From This Day Forward

by Margaret Daley

  The harvest was going to be good. He should concentrate on that. Not the fact Rachel was making arrangements with her brother at this moment to leave. Nathan did not even know who he really was anymore. Having been bombarded with disturbing revelations lately, he was still trying to figure out who he was now. A recluse? A doctor? A planter?

  Lord, I need help. What do I do? Rachel doesn’t belong here at the farm. She had made an effort with the farm, but it was not for her. He could purchase the farm. It was small by Liberty Hall and Pinecrest’s standards, but he did not need much. He could live here by himself, occasionally seeing his sister and brother. If he offered to buy Rachel’s land, she could leave as soon as possible. The faster she left, the easier it would be for him. He had to let her go. He had seen the look of joy on her face because her brother was here. She had a way out now. He would not stand in her way.

  Later, as suppertime neared, Nathan came into the house a few steps behind Ben.

  Ben plopped down at the table. “I’m hungry. We worked all day and got all the corn picked in that field. There’s a lot of it.”

  Rachel took a look at Ben’s dirty hands. “Go wash up and get your sister.”

  Nathan held up his hands. “I washed up before coming in.”

  “It is a good thing one of you heard what I have been saying.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Nathan sniffed the air. “What are we having tonight?”

  “Rabbit stew.”

  “I thought your brother would be staying for supper.”

  “No, he wanted to get back to Charleston and make arrangements for the return trip to England.” Rachel grinned. “He looked out the window as I told him about the swamp and the alligator attack. I think that was when he decided he would leave well before dark.”

  “When is the ship leaving?”

  “Day after tomorrow.”

  “I have decided I want to buy the farm from you. I will pay you top dollar. That way you will have some money when you return to England.”

  “What if I’m not returning to England?”

  He sat in the chair at the head of the table. “Are you not?”

  Rachel studied his neutral expression, trying to get a glimpse of what he was thinking. But even his eyes remained blank. “That’s what my family wants.”

  “What do you want to do?”

  “I would love to see my family.” She paused, taking in a deep inhalation to proceed.

  “Then it is settled. I will buy the farm,” he said, before she could continue. “What are you going to do about Ben and Emma?”

  “They will come with me.”

  “How does your brother feel about that?”

  She had not asked Richard because she thought she needed more time to decide. She shook her head. Obviously now she did not need more time. Nathan had sent for her family and wanted her gone. “He does not know.”

  “If you decide to leave them here, I will take them in. They are used to the farm as their home.”

  Rachel tossed down the dishtowel she held to take the kettle off the fire. “You will not take them from me.” She whirled around and ran to her bedchamber, slamming the door and collapsing back against it.

  Sliding down to the floor, she buried her face in her hands and cried. She should be happy she was returning to England, to her family, forgiven and welcomed, but she was not. She wanted more. She knew that if she insisted on taking Ben and Emma, her brother would agree. That was not what was bothering her.

  Nathan stared at the closed door and shook his head. What did the woman want? He was going to pay her a good price for the farm. She was returning home—the favored daughter again. No doubt her brother would agree to take the two other children. Although Nathan would hate not seeing them every day, they would probably be better off in the midst of a family rather than with just him. Rachel was a good mother, and they looked to her to fulfill that role.

  He stood and crossed to the cradle, watching Faith sleeping. He would miss her too. Her smile. The twinkle in her eyes. She was going to turn men’s heads when she got older. Like her mother.

  Maddy leaned against the doorframe with her arms folded over her chest. “Me and the children will remain outside until you fix this.”

  “Fix what?”

  “You and Rachel. Do you have to be hit over your thick skull to realize you are in love with her and should ask her to marry you? If George can get the courage to ask me, you can ask Rachel.”

  “No, you are wrong.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “I am? Be honest with yourself. Do you want to end up like your grandfather—embittered and alone in your old age?”

  “She told her brother she was leaving.”

  “No, she didn’t. She told him she had to think about what she wanted.”

  “She did?”

  Maddy closed the space between them and knocked on his head. “Thick. Is it hollow too?”

  Nathan blinked then roared with laughter.

  How dare he laugh when she was breaking in two? Rachel shoved herself to her feet and reached for the handle to open the door.

  It flung wide, nearly knocking her on her bottom. She flapped her arms to steady herself. It did not work. She went down with a crash.

  “Rachel, are you all right? Where are you hurt?” Nathan knelt next to her, his hands running up and down her arms.

  She wrenched away. “I am fine. Have you not heard of knocking before coming into a room—a bedchamber?”

  Nathan burst out laughing again and sat back on the floor next to her.

  She punched him in the arm. “What is so funny? That I am lying on the floor hurt?” That my heart is breaking over you.

  He sobered. “Are you hurt?”

  “Yes.”

  His gaze swept down her length. “Where?”

  She patted her chest as she rose. “Here.”

  “There?” Standing, he pointed at her torso. “How did you hurt yourself there?”

  “I didn’t hurt myself. You did.”

  “What did I do? I know I should have knocked, but I was tired of wasting any more time.”

  “What in the world are you talking about?”

  He grabbed her arms and pulled her around to face him squarely. “I love you, Rachel Gordon, and I don’t want you to leave for England. I want you to stay here and be my wife. There. I have said what I have been trying to deny for weeks.”

  “Do you feel better?”

  “Not yet.” He dragged her against him and kissed her long and hard. “Now I do. So what do you say? Will you stay and marry me?”

  Rachel bit her bottom lip. Did he really mean it? If she said yes, was she making the same mistake as she had with Tom?

  “Scared?”

  She nodded.

  “Here is a woman who tried to fight off an alligator and got rid of a snake from her house. How can you be afraid to love me?”

  “I love you. That’s not the problem.”

  “Then what is?”

  “I thought I loved Tom. I was wrong. We married so fast. I cannot make that mistake again.”

  “Then you and I will be engaged for as long as you want, and when you are ready to wed me, we will get married. How is that?”

  She smiled, a warmth welling up from deep inside and suffusing her whole body. From this day forward she was his. She flung her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss that sealed their bargain.

  Epilogue

  May 1818

  “I thought I would find you out here on such a beautiful morning.” Nathan approached Rachel in the garden behind their house in Charleston.

  She cut off another rose and carefully laid it in the basket for a bouquet for the dining room table. The scent of her flowers peppered the air as she turned toward her husband and smiled. “You know me so well.”

  “That and Faith told me when I came home. She and Emma are playing in the parlor.”

  “Playing?”

  “They are having a tea party ‘like Mama does.’
You know Emma.”

  “What is her reason to have a party today?” Emma would have a party every day if she could.

  “ ’Tis Jamie’s six-month birthday.”

  “Is Jamie in the parlor too?”

  Nathan removed the basket from Rachel’s hand and put it on the stone bench nearby, then he took Rachel into his embrace. “No, our son is up in the nursery sleeping. Emma was quite put out that he would not stay awake for the whole tea party.”

  “Dinner will be in an hour. I have a feeling our daughters will not eat a thing.”

  “Ben will make up for them. I have never seen a boy grow so fast. He is going to be my height in another year.”

  Rachel snuggled up against Nathan. “What are you doing home early?”

  “I was at Mrs. Collins’ house down the street and thought I would stop by here to check on my beautiful wife.”

  “How is Mrs. Collins doing?”

  “Better. Her fever is gone and her cough has nearly stopped. I think she will be able to attend Sarah’s ball next week. At least she is planning on it. She kept asking me about Liberty Hall.”

  Rachel wound her arms behind his neck and urged his head toward her. “That’s nice. I remember the last time the ball was at Liberty Hall two years ago.”

  He brushed his lips across hers. “A lot has happened since then.”

  “Yes, Maddy and George are married and expecting their first child. I hope she will be able to come to the ball. The farm is not too far for her to travel.” On the Butlers’ wedding day, Rachel had given Dalton Farm to Maddy and George. “Do you think Patrick will get your grandfather to come?”

  “Anything is possible.” Nathan’s mouth settled over hers in a deep kiss.

  The warm sensations his possession created in Rachel spread throughout her whole body. In his arms she always felt cherished and loved as though she had come home.

  About the Author

  MARGARET DALEY is an award-winning, multi-published author in the romance genre. One of her romantic suspense books, Hearts on the Line, won the American Christian Fiction Writers’ Book of the Year Contest. Recently she has won the Golden Quill Contest, FHL’s Inspirational Readers’ Choice Contest, Winter Rose Contest, Holt Medallion, and the Barclay Gold Contest. She writes inspirational romance, both contemporary and historical, and romantic suspense books. From This Day Forward is her seventy-fifth book.