Just Above a Whisper (44 page)

“Sure, I will,” the older woman agreed. “You want another dress?”

Reese nodded.

“It’s him, isn’t it?” Mrs. Greenlowe asked, her voice thoughtful. “He’s getting to your heart, isn’t he?”

“Maybe a little,” Reese admitted, her face more vulnerable than she would have believed.

“You’re a good girl, Reese,” Mrs. Greenlowe said, and Reese saw her opportunity. “And don’t deny it,” the landlady put in before she could speak.

“I want to,” Reese said quietly.

“There’s no reason,” Mrs. Greenlowe replied, looking a little agitated, and Reese knew it was not the time. Indeed she needed to face the fact that it might never be time.

“What can I help with?” Reese offered instead, seeing that tea was almost ready.

“Grab those plates and that teapot, and we’ll eat.”

Reese did as she was told, taking heart in the fact that whenever they ate together, Mrs. Greenlowe never objected to her praying.

“I’m leaving tomorrow,” Dalton told Douglas, sitting in that man’s study at the end of the workday.

“It’s been great to see you,” Douglas said sincerely. “You must miss your family.”

“I do miss them. I don’t travel much without them, and they’ve been on my mind almost constantly.”

“And it seems that your daughter is going to be fine?”

“Yes. The doctors never did figure out what gave her such a high fever and made her so tired, but she’s getting life back into her now, and I’m thankful.”

“Well, you know I pray for you.”

“And I you,” Dalton told him.

The men said goodbye then, both having enjoyed the times of reliving memories and making new ones. After saying a swift goodbye to Alison and the Muldoon children, Dalton headed home for tea and a meeting with Troy and Conner about the future of the bank.

“I made some sandwiches and cookies for your trip,” Reese told Dalton on Friday morning, rendering that man speechless.

When he didn’t say anything, Reese looked to Troy.

“He’s pleased, Reese. Just give him a moment.”

“Thank you,” Dalton spoke quietly, sounding much like Conner. “May I say that if I had a son old enough, I would bring him to Tucker Mills to meet you.”

Reese felt her face heat, something that didn’t happen often, but she still managed to smile and murmur a thank-you.

“Why is Reese blushing?” Conner asked as soon as he walked into the room.

“I embarrassed her,” his brother confessed.

Conner’s eyes were on Reese. With a lift of his brows, he asked if she was all right.

Managing a small smile, Reese said her goodbyes and headed to the kitchen.

The men left for the train station a short time later, both Troy and Conner going to see Dalton off.

“Tell Susie I said hello, and kiss my nieces and hug my nephews,” Conner made a point of saying.

“And tell my family I’ll visit when I can,” Troy added.

“I’ll do it. And Conner, you do something about Reese.”

“What exactly do you suggest I do?” Conner asked, brows raised in amusement.

Always so full of words and advice, Dalton just looked at Conner for a moment.

“This one isn’t easy, is it?” he said.

“You noticed, did you?”

“Yes. She’s hard to read, and since she’s in your employ, you don’t want her to feel that she can’t say no about seeing you. If you do start to see each other, what will that do to her reputation?”

“Just up and marry her,” Troy suggested, bringing laughter from both brothers.

The train was ready to leave. Dalton hugged Troy and then turned to his brother, once again searching for words.

“I love you, Conner,” he finally managed. “And if God sees fit to bless you with a life spent with Reese Thackery, you’ll be the only man on earth happier about it than me.”

The brothers hugged unashamedly on the train station platform before Dalton had to board. Conner and Troy waved to him once he appeared in the window and then started back toward the green, Conner with plans to go to the bank, and Troy back to the house.

“Are you going to be all right?” Troy asked.

“Why would you ask that?”

“Oh, I’m just a little concerned that without Dalton here, you might not know how to proceed.”

Conner stopped walking and looked at him.

“He did give me more excuses to talk to Reese, didn’t he?”

Troy only smiled.

“I’ll see you at dinner.” Conner ended up saying less than he was thinking, but he did ponder the matter all the way to the bank.

On his way back to the big house and knowing the morning would rush by, Troy also knew that if he wanted to say more, it would hold until dinnertime.

“Vashti,” Conner tried at dinnertime, only to have Reese look at him in horror.

“As in the first queen in the book of Esther?”

“Yes,” Conner said, his look sheepish. “I’m running out of names.”

“Well, it’s not Vashti,” Reese told him in no uncertain terms. “My mother wasn’t that eccentric.”

“So this isn’t a normal name?”

“No, it’s not. In fact, I’ve never heard anyone with this name.”

“Is it something she made up?”

“It might be,” Reese said with a shrug, not certain what her mother had been thinking.

“You never asked her?” Conner questioned next.

“She died when I was six,” Reese explained.

“How did she die?”

“Having my sister.”

“You have a sister?”

“No, she died with her.”

Conner could only nod. He had come into a family with both parents hale and hearty, not to mention six older siblings. He couldn’t imagine being so alone in the world.

“And when your father was alive, did the two of you get on well?”

“Most of the time. He would fall into bouts of serious discouragement, and then I would feel left out because he wouldn’t want to talk or do anything.”

“Was that before or after he indentured himself?”

“In my memory it started right after my mother and sister died. But then he would remember he had me and snap out of it for a while. Sometimes he would even go months in a normal way, but then he might get down and sit around the house for as much as two weeks, not doing anything or talking.”

“What would you do?”

“I just kept going to school and cooking what I knew how to make. It was usually when we ran completely out of food that he would snap out of it because I would start crying and carrying on until he responded.”

“Are there any good memories, Reese, or are they all overshadowed by the pain of the past?”

“There are some good memories. I can actually see my mother reading her Bible by the fire. I have no memory of her talking to me about it, but it gives me hope that she might have believed.

“And the same goes with my father. He didn’t do well with teaching me, but when he remembered, we prayed before meals. I’m not sure if it was some sort of tradition for him or he had a genuine belief in Christ.

“And too, Mr. Zantow was never a threat to me before my father died, and I feel comforted knowing that if he’d been there to protect me, my father would never have let me be harmed.”

I want to be here to protect her now, heavenly Father
, Conner found his heart praying.
I want to take care of her. Please help me know how to proceed. Please help me be wise, and put Your hand on my heart—Reese’s as well
.

“I’d better put dinner on,” Reese remembered when she heard Troy come out of his office. There was a particular board that always creaked.

When the men sat down to eat a short time later, Reese sat in the kitchen and ate her own meal. Conner was under the impression that she liked to eat later, or he would have invited her to join them.

Enjoying the food she made in the warmth of the kitchen, Reese realized she was beginning to care for Conner Kingsley in a very significant way. She had no idea that the feelings were being reciprocated no small amount.

“I’m getting fat,” Maddie told her husband over dinner.

“Is that right?” Jace smiled, rather enjoying her rounder curves.

“Don’t you dare look so pleased, Jace Randall. I’ve got months to go.”

“You work too hard to get fat” were Jace’s words of comfort, and Maddie took them. She did manage to get into town fairly often, but chores at the farm were nonstop, even with Clara’s help.

“Well, you’ll have to tell me if I start to repulse you.”

Jace’s brows rose. “Did I seem repulsed last night?” he asked.

“Shh,” Maddie hushed him, just covering a laugh. “Clara’s in the kitchen.”

Jace only smiled at her, his look warm. Had he shared them, his thoughts were not about physical intimacy, but about the way God had blessed him. He loved his wife, and she was going to have their baby. Jace now knew how sweet life could be. And not because he’d done anything, but because Christ had done it all.

With the crops waiting, cool temperatures or not Jace could not dawdle at the dinner table. He gave Maddie a lingering kiss before going back to work, still thinking about the work God could do in a repentant heart.