
“I heard.”
“And I heard that you’ve been interviewing other teachers.” Hannah had written her all about Wilhelmina Claridge-Doxtator’s visit, with detailed descriptions of the imposing woman’s appearance. “Tell me, did you bring Mrs. Doxtator out here to see the wildflowers?” she asked playfully.
“Mrs. Claridge-Doxtator,” he corrected, his lips twitching. “And no, I would be afraid to be alone in the woods with her. She might have hit me with a club and left me tied to a tree if I didn’t agree to give her the job.”
“So, you haven’t hired a new teacher yet?”
“No, I’ve only had one woman on my mind.”
She ducked her head, afraid to make eye contact with him. He took her chin in his hand and raised her face to look at him.
“Victoria, I haven’t stopped thinking of you since you left. Can you ever forgive me for being so horrible to you, for saying such terrible things?”
“All is forgiven, Will.” She reached up to wrap her fingers around his hand.
“I’ve been a fool,” he said. “All these years, I thought I was staying true to Melanie by refusing to let myself have feelings for anyone else. Now I see that I was afraid that letting my self love someone else meant losing her all over again.”
“Will --”
“Please, let me finish.” He cleared his throat. “I know now that I’ll never lose her completely. She’ll always be with me, in my heart and in my memories. But there’s ro
om in my heart for someone else, too. Someone to make new memories with.”
She gasped as he dropped to one knee in front of her.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is that I love you, Victoria. I know it’s too soon for you to love me, that you’re still mourning Jonathon. But someday, when you’re ready, do you suppose you could ever love me as much as I love you?”
“Not someday, Will,” she told him. His face fell, and she hastened to finish. “It can’t happen some day because it already has happened. I love you too, Will. I want to spend the rest of my life here with you, in Serenity.”
He rose so quickly that she was startled. “You’ll stay?” he asked. “You’ll marry me?”
She laughed out loud. “It looks like you were right about me the whole time,” she told him. She leaned in close and rested her cheek against his chest, listening for the reassuring sound of his heart beating.
“I was? What was I right about?”
“You said I’d fall in love and get married to the first man I met here in town.”
Will sighed happily as she tilted her face up to look at him. “I love being right all the time,” he told her, and then there was no more need for words as he leaned in to kiss her.
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Other Books by A.J. Goode
Brides of Serenity
Letters to Caroline
Victoria’s Promise
Love, Charlotte (Coming in 2017)
Beach Haven
Love’s Little List
Her House Divided
His Heart Aflame
Their Love Rekindled
Other
Have a Goode One
Fat, Fifty, and Menopausal
My Mirror Lies to Me (Coming in 2017)
