Edith and the Mysterious Stranger (18 page)

Edith looked at her and said with a dreamy
expression, “A miracle has happened. I’ve fallen in love.”

Melinda’s eyes widened as she exclaimed, “What?”

She was surprised, to say the least, but when she
expressed herself at that moment, it was not a soft whisper. It was
heard throughout the whole room and it immediately got the
attention of everyone.

When Melinda looked up, the room was silent and her
husband was staring at her. She quickly took a deep breath and held
her belly, as if the baby had given a powerful kick. “Oh, it’s
nothing. I’ll be fine.”

Martha laughed and Edith suppressed a smile.

After the men started talking again, Melinda turned
to Edith and asked, “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I am. I feel it deep inside. I’ve never been
more sure of anything in my entire life, nor have I felt these
feelings for anyone before. I was so nervous at first, but he’s
just like his letters. He’s very romantic.”

Martha smiled. “Romantic? Did he hug you before
he left to make you feel this way?”

Edith blushed. “Well, sort of.”

Melinda’s eyes widened and her mouth fell
open when she saw her cousin redden. “Edith! He kissed you, didn’t
he?”

It was not a question but a statement, and
Martha and Edith both knew it. She was not asking. She was stating
a fact.

Edith hesitated for a moment and then
nodded.

Melinda raised her eyebrows. “No!”

Edith blushed even redder. “Yes!”

Melinda glanced at the men and said, “Let’s
change the subject or we’re going to draw attention to us,
especially with that beautiful rosy color all over your cheeks.”
Melinda smiled. “Especially Joseph. I’ve noticed how he’s been
watching you ever since you arrived.”

Edith nodded. “I agree.”

The women headed for the table and helped
themselves to the delicious food.

Gilbert joined them and asked, “How are you
doing, Martha?”

“Just fine, Gilbert. And you?”

“Can’t complain.”

Henry poured apple cider in a glass and
handed it to Edith as he looked her up and down. “My, my! You’re
absolutely charming this evening in your costume, Edith.”

“Thank you, Henry.”

“When are you going back home?”

“After the baby’s born.”

He nodded. “It’s good that Melinda has someone
to depend on.” He glanced at Joseph and gave a haughty grin. “By
the way, I thoroughly enjoyed myself at the dance the other night.
How about you?”

“Yes. It was nice.”

He looked at Joseph once again and added,
“You’re a great dance partner.” Then he buttered a piece of bread
and handed it to her, all the while looking smugly at Joseph.

Edith noticed how he was so helpful in front of
others. But why all this attention and why was he glancing at
Joseph?

Smiling affectionately, he said, “By the way, I
expect it might snow here in a couple of weeks. We always get some
before Thanksgiving.”

Henry glanced at Joseph, gave a smirk once again
as he touched Edith’s arm affectionately. “But you have to admit,
Edith, there’s no place lovelier to live during the Christmas
season than here in Bear Lake Valley. There’s no comparison. This
is the best land on earth with the best people. Don’t you
agree?”

“Absolutely. Although, I’ve met some wonderful
people everywhere I go, Henry.”

Henry smiled and continued flirting with Edith,
handing her things to eat, touching her on the arm frequently, and
glancing at Joseph to see if he was watching.

Gilbert and Joseph had been talking. But
after watching Henry’s flirtations, Joseph was fed up with it. He
had had enough. He was not interested in the way Henry was looking
at Edith, the way he smiled at her, or the way he was touching
her.

He felt his chest tighten when Henry gave
him an insolent smile and sidled up to Edith. Joseph took a deep
breath and let it out in a huff. He abruptly excused himself and
strode out the door.

Melinda looked at Gilbert questioningly and
whispered, “What was that all about?”

“Don’t know.”

After all the guests left, Gilbert cleared off
the table while Melinda rested on the sofa. She was always
exhausted by the end of the day, a natural feeling when “her time”
was so close. Gilbert stacked the bowls and glasses in the sink to
be done in the morning. Everyone was too tired to wash dishes this
evening. Jenny walked into the kitchen and began helping her father
put away the food.

“Pa, how many showed up this year?”

“About a dozen people. Henry and Joseph came
last.”

“I heard Henry really likes Edith. She told me
that he’s taken her several times to the town socials to
dance.”

Melinda announced triumphantly. “Not any
more.”

Gilbert took a wet washcloth from the sink and
wiped the table. “Why do you say that?”

“Oh, because I know something you don’t.”

“And what’s that?” Gilbert asked, enjoying her
little game of reeling him in with curiosity.

Melinda propped her arm on the back of the
sofa. “She’s in love.”

Both Gilbert and Jenny blurted out
simultaneously, “What?”

Melinda laughed at their open mouths and
wide-eyed expressions. It was Gilbert who asked the pertinent
question.

“With whom, may I ask?”

“I don’t know.”

Gilbert dropped the rag on the edge of the
sink and wiped his hands dry. “What do you mean?”

“Simply that I don’t know. She’s fallen in
love with this new friend she’s been writing to.”

Gilbert fell into his overstuffed chair and
relaxed. “Melinda, how do you fall in love when you’ve never met
before?”

Melinda grinned. She was bursting to tell
someone, and if he had not asked, she would not have been able to
contain it any longer.

“Gilbert, it’s simple. She has gotten to
know this man deep down inside. She knows his inner soul. That’s
all I can say—his likes and dislikes, his beliefs, and passions in
life. You name it, and they’ve talked about it. She knows him
deeper than people who court one another.”

Gilbert watched Melinda as she spoke. She
rested her hands unconsciously upon the roundness of her belly and
sighed. He could see Melinda was weary, although she had a rosy
healthy glow about her face. She had never looked more beautiful to
him.

“But Mama,” said Jenny with confusion. “I don’t
understand. Why wouldn’t she let Henry court her any more?”

“She doesn’t want to lead him on and let him
think he has a chance with her. She’s going to wait until…” She
hesitated. “Well, she’s sort of waiting on this mysterious friend
of hers, I believe.”

“Waiting for what, Mama?”

“She’s waiting for him to reveal who he
is.”

Melinda scooted to the edge of the sofa and
leaned forward. With a mighty heave, she tried to push herself up
with both hands, but it did not work. She tried again with a
stronger push, got two inches off the sofa and collapsed back down
again. This time she tried something different. She leaned forward,
her hands firmly supporting herself on each side. With three quick
pushes one after another, she lunged forward with all her might and
almost made it…but fell back onto the sofa once again. When she
heard a pleasant low-sounding chuckle, she looked up and saw
Gilbert grinning.

Gilbert had been watching her the whole
time. It was such an amusing sight that he could not help but
laugh. She had tried so hard and each time failed to rise from the
sofa.

With a little discouragement and fatigue in
her voice, she chided him. “It’s not funny, Gilbert. I’d like to
see you have a large belly and try to get up off this sofa. I can’t
lean forward enough to push myself up.”

Gilbert chuckled once again. “Let me help
you, Melinda.”

He took her hands firmly in his and slowly
pulled her to her feet, grunting the whole time as if she was as
heavy as a boulder.

Melinda slapped him on the shoulder. “That’s
not funny!”

Gilbert laughed as he embraced her.
“Sorry.”

Melinda leaned her head against his shoulder
and sighed.

“You’re tired, I can tell.”

“Uh-huh.”

Gilbert kissed her temple lovingly and then
rested his head against hers. Jenny quietly left when she saw them
snuggling.

After a few moments, Gilbert said softly,
“You’ve only got one and a half more months to go unless this one
comes early like John.”

“Uh-huh.”

Gilbert could hear the exhaustion in her
voice. “I think we’ve kept this baby up past her bedtime, don’t
you?”

“Uh-huh.”

Gilbert led her down the hall toward the
bedroom. He sat on a chair to pull off his boots, but Melinda
distracted him. With great delight he admired her prominent curve
that protruded just below her ribs. When he saw Melinda slowly and
awkwardly walk toward the wardrobe to get ready for bed, he wanted
to chuckle.

When Gilbert let out a snicker, Melinda
turned around and asked, “What?”

He was watching her with pleasure as he
said, “Well, I was just thinking how you have finally reached the
waddling stage.”

Melinda looked surprised. “I just told Edith
tonight that I was grateful I wasn’t waddling yet. I guess I spoke
too soon.”

Gilbert led the young strawberry roan over to
the fence and tied him securely to the post. He had bought it
especially for John to ride. Its head, legs, mane, and tail were a
beautiful reddish brown, but the body was auburn with gray hairs
interspersed.

The roan felt uneasy and tried to pull away from
Gilbert, snorting and breathing heavily. Gilbert knew it was
important to establish a friendly and trusting relationship with
the young foal before breaking him or training him for riding. He
knew that generally when a cowboy would “break” a horse, it was by
force, showing him who had the greater power. Gilbert did not
believe in force. This was not his way. He believed that gentleness
went a long way. He often said horses were like women. They
responded readily to gentleness and kindness.

He slowly raised his hand and placed it on the
roan’s nose to let the young foal breathe the scent of his hand,
all the time whispering to him. Gilbert always whispered to his
animals when they were frightened, reassuring them. It always
quieted them down.

“Hmmm, whispering to the roan again, are
we?”

Gilbert turned and smiled. “Joe. Glad you’re
here. I’ll be another five minutes, and then we’ll do the morning
chores.”

Joseph nodded. “That was real good chili last
night.”

“Thanks. Why did you leave so quickly? Had an
appointment to keep?”

Joseph chuckled. “Not exactly.”

“Well, I was going to set you up with Edith
last night so you could get to know her, but you disappeared too
quickly.”

“Oh?”

“But it was just as well I didn’t because
she seems to be spoken for.”

Joseph raised his eyebrows with concern.
“Spoken for?”

“Yup. She seems to be head over heels in
love.”

“In love? With who?” he said, trying to hide
the anxiety in his voice.

“That’s just it. We don’t even know who he
is. She didn’t meet him until last night.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Well, she’s been writing to this
sweet-talkin’ man. Women go for that sort of thing, I guess.”

Joseph stared at Gilbert incredulously.
“She’s in love? How do you know this?”

“She told Melinda last night. Remember that
little squeal of excitement we heard? Well, that was it.”

Suppressing his joy, he asked, “How can she
fall in love with someone she’s only met once?”

Gilbert chuckled. “That’s exactly what I
told Melinda. And you know what she said? Edith has fallen for the
soul of this man, the inner person.”

“The soul?”

“Yup.” Gilbert pounded his chest. “She’s
fallen for what’s inside here.”

“Oh.” Joseph nodded. “Well, I was fixin’ to
see if I could call on her, but I guess she won’t want to see me
now, would she?”

“Nope. Not now. She’s spoken for. But it’s just
as well, Joe. She’s a very determined and outspoken woman. Very
spunky, I tell you.”

“I know. I met her a few times, and twice
she stomped off because she got annoyed with me. Another time I
took her to Sam’s. Remember?”

“That’s right. I forgot.”

Gilbert gently pulled the harness off the
roan, wrapped it around the post, and then climbed over the fence.
After jumping to the ground, he looked at Joseph and shook his
head.

“Annoyed, huh?”

Joseph burst into laughter. “Yup.
Exasperated!”

After the milking was done, Gilbert and
Joseph split logs, placing each one on a chopping block. After an
hour, sweat began dripping down the small of their backs. They
stopped to rest and wiped the beads of sweat from their brow.

Melinda sat in a rocking chair on the front
porch with a woolen wrap around her shoulders, watching them work.
The sound of a buggy got everyone’s attention. As Gilbert watched
Edith pull up, he waved and then turned back to his work. When he
saw Joseph watching Edith intently, it took him aback. He was in a
world of his own, and Gilbert was nonexistent. And the tender look
in his friend’s eyes was new to him.

Joseph had been doing a lot of thinking
while splitting the logs, wondering how he could get Edith’s
interest. It would take a lot of planning, but he felt he could do
it.

“Joseph?”

He turned toward Gilbert. “Yes?”

When Gilbert saw the softness in his eyes,
he realized that Joseph was quite taken by Edith. So, a quick plan
began to formulate in his mind.

“Would you mind getting both of us some water?
Glasses are in the cupboard to the right of the sink.”