A Love to Heal a Broken Heart: An Inspirational Historical Western Romance Book

by Lilah Rivers

  Jodi reviewed the idea and gave it a nod. “Think it’ll work?”

  “I don’t think it’ll do much harm. I’ll get a pen and paper.” Amy stood up, but winced in pain and held her belly.

  “I’ll get the pen and paper,” Jodi suggested, “you just sit and relax.”

  Chapter 34

  Pedro caught up with Clinton after he parted company with Giles, which was just as well. It was easy enough to find the sheriff back at his office, just relieving his deputy, the young man looking more dour than he had before as he stepped out of the office.

  “Sheriff.” Scott turned to see Clinton enter, but the erstwhile civil servant didn't seem as ready to smile at him as in times past.

  “Clinton. Everything all right back at the ranch?”

  “Well, that's why I'm here, as a matter of fact.”

  “Rustlers back?”

  Clinton had to offer up a self-effacing chuckle. “You yourself said there could be prowlers.”

  “If there are, feel free to let me know. You and your family—and your friends—will always have my professional services to the utmost, I assure you.”

  “We're glad to know and grateful, of course, but it's less a matter of business which brings me.”

  Scott turned with new interest. “That visitor? Your friend’s fiancé?”

  “Um, yes,” Clinton wrestled to say, “in good measure. You see, this fellow, he came upon us quite unannounced, as you know, and he took our friend Miss Hoffman quite by surprise.”

  Scott nodded, clearly not needing to hear more.

  “But Jodi, she... this fellow is her former fiancé, you see,” Clinton explained.

  “So she said.”

  He nodded. “Yes, and, well, she can't be blamed for what this man did. He left her, apparently, and now he’s changed his mind.”

  “These things are… private matters, Clinton,” Scott pointed out.“I really shouldn’t be involved.”

  “But I think, to a certain extent, you already are involved. Miss Hoffman, she… It would be a terrible misunderstanding if you were to think she’d run off on a fiancé like that, or involve another man in her life whilst so engaged.”

  Scott sat on the desk, silent as he heard Clinton out.

  “She’d like the opportunity to explain this for herself,” he finished.

  Scott nodded. “I didn’t take her for that kind of woman.” He poured a cup of coffee and handed it to Clinton. “But there are other things to consider.”

  Clinton took a sip of the hot coffee and shrugged. “She’s a fine woman, a good Christian. Those other considerations would have to be mighty, indeed.”

  Scott nodded. “Are you a religious man, Clinton?”

  “I am.”

  “Good, good. I am too, but not as much as I might have been. Perhaps a white collar instead of a gold badge?” The two men shared a little chuckle. “I’m not quite at that point, mind you, but I have been trying to pay more mind to what God may want from me, and for me.”

  Clinton nodded. “I understand that, of course. But do you feel that God demands you to be chaste? ‘Go forth and multiply—’”

  “Indeed. But love was the downfall of Samson, too.”

  “Samson?” Clinton reviewed his memory, finding the name surprisingly nearby. “The pastor read from that story in his sermon.”

  “Yes,” Scott confirmed. “Now Samson, and his Delilah, they were from different tribes, different regions.”

  “She a Philistine,” Clinton recalled, “he the King of Israel.”

  “Yes, and from those two worlds each belonged and should have stayed. You know well the result of their woe-begotten union. On this matter at least, and not this matter alone, the tale’s lesson is clear.”

  Clinton shrugged it off with a smile. “They were from different nations, you’re both Americans.” He chuckled a bit. “Honestly, Scott, these things are mere coincidence.”

  “Perhaps, but there are other things. The matter has caused a rift between me and my deputy.”

  “Your deputy?”

  Scott ignored the question. “Now this stranger comes to town. Would it not seem that there is a pattern of signs, signs which indicate perhaps this is a road I should not go down?”

  Clinton gave it some adequate and respectful thought, then shook his head. “What about all the signs pointing in the other direction? This fellow, he’s no herald of Jodi’s lack of commitment. She was committed to the man, and he left her almost at the altar! She needs help now, she needs a friend—a friend like you, Scott. She may well be weighing her options. Isn’t it right and proper that she should know precisely what those options are? She oughtn’t be allowed to make the wrong choice for a lack of knowledge how those around her truly feel. Perhaps this man’s arrival here is God’s way of telling you that your time of action has come.”

  “My time of action? I’ve accepted every invitation, Clinton. I’ve been both dutiful and respectful.”

  “And now you must be bold, Scott! This fight, I know you’ve travelled far and done much, but this is a fight to which you may be unaccustomed.”

  Scott seemed to give that some thought. “You’re not wrong, my friend.”

  “But it’s a fight you’re well-armed to win.” After a long, knowing moment of reflection, Clinton went on, “It’s all well and good to protect your heart, Scott.”

  “The better to protect Angeldale.”

  Clinton nodded. “Then is it also not well and good to serve your heart—the better to serve Angeldale?”

  Scott stood up off the desk and extended his hand. Clinton shook it. “Good of you to come to me like this, Clinton.”

  “You’ll come back with me then?”

  “Tomorrow?”

  “For dinner.”

  The sheriff smiled. “If you insist.”

  Chapter 35

  Giles procured a room for himself at a local hotel, the Angeldale Grand Central. But he felt cooped up in the little room, and decided to take in the air. It was a different kind of town from Providence, smaller and with a different look. But Giles could see in the streets the same bustle, faces holding the same distant gazes, conversations similar but in different accents, different regional combinations of languages.

  Giles couldn’t help think about Jodi. She’d looked at him with such pain, such cold eyes, he knew how much he’d hurt her. And he knew how angry Jodi was, and would probably remain.

  I can’t blame her, Giles had to admit to himself. I guess I’d had hopes that she would be sad rather than angry, that would have been easy to assuage. But to be angry is perfectly forgivable. What I did was wrong—a disgrace, in fact.

  But is she so angry that she could not be turned around? Anger is not the opposite of love; disinterest is. And she surely is not merely disinterested. That must be a sign, must it not? But… of what?

  Giles sighed, enjoying the clean air of the little town around him, so unlike the briny breath of the East Coast. And that brought Giles’ imagination back to Rhode Island, back to Alice.

  I should probably just go back, Giles told himself. Thank goodness I never told Alice what I truly intended to do out here, hedging my bet against just the circumstance I find myself in. Had I committed forthrightly to Alice, I’d now be left with nothing! I could scarcely go back to Providence, or almost any part of Rhode Island. Thank goodness I took the precaution and convinced Alice I am here on a mission of mercy, to make sure our dear friend Jodi is well and happy, so I could bring back a positive report to her reasonably skeptical parents.

  Really, how could I do any less, at whatever sacrifice to my business, my shop? Well, now I can go back and resume life the way it was. Perhaps it’s even better this way. Alice is not as pretty as Jodi, and those little lunacies… I wonder if I shall ever get a good night’s sleep again! But if, in truth, I have ended my chances with Jodi, as least I will not be alone. And Alice does have some means, after all.

  He walked by a small church, not surprise
d to see it positioned so closely toward the center of the town. He was surprised to see a pastor standing in front with a young man wearing a brass badge.

  “The girl from Rhode Island, Father,” the young man was saying. Since Giles already knew the sheriff in town, he was ready to take this clearly younger man as his deputy. “I know I got no call either way, but I feel like he wasn’t honest with me, Pastor Beaumont.”

  Giles slowed down as he walked past, the better to hear the two men speak.

  “He is our sheriff, my son. He has surely earned the reward, if this is what God sees fit.”

  “But if it’s by His grace and not by our deeds that we are saved, what matter does his station play in things? What about my deeds?”

  “Virtue is its own reward, my son.”

  Indeed, Giles thought as he walked on, I’ve heard that said. But there are other rewards to be had as well, some simply stumbled upon while walking down the street.

  Giles walked on, a rush pulsing through his body as his imagination began to stir.

  She’s got another man, Giles realized.No wonder she’s so staunch in her position. It’s not just me, it’s him—at least in part. And that only makes sense, I suppose. Without Alice to go to, would I have ever have even thought about leaving Jodi? Of course not! She as much as seduced me, with that hovering sadness, that almost otherworldly suffering; Alice can turn any man around, it’s hardly my fault! Jodi herself seemed to notice it, so it can’t be beyond her understanding or her sympathy. She’d have to be able to sympathize, to see I wasn’t alone my attraction to Alice anymore than she and this sheriff of hers are isolated in their situation. She has him, making her choice altogether too easy. But without him? Nobody wants to be or would simply choose to be alone, it’s counter to human nature!

  And that’s a part I can have much to do with. But… what?

  Chapter 36

  “Believe me, Scott, if I’d had even an inkling that he’d have shown up like this, I would have told you. I’d have to think of you being blindsided like that.”

  Scott nodded and glanced around the Burnett ranch as he and Jodi strolled around the grounds, enjoying their privacy even way out in the open.

  “I mean to say, it’s not that I hid anything from you simply because I didn’t think I’d be found out, not at all,” Jodi went on.“I thought things between me and Giles were long over, and I was all the better for it. I never dreamed that Giles was harboring these feelings for me, or about his decision. But his regret, his remorse—those are his own, Scott.”

  He looked at Jodi with what she knew was longing and hope.

  “I’ve no further interest in Giles,” Jodi assured him. “I admit, we were engaged to be married, so naturally there was a lot of depth to our feelings for one another.”

  “Naturally.”

  She was quick to continue, “So when he came around, it took me by surprise, brought up some old feelings.”

  “Old feelings,” Scott repeated.

  “Yes, Scott—old feelings, and getting older with every passing notion. There was a lot of emotion wrapped up in what happened between me and Giles, Scott, but… those weren’t good emotions. All the good feelings I ever had for Giles, well, I hope I can have them again someday, I know that’s what God would want. But right now, they all just feel very, very far away.”

  Scott seemed to give it some thought, reflection in his soulful eyes. “It wasn’t what I was expecting—or hoping.”

  “No, I can’t… what you were hoping?”

  “Of course.” After a nervous pause and a hard swallow, Scott explained, “I’ve never met a woman quite like you, Jodi, you… you’re refined, yes, but you go so much deeper than that. With your dedication to your friend, your steadfast positions, you’re quite a firebrand.”

  “Me, a firebrand? No, that’s Amy, not me.”

  “I think it is you, much more than you realize.”

  Jodi gave it some thought and offered a humble shrug. “Maybe she’s been a good influence on me.”

  “Or maybe you were the good influence on her all along.” A tender moment passed before he added, “It’s not easy for me to express myself at times, Jodi—no doubt a lingering gift from my father—but if I could, if I could easily tell you how often I think of you when we’re apart, how I hold you in the very highest esteem. If I could describe how warm you make me feel, how strong, how ready to go on doing whatever I can, whatever I need to ensure your safety…”

  “Yes,” Jodi said breathlessly.

  Scott seemed to be searching for the words which were already in his heart and mind but evasive to his tongue. “If I could find some way to tell you that, having met you, I would be perfectly happy never to meet another, that I felt I’d found in you much more than a friend, but… a soulmate…”

  She smiled softly. “Yes.”

  “A person I’ve known all my life, and even long before; a woman I will cherish all my life, and long afterward.”

  “Yes,” Jodi barely said. Sensing he’d said as much as he could in the moment, Jodi assured him, “If such a man as you were to say such things, I’m sure I—or a woman like me—would be most pleased.”

  “Would she be?”

  “I’m quite certain of it,” Jodi added, her tearful eyes smiling. “And I know she would see such an expression not as weakness, but as strength, great strength and courage.”

  “Would she?”

  “She would indeed. She’d consider that man to be the most strong and worthy of all she’d ever met. And she’d be eager to make sure he knew that. In fact, his courage would even give her courage to say things she would never say to him otherwise.”

  “Well,” Scott said with a smile of his own, “perhaps he’s a bad influence on her.” Their faces neared to a kiss, his lips so temptingly close to hers. She reached up, her face approaching his, hands reaching for his stubbled cheeks. But Scott cleared his throat and glanced around, the sky darkening above them. “I should be getting back,” he admitted.

  “Yes, I… I suppose so,” Jodi agreed, his voice thick with disappointment. “Where did the time go to, I wonder?”

  Scott offered her a little wink. “There will be other nights, Jodi—many others.”

  “I’m gratified to hear it, Scott.”

  Chapter 37

  Jodi and Amy were sitting in the living room, knitting wool booties and blankets for the expected child, in shades of neutral colors to be appropriate no matter which gender God chose to present to them.

  Of course, Amy and Clinton would be happy with any child, healthy or not. But Amy wanted to give Clinton a strapping son, and Jodi knew that. What she wanted was for her best friend to be happy and healthy, with child or without. There was little more tragic to consider in all the world than a woman who must pay with her life for the privilege of childbirth, and a child motherless upon birth. There could be no loving hugs from mother to child, no kisses, no cuddles, no lessons learned, no joy and no sorrow.

  No life.

  But Jodi pushed those thoughts from her imagination and replaced them with happy visions instead, of a cheerful child and a happy Burnett family.

  But then, Jodi had to wonder, what will I do? Can I really think about staying here in Angeldale? Is there really a chance that Scott and I will be wed, that I will raise my children here, have my bakery, be a sheriff’s wife?