Spelled, p.10
Spelled, page 10
And that wasn’t happening.
So instead, I’d packed a wagon and hidden it behind a stack of hay bales.
With Madilynn in tow, I went to the wagon and grabbed a six-foot-long scarf. It was actually two scarves tied together, but it was strong.
I tied one end of it around Madilynn’s wrist, then tied the other around my left wrist.
She watched me with a raised eyebrow.
“What is this?” she asked with a nervous laugh. “You’re binding me to you?”
I kissed the tip of her nose.
“What better way to make sure we don’t get separated before we can get away from this place?”
She nodded slowly, then followed me to the stall to get my horse.
With her right there on the other end of my scarf, I hitched up the horse and made sure everything was ready to go.
Then I heard someone walking toward us. A light step. Like my sister.
“Beau?”
Damn. It was my sister, Bailey.
I kept my arms down as she walked toward us. It would be hard to explain why I’d bound us with a scarf.
But as she neared, I could see that something was wrong.
Her face was streaked with tears.
“What’s wrong, Bailey,” I asked, taking a step closer.
In my alarm, I nearly forgot that Madilynn was tied to me.
But she followed me without a sound.
Bailey held up a letter, but looked behind me at Madilynn.
“She’s back,” she said.
“Yes.”
I took Madilynn’s hand and laced my fingers with hers.
The scarf wasn’t so obvious now.
Bailey just wiped at her face with one hand and handed me the letter with the other.
“What is it?” I asked.
“It’s Thomas,” she said.
I took the letter from her, but didn’t look at it.
“Just tell me,” I said.
“He’s not coming.”
“What do you mean?”
Bailey glanced at Madilynn before her gaze locked back onto mine.
“He’s changed his mind.”
“About…?”
“He’d decided not to marry me.”
Rage shot through me. Rage toward anyone who would hurt my sister.
“He can’t do that,” I said.
“Well,” she said, looking down at the letter. “He is.”
“I’ll find him,” I said. “Demand satisfaction.”
Bailey almost smiled. “You can’t challenge him to a duel. That was be just plain stupid.”
“It has to be done.”
Bailey shook her head. “To what end? One of you would die and if it’s you, he still wouldn’t want to marry me and I certainly wouldn’t marry the man who killed my brother.”
“You have a good point,” I said. As the rage drained away, it was replaced by relief.
This fellow Bailey was engaged to—Thomas—lived in Alabama and we really knew nothing about him.
He had come home with Bradford a couple of years ago and had taken a sudden liking to my sister.
Bailey could have any man in the county, but she’d been swept off her feet by the suave city fellow.
One thing led to another and before we knew what was happening, they were engaged and planning to move to Alabama.
My parents had pretended to be happy for her.
Thomas had presented as a gentleman. And Bradford seemed to vouch for him.
So they had begun to plan for a wedding.
But Thomas had never come back for a visit.
He and Bailey had corresponded by letters.
The wedding date had been pushed back at his request. Twice.
And now he’d cancelled the wedding altogether.
As my rage drained away, I had to work to hide my relief.
My sister was obviously devasted.
She walked into me for a hug just like she’d done when she was little after some sort of disappointment.
I might could fix a broken doll or find a missing dog, but I didn’t know how to heal a broken heart.
I looked helplessly over her head at Madilynn.
Madilynn just shrugged. There was nothing she could say either.
“It’ll be okay,” I said to my sister.
“Can I go with you?” she asked, pulling back to look from me to Madilynn and back again.
How had she known we were going?
“I don’t know where we’re going yet,” I said.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “I need to get away from this place.”
Then she looked at Madilynn with those puppy dog eyes that I’d never seen anyone refuse.
“You don’t mind, do you, Madilynn?”
Madilynn looked helplessly at me.
“Of course not,” she said.
CHAPTER 45
MADILYNN
“Bailey,” Beau said. “We can’t wait for you. We have to leave now.”
“I know,” she said. Her tears had dried, at least. “I can be ready in about two minutes. I just have to run to my room.”
“You have to hurry,” he said. “And we only have room for one small valise.”
As Bailey turned and dashed from the barn, her blue skirts billowing out behind her, Beau ran a hand through his hair and looked at me.
“She’ll change her mind,” he said. “There’s no way she can be ready that fast. She has at least a hundred dresses and there’s no way she’ll be able to choose.”
“You think she really wants to leave here?” I asked.
I’d run away, too, but my situation had been a little bit different.
Or had it?
“I don’t know,” Beau said. “She’s disappointed. But they had barely spent any time together.”
She squinted at me. “I hope you don’t think that really matters.”
“Of course not,” I said, pulling Madilynn against me. We had only known each other for less time than Bailey and Thomas, yet I was certain I was in love with her.
“You’re right.”
“Which direction are we heading?” I asked against his chest.
As a planner, I didn’t particularly like the idea of heading into the wilds of the 1800s, much less without a destination.
“My brother lives in Washington D.C.,” he said, stroking my hair. “But I don’t really want to go anywhere near Birmingham where Thomas lives.”
“I don’t care to go back to Birmingham either.”
Not that it would be anything like it had been when I’d left it hundreds of years in the future, but I wouldn’t be able to resist making comparisons and it would bring back memories best left buried.
“West,” he said, putting his hands on my arms so he could look into my eyes. “We’ll go to Texas.”
It was first time I’d seen him look excited about anything. And I had never been to Texas.
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s go to Texas.”
Just then we heard Bailey coming back, carrying a large bag in both hands. This was what Beau had called a valise. But it wasn’t a small one at all.
“There’s no way you just packed that,” Beau said to his sister.
She looked at him sheepishly.
“I’ve actually had it packed for awhile. I was thinking about going to Birmingham.”
He took the valise from her and tucked in the back of the wagon.
“I guess it’s a good thing you didn’t do that,” he said.
“Guess so,” she said with a shrug.
“I guess we’ll go then,” Beau said.
Bailey had seen the scarf binding us together and though she looked at us with a bit of concern, she didn’t say anything.
Beau helped us both climb into the wagon, then climbed in himself.
I was squeezed in between Beau and his little sister.
And we were about to ride in this wagon all the way to Texas.
This was going to be an interesting trip, to say the least.
Beau picked up the reins, then looked over at me.
He put a finger lightly beneath my chin and kissed me right on the lips.
“Ready?” he asked.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
And then we were off.
Setting off on our trek to Texas.
I’d traveled to Dallas once for a hospitality conference, but I’d gone by plane. Other than that, I’d never been west of the Mississippi.
I was a southern girl, through and through.
As much trepidation as I felt about the trip and about taking Bailey with us—something I never expected to happen, I was more than happy to be leaving with Beau.
The further we got away from this place, the less likely I was to time travel back to my time.
This was what I wanted.
I wanted to be with Beau.
No matter where.
Or when.
CHAPTER 46
BEAU
Three months later
* * *
I carried a pail of water from the well in one hand and opened the door to the little cabin with the other.
It was a three room cabin. A main room that included a kitchen and living area. Then a bedroom and a small room, a study maybe, where Bailey could sleep.
My sister sat in front of the fireplace, needle in hand.
Madilynn stood at the stove, pulling a pan of biscuits from the oven.
We’d lucked upon this cabin just outside of Longview, Texas, and were able to rent it for a good price.
It was Madilynn’s idea to rent because we didn’t know what we were going to do from here.
Despite the long trip, we hadn’t talked very much simply because Bailey was with us.
Madilynn and I were just happy to be away from rip in time.
My sister didn’t know what she wanted to do either.
We’d actually spent a lot of time helping Bailey process what had happened with Thomas and her decision to up and leave with us.
We’d worked on a letter to our parents explaining as best we could and posted it. Our parents were not going to be happy. I hoped that they would understand enough to get through it.
Father and I had talked about Madilynn and the time travel enough that I truly felt like he would understand. Mother was another matter entirely.
I halfway expected Bailey to decide to go home any day, but she hadn’t.
After she got over the initial shock of Thomas breaking off the engagement, she actually seemed a bit relieved.
I set the pail of water down on the table and held out a hand toward Madilynn.
“Let’s go for a walk,” I said.
We had only gotten here to the cabin this afternoon and I wanted to look around. I also wanted to have some alone time with Madilynn before dark.
She put her hand in mine and we walked outside.
“Don’t get lost,” Bailey called behind us.
Madilynn laughed. She and Bailey were on the way to becoming good friends.
“We won’t be long,” she said over her shoulder.
The moon was already visible in the sky.
There was something about a Texas sky that just seemed bigger than it had back in Mississippi.
We walked around the cabin and found a swing hanging from a tree limb.
It was no more than a board attached to rope, but it seemed to be sturdy enough so I held it for Madilynn to sit.
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
She shrugged, swaying lightly on the swing.
“I don’t know. It’s pretty here.”
Other than the big sky, it did resemble Mississippi in a lot of ways.
Lots of tree, mostly pine trees though, instead of the oak trees I was accustomed to. And, of course, there was no mile-wide river.
I paced a few feet away. Put my hand on the rough bark of a pine tree.
“We could build a place. Maybe get some horses. Or even cows.”
She smiled. “Cows are probably a good idea.”
“You aren’t going to tell me anything, are you?” I asked.
Even though I really didn’t want her to, I found it amazing how she could keep all that information to herself.
“Only if it’s necessary,” she said with a little smile.
“Are you glad you’re here?”
She knew I wasn’t talking about the cabin or even Texas. She knew I was talking about 1846.
“Yes,” she said simply.
“Do you think—?” I stopped in mid-sentence and walked around behind her.
It seemed I had an answer to my own question.
CHAPTER 47
MADILYNN
Twisting in the little swing, I turned to see what had caught Beau’s attention.
The swing was no more than a board hanging from a tree limb. The rope was thick and rough against my hands.
I wondered who had put it there and where they had gone.
Someone had said there were still Indians around here.
I wasn’t particularly happy about that possibility.
Beau bent down, but I couldn’t see what he’d found.
I got up and walked over to stand next to him.
I was wearing a long maroon dress. Bailey had said it was an everyday dress. To me it seemed awfully fancy to be considered an everyday dress, but then where I was from most women only wore dresses on special occasions.
Beau stood up and looked at me, his expression unreadable.
Then he held up his hands.
He was holding a little yellow rose.
Just like the one I’d found in his backyard.
“What?” I looked down at the wild rosebush I hadn’t noticed before in the fading light.
The wild rose bush had at least a dozen of the little yellow roses blooming on its vines.
Beau handed me the flower.
Its petals were soft and moist in my hands.
I looked from it to Beau.
“I think this means something,” I said.
“It means we’re in the right place.”
Carefully holding the rose, I looked around, seeing everything differently.
Before, I was only seeing this as a temporary stopping place, though I didn’t know where we were going.
But now I looked at it differently. As a potential place to put down roots with Beau.
He’d mentioned cows. Texas was definitely cow country.
We could do this.
I turned and smiled at him.
“I think you’re right,” I said.
“I know I am.”
He pulled me into his arms.
“I’m in the right place with the right girl.”
He kissed the top of my head. And I sighed against him.
“At the right time.”
EPILOGUE
Two years later
* * *
I sat on one of the little rocking chairs on our front porch.
The light evening breeze swept at my hair. I was no longer worried about the scar on my forehead. I rarely even thought about it anymore.
The house had gone up quickly.
To me it looked suspiciously like the house in Mississippi.
But then Beau was a Becquerel. You could take the Becquerel away from the plantation, but you couldn’t take the plantation out of the Becquerel.
I didn’t mind.
I would have been happy if we’d stayed in the cabin.
Of course, things would probably have been a whole lot different if we hadn’t built a bigger place.
“Here you go,” Bailey said, handing me a glass. “Fresh lemonade.”
“How did you?” I asked, then shook my head. “Never mind.”
I sipped the cool, sweet lemonade. Bailey had a way of finding things. Growing up in this time period gave her a definite advantage over me in that area.
“He’s getting good at that,” Bailey said, nodding toward Beau who deftly roped a steer.
“He definitely has a knack for cattle,” I said.
I couldn’t help but wonder how everything had seemed to fall in to place.
Us being here in this pretty area of east Texas.
We built our house right there on a knoll and could see for miles. Lovely rolling hills dotted with our cattle.
“What do you know about the west?” Bailey asked.
I lowered my glass and looked at Beau’s sister.
Bailey had never said anything to me about the time travel.
I assumed that she didn’t know.
“What do you mean?”
She shrugged and looked toward the west.
“I was just curious. I’ve read some things about the west. And I just wondered if they were true.”
“Why are you asking me?” I asked with a little laugh.
It wasn’t feasible that I had traveled west. Not in this time period.
Was she asking about now or the future?
She was looking at me now with a curious expression.
“Just thought that may be in some of your travels, you might have visited the west.”
I shook my head. “Look. Beau is coming this way.”
With good timing so I didn’t have to answer Bailey’s question, Beau was trotting toward us on his dapple gray horse.
Reaching the porch, he slid off the horse and looped the reins around the hitching post.
In about two seconds he was standing right in front of me. He swept his hat off his head, leaned over and planted a kiss right on my lips.
“The neighbor stopped by today,” he said. “Guess what I learned.”
“What?” His enthusiasm was contagious and I didn’t even know what news he had.
He knelt in front of me and took both my hands in his.
“The preacher is supposed to be coming this way in a couple of days.”
“Well, that’s good news,” I said, though really, I couldn’t see how it had anything to do with us.
He grinned. “I’m thinking it’s time we got married.”
I squinted at him.
