“Go on,” said Effie kindly.
“One of the best days of my life was the Courthouse Ball celebrating the completion of the building. It is a splendid structure, the limestone quarried locally, with beautiful woodwork and a clock tower—far more elegant than you would expect in our little town. At the ball, my Charlie stepped onto the platform and told the world that I had agreed to marry him. He looked so handsome, so proud...” How could she tell the next part—the part that had gutted her?
“I’ll understand if you prefer not to go on, dear.” Effie’s eyes were filled with compassion.
“No. I’ve started. It’s important for me to finish.” Sophie shoved her cup to the center of the table, squared her shoulders and continued. “We were to be married after Charlie finished a job at one of the colleges some miles away. During that time, we were able to see each other occasionally. It was fun planning a wedding and talking about our future. Then shortly before the wedding, he received an attractive offer to go to Chicago and oversee a huge project. I could have gone with him. However, fearing he would have little time to devote to me there, we decided to postpone the wedding, save some money and then settle permanently someplace.” She shook her head. “So that’s what we did.”
“But...?”
Caleb had undoubtedly told the Hurlburts about her past. She could stop now. It would be all right. To do so, though, would diminish the power of the love they’d shared. “It was the autumn of 1875. I was gathering pumpkins under a bright October sky. The Flint Hills spread out before me like a giant jigsaw puzzle. In the distance I could see Charlie’s clock tower. Lost in my memories of him, I looked up and saw a sudden cloud obscuring the sun. A cold blast swept over me, and I shivered. Later, I remembered that moment, remembered that hint of premonition.” Swallowing, she forced herself to finish. “Two days later the telegram came. My Charlie... A scaffold high on the building had broken. My beloved plunged to his death.”
Effie gasped in sympathy. “Oh, my poor dear. How devastated you must have been.”
“Still am,” she whispered. “I loved him so.” A long minute passed. “So you see why I had to leave the one place where I saw my Charlie at every turn, where I encountered the richly deserved happiness of those I love, a happiness of which I am deprived. I was making myself sick brooding about what might have been. That’s why I’m going to the mountains, Effie.” She paused momentarily, remembering the Devanes’ gift of the money Charlie had saved to set up housekeeping—money that was funding her stay in Colorado. “There I hope to find myself and make peace with the God who claimed my love too soon.”
Effie gripped Sophie’s hands in hers. “Sophie, child, you are doing what you must. I will be praying in the days ahead that you find the solace you seek and the peace God has in store for you. Indeed. Lift your eyes to the hills. Your help will come from the Lord.”
“Thank you.”
Effie rose. “And now, off to bed with you or you’ll fall asleep on your horse tomorrow.”
Sophie embraced Effie and retired to the guest room. As she hung up her lovely blue satin gown, she ran her fingers over the soft fabric, knowing that it would be many months before she again had need of such a frock, if ever. One chapter of her life was closing and a new one was opening. Thanks to Effie, she felt lighter, less burdened. A good way to begin her new adventure. She slipped between the sheets, said a prayer for the repose of Charlie’s soul as she always did and fell into a peaceful sleep.
Copyright © 2015 by Laura A. Shoffner
ISBN-13: 9781460381533
Love by Design
Copyright © 2015 by Christine Elizabeth Johnson
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