Homespun Bride

that worry out of your mind. Between us, we’ve got enough of them as it is.” Aiden checked his watch. “Let’s hurry up. I’ve got to pick up Ma and take her to her church meeting in thirty minutes.”
    “Hey, I thought you were going to look at property with me.”
    “I’m not going to leave you to do this on your own, little brother. You need a wiser man’s opinion.”
    “And where would I be gettin’ this wise opinion? Surely not from you?”
    Aiden smirked—the closest to a smile he ever got. “I’ve been keeping an eye on the land prices around here. Figured we would take a peek at the sale sometime, too.” He gestured toward the sale. “When Finn gets home, he’s got to have something to ride. He’s not using my horses.”
    Or Sunny. Thad nodded in agreement.
    Aiden cleared his throat as they started walking. “You wouldn’t be thinking about beauing that woman again.”
    “Noelle?” Beauing her? There was an outlandish thought. “No. I learned my lesson and I learned it well.”
    “Now it’s time for me to worry about you, brother. If it’s not Miss Kramer, then what else has put that look on your face? There are the Worthington daughters. A few of them are of a marriageable age.”
    He’d hardly noticed the one in the parlor—then again, he would never notice anyone else when Noelle was in the same room. The pang that ached in his heart was best left unexamined. He spotted the land office. “The real question is, brother, why are you mentioning those daughters? Say, you wouldn’t be sweet on one of the Worthington girls, would you?”
    “Me?” Aiden spit out the word. “You’ve been gone a long time, brother, or you’d remember my opinion on most women.”
    “I remember just fine. But I reckon that you’ve been alone a long time. That might have changed your opinion some.” Thad tried to say the words kindly, knowing his brother hurt for the wife and the newborn son he’d buried. Years hadn’t chased the haunted look from Aiden’s face. “Even I think about marrying now and again.”
    “You?” Aiden’s jaw dropped in disbelief. “Didn’t figure that would be likely.”
    “Now, I didn’t say I was serious about it right this moment, but I’ve considered marriage from time to time.” He stepped to the side to allow two women to pass by on the boardwalk. “The real trouble is finding a sensible female.”
    “Brother, there isn’t a one of them on this green earth. God didn’t make a woman that way, and if you think otherwise then you are just fooling yourself.”
    “Spoken like a man destined to live alone for the rest of his life.”
    “And you aren’t?”
    “No, not me.” Thad blinked against the sudden sharp glare of wintry sun as the road curved northeast. “I’m holding out for the kind of woman a man can count on. Maybe someday I’ll find a woman who understands that life is a battle you’ve got to fight every day.”
    “Good luck with that one, little brother.” Aiden shook his head. “You’ve been riding the trail too long. You’ve forgotten what females are like. They’re not like us.”
    “And you’ve been working in the fields alone too long.”
    “Then there’s no doubt about it, little brother. We are a pair.”
    That was something he couldn’t argue with. He did his best to steel his heart, to let go of what was past and hope that there would be a new start in life awaiting him. The truth was, he could never forget the pain he’d put on Noelle’s lovely face. He had to do his best to stay away from her, for both their sakes. Knowing his luck, there wouldn’t be land he could afford—at least the kind of land he wanted—and he’d be moving on after things on the home place were better.
    The land office was nearly empty, he noticed as he yanked open the door, but the potbellied stove in the center of the room glowed red-hot. Thankful to be out of the bitter cold, Thad shook the snow from his hat and stepped inside.
    * * *
    “I can’t tell you how this cheers me up!” There was no disguising the joy in Uncle Robert’s voice from atop the mare he’d just bought for himself at the sale. “I feel alive again, I tell you.”
    Henrietta tsked as she pulled closed the dress-maker’s door. “Robert, of course you are alive. You are driving me to distraction with this nonsense. You are no longer a young man, no matter how many ill-mannered horses you purchase.”
    Noelle felt a strange chill shiver down her spine,