Homespun Bride

holds you personally responsible for Angelina deciding to become a mustang wrangler.”
    “I didn’t know proper young ladies from fine families were allowed to be wranglers.” He sounded amused.
    “They aren’t. But when you’re sixteen, you have to dream. The world is so full of possibility.”
    “It still is.” There was an unmistakable smile in his voice.
    The reins hit the dash, the horse carried them forward, and she listened to the song of the sleigh’s runners on the snow. The murmur of the waterfall faded to silence behind them. Thad’s hand remained tightly on hers. He did not let go.

Chapter Fourteen
    T he land office was quiet midweek. Noelle shifted uncomfortably in the hard, ladder-back chair and signed her name on the page where the agent had pointed out for her. The scratch of the pen seemed loud.
    There. Done. She handed the ink pen and the legal document to Mr. Dorian on the other side of the desk.
    “Are you sure about this, Miss Kramer?”
    She hadn’t been so certain about anything. This simply felt right. “Yes. You’ll contact Mr. McKaslin today?”
    “I’ll send a message out to him immediately.”
    “And you won’t let him know this land belongs to me?”
    “I’ll respect our agreement, Miss Kramer, don’t you worry. Your father was a good man. He helped me keep my home when times got tough for me, and I owe him. I’ll do my best for you.”
    “Thank you, Mr. Dorian.”
    Love was complicated, just as people were. She would never understand why her father had pressured Thad so, but maybe she now knew more about what forgiveness truly was. She knew that her father had done the best he could for reasons he thought were very sound. How could she fault his love and her mother’s, when they were lost to her now?
    Signing this paperwork to sell her father’s land, was something she did with love, too. She was finally understanding what it meant to be only human, frail at best, and like all humans complete with shortcomings. Wasn’t her blindness, after all, only a shortcoming? It was not a punishment from God, and not something which had damaged her.
    If blindness was her price for surviving the accident that should have killed her, then she was grateful to God for sparing her. She was grateful to Him for bringing Thad back into her life.
    She rose to her feet and stood a little straighter. “Mr. Dorian, thank you for your time. You’ll be in contact?”
    “As soon as I have Thad McKaslin’s offer for you.” The chair across the desk scraped, as, presumably, the land agent stood. He took her hand in a gentle, businesslike shake. “Would you like me to see you to the door?”
    “No, thank you. I counted my steps when I came in.” She withdrew her hand, oriented herself and counted her way to the door. With every step she took, the joy inside her soared a little more, but the sadness did, too, and both together moved through her spirit like melody and harmony.
    The moment her shoe touched the slick boardwalk, she took a deep breath of winter air and listened to the chime of ice melting from the rooftops. She tried to imagine Thad’s happiness when he received the note from the land office. Finally a good piece of ranch property for sale, he might think, and at the price he could afford. Yes, he would definitely be very happy.
    Joy burned within her, balanced by sharpening sorrow. She wanted him to have his dreams and the life he’d always wanted, even though she could not have hers.
    “Noelle?” Matilda’s gentle alto broke through her thoughts. “We had best start making our way over to the church.”
    “Yes. Do you have our gifts?”
    “They’re in the sleigh. Mama will see to it. She’s fetching the girls from school first. Here, take my arm. The boardwalks are so slick with all the snow melting off the roofs.”
    Dear Matilda. She had such a good heart. Sweetness ached through her remembering herself as an innocent, starry-eyed girl who believed in a fairy-tale kind of love.
    Dainty footsteps came their way. “Noelle? Matilda? Why aren’t you at the church?”
    She recognized the dressmaker’s soft country cadence. “We are on our way. Would you like to walk with us?”
    “What a kind invitation.” Miss Cora Sims sounded pleased. “As you know, I’m attending the wedding alone, and I have no one to sit with, as both of my nephews refuse to be anywhere near a wedding. You know how young men can be.”
    Matilda’s grip tightened again. Noelle