Page 27 of Mail-Order Brides Wishes
She understood he wanted her reaction and provided a shudder. “What was this bargain?”
“If she did that, he would help her find her pa.” His gaze went to the cross.
“Did they find him before or after—?” She tipped her head toward the marker beneath his palm.
“They never did find him, but learnt he’d died in the mountains. Jayce made this so she’d had somethin’ to mark his passin’.” With a tip of his head, he indicated they should move on. A few feet beyond the graves and the marker, he stopped. “This’s a nice place to enjoy the view.”
They sat side by side on the soft grass.
“The view is spectacular.” The mountains to the west. A blue ribbon of water bisecting the rolling green grassland. Darker green where trees, both deciduous and evergreen, stood.Behind them, Susie’s sweet singsongy voice indicated her nearby presence, happily amusing herself. “This is a sad place and yet it doesn’t feel sad.”
Flint nodded. Although he must wonder at her comment, he remained silent. Perhaps waiting for her to say more if she desired.
“It’s peaceful and almost welcoming here. So unlike the gloomy place where my mother and stepmother are buried. My grandparents took me to visit my mother’s grave on the first Sunday of the month. I remember the headstones being so cold. Many of them covered in green moss, clinging like tentacles of death.” The pretend laugh she gave did little to hide her shudder.
He shifted closer, his elbow brushing hers.
She guessed it was intentional and leaned toward him.
“Now my grandparents are buried there. And my sister.” Her throat closed off and she swallowed hard before she could continue. “Someday my father will be too, I suspect. And Susie’s father.”
“Does it bother ya to think ya might not be able to visit the place again?”
“Not at all. Not in the least.” Shifting so she looked into his face as she spoke, words came in a burst as if, unknowingly, she’d been storing them up, waiting for a chance to say them to someone who might care, even if he couldn’t understand. “I did not like going to that cemetery. Like I said, it was cold and dank. But worse was how it reminded me of who I was. What I was.”
His eyes, which once had appeared faded blue darkened, capturing the color of the sky, as if offering her a bit of the summer day. “I see nothin’, know nothin’ about ya that should make ya sad.”
Warmth from sky-blue eyes wafted through her. “You forget that I was a girl born into a family that only valued sons.” Her words were ordinary; just a combination of some of the twenty-six letters in the alphabet yet they carried sharp edges and pointed tips with hurtful and harmful power.
“That’s an unfair judgment.” His blunt pronouncement echoed in her heart, driving away a portion of the words that had been said about her… against her… most of her life.
“Thank you. I agree. Susie is as valuable to me as a boy would be.” She glanced back to see Susie had collected a pile of tiny stones and happily played with them.
A chuckle rumbled in the air. “Fer certain, she’s a lovely child.”
A feeling as unfamiliar as the scent of horse and leather that carried in the air between them filled her. “Thank you.”
“Fer what? I did nothin’.”
“You assure me that Susie will be treated better than either of us was back east.” She would never again think of it as home.
“I promise ya that I’ll do my best.”
“As will I.” Her words whispered into the air. But he heard.
“Can’t ask for more’n that.”
The door of Addie’s house opened and closed, and Addie stepped out. She saw them and waved before she went to her garden and began pulling weeds though— “I didn’t see a weed anywhere.”
Flint chuckled. “She’ll make sure there ain’t any.”
It seemed this conversation had been all about her. And he’d offered her a wondrous gift. Could she do the same for him? “Where are your parents buried?” Was he able to visit their graves? Was it something that mattered to him? She didn’t know him well, but it seemed it would be something he cared about.
“I never knew where Ma died or where she was buried. Can’t even remember what happened to her if’n I ever knew. A time or two I asked Pa about it, but he’d shake his head and turn away. I figgered it weren’t somethin’ he meant to talk about. So I stopped asking.”
She tipped her head back and gave him a long hard study until he shook his head.
“What do ya see?”
