Where Love Dwells (24 page)

Nearly there, when Emma crossed the street, Anna was the first to spot her. She nudged her husband to stop and smiled. “Mother Emma!” she cried as she bent down and pointed Emma out to the little ones.

Once she reached them, she tried to catch her breath. “I'm so sorry I wasn't there to meet you,” she managed. “The packet was uncommonly early today.”

“But you would have been there if you were expecting Mark or Benjamin,” Warren snapped as he set down his bags.

Emma swallowed hard. Up close to Warren now, she could see a tension in her son's eyes that had not been there before, but she dismissed it, along with his comment, as simply annoyance that she had not been there when the packet boat arrived. After getting a reluctant hug from her son and a warmer one from his wife, she scrunched down to meet her granddaughters at eye level. “Hello, Deborah. Do you remember me?”

“No, but Mama and Papa said you have a grand, grand house with room for all of us. We're gonna stay at your house. Papa said so.”

“That's right,” Emma replied and turned her attention to Grace. “I'm your grandmother Emma, little Grace.”

Grace held tight to her mother's skirts. “ 'hickens at your house?”

Emma chuckled. “Yes, we have chickens. We have three nanny goats now, too. I'm hoping that we can pick out some names for them while you're here. Would you like to do that?”

“ 'hickens! 'hickens.”

Anna laughed and patted her little one's head. “All she's talked about during the entire trip is playing with the chickens at her grandmother's house.”

“I'm not sure how well they'd play together, but we can collect eggs every morning.”

“That should do.”

Emma put her hand on Warren's arm. “Your brothers are here already. Since I wasn't certain you'd be on this packet, I didn't order a coach ahead of time. I assume you made arrangements with Mr. Adams for your trunks to be taken up to Hill House later, but you should have had him take those travel bags, too.”

“Fortunately, since my brothers didn't see fit to help me home, I spied Andy Sherling. He was about three wagons back, waiting to unload when we arrived. He offered to bring the trunks up to Hill House for us. He wasn't certain how long he'd be, so I thought I'd better bring the bags along with me now.”

“Then why didn't you take a coach?”

“Warren and I decided to walk, which didn't seem like a bad idea at the time,” Anna offered. “I haven't been to Candlewood for a while, and I wanted to see the changes in town. Besides, the girls have been on the boat for days. I thought a walk might do them some good, although Grace probably won't last much longer.”

“We could stop to see Reverend Glenn and his wife so Grace could rest up a bit. I know they'd love to see you and your family, and we could invite them both to join us for dinner. Your trunks will surely be there by then,” Emma said.

Deborah tugged on her papa's sleeve. “I want my dollies. Will my dollies be coming, too?”

Warren's face froze for a moment before he relaxed his expression. “No, Deborah. Not . . . But Mama packed your favorite doll for you in with your clothes so she wouldn't break, remember?” he
said. He looked up at Emma and shrugged. “There wasn't room on this packet for everything. Some of our trunks had to be left behind.”

“There's a little store here in Candlewood that has lots of pretty dolls you can see. We'll stop there one day soon, but I can show it to you while we walk home,” Emma suggested.

Despite her current reservations regarding her betrothal, she was anxious to share her news with her son before anyone else did, knowing it would only give Warren more cause to complain. “Mr. Breckenwith will be coming to dinner today,” she began as they started toward Hill House.

“Isn't he your lawyer?” Warren asked.

“He was, and he will be again, but at the moment, he's much more than that. We're hoping to be married soon.” She prayed her eldest son would be as pleased with her news as his brothers had been.

Warren froze in midstride, forcing Emma and his family to stop as quickly. His gaze hardened. “Since when? You never wrote a word—”

“I only recently accepted his proposal. There wasn't time to write to let you know.”

When Anna took a step closer to him, his gaze softened. “I'm sorry. I'm just . . . shocked.”

“I think I shocked myself when I accepted his proposal,” Emma admitted, although his recent demands had been more unsettling. “I invited him to dinner so you'll all have the opportunity to meet him. He's a good man,” she added, somewhat defensively.

“I'm sure he is, Mother Emma,” Anna offered. “Why don't you tell us more about him on our way to see the Glenns.”

With seven grandchildren babbling and chattering, Emma's three sons laughing together again, their three wives gabbing, Mother Garrett sharing her news with Aunt Frances, and Reverend Glenn talking to Wryn, there had never been this much commotion at dinner at Hill House. Not ever.

Emma could not have been happier. Warren had not entirely warmed up to the idea that Zachary was going to marry his mother, but he had been civil enough when Emma had introduced them. Setting aside her initial disappointment, she tucked away the experience of having all of her loved ones together again deep in her heart.

When Liesel and Ditty started to clear away the dinner dishes to make room for dessert, Emma glanced at Zachary, who sat to her right at one end of the table.

He smiled and winked at her.

Her cheeks warmed. “I gather you're not intimidated by the size of my family,” she murmured.

He leaned toward her. “Quite the opposite. I'm rather anxious to join it officially,” he whispered. “Should I presume you've been too preoccupied since we talked this morning to be able to properly consider the solution to my problem?”

Seated next to Emma, Mother Garrett got up to help Liesel and Ditty and picked up Zachary's dinner plate. “What problem would that be?”

Emma rolled her eyes. Although Mother Garrett suffered from a few minor physical ailments, there was nothing wrong with her hearing.

Before Emma or Zachary could reply, Anna got up from her seat, took the dinner plate from Mother Garrett, and urged her to sit down again. “You've done enough for everyone already. Relax and talk.”

Mother Garrett sat down again, dashing Emma's hopes they might postpone this specific conversation. When Zachary cocked a brow, Emma shrugged. “You may as well tell her now.”

“Widow Ellis has decided to leave my employ to seek a position elsewhere,” he announced quietly.

Mother Garrett sniffed. “She probably didn't have the decency to give proper notice, either, did she?”

He smiled. “No, I'm afraid she didn't.”

“I can't imagine who would hire that woman. She didn't say?”

“No,” he replied. “Actually, she didn't speak to me directly. She just left a note stating she'd left Candlewood to find a position.”

Mother Garrett furrowed her brow for a moment and let out a deep breath. “Poor woman. I suppose she knew she had few enough days left before she had no place with you. Naturally, I'll expect you'll be coming here for your meals. I won't hear otherwise,” she told him and leaned closer to Emma. “You really ought to think about getting married soon so that man wouldn't have to trudge up and down the hill three times a day just to eat. I don't even want to think about how dirty his house is going to get.”

“We're discussing the idea,” Emma whispered as she caught the twinkle in Zachary's eyes.

“Cookies! Cookies! Cookies!”

Clapping his hands, Teddy started a chant the other children quickly mimicked when Anna carried in two trays of cookies and set them on the table.

Benjamin grinned. “It looks like Grams has won over another generation.”

Mother Garrett beamed, got up, and started doling out the cookies to her great-grandchildren. She traded a kiss for each cookie
from them while Liesel and Ditty set out warm apple pie for the adults.

While they all quieted down during dessert, Emma stole another opportunity to study the family gathered around her table. Most everyone, including Wryn, seemed to be relaxed and enjoying themselves, except for Warren and his wife. The slight tension Emma had noted in Warren earlier at the landing and later, when she had told him about marrying Zachary, was still there. Anna was notably more distant with her husband than her other two daughters-in-law were with Mark and Benjamin.

Dismissing what she observed as nothing more than fatigue from the rigors of their travel, if not their different temperaments, Emma hoped a good night's sleep would restore their spirits.

Later that day, Emma captured another dream.

Beneath a night sky boasting a grand display of stars that surrounded a glorious moon, Emma was sitting on a quilt with all seven of her grandchildren in front of the fire burning in the outdoor fireplace on the patio.

She had them all to herself.

The youngest ones were within arm's reach. Paul and Jonas snuggled at her thighs on either side of her. Winnie and Grace claimed her lap, albeit a bit reluctantly at first. Sally, Teddy, and Deborah sat at her feet, and they were all listening to stories about their daddies when they had been little boys growing up in Candlewood.

When yawns started passing from one child to another, Emma pressed a kiss to Winnie's head. “Time for bed, little ones. We'll have more stories another night.”

“Can I have my dollies to take to bed with me now?” Deborah asked.

“I'm certain your mama unpacked your dolly for you by now,” Emma replied for the third time since they had all sat down on the quilt. She shifted Winnie and Grace from her lap to stand up.

Little Deborah pouted. “But I want all my dollies. Papa said I could have my dollies when we lived with you.”

“Maybe they'll be on the packet boat tomorrow,” Emma said, repeating the same answers she had given Deborah earlier, although she could not fathom why the five-year-old could not have managed a brief vacation from her collection in the first place.

When Winnie dashed toward the fireplace, Emma swept her up to her hip and blocked the others. “I think Big Grams has some milk and pretzels waiting for you in the kitchen.”

“Me first!” Teddy cried. When he turned and started running back to the house, the rest of the children followed him.

Emma protected the rear, although she did not have to worry. The promise of more treats from Mother Garrett had all of these little innocents headed straight away from the fire.

Fortunately, Anna, Catherine, and Betsy were waiting in the dining room, as they had promised to do, and they quickly ushered the children to the kitchen after Emma got a kiss from each and every one of her precious grandchildren and said good-night to everyone.

Yawning, Emma arched her back and stretched her legs to get out a few kinks. Exhausted, but joyfully so after such an eventful day, she was anxious to slip upstairs to her bed, figuring she just might manage to do so before her grandchildren were tucked into their own.

She left the dining room and went straight to the center staircase where she found Warren standing with one arm resting on
the banister post. She could hear his brothers laughing in one of the front parlors.

“The children are all in the kitchen now, so if you're standing guard to make sure none of them escaped, you can relinquish your duty,” she teased.

He did not crack a smile. “I was waiting for you.”

“Is anything wrong?” she asked, concerned by his troubled look.

He glanced up and down the hallway. “I wonder if we could speak somewhere more private.”

Emma sighed. “We could use my office, but I'm awfully tired. Unless it's something urgent—”

“It's urgent,” he said. “Since you apparently invited us all home on the false pretext of celebrating your birthday when you had every intention of announcing you were getting married instead, I believe it's quite urgent. I need to talk to you before you marry that man.”

22

W
ITH HER EMOTIONS SHIFTING
from deep concern to heartbreaking disappointment, if not every emotion in between, Emma took a seat behind her office desk, deliberately putting a bit of distance between herself and her eldest son.

In turn, Warren eased into a chair facing her desk, but sat on the edge of his seat. His back was rigid and straight, his gaze dark and troubled.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the sampler that hung on the wall.
Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother
were words she prayed Warren would find as meaningful as she had when she had stitched them so long ago.

When Warren did not initiate the conversation, she took the lead. Worried that she did not have the same support for her plans to remarry from Warren that she had received from her other sons, she hoped to clarify the point that the decision to remarry or not was a decision she alone would make. “Do you find the prospect that I'm planning to marry again objectionable, or is it more specifically that I've decided to marry Mr. Breckenwith?” she asked,
certain it was the former, since the two men had been strangers until she had introduced them.

Warren hesitated for a moment. “I've only met the man today, but it's clear he's quite different from Father.”

Her heart trembled. “Yes, he is, but that doesn't mean I love your father less. I'll always love your father. Always. And I'm never going to forget him, Warren. How could I, when I have three wonderful sons who are just like him in so many ways?” she offered gently. “It's been eight years since your father passed to Glory, and I've discovered that I have room in my heart and in my life for another. Would you deny me the affection and companionship that a spouse can give me?”