by Emily Woods
He stood there and watched her for a few moments, wanting to burn the image into his mind. How beautiful she was, the way she looked when she thought no one was looking. The joy and excitement that he felt. The hope that was about to burst out of him.
“Marigold …” he said, stepping toward her.
She nearly jumped at the sound of his voice, clutching her hand over her chest.
“James!” she cried. “Oh, heavens. You startled me!”
The hope cascaded through him. He dashed across the barn at a full run, then skidded to a stop right in front of her. Her eyes were wide with surprise as he sank down onto his knees right then and there.
“Marigold?” he asked, reaching up to take her hands in his. They were as soft and as warm as he remembered them being. “Marigold … would you marry me?”
She gasped, her eyes growing even wider as she stared down at him. “I … James … what in the world!”
He laughed. He knew she was not refusing him. She was just as surprised as he was.
He rose to his feet, not feeling particularly stable on them, but he didn’t much care.
“Marigold … there is so much I need to tell you. So many things I didn’t say last night. That I should have said. But then today – your father – he said –”
She shook her head, laughing nervously. “James, please, calm down. You are about to give yourself a heart attack. What is going on? Slowly, now. Try and relax.”
There was no possible way he could calm down, but he did slow down his tale in order for her to understand.
“After you came to the clinic last night … I felt so ashamed for how I had treated you.”
She hung her head. “You shouldn’t feel ashamed. I should have.”
“Nonsense,” James replied. “Marigold, you were right about everything you said last night. I was afraid. But not of you or how I felt. I knew I cared deeply for you and wanted nothing more than to be with you. But your father … I respect him greatly. And to see such a drastic change in him … it confused me.”
He brushed a stray strand of hair from her eyes affectionately. “And then when we kissed … Oh, Marigold, I knew with every fiber of my being I was in love with you.”
She gasped again as he said it, and her eyes began to well up with tears.
James felt his own eyes begin to sting. He laughed heartily, moving to hold her face in his hands.
“I resolved that there was nothing I would not do to be with you. I had to be with you. I could not live my life one more day without you.”
Tears spilled over her eyes and onto the backs of his hands. “You really do love me?” she asked, her lip trembling.
“Of course I do,” James replied, pulling her into a tight embrace. “I have loved you ever since the moment I laid eyes on you. I may not have known it then, but I know it now.”
She sobbed again, burying her head into his shoulder.
“Marigold, I was so afraid I had misread your affections for me,” he said slowly. “So worried I was starting to fall in love with you, but you not with me. I had experienced that once before and was not keen to repeat it again. But it seemed my prayers had been answered, and it seemed you felt the same as I did.”
Marigold pulled away from him and shook her head. “James, I have cared for you ever since I saw you standing outside of your clinic that first day. I thought you were the most handsome man I had ever seen. So strong, so confident. I never thought you could see me as anything more than some silly girl.”
“No,” he reassured her, rubbing her arms gently. “No, no. You are the most beautiful woman I have ever known. I have wanted nothing more than to find someone like you, yet thinking I never would be able to.”
The two stood there and just stared at one another for a few moments.
“I decided you were right. That I was wrong. And so I came to speak with your father about this. About us.”
Her eyes widened, and the tears subsided for a moment. “You did?”
He nodded. “Just now. Apparently he had been thinking as well.”
“What … what happened?” she asked.
James smiled. “I went right in there and told him I loved you and that I would never allow anything to happen to you. That I respected his love for you as your father, and I understood he wanted to protect you from anyone who might harm you. But I assured him I would do the very same thing for you. You would never want for anything. You would be happy. Comfortable. With a man who loves you more than life itself,” James said.
She could only stare at him.
“I apologize if this is moving along too quickly for you,” James said. “It startled me that as I was speaking to your father, I wasn’t simply advocating for a relationship with you. What I really wanted, it seemed, deep down in my soul, was to be married to you.”
Fresh tears trickled down her face, and she grinned. “Last night when I arrived home, I laid awake in my bed for hours, just praying and thinking,” she said quietly. “I had never kissed a man before last night. It was … thrilling. More magical than I ever thought it could be …” she said. “And I knew, and God revealed it in my heart, that I did love you in a way I never loved Johnathon. That must have been a young girl’s crush. But with you … it’s something deeper. More meaningful. Steadfast. I don’t ever see an end to it.”
James nodded. “I understand what you mean. A life like this was just something I had never imagined for myself. But now that I have it … now that it is standing here in front of me … I could never see it any other way.”
She giggled, and then ducked her head behind her hands. “I’m sorry – I’m – I’m just so happy right now.”
“I have never been happier in my life,” James agreed, and the two embraced once more.
“So the question still stands, Marigold …” James said, resuming his place in front of her on one knee. “Now knowing everything that you do, about how I love you as much as I do, about how I wish to spend the rest of my life with you … will you marry me?”
Marigold’s tears shone line diamonds in the sunlight as they splashed off of her face as she nodded her head.
“Yes! I will always say yes!” She threw her arms around his neck, and pressed her lips to his once more.
Where there was heat and passion the night before, there was tenderness and wholeness to the kiss now. He felt completed. Sustained. It may have been simple and quick, but it was almost better in his mind. He would rather have the deep abiding love than the fiery temporary passion any day.
“I shall get you a proper ring when the trader comes into town,” James said, touching her ring finger affectionately. “Until then, feel free to wear whatever ring you’d like.”
“Oh, I will,” she said excitedly.
“Perhaps I could even order one from New York,” James said. “Some of the finest jewelers are there. I could have them make you something special, unique, out of any stone you would like.”
“What about a sapphire?” she asked.
He stared into her eyes, so much like sapphires themselves.
“Anything you want, my love. It is yours.”
He picked her up in his arms and spun her around, her feet not touching the floor. He could have flown. He could have soared! He had never been so happy in all of his life.
“Marigold?”
James set her down on her feet, and when they both turned to look, there were two little faces staring at them from around the corner of one of the stalls.
Marigold laughed heartily. “Come here, girls, don’t be shy.”
It was Elizabeth and Lily again, and they came running toward them both. Lily threw her tiny arms around Marigold’s waist, and Elizabeth came to stand in front of James.
“Are you going to be marrying my sister now?” she asked again.
James and Marigold exchanged excited glances.
“Not right this very minute, dear, but soon!” Marigold answered, leaning down to her sister.
&nb
sp; Elizabeth seemed satisfied. She looked up at James. “Good. I was hoping he had asked you.”
Elizabeth’s attitude seemed to reflect what the rest of the town thought as soon as they found out about James and Marigold’s engagement. The news spread quickly, and James was surprised to find out later that Mr. Langston had not wasted any time in telling half of the townspeople at the saloon that same evening.
Everyone was happy for them, and still no one seemed surprised about the whole endeavor. If James and Marigold had thought they were keeping their relationship out of the public eye, they were sorely mistaken. It didn’t seem to matter all that much, because everyone was so excited for them.
There was much talk about the wedding and where it might be held. Several of the women in town were offering to make her wedding dress, all claiming they would make her the prettiest one she could find. Marigold thanked them all graciously, but told James in an undertone she might wear her mother’s gown, if he was all right with it.
The idea of a sapphire ring kept coming up between them, and so after he was able to procure a ring that fit her perfectly, he tucked it in a letter to his parents about finding a jeweler to craft her a unique ring.
Mr. Langston was very supportive of them, telling everyone who would listen how proud he was of the two of them and how much he looking forward to calling James his son-in-law.
One night at the saloon, Mr. Langston pulled James aside and asked if he would step outside with him.
“I just want to say how happy I am for the both of you,” he said. “And I mean that. You have impressed me these last few days with your efforts to care for her already. Sending all that money to New York for a ring for her? That’s quite impressive, Mr. Connor. And I hope you have been able to forgive me for the way that I acted.”
James smiled at him and shook his head. “Think nothing of it. It all worked out in the end, right? Besides, I think I needed that kick to help me to realize what it was I really wanted. It wasn’t to sit around and hope for something to happen with her. I actually wanted to be with her, not just the idea of her.”
“Well …” Mr. Langston said, looking up at the down the street. “You coming here to Bear Springs has been an answer to prayer for many of us. But … I really think you were sent here for Marigold. She needed someone like you. I needed someone like you.”
He clapped James on the shoulder and gave him a big wink.
“You just keep doing what you are doing with Marigold, and you’ll have no more trouble from me.”
“Don’t worry, sir,” James said. “As I said before, I promise nothing will ever happen to Marigold. Not as long as I am around to do anything about it. I love her more than I have ever loved anyone else. And nothing is ever going to change that.”
“Good lad,” Mr. Langston said. “Good lad. Now come on. I suspect she is going to get suspicious. And you have a toast to give, don’t you?”
“Of course,” James said, and he followed Mr. Langston back into the saloon, knowing this was one of the nights he would think about in years to come with great pleasure.
Thank You
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Bristol, Connecticut, 1887
Kate Landry trembled as she watched the blazing fire greedily devour her childhood home. She clutched her six-year-old daughter, Maddie, close to her chest. Both faces were streaked with black soot, tears flowing down their cheeks.
Despite the efforts of the volunteer firefighters, the modest but respectable two-level house was soon engulfed in flames, dashing any hope Kate might have had for salvaging her belongings.
“Oh, darling girl,” Mrs. Johnston murmured, drawing the two of them into her warm embrace. “What a terrible thing. I’m dreadfully sorry.”
The words of her kind neighbor didn't penetrate the confusion of her mind. Dazed, she struggled to recount the loss. Both of her beloved parents had perished in the fire. Of that, she had no doubt. She’d tried to save them, but the door to their bedroom had been barred by fallen timber. Not only was she bereft of the last two people who loved her unconditionally, but she’d also lost her home and every possession in the course of a few hours. Although she was grateful that her precious daughter had been spared, her heart ached with knowledge she would never she her parents again. Aside from Maddie, they'd been her whole world. Without them, she was lost.
Her mind jumped back to their reunion just three years before. Owing to her husband’s job, they’d been separated all that time. But after her husband passed away, they'd taken her in and given her every kind of support: financial, emotional, spiritual. When she'd arrived on their doorstep with bag in hand, they'd enveloped her into a warm embrace and hadn't let go since. Now she was utterly alone and terrified, but she had to at least pretend to be strong for her daughter's sake.
“We're okay, sweetie,” she whispered into Maddie's hair. The little girl didn't reply, but wrapped her arms around Kate's neck and held on even tighter. “Everything's going to be okay.”
“Come to my house,” Mrs. Johnston insisted, taking Kate by the arm and compelling her to follow. “I'll find you a bed and you can get cleaned up.”
“But...I don't have anything to wear,” Kate protested lamely. Of course she didn't have anything. It had all been inside and was now reduced to a pile of ashes.
“Never mind that. I have Anne's old clothes and some of her daughter’s. We'll find something for the both of you.”
The neighbor's house was similar to their own four-bedroom structure, which was common among the middle class in Connecticut. However, Mrs. Johnston's children had all grown and left, so there was room for them. Still, Kate hated to be an imposition, even at a time like this.
“Are you sure? I would hate to...” But the words died on her lips. If she couldn't bother Mrs. Johnston, a woman who had watched her grow up and been almost as present in her life as her own mother, who could she bother? Her mother had been an immigrant, so all her family was back in Italy. Kate had some contact with the family, mostly through her cousin, the only one who knew English, but she couldn’t fathom travelling halfway across the world.
Her father only had one sister, who lived thousands of miles away. Of course she’d had friends, but they'd grown apart after she'd married Roland. The wives of his friends had become hers after that, and she thought they were true friends. She’d been wrong. They'd all but disowned her shortly after Roland had taken his own life, and their savings along with him.
“Of course you’ll come,” Mrs. Johnston commanded, interrupting her memories. For once, she was thankful of the older woman’s domineering attitude. It was what she needed right then.
“Th-thank you. Yes, we'll c
ome to your house.”
She allowed herself to be brought over, washed up, and put to bed like a child. Maddie, still shaking with fear, nestled into her side so closely that they were almost one. Kate struggled to find the words to pray, but none came. Wracked with fear, worry, and grief, she couldn't summon the energy to talk to her Heavenly Father. Indeed, at that very moment, she didn't even want to. After the initial gratitude that she and her daughter had been spared, Kate felt nothing else. Her heart was crippled, incapable of feeling.
And yet, somehow, she slept.
Rays of soft sunlight caressed her cheek and roused her from her slumber. Giving a luxurious stretch, Kate momentarily forgot the horrors of the previous evening and nearly woke with a smile on her face. But in a flash, everything came back to her, and her heart became like lead.
Wearily, she sat up and reached over to wake Maddie. The girl opened her eyes but had a frown on her face, her eyes bleary from her broken sleep.
“Hello, dear one,” Kate murmured, bringing the girl's small form to her own. “Did you sleep well?”
Maddie shook her head, her silken blond hair whispering over the shoulders of the too-big nightgown.
“Bad dreams?” Kate asked, but Maddie merely shrugged. She leaned against Kate's side and clutched her doll close to her chest. In all the confusion, Kate hadn't even noticed that Maddie had managed to rescue it.
Carefully and lovingly sewn together by her own mother's hands, Cindy was now in poor form. Its yellow hair was blackened in places and the red gingham dress was torn.
“She'll need to be washed,” she told Maddie gently, but the girl frowned and wrapped her arms around it even tighter. “You can have her back this afternoon, but she's very dirty.”
Maddie refused to give in, her eyes filling with tears. Kate didn't have the strength or the will to argue, so she just sighed.
“Whenever you're ready then.” Her daughter had lost too much for Kate to be stern with her now. Besides, a little dirt wouldn't hurt her.