Chapter Twelve #2
She looked up, and when she saw his emotionless face, she quickly wiped the tears from her cheeks with her sleeve.
“I need to find Timothy. He was my father’s best friend, and I was hoping to ask him for his help in this horrible situation, because Phineas took over the ranch without talking to me.
He thought if he could force me to marry him, he would automatically become the new owner and gain all the rights to the ranch.
I had to run away because I didn’t want to marry him.
And I had to protect Belle and Simon from him and his men. ”
Luke’s ears pricked up. “His men? What do you mean?”
Madelaine shrugged her shoulders. “He let a whole bunch of them move in, too.”
Luke raised his eyebrows. “How many?”
“I don’t know. They came and went however they pleased. Some stayed longer than others. I didn’t keep track.”
“Can you guess?” Luke pressed.
“I’d say, twenty, maybe thirty, overall…”
Luke made a mental note to investigate this further. His gut feeling told him that there was more to this.
Still agitated about her initial deception, he got up and started pacing up and down the room. There was still a slightly more personal matter he needed to clarify. He wanted to know why she had lied to him. “So, your amnesia…?”
Madelaine shook her head. “No. I don’t—”
“What?” he interrupted, grinding his teeth. “You don’t remember, or you don’t have amnesia?” He knew the answer by the way she fiddled nervously with the folds of her skirt.
“I don’t have it,” she finally admitted, hanging her head low and avoiding his eyes.
“Why did you lie about it? I went out of my way to help you, but you betrayed my trust. You lied to all of us! I thought Evelyn and you were so close, but you lied to her, too. Why?”
“I had to!” she exclaimed in obvious desperation. “I didn’t want you to take us all back to my father’s ranch—”
“If you had openly talked to me and explained your situation truthfully, I wouldn’t have!
” Luke interrupted her harshly. This stung more than he wanted it to, and he couldn’t suppress his utter frustration as it was boiling over, so he served her a low blow.
“I would have thought that a God-fearing woman like you wouldn’t deceive a man who saved her so easily.
Aren’t there rules for this kind of thing? ”
His cold stare was met with palpable outrage when Madelaine jumped up off the bed and stepped toward him, almost in a threatening manner.
“What are you insinuating?! That I am like you? Never!” she yelled.
“I love God, and He loves me! I worship and pray to Him every single day, asking for His forgiveness! Multiple times! I know that what I did was wrong, but I will do anything to protect Belle and Simon! They are all I have left! They are my only family now! How dare you?!” She raised her fists and started to pummel his chest with little blows, openly sobbing at his accusation.
Luke was so taken aback by it that he took the painless beating for a second without defending himself. When Simon cried out her name from his corner, Luke pulled Madelaine into his arms and held her close to his chest. Things had clearly gotten out of hand, and he needed to regain control.
As he held her there for a moment, Madeleine’s body shook against his, stirring up emotions he couldn’t acknowledge right then.
She cried her little heart out, and Luke allowed her to.
Although he didn’t want to admit it, because he was still adamant that his anger was valid, he knew that he had overstepped.
They stood like that for a couple of minutes until Madelaine pushed away from him. She didn’t look at him as she rushed toward Simon and Belle on the other side of the bed, pulling both of them into a tight embrace.
“I apologize for what I said,” he finally caved. “You didn’t deserve that.”
Madelaine ignored him, turning her back to him, fiercely hugging her siblings, rocking them back and forth to soothe the two sobbing children.
Luke could have given them the privacy they needed, but he also needed to reassure his own racing thoughts. There were still so many questions circling in his mind. “What happened between you and Evelyn after your little trip to the store? You obviously had some kind of disagreement…?”
Madelaine didn’t immediately answer. She took her time before she did, and then her tone of voice sounded stone-cold.
“A man in the general store was watching me. I feared that it might be one of Phineas’ men, so I urged her to hurry up with the order.
She got mad because I didn’t answer any of her questions afterwards.
I couldn’t lie to her any more than I already had.
I rushed her, trying to protect us. I couldn’t risk being dragged back to the ranch… ”
Luke stood there motionlessly as he contemplated everything he’d heard. Then, he remembered something she’d said previously. “You mentioned a Timothy? Your father’s friend?”
Madelaine turned her head to the side, but she didn’t look at him. “Yes. Timothy Richards. Do you know him?”
Luke froze when he recognized the name. “Yes. I do,” he began slowly.
Madelaine turned around, then, and looked at him with obvious hope in her reddened eyes. He squashed that hope when he shook his head.
“I haven’t seen him in years. I don’t know where he is, now,” he said truthfully.
Luke didn’t want to know. He didn’t hate the man, but he didn’t care for him, either.
Madelaine’s shoulders visibly sank as she exhaled a long, heavy sigh. “He was my only hope to sort out this mess. I don’t know what else to do…” she whispered almost inaudibly.
As angry as he felt about all of this on a personal level, Luke realized on a professional level that Madelaine and her siblings were in need of protection from whatever situation was going on at her parents’ ranch.
Looking at the three of them huddled together, embracing each other so tightly again, he racked his brain to come up with a better solution.
Then, little Belle lifted her head and looked straight at him with her big, blue, now red-rimmed watery eyes, and for reasons Luke couldn’t explain, he felt overly protective over this little girl. His own daughter, Elisa, had been three when… he shook his head.
Maybe it was the whiskey talking, but suddenly, an interesting thought popped into Luke’s mind.
It was merely an idea, not really well thought out, but it might work.
People did this all the time because sometimes something like this had to be done purely out of convenience, and in their case, it would ensure their safety.
Looking back at Belle, all sniffily and wet-nosed, Luke made a decision. He was all too aware that it was not only outlandish due to the current situation involving all of them, but it was also completely unexplainable and irrational. Yet, he was convinced.
“We should get married,” he blurted out.