After the Storm (29 page)

He slowly came to his feet as Cailin stood framed by the parlor doorway. Even in her old dress, she had possessed a certain tattered gamine appeal. Now, she wore a suit that hugged her curves before flaring out over a bustle. The brown fabric was the exact shade of her eyes, and her hair beneath her matching bonnet had become a ruddy flame. As hot as the one burning within him.

Her slender face would not be considered as beautiful as Beverly's classically perfect features. Cailin had a pert nose and sparkling eyes framed by that fiery hair. More importantly, Cailin offered an outpouring of laughter and warmth to everyone she met. She did not need to have her name in a newspaper, for her efforts were aimed at helping quietly.

As she had wanted to help him.

Was he a fool to prevent her from helping him? She had trusted him with the greatest anguish within her heart, and she waited for him to do the same. And waited and waited.

“You look lovely,” he said, pushing aside his nagging thoughts.

“We're going to Alice and Barry's wedding. Are you coming?” Her voice was cool, and he noticed that she wore rice powder in an attempt to hide the circles beneath her eyes. She must have found sleep elusive, too.

He did not answer when he saw the children grouped behind her. All three had clean faces, and Megan and Lottie wore white ribbons in their neatly brushed hair. Dressed in their finest, the clothes he had had made for them to attend a recitation at the Centennial celebration at the schoolhouse on Independence Day, they were awaiting his answer with unusual patience.

“Well?” she asked when he said nothing. “Are you coming to the wedding with us?”

Again Samuel did not reply for so long Cailin began to believe he was hoping she would give up and leave without him. Or did he expect the children to do something outrageous and pull her attention from him? She could have told him that they were as anxious to hear his answer as she was.

“No,” he said quietly. “I made a vow a while back to avoid weddings and all the silliness that goes with them. I don't see any reason to break that vow.”

Lottie rushed to wrap her arms around his leg. “Samuel, Dahi and me—”

“Dahi and I,” he corrected as he put his hand on her head, but his gaze never wavered from Cailin.

“Dahi and me and I …” Lottie giggled. “We're going to see Miss Underhill get merry, so Brendan and Megan can have a new teacher.”

“Get
married
.” Brendan took her hand and led her back to stand beside Megan. When Lottie began to protest, he put his finger to his lips. “Shh!”

“Brendan, bring the soup pot.” Cailin held out her hands, and each girl took one. “We'll see you this evening then, Samuel.”

She hushed the children's questions as she herded them to the door. She looked back to see Samuel standing in the same spot. When he sighed, she wanted to run back and plead with him to come with them. She would be glad to help him face whatever kept him away from this happy day in Haven. Whatever had kept him away from her last night.

On each step toward the wagon, she yearned to hear him call for her to wait, that he had changed his mind. The only things she heard were Brendan's cow's bell and the birds singing in the trees. Lifting the girls into the back of the wagon, she set the soup pot in a crate so it would not spill. Then she turned to help Brendan so he could climb up without getting his dark suit dusty.

“We're going without Samuel?” he asked, incredulous.

“Yes.”

She thought he would argue. She feared he would refuse to go unless Samuel joined them. When he picked up the reins, she climbed up beside him.

“Go ahead,” she said.

“If you talk to Samuel, maybe he'll listen to you. He has before.”

“Samuel doesn't want to come, and I know you're excited about seeing Miss Underhill married.”

“Ask him again, Mama. Please.”

She had not guessed her heart could break again, but it did when she said, “No, Brendan. Let's go.”

He nodded and gave the horse the command to go. Behind them, Megan and Lottie were busy imagining all that would happen at the wedding. They were debating how they could arrange to get the piece of cake with the most frosting.

Cailin looked back at the house. On the porch, Samuel leaned his hands on the railing as he watched them go. His face was long with a frown, but he did not call out to them to wait. He was standing there when the cloud of dust behind them obscured the house.

“A beautiful wedding,” announced Reverend Faulkner as he handed Cailin a glass of punch.

“Yes, it was.” She waved a paper fan that someone had handed her when she walked out of the church onto the green where the guests were gathered. It moved the heavy air very slightly.

He laughed as he looked past her, and she saw Megan and Lottie lining up with the young, unmarried women who were waiting for Alice to toss her bouquet. Before she could call them away, Alice threw it. Applause rose as it fell into Megan's hands. Several of the young women looked aghast at the idea that the little girl would be the next among them to be married.

Megan ran over to them, with Lottie bouncing after her, and cried, “Look what Miss Underhill—I mean, Mrs. Hahn—gave me!”

“They're lovely.” Cailin hesitated, then asked, “Reverend Faulkner, should she give the flowers back? She and Lottie shouldn't have been there.”

“Mama!”

Reverend Faulkner patted Megan's head. “Of course she shouldn't give the bouquet back. She caught it fair and square.”

With a cheer, Megan held out the flowers to Cailin. “Mama, will you hold these?”

Cailin took them, and pulled out one and stuck it in Megan's hairbow. “Now you look like a flower fairy.”

Megan danced away, twirling so the flower was in danger of flying off her head.

“Me, too?” asked Lottie.

“Of course.” She laced another stem through Lottie's bow. “We'll leave the others here.”

“Flowers need water to go. Samuel says so.”

“Go?” Cailin smiled. “Oh, you mean grow. Yes, flowers do need water.”

“Dahi and me—Dahi and I will get some water.”

She nodded. “Get a cup and fill it. Water, not punch. Flowers don't like punch.”

“Silly flowers.” She grabbed a cup and ran toward the church.

“Megan looks so pretty,” said Alice as she picked up another glass of punch. Unlike every other time Cailin had seen her, Alice was not wearing black. For her wedding, she had chosen a pale yellow gown. “Not quite the person I thought would catch my bouquet, but I doubt if anyone else would enjoy it more than she will.”

“I think you're right,” Cailin replied with a laugh.

“Are
you
enjoying yourself?” She glanced at the minister, then said, “I thought if anyone could induce Samuel to change his mind, it'd be you, Cailin.”

“He didn't want to come, but he sent his best wishes.” She added the last when Alice's face grew bleak.

Music sounded across the green as Doc Bamburger's fiddle announced that the dancing was about to start. When the groom came to collect his bride for the first dance, Alice said, “Tell Samuel I'll see him at the meeting next Wednesday.”

“I will.” Cailin kept her smile from vanishing as the two walked toward the center of the green, where the guests had gathered to watch them dance for the first time as husband and wife.

When someone called the minister away, Cailin nodded absently as he excused himself. She was glad for a moment alone, a moment when she did not have to pretend it was all right that Samuel had not come to the wedding. Sitting on a bench by a table burdened with food, although the guests had already eaten, she sighed.

What she said last night had needed to be said. She could not regret a word, but she was very sorry that whatever he refused to share with her had created a chasm she was unsure if she would be able to cross again.

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Rafferty.”

Cailin raised her eyes to discover Mr. Thanington smiling at her. Today, she could have almost believed his lie of being a British lord; his clothes were even more elegant than those he had worn to the meeting at the schoolhouse. Gold glittered on his fingers and across his stomach, where a watch fob ended in a pocket on his vest.

“Good afternoon,” she said.

“Would you stand up with me for a dance?” He gave a half-bow toward her.

“Dance?”

“If you would be so kind, Mrs. Rafferty.”

She stood. “Thank you, Mr. Thanington.”

“Mister?”

She did not answer, and he began to smile.

“Mrs. Rafferty?” He motioned toward where the others were already dancing, then offered his arm.

Putting her hand on it, she almost laughed out loud at this ridiculous situation. The very idea that Cailin O'Shea Rafferty was about to dance with the son of a British lord would have sent her father into peals of laughter.

Mr. Thanington held her at a proper distance as he led her through the steps of the waltz. The dance, which had seemed so lusciously intimate with Samuel, was far more commonplace now. Mr. Thanington's hand was smoother than Samuel's, and she wondered what work he did on the many acres he had purchased from the River's Haven Community.

“I would be wise not to underestimate you, Mrs. Rafferty,” he said. “Now I understand why my generous offer to the library committee wasn't accepted.”

“I'm not on the committee.”

“But you do have Samuel Jennings's ear.” His smile was cool. “I assume you have informed him of my little charade.”

“Samuel wouldn't make any decisions about the library based on anything but the best interests of Haven.”

“I understand Jennings is an attorney.”

“He was.”

He either did not notice her taut response or chose to ignore it. “I could use the services of a good attorney.”

“Are you in trouble?”

“Not as you're thinking, I assure you, Mrs. Rafferty.” His smile warmed. “My queries have gained me information that Mr. Jennings has extensive skill in resolving property and inheritance issues. Do you think he would be interested in such work here in Haven?”

“I can't say. You'd have to ask him.”

“Where is he?” He chuckled. “I didn't think he would be willing to let your first dance be with anyone but him.”

“Samuel couldn't attend today.”

“I see,” he replied, although his puzzled expression revealed that he did not. As the music faded, he released her hand and smiled as he bowed his head again. “This has been very pleasurable, Mrs. Rafferty. Please let Jennings know I'm considering his comments about the donation for the library.”

“I will.”

Cailin stepped aside as another dance started. Now, when everyone was busy, would be the best time to slip away. She found Brendan first and sent him to get the soup pot. Megan was showing off her flower to the other children, and she pouted for a moment when told they were leaving. Her smile returned as she went to collect the rest of the bouquet.

Where was Lottie? She was not here with the other younger children.

Looking where the dancers were twirling now to a reel, Cailin did not see her daughter among them. She fought the slimy fingers of anxiety closing around her throat. Lottie should not have gone far when there was so much here to enjoy.

Ten minutes later, she had not found the little girl. She told Brendan and Megan to remain by the wagon, trying not to let them know she was uneasy. Through her mind played the memory of Lottie's determination to get water for the flowers. Lottie had not been by the bucket beside the church's well. Nor had she gotten water from the pail set on one of the tables for the guests.

Cailin swallowed her moan when her eyes were caught by the sunlight glistening on the river as brightly as on Mr. Thanington's gold rings. If Lottie had gone down to the river alone …

Gathering up her skirt, she ran along the street leading toward the railroad station on the bluff above the river. She hurried past Emma's store, then paused. There, on the porch, Lottie sat with a young man she recognized from the Grange, even though her agitated brain could not recall his name.

“Lottie!” she called. “Why did you go off without telling me?”

The man looked up from where he had been talking with Lottie. He tilted his broad-brimmed hat, and she saw his hair was a blond so pale it was nearly the color of the ripples on the river.

“She's fine, ma'am,” he said, smiling. “She was just telling me about her friend Dahi.”

“Dahi is here!” Lottie ran to Cailin and grasped her hand. “Mama, Dahi is here. Right here.”

She squatted down and put her hands on either side of Lottie's face.
“A stór
, Dahi isn't here.”

“No?” She looked at the man. “Dahi isn't here?”

“No. Why don't you come with me and we'll look for him on the way home?”

“We're going home? Then I can show Samuel my flower.” Lottie's face brightened, and she ran back toward the green.

“I hope she didn't bother you,” Cailin said, standing.

“Of course not. She's an adorable little girl. You're a lucky woman.”

“Thank you,” she replied, although she did not feel the least bit fortunate. Bidding him a good day, she went to where the children waited by the wagon.

Cailin did not have to worry about them noticing her silence, because they chattered like songbirds from the moment they left the green until they pulled into the yard in front of the farmhouse. Brendan offered to put the horse away while he checked on his cow. Megan decided she must make sure her rabbit was all right, too, and Lottie ran to get water for the flowers she handed Cailin to carry into the house.

Opening the front door, Cailin took a deep breath of the motionless, quiet air inside. She set her bonnet on the peg by the umbrella stand and walked to the parlor door.