by Kari Trumbo
Manning gazed into the fire. “The ranch was a lot of work, and I loved it, but I loved learning too. Father told me the ranch would be Monte’s – that’s my brother -- but he said my inheritance would be school wherever I wanted to go, to make my own fortune.” His face pinched slightly. “I probably would have rather just stayed, but that option was never offered.”
He peered up to her face, and a soft smile crossed his lips. “My parents loved each other, they would have walked to the edge of forever for each other. You never forget a love like that, and you never want any less once you’ve seen it. I don’t want any less than that for me, and I don’t want you to expect less, either. As strange as it seems, you’ve reminded me of home lately.”
Carol felt her heart sink. He would never make her an offer. He’d been playing along with her the whole time. How could she ever marry and take care of her father now?
“That’s easy for you. You’re educated and can support yourself easily no matter where you are. I have limited options for making sure my father and I are cared for. Love or not, what needs to be done, will be.” She stood and turned her back to him, hoping he would leave her alone. Her mussed lip tint and his revelation on marriage had all but ruined everything she’d held dear, and her insides were torn to pieces.
Chapter Fourteen
Carol sat at the preparation table on a stool across from Ivy. She held a paring knife and slid it carefully along the potato she held watching the peels steadily pile up in front of her.
Ivy slid her another washed potato to skin. “You seem concerned this morning. I have a feeling Carlton will mend, but worrying about it does him no good. I’m so sorry I left last night…I just couldn’t — that is — I can’t…”
Carol shook her head. “I know you aren’t ready to tell me about your past, but you have to understand sometimes you will be needed and running away only makes the situation worse. I discovered that the hard way.” Carol cleared her throat.
“Anyway, while Father is foremost on my mind, it was Dr. Gentry that actually has my attention at the moment. I had hoped he would offer marriage so we could stop worrying about money.” Carol sighed, tossing the cut pieces into a bowl. “But it would appear he doesn’t have any intention to do so.
Ivy frowned. Carol could see the anger coursing through her starting with her face and ending in the white-knuckle grip on her own knife. She shoved another potato at Carol.
“There are more important things to worry over than money. By-and-large, money causes more worries than it helps. I’ve lived both and can tell you the truth of the matter.” Ivy closed herself off, pulling her spine rigid and her eyes cold.
Carol sat up straight and returned the glare. “And were you faced with losing your home and every last cent, all your memories of loved one’s lost? Manning could have saved that for me, if he had a mind to. Providing for Father and I wouldn’t have hurt him in the slightest.”
Ivy’s mouth dropped open. “I would rather lose every memory I had than be beholden to a dollar, or someone like Dr. Manning Gentry. He will never help you. He came in here days ago flirting and looking me over with those intense eyes. He told me his little plan for you, how foolish you were to want to marry the first man to pay attention to you. How he had you in the palm of his hand. He said he would show you that you shouldn’t accept the first man who gives you a little affection. He called you a silly child. Does that sound like someone who would ever offer you marriage?” Ivy slammed a potato down on the table and glared at her with an intensity she’d never felt.
Carol dropped her knife to the table. Her breath came hard. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Not only had he no intention of making an offer, he’d been stringing her along like a puppy. She remembered his warm lips on hers and the loving words he’d used when speaking of his parents just the night before. She sprang to her feet and stumbled as tears clouded her vision. She grabbed for her coat and swung into it as she rushed for the door.
Manning caught her arm as he passed in the hall and held on gently to her. She glared at his hand on her arm and pulled, wanting nothing more than to be away from him.
“Get your hands off of me,” she sobbed.
“Where are you off to in such a rush and what is this?” He released her arm only to pull her close into his arms and wiped the tear coursing down her cheek.
His arms both wounded her pride and consoled her heart. How could he both tempt her and turn her? She stood up straight and tall, rigid in his arms and he let her go. “Dr. Gentry, I think as soon as my father is well enough to release you of your obligation, you should go back to Boston. Your help here is no long necessary.” She saw the moment of pain slash across his face as if she’d slapped him but couldn’t feel satisfaction. His pain only seemed to deepen her own.
He stepped away from her and crossed his arms waiting for an explanation. She closed her eyes against the feelings. None of the feelings he’d kindled in her were real. He’d taken her for a fool, and she’d wanted his attention so badly she’d played right into it, but no more. She turned away from him wishing she could go back to the night before and actually listen to Ivy’s admonishment about Manning. She wouldn’t have this ache in her heart right now if she had stayed far away from him.
Chapter Fifteen
Manning stood outside the dining room and watched Carol light the white advent candle in middle of the five candle wreath on the table. He could feel the sadness pour off of her every movement. Her father had yet to rise from his bed of his own power and he had little to say when he was awake. His leg was incredibly swollen and yellow with bruising, but there was no infection. Manning had given that information to Ivy to pass on to Carol, not wanting to push her into conversation, but he couldn’t stay away from her. She hadn’t spoken to him since the day after the social, when her words had cut him down to size.
The house was too quiet, too dark and too lonely for it to be Christmas, and he wanted so much to make it better for Carol, to see her eyes spark once again. She sat down in front of the wreath and bent her head. She sang the first verse of “Joy to the World”, but her heart wasn’t in it. He couldn’t wait any longer. Entering behind her, he approached the table and sat across from her.
“Are we to be enemies now?” He set the brown paper package he carried on the table in front of him and regarded her. She had shadows under her eyes, and they were red-rimmed from tears.
“It isn’t my choice.” She pushed back her chair to stand as he pushed the gift forward. She shook her head. “Is this to teach me another lesson? I think not. I’ve learned a hard enough lesson, thank you.” She pushed the package back across the table at him.
She had to let him speak his piece, didn’t she? “Will you let me explain, please? Give me one last chance? I don’t deserve it, but I’m asking for it none-the-less.” He waited to see what she would do, this was more than they’d spoken in a week, and he worried even this would push her too far.
She sat back down and sighed, giving him her attention.
“The first night I was here, you let me in on your situation, and shortly after I overheard you talking to your father about getting married to protect him and yourself. I didn’t like that you were so frivolously giving up something so important and, wrong or right, I appointed myself your teacher. I decided I was the perfect person to do it. As a doctor, you would do well to get an offer from me.” He sighed and shifted the package in front of him. “I acted in ways most unbecoming with the intention of teaching you that attention does not mean affection. However, you began learning from Ivy and soon, you were surprising me with what an amazing young woman you were. I began to be a little, shall we say, jealous of Beau or any other man who might take your fancy. I realized after the night of the social that I had gone too far, and I felt more for you than I’d thought possible.” He drummed his fingers on the table, and a wisp of smoke rose from the wreath between them as he glanced up at her.
“You foiled me at e
very turn from the moment I came here, and then, with a snowball to the back, I began to remember how much fun life was before I left to become a doctor. I remembered my time back with my parents and the joy of just living with people who love you. You thwarted me and my plans, Miss Williams.”
Carol gazed down wood in the table running her finger along the grain and sucked in a sharp breath. “Call me Carol.” She glanced up from the table and her eyes glinted at him, warming him down to his toes. He pushed the gift back to her.
“Please, open it.”
She removed the string and pulled out a wooden box. It had a hinged lid on top and a key in back to turn. When she turned the key, it wound a mechanism inside that played the hymn he’d heard her sing in the kitchen the very first day he’d come. She shot a glance up at him.
A shy smile played at her lips. “It was you. I thought so, but I never knew for sure.”
He reached across the table and touched her hand. “My mother sang that song while she worked in the kitchen when I was a child. It should have kept me from doing something so—” He shook his head.
“I forgive you,” Carol interrupted him. “I’ve realized after talking to Ivy my heart was not in the right place, either. I was too wrapped up in money. We’re told not to worry about earthly things, yet here I was, making decisions that would guide my whole life based on worry and possessions.” She shook her head. “I was very foolish and I’m sorry for thinking of you only for what you could do for me and my father.”
Manning heard the squeak of the wheeled chair Dr. Pierce had brought over a few days’ past and glanced up to see Ivy push Carlton into the room. Manning pulled his hand back, and a pretty pink blush suffused Carol’s neck.
Carlton cleared his throat, but his voice remained weak. “I see Manning has given you your Christmas present, so he has had a chance to talk to you. If he hasn’t, I’m sorry. I only get short bursts where I feel well enough to be out of my room and now is that moment.” He leaned over and reached for Carol’s hand. “Manning spoke to me early this morning and he has agreed to give up his practice if I’m willing to give him my blessing to court you. What do you say to that?”
Carol glanced quickly from Manning to her father. “Please don’t make him do it, Father. I don’t ever want that to hang between us. If there is anything wrong with me, I’ll tell him. It won’t be like you and mama. She never wanted to disturb your work and always tried to be strong while you were home so you wouldn’t worry.”
Carlton released her hand shifting his focus to Manning. “You will keep an eye on my daughter, and you won’t take her far from Cutter’s Creek?”
Manning hesitated. “As long as I can bring her to visit my parents once in a while, yes. I do miss them.”
Carlton smiled. “Any man who can admit he genuinely misses his mama is going to do me proud. You have my blessing.” He turned to Ivy. “Let’s leave these two alone for a minute, I could swear I smell cookies baking…”
“Obviously the fall didn’t affect your nose.” She laughed as she pushed him from the room.
“A man needs to keep up his strength, you know…” their voices faded down the hall.
Carol laughed and Manning picked up the mahogany music box and wound it. He set it down as it started to play.
“I never did get that dance with you at the social and I don’t blame you, but would you care to dance with me now?” He held out his hand and smiled when she slipped hers softly into it. He led her to an open area along the wall, folding her close in his arms and relishing the feeling of her so near and how she fit just so to him. They gently swirled around the edges of the table lost in the feeling of floating around the room.
He wasn’t sure how long they’d danced or how long the music box had been silent, but he stopped and peered down into her eyes. He wanted to pull her closer and lose himself in her soft lips but would she let him?
He touched Carol’s silken hair. “At least I can go for a kiss now without getting a purple shirt.” He grinned down at her.
A giggle erupted from her and she laid her head against his chest. He laughed along with her, but the desire to be even nearer to her would not abate.
She pulled her head from his chest and gazed up into his eyes. For the first time, he saw trust there. “Do you forgive me?” Manning whispered.
She slowly nodded. “And do you forgive me?”
He nodded to match hers and she glanced away as a nervous giggle escaped her lips, and her delicate ears turned pink. He laughed along with her to make her feel more at ease but true mirth was far from his mind.
His chest swelled with desire, and he pulled her closer. Her gaze followed his. Raising her chin, he bent his head brushing his lips against hers. He heard her soft sigh, and it was all the invitation he needed. He captured her lips again, and the sweet taste of her made him weak. She pushed herself closer to him, and he held her tightly. She pulled away and rested her head against his chest. Her breath heavy.
“Manning, will it always feel like that? As if my heart will burst?”
He caressed her hair. “I don’t know, Carol. This is so new to me… I hope so” He pressed his lips to the top of her head.
Carol pulled her head away from Manning, her heart still beating as if she’d just run, and her hands shook. She gazed up into his eyes to catch her breath, realizing her hand had somehow tangled into the soft hair on the nape of the good doctor’s neck, and she had no desire to remove it. He placed his head against hers, and they stood intertwined until her heart returned to what she hoped was normal.
“Merry Christmas, Manning.” She pulled her head back a little and peered up at him. His eyes were alight like she’d never seen them before but hoped she would again, perhaps soon.
“Merry Christmas, my dear Carol. Spring is a long way away. How do you think the reverend would feel about a New Year’s wedding?”
Carol felt the need to tease him just a little. It was only fitting. “My father told me not to rush something so important.”
“Who said anything about rushing? We have a whole week.” He nipped at her lips.
She reveled in the sweet feelings tumbling around inside her. She pulled back slightly. “Would we stay here in Cutter’s Creek as Father asked?”
He moved his attention to her earlobe and she giggled pushing him away.
“We can stay here as long as you’d like, as long as we can take a honeymoon to Texas in the spring to visit my parents.”
Carol blushed. She’d never even considered a honeymoon.
“Don’t worry. My mama will love you.” He wrapped his arms around her and danced in a circle. “So what do you say, Miss Williams?”
She lifted onto her toes and pressed her lips to his. Pulling back, she giggled at his wide-eyed look of surprise. “I say…yes.”
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Author Bio:
Kari Trumbo is a writer of Christian Historical Romance and a stay-at-home mom to four vibrant children. When she isn't writing or editing, she homeschools her children and pretends to keep up with them. Kari loves reading, listening to contemporary Christian music, singing with the worship team, and curling up near the wood stove when winter hits. She makes her home in central Minnesota with her husband of eighteen years, two daughters, two sons, and three cats.
Other Books by Kari Trumbo:
Cutter’s Creek Series:
A Lily Blooms
A Penny Shines
A Carol Plays
A Ruby Glows
Western Vows Series
Forsaking All Others
To Honor and Cherish
For Richer or Poorer
To Love and Comfort
Seven Brides of South Dakota
Dreams in Deadwood
.