Chapter Seventeen
Poppy couldn’t even begin to put into words how relieved she was in that moment.
Mere hours before, they had been riding along at a comfortable speed, and she had felt so proud of herself that she had been able to actually steer that large wagon—not to mention the absolute beast of a horse in front of it.
Invigorated by the warming spring weather, Poppy had been singing Sophie’s favorite song, Savior like a shepherd lead us, at the top of her lungs, and she had felt so happy and free.
But then everything had happened so fast—the sudden crack, the violent tilt of the wagon that had thrown both of them off their seats, then the sudden silence and the sharp pain in her ankle.
Panic had almost choked her when she had looked around and found nothing but grassland in sight.
She had barely been able to pray for help.
Yet here he was. None other than her husband, Neil.
What struck her immediately was his calmness and how he handled this dire situation. There wasn’t an ounce of anger or stubbornness in his eyes, only real worry and genuine relief.
“Okay, Sophie. I need your help,” he said to her little sister, who stared at him with big eyes. “Can you please wait here for a second while I help Poppy up?” She nodded without hesitation. Then Neil crouched down next to Poppy and slid one arm around her back and the other behind her knees.
“I need you to help me a little,” he said to her, looking straight into her eyes.
“This might hurt, and I apologize if it does, but I need to get you up first. Are you ready?” Poppy looked at him with a worried expression, but then she clenched her teeth and nodded.
He lifted her off the ground as if she weighed nothing.
Poppy groaned as her ankle moved ever so slightly. She clamped her fingers around his broad shoulder and held on.
“Can you follow me, Sophie?” he asked as he looked back down to the girl.
Sophie nodded and started following him closely as he carefully stepped around the broken wagon toward the road.
Poppy couldn’t do anything other than let her hurt foot dangle, but the gentle swaying motion increased the pain exponentially.
She moaned. Neil looked straight at her with a worried expression.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “Please hold on. I’ll be quick.”
Neil pressed her close to his body, which was like a wall of solid muscle.
It struck her that this was the first time he had held her like this, that they touched this closely.
When she looked at his face, she could see his worried frown, but there was also something else in those beautiful golden eyes.
She couldn’t tell what, but the warm glow made her insides tingle a little.
“I’m so glad you found us,” she whispered to him. Her relief of him finding them both was overwhelming.
Once they were a short distance away from the wagon, Neil leaned Poppy carefully against a large boulder right next to the road. He waited until she could position her foot so it wouldn’t hurt.
“Can you hold out for a second? I’m going to get Barrel,” he said softly.
“Barrel?” Poppy asked, confused.
“The horse,” he explained with a soft smile.
“Oh,” she said. “How apt of a name,” she added, almost giggling. “Of course.”
Neil rushed to the massive draft horse and moved it away from the embankment.
Then he freed the animal from all the straps before he led the gentle giant back to where Poppy and Sophie waited.
The closer they came, the larger the horse seemed, but Barrel didn’t seem to have any urgency in his steps.
“Well,” Neil said then with a soft smile. “I didn’t think it would happen like this, but today is your first riding lesson.” Poppy’s eyes grew as wide as saucers.
“On that thing?” she asked, covering her gaping mouth with her hand. Neil chuckled.
“That thing is one of the best horses you’ll ever ride,” he replied as he let the reins dangle freely from the halter and walked back to Poppy. “He’ll feel like a gentle rocking chair, which is exactly what you need right now if your ankle is actually broken.”
Poppy’s eyes searched his face, not sure if he was actually joking.
“There’s no saddle,” she said with a blank stare.
“Even better,” Neil said when he lifted her once again onto his arms. “You’ll get a better feel for his movements.”
Poppy swallowed hard. “But my ankle!” she complained. “I can’t learn how to ride with a broken ankle!”
Neil nodded with a deep sigh and looked back at the now useless vehicle.
“I would have agreed with you if the wagon hadn’t broken down,” he finally said.
Before she could reply, he gently slid her on top of the draft horse, making sure that she slid her healthy leg over to the other side of its wide back.
Poppy froze. This was high up. The ground seemed to be miles below her. At least, it felt like it. She had never sat on a horse before, and her imagination ran wild when she pictured the animal suddenly trying to buck her off or rearing up its front legs.
Of course, none of that happened.
“It’ll be easier if you relax,” Neil explained. “Try to soften your shoulders.” He smiled as he took one of the loosely hanging leather straps and handed it to Poppy before slinging the rest of it over the neck to the other side and tying its end to the halter.
“What about Sophie?” Poppy asked.
“She’ll ride with me,” Neil said.
Both looked down at the little girl, who had left her spot next to the boulder. In that moment, she was hugging the horse’s massive head. Barrel made the softest nickering sounds.
Poppy’s heart soared. She loved learning this about Sophie. Her affection toward these animals was completely new to her.
“Horses and children,” Neil said with a soft smile as he picked up Sophie. “They’re pure magic when they’re together.”
Then he took another leather strap and led the huge horse closer to his, which was peacefully grazing nearby.
Poppy squealed when Barrel took his first steps, but then she realized that it really did feel like a rocking chair.
Surprisingly, the gentle swaying of the horse’s body didn’t make Poppy feel unsafe, and it wasn’t too bad for her ankle either. She’d be able to handle it.
Neil lifted Sophie onto his saddle, then he swung himself up on his horse in such a gracious way Poppy’s heart skipped a beat.
The way he casually held the reins with a single finger, seemingly leading his horse purely by the power of his strong legs, all while holding Sophie with one arm, made her realize how skilled her husband truly was—and that she had a lot to learn.
Sophie squealed with excitement and laughed a hearty laugh.
Poppy couldn’t believe how quickly her little sister had recovered from their accident.
Even though she had shielded her and cushioned her fall so she wouldn’t get hurt, Poppy had assumed that Sophie would be in shock from their traumatic experience.
Apparently, Neil was some kind of magician and a master of distraction.
Poppy couldn’t deny that.
“I’ll call for the doctor as soon as we’re back,” Neil said after a while, when they’d ridden a short distance next to each other at a slow pace. “But first, I need to get you home safe.”
Poppy nodded. She was too focused on riding to speak.
“Does your ankle still hurt?” Neil asked.
Poppy shrugged. “Only a little,” she replied, not looking at him. She needed to keep an eye on Barrel and where he was going—which was straight ahead.
“Whatever the doctor says,” Neil continued, his voice sounding a little firmer, “you’ll be on bed rest for a while.”
“What do you mean?” she exclaimed. “Who is going to cook for all of you?”
“We’ll manage,” Neil said to her with a chuckle. Poppy dared a quick glance in his direction. He was smiling at her. “We managed before you got here,” he added.
“Only because you had Maeve to cook for you,” Poppy said defiantly. “So no. I’ll do the cooking. I’ll manage.” Neil sighed.
“Maeve wasn’t always there,” he replied. “She only came when we were extremely busy. When she wasn’t, Paul took over, and sometimes I cooked.”
“You?” This time, Poppy forgot all about the horse she was sitting on and openly stared at Neil. “You cooked?” Neil laughed at her perplexed face.
“And cleaned, of course,” he exclaimed. “What did you think? That we can’t take care of ourselves?
” He grinned and shook his head. Then his face took on a solemn expression.
“Our father taught me and my sister a lot after our mother died. And when he passed away, only two months after her, the two of us had to fend for ourselves. We were only children, but both of us learned very quickly to do all of those things, including cooking and cleaning.”
Poppy swallowed hard. She knew all too well how hard it was to lose a parent. Although she had never known her father, or even Sophie’s, their mother had done everything to raise them as best as she could, given the circumstances, and Poppy still struggled with her loss to this day.
“And just as much as I took care of my little sister, I’ll take care of you and your little sister,” Neil added, which pulled Poppy out of her sadness. “Always.”
As comforting as his words were, they reminded Poppy of her promise to never rely on a man for anything, but who was she kidding?
She relied on Neil for everything, really, and despite her wish for a little more freedom and independence, sitting here with a sore ankle on a huge horse riding back to his ranch, she didn’t think that it was all that bad.
“Believe it or not, but our mother used to read to us from the Bible every single day, and it says in there to care for those in need,” Neil said then, which completely surprised Poppy.
“The Bible?” she asked, shocked. Neil nodded with a melancholic smile.
“Yes. She loved God, and she instilled in us a solid foundation for a strong belief,” Neil explained.
Poppy listened, utterly bewildered, but at the same time, she felt warmth spread throughout her body.
Neil knew God. He just chose not to connect with Him.
That made her happier than she had anticipated.
“What changed?” she asked tentatively.
She immediately wished she hadn’t, because Neil’s face grew colder. He shook his head. For a short while, Poppy could see his struggle to keep his composure, warring with himself. But then he looked back at her and smiled again, although the light in his eyes seemed to have dimmed ever so slightly.
“Anyhow,” he finally said. “There was something I meant to tell you before I noticed that you had left.”
Poppy blushed at that. “I’m so sorry,” she said, but Neil shook his head.
“No. I’m sorry,” he replied with a soft smile. “I meant to find you early today because I wanted to apologize to you for the way I had spoken to you the day before,” he explained. “I shouldn’t have denied your wish to go to church.”
Poppy swallowed hard, and Neil continued.
“I promised to take care of all of your needs, and if church is one of those needs, then I shouldn’t have said you can’t go. That was selfish of me, and I’m truly sorry. So if you want to go, tell me so I can take you. Any time.”
Poppy’s eyes widened, and her heart filled with so much joy, it threatened to overflow.
“Are you serious?” she exclaimed. “Any time? You’ll really do that for me?”
“Yes,” Neil drawled, rolling his eyes. But then he smiled at her with so much warmth that his golden eyes took on a glow all of their own. Poppy’s heart skipped a beat when he looked at her like that.
“But first you must heal your foot,” he said then.
“Yes. Foot first. Church second,” Poppy exclaimed, and in her sheer excitement, she clapped her hands.
Barrel, who had been walking at a steady pace the entire time, suddenly lifted his head.
He didn’t do much else, but Poppy squealed, dropped the makeshift reins, and grabbed tufts of his mane with both fists.
Her eyes nearly popped out of her head, and her breath came in hasty little bursts.
When she slowly turned her head toward Neil and Sophie, who both looked at her with curious faces, Neil suddenly burst out laughing. Sophie looked up at him and immediately joined him. Their laughs were so hearty and so contagious that Poppy couldn’t hold it in.
“Oh, boy! That was terrifying!” she exclaimed. “I can’t wait to tell Helena all about this adventure.” She cleared her throat. “If I make it home alive, that is.”