Second Chance Suitor Page 7

  “Couldn’t do any better,” he muttered, letting the corn leaf drop and turning to Roger. “Couldn’t do any better? By marrying a woman who’s probably the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen? A woman who adopted her niece and cares for that girl like her own blood? A woman who had her own farm and worked harder than most men? That’s how I couldn’t do any better?”

  “That’s what he said, not me.”

  “Well, if Jerry Raney were man enough to say that to my face, I’d have to agree with him,” Bill said. “I couldn’t do any better. She’s perfect.”

  Roger grinned and clapped him hard on the shoulder. “That’s what I figured you’d say. I’m real happy for you.”

  ~

  “You see that house up over there?” Audrey asked, pointing to a small soddie atop the neighboring hill. Weeds grew tall on the roof and it looked like the front door was only hanging from one hinge. “We used to have a neighbor who lived up there. Silas Watson.” She shivered and hugged herself, as if the memory had given her a chill. “He was the meanest man I’ve ever met,” she said. “Always had a frown on his face, never had a nice thing to say to anybody. You’d say good morning and he’d just grunt at you, like you’d said something wrong.”

  “Sounds real charming.”

  “He was something else, I tell you. He used to beat his dog, too,” she said. “Probably no surprise that the dog was as mean as Silas was. Well, one day Bill was over helping Roger with the roof. This was about two years ago, when we’d just come out, and the house wasn’t finished yet.”

  Audrey fell quiet for a long moment, so long that Maddie turned to see what had happened. She saw Audrey quickly wipe her wrist over her eyes, tears shining on her cheeks. “Sorry,” Audrey said. “I haven’t talked about this in a long time. I try not to think about it.”

  “It’s all right. You don’t have to say anything.”

  “No, you should know what kind of man you married.” Audrey fanned herself and took a deep breath before she continued. “Anyway, the men were working up on the roof, and I was making dinner. I had Tim outside, playing on a blanket where I could watch him through the window. He was only about a year and a half old then. It was such a nice day, and I wanted him to get some fresh air, you know?”

  Maddie nodded as Audrey wiped her eyes again.

  “Well, I was cutting up some potatoes, and the next thing I know, I look up and see that dog running down the hill, coming right for Tim,” Audrey said. Her voice cracked as she said her son’s name, and when she blinked a pair of tears rolled freely down her cheeks. “Normally the dog was tied up, but he must have gotten loose that day. I ran outside screaming, and I got out here just in time to see that dog bite Tim’s arm and start shaking him like he weighed nothing at all.”

  “Good Lord.”

  “You can’t imagine what a scene that was,” Audrey said. “My poor boy screaming, the dog snarling, and Tim’s blood everywhere.” She fell silent for a moment, and it was clear from her stare that she was reliving the moment as she described it. Unconsciously, she placed one hand on her belly, as if to protect her unborn child from the same fate.

  “So what happened, then?”

  “I thought Tim was going to be killed,” she said. “I’ve never been that scared in my life. And then there Bill was.” She wiped her eyes again. “He leaped down from the roof, this huge mallet in his hand, and he saved my boy.”

  “He jumped from the roof?”

  Audrey shook her head slowly, as if she couldn’t believe it either. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said. “He jumped down and hit the dog with the mallet, and the dog let go of Tim’s arm. But when Bill reached down to pick him up, the dog snapped at him. Chewed him up pretty good, too, right on his face.”

  Maddie’s throat suddenly felt tight as she remembered the disgust that she had felt when she’d first seen Bill’s mangled cheek. He got hurt saving a baby and all I could think of was how ugly it looked. “What happened then?” she asked, though it ached to talk.

  “The dog ran off after that,” Audrey said. “Roger was down from the roof by then, and we took the two of them into town and had Doc Sterling stitch ‘em up. When we got back, Bill went up the hill to talk to Silas.”

  “What did he say?”

  “I don’t know, exactly. He went alone and he wouldn’t tell us just what he said or what happened,” Audrey said. “All I know is that there was a shotgun blast up there, and we never saw that dog around here again. Matter of fact, Silas picked up stakes and went back East not a week later. Ever since then, things have been real good.”

  “That’s…amazing,” Maddie said. “I never would have guessed Bill had it in him.”

  “Well, he did. So you’ll have to excuse me if I disagree with you when you say that Bill’s not special,” Audrey said. “Because when I look at him, I see the man who saved my son’s life. When I look at him, special is all I see.”

  ~

  Tess began to wail when she realized that it was time to go home, and wriggled like a grass snake in Maddie’s arms, trying to get down. Bill had already had to go catch her twice, so Maddie put her in the wagon bed where she wouldn’t be able to get away again.

  “She’s tired,” Maddie said. “And I think she really liked playing with Tim.”

  “You’ll have to come back soon, then,” Audrey said. “Are you sure you won’t take anything else home?”

  “I already feel bad for taking as much as we did,” Maddie said, nodding toward her basket, which was sitting atop the driver’s seat. It was full of pork chops, biscuits and a couple of jars of preserves; they were bringing home more than they’d brought in the first place.

  “Don’t worry about it. You’re newlyweds,” Audrey said. “You must have other things to do besides cooking,” she added, grinning as she turned to Bill. “You keep this lady happy, now.”

  “I intend to. Thanks for dinner.” Bill helped Maddie up to the seat and directed the wagon back west, following the sun as it descended. Soon they had lost sight of the Abbott home among the corn, though Tess continued waving goodbye for a good while afterwards.

  Maddie was quiet as they rode. It had been some time since she had shared a meal with so many other people. Felt almost like family.

  “Penny for your thoughts.”

  She hadn’t even noticed that Bill was looking at her. “I had a nice time today,” she said. “I was just thinking about what Audrey was telling me about you.”

  His eyebrows raised. “I’m almost afraid to ask.”

  “It was all good things. She told me how you saved Tim.”

  Even in the dying light, she could see his cheeks go pink. “You mean with the dog? I didn’t really do very much,” he muttered. “His dad was right behind me. He would have gotten him if I hadn’t been there.”

  “Maybe so,” she said. “But still, you were the one who saved him.” She reached over and squeezed his wrist briefly.

  Bill shrugged and kept his eyes on the road.

  “I’m going to have to add to my list.”

  “For supplies? What else do we need?”

  “Not that list. Let’s see,” she said, counting off on her fingers. “You’re a chicken farmer, a gold prospector, and now I find out you’re a hero too.”

  “I’m no hero,” he said. “I just did what needed to be done. Anybody would have done the same. ”

  “You were a hero to Tim. And you’re definitely a hero to his parents. I can tell.”

  He snorted, but she could see a hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth. Still, he only stared at the road ahead, concentrating on the drive, although the nag could hardly have deviated from the ruts that were guiding them home.

  Maddie rested her back against the seat and looked out at the land. While they drove through the fields, surrounded by corn so thick that one could get lost in it, Maddie found it hard to believe that fall—and then winter—was soon approaching. Summer, at least this evening, was not yet ready
to yield to autumn. The breeze that flowed over the fields was pleasantly warm, and as the sun had dropped toward the horizon the sky filled with streaks of purple and orange. Lightning bugs had risen now, filling the air around them and shining like stars descended from the heavens.

  She looked over her shoulder. Tess was kneeling on a blanket in the bed of the wagon, resting her chin on the side board, her hands out to catch fireflies or corn leaves and happy with either one. She squealed with laughter as she grabbed at a plant and came up with a fistful of corn silk.

  She’s so happy. I haven’t seen her like that in a long time, she thought. Then, without warning, Maddie felt her eyes begin to sting, as if she were about to cry. What a strange sensation, she thought. The sky was glorious above and the land around was lush and green; she felt like she was surrounded by a natural perfection. There’s no reason to cry at all. Just the opposite, in fact. Things may not have turned out exactly like she might have imagined—let alone how she had planned—but there was something blissful just then. Sitting there with Tess playing behind and her husband at her side, she would have given anything to hang onto that moment for just a little bit longer.

  She glanced at Bill again. It may have been that she was getting used to it, or it may have been the low light, but the scar on his cheek hardly seemed noticeable now.

  Chapter 7

  When Maddie opened her eyes, it was still dark in the room. The window showed only gloom outside, so it must have been still well before dawn. Far too early to get up, she thought. So why am I awake?

  She turned over and looked at Tess, who was still dead asleep, with her hair in her face and soft snores escaping from between her parted lips. Well, if she didn’t wake me up, what was it? Maddie let her head fall to the pillow again and rested her forearm over her eyes while she thought about it. There was a noise, she remembered. A loud one. Sounded like a—.

  The stillness of the morning burst as a gunshot rang out. It was outside, but it was close. Very close. That’s what it was, she thought as her heart began to pound in her chest. Maddie rolled out of bed, threw on a shawl and hurried out into the hall, closing the door behind her and stopping at Bill’s room.

  Bill was gone. His blanket and sheets cascaded from the bed onto the floor, as if he had jumped out of bed with no regard for the bedclothes. Maddie went for the door and threw it wide.

  Fog had come in overnight and still filled the fields. She could see no hint of sun, nor even the pen fence, let alone anything farther.

  The porch floorboards were damp under her feet, and the mist seemed to penetrate the shawl as if she were wearing nothing at all. In a moment she was as chilled on the outside as she was within.

  “Bill!” she called, though she instantly regretted that she had opened her mouth. What if that wasn’t Bill who fired the gun? What if somebody else is out there? For all she knew, there were robbers roaming the land. Of course, she had never heard of anybody robbing a chicken farm, but then again she had never heard of people cooking their food over burning buffalo droppings either. The frontier was a strange and terrible place sometimes.

  She wrapped her shawl more closely around herself and began to pace back and forth. It was maddening to know that something was happening—something serious, given the two gunshots—and yet not know exactly what.

  A strand of hair brushed against her cheek as a breeze came up, and when she stared into the fog in front of her, she began to see a bit more. There’s a fence post. There’s the outline of one of the feed stations. And there’s…somebody coming toward me.

  “Bill!”

  The form was lost again in the fog for a moment, and when it reappeared, a dark silhouette wrapped in cottony white, it was clear that whoever it was held a rifle at his side.

  “Bill?” Her voice was a whisper now.

  The wind picked up a bit more, and finally she felt the great rush of relief upon seeing Bill emerge from the whiteness that surrounded him.

  “Oh, thank God,” she said, letting out a breath that she hadn’t even realized she was holding. “I was sure it was robbers or something.”

  Bill stopped at the foot of the porch steps. “Nope, just me,” he said. “Sorry if I scared you.”

  Maddie passed a hand over her brow, brushing away a sheen of perspiration, and looked at him with calmer eyes. She learned two things about her husband in that moment: one, he evidently slept shirtless, as he was now wearing only pajama pants; and two, she had been very wrong when she’d first met him and thought that he was a little stocky.

  Bill was heavyset; that part was true. But as she stared at him now, she realized that it was because he was nothing but muscle. Years of working his farm had left him with a form that seemed sculpted by an artist’s hand, like he should have been on display in a museum.

  Maddie quickly looked at the porch floorboards, though as soon as she had torn her eyes away from him she realized how silly that was. No reason not to look, she thought. We’re man and wife. Most women would have done a lot more than look by this time.

  She turned her face up to Bill again and took him all in. Oh, my word. Only his belly was flat. Seemingly everywhere else, he was covered in hard ridges. His chest, his shoulders, and especially his arms hinted at a strength that Maddie hadn’t yet seen. Or felt. She felt her pulse race as a thought popped into her mind. One day he’s going to take me in those arms. Now that I think about it, that wouldn’t be half bad.

  She was able to get control of her thoughts only slowly. “So…what was going on?”

  He climbed the steps to the porch and stood across from her. “Boars,” he said. “Wild hogs, actually. They broke the fence wire and came after the chickens. You didn’t hear them?”

  “I didn’t hear a thing until the gunshots.”

  “Well, the birds protested a little bit and woke me up, but by the time I got out here they’d already killed a few. Got into the henhouse and smashed up some eggs, too,” he said.

  “Did you shoot them?”

  “Got one of ‘em,” he said, nodding toward the pen. There towards the far end, barely visible through the slowly receding fog, was a shadow on the ground. A big shadow.

  “What about the other one?”

  The corner of Bill’s mouth pulled back in disgust. “I’m not sure,” he said. “It was hard to see. I thought I hit it, but it disappeared in the fog. Either I got it and we’ll find it when the fog clears, or I missed and it ran off.” He looked down at himself. “Guess I’ll go get dressed.”

  Maddie followed him inside. “What are you going to do with the pig?”

  Bill went to his bedroom and closed the door halfway. “I’ll take it with me,” he said. “Unless you want it.”

  Maddie laughed. “No, thank you,” she said. “That’s very thoughtful, but no.”

  He poked his head around the door and grinned at her. “Just thought I’d ask. Gus Reid is coming out to help me butcher the chickens this morning; he can help me with the hog too. Somebody up in Omaha will buy it.”

  He stepped back out of sight, and Maddie could hear the shuffle of his feet as he took off his pajama pants, then the creak of hinges as he opened the chest at the foot of his bed. “Anyway, this wasn’t how I wanted to start the day, that’s for sure. By the way, have you ever fired a rifle?”

  “Yes, but I’m more familiar with shotguns.”

  “Even better,” he said. She heard more shuffling, and in a moment he reappeared, now dressed in his work shirt and pants. In one hand he held the Henry rifle he’d used to kill the hog, and in the other he had a double-barreled coach gun.

  “Be careful. It’s loaded,” he said as he handed the shotgun to her.

  Maddie opened it to reveal the brass cases within, then closed it again. “I haven’t used one of these in a long time,” she said. “I’m sure I’m rusty.”

  “You probably won’t even need it,” Bill said. “But keep it up on the shelf by the door, and you’ll have it just in case.”

&
nbsp; She nodded, and as she looked at him, she couldn’t keep away a smile. Now that I know what he looks like with his shirt off, it’s a shame to see him with it on.

  “Is something funny?”

  “No,” she said. “Not funny at all. Just…it was good to see you out there this morning. You know, instead of somebody else.” Her smile widened.

  His eyes narrowed. “All right…well, I might as well get started on chores before I go into town, then,” he said. He put on his boots and gave her one last look before he went out the door. “You’re sure everything’s all right?”

  “Perfect,” she said.

  ~

  Bill set the brake just as Maddie and Tess emerged from the house. Tess eyed the second wagon, with its constant dripping, suspiciously. She stuck close to her mother’s skirts.

  “Mustache,” Tess whispered to her mother.

  “It’s okay, honey,” Bill said. “This is Gus. He’s going to help me do some work today.”

  Gus was wearing a wide-brimmed hat set low over his eyes; he nodded at Maddie and raised a finger to his hat.

  “You’re back sooner than I expected,” Maddie said.

  “We had to hurry. Got a lot to do,” Bill said. “Gus, we’re going to work in the south pens today.”

  Gus raised his eyebrows, as if that were entirely unexpected.

  “Just to keep things out of sight,” Bill said, glancing at Tess. “Why don’t you go on down there and put some straw over the ice so it doesn’t melt so fast?”

  Gus nodded and steered his wagon away from the house, heading down the slope until reaching the pen. There was just enough of a dropoff that once he got down from the wagon, he disappeared from sight.

  “Did you get the peppercorns?”

  “I think I got everything you wrote down.” He climbed over the driver’s seat and knelt in the wagon bed. “Tess, you want to help me unload the wagon? I need you to open the door for me. It’s very important.”

  Now that Gus and his mustache were out of sight, Tess was visibly more relaxed, and she ran to open the door. Bill took up sacks under each arm and brought them inside while Tess pushed against the door with all her might, determined to keep it from suddenly jumping closed.