Homespun Bride

obvious? She hadn’t realized it until now, but she was starting to get used to having Thad McKaslin underfoot. “He’s been doing the work anyhow, and he is a gifted horseman.”
    “As I hear things, he isn’t interested in a job or in getting paid for his time here. Something tells me it’s because of you.”
    The cool from the window swirled around her like fog and she shivered, but it wasn’t from the cold. She had never seen Thad so clearly.

Chapter Ten
    “I ’ll see you next week, Nellie.” Noelle trailed her final student for the day to the front door. “If you stick to practicing your scales for a whole thirty minutes every day, then next week I’ll give you something fun to learn to play. Would you like that?”
    “Oh, yes!” Nellie Littleton’s rush to escape slowed down a bit. “I’ve been wanting to learn a new hymn.”
    “Yes, I know.” Noelle adored her youngest student. “Now you be sure and practice your scales. I can tell the difference in your playing, so I’ll know if you didn’t.”
    “Oh, all-riiiight.” The little girl was a doll, even if she did try to get by without practicing the way she should.
    Noelle well remembered what it was like to be that age and have piano lessons which were entirely your parents’ idea. “I’ll see you next week, Nellie.”
    “Okay. Bye, Miss Kramer!” Her shoes beat a fast rhythm to the front door. Icy wind gusted and then with a quick slam, she was gone. The faint squeak of a wagon wheel told her that Nellie’s parents were outside waiting for her.
    Noelle listened to the stillness of the quiet house. Sadie was out on errands. Henrietta was in town to fetch the girls home from school. Matilda was keeping an eye on her father. The only sounds in the house were from the crackling fire and the faint clatter as Cook went about her work in the kitchen. Robert had been drowsing in his library the last time she’d checked. Perhaps it was time to check on him again.
    The quick tap of Thad’s step descending the stairs caught her in midstride. She turned toward the archway, listening to the confident pad of Thad’s gait.
    She wasn’t going to examine too closely why she was glad he’d entered her domain. “Hi, stranger.”
    “Hi there, pretty lady.”
    With the smile in his voice and the rustle of clothing, she imagined him standing on the landing, hat in hand, looking storm swept from the conditions outside.
    She could not explain why that made her heart pitter-patter. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
    “I reckon it was hard to hear me over the sounds of all those wrong piano notes. Even a cowboy like me could tell someone was playing that wrong.”
    “Nellie is my most promising student and my student least likely to practice. I have hopes her attitude will change in time. Are you on your way home?”
    “Not quite yet. I’ll wait for your aunt to return from town so I can put up her horse. Then I’ll go.” The boards creaked slightly as his boots knelled closer. “The mare’s foal arrived safe and sound.”
    “Solitude had her baby?” Pleasure warmed her. “Is it a little filly or a colt?”
    “A filly. She’s deep sorrel like her mother, as shiny as a copper penny in the sunshine.”
    “She sounds beautiful.”
    “She surely is. She’s a dainty little thing, all long legs and knobby knees. Would you like to visit her?”
    “In the stable?”
    “I don’t think your aunt would want me to bring a horse, baby or not, into the parlor.”
    “No, you’re right about that.” She stood, and she looked like a touch of spring in the light pink dress she wore. “As a general rule I keep out of the stable for a few very practical reasons.”
    “Ah, I think I understand. I promise to look before you step.”
    “I surely appreciate that.” Her eyes twinkled.
    When she smiled like that, he felt hope trickle into him.
    Crystal lamps clattered in his wake, and he felt sort of out of place, like a colt in a glass shop, but she didn’t seem to notice, or, he figured, was too nice to comment.
    She’d snagged her coat from the wooden tree by the time he reached her and was already shrugging into it. “You’re still so independent, I see.” He caught the woolen garment by the back of the collar, as he would help any lady. “Let me help a little.”
    “I suppose.”
    He didn’t miss her playful smile. This close, he could smell the lilac soap she used and see the stray strands that had escaped her braid to curl like tiny