Chapter 20
From: Sagebrush Springs, Nebraska
Location: Greenvale
To: The Bennet Family of Walnut Lane
Leaving Fort Kearney now with Jackson and children. Will wed once we arrive.
Caroline Bennet
The train gave a final lurch as it pulled into the station, steam hissing as the wheels slowed against the rails. Jackson stepped down first and looked around. Greenvale conveyed a sense of familiar comfort, but, like him, it was still recovering from the war.
He helped Caroline disembark with Jewel nestled against her shoulder, her golden curls damp with sleep. Behind them, Noah clutched his wooden boat and squinted into the hazy light of early afternoon. Jackson lifted him down from the train and turned to take the carpetbag Caroline offered him.
Her eyes met his, full of hope and love. “I can’t wait to see my parents’ faces.”
“I’m not so eager,” he replied, only half in jest. “You shocked them with that telegram, I’m sure. Your father might drub me with his cane for not asking permission.”
“Seeking his approval is mere courtesy now that I’ve reached majority, but even so, he wouldn’t turn you away.”
The carriage ride to the Bennet home was quick but cold. Jackson hunkered down in the rented conveyance, his coat flapping open in the frigid breeze.
Caroline sat beside him with Jewel in her lap, and Noah nestled between them. “Have you decided how much you’re going to tell your family?” she asked quietly near his ear.
“I’ll tell my parents Ross is his father and let them choose who else should know, but nothing more.” His parents were older than Caroline’s, and their health was rapidly failing. “I want to see them one last time and let them meet their grandchildren.”
Jackson’s spine stiffened when the Bennet house came into view and released a flood of memories.
Caroline leaned close again. “Remember the good. That’s what I’m going to do.”
Mrs. Bennet met them at the door, her arms already outstretched. She embraced Caroline fiercely, followed by a heartfelt hug for him.
“My, my,” she said with a tremble in her voice as she kissed Jewel’s cheek and looked down at Noah. “They’re even lovelier in person.”
“Hello, Grandmother Bennet,” Noah said. “It’s nice to meet you.”
She beamed at him. “What good manners you have.”
“Papa whoops me if I don’t.”
Mrs. Bennet chuckled and ushered them inside. “Look at me making you stand out here in the cold! Come. Make yourselves at home. There’s hot tea and cookies in the parlor. You can have some refreshments while I round up the boys to bring your trunks inside.”
The familiar scents of beeswax and lemon oil filled Caroline’s nose when she entered the house. Everything was clean and in order... quiet, and subdued.
Caroline smiled at her brothers and held a finger to her lips. One by one, they shook Jackson’s hand and greeted her with gentle hugs and whispers, so as not to wake Jewel.
Simon pointed at the door. “We’re going to get the trunks,” he mouthed.
“Thank you,” she mouthed back as they followed Jackson out.
Caroline paused in the hallway, her hand resting lightly on a console table, and looked up at the portrait of Amanda that hung above it. The sight no longer stirred bitterness, only sadness and regret.
“I miss her so much I ache with it,” her mother said from behind her.
“So do I.” She turned to see her mother dabbing her eyes with her handkerchief. “There’s something I need to l tell you, but I want to include Father in our conversation.”
Caroline handed Jewel off to Jackson when he’d finished with the trunks and went upstairs to speak to her parents.
She told them about her visit, described Amanda’s beautiful headstone, and—except for Ross’s execution, which she omitted out of respect for Jackson and his family—she divulged the truth of Noah’s parentage, and of Jackson’s sacrifice.
“You were right to be upset,” her mother said. “I should’ve paid your feelings more heed when you were so very hurt by Jackson’s choice.” Her gaze wavered, and Caroline detected a tremble in her lip. “The truth is I had doubts, but I feared what I might discover if I explored my suspicions.”
Her father touched Caroline’s arm with his functioning hand, then pointed to his own chest and nodded. He didn’t need to speak. The tears in his eyes conveyed his concurrence with her mother.
“It’s all right,” Caroline assured them. “What matters is he came to her rescue.”
She drew a deep breath and put on a pleasant face. “Once we’ve had a chance to catch our breath—if you’re willing—Jackson plans to secure a minister for a simple service here at home.”
“I can’t think of anything I’d like more,” her mother said as her father smiled and nodded.
The wedding took place two days later in the parlor. They kept it simple and small, with only family in attendance, but they set aside their black. Amanda would want them to celebrate, not have the day overcast with mourning.
Jackson took his place at the end of the room with the minister and shared a tempered smile with his parents.
He’d told them about Ross, but only that he was Noah’s real father.
Right or wrong, he stood firm in his decision to stop at that.
Grief mixed with shame was a damaging force, and that secret alone was already taking a toll.
He refused to shorten their lives any further.
Noah stood beside him, nervously rubbing his fingers along the hem, and Jewel, in a little dress the color of buttercream, stared wide-eyed from her grandmother’s lap.
Caroline’s father sat in his wheeled chair by the hearth, a blanket across his knees and a sprig of rosemary pinned to his lapel. His face was pale above his beard, but his eyes were full of pride.
Jackson smoothed his charcoal cutaway and checked his dark plum cravat one last time before the minister called the group to order.
He couldn’t stop the smile that spread across his face when Caroline walked up the makeshift aisle.
She’d chosen an elegant dress of deep blue silk, and she’d never looked so beautiful.
When he took her hand and spoke his vows, his voice faltered for a breath. He’d given up on them ever marrying, and—though she was standing close enough to touch—he didn’t trust what he saw.
Caroline’s eyes glittered with unshed tears, but her smile shone through and didn’t waver. When it was her turn, she spoke her vows with sincerity and love.
“I love you,” Jackson whispered just before their lips met in a chaste kiss. He lingered longer than he should have, soaking up a moment he’d thought would never be.
The look on Caroline’s face conveyed the same sentiment. But later, as the evening faded, she slipped away and stood at the parlor window.
Jackson sidled up to her and put his arm around her shoulders.
“Were we wrong to marry so soon?” she asked.
“No,” he said, giving her a gentle hug. “Amanda wanted this.”
She nodded and laid her head on his shoulder.
Together they gazed out at the frost-covered garden. Dormant roses and leafless trees framed the view, but they would bud again in spring.