by Reina Torres
“Wyeth, no-”
He got down before her on one knee and Tillie felt her heart drop into her middle. “Tillie. Marry me. Stay in Three Rivers. I’ll take care of you.”
“That’s not why I told you about this.”
Pressing a kiss to the back of her hand, he got up and tucked her hands against the wall of his chest. “Tillie, I-”
She felt him pause and look into her eyes. She said a silent prayer that he would understand what she was trying to tell him.
“Goodness.”
Tillie wondered if she could feel his hands trembling against hers.
“I’m doing it again.” He shook his head. “I feel like I can’t help myself around you. I want to protect you. I want to make you happy. I just don’t know how to- but that’s not the most important thing.”
Tillie felt like she was dizzy from his words and the feelings he evoked in her. “It’s not?”
“We have to find a way to keep you here. I need time to prove myself to you.”
She felt a smile curve her lips at the corners. “We need time to get to know each other, both of us.”
His smile made her feel warm inside and gave her a brief glimpse of hope.
“Then how do we find that time?” Tillie leaned toward him with an answering smile. It felt so good for the two of them to face this trouble together.
The side door of the house opened and they turned toward the sound.
“I think that I might be able to help with that.”
Tillie saw Olivia and Levi on the porch and noticed with a blush that Levi’s posture mimicked Wyeth’s. As she leaned closer to Wyeth, he circled an arm around her back.
“Anna explained what happened, Ottille, and I am so very sorry for your pain.”
Tillie’s smile felt broader… warmer than it had before. “It was hard to see how far I had grown away from the woman that he wanted me to be, but I couldn’t go back to that person.”
Olivia’s smile and the look in her warm eyes spoke volumes to Tillie. “I am sure that one day,” she paused as Levi tucked her against his side, “he will understand what a wonderful young woman you are. Until then, if you would like to remain in Three Rivers, I do believe I have a solution.”
Hope swelled in her chest. Olivia wouldn’t hurt her with false promises.
Levi pressed a gentle kiss on the crown of his wife’s head, and Olivia shone like the sun with the love she shared with Levi.
“I went to see Claire after Patty said she needed to speak to me. The O’Neals have discovered that Claire is expecting. This is a first child and a welcome miracle, but they are both worried over her health.”
Tillie heard the unspoken truth in Olivia’s words. Claire O’Neal had mentioned when the ladies had been over for a visit how much she had longed to conceive and that she feared that they would never be blessed with a child. “Is she feeling poorly?”
Olivia darted a look from Levi to Wyeth before drawing Tillie toward the railing. “She’s less than three months along from her estimation, but her legs are swelling and she’s mightily tired for most of the day.”
“Poor dear,” Tillie sighed, “she is a lovely woman with a gentle heart. How may I help?”
Olivia’s smile took on an impish twist. “You’ve a good head for numbers. A pleasant demeanor and a winning way with folks.”
“With most people. My father excluded.”
“Patty would like to see if you have any interest in working for him in the General Store. He worries about his wife and hopes to see to her comfort. He’d be with you in the store most of the day and check on his wife when he can, but you would be a great help to them.” Reaching out, Olivia took Tillie’s hand. “They’d pay you a wage that would allow you to keep your room at the boarding house for as long as you decide to stay here in Three Rivers and give you time to think about where you will go from here.”
Tillie’s knees went weak with relief, and she managed to grab a hold of a porch post and lower herself to sit on the rail before she fell over. “So much kindness. Such amazing people.”
Tillie felt Wyeth’s hand on her shoulder and saw his concerned gaze touch her face.
“What’s wrong?”
She shook her head. “Nothing at all.” She recounted Olivia’s news, and then she turned to the station mistress. “When may I start?”
“How does tomorrow sound?”
Tillie’s shoulders were suddenly lighter, her heart free to beat a sure and steady rhythm in her chest. “It sounds perfect!” Blinking back her tears, Tillie felt Wyeth’s arm tighten around her. She leaned into his half-embrace, and hoped that by the next morning her excitement would not change to panic.
A knock at the door turned all of their heads, and Levi gave his wife a look. “So busy today.”
She laughed and gave his arm a gentle swat. “We’re on the porch,” she called out. “Come on around!”
Heavy footfalls and softer staccato moved across the porch and to the corner.
“I was hoping I would find you here, Miss Weston.”
Tillie blinked back at the other woman. “Mademoiselle?” The Frenchwoman nodded, blotting at the tears in her eyes. “Goodness! I was hoping to see you.”
She started forward on instinct, but her feet faltered. In the past, their relationship had been so curt and succinct in their interactions. Over the last few weeks, since they’d arrived in Three Rivers, their feelings had softened for each other. Still, she wasn’t sure how her affection would be received.
Mademoiselle answered the question for her. Holding out her hands, the older woman drew Tillie toward her.
The younger woman rushed forward, and when she was within arm’s length, instead of taking her companion’s hands, Tillie stepped closer and embraced the older woman.
She could almost feel the group hold their breath to see the reaction. Almost.
Then Mademoiselle wrapped her arms around Tillie and returned the gesture.
“I am so glad,” she murmured against Tillie’s hair, “I wanted to apologize-”
“No,” Tillie swallowed a sob and leaned back. “Please don’t. It wasn’t your fault. I don’t think you could have stopped me if you had tried.” Tillie felt an ache in her middle for the older woman. “Please tell me you have somewhere to go, a friend or family member who can help you.”
Mademoiselle surprised Tillie, instead of her expression hardening or her brow furrowing with frustration, her face relaxed and there was very nearly a smile on her lips.
“See, sweetheart? When you smile, you’re the handsomest filly I’ve ever seen.”
Tillie turned and was surprised to set her eyes on the stage driver, Saul Clemens. “Mr. Clemens! When did you arrive?”
The older man grinned and wound his arm around Mademoiselle and tugged her closer to his side. “Almost too late,” he sighed, “I was climbing down out of the stage as she was waiting to get in. I took one look at that sad face and knew I wanted to make her smile.
“So I did what I’d planned to do all along, but instead of a nice meal and a bottle of one of them French wines, I put my knee in the dirt just outside of the Depot and begged her not to turn me down.”
Saul looked at the assembled group. “Any chance you fine folks have an hour or so free?”
“What Saul means to ask,” Mademoiselle’s normally stern face held the blush of a woman in love, “is if you would come to the church with us.”
“To see us good and married,” Saul tacked on to the end. “It would mean an awful lot to both of us.”
“I-” Tillie felt Wyeth’s hand settle at her waist and give her a gentle squeeze. She knew without asking what he was telling her and wondered if she didn’t already know him more than she thought she did. “We, would be delighted to go with you.”
Chapter 12
The day that Weston Bank opened, the town gathered up for the festivities. There was a respectable brass band brought in just for the occasion, and there was enough bunti
ng on hand that a handful of folks thought Wyoming had become a state when they weren’t looking.
Wyeth covered Tillie’s hand where it lay on his arm. Leaning his head down toward her, he brushed a kiss on her temple.
When she gasped and blushed, he gave her a smile. “No one saw a thing, sweetheart.”
He felt her feet slow beside him, and he came to a stop beside her, turning ever so slightly to see her beautiful face.
“Something wrong?”
She shook her head, and he saw the way her midnight black hair caught the golden highlights of the sun. When she looked back at him her eyes were alight with humor. “You’re doing it again.”
He liked seeing that look in her eyes. Over the last few weeks, he’d seen more and more sides of her as if she had been a raw jewel, achingly beautiful right from the earth. A little bit of sunlight touching the surface had illuminated a whole new world of beauty inside.
And Wyeth was humbled to have the opportunity to see it all up close. “What am I doing?”
He watched her cheeks flush with color beneath the brim of her hat. Her eyes met his again.
“You’re embarrassing me.”
“Me?” He laughed, and gently tugged her closer. “I’m not trying to,” he explained, “but it’s not my fault that I’m with the most beautiful woman in Three Rivers. And being with the most beautiful woman means that I get to enjoy the view.
“And because I’m that close,” he kept going, “if I’m careful and sneaky enough, I can manage a kiss on a hand or a cheek, hoping that one day, you’ll put me out of my misery.”
“Misery?” Her eyes narrowed the slightest bit, her lips pressing into a pale line that still made his heart tumble over and over in his chest. “I make you miserable?”
He would have laughed if there hadn’t been a pang of worry that twisted in his middle. The bright light in her eyes had dimmed. “Tillie, love, don’t ever think that. You make me smile.”
There was a pause, a certain kind of silence between them.
And even when she smiled and nodded, started her feet moving toward the bank again, he knew it wasn’t going to be that easy.
He also had a feeling that it was their destination that was weighing heavily on her. His attempt at levity and charm never seemed to work as well when he was trying to use them.
They moved through the crowd, and Wyeth felt her mood lighten ever so slightly as townsfolk in the crowd stopped to greet them or wave from a distance.
He wanted to thank them all for their kindness and hospitality. If it wouldn’t have made his job a strain at the station, he would have offered to buy them all a drink at the saloon. Every smile and every greeting chipped away at Tillie’s worry that she was unwelcome in Three Rivers.
A woman darted through the crowd, her eyes focused mostly on the ground before her feet. In the rush of townsfolk crossing the main street, she might have been lost in the crush, but Tillie looked up and saw the willowy figure of the other woman, her arms wrapped around her body as she moved.
“Charity? Charity, wait!”
The thin figure stopped short in the street and turned, a look of wary confusion on her face. “I’m sorry, did you call my name?”
Tillie moved toward her, letting go of Wyeth’s arm to meet the other woman in the street.
The scene unfolding before him made Wyeth’s heart fill to near bursting.
His gentle love reached out and took Charity’s hands. Tillie didn’t look about to see how others would react. She didn’t shy away from a saloon girl, someone that her father would certainly have told her to stay away from for propriety’s sake.
“I’m Tillie,” she said, giving the other woman’s hand a squeeze, “and I want to thank you for what you did for Wyeth.”
Charity looked down at Tillie’s hands as if she couldn’t quite believe what was happening. “Miss, you really shouldn’t.”
“Shouldn’t what? Thank you?”
Charity nodded. “People are looking at you.”
Tillie didn’t turn to look at anyone; her gaze was focused on the woman before her. “You were brave to do what you did. It couldn’t have been easy to stand before everyone in the meeting and tell them what you saw.” Tillie winced. “I have a hard enough time talking to more than two people at one time,” she confessed, “but I would have a hard time looking anyone in the eye, let alone myself, if I didn’t thank you for your help, regardless of who may be watching.”
Charity smiled and shifted her hands to take hold of Tillie’s. “Thank you, Miss. Your kind words mean more than I can say.”
“Then I hope you’ll call me Tillie,” she stumbled into her next words with a smile lighting up her face, “or friend. Either would make me very happy.”
“Then thank you, Tillie,” Charity smiled as if she enjoyed the very sound of her name, “for making Three Rivers just a little more like home.”
Tillie nodded. “It’s starting to feel that way for me as well.”
Charity looked up and turned toward the Saloon. “I need to go back. We’ll be open soon.”
The two women shared a smile as they released each other’s hands.
“Bye,” Charity moved off through the crowd.
Tillie felt Wyeth’s hands take hold of her shoulders and heard the welcome sound of his voice in her ear. “As if I couldn’t love you more.”
She trembled in his grasp and leaned into his touch.
“You’re too good for me by half, Tillie-mine.”
She shook her head and reached up a hand to cover his where he held her arm. “I would argue that it’s you, Wyeth. You make me dream that I can be happy like this for the rest of my life. I think-”
“Hello, Ottille.”
Her father’s voice fell over her like a pall.
Turning her head, she looked up into his face and felt tears in her eyes. There was nothing in his expression that was at all welcoming. Nothing in the tone of her voice that said he had forgiven her for what she’d done. “Hello, Father.”
She felt his gaze on her, knew without looking that her father saw Wyeth’s hands on her arms, saw the way he held her.
“I didn’t invite you, Ottille.”
Tillie felt Wyeth tense behind her, felt it through his hands, but she also felt his strength. And for that, she was grateful.
“The town was invited, Father, and I am part of the town.” She felt him tense, even though she wasn’t close enough to really see the darkness in his eyes. “When you wanted to send me away, I felt lost,” she told him. “You were angry, and you felt betrayed that I had disobeyed you, and gone beyond what you expected from me. I understand.” She felt Wyeth’s hand shift under hers, the gentle movement that reassured her that he was still with her. “It felt like the ground beneath my feet had crumbled away. I felt alone, cast adrift in an uncertain future.” She felt a sob well up in her throat, but she fought it down. She struggled to keep her focus. “Instead of sinking into despair, I found those who rallied around me.
“People who had only known me for a short amount of time but still found value in me. They cared for me and helped me find a way to care for myself for the first time in all of my years.”
He scoffed at her, not in words but a single huff of his breath.
“You may be disappointed in me, Father. You may still be angry, but I am not. I am hopeful, and I am strong. Stronger each and every day and I have you to thank for it,” she revealed. “Even though you closed off your heart to me, mine has only grown in its capacity to love.”
“If you think this man is going to marry you, think again. Why hasn’t he done so by now?”
She felt Wyeth link their hands together, sliding his fingers between hers. Smiling, she drew him to her side. Shoulder to shoulder she felt stronger than she’d ever felt before. “He did ask me, and I told him I needed time. Time for us to get to know each other. Time to know that what I felt beyond the first blush of emotion was real.”
Her father’s lip
s pressed into a thin pale line.
“If Wyeth chooses to ask me again, Father, I won’t have to wait.” She gave Wyeth’s hand a warm squeeze. “That’s not why we came today. We came to wish you our best, Father. Congratulations on the opening of your bank.”
When he didn’t reply, Tillie nodded and gave him a wistful smile.
“Goodbye, Father.”
They walked away and heard only silence in reply.
Pride. Not the kind that ‘goeth before the fall’ but the kind of pride that made you want to burst with joy. The woman walking beside him filled him with pride and love.
He’d come to the conclusion, several times over, that he needed to offer Ransom and Clay his apologies. He’d made his own jokes at their expense, chided and chuckled because they’d fallen in love.
And now, every day and every night, his heart was filled with thoughts of Tillie.
Hearing that she no longer had any doubts about what was between them made him want to fall down to one knee and ask her right there in the middle of the street, but he still had something to do first.
Clearing his throat, he took a deep breath to steady his nerves. “Tillie, would you come walking with me?”
Her smile was a little strained and then eased into a broad grin. “Aren’t we already walking together?”
“Well, that is true.” He couldn’t fault her logic, but he wasn’t used to having to work so hard to exercise his charm on a woman, “I just have a different destination in mind.”
Her eyes brightened. “That may very well be a lovely change. Where did you want to go?”
“It’s a bit of a surprise, love.” He saw her flush again and smiled as he drew her up against his side. “I do so love to see you blush.”
“I do so love to hear the way you talk to me, Wyeth, although I am afraid I lack your talent for sweet words.”
“You don’t lack for anything, Tillie. So, no more worries, hmm?” He looked up into the sky with a smile. “We have some fine weather today, and I would like to enjoy a walk together. Tomorrow, I’m up for a run.”
He felt her ease into their pace.