It occurred to Blake suddenly that he was staring rudely at her. He jumped to his feet and hurried over, words abandoning him completely as he went. Too soon, he was standing next to her. Macie looked up at him expectantly and Blake was immediately caught up in trying to decide if he’d ever seen such lovely eyes before. They were brown at the center and green on the edge and reflecting the wonder and worry of this strange moment.
Those extraordinary eyes crinkled at him and Blake jolted back to the present. His ears heated as he realized that he’d yet to say anything. Why was he acting addled? This was plain old Macie Sheldon. Who was about to become his wife. Hoo boy.
“Hello, Mr. Bradfield,” Macie finally said with a small tinkling laugh. “I wasn’t sure if I’d recognize you, but I knew you right away. You haven’t changed a bit and yet you’re all grown up now.”
Blake stood a little taller, inexplicably hoping that she noticed how broad his shoulders were.
“Call me Blake,” he blurted.
Her smile relaxed a bit. “All right. And, please, call me Macie.”
She had a pleasant voice, Blake noted. It was a little deeper than most women’s. He liked that. It set her apart.
She was staring at him, waiting for him to do something. Blake chastised himself mentally before suggesting they go and find her bags.
“I have only one trunk,” Macie explained as they turned towards the back of the train. “Everything else is here in my carpet bag.”
Her trunk was found and Blake hefted it to the back of the wagon. Did she notice how easily he lifted it? Was she thinking that he was very strong? Why did he keep thinking about such nonsense?
He was quite pleased with himself when he remembered to first help Macie up into the wagon seat. Though his ears had turned red as his hands closed around her waist, Blake found that the experience was quite nice. Macie looked up at him through long eyelashes, standing so close to him before he lifted her easily. Once in the seat, she scooted over and he hauled himself up to sit next to her, marveling at how strange it was to know that he was going to marry this woman.
Macie looked around hungrily. Blake had almost forgotten that she’d spent most of her life here.
“Does it look the same to you?” he asked.
Her head tilted and she slowly replied, “Yes and no. Was the mercantile always next to the funeral parlor?”
“It wasn’t always a funeral parlor. It used to be the millinery.”
Eyes lighting up, Macie exclaimed, “That’s right! Mama bought buttons there once. And when was the saloon opened?”
They passed the place and Blake watched Macie carefully. What was she thinking of her old hometown now that it boasted such an establishment? The tinny clank of a piano interrupted the otherwise quiet of the street. A pair of shifty cowboys loitered outside, flirting with a woman wearing a lot of face paint and not enough clothes.
Macie’s eyebrows lifted, but she didn’t give any more clues as to her thoughts.
“It’s been here about three years,” Blake said once they were past. “I suppose it was after you left that Lucien Durning came to town. He’s a businessman from back east. He built the Silver Dollar Saloon and bought up a lot of property south of town. He’s been slowly buying up any ranches that turn any sort of profit.”
The woman next to him didn’t say anything to that. She simply nodded, wide eyed, and continued looking around. It was just about then that Blake noticed that she kept tilting her head oddly when she looked at him and then lifting her left shoulder when she looked away. It was a funny quirk, subtle yet strange.
“Will we be staying with your parents?” Macie inquired, changing the subject as they reached the outskirts of town.
“You will most likely stay with Ma and Pa. I’ve got a cabin of my own. You see, we have several houses on the ranch that have been built over the years. My parents live in a house they built when I was about six or seven. My older brother Troy and his family lives in Granddad’s house. They moved in a few months back. That left the cabin free for me. It isn’t a big place, but it’s homey.” He glanced over at Macie and felt his ears heat up all over again as he said, “Once we’re married, you can move in there with me.”
Blake was secretly glad to see Macie’s cheeks flush. Up until now, she had seemed to be taking all this in her stride. It was sort of nice to see that she might not be as comfortable as she appeared.
“Do your parents know I’m coming?” she asked, again lifting her left shoulder and ducking her head slightly.
“Uh, no,” he forced his attention back to her words. “I figured it would be best to avoid a lot of questions and tell them once you arrived.”
Macie nodded slowly. “I understand what you mean. My aunt Jane tried to dissuade us from leaving. Luckily for me, my cousin Lorna argued our case well. Before long, Aunt Jane seemed resigned to the idea.” She looked down at her hands and then back at him shyly. “Do you have a plan for when the wedding will be?”
Blake gulped. Those big eyes were so close to his and there was such a depth of expectation there that his heart fairly pounded right out of his chest. He fumbled the reins before forcing his eyes back to the road and clearing his throat.
“I was thinking that we might do it after church on Sunday, if that’s all right with you.” He glanced back just in time to see her touch her jaw self-consciously.
The scars! That’s what she was doing! Blake had forgotten all about the confession she’d penned in her last letter. When her attention was drawn over on her right side, he looked closely at her chin. Now that he knew to look, the flaw was obvious. A small patch of skin stretching across her jawbone was bumpy and pitted, sure enough. But it was nothing compared with her beautiful eyes and straight nose and rosy cheeks and…
The wagon bumped and Blake’s eyes snapped back to the road. What was wrong with him?
“I’d like to keep quiet about Granddad’s map,” he said, grasping at any topic to fill the silence. “Is that all right with you still?”
Chapter 8
Macie was glad that the sun was so hot; it gave a reasonable explanation for her constantly-red face. Ever since she’d first spotted Blake Bradfield sitting on the bench at the station, her heart had been doing funny things. They didn’t make fellows like this in Connecticut, she concluded giddily, stealing another look at the man sitting next to her on the wagon seat.
She kept trying to put her finger on why exactly he had her all aflutter. Blake was tall, which was especially nice for Macie who was tall herself. He was also clearly a hardworking cowboy. Between his broad shoulders, calloused hands, and muscled build, it was obvious that he put in long, physical hours. Compared with all the soft-handed fellows back east, Blake was a man’s man, which Macie was learning that she liked very much.
And then there were his hazel eyes and his full bottom lip. Macie stole yet another peek, greedy to memorize the face of the man she was going to marry. Her stomach fluttered pleasantly.
She had yet to see him without his hat on. He’d forgotten to doff his cap when he greeted her, if he even knew to do such a thing. The hair that was visible under the hat was a dark rusty brown. He was clean-shaven, though he’d missed a patch near his ear, so maybe he sometimes sported a beard.
He was watching her expectantly. Macie sat up suddenly. He was waiting for her to say something! Oh, golly, what had they been talking about? She’d asked something about his family and he’d said…
“Do I mind about keeping your grandfather’s will secret?” she repeated, hoping desperately that this was correct. A sudden, overwhelming fear of being ridiculous crashed over her.
Blake nodded, his face clearly communicating his eagerness for her answer.
Macie opened her mouth then paused. What did she think of this request? On the one hand, she could understand wanting to avoid family conflict. She was of a peace-keeping nature.
From what she’d read in Blake’s letters, there was a long-standing tension in
the Bradfield family over Ewell’s wandering ways. It seemed only natural that Blake would wish to keep quiet about the real reason for their wedding, which was sure to be an inflammatory event.
Yet, the whole thing was so incredibly odd. Macie wasn’t convinced that Blake and Ewell were in the right. If she was honest, she knew that she would have sided with the rest of the family. Nothing mattered more to Macie than the family and home that she’d lost. The idea that someone would willingly walk away was absurd to her. Why had Ewell done such a reckless thing?
But she’d never say so much to Blake. If they were about to become husband and wife, she wanted to stand firmly with him.
And so she finally said, “If you think it’s best, then I’ll go along with you. You know your parents and what they’ll say. I’ll take my cue from you.”
A relieved grin lit up Blake’s face and Macie felt her heart skitter. He had nice teeth, she noted happily.
“You must be very eager to get your grandfather’s map,” she inserted into the ensuing lull.
“I am.” He nodded emphatically. Blake paused, cast a glance at her, then continued confidentially, “It’s a little like having one last talk with him. When I was a boy, I often imagined being old enough to go off with him on one of his adventures.”
“Why didn’t you?” pressed Macie.
He lifted a shoulder before dropping it regretfully. “My father insisted that I was needed around the ranch.”
Macie considered that, seeing an obvious flaw in his plans. Tentatively, she asked, “How do you think you’ll get away to follow the map if you’re needed at home?”
Blake’s brow furrowed. “I’m not sure,” he admitted. “Once I have the map, I can figure all that out.”
He gave her another quick look and Macie had a feeling that he was unwilling to share what he really had planned. In all likelihood, it involved leaving her behind.
Macie turned her face forward, lifting her shoulder to hide her jaw without even realizing she was doing it. She’d been resolved to staying married to this man even before she met him. Now that she was sitting next to him, watching his rough hands on the reins and listening to his pleasant tenor voice, she hated the idea of marrying him only to have the marriage annulled.
But what did Blake want? Sitting like this, he had surely noticed her scars. She hadn’t caught him staring, thank goodness. What did he think of them? Was he repulsed?
She needed to get her mind off of her face and grabbed at the first topic that came to mind. “Where do you dream of traveling?” she inquired.
“Oh, everywhere,” Blake replied with a dreamy smile. “I want to see the whole world.”
Macie’s stomach twisted. This was the right place to interject that she wasn’t interested in adventuring. She should tell him that she wanted nothing more than to put down roots here in Elmswood and never leave again. But just the thought of voicing those thoughts made her sweat. There was no way she could throw such a dampener into their very first conversation.
“Why do you want to travel so badly?” Macie tried to inject as much casual curiosity into her words as possible.
The young man next to her leaned back, resting one booted foot on the buckboard. “I remember reading about far off places in books and thinking that I wanted to see them, not just read about them. What does a jungle look like? Are there really pirates? How does a fellow go about climbing a mountain?”
She tried to muster up some empathetic enthusiasm, but Macie failed miserably. All she could picture as he talked was trudging along miserably through a hot, sticky jungle or up a rocky path. And pirates? Who in his right mind wanted to come face to face with a real pirate?
How was such discomfort preferable to a warm, snug cabin? Building a life together that they could pass on to their children was so much more satisfying than wandering about. Macie peeked at Blake again. Could he be brought around to seeing things her way? If she could make married life pleasant enough, would he be content to stay closer to home?
“This is the way to our ranch,” Blake interrupted her thoughts. He pointed to a winding dirt road which turned off the wide, rutted path they’d taken out of town.
Macie sat up straighter, excitement bubbling once again. Adventuring was nowhere near as interesting as seeing her new home.
As the wagon bumped along, the young woman looked around herself eagerly. True, there wasn’t much to see just yet, but she did admire the fine wooden fence that bordered the long drive. Once buildings began to come into view, Macie found herself nodding happily. Yes, this was a very fine place indeed.
“Those are the stables,” Blake commentated as they drove along. “Over there is Granddad’s house. My older brother Troy and his wife Clora live there with their son, Troy Junior. And that stone building there is my parents’ house.”
Macie let her eyes get acquainted with each dwelling, trying to glean some sort of knowledge about the inhabitants just from the exteriors. “Where is your cabin?”
“You can just see it through that patch of trees,” Blake pointed.
She caught the briefest of glimpses before the trees obscured the view again, but Macie was left with the impression of weather-worn logs and a neatly shingled roof. It wasn’t nearly enough of a look, she groused inwardly. Well, there’d be time enough for that later.
The wagon rumbled to a stop in front of Blake’s parents’ long, low stone house. Macie sat, observing carefully as Blake jumped down and came around to help her down. Once again, his strong hands lifted her by the waist and Macie wondered if he could feel her stomach fluttering at his touch.
There was a tiny moment where her feet were on the ground and she looked up into his wonderful blue-brown eyes, feeling his hands lingering on her waist. In that moment, Macie felt as though the world had fallen away and only the two of them were left.
And then Blake let go and the world popped back up around them.
“I’ll come back for the trunk later,” her groom-to-be was saying as he turned and led the way to the door.
Macie cleared her throat, hoping the action would push away the cotton in her head. This muddled feeling was new and unfamiliar and Macie wasn’t sure she liked it. Silly girls had always earned her scorn and here she was, every bit as silly. Macie shook her head at herself, giving herself a firm talking to which she roundly ignored; as she followed Blake, she enjoyed the view of him from the back surreptitiously.
As soon as he pushed the door open, though, Macie’s jitters flooded back in, filling her completely. She was about to meet Blake’s family who had no idea she was coming. Why, they had no idea she even existed! What a complete shock this was going to be for them!
“Mama?” Blake called.
“Yes, dear?” a woman’s voice floated to their ears. “I’m in the kitchen.”
Absently, Macie’s eyes took in the interior of the house as they walked. It was cool and dark, which was very welcome on this hot day. The floors were stone and the walls paneled in dark wood. Macie glimpsed snatches of big stone-lined fireplaces, wide chairs with bright cushions, and scattered throw rugs. This house would have been completely foreign in Hartford, she thought with a little smile, liking it immensely.
The kitchen was a large room complete with a long wooden table, which she thought must serve as dining room, too. The stove was huge but gleaming. A few low, curtained cupboards were topped with wooden boards, making a convenient work surface. There was even a small iron icebox, Macie saw with surprise. She wondered where Texans could get a supply of ice.
“Ma, I have someone I’d like you to meet,” Blake was saying.
The Scars of a Pure Heart Page 6