by Sarah Banks
David looked around the clearing and saw that Lee had built a crude camp. Two blankets folded as best as a child could fold them into makeshift beds. Next to the blankets was an open bag. An apple had rolled free and he could see there were several more apples inside, along with a big hunk of ham, a full loaf of bread and a wedge of cheese. Quite a booty the boy had stolen from his aunt’s larder. Another soft bag contained what he assumed was clothing. Lee had even fashioned a fishing pole from a tree branch, some twine and an old, rusty hook he must have found. No self-respecting fish would jump on that line, but he had to admire the boy’s ingeniousness. David had no idea how the boy had carried all that plus gotten his sister all the way out here. Sheer determination, he guessed.
He leaned up against a nearby tree and keeping his voice low as not to awaken Olive he asked, “Are you going to tell me why you ran away?”
The boy shot him a willful glare and David sighed.
“You told me you liked Kate.”
“I do!” Lee insisted loudly.
“Then I don’t understand.” Yes, he had lost his mother, but he was a different boy than the one David had met all those weeks ago. He thought Lee had been happy these past two months being mothered by both Kate and his Aunt Susan. Through all the Sunday suppers he had learned that Lee loved school, had made new friends he played with each day before, during and after school. That they had to call him in each evening to eat. It didn’t make any sense to David why he would run away.
“Did something happen at school?”
“No.”
“Between you and Kate?”
“No.”
“Between you and Aunt Susan then?”
“No!”
Olive stirred in his arms.
“Keep your voice down. You’ll wake up your sister and I don’t think either one of us is in the mood to hear her caterwauling again.”
Lee remained tightlipped. David sighed again. He didn’t have time for this. It was already a long night. If he stayed here much longer trying to get Lee to talk, he had no doubt they’d be seeing the sunrise. He had to get them back to Kate. He didn’t want her to have to worry about them a minute longer than necessary. He had hoped to get a quick explanation out of the boy but the way this conversation was progressing, it would take all night.
“Well I don’t have any other guesses. Come on, let’s go home.”
He straightened from the tree, shifting Olive in his arms.
“It’s because of you!”
That shocked him near speechless. “Me?” He finally managed.
“Yes!”
“What did I do?” He searched his memory, thinking of anything he could have done to upset the child. He truly couldn’t think of anything…except, “Wait, is this about teaching you to ride a horse?”
“What? No! That doesn’t matter! Well, it matters, I do want to learn how to ride. I’m the only one in school who doesn’t know how but that’s not what this is about.” His hands fisted at his side in anger. “I heard you,” he accused David.
“Heard me…” David repeated.
“Yes!”
“Heard me say what?”
“Say that the reason you wouldn’t marry Kate is because of us!”
Oh God, the boy had heard the discussion between him and his aunt on the porch the night before. David wasn’t sure how much of the conversation Lee had heard, let alone understood, but he had gleaned enough to realize that they were the reason he decided not to marry Kate.
“I’m sorry you overheard that, even though you shouldn’t be eavesdropping. But if you would have just waited another day or two you would have seen I would have worked up the courage to ask Kate to marry me. Although I can’t guarantee she would have said yes.”
Lee looked at him suspiciously. “But you said you didn’t want to marry her because of us.”
“I was an idiot.”
Lee’s eyes went wide.
“I was wrong. Haven’t you ever been wrong before?”
Lee shrugged and David rolled his eyes.
“Kate is an amazing woman. And I was the world’s biggest fool to almost let her get away. I plan to marry her if she’ll still have me. It might take some convincing though.”
“She’ll have you,” Lee said with a measure of disgust.
“You sure about that?” What could an eight-year-old know about love and marriage?
“She makes moon eyes at you all the time. Just like Kathy Sue makes at me in school.” Lee shuddered and David couldn’t help but laugh.
“You’ll want a girl to make moon eyes at you some day. Give it a few more years.”
Lee looked skeptical.
“I’ll need your help. To convince Kate to marry me. Kate loves you. Where she goes, you go. You three are a package deal. I know just like Kate can never replace your mother, I can never replace your father, but we can be a family just the same. Do you think you might come ‘round to the idea?”
Lee was silent for a moment before finally answering, “Maybe.”
“If I’m successful in convincing Kate to marry me, we’ll all move out here. You think you might like that?”
“But what about Aunt Susan? We can’t leave her all by herself again!” Lee protested.
David reached over and ruffled the kid’s already tousled hair. “You’re right. Maybe we can add onto the house and convince her to move in with us. I’ll need your help persuading her as well.”
Lee nodded. “I can do it. She loves me like the dickens, told me so herself.”
David smiled. “Then it’s a deal. I’ll convince Kate to marry me. You convince Aunt Susan to move in with us. Just think of all the pies we’ll get to eat,” he said knowing how much Lee liked to eat in general, especially pies.
“And you’ll teach me how to ride a horse?”
David laughed and gently pushed him toward the exit where Leander waited with the horses. He would come back and collect their belongings tomorrow. “And I’ll teach you how to ride a horse,” he said. “We can start your first lesson now.”
Chapter Eleven
By the time they made it back to Aunt Susan’s house, David no longer had any feeling in his right arm from holding the sleeping Olive for so long, but he loathed to finally hand her over. Kate met him at the bottom of the steps, silent tears running down her cheeks. He slid from his horse and she didn’t ask any questions, only held out her arms, taking the sleeping Olive from him. She held the girl close with one arm and held out the other to Lee. He rushed into her embrace.
“I’m sorry,” David heard him murmur against Kate’s hip, a hitch in his voice.
“It’s alright Lee. I’m just so glad you’re back,” she said hoarsely. “Come into the house. Aunt Susan has some hot chocolate waiting, positive you’d be wanting some when you returned.”
Lee pulled away from Kate and looked back at him.
David nodded. “Go on,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” It had been hard to pull the boy’s attention from the horse he rode back on long enough for David to secure his promise that he wouldn’t say anything to Kate about his marriage proposal until David had a chance to talk with her first.
Kate handed Olive off to Aunt Susan at the top of the stairs. His aunt immediately started to croon to the sleepy child, taking her inside the house after flashing a grateful, teary smile in his direction. Lee followed with a wave and Kate held the door open. “Won’t both of you come in for some coffee?” She called down to them. Her voice was tired but happy.
David looked behind him. He had completely forgotten Leander was still there, standing beside his own horse.
“Not me,” Leander answered. “Six in the morning comes early, especially since it’s past three A.M. now. I need my beauty sleep.” He tossed her a wink and then added solemnly, “I’m glad everything worked out.”
Before Leander could remount, Kate let the screen door fall shut behind Lee and rushed down the stairs and hugged him. “Thank you,” David heard he
r whisper against Leander’s shoulder. He didn’t feel the flash of jealousy he had felt before. Leander knew now David loved her so that made her off limits and he trusted his friend beyond any doubt.
When Kate stepped away, Leander slapped him on the back. “Good luck,” he said before mounting his horse and riding back in the direction of the livery stable.
Kate tilted her head at him in confusion. “What do you need luck for?” She asked.
David looked at her in the dim light from the windows. He was pretty sure she was wearing her dress over her nightgown, her hair was hastily pinned now, half of it trailing down her back and her eyes were puffy from crying. She was still the most beautiful woman he had ever known.
She flinched as a raindrop fell on her cheek. She looked up, her nose wrinkling adorably as more drops began to sprinkle her cheeks. Kate held out her hand. “Come inside,” she urged him.
He knew there was probably a better time, a more romantic way of doing it, with flowers, a prepared speech and not in the middle of the night after a dramatic game of hide-and-seek, but he had the urge to do it now. He couldn’t wait another second.
“David?”
He dropped to one knee.
“David, what are you doing?” She asked, taking a hesitant step toward him.
He took her hand and pressed a kiss against her palm. “Marry me Kate.”
“What?” She asked breathlessly.
“I know I don’t deserve it. God knows I don’t deserve you, but I fell in love with you starting with your letters and I’ve never stopped. And now that I’ve met you, every time I see you, I fall a little bit more in love with you. Everyone’s told me I’m an idiot for not marrying you the second you stepped off the train and I know they’re right. I was caught off guard when you arrived with the children and I’m stubborn, you know that, but most of all I was scared.”
She took another step forward. “Scared? Of what, marrying me?”
“No, yes, I don’t know. I was terrified the moment I proposed to you in my letter but next to placing the ad that brought us together in the first place, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
He saw her eyes begin to tear up and her mouth wobbled.
“When you arrived with Lee and Olive in tow and told me you had decided to raise them, I panicked.” He took a deep breath. “My father died when I was five. I don’t remember everything about him, but I do remember he was the best husband and father. If I’m half the father he was, our children would be some of the luckiest in the world. I want to have a family with you Kate. I want nothing more than little ones with your dark eyes and beautiful smile. I just thought we’d have one at a time. They’d start out as a baby and I could figure it all out before they got older and then I would hopefully be just as good of a father as I had. So yes, I was scared to marry you, because I wanted to be the husband my father was to my mother. And yes, I was scared to become a father overnight because I didn’t think I could be a good enough one.”
It was raining steadily now. He didn’t care about himself, but he cared about her more than his next breath and she was shivering. He started to get up. “Let’s get you inside.”
Kate shook her head. “No, not yet.” She dropped to her knees in front of him.
“Honey, you’ll get cold and muddy.”
“Then you’d better hold me and keep me warm, because I have some things to say too.”
He dropped his other knee, opened his jacket and pulled her closer to share his warmth but far enough away that he could still see her face.
Her eyes met his. “I’m scared too. Absolutely terrified. Leaving all I’ve ever known, traveling west, getting married, having kids, all of it – absolutely terrifying. But the life I was living before, it wasn’t really living at all. I was playing it safe. You know my mother was ill for a long time. We had some savings to live on while I took care of her but after she died there wasn’t much money left, so I applied to be a seamstress and moved into a boardinghouse with a dozen other girls. I worked six days a week, twelve hours a day for two years. One day I was walking home and I remember feeling so tired and lonely.”
He tightened his embrace around her. He never wanted her to feel any of those things again. Not if it was within his power.
“It was cold and rainy, kind of like right now,” she remarked with a laugh. “And I just stopped mid-step and asked myself – “Is this all there is?” I felt like my eyes were opened that night. I looked around and realized there had to be more to life and that I was doing myself a disservice. Somehow I had stopped living and was just existing. The next day one of the girls who used to live at the boardinghouse stopped by for a visit, a baby on her hip, another on the way. She was so happy. I watched through the window after her husband came to pick her up and saw the looks they shared. I knew if I only had a fraction of what they had, how much richer my life would be. I vowed to do whatever it took to find it. When another girl at the boardinghouse told us she had applied to be a mail order bride and was heading west, I decided that’s what I was going to do too. I found your ad the next day. And I fell in love with you too from your letters. At first, I thought it wasn’t possible, that I was getting ahead of myself, but I have never felt such a connection to another person as I did to you. I feel like we’re meant to be together in this life.”
He pulled her close. “We are Kate,” he said, pressing his forehead to hers. “Tell me it’s not too late.”
“It’s not too late,” she whispered.
He made a choking sound, the tension in his chest shattering. Thank God! He cradled her face and brought her lips to his. He lost track of how long he kissed her until she finally pulled away when his aunt asked from the porch, “What on earth are you two doing kneeling in the mud?”
“They’re not kneeling, they’re kissing,” Lee corrected with a wrinkle of his nose. “Uncle David said I’d like a girl kissing me someday, but I don’t think so.”
Kate’s wide eyes flashed to his and a bubble of laughter escaped her lips.
“I’m betting I’m right,” David whispered. “I guess I’ll just have to stick around the next five, ten years or so and see.”
“Or forever.”
“Or forever,” he repeated, his lips a hair’s breadth from hers. She closed her eyes and he wanted nothing more than to kiss her again, no matter the pouring down rain or the audience on the front porch.
“I think he’s asking her to marry him,” Lee continued in not quite a whisper. “He said he was an idiot for letting her get away and he was going to try to convince Kate to marry him. And if she says yes, I’m supposed to convince you to move in with us.”
“Is that right?” Aunt Susan asked. Her tone had changed as if she suddenly realized what she had walked in on. “Well then come on inside and while we get you ready for bed you can start convincing me.”
“I’m only supposed to convince you if she says yes. I told him she would. That she makes moon eyes at him when he’s not looking, like Kathy Sue does to me all the time. Did she say yes?” He called in a louder voice.
David looked back down at Kate who was smothering her laughter with one hand. His laughter joined hers and God it felt so good to laugh with her, to hold her in his arms. He wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of his life with her. “Will you marry me Kate?”
She nodded. “Yes David,” she whispered.
“She said yes!” He yelled over her shoulder.
Her head dropped to his shoulder, her entire body shaking with laughter. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he held her tight.
Lee whooped with joy and Aunt Susan ushered him back inside.
“They’re gone,” he told her and his lips found hers again. This time it was him who broke away. “Is tomorrow too soon? I don’t want to spend another day without you Kate.”
“Tomorrow works for me,” she agreed with a smile.
He pulled her to her feet and held her in the circle of his arms. He didn’t
want to let her go yet. “I’m sorry the proposal wasn’t romantic—”
She pressed a gentle finger against his lips, her eyes on his. “It was perfect.”
Epilogue
Six Months Later
“Uncle David, Olive caught her first fish!” Lee shouted from the water’s edge.
David was sitting against a tree with Kate leaning back against him. It was another warm afternoon and she had been dozing in his arms since they finished their lunch and Lee and Olive had begun fishing. Picnicking at his favorite fishing hole had become one of their new traditions they all looked forward to at the end of each week. He felt her start awake at Lee’s excited announcement and tightened his arms around her.
“Way to go Olive!” David called back. He grinned as Olive gave a happy hop, sending her fish swinging around on the end of her pole. “You did a terrific job teaching her the ropes Lee.”
Lee’s chest puffed up at the compliment.
Olive screeched as the wriggling fish on the end of the line swung a little too close to her. She threw down her fishing pole, knocking him off the hook.
David couldn’t stifle his laugh. He pointed to the water’s edge, “You’d better catch him Lee, he’s about one foot from freedom.”
“Olive!” Lee yelled, turning and spying the dropped fish. He quickly retrieved it before the fish managed to flop his way back into the water. Lee carefully rinsed him clean and added it to the basket with the others he had caught all by himself.
It was one of the last days of summer. It was perfect weather. And perfect company, he thought dropping a kiss to Kate’s crown. Just a perfect day all around. No, make that a perfect life. He smiled against her temple and tightened his arms around his perfect wife.
“You’re a wonderful father-figure to them,” she said softly.
He watched the children. Done with fishing they had moved on to skipping stones. Lee was trying to teach Olive how without success. It turned into a game of who could make the biggest splash. Lee would have to try again when she was older. “Well, they make it easy. They’re good kids.”