Her Happy Ever After Read online

  “Told you,” Melanie muttered to David. She handed the candy to the boy. “It’s not much, but you take this,” she said. “And this.” She turned and rummaged in the box for the jar of pickled eggs. “Don’t eat them all at one time; you’ll make yourself sick. One or two, and that’s all, you hear?”

  Lee nodded. His eyes were wider now, as he took the jar and stared at the bounty in his hands. Then, in a flash, he turned and took off running.

  David snorted. “There’s your thanks for you,” he grumbled.

  “It’s all right,” Melanie said, still watching the boy as he grew small in the distance. “I’m sure he’s not used to it. He was probably scared I’d change my mind and take it back.”

  David stepped off of the raised sidewalk and placed the supplies in the carriage. “He was probably scared for good reason, then,” he muttered. “I was just about to grab those eggs.”

  “No, you weren’t,” Melanie said, extending her hand. He helped her down to the hard-packed dirt and then into the carriage. “Admit it, you were wrong about him.”

  David went around to his side of the runabout and pulled himself onto the driver’s seat. “I don’t know if I’d go that far,” he said.

  “Fine. Admit that I was right, then.”

  He laughed. “All right, all right,” he said. “I was wrong and you were right. Are you happy?”

  “I am now,” she said. “You know, Polly said that she thought I’d have a good time coming into town today. Turns out she was right.”

  David nodded. “It’s good to get off the ranch from time to time,” he said.

  “I didn’t mean that,” she said. “But that’s true too.”

  Chapter 7

  Polly handled the cooking for the rest of the day—the men had soup at midday, and in the evening, more soup—but the cleaning fell to Melanie. Add in the trip to town, and she had as little free time today as any other day. My book is probably getting dusty from disuse, she thought as she scraped kitchen scraps into the slop bucket. Oh well. It’s not like I’m being kept in suspense. David’s right, Penny and Lord Wellstone are going to end up together. Or if they don’t, I’m never reading another book by that author.

  She straightened up and placed the dishes in the sink, then looked out the window. The skies were darkening quickly. The summer sun stayed high for a remarkably long day, but when it went down, it went down fast. In fact, it was getting hard to see what she was doing. Better get some light over here, before I cut myself on a knife or something.

  Melanie brought the small lamp from the kitchen table, lit it, and placed it on the shelf under the windowsill. Much better. The lamplight’s reflection in the window made it impossible to see outside, but it was growing too dark to see anything outdoors anyway.

  While she was washing the silverware, a smile crept onto her face almost unconsciously. She could hear Polly and David speaking quietly in the dining room, and for the first time since arriving at the ranch, she was looking forward to joining both of them there.

  It had been a good day. Truth be told, upon rising this morning she never would have guessed that she’d willingly take a ride with David, let alone enjoy it. However, he had set aside his foolish tricks and boyish teasing, and instead had been rather pleasant. It was funny what a difference one day could make sometimes.

  She glanced up at her reflection and caught herself smiling. Her expression, so warm and pleasant, lasted only a split-second, however. When her gaze dropped to the corner of the glass, she felt her breath freeze inside her lungs and her blood ice up inside her veins.

  There, just outside the window, a man stood watching her. His eyes reflected the flame in the lamp, as if he were some wicked beast filled with the fires of Hell itself. Melanie screamed.

  It seemed that David was there instantly. Later, she wouldn’t remember saying anything to him; she had simply pointed at the window, probably with a look of utter terror on her face, and he burst out the door.

  Melanie took refuge in the dining room, collapsing into Polly’s arms. It was the perfect place to be at a scary time. She could smell cinnamon and vanilla, both scents ever-present on Polly, and in an instant it was like Melanie was a child again, safe and secure in her aunt’s embrace.

  “You don’t worry, now,” Polly murmured. “Whatever’s out there, David will take care of it.”

  They sat there together, listening intently, but there was no sound to be heard for a long while. Then, suddenly, an explosion of noise. Shouting. Screaming. A heavy thump, like a body being thrust against the side of the house. Then quiet.

  “Good Lord, what could be going on out there?” Polly murmured.

  In a moment there was the squeak of the kitchen door, then the sound of boots stamping on the floorboards. David’s voice was edged with anger. “You, sit there,” he said, and they heard a chair being pushed back. “Melanie? You all right?”

  “I’m fine,” she called. “Just scared, is all. Is everything all right?”

  “It is now. But you’re going to want to come see this,” he said.

  Melanie gave Polly a hesitant glance, but the two of them rose and went for the door to the kitchen. Melanie took a deep breath, then placed her hand on the door. I’m sure I’d be happier if I never saw that fire-eyed demon again, she thought. That’s a sight I won’t be able to get out of my mind, come bedtime. She pushed the door open.

  The demon was less imposing in the warm light of the kitchen, perched on the edge of his seat and with his blond hair spilling into his eyes. It was the same boy that had been begging outside of the mercantile, and Melanie was flooded with a curious mix of relief and anger.

  “What’s wrong with you?” she demanded, slapping him on the shoulder. “You nearly gave me a nervous attack!”

  The boy stared down at the floor. “I wasn’t trying to scare you,” he said. “I’m sorry about that.” His voice was shaky and high-pitched, either from emotion or his youth. It was hard to tell.

  “He was hiding in the bushes when I got out there,” David growled. “Spying on you like some kind of....”

  “Some kind of spy?” Melanie suggested.

  “That’ll work.”

  “Look at me, Lee,” she said, stepping closer. When he turned his face up to hers, she could see that his eyes were full of tears. So young, she thought. He’s just a little boy still. Her anger drained away. “It’s all right,” she said. “I’m not mad. Anymore.” She crouched down so that she could see him better. “I just want to know why you were watching me.”

  He blinked and a tear rolled out of each eye. “I wasn’t watching you,” he said. “I was looking for you.”

  David snorted. “Looking at her, you mean.”

  “No, I wasn’t,” Lee protested. “I just got there when she saw me, and then she screamed.”

  “All right, why were you looking for me?”

  Lee glanced at David with a wary eye, then met Melanie’s gaze. “You were nice,” he said. “I thought maybe...maybe you could help me?” His voice trembled as he spoke, and he had to wipe the tears from his cheeks.

  David snorted and shook his head. “Same thing happens when you feed a stray dog. He follows you around and wants more.”

  Melanie turned to him and stared hard. The fire was in her eyes now, and after a moment David retreated to the dining room with Polly in tow. When the door closed behind them, Melanie turned back to Lee.

  “How did you even find me?”

  “I watched when you drove out of town, and then I just walked.”

  “But how did you know the right house?”

  He shrugged. “You weren’t at any of the other ones.”

  She had to chuckle at the thought of Lee going to each of the houses between the ranch and town, peeping in the windows, looking for her. “You’re lucky you didn’t run into any dogs,” she said. “Or husbands. How old are you?”

  “Eight. Almost nine,” he said.

  Good Lord. An ache filled her chest.
Eight years old and he’s begging for food in the streets. Her own life hadn’t always been easy, but she’d at least passed through most of her youth without worrying about where her next meal was coming from. “Sit down,” Melanie said, pointing to the kitchen table. “I’ll get you some soup. You want some bread?”

  He nodded.

  “What did you do with the eggs I gave you? And the candy?”

  “Ate it.”

  “Didn’t I tell you not to eat all of that at once?”

  “I was hungry,” he said calmly.

  “Well...I guess I can’t argue with that, then.” She ladled out a bowl of soup and cut a thick slice of sourdough bread for him, then brought it to the table. “You sit here and eat. I’ll be right back.”

  He had already taken a huge bite of bread, but he nodded at her as he chewed.

  Melanie stepped into the dining room. Polly’s eyes crinkled when she looked at her, mirroring her concern for the boy, but David sat there with his eyebrows heading for the ceiling.

  “I can’t believe that you’re feeding that Peeping Tom,” he said. “After all you did for him today, that’s how he repays you? By scaring you half to death?”

  “It’s all right,” Melanie said. “There was no harm done. And I’m feeding him because he’s starving. Didn’t you see how skinny he is?”

  “Skinny or no, he’s not really my concern. Nor yours, as a matter of fact,” he said. “After he eats, he needs to hit the road.”

  She put one fist to her hip. “Are you really going to kick this boy out at this time of night? Imagine him walking all the way back to town in the dark.”

  “Well, he’s not staying here. Look how late it is. His dad is probably worried sick by now.”

  “No he ain’t,” Lee called from the kitchen, his voice muffled by a mouthful of food. “He don’t even know I’m gone.”

  “You shouldn’t eavesdrop on adults when they’re talking,” David called back. He stood up and went to the door, propping it open so that they could see him. “You live in town?”

  Lee nodded. “On Houston Road.”

  “Never heard of it.”

  “It’s in Jonesdale.”

  “Jesus!”

  “Is that far away?” Melanie asked.

  “Ten miles,” David said, his eyes narrowing as he stared at Lee. “You said you lived in town.”

  “A different town,” the boy said.

  David let out a long sigh and his chin fell to his chest. “I guess he can stay the night,” he said, as Melanie and Lee exchanged wide grins. “But he’s going home first thing tomorrow.”

  “Of course,” Melanie said. “I’ll just go get one of the spare rooms ready.”

  “Not so fast,” David said. “I think you’re forgetting something.” His nose wrinkled as he studied Lee from head to toe. “If you want that boy to stay here tonight, you have to give him a bath.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Lee seemed like another boy in the morning. Melanie couldn’t tell whether it was due to the fact that he was rested, that he was fed, or that he was clean. Probably all three, she thought, glancing up from her book.

  They were taking the larger carriage to Jonesdale, and while she sat in back finally catching up on her reading, Lee and David were in the front seat. David had warmed up to the boy a little bit, or at least he was making the effort to do so; as they drove, he had given Lee the reins, which delighted the boy. Granted, they weren’t going fast, and the deep ruts in the land prevented them from going anywhere but straight ahead, but Lee was giggling excitedly, as if he were expertly guiding them through some treacherous mountain pass.

  Melanie yawned. Between the heat of the morning and the motion of the carriage, she was starting to feel sleepy. Of course, the late night she’d had wasn’t helping either: it would have been silly to give the boy a bath and then put him back into filthy clothing, so she had been up late washing his clothes and hanging them to dry by the stove. Still, she wasn’t about to waste this time by taking a catnap. She instead opened her book and began to read.

  When Penny passed by the parlor, she saw Lord Wellstone sitting there at the window in one of the tall chairs. A book was on his lap and a pot of tea was at his elbow. He was fond of reading there in that spot, and if she were to ask him now, he would surely say that he was having a pleasant time. Yet to Penny, there was something unspeakably sad about the scene before her. He sat alone, faced by an empty chair, looking out onto a yard devoid of children, just as he had done countless times before. Now that Miss Lawson was naught but a fading memory, the prospects of things changing for Lord Wellstone seemed to have dramatically worsened again.

  It pained her to see him alone. He had been almost like a father to her. A bit distant, perhaps, but nearly a father nonetheless. He had demonstrated all of the finest qualities that she could have hoped to see in a man, from his honesty and integrity, to his faith and his generosity. Though he still had no children of his own, it was not yet too late for him. Penny could tell that he would, in fact, be a wonderful father someday. As well as a wonderful husband.

  “Here we are,” David said as he paused the wagon at the top of the rise. “That’s Jonesdale down there.”

  Melanie looked out across the fields. “Are you sure?” she asked. The prairie was still wild here, tamed only in places by small patches of corn and wheat. The entire town seemed to consist of a dozen buildings clustered together at the bottom of the broad valley; in fact, it was stretching the term to call it a town in the first place.

  “This is it,” David insisted, as he started them down the trail. “Where’s Houston Road?”

  Lee pointed straight ahead. “It’s on the other side of town, going up that hill,” he said. “Past Mr. Houston’s house.”

  “He got the road named after him, huh? Must be an important guy.”.

  Lee nodded. “He has two horses."

  The town didn’t look much bigger up close. There was a small store, a smaller school and an even smaller church. The bar looked to be of a decent size, however. As they rode, there were few people in the street. A heavyset man leaned on a barrel outside the door of the mercantile but didn’t bother to look up as they passed.

  “Even Peshtigo seems cosmopolitan compared to this place,” Melanie said.

  David nodded. “Pretty much like any other little farm town,” he said, then turned to Lee. “Does your dad farm?”

  “Naw, he worked in the mines,” Lee said. “But he ain’t working no more.”

  “Why is that?”

  Lee shrugged. “He says he got his foot hurt. Mostly he stays home and drinks his medicine.”

  David glanced over his shoulder and exchanged a look with Melanie. “Well...I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you,” he said. “Do you have any siblings to play with?”

  Lee gave him a blank stare.

  “Brothers or sisters,” David said.

  Lee shook his head. “No, it’s just me and Pa.” He pointed at the trail that rose ahead of them. “We live right over this hill.”

  David snapped the reins lightly. The hill was big, but not steep, and it was a beautiful view from the top. The hills rolled away to the horizon and the prairie grass was lush and thick, waving in the warm breeze; in the distance Melanie could see farmland here and there, where corn leaped out of the ground and cows wandered beneath the heavy ivory clouds that scudded across the sky. The land before them seemed to be bursting with life, like it was incapable of lying fallow. Just beautiful, she thought.

  “This is it,” Lee said, pointing. “That’s my house.”

  She looked to where he was pointing. Well off the trail to the right, backed up against a stand of oak trees, was his home. Melanie felt an ache in her chest again as they rolled to a stop and she took in the place where he lived. No wonder he ran away to Mineral Point, she thought. It really hadn’t mattered that she had filled his belly, washed his clothes and scrubbed him behind the ears. Now they were going to leave him in a place that no
child should have had to endure.

  Chapter 8

  David glanced over at Lee. “Are you sure that’s your house?”

  The boy gave him an odd look, and David had to admit it was probably deserved. It was a strange question, that was certain, but it was hard to believe that Lee lived here. Or maybe you just don’t want to believe it, a voice piped up in the back of his mind.

  It should have been a nice place for a boy to live. The oaks were tall and true behind the house, giving it some shade in the summer and a windbreak in the winter; the view couldn’t be beat, and there were open fields for Lee to run around in. The problems must begin when he gets home.

  Lee’s father had built a sod house. There was nothing distressing about that in and of itself; back in the days when this was all frontier, or even when it was still just a territory, soddies had been somewhat common. Nevertheless, it was a bit strange to see one here when there were so many trees alongside. David had yet to meet a man who would pass up free lumber in favor of dirt walls. He supposed that the ease and speed of building a sod house might tip the scales, however, for a man who didn’t want to do the work of felling trees and sawing boards. For a lazy man, in other words, he thought.

  David had been in a few soddies before, and they could be quite nice if they were kept up. There was always a musty, earthy smell that permeated them, but aside from that they could be as comfortable as any other home. Some owners made so many improvements, like plastered walls and wooden floors, that you’d be sitting there having dinner and entirely forget that you were encased in dirt. Lee’s house was not one of these.

  The southwest corner of the home was crumbling; while David stared, a brown mouse climbed out of the wall and stood on his hind legs, staring right back at him. The roof, like that of many soddies, was a living thing. Unlike other homeowners, however, who brightened their houses by sowing flower seeds on the roof, Lee’s house appeared to be playing host to whatever the wind had deposited there. A pair of young, thin oak saplings had sprouted, and David could only imagine what the roots were doing to the roof. The sole window was made out of grease paper, and if it weren’t for an oak branch propping it up, the window frame would have surely fallen out of the wall. All in all, a good home for a lazy man who doesn’t mind dirt falling around him all the time.