The Teacher's Mail Order Bride (16 page)

M
ichael closed
the schoolhouse door behind them, leaving the committee to their business. They’d grabbed their hats and coats and followed the Baileys outside.

Michael extended his hand to Mr. Bailey, who heartily shook it. “What you’re doing for these children is mighty nice,” he said, beaming at Michael and Rose.

“There was nothing else I could do but help,” Rose said as she watched Sammy shuffle his feet in the dirt. She leaned down so she was eye level with him, and said quietly, “Now you can read those books you wanted.”

Sammy’s eyes flew open. He looked from Rose to his father and back, and turned and ran toward home.

“Did he do something wrong? He can be a handful, at times. Loves to learn, though, that one.”

“No, not at all,” Rose said as Michael laughed. “I just wanted to make sure he knew he could come, and that I had a special book for him. I knew he wanted to read it.”

“Well, we’d best be on our way. Can’t thank the both of you enough,” Mr. Bailey said as he took his children’s hands and headed down the road after Sammy.

Rose waved after them, her heart full at the turn of events. She turned toward Michael and gasped as he grabbed her and twirled her around, right in front of the school.

“Michael!” she cried. “What are you doing?”

“I’m celebrating a great success, an impassioned plea heard and acknowledged. And a brilliant idea.” He set her down but didn’t release her.

She frowned, pushing against his shoulders. No one should see them like this. He was engaged to be married—and it all came flooding back into her mind. What she’d managed to forget with her excitement about the later afternoon school came crashing down on her all over again.

“Rose—” Michael started, holding her even more tightly.

“No, Michael.” Rose pushed his shoulders with all her might and escaped his arms, taking a step backward. “You are promised to Margery. You’ve made a promise to
her
.”

Michael laughed, his rich, deep voice ringing in her ears, making her want to smile, too. But there was nothing to smile about when it came to Margery.

“What if I told you that I’m not?”

She folded her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow. “You’re not what?”

“I’m not engaged,” he said, his eyes twinkling.

“I...how...” Rose frowned, not quite understanding what he was saying. “She told me how happy you were, how you’d found the one right person for you. She told me herself.”

“Ah, yes, I heard about that. She said that she saw how much in love we are and she panicked. Made that up. I was able to set her straight today, and we’ve worked it out.”

Rose blinked as her arms dropped to her sides. “Worked what out? What are you saying?”

Michael stepped forward, close enough that she could feel his heat on her cheeks. She closed her eyes, not understanding what was happening, and when she opened them, she felt her hands in his but he wasn’t there.

“Down here,” he said.

She gasped as she looked down to see Michael on one knee. He said, “We worked out the fact that I love you, not her. That I am meant to be with you, not her. And that my heart would perish without you, Rose Archer.”

She raised her hand to her heart, her voice stuck in her throat.

He reached into his vest pocket and pulled out his pocket watch, rubbing his thumb over it before he looked up at her. “I don’t have a ring just yet, but I hope you’ll accept this as a promise from me. My mother said I would know who to give it to, and I do. You, Rose Archer. Only you. Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

He gently placed the watch in her hand and she lifted it up, reading the inscription.

Her eyes welled with tears and she leaned over, her palm stroking his cheek. She brought her lips to his and as he stood, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer.

She sighed as she pulled away, looking into his deep brown eyes. “I can think of nothing I’d rather be than Mrs. Michael Tate.”

“Whoo-ee,” Ben said as he pulled up in the buggy. “I came to fetch you, Miss Rose, but I sure didn’t expect this.”

Rose flushed as she stepped away from Michael.

Ben tipped his hat back on his head and leaned his elbow against his thigh. “Does this mean what I think it does?”

Michael wrapped his arm around Rose and said, “Yes. Yes, it does. Rose has agreed to be my wife.”

Ben took the blade of straw from his mouth and laughed. “Well, that’s nice and all, but I was really wanting to know if Margery’s staying.”

“
W
ell
, I never thought I’d see the day,” Beau Archer said as he hugged Rose tightly. He turned to Michael and reached out his hand. “Happy to have you in the family, son.” He shook his head. “But if someone had told me a while back that within one year, three of my children would be married, I’d have—”

“You’d have what, Beau Archer? There’s no stopping true love,” Helen Allen said as she swished onto the patio of the Archer’s ranch house, her black hair elegantly swept up and arranged on top of her head, a dark pink stone at her throat that perfectly matched the color of her dress.

Rose laughed as her father’s ears colored. “Well, aren’t you going to offer me something to drink? The wedding was lovely, but this part is the most fun,” Mrs. Allen said as she took Beau by the elbow and led him toward the table Maria had spread with all manner of sweet concoctions.

Rose laughed and slipped her arm through Michael’s. She could hardly believe they were married already, in less than two weeks, but time had marched on and Mrs. Samson had insisted that he still needed to be wed by the deadline.

Not that she minded. As she looked up at her husband, some waves of his dark hair on his forehead, she knew that there was no way she’d want to wait any longer than she had.

“It was a lovely wedding, Michael. I’m sorry that it happened too quickly for your parents to get here. I’m sure they would have loved it.”

Michael patted her hand. “Yes, they would have, but they were satisfied with the promise I made.”

“Promise?” Rose raised her eyebrows and looked up at him.

He laughed and said, “Yes. I hope you don’t mind. I promised that we’d come visit them in Boston next summer, when school is out.”

She clapped her hands and threw her arms around his neck. “Oh, I’ve always wanted to go to Boston. And New York, and Philadelphia—”

He squeezed her tightly and looked into her eyes. Smiling, he said, “We’ll get to all those places, and more. Just maybe not all next summer.”

Rose looked out over the garden of Archer Ranch, pleased that so many of their friends were able to attend. She smiled as Mrs. Carter came to greet them. Rose had remembered after the school committee meeting that Mrs. Carter was the wife of the mayor, and had a reputation as being very philanthropic—and had the best interests of all townspeople at heart.

“Hello, you two. Thank you so much for inviting me to your wedding. It’s an honor.” She reached out and squeezed Rose’s arm and smiled up at Michael. “I’m not sure I’ve met such a lovely young couple before now.”

Rose smiled up at Michael as he said, “Mrs. Carter, I do want to thank you for your support of our idea to make the schoolhouse available at other times. It means so much to the children who need to help their parents during the day.”

Mrs. Carter nodded slightly. “It was my pleasure. I’ve known Madeleine for many years, and I was happy to help rein her in, especially for such a marvelous cause. And when things settle down for you, I’d like to talk to you about something else also. But not now. You two enjoy your day.”

“We just want you to know how grateful we are, Mrs. Carter.” Michael bowed slightly as Mrs. Carter looked over to the punch table.

“You’re very welcome. Could I ask who that striking lady is in the pink dress?”

Rose looked around Michael. “Oh, that’s Mrs. Helen Allen, recently arrived from New York. Her son moved here and is the bartender at the Occidental.”

“Oh, I do believe I’ve heard about her. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go introduce myself and leave you two newlyweds alone.”

Michael pulled out a chair for Rose and helped scoot her in. “Are you hungry? I think I am famished. How about I go get a plate of food for us both. Maria’s really done herself proud.”

“Oh, thank you. I could stand to rest my feet a bit, if you don’t mind.” Although the wedding had been short, she’d woken long before the sun came up and been on her feet all day. She nudged off her slippers and covered her feet with the skirt of her dress.

“Rose, this is just so utterly exciting,” Saffron said as she sat down at the table. “Whoever would have thought that things would turn out this way? It’s so romantic.”

Rose rested her hand on Saffron’s shoulder. “I never would have thought it. Especially not when you were consoling me about Margery.”

“Speak of the devil,” Saffron whispered before she turned to smile as Margery approached, her arm looped through Ben’s.

Rose stood and reached her hand out to Margery. The lady who turned out not to be the right one for Michael hesitated, then took Rose’s hand. “No hard feelings, I hope,” she said as she held Rose’s hand.

“None on my part,” Rose said as she looked at Ben. “Seems things have worked out just fine all around.

“Ben, seems like you got your mail order bride after all.” Saffron stood and winked at Ben before she headed over to greet Suzanne, Sadie and their families who’d just arrived from the church.

“Now, Miss Saffron, you know that wasn’t my plan.” Ben frowned after Saffron and turned to Rose, shrugging his shoulders. “Just worked out that way.”

“And I’m so happy that it did,” Michael said as he set down a plate of food in front of Rose, heavy with all of Maria’s specialties.

Rose’s stomach grumbled and she realized she hadn’t eaten all day.

“You’d better eat something before you faint dead away,” Michael said as he laid a napkin across his lap.

“Maybe we can eat after this one,” Rose said as she looked up and smiled at Mr. Bailey as he approached with Sammy in tow.

“Thanks for inviting us, Mr. Tate, Mrs. Tate,” he said as he tipped his hat at them. Sammy had his hat in his hands. “The other two don’t seem to want to leave the food table.” He squinted his eyes and craned his neck in that direction.

“That’s just going to make Maria even more happy,” Rose said.

“She’s quite a cook, that Maria,” Mr. Bailey said. Had the pleasure of meeting her just now and asked about some of her recipes. The menu at the restaurant could use some spicing up, maybe. Come on, Sammy, let’s go find your brother and sister.” He tipped his hat again as he walked away.

Sammy looked back over his shoulder and waved at Rose, who waved in return. “It seems like such a long time ago that I saw him sneaking out of the schoolhouse.

Michael raised his eyebrows. “Oh? Is he the one who wanted to,” he looked at Mr. Bailey and back to Rose, “borrow a couple books?”

“Yes,” Rose said. “And the funny thing is that it was one of my favorite books. Now I can’t wait to read it to him.”

Michael’s eyes widened as he looked at her. “One of your favorite books? That was a book I’d brought from Boston.
Around the World in Eighty Days.
”

She reached for his hand and laughed. “I have a copy that my mother brought me from New York. I’ve read it dozens of times and I sleep with it under my pillow.”

Michael pulled her closer and kissed her forehead. “I can’t wait to see those places with you. I never thought I’d meet anyone so perfect for me as you, Rose Archer.”

“Rose Tate, you mean,” she said, her heart swelling as she wiggled her toes in the grass, experiencing the most joy she ever had in her life. She pulled him in for a kiss. “Nor did I.”

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