Chapter Thirteen
Cody sat for a moment in his customary chair on the porch, then immediately stood again. He paced a few steps and then sat back down, only to stand once more. He took his hat off and swept his hair backward, the ends of it brushing past his collar.
I should’ve gone to the barber, he thought absently, then pushed the thought away as ridiculous. He didn’t need to get all gussied up just for what he had planned; it was a ludicrous notion.
Still, he found himself tugging slightly on his weskit—he’d opted for his nice one, the one that he usually only wore to church on Sundays when the mood struck him to go. He pulled absently on his collar, unused to wearing a proper stock buttoned up.
Stop it—it’s not like you’re a suitor about to ask a girl to the spring dance. You’re just doing something nice, he chided himself.
Ruby appeared in the doorway and gave him a critical look.
“Pa, you have to stop tugging on your collar! You’ll make it all rumpled,” she scolded him.
He gave her a dour look, but put his hands at his sides, hooking his thumbs in his waistband and immediately removing them the next second.
“You’re wearing that vest with that shirt?
” she asked, stepping back and eyeing him dubiously.
Cody automatically looked down at himself. He’d opted for the nicest shirt he owned, a light blue one with crisp white cuffs and a matching stock and collar. His weskit was a dark green, the color of spring grass in the shade, with a black, polished cotton back piece. “What’s wrong with it?”
“Oh, Pa,” Ruby sighed.
Cody pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled slowly. “Ruby, I know that you like to fancy yourself the arbiter of high fashion in this house, but please, just… go see to Logan. Make sure he’s dressed properly.”
Ruby sniffed but did as Cody requested and flounced back into the house. As he watched her go, her red braids swinging, the memory of her as a younger girl, her fingers in her mouth, popped into his head. Sometimes it was hard to reconcile the two stages of her life.
Cody sighed and took his chair again, looking out over the front yard.
The grass was quickly fading to summer colors, wilting away in the sun.
The irrigation ditches that kept the rest of the grass around the ranch fresh and green didn’t extend this close to the house.
They’d managed to get the bulk of the cattle out to pasture just fine this week, and as a consequence, the ranch was significantly quieter.
It was peaceful and still on the porch, with only the buzz of insects.
Too still—Cody’s heel began to tap against the porch. It can’t take that long to drive from the schoolhouse, he thought anxiously. What if she’s refused to come home early?
Just when he was at the point of despairing entirely, a cloud of dust appeared on the road. It was Amelia, driving her horse at a good clip. He followed their progress, Arthur riding beside her, as she turned into the drive and right up to the house. She pulled her horse up and glared at Cody.
He blinked for a moment and took his hat off, raising it in greeting. She continued to stare at him for a moment before she began to climb down from the trap.
I sincerely hope I haven’t misjudged the situation, he thought. Given the hard set to Amelia’s face, it seemed likely that he had.
She looped the reins up and set the brake on the trap. Her face was determined as she marched up to the porch. “Well?” she demanded, planting her hands on her hips.
Cody stared at her for a moment. He’d not seen her before she set out.
She was wearing a deep maroon polonaise over a cream-and-white striped skirt.
The back of the polonaise had been cleverly tucked and pleated to give the illusion of a bustle, which he understood from Ruby was very much back in fashion.
He couldn’t give a fig about that, but the color of the dress did the most startling things to Amelia’s hair.
He swallowed, finding his throat very dry. It’s the weather, he thought absently. He brushed the thought away. “I, uh… thank you for coming,” he managed. “Good of you to come back at such short notice.”
“I didn’t really feel as if I had much of a choice,” she responded archly.
“What is this crisis that I had to cut my visit short for? Wait a moment,” she said, her eyes narrowing as she stared at Cody.
“Why are you dressed so nicely? Are we expecting company? Oh, no,” she said, her face falling.
“Did I forget some important date? I don’t know what I have to hand, but I can whip up a—”
Cody put his hands up. “No such thing,” he reassured her. “In fact, we’ve already taken care of dinner.”
“You have?” Amelia asked suspiciously.
“Yes, we… wanted to do something nice. For you,” he clarified. He held out his hand to her. “If you’d come with me,” he said.
Amelia stared at his hand for a moment, then placed her hand in his.
She wore thin brown leather driving gloves, but he could still feel the warmth of her hand through them.
She allowed him to help her up the porch steps, holding her skirt aside as she climbed.
She held his hand so lightly that it felt like a bird, ready to fly away at any moment.
Cody released her the moment she was on the porch, dropping her hand as if it had scalded him. She arched one of her dark brows at him, and he tugged at his vest reflexively again. “After you,” he said gruffly, holding the screen door open for her and gesturing forward with one arm.
Still eyeing him suspiciously, Amelia preceded him into the house.
Logan and Ruby were waiting for her, their faces a study in barely contained excitement.
Amelia eyed them both, then turned questioningly to Cody.
He nodded encouragingly, and when she turned back around, Logan had produced a bouquet of wildflowers.
The smell of sage wafted up from them, filling the air with a fresh, green smell.
“Oh!” Amelia cried softly. She put a hand to her chest, her eyes going wide. “Are those for me? Truly?”
Logan nodded and handed them over with a bow. “We just wanted to say thank you for all that you’ve done for us,” he said softly and with all the seriousness that he could muster.
“I’ve made dinner, and Pa fetched us a special treat,” Ruby cut in, her face breaking into a smile that she could no longer contain. “He got us puff pastries from the bakery in town! With real lemon filling, can you imagine? Lemon!”
Cody watched Amelia’s face carefully for her reaction.
Part of him feared that he’d overstepped in some way.
A series of emotions flitted across her face, something akin to confusion and then quiet delight, her eyes going soft.
“Well, thank you all,” she said at last. Her lips tugged upward ever so slightly in a smile.
“There’s something else,” Cody said. Amelia turned to him with an inquisitive look, and he motioned with his head for her to follow him.
He led her down the hall to a disused parlor.
They typically didn’t sit in there as it had been Cody’s father’s domain, and out of habit, they’d all avoided it.
However, Cody and the children had been hard at work for the past couple of days.
It was refreshing in a way, sweeping out the literal and proverbial cobwebs.
For just a moment, it was easy to believe that he’d spent too long letting the past linger about the house.
Feeling just a touch silly and more than a little awkward, Cody cleared his throat and pushed the door open.
The drapes had been tied back to allow sunlight in through the windows.
The room had been thoroughly cleaned, and the heavy, masculine furniture nearly all removed.
Instead, there was a treadle sewing machine pushed up against the wall just under the windows, with the belts newly replaced and the workings freshly oiled.
On the opposite side was a chaise longue upholstered in a dusty pink velvet.
There were small bookshelves on either side, just waiting for books.
A cowskin rug peeked out from under the chaise.
It didn’t particularly match the feminine air that Cody was attempting to cultivate, but he somehow knew that Amelia wouldn’t mind.
She stepped past him slowly, turning in a slow circle in the room. “I don’t understand,” she said.
“It’s yours,” Cody said gruffly. “For… sitting, or reading, or… what have you. You didn’t have a proper place in the house that was yours, aside from your room, of course.
Figured you might want a place to be on your own or sit with the children.
Won’t bother you here,” he added hastily.
“You can shut that door as you see fit, and none of us will bother you.”
She stared at Cody without speaking for a long moment. She broke his gaze at last to look at the sewing machine, a sturdy Singer set into a treadle table. Cautiously, she ran her fingers over it. “All of this is for me to use?”
Cody nodded but had no idea if she saw the gesture.
Her eyes were misty and distant, as if remembering something from long ago.
It was in that instant that Cody realized that he didn’t know a single thing about her past, nor what had brought her to answer an ad for a rancher’s wife.
He nearly asked her if she’d ever had a machine before, but checked himself, worried that it bordered on impertinent.
“Do you like it?” Logan asked, peering around Cody.
Amelia closed her eyes just a beat too long to simply be blinking.
When she opened them, she favored all three of them with a warm smile.
“I love it,” she said softly. “Thank you all so much.” She touched one of her eyes swiftly with the back of her finger before clapping her hands together.
“Now, I do believe this calls for treats! Let’s go see about those pastries, shall we? ”
Logan and Ruby needed no further encouragement. Logan, guided by his stomach as most boys were, immediately scampered off in the direction of the kitchen. Ruby, desperate to look like a mature young lady, made off after him, calling his name and berating him for acting like a hooligan.
Cody sighed but let them go. Amelia laughed softly and joined him at the doorway. Her face sobered slightly, but she retained a glimmer of amusement in her eyes. “Truly, thank you,” she said softly. Greatly daring, she placed her hand on Cody’s arm for just a moment.
His breath caught in his chest, and he could only stare at her. He hadn’t had anyone touch him like that since… since Anne. It was strange and familiar all at once, and he couldn’t account for why it should make his heart thump like a steam engine.
As if completely ignorant of the cacophony that she had set off inside of him, Amelia brushed past him casually, following in the wake of the children.
Cody watched her go for a moment, staring in a way that made him dimly grateful that no one was around to see.
He didn’t know exactly what he’d hoped to say with his gift, but he knew that it was some flavor of what he liked having her here.
I hope she stays, he thought, surprising himself.
It was the first time he’d been able to admit as much to himself.
The strangest thing happened then: He found himself with his hands flexing anxiously before he realized that he was worried that she wouldn’t stay—it was still very much in her power to leave.