Chapter 17 #3
“None so far,” Thomas said. “Luke and Tilda are thinking of staying here for a while. They’re living with me, and my house has never been fuller. It’s kind of nice to have so much family around.”
“And Evelyn is really okay?”
“Fine. She and Ross are … They’re courting, believe it or not,” Thomas said hesitantly.
“Courting?” Clary asked in surprise. “Since when?”
“Since before the mission,” Thomas said. “We’d been so busy with our own lives that we forgot your sister has a life of her own too. Ross is a good man, and he will hopefully help to keep Evelyn on the straight and narrow.”
“And the bandits from Torrent?” Clary asked. “What happened to them?”
“Nothing,” Thomas said. “We couldn’t take them with us, so we hogtied the lot of them to each other and left them right there for their buddies to find.”
Imagining how that must have gone, Clary felt sorry for those men, even if it was only a little sorry.
“And Rossi?” she asked.
“Oh, you’ll love this; he’s been singing like a canary for over a week. Mac made good on his promise, and Rossi’s mother is in safe hands now,” Thomas said.
Then he leaned forward and gently kissed her. When he pulled back, he smiled at her. “Clary Wilson, don’t you ever scare me like that again. Okay? I don’t want to lose you.”
“Oh, all right, I’ll do my best not to get shot again,” she said with a weary grin.
He stayed with her all afternoon, and when Clary was discharged the next morning, Thomas was there to take her home. Only he didn’t take her to the boarding house. He took her to his house, where his whole family waited to meet her.
Tilda and her children were lovely. Clary found Annie, who was the youngest, to be quite a handful, with the endless energy of a young child.
Kent was sober and studious, constantly reading, while Lyle spent his days working in the garden with his father.
They were planting a kitchen garden for Thomas to say thank you for the rescue.
As the days went by, Clary grew stronger. Thomas had started taking the afternoons off and going for walks with her.
On one such walk, when they were strolling by the farm, watching the cows and horses grazing, Thomas suddenly turned to her.
“Are you happy here?” he asked, holding her hand in his.
Frowning at the odd question, Clary nodded. “Yes, I’m very happy here. Why? Thinking of getting rid of me?”
It had been a fear that was cropping up in her mind lately. Mostly because she had caught Thomas being quite evasive and secretive again. Was he planning to send her packing? It didn’t seem likely, but one never knew for sure.
“I’m really glad,” Thomas said. He leaned on the fence and Clary did the same.
The horses flicked their tails, trying to dissuade the flies from resting on them too long. Clary longed to go out in her coach again, but Diane had forbidden it for another week.
“Why is this so hard?” Thomas asked.
“What?” Clary asked.
He pulled a face and then dropped to the ground.
Startled, she looked down at Thomas and found him looking up at her.
He was on one knee, holding a little box out in front of him.
With shaking hands, he opened the lid and displayed a beautiful gold ring.
It had a large pearl in the center of the setting with a few little diamonds around it.
Clary stared, mesmerized by the ring.
“I knew from the moment that you arrived here, Clary, that you were the one for me,” Thomas said. “Everything you do, everything you are, just makes me more certain of that fact. We are meant to be together, and so I would like to make it formal.”
He drew in a large breath.
“Clary Wilson, I love you. I will love you until the day that I die and far beyond into our reunion in heaven someday. Will you marry me?”
The words hovered in the air and for a moment, Clary wasn’t sure she had heard right. Was he really asking her to marry him?
Thomas’s expression became strained as she continued not to say anything. He began to look worried.
That was terrible; she wanted to marry him, but the words couldn’t seem to find their way out over her tongue. When the silence became unbearable, Clary finally managed to nod. Then, as the nod began, her words finally spilled out.
“Oh, Thomas, yes, yes, yes, I’ll marry you!” she cried and flung her arms around his neck.
“You will?” he asked, looking a little dazed.
She nodded again. “Of course, I love you too, and I could never live without you.”
Lifting the ring from the box, Thomas slipped it onto her finger. It fit perfectly and glinted in the sunshine. Clary admired her ring and then was abruptly nuzzled by a curious cow that had come sauntering over to see what was going on.
Thomas rescued her from the curious cow as he swept her up in his arms for a passionate kiss.
It was magical, sending tingles of joy through Clary as she held him close.
Thomas was everything she could ever have hoped for in a man.
The dream of her and Thomas watching their little girls playing filled her with love, and Clary hoped that one day it would come true.
She longed to have a family with him, setting down roots that would tie them to these wonderful people in this tiny, big-hearted town.