by Jillian Hart
“Probably take it off before I put my foot in my boot.” He liked kids, and this one with a single tooth missing and a dimple in his chin looked as likable as can be. “You’re mighty late for school.”
“We all are.”
We? Shane glanced as far as the snowfall would allow. Sweetie nickered, sensing what he could not see. A few seconds later shadows began to appear in the whiteness. A row of children stair-stepped year by year, a family of nine brothers and sisters, mostly sisters.
“Well, gotta go.” The boy grinned up at him, wiggled a tooth with his tongue that was getting loose and plunged ahead into the mud, choosing the deepest puddle to wade through with more splashes than a rampaging buffalo could make.
“Edward! How many times do I have to tell you?” A slightly amused voice rose above the whispering wind and tapping snowflakes. “Stay out of the mud.”
“But I couldn’t help it, Earlee!” The little guy called over his shoulder as he splashed along, not repentant in the least. The storm closed around him until he was a shadow and then nothing at all.
“Pardon us, please,” a young lady, tall and willowy, halted next to him. Other children said a simple country howdy as they passed. The oldest one of the bunch squinted at him carefully. Blond curls peeked out from beneath her knit cap. “That’s Meredith’s family’s horse and buggy. You must be Eli’s replacement.”
“Lucky me.” He didn’t believe in luck, he believed in the Lord, but it was the only comeback he could think of. Eli was the fortunate one, blessed enough to be well away from Meredith Worthington.
“I’m Earlee Mills, one of Meredith’s friends. You aren’t from around here, are you?” She knocked a thick pile of snow off her hat and curly bangs, studying him with clear gray eyes.
“Nope.” He took a step back, boot in hand, sizing up this friend of Meredith.
She was obviously no debutante, he decided, noticing the old wool coat fraying at the hem and the simple calico dress, unadorned by any lace or ribbon beneath the coat’s snowy hem. Although mud obscured most of her shoes, what he could see of them looked worn and aged, as if those shoes had been handed down more than once, as did the cap and mittens she wore, the red yarn fading in places.
“I don’t suppose it’s a good sign that you have Sweetie. Meredith’s first day of driving must not have turned out too well.” The other children had disappeared, but this young lady lingered, concern wreathing her oval face. “Oh, dear. Poor Meredith. Driving meant so much to her.”
“So I’ve heard.” This was Meredith’s friend? Something didn’t add up. Wouldn’t Miss Hoity-Toity want a more socially prominent friend? “You must live just up the road?”
“Quite a ways. Our farm is almost a mile beyond Meredith’s.”
“That’s quite a way.” A farm? No doubt about it, this was a country girl, unlike Meredith of the sad eyes and sharp retorts. “But you are friends?”
“Of course.” She took a step away from him. “Why wouldn’t we be?”
“No reason. Just fact-gathering.” He looked down at the muddy boot he held. “Meredith is an interesting character, isn’t she?”
“Interesting? She’s fantastic.” She glanced over her shoulder. Her brothers and sisters were out of sight, but she felt the pull of responsibility. She didn’t have time to figure out this stranger. “I didn’t catch your name.”
“Connelly. But I doubt Miss Meredith will use my Christian name if she talks about me.”
“Why not?”
“She’s a tad angry with me, although I don’t know why,” he confessed.
Was that a twinkle in those dazzling blue eyes? Something glinted deep in the iris, beyond flesh and all the way to the spirit. He was a charmer, and if she wasn’t mistaken, he held a spark for Meredith.
There I go, weaving stories again. She took a step backward, slogging through the sludge. She was given to tales of romance and fancy. Her mind had always been prone to it. But she had not imagined the hint of warmth when this Connelly character had spoken her friend’s name. A warmth and a reserve, a strange combination. She would have to get the full tale from Meredith at a later time.
“I’m late, so I had better go. It was nice meeting you, Mr. Connelly.” She lifted a hand in farewell, the snow already closing around her. Aside from the echoing pattering footsteps of her siblings on the road ahead, she could have been alone as she walked on, cocooned by the storm. Perhaps that was why her thoughts turned to the letter in her pocket, the one she hoped to post after school. Although it was only two pages of parchment, it weighed down her pocket and the corners of her heart as if it were two hundred.
This was the consequence of harboring a secret crush. No one, not even her circle of best friends, knew she had started corresponding with a man. Last February a letter had come to her family addressed to her cousin, who was no longer living with them. Since she did not know where Euen had moved on to, she returned the letter with a note of her own to the sender, Finn McKaslin.
Even thinking his name sent little tingles of life through her soul. He was twenty-one to her eighteen, and she well remembered him from the days when he’d attended Angel Falls’s public school and all the times she spotted him around town. Folks called him trouble and he was surely that, but she could see the pain in him, the heart and the tenderness. He was capable of so much, and she believed a great goodness lived inside the man. In spite of his mistakes, she cared.
While Finn had met a sad end, he had once been funny and full of life. Handsome didn’t begin to describe him. With his midnight-blue eyes, thick dark brown hair and his strong frame, magnificent would be a more fitting word to describe him. Superb would do nicely, too. Even extraordinary.
The letter in her pocket felt heavier, and Earlee supposed she could not hide the truth from herself. And certainly not from You, Lord. She was ignoring one teeny-eensy fact. Finn was currently incarcerated in the territorial jail over in Deer Lodge. He had responded to her letter, he’d written her in return, asking for news of the town. She had written to him with friendliness only, but she couldn’t deny that in her soul, in places she did not dare look, were buried tiny seeds of hope for more.
“Earlee!” Her sister Beatrice called, her annoyance echoing through the storm. “Hurry up! We’re late enough. Don’t make it worse.”
“Coming.” She strode out, walking faster, forcing her thoughts to the school day ahead and the arithmetic lesson she was likely missing. Her friends would already be warm and tucked into their seats at school. Her steps lightened simply thinking of them.
If only she could get him out of her mind, then she could do a better job at her schoolwork. Frustrated, Meredith blew a curl out of her eyes and stared at her slate, wishing she could make sense of the scribbles of the vocabulary words she was supposed to be learning. Too bad the letters were incomprehensible squiggles and lines her brain did not want to decipher. And why?
Because Shane Connelly would not vacate her brain.
I could never like a man like him, she told herself. Why couldn’t she feel this way toward Lorenzo Davis? It would give Mama fits of bliss. She peered through her lashes across the desk, past Scarlet bent over her vocabulary list to the handsome young man who her mother had deemed the most acceptable boy in town. The Davis family had come from Connecticut and a respectable banking fortune, and since Papa owned the bank in Angel Falls, Mama had blessed the match.
The only problem was, Lorenzo, as cute as he was, had never turned her head, not seriously, and she had never done the same for him. No, if he had eyes for anyone, it was Fiona, but as she was marrying someone else, he was likely to be single for a long while.
Someone bumped her elbow, startling her out of her reverie. Had she been staring at Lorenzo? She hadn’t meant to. She noticed Scarlet inching her slate closer on their shared desk. A note was written there.
Lorenzo? Scarlet winked, and the sparkle in her eyes put a nuance to the word.
No, Meredith wrote on her sla
te. She was not sweet on the poor guy.
The horse driver guy? Scarlet scribbled.
“Class, your attention please.” Miss Lambert stood to ring her handbell. “It is three-thirty. You are dismissed for the day.”
Shoes thundered against the floorboards as several dozen students flew out of their desks, talking all at once. Meredith grabbed her book bag and shoved her slate into it. She moved fast, but she already knew it would be nearly impossible to evade Scarlet’s curiosity. Or Earlee, who had mentioned meeting Shane on the road this morning when they had been eating lunch.
Just because she had managed to change the subject at the time did not mean she was free from questions about the man. As much as she loved her dear friends, they had one-track minds when it came to boys. How long she could delay having to mention anything more about the horse driver guy was anyone’s guess. She grabbed her last book and launched out of the desk.
“Minnie!” She spotted her sister in the crowded vestibule where the girl was chattering away with her friend Maisie. “I’ve got to run up to Lawson’s. Tell Connelly to come fetch me there.”
“Why don’t you do it yourself?” Minnie tugged on her mittens. She beamed adoration for the horseman. “He’s so nice. I’m sure he will. He’s right outside waiting for us.”
“You have him take Maisie home first.” That ought to keep him busy for a while and delay having to face him. “Then you can swing by the mercantile.”
“I’m surprised you aren’t rushing out to meet the guy. Talk about handsome. Wow.” Earlee sidled up to her, coats in hand. “Here, I fetched yours, too.”
“Thanks, Earlee.” Resigned, she accepted the garment and slipped into it, making her way toward the door. A glance over her shoulder told her that the rest of the gang wasn’t far behind. “I’m going to pick out more material for my quilt. I’ve changed my mind about the border fabric.”
“Hey, I can come with you. I’ve got an errand at the post office.” When Earlee smiled, the whole world shone. “Besides, I have to come lend a hand. You know how I love looking at all the fabric.”
“You and me both.” Snow pelted her face as she tugged up her hood. The steps were slick beneath her shoes as she trudged down to the yard along with a long line of students. Kids ran off screaming and laughing, snowballs filled the air and a long parade of horses, vehicles and waiting parents lined the road. Judging by the tap-tapping of her pulse, Shane Connelly had to be close.
Best just to keep walking and not look to the left or right. Straight ahead, that way she could ignore him. She didn’t have to remember how she’d acted this morning as long as she didn’t have to see his face.
“The horse driver guy is amazingly gorgeous,” Scarlet said. “He’s waving at you, Meredith.”
“So? It’s my plan to ignore him.” Forever, if she could get away with it.
“Why?” Lila fell in stride beside her. “He looks nice. Not as handsome as Lorenzo, but who is?”
“I suppose that’s in the eye of the beholder.” Fiona joined the group, pulling on her mittens as she waded through the snow. “I happen to think my Ian is the most handsome of all.”
“True love will do that to a girl,” Earlee commented with a dramatic sigh.
“Do what? Make her blind?” The words were out before Meredith could stop them, sarcastic and cynical even for her. What was the matter with her today?
There was only one answer. Shane Connelly. He was what had happened to her, stirring her up, twisting her inside out, making her sound like her mother. She could feel his pull like gravity tugging against her, and she set her chin, refusing to look at him. Did it stop her from wondering about him?
No. What was he thinking as she marched past? Was he glad she kept going?
“Meredith.” Lila laughed. “What has happened to you? You’ve gotten cynical.”
“Unrequited love can do that to a girl,” Scarlet answered before Meredith could.
“It’s not unrequited love.” Honestly. Where had Scarlet gotten such an idea? “For your information, Shane Connelly isn’t the slightest bit interested in me.”
“He sure has eyes for no one else,” Earlee commented with a sigh. “Look at the way he watches you. I could pen a story about this, with love triumphant and a happy ending.”
“Love triumphant?” Her shoe slipped in the snow, sending her off balance. She caught herself and remained upright, although she felt as if she were falling as she turned to catch a glimpse of the man.
Across the expanse of snow and distance, she spotted him standing tall and regal, the wind tousling his dark locks and whipping the hem of his coat. His gaze hooked hers, shrinking the distance, silencing the noise, arrowing straight to her soul. She felt touched, impossible from such a great distance, but she could not halt the sensation. She felt exposed in places she never knew existed within her, the corners of her heart, the rooms of her soul.
“I think we have another romance on our hands,” Lila announced, hands clasped with glee.
“And another wedding to sew for,” Fiona added with a happy lilt, as if she were smiling all the way to her soul. “Who would have thought Meredith would be the next of us to marry?”
“I’m not marrying anyone.” Really. She was a practical woman these days and she would prove it, if only she could pull away from Shane’s gaze, from the sight of him offering his hand to her little sister and helping her onto the backseat. Minnie chatted with him a moment, and try as she might she could not rip her attention away. Through the tumbling flakes and the span of the road, she felt close to him and the sight of his smile traveled through her like music and hope.
But hope for what? She believed in true love, but knew how rare it was. A chance for such a blessing came perhaps once into a person’s lifetime. She did not begin to think for one minute that Shane was that chance.
“But you want to marry someday, right?” Lila asked.
“Sure, when the time is right. In the meanwhile, I have plans. You all know that. I’ve been studying for the teachers’ exam for months.”
“Which you will pass easily.” Earlee, ever sweet and supportive, took her arm and gave her a squeeze. “You will make a great teacher, Meredith.”
“That’s the plan.” She focused her attention on the intersection ahead, but her senses were still off-kilter and she could feel Shane’s presence like a physical tie stretching between them. Was he watching her? The back of her neck prickled and would not stop.
“Just because you have planned one future, it doesn’t mean something better can’t happen.” Fiona’s tone held a smiling quality, and it reminded Meredith that once she’d said the same thing to Fiona. “God might have other plans for you. Better ones. That is exactly what happened to me.”
“Shane Connelly is not my future. You all know we have something better to talk about. Fiona’s impending wedding.” Meredith rolled her eyes, hoping that would effectively divert her friends’ attention and her own thoughts from the handsome horseman.
The conversation changed tracks as they walked together, laughing and chatting down the town streets, but her thoughts and her sense of Shane did not.
He could see her through the mercantile’s front window at the fabric counter, chatting with one of her friends from school, the one with brown hair. The others must have gone on their separate ways while he’d been delivering Minnie’s best friend home. Because the girl lived a few blocks behind the town’s dress shop, he figured the purpose of such an errand was so the little girls could chat and giggle together a bit longer before being parted for the day. Even now, Minnie was in the backseat scribbling a note to the friend they’d just dropped off.
Females. He shook his head, deciding they were an enigmatic bunch. He pulled his watch from his shirt pocket and frowned. Braden had expected him back by now. They had been evaluating the yearlings, two-year-olds and the new horses Worthington had purchased earlier in the year. Work was waiting and Miss Meredith did not seem to care, concern
ed as she was with fabric. She did look a fine sight at the counter in her beautiful dress and soft bouncing curls trailing down her back.
You are not going to let her distract you from your work, Shane. He’d made that promise to Braden and to himself. But she could tempt the sun from the sky with her loveliness. Her words this morning had hurt him, but they had shown him something, too.
“Does she always take this long?” he asked, glancing at his watch again.
“Yes.” Minnie rolled her eyes. “Sometimes she takes longer. She’s taking her time on purpose, you know. She’s mad at you because you’re driving instead of her.”
“I don’t think that’s why she’s mad at me.” He shivered as the wind gusted, and he felt the cold driving through his layers of wool and flannel, more than he usually did. He’d spent the morning feeling her contempt with every step, every block and, finally, every mile between them.
“Trust me,” Minnie confided. “She’s real upset about the driving thing.”
“Yep, I noticed that.”
“Except she’s not very good at it.” Minnie put down her pencil, glad to have someone to share her secrets with. “Yesterday after school, she had to have one of the boys at school help her rehitch Sweetie to the buggy and then she backed into the hitching post in town. That was before she got stuck in the mud.”
“That’s one tough day.” Why couldn’t he look away? It was as if every molecule he owned longed for the sight of Meredith. She was pure as spun sugar with her pretty face bright in laughter. Unaware he was watching her, she accepted a wrapped bundle from her friend behind the counter and lifted a long slender hand in goodbye.
She has captured me, he thought, as surely as if she’d hobbled him like a horse at the ankles. He watched, enchanted as she whirled toward the front of the store, giving him a perfect view of her flawless face, the breadth of her smile, the shimmering brightness of her merriment. Her long skirts swirled and swished as she paced closer to the door. She shined as if she brought the lamplight with her.
