Amethyst (52 page)

“You’re all dressed up fancy.”

“I surely am warmer than when I came last year about this time.”

“Our pageant is tomorrow night.”

“I know. That is why I came today. Is someone coming to pick me up?”

“Mr. Hegland, but I rode ahead. The train is early. He said that never happens. But when I heard the whistle, I told Big Red he could run. So we did.” He stopped talking long enough to look into her eyes, searching for a true answer. “Do you really like living in Chicago?”

“There are many good things about Chicago, and I really enjoy the work that I am doing. Mrs. Grant is so good to me. I owe her a great deal.”

“Hmm.”

“I really appreciate your letters. Thank you for writing to me.”

“I have to tell you that I want you to come back.”

“Miss O’Shaunasy.” Carl Hegland waved as he stopped his team. “Sorry I’m late.”

“No, I think we were early.”

“All aboard!” the conductor called as the train blasted a whistle and steam poured from around the wheels. Inch by inch the mighty wheels turned, and the train picked up speed.

“I’ll get the dolly so I can load your trunks. Both of those are yours?”

“Yes.”
One is full of presents. I couldn’t bring presents before, but now I could
. Such fun she had had buying gifts for her friends here in Medora. She had quickly found the perfect gift for everyone but Jeremiah McHenry. That had not been easy. But when she found the book of nature drawings, she’d known it was just right for him.

Last time a carpetbag, this time two trunks and her valise. She brought all the women samples of her soap and lotions.

“Ah, Mr. Hegland, it is good to be back here. There’s not as much snow this time.”

“Nor is it as cold. We won’t have you nearly dying on our doorstep.” Carl clucked his team into a fast trot, and the jingle of harness bells sparkled across the prairie. The big white house wore a snow hat and drifts around its banked sides, and the front door had a big red bow on a cedar swag.

“Oh, it is so beautiful.” Amethyst clasped her hands inside her fur muff. There would be no sleeping in the snow this time.

“I’ll bring your trunks in the back door. You go in the front. Pearl’s orders.”

“If you insist.” She allowed him to help her from the sleigh and climbed the steps to the front door.

“Bye,” Joel called with a wave. “See you at the pageant.”

She waved back. “Don’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t.” His answer blew over his shoulder as he, on Big Red, loped toward home.

“You are here!” Pearl pulled open the door and threw her arms around Amethyst. “Carly, see who is here.” Wearing a red pinafore, Carly peeked out around her mother. She grinned and ducked her head.

“My, just look at you. A fashion plate direct from
Godey’s Lady’s Book
.” Pearl hugged her again.

“Has anyone told Mr. McHenry?”

“No one else knows. That way your secret could be kept.” Arm in arm the two women closed the door behind them, and Pearl helped Amethyst out of her coat. “Isn’t this lovely?” Pearl stroked the fur collar. “You have done so well. The move has been a good one.” She searched Amethyst’s face for an answer.

“Our company is doing well. I have learned so much from Mrs. Grant that I cannot begin to tell you, but I have a favor to ask.”

“Ask away.”

“Could I please help cook in your kitchen? There are so many servants at Mrs. Grant’s that I feel as if I am taking their job if I go into the kitchen.”

Pearl covered her giggle with one hand. “I remember at my father’s house that was the way it was, but back then I had no interest in cooking. My mother and father are still shocked that their daughter is running a boardinghouse.”

“Has business picked up any?”

“Not much, but your room is waiting for you. Your first room.” She put her arm through Amethyst’s, and together they walked up the stairs.

The schoolhouse was filling fast when they drove up to the door, and Amethyst and Pearl took the two children and hurried in out of the cold.

“Do you think he is here yet?” Amethyst whispered.

“He was coming with Rand, and their sleigh is out there. Rand is playing the guitar, and Mr. McHenry will be on the mouth organ. They do this every Sunday for worship. You know we are getting a church building in the spring?”

“Thanks to everyone’s letters and Mr. McHenry’s visits, I know most of what has gone on around here.” Amethyst shrugged out of her coat and hung it on a hook along with all the others.

Chatter slowly died as they stepped into the schoolroom. The three men in the front, who were tuning their instruments, finished and faced the crowd.

She waited, her heart hammering in her throat. Would he be glad to see her? Or had he really shut the door?

“Miss O’Shaunasy.” His voice, so used to command, could be heard even in a whisper.

“Mr. McHenry.” She tipped her head slightly. Her hat stayed in place, her hair remained firmly secured under it.

“It seems we have an early Christmas present here.” Jacob Chandler caught the wink Rand sent him, and the two played a couple lines of “Joy to the World.”

Amethyst could feel the heat rise in her neck as Mr. McHenry stared openmouthed at her. What was he thinking? What would he say?

“Welcome, everyone, to the first annual Christmas pageant here at the Medora School. We would have had one last year, but we were blizzarded out. Let us begin with a word of prayer.” Jacob waited for the shuffling to cease. “Father God, we come together tonight to tell your story, that of the first Christmas, when your son was born. Thank you for bringing us all together tonight, safely and with great joy. Amen.”

Amethyst fought to keep her mind on the pageant, but her eyes kept going to the man sitting in the front row off to the side. She could see his ear, the way the hair waved around the top of it, the black band that held his eye patch in place. She heard the recitations, the songs with the harmonica sometimes soaring on higher notes, and she watched the children act out the old, old story that never grew too old to hear again and to rejoice in it. Joel played Joseph with nary a smile, and Ada Mae sat at the manger with a doll on her lap, the lone sheep right behind her nuzzling her arm. While she pushed it away, it insisted until she rubbed its ears. Then it lay down in the hay, content. When the shepherds came, they took the sheep back out with them.

The angels sang hallelujahs, everyone sang well-loved Christmas carols, and the lights were extinguished but for one candle carried by a little girl walking up the aisle. One candle, that’s all it took to banish the darkness. The harmonica led the child forward, and when she turned, the light burnishing her face and hair, Amethyst could barely see for wiping the tears away.

She heard sniffs from around her, and then Emily played her song on the piano, “The Light of the World is Jesus.” The musical notes fell on a silent room as if all were indeed waiting for the light to come. The little girl looked up from her gaze on the candle, beamed her smile around the room, and said, “Merry Christmas to you all.”

The applause rocked the walls and the lanterns were relit.

Amethyst watched as Mr. McHenry tried to come to her, finally making it to the back of the room where she sat beside Pearl with Carly on her lap.

“You didn’t tell me you were coming.”

“I wanted to surprise you.”

“You did that.”

Others gathered around, calling their greetings to Amethyst, and she watched as someone said something to him. He finally turned back to her. “I’ll come to the Heglands’ after this?”

She smiled and nodded, her back straight, as Mrs. Grant had taught her.
“Sit straight, stand straight, and smile.”

Pearl leaned closer. “I think you caught his attention.”

“He’s coming to the house.”

“I heard him.”

After the children received their presents of an orange and a peppermint stick, Carl carried the sleeping Joseph out to the sleigh and, when they’d all scrambled in, covered them with a heavy robe.

“Keep tucked in. We don’t want frozen noses, now, do we?”

“Pa say froze nose.” Carly giggled and rubbed her button nose.

“She sure talks more now.” While keeping up with the conversation, Amethyst could feel Mr. McHenry’s presence as he mounted his horse and rode beside them. She swallowed. What would he say? Did the look of joy on his face when he saw her mean what she hoped it meant?

Her thoughts so consumed her that she was hardly aware they’d arrived home.

“I’ll put the children to bed,” Pearl said. “Why don’t the two of you visit here in the parlor?”

“Thank you.”

He hadn’t taken his eyes off hers ever since they came in the door. Amethyst’s knees shook. Her hands threatened to.
Back straight. Smile
. But somewhere in there she had to breathe too.

A beautiful tree sat in front of the window again, the white candles ready to be lit, and wrapped presents lay under its branches. She had slipped hers there before they left for the schoolhouse.

She sat on the sofa, being careful to tuck her skirt in around her and not crush the small bustle in the back.

When he sat in the chair, she smiled at him. This was much better than both on the sofa. Now she could watch his dear face for all the changes in expression. If the way he’d greeted her was any indication of how he felt…
Please, Lord, make this all work out the way you want it to
.

“Mr. McHenry…”

“Miss O’Shaunasy…” They spoke at the same time, then shared a smile.

“You want to go first?” He asked the same question she was about to.

She hesitated. Did she want to go first, just to get this waiting over with? After all, she’d been waiting since he left Chicago in November. A month can be a long time when you were waiting for something as important as this.

“Shall we flip a coin?”

She shook her head.
I don’t want the rest of my life based on the flip of a coin, but now that the moment is here, how do I say what I want?
She took in a deep breath and let it all out.
Calm. That’s right. Be calm above all else
.

“Mr. McHenry, do you love me?” That wasn’t what she’d planned to say at all. If only she could grab the words back. She watched his face. He swallowed, bit his lip, lips that were spreading wider in a smile.
Say something
.

“I mean…” She could go no further. Mortification was a painful thing, starting in the chest, clamping off breathing and suffusing the face.
Flee! Flee!
a voice screamed inside her head.

His smile broke into a chuckle.

She drew herself up, not only straight but rigid, and took in a deep breath. But when he put his hand over hers, she nearly collapsed.

“Please, forgive me, but that is the exact same question I wanted to ask you.”

“Really?” Now she could at least swallow. This time her breath moved in and out without bothersome little hitches. She wet her lips and felt the look he gave her make them warm. Now, that was an interesting phenomenon. “All right, since I asked the question first, you have to answer first.” She thought the twinkle in his eye might match that which she was certain lurked in her own.

“Then I shall answer first. Miss O’Shaunasy, I love you with all I know how to love.”

“Oh.” Tears stung at the back of her eyes and threatened to run out her nose.

“Now it is your turn.”

She nodded. It was indeed her turn. “Mr. McHenry, I do love you, and I would call it the greatest honor if I could learn to love you more each day for the rest of my life.”Was that a sheen of tears in his eye? She knew the sheen in hers was trickling down her face.

“Are you asking me to marry you?”

“Not exactly, but if you are agreeable, I would consider that you just asked me.”

“And your answer?”

“Yes.”

“That’s it? Yes?”

“What more do you want?”

“I want to love you as broadly as the Dakotah sky and as deeply as God shows me how.”

“Oh.” She reached out to smooth her fingertips over his cheek. He turned his head, clasped her hand in his, and pressed a kiss into her palm. She closed her eyes, the better to feel his lips against her skin.

“May I kiss you?”

“You just did.” Several other tears followed their cousin down her face. He wiped them away with the tenderness of a mother comforting her child. She looked into his eye and saw nothing but love there, deep and rich. “But I would like it if you did so again.”

“My pleasure, my dear Amethyst.” He leaned forward and placed his lips over hers, gently, with all the love he knew.

When he pulled back, she sighed. “May I call you Jeremiah now?”

“I think that would be proper.”

Hearing approaching footsteps, they pulled back and sat up straight again.

“Sorry to interrupt, but this little one insisted she wanted to say good night.” Pearl appeared in the doorway, Carly at her side, dressed in an ankle-length red flannel gown with white eyelet trim, the gown Amethyst had laid on her bed when she’d arrived. She held out her arms, and Carly ran into them, wrapping her arms around Amethyst’s neck and squeezing.