Homespun Bride

it’s wise to smoke cigarettes? It’s a poor choice for you for many reasons.”
    “I know, but I was bored. I told Mama I didn’t want to wear that frilly lacy dress. I looked like I was about to go to a convent. Or get married. ” It took no imagition at all to see Angelina rolling her eyes. “She’s really planning them, you know.”
    “Planning what?” Matilda asked.
    “Our weddings. Meredith and Lydia aren’t home from finishing school yet, and she’s almost planned a seven-course meal for each of them. And a string quartet, but not for dancing. She started to ask what I wanted, and that’s when I needed a bit of fresh air.”
    “You mean smoky air.” Noelle couldn’t help jesting.
    “Ha-ha.” Angelina was probably rolling her eyes again. “Noelle, you’ll be the next to marry, anyhow.”
    “ Me? Why would you say such a thing?” She tugged off one shoe and then the other. “I’m the last woman any man would marry. Men are looking for a helpmate, not someone they have to steer around the parlor.”
    She set the buttonhook inside the drawer, careful to keep a smile on her face. “Matilda’s will be next.”
    “Oh, I don’t know.” Tilly’s voice sparkled with humor. “We all thought Mr. McKaslin was rather devoted to you throughout the evening.”
    “Devoted?” Angelina sounded equally as amused. “Now tell the truth, Tilly. That handsome cowboy of Noelle’s isn’t merely devoted. He is utterly in love with her. He is a courting man. Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. I would bet—”
    “Don’t bet, Ange,” Tilly argued.
    “I would bet, ” Angelina emphasized, her rebellious streak showing, “that he proposes before tomorrow is done.”
    Noelle’s jaw dropped and she sputtered for air. Thad, propose to her? For one brief instant, joy flooded her soul. Then drained away, leaving her in shadows.
    No, he would need a wife who could help him with his dreams and not keep him from them. She rememred his plans for a wife, a wife who could cook, a wife who could tend children and, she figured, who could work alongside him with the horses.
    It hurt, she couldn’t say it didn’t.
    Somehow, she kept the smile on her face. “What an outrageous thing to say, Angelina. This is how you get into so much trouble.”
    “What? I’m telling the truth. The way he looked at you wasn’t like anything I have ever seen before. Tell her, Tilly.”
    Matilda sighed. “I didn’t want to mention it. I know it will make you sad. But it’s true. All through the wedding ceremony and the dinner at the hotel, his gaze never faltered. He adores you, Noelle, and in the right way. The real way. The loving way that lasts forever and nothing can break.”
    Noelle opened her mouth to argue.
    Angelina was already talking. “He doesn’t seem to mind that you can’t see. Something like that doesn’t stop true love.”
    “What am I going to do with you two?” She could only shake her head, doing her best to hold down the sorrow that was hers alone. She was no longer an idealistic girl seeing romance and fanciful possibilities instead of practical, real life.
    Somewhere deep inside her she wished she could. “I hear voices, Matilda and Noelle!” Henrietta called from down the hall. “It’s well past your bedtimes. In my day, a young lady was asleep before nine or it wasn’t proper!”
    “We’ll say our prayers now, Mama,” Matilda promised earnestly over the nearly imperceptible pad and rustle of Angelina tiptoeing from the room.
    Noelle pulled her nightgown from her bureau drawer, listening to the squeak of floorboards as Matilda knelt down to pray. There was a damp chill in the cold that crept through the walls and she shivered as she unbuttoned her bodice. She wondered if a change in the weather was coming.
    Good. The sooner this snow melted, the quicker Thad could start building his dreams. For that was her most cherished dream, she realized as she stepped out of her dress and untied her petticoats. Her only dreams were now for him.
    She was starting to see that life, like music, was a careful balance of melody and harmony, of sweeter notes and deeper ones. As she slipped her nightgown over her head and knelt beside her bed, she thanked the good Lord for both.

Chapter Sixteen
    T his had to be the best day of his life, family problems aside. His troubles at home seemed manageable from his current outlook, Thad thought as he dismounted in front of the Worthington stables. The sun was shining,