Chapter Seven
Sheriff’s Quarters, Stevensville
A couple of days later
As usual, Luke had been out of the house working since the early morning hours.
However, these last few days, since the unplanned arrival of his new houseguests, he’d started to come home early instead of spending all night there.
He hoped to garner more information about his young woman and her bizarre circumstances.
More often than not, he’d leave just before sundown, closing up the sheriff’s quarters in town unusually early.
It didn’t go unnoticed. People began to ask questions.
News about a shootout near Bitterroot River in the early morning hours almost a week ago had already created quite an uproar among residents, and understandably, the folks in town demanded answers.
Unfortunately, the gang shootout wasn’t the only news people talked about.
It had somehow gotten out that Luke had brought the victims—two small children and a pretty young lady, no less—to his ranch, so now the townsfolk had begun pestering him about the situation in his home, and what his relation was to this young lady.
All the gossip floating around the saloon and barber shop was enough to deal with, and being questioned like this was not something he was used to. He was a respected authority in his town, and all this nonsense and the jibes from other people didn’t sit right with him.
Getting his beard trimmed at the barber shop, he cut everybody’s banter short and openly announced that he’d simply hired a new housemaid. And that was that.
Tonight, as he arrived home in the fading daylight, he saw that most of the windows had a warm golden glow in them, which reflected in the freshly fallen snow.
It was beautiful to see, but it somehow filled him with sadness and resentment. He still hadn’t fully processed his previous loss, so this outside image of a warm, happy home didn’t sit right with him. It felt like a betrayal to Isabelle and their children.
However, since he’d been the one who brought them here, he couldn’t backtrack now, and he had to shelve his emotions.
He made sure that Chester had fresh straw and water for the night before he went and checked on Tinsel.
The beautiful white mare with those light gray spots covering most of her back seemed to be feeling much better.
His ranch hand—Alvarez, a whitehaired Mexican in his sixties—had done a great job cleaning out her wound, applying ointment made from herbs and chewed-up bread from an ancient remedy to it daily.
As he entered the main house, the smell of delicious food wafted toward him, and the air was filled with the pitter-patter of tiny feet and squeals of laughter.
His heart clenched at the sound of it, and for a moment, he stood inside the front door, slowly taking off his hat and coat while battling emotions of loss and guilt.
He feared he would forget his lost loved ones.
Once again, he had to rein in his emotions, which tended to pull him to a darker side. These people did not deserve this side of him.
From what he had observed over these last few days, he was certain that Madelaine was a good person.
Carefully, so she wouldn’t notice, he had secretly watched her.
The woman seemed to be selfless, always happy to help Evelyn with anything.
The way she took care of her much younger siblings as if they were her own children was heartwarming.
Rather interesting was the fact that Madelaine loved to spend a lot of her time in the stables with the horses.
She checked on her beloved mare regularly, and it was even more interesting to see her work with the injured horse, socializing her with his other animals while her leg was healing.
It became apparent that she had great knowledge regarding horses in general—she’d even showed Alvarez a few tricks, which was surprising since he was a seasoned horseman, fully trusted to look after all of Luke’s animals.
During quieter times, Luke had seen her write into her Bible.
It was obvious how much she cherished that book, and Luke noticed that her affection toward it wasn’t just bound to her unwavering faith in God, because he had seen her take out a photograph, which sometimes made her smile, and sometimes seemed to make her sad.
He didn’t know what it was about, but the obvious depths of Madelaine’s emotions were something Luke found intriguing.
However, he thought that her utter devotion to her faith was very na?ve. This God hadn’t protected his family when they’d most needed Him. Instead, He had forsaken them, leaving Luke with a hole in his heart he would never again be able to fill. For him, there was no God.
Pulling himself together, he walked toward the dining room, where most of the noise came from. He was greeted with a scene of pure bliss, and it hit him so hard that he had to stop right in the doorway.
They were all there—Caleb, Evelyn and Madelaine, Belle and Simon.
The adults were laughing and chatting over now-empty plates of food while Belle was chasing her big brother and Buster, Caleb’s larger-than-large bloodhound, around the table.
Simon was sweet enough to run very slowly so that Belle would be able to catch him every now and again, while Buster seemed happy to pad along, picking up fallen breadcrumbs from the floor as he went.
“There he is! What are you doing here so early?” Caleb cheered with a mocking smirk when he saw him.
Madelaine immediately jumped up from her chair, handed Belle over to Evelyn, and grabbed the empty plate sitting in front of his empty chair at the head of the table.
They had included him in their dinner, even though he hadn’t been there.
“I didn’t want to miss dinner,” he simply said.
“You need to come home earlier than this, then,” Evelyn remarked with a grin.
He didn’t want to make it too obvious, but when his eyes landed on Madelaine, who had busied herself preparing his meal, they stayed there, watching every move she made.
“Good evening, Miss Peterson,” he said. “How are you feeling today?” he asked out of genuine concern for her well-being.
“Good evening, Luke. I have told you to call me Madelaine. Please,” she said with her melodic but firm voice, and glanced at him with one raised eyebrow for a second before looking away again.
Luke had to admit that she was beautiful.
She had a mesmerizing, radiant glow about her.
Despite all of his inner turmoil, it was hard to resist staring at her, and Luke lost that battle when she looked up at him again, just for a split second, gifting him with a shy smile. He was only a man, after all.
The bandage was long gone, and she had tied her glossy black hair into a long, thick braid, much like Evelyn’s. Some unruly, curly strands, which had escaped, framed her pretty face. Her cheeks were rosy from the warmth in the room—at least, that’s what Luke assumed.
“Smells good in here. I am starving,” he said, casually.
He forced himself not to watch her as she started piling food onto his plate from several bowls before she placed it in front of his place and pulled out his chair for him. When Madelaine smiled at him invitingly to come and eat, he walked over to her in two big strides before sitting down.
This gesture was almost too much for him. Isabelle used to do the same thing… Luke grabbed his fork and was just about to stab it into the juicy steak before him.
“We should pray,” Madelaine said as she walked back to her chair next to Evelyn, who was preoccupied with making Belle giggle.
Luke looked at Caleb, who grinned from one ear to the other, and Evelyn suddenly seemed to stare him down, too. Madelaine sat at the table, with her hands folded, steadily looking at him, patiently waiting for him to do the same.
This was not something he did. Luke didn’t pray.
Seeing all of them stare at him now, fully expecting him to bow down to this nonsense, his anger bubbled up to the surface.
“Pray? To what?” This wasn’t really a question. He looked at Madelaine’s folded hands dismissively, stabbed his fork into the steak, cut himself a nice big piece, and shoved it into his mouth. He looked straight at her when she gasped in shock and chewed with gusto.
“Luke!” Evelyn seemed outraged. “How can you say such a thing?”
“Easily,” he said, as he shoved a big spoonful of mashed potatoes into his mouth. “Don’t act so shocked and surprised, Evy. When was the last time you saw me in church?”
“Well, you don’t need to be so rude toward your guests. They don’t know all that,” Caleb supplied, which earned him a scathing glance from Luke.
“Don’t you fear… You… You don’t believe in God?” Madelaine asked, as she clutched her chest with a bewildered look on her face.
Luke, who didn’t want to continue being interrogated while having his dinner, slammed the knife and fork down onto the table.
“There is no God!” he exclaimed. “You are all fools if you earnestly think that there is some kind of higher power out there, who is protecting you all, having this grand plan for every single one of you!”
“But He does,” Caleb said with a heavy sigh.
“Nonsense!” Luke growled. Madelaine made a choked wail. Belle started crying, and Simon hid behind Madelaine’s chair.
Luke knew that he shouldn’t talk like this in front of a stranger, but he couldn’t help himself.
His immense guilt at leaving his family, his terror at finding them, and then the horror of burying them with his own hands all came flooding back to him in the moment, and it fueled a rage he didn’t want to allow to rise to the surface.
He took a deep breath to try and calm down a little, because he didn’t like how this outburst made him feel. Then he looked at every single one of their shocked faces.
“This is my house, the one I had to rebuild after my home was burned down! So, please forgive me for not bending the knee to all of your demands to pray to a God who doesn’t care about me.”
He picked up his knife and fork and continued eating.
The silence that fell over the room was deafening, and the only sound Luke heard were Belle’s quiet little sobs as she cried into Madelaine’s side.
But before he could shove yet another spoonful into his mouth, he heard Madelaine’s voice as she quietly started to pray.
“Heavenly Father, thank You for this blessed food. May it nourish our bodies and strengthen our spirits. And dear Lord, thank You for this gracious man, who took us into his home, who helped us heal, including poor Tinsel. We are forever grateful for his generosity. Thank You. Amen.”
When Madelaine opened her eyes, Luke was staring at her in utter disbelief. The fact that this woman had included him in her prayer, after everything he’d said just mere minutes ago, completely threw him for a loop.
As he continued eating, he watched Madelaine as she got up from her chair, then picked up Belle, who seemed inconsolable at this point, and grabbed Simon’s hand. Her mouth was pulled in a tight line when she nodded toward Evelyn and Caleb before she turned to leave the room.
Wiping his beard with a napkin—which was another lovely touch that was new in this house—he saw Evelyn wipe a tear from the corner of her eye before she took his empty plate to clear the table.
Luke hated seeing that, because he truly loved his cousin.
Before he could offer an apology, she had already disappeared into the kitchen.
Caleb followed her without saying a word, leaving Luke alone in the dining room.
Luke lowered his head. He had hurt all these people by voicing his honest opinion, but he had told them the truth. Well, his truth.
The longer he sat there, the worse he felt, especially since he could hear Evelyn crying to Caleb in the kitchen. It was too much.
Pushing his chair back, he got up and marched with wide strides to the front door, grabbed his Stetson and coat, and left without saying a word.
Trudging through the falling snow, Luke blindly marched toward the small cemetery on the other side of the ranch, where he had buried his children and his wife up on a small hill.
He had chosen that spot, so he would always be able to see them, and they would always be able to see him—if only in spirit.
There, in front of their gravestones, he sank to his knees, and all the pain and guilt he’d felt for so long broke out of him like a lake gushing through a broken dam.