by Linda Broday
Everyone around them laughed at the truth in her statement.
Madeline squeezed his hand and joyful tears almost choked off her words. “I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love you, Sam. When everyone thought you were dead and never coming home to us, something inside me just couldn’t believe it. Not my Sam.” She gulped back another flood of tears. “Yes. Yes I would be honored to marry you.”
Another flash from the camera, and then Sam stood. “Mama, do you and Papa need a few minutes to put some chairs in place?”
Maggie Wilding kissed her son on the cheek. Her face was streaked with joyful tears. Suddenly she seemed ten years younger as if a weight had lifted from her shoulders. “We won’t take long to get things arranged. Everyone can help. Why don’t you take the time to speak with Madeline in private?”
Banjo came up behind her, hugged her and adjusted his wire frame glasses while he kept his eyes on Sam. “As much as I don’t want to let you out of my sight, son, you probably have a lot of things you want to say to your intended. Uncle Teekonka, Joe, and I will take care of things here. We know what to do. We’ll just follow the instructions from the ladies, like always.”
Maggie elbowed him in the ribs and grinned. “I’m finally going to get a daughter.”
Lola and Joe shooed Sam and Madeline toward the office at the back of the Iron Slipper Hotel. “Go on,” Lola said. “We’ve got lots to do out here, and you two will just be in the way. I’ll send for you when it’s time.” She hesitated a moment before she spoke to Madeline. “I hope you don’t mind, but Joe wants to walk you down the aisle and give you away. Is that okay with you, honey?”
Madeline felt her cheeks flush. “I would like nothing more. I feel like I actually have a family because of the love you and Joe have shown me. You took me into your home and treated me like your own. I’ll never be able to repay you for that.”
“Hush now, before you embarrass me.” Lola’s cheeks turned pink and her eyes sparkled with obvious delight at Madeline’s words. “You’ve always been like a daughter to us. All we want in return is your happiness. Now, go on with you so we can get things ready.”
Sam guided Madeline toward the office at the back of the hotel. Once inside the office, Sam pulled out a chair for Madeline and sat in the one opposite her. He never let go of her hand. “I guess you’re wondering what happened to me over there. I don’t like talking about it much so I hope you don’t mind if I only speak of it this once.”
Madeline nodded her head. “You don’t have to speak of it at all if it upsets you, Sam. I know Kit had a rough time, too. Bright lights and sudden noises send him into unpleasant memories.”
Sam closed his eyes. His face turned even paler and a little muscle trembled in his jaw. “We flew over Normandy and I parachuted behind enemy lines. I got lost from my company, but I tried to make it back to our check point. Before I could get to them, the Germans surrounded me. I held them off until I ran out of ammunition. They shot me twice before I finally had to surrender. I thought they’d kill me then and there, but they had worse plans for me. They captured three of my buddies before it was over, and sent us off to a prisoner of war camp in Poland.” He took a breath, looked away for a moment before continuing his story. “They tortured us, wouldn’t let us sleep and gave us next to nothing to eat. I lost track of time. When the allies invaded, the Germans refused to release us. Finally, after what must have been a stand-off for months, they abandoned the prison and left us locked in our cells to fend for ourselves. By the time we made it out of that hell, I ended up in a hospital. I don’t remember any of that part because I was unconscious. They told me I was in a coma for a long time. When I came around, the war had been over for weeks. The Red Cross sent me home, and here I am. I was in a hurry to get here and beat the letter sent from the Red Cross letting my parents know I had been found.” A breath seemed to shudder through him. “I am so sorry for the way you and my family must have suffered, thinking I had probably died.”
Madeline moved across the short distance between them and sat in his lap. She laid her head on his shoulder and laced her arms around his neck. “None of this was your fault, and my suffering was nothing to yours. Thank you for telling me what happened.” She pulled back to gaze into his eyes. “You and I have a future together now. Nothing else matters.”
Sam laughed and kissed her sweetly. “That’s right, darlin’, nothing matters, except we’re together. I have the money I saved for school, and my soldier’s pay I collected when I was a prisoner. I’ve missed ranching and I’d love to raise horses. Would ranching suit you?”
“Living among your family, I can see why ranching is in your blood. I’d love to live on a ranch. Would you mind if I continue to work with Dr. Wilding in the clinic? It’s only half-a-day most days.”
Sam smoothed her curls back and smiled. “Of course I don’t mind. But any time it becomes too much—when we start raising kids—you can quit.”
Madeline felt the heat rise to her cheeks.
Sam’s eyes flared with inner light. “In Spain they have a breed of horses called Andalusian. They train them to do amazing things, and they do it without breaking them in a cruel way. It takes time and patience, but it’s gentle and kind. I’m excited to think of trying it myself. What do you think? Are you disappointed that I don’t want to study music?”
“I want you to be happy. That’s all that matters to me. Will you continue to play the piano? You play so beautifully.” She took his hand and smoothed the rough skin over his knuckles.
“I could never give it up completely. I’ll be playing in church on Sundays, and whenever I want here at the hotel. Lola likes music in the restaurant and for the parties she plans. I’ll always have my music, but I don’t want to travel around the country or live in a big city to be a part of an orchestra. I want to be home on a ranch here in Hazard with my family…and you.”
Juliet poked her head from a crack in the door. “Y’all aren’t doing anything obscene, are you?”
Sam laughed. “Not yet.”
“It’s time to get hitched.” Juliet entered the room with a crowd of family behind her. “Come on, Sam. Your brothers and daddy are waiting for you with Preacher McLean. Daddy is ready to walk you down the aisle Madeline, and I hope you don’t think it presumptuous of us, but Lilith and I would love to be your bridesmaids. Lilith says she will have to go home directly after the wedding since she is feeling a little under the weather.” Juliet made a face. “You know how pregnant women are, all weepy one minute and laughing like the Mad Hatter the next.”
Sam leaned down to kiss Madeline and hug her to him one more time. He spoke in a low voice. “I’ll see you in a few minutes. I love you so very much.” Then he departed to join the minister with his brothers and father.
Maggie gave Madeline a motherly hug, warm and loving. “Jane and I made you a bouquet of paper hearts and cupids from the decorations to carry down the aisle. I think it turned out rather pretty.”
Lilith handed her the bouquet of brilliant red paper hearts and cupids all tied with a wide satin ribbon. “Oh, my goodness, they’re beautiful. Thank you so much.”
Madeline leaned toward Juliet and whispered so only she could hear. “Has Harry shown up yet?”
A momentary sadness shadowed across Juliet’s face. “No. Doesn’t look like he’s coming. I guess he doesn’t know about Sam’s return, either. He’d never miss his best friend’s wedding.”
“Don’t give up, Juliet.” Madeline gave her friend a comforting hug.
“Alright ladies,” Lilith said, “It’s time to get going. I’m sure our Madeline doesn’t want to waste another minute away from her soon-to-be husband.”
Madeline entered the ballroom to the wedding march played by the orchestra who were hired for the ball. All the heart decorations and cupids now seemed very personal and special. Joe kept her steady when she wobbled from her excitement. On either side of the aisle leading to the stage, guests were seated in chairs with white
streamers and red, paper hearts lining the aisle on either side. And then she saw Sam standing with his two brothers and his father on the stage beside the minister. Her eyes met Sam’s, and the love shining through them to her warmed Madeline and calmed her. Once Sam took her hand in his, the ceremony became a blur until Reverend McLean proclaimed her and Sam husband and wife. Sam’s tender kiss would be imprinted in her memory until the day she died. It was a kiss that encompassed her with warmth, yearning, and love all at once. Cheers and applause rang out as the minister announced, “May I introduce Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Wilding, husband and wife.”
The music began, but just before the crowd rushed forward to engulf them in congratulations, Sam leaned toward Madeline. “I promise to be the best husband I can be. If I ever run off the tracks, you just remind me of my promise. I will love you darlin’, until the day I die. Hopefully, that will be a long, long time.”
“However long it is, I will love you through it, Sam.” Madeline gazed into his dark eyes hoping he could see all the love she felt, shining from her heart. She smiled. “Welcome home, my love.”
Related Books by Sarah J. McNeal
If you liked “Hollow Heart”, go to Amazon.com to read more great stories about these characters in Ms. McNeal's novels HARMONICA JOE’S RELUCTANT BRIDE and the sequel, FOR LOVE OF BANJO. "Look for FLY AWAY HEART, the next chapter in the Wilding saga, coming in February 2014 from Painted Pony Books."
About the Author
Sarah McNeal is a multi-published author of several genres including time travel, paranormal, western, contemporary and historical fiction. Sarah is a retired critical care/ER nurse who lives in North Carolina with her four-legged children, Lily and Liberty. Besides her devotion to writing, she also has a great love of music and plays several instruments including violin, bagpipes, guitar and harmonica. Her books and short stories may be found at Publishing by Rebecca Vickery, Victory Tales Press, Western Trail Blazer and Prairie Rose Publications. She welcomes you to her website at http://www.sarahmcneal.com
Open Hearts
Tanya Hanson
A woman living as a man to practice the law she loves must guard her identity--and her heart--from a handsome sheriff, who discovers her secret and must decide whether to turn her in or fall in love.
Chapter One
Barbara choked over the long-nine cigar. A vile habit to be sure, but smoking kept her voice sounding hoarse and her body smelling manly.
The linen strips binding her bosom also contributed to her strangled lungs.
But mostly it was Sheriff Keith Rakestraw, staring at her from the front row and stealing her breath clean away. He was the one man who could get her feeling like a woman.
If she’d been allowed to be one, that is.
The verdict all but gagged her, too. However, Uncle Samuel had died at the hands of vigilante justice. She and Badge had sworn to improve things in the lawless west. Keep things to the letter of the law. Her twin brother’s bad luck, dying on the way to Colorado.
And, her good luck—the chance to put her legal education to use in his stead when everybody back East said no.
Even if it meant acting like a man.
“The prisoner is free to go.” She kept her tone to a rasp while grief over Badge gripped her once again. Both gasps and chortles rumbled through the crowd. Sheriff Keith Rakestraw rose to full height, six-one or -two at least. Her courage wavered, and she prayed nobody’d notice.
“What? Are you out of your mind, judge?” The lawman rasped better than she ever could. “Miz Borchers is an honest, God-fearing woman. She saw the killing right off.”
And Barbara didn’t doubt it, but…“I am certain of Mrs. Borchers’s integrity. However, she admits she can’t swear beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The dear old widow’s right eye was blind, the direction where, she claimed, the shooter had stood.
“Ain’t ladylike to swear. She speaks true, and you know it.” Fury blazed in the sheriff’s dark eyes, turned his cheekbones burgundy above his beard. Barbara swallowed hard. Not only was he handsome, but also a man of strict honor. And he was known for his respect for the female gender.
But none of that mattered now.
“Sit down, Sheriff, or I’ll hold you in contempt.” Barbara didn’t dare yell, afraid her voice would rise an octave or two. “Mind yourself, or you’ll spend three days and nights in your own jail house.”
“An honest woman should never be doubted,” he mumbled as he sat down. At least he’d had enough sense to obey her.
Then he ruined it, pushed back his chair and stalked up to her bench. Nothing more than the ’marm’s desk on schooldays, the reverend’s altar come Sunday, but today—hers and hers alone.
Goodnight and good morning, too, the sheriff was big. And magnificent. Barbara’s heart bounced against her ribs.
“Contempt is just what I feel, judge. So go ahead and jail me.” He waited a polite second, then smirked. “I need a drink.
He stomped out.
Unsure of what to do next—the sheriff being widely admired and deservedly praised, Barbara pounded her gavel, then stood as tall as she could with the lifts in her brother’s boots.
“Court dismissed.”
Thankfully, the Lord had blessed her with a height rare for a female. She hadn’t had to take up Badge’s trouser hems but two inches. His boots, though, were huge, stuffed in the toes with three pairs of stockings. Merely standing in them gave her trouble, much less walking.
She glared at everyone in every direction. Like a tough judge ought.
Some in the crowd saluted, others cursed. Two or three tossed unholy gestures. Gratitude swelled. None of this would happen unless the folks of Red Cliff, Colorado, truly believed her a man.
”Ain’t you gonna go arrest him?” somebody shouted at her, and she grabbed the cigar one last time to hold off talking. At least the circuit wouldn’t take her to the next courtroom for a week. Her lungs and throat just might recover for a spell.
But arrest the sheriff? She shook her head. Letting him walk away, though, meant she couldn’t cite the codger who’d just let loose his chaw on the floor. With the room dedicated to kids and lent to worshippers, she’d long ago assigned a hefty fine for spitting.
A few “tsks” buzzed in the room like mosquitoes, but she ignored the sounds. The courtroom-schoolroom-chapel emptied, and relief warmed her. Her last case on the Red Cliff docket. The old shack at the Mud Puddle mine would make a good hideout for a spell. If she left soon and crossed the Eagle River before February angered up, she’d get there before nightfall.
Most of all, she could release her breasts, and the locket carving itself into her cleavage. And remove the false whiskers that itched like bugs. Soothe with aloe her poor cheeks, stuck for days on end with spirit gum.
Her hair…well. She wore it shorter than a woman should, shoulder-length like many of the menfolk in these parts. But should she get a chance to be female, she pinned on the chignon she’d had made from her own hair after cutting off the long tail.
Slim Billy Quicksilver, a hefty, oily cattleman, remained behind. “A brandy, judge? Be my guest at the saloon. Let’s celebrate justice.”
“Thanks, but no.” She wouldn’t dream of celebrating the freedom of Moosejaw Boyle. Or chance running into the angry sheriff. However, she could hold her own in a saloon. As a man in her profession, she’d forced herself to get used to the taste of spirits. To keep up appearances. “I’ve got…some documents to complete. In my chambers.”
A giggle almost burbled out. Chambers? A plank table with a spittoon and splintery chair in a jail house cell. Right next to…
Sheriff Rakestraw’s. But she was stuck, having spoken the words out loud.
“Then I’ll walk with you.” Slim Billy announced, sending her skin crawling. She grumbled, low.
“Let’s get you a brandy,” the cattleman persisted. “Get your throat cleared.”
Barbara shook her head. “Thanks kindly, but I’m leaving
soon. I best finish up around here as quick as I can.”
Slim Billy laughed too loud. “Reckon that’s some good advice, Your Honor. You won’t want to find yourself anywheres near our lawman.” He grinned, and not a friendly one.
“I followed the law, Mr. Quicksilver.” Barbara hesitated a second, making sure she utilized her gruff voice before speaking again. “I have found this true in any courtroom—you make one side happy, you get the other one mad at you. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
Barbara was out of patience. And out of voice. Slim Billy nodded and touched his brim.
“A real good thing you won’t be back here for a month.”
Heat raced through Barbara’s blood. Sheriff Rakestraw wasn’t downing whiskey at all, but standing behind her. His mocking words hurt, somehow; she paid no attention to Slim Billy’s snicker. All she wanted was the light of admiration in the sheriff’s eyes. If only, if only she could be a real woman and the lawman didn’t know her as Judge H. Batchelor Audiss. But she avoided his eyes, his anger, tried to tread manfully, confidently, across the puncheon floor.
Badge’s too-big boots didn’t help one single bit.
Chapter Two
“Good God, all we wanted in these parts was an honest judge.” Keith Rakestraw muttered into his third shot of the worst whiskey west of Kentucky. “And we get some free-thinking pansy face named Batchelor Audiss.”
He felt somebody sidle up next to him, reckoned it was his deputy until he caught Slim Billy Quicksilver’s stench. Nearness to the biggest schemer and blasphemer for a hundred miles set Keith’s skin prickling.
“And we get dear old Badge. Name fits the fool.” Slim Billy wiped a froth of beer from his mustache. “Odd-lookin’ son of a gun. I’d bet my boots he pads his jacket with cotton batting. Like my granny did her quilts with.” He barked out a loud laugh. “Those wide shoulders of his don’t match his skinny legs.”