by Holly Bush
Matt shuddered and dropped his weight on her, and she was certain there was no more lovely feeling in the world than how she felt at that moment. Her limbs were weak—she was barely able to move her hand to his face to stroke him where he rested against the pillow. She let the other drift down his back, now warm from their exertions. She could feel the rough hair of his legs against hers and his beard against her neck as he nuzzled her. She was languid, sated, pleasured, and alive.
I love you, Matt Gentry, she thought to herself.
He turned his head to hers and kissed her tenderly.
“I should move, I’m a big oaf and you’re hurt . . .”
“Don’t,” she whispered. “Don’t move quite yet.”
He kissed her cheeks and her eyes where tears were welling. He finally did move, pulling her against him. He swallowed and rubbed her arm and started to speak a dozen times.
Her head was on his shoulder, and she could feel his heart beating. “When are you leaving?” she asked, thinking of the pain she’d suffered before that would be magnified a thousand times when he went this time.
“Why do I have to leave?” he asked. “Do you want me to?”
“Everyone leaves, Matt. Everyone.”
“Everyone dies, you mean. Not everyone leaves, and I have no intentions of dying soon, either.”
“You have your world, you’ve told me about it. I have a farm, barely a farm, and a few pigs.”
“There’s more to my world than I realized, Annie.” He tilted her chin up to meet his eyes. “My family’s businesses have grown, and they want to know what my part will be. I told them I can’t decide any of it until I’ve talked to you. Until you’ve helped me decide our future.”
She jumped from the bed and pulled her nightgown over her head. “I can’t be part of your world. I’m a farmer and not a good one at that.”
“Would you please come and see Paradise? Meet the rest of my family? My mother and sister are wanting to meet you.”
“You’ve told your mother about me? Why ever would you do that?”
“I told her you may be in a delicate way.”
She turned, looking at him, her mouth hanging open, and shook her head. “You told your mother we’d done . . . that?” She pointed at the bed.
He hitched a lopsided grin. “I didn’t go into detail, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“How could you?”
“It just came out. Mother was asking me every sort of question and was furious with me that I’d stayed in your house after I was well. It made me think of the night you came to me in the loft of your barn. I’d never seen anything more beautiful in my life, but I was worried sick that there’d been consequences and that you were here alone battling the Thurmans. I just said it.”
“What did she say?”
Matt pulled her back down on the bed and tucked her under his arm. “This is Eleanor Gentry we’re talking about. She’d be the best poker player in the world if she didn’t believe gambling was a sin. She reminded me that Daddy had rescued her from four outlaws and saved her virtue as well. She wanted to know why I was still at Paradise and not here.”
“What would she think of me?”
“She’s not a judgmental person and raised us to accept others for what and who they are. You saved her prodigal son from drowning. She loves you already. Come to Paradise and meet her and my sister, Olivia. Please.”
“What would I do when I was there?”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“What does your mother do all day? What does your sister do? Do they go to teas and visiting?”
“Teas? My mother manages a staff of six and has never shied away from making the jelly in the fall or doing the canning. I’ve seen her polishing bannisters and floors and beating rugs. She probably does less of it now than she used to, but she’s a busy, active woman. My sister has been reading about an inventor she wants our family to invest in. She’s helped with the design of additions to our property and cares for our great aunt, who lives with us.”
Annie was tempted, so very tempted. She’d like to meet the woman who could silence Ben and make this man live up to his expectations and his dreams. What would it be like to have family like that? She’d like to see the Gentrys together, she decided, especially after meeting his brother, Adam. Would it hurt to pretend that she belonged there?
“What would I do with my pigs if I visit Paradise?”
He smiled. “Can’t the fellow that takes them to market take them early to his farm or take them to market now? We could do it, but I’d just as soon get on our way to Paradise. We could board up your cabin, and you could stay a month.”
“I’d have to take the train home then, I suppose.”
“I’ll bring you home,” he said and kissed her gently. “Or maybe you’ll decide to stay.”
“I’m terrified,” she whispered. “I’ve never been farther than Harrisonburg. I’m not used to being around lots of people. People that are educated and have plans and are investors. I don’t even know what that means.”
“Please come. They want to meet you and thank you. It’s not like I’m going to drop you off and leave. I’ll be there. You never left me or Ben, not for any amount of time, after our dunk in the river. You stayed, Annie. You saved me.”
“You saved me today.”
“Maybe we’ve saved each other then. Maybe there’s a purpose to our living and meeting and saving.”
It had been so long, so very, very long since she’d been able to think of anything other than growing food and scraping by and being afraid and angry. Other people celebrated and joked and met friends with laughter and warmth. Other people had children to love and in-laws to honor and a pretty dress and a dance with cake and punch. Her life had been so void of joy, she realized suddenly. But what stood in the way now of her finding some pleasure and gladness even if they were only short-lived?
“I would like to meet your mother,” she said. “Even if I’ll be shaking from head to toe when I do.”
Matt kissed her forehead and sat up. “Get some rest now. It’s been a long day.”
She wanted to hang on to his warmth for a little while longer. She wanted to lean on him and rest and find him there with her in the morning, knowing then that it had all not been a dream. “Won’t you stay with me?”
He looked over his shoulder at her. “Yes. I’ll stay.”
Chapter 14
Winchester
It felt like Matt had just made the train ride yesterday rather than over a month ago. He didn’t want to make the return trip on horseback, having to buy Annie her own horse and not knowing the bloodlines or reliability of any animal for sale in Harrisonburg or riding double on Chester for such a long way carrying that much weight. He and Adam stowed their horses in the livestock car and took their seats with Annie in first class on the cushioned pillows just like he had when he went home with Ben. He was looking forward to seeing the old man, strangely enough, and knew that seeing Annie would make him happier than anything else.
Annie had been staring out the window, hardly speaking for the last hour or more, and become more white-faced, if possible, as the train slowed coming into the station at Winchester. He held her hand, and she squeezed back.
They’d rode back to her cabin after their visit to Harrisonburg to see the doctor and found Adam there, hoeing the garden. Her pigs were penned, and Matt rode with her to Barlow’s place to see if he’d take the pigs then, rather than on the market day. Barlow had said yes but mentioned a charge for caring for the animals. Annie said she’d be checking the price for hogs while she was in Harrisonburg and expected a fair return. Together, they boarded up the cabin and the barn after she packed her mother’s satchel with her new clothes and the fabric Matt had bought her when he left with Ben.
Her eyes closed now, as the train slowed to a stop.
“I telegraphed home to have them bring the carriage to town and leave it at the stable. We’ll put Chester in front
and you can take Annie to Paradise in comfort. I’ll ride Zeus home,” Adam said.
“Good thinking. I was hoping you wouldn’t have to sit in the back of a wagon the whole way home,” Matt said and smiled at this brother. He was thankful Adam had made the trip with him, as the years apart had brought them together rather than separating them.
They both turned to Annie as she stood on the platform, staring straight ahead, holding her new reticule.
“We’re almost to Paradise, Annie,” Adam said. “You’ll be able to relax there and not worry about a thing.”
She looked up sharply and opened her mouth to speak but stopped. Matt helped her down the steps from the station platform and to the stables. Chester was rigged to the carriage a few moments later, and Matt pulled himself up beside her on the seat. Adam rode ahead.
“You faced Abraham Thurman. You faced Jeremiah Thurman. And Bertram and Frederick Miles,” Matt said as he urged Chester into motion. “You cannot be more afraid of my mother and sister than of those four men.”
“It’s different, I guess, and not really rational, is it? I don’t know what I’m to say to her,” she said, took a deep breath, and looked from one side of the street to the other. “So this is Winchester. Seems bigger than Bridgewater.”
He chatted to her about town and his relationship to folks who lived there, sensing she wanted small talk to take her mind from her worries. He pointed out landmarks before coming over the rise by the outcrop of rocks to see Paradise before them. The sun was shining and it must have rained earlier before clearing off, as the leaves and grasses still glittered with moisture. Annie laid her hand on his arm.
“Oh, my!” she said and looked up at him as he pulled Chester to a halt.
It was the best perspective of his home, he thought, and covered her hand with his. “This is my favorite spot to view the house. It’s unexpected here in the woods to see it all laid out with the barns and the house and the outbuildings just sitting there on that patch of flat land. There’s the new foals in the valley down below.”
It was surely the most beautifully situated property she’d ever seen. She saw Adam ahead of them at the porch steps and a man come from the barns to take his horse. The front door opened, and Ben hobbled out on the arm of a young woman with an older woman behind them. Annie looked up at Matt. He was staring at his home, at his family with reverence, with such outward love, she was nearly embarrassed for him. He raised a hand and waved as they pulled up to the front of the house.
“They’re here,” she heard Ben say. Adam helped her down from her seat, and she hurried to Ben. The old man cried on her shoulder and hugged her tightly, telling her he’d missed her something awful. She closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. But the emotional meeting wasn’t to end there.
When she straightened from Ben’s embrace, the older woman, Matt’s mother it had to be, pulled her into her arms and hugged her without speaking, weeping on Annie’s shoulder, and finally stepping back in a loose embrace.
“I owe a debt to you I’ll never be able to repay. You saved my son. You saved Ben. Two men that I love dearly. I cannot say how honored I am to meet you, although Matthew has never told me your family name,” she said as she wiped her eyes with shaking fingers and looked at her son.
“Miss Annie Campbell, Mother. Annie, my mother, Mrs. Eleanor Gentry,” Matt said.
“Miss Campbell. Welcome to Paradise. We have been anxiously waiting for you. You know Ben, of course,” she said as she turned them together. “This is Matthew’s sister. Olivia Gentry.”
The young woman hugged her and whispered in her hair, “You saved him. You saved my brother, and I think from more than just his dunk in the river.”
Eleanor held her arm and looked at her. “I’d love to hear about your father and mother and your dear brother, Teddy. I lost my sisters when I was young. I still miss them,” she said and looked at her sons. “Adam. George has been wanting to talk to you about one of the mares. I see him now over at the barn. Matt. Mabel has made rhubarb strawberry pie this morning with the last of what we’d put up, knowing it was one of your favorites. It will please her if you sit in the kitchen and eat a slice or three.”
Annie found herself bundled along to the second floor, to the room that would be hers for her stay at Paradise. She couldn’t believe how pretty the room was, turning around and taking in the cheery yellow walls and dark furniture. The windows overlooked the front of the house where the fenced area was divided in quadrants that held what looked like a hundred horses or more. The yellow and blue plaid sheer curtains were blowing in the breeze through the open window where she stood and matched the coverlet on the bed.
“The room is beautiful, Mrs. Gentry. I’ve never stayed anywhere as grand.”
“Thank you. I’m glad you like it. Jenny will put away your things when they’re brought up, dear,” Eleanor said and put her arm through hers. “I have a little sitting room off my bedroom which will be perfect for us to have a seat and get to know each other. Come along.”
Eleanor sat her in a thickly cushioned chair near a small white stone fireplace. There were painted pictures of Matthew, Adam, and Olivia on the wall alongside landscapes of Paradise. Eleanor sat down opposite her. Olivia pulled a chair close to Annie, shrugged her shoes off ,and pulled her feet up under her skirts.
“Aaah, that feels so good,” Olivia said. “I’ve been on my feet all afternoon replacing those drapes in Matthew’s room.”
Eleanor leaned forward. “Now tell us, dear, about your family. I want to hear especially about your younger brother.”
Annie was overwhelmed. She was touched with their sincerity and their efforts for her comfort. Madeline never asked her about Teddy, Annie thought because the woman worried it would upset her, but the opposite had happened. She was upset that Teddy’s life and heroics were disappearing and that she was the last person, other than Matt, interested in that little boy’s life. But wasn’t this why she came to Paradise, she thought to herself, for this exact type of connection that was typical of families?
She told them about losing her mother, rearing Teddy, and how her father had gone into a depression following his wife’s death. She told them about that fateful day when the Thurmans had hung Teddy. When she was done with the retelling, Olivia was on the floor at her knees, holding her hands, tears in her eyes. Eleanor listened without interrupting, concentrating on what Annie was saying, making her feel as if her story was the most important tale she’d ever heard.
“And these men have tormented you ever since,” Eleanor said.
“They have,” she said. “Matthew rescued me in the nick of time.”
“Just lately then?” Olivia asked.
Annie nodded and told them about Gilly’s disappearance and Frederick Miles taking her to the springhouse, her and Gilly’s escape, and her run across an open field. She told them why Thurman had kidnapped them. “I killed a man once,” she said and swallowed, looking warily at Matthew’s mother. “I didn’t this time, but I would have again if it meant saving Gilly or myself.”
Olivia squeezed her hands. Eleanor Gentry was still staring at her.
“Growing up the daughter of a minister, I was taught murder was a sin, and that there was never an excuse or a good time for violence. That nothing justified it. My husband, Matthew’s father, changed my mind. While killing is obscene, it is sometimes justified, when defending your home or family or an innocent. Beauregard would never have killed anyone without good reason, and even so, it weighed heavily on him, especially as he was older, but I don’t believe he would have done any differently in any of the situations. There is evil in the world. We are called upon, as you were, to defend the weak or ourselves.”
“I didn’t want to kill him, but I had no other way to stop him other than my knife,” Annie said quietly. “He would have killed Gilly after he was . . . done with her, and she was beaten badly.”
“Why are people so vicious?” Olivia asked.
“Evil is
vicious, and sometimes even good men are violent,” her mother said. “Well, enough of this dark talk. Let’s make some plans for while you are here. May I call you Annie? The staff will address you as miss, of course.”
Annie shook her head. “No one needs to call me anything special. I don’t need a title.”
“The staff is accustomed to calling the family members ‘miss’ or ‘mister.’ It would be confusing for everyone if it was different for you. Olivia. Would you go downstairs and ask Mabel to have some cakes and lemonade brought up? I’m parched.”
Olivia opened the door and a dog ran in, going straight for Eleanor Gentry, and lay at her feet. She reached down and petted him. “Who let Red in, I wonder?”
“One of your sons,” Olivia said with a laugh and closed the door.
“I’m not a family member,” she said. “There’s no need to do anything special.”
Eleanor looked at her. “When Matthew was home before he was concerned that you might be with child. His child.”
“I am not. I saw a doctor after I was held in the springhouse. He said I was not. Although . . .” Eleanor was looking at her kindly even as she felt her face color from the neck up. Annie wondered if conversations like this would have happened between her and her mother if her mother had lived. The intimacy, the relationship as women, exclusive of men. Although at that moment she wished she were hundreds of miles away or at least back in her cabin.
“Although?” Eleanor said and raised her brows.
She swallowed. “It is possible I am. Again. I am so foolish,” she whispered.
“Has Matthew offered for you?”
“No. Of course not. He has a family here and dreams and plans. I could never be part of it.”