Serendipity (35 page)

He grabbed her arm, and she jerked away. The cake slid off the platter and landed just outside the door. “What has gotten into you?”

“Certainly none of the cake.” She stared down at it with tears in her eyes.

“The top layer is still good.” His voice guarded, he suggested, “Lift it back onto the plate.”

Shoving the platter into his hands, Maggie shook her head. “Go ahead.” Helga gasped, but Maggie barely drew a breath. “You need to practice carrying something over the threshold.”

Seventeen

Todd watched her run out into the night.

“Let her go, Son. She needs to collect herself.”

He had no notion of how to handle a woman – let alone a weeping wife. Proud as Maggie was, she probably didn’t want him to see her crying. Squatting down, he tried to figure out what had gone so wrong. Something elaborate swirled and dipped on the cake. Once he forked his fingers between the layers, plopped the top back on the platter, and put it on the table, the lamp illuminated the design: their monogram.

He might manage to clean up the porch and his hands, but he doubted he’d ever remedy the mess he’d made. He’d do his best, though. He went in search of her.

The smallest circle of light gave away her whereabouts. He ought to have known: She went to her treasures. Strewn around her on the barn floor in a kaleidoscope of color lay a trove of whimsy and wealth. Several small dolls dressed in a rainbow of colors, a host of carved angels, a lace collar. She had to know he was there, but she hadn’t turned around.

“Maggie.”

“Hmm?” She scooped up all the angels and dropped them back into the box.

He couldn’t think of a thing to say.

Her hands shook, yet she swiftly rolled the dolls into a scrap of an old quilt and laid them back to rest with a lacy covering. “I’ll be there in a while.” She still had something, but he couldn’t see what.

“Together, we will walk back, and I will carry you – ”

“Don’t.” She looked over her shoulder at him. “You were right from the start – to not give me a taste of what won’t be. Pretending is for children.”

“The Bible commands me – ”

“That’s between you and God.”

“ – to love you.”

As she stood, several bits fluttered to the ground. “From the start you told me there is more than one kind of love.”

“Time is needed. But for now, it is not good for the sun to go down on your anger.”

“It didn’t.” Something in her strained denial rang true. In a softer voice she added, “It went down on my hurt.”

It’s your love token.
If he’d given her a gift and she set it off to the side without a thank-you or kind word or just a smile . . . he’d be upset. Not that they were madly in love, but warm affection had flowered between them. He’d rejected her and her cherished tradition all at once.

“Tonight I will sleep out here.” Todd didn’t give her a choice. He threaded her hand through his arm – the same way he had back by her barn so she wouldn’t slip on the ice. He’d even taught Jer-lund the proper way to escort her
. Jerlund wouldn’t have blundered
the way I have.

Part of the way across the yard, she released him. “This is far enough.”

“Nein. We are only halfway.”

“Halfway can be good enough.” As if to convince herself, she stood straighter and said with resolve, “Aye. Halfway can be good enough.”

He didn’t relent. He walked her to the door. Once she went inside, he trudged out to the barn. Curiosity led him back to all her stuff. Setting the lamp on the very box into which she’d delved, he looked at the scraps of paper littering the ground. The letters were printed in classic German typeset, and there seemed to be a hand-tinted illustration. It didn’t take him long to piece together enough scraps to know what she’d done. She’d torn out the last page of a book. One that said,
They lived happily ever after.

Maggie flew out of the house.
Lord, you couldn’t reassure me of
your love any better way than this!
“Linette!”

“Mercy and I baked up a storm yesterday, just so I could have a day to spend with you. Can you put up with me?”

“Aye, but the true question is, are you thinkin’ you’ll survive the encounter?”

Linette helped her pamper Ma by giving her a proper soak in the tub. Ma had an early luncheon, let them exercise her, then fell into an exhausted nap.

As they started hemming the other half of the curtain, planning to meet in the middle, two loud blows sounded from outside. Linette jumped. Maggie cast an anxious look at Ma, but Ma still snored. They smothered giggles as they dashed out to see the source of the noise.

Long, loose strides carried Todd away, and a flurry of clatters made Maggie wheel around. “My woodicocks!”

“Your what?” Linette looked up and made a face. “I’m going to have to teach you to talk Texan. Those are whirligigs.” She sighed. “Oh, to have a husband. Just look at how he spoils you.”

“Uh-huh. And I never know what he’ll spoil next.”

They took the curtain outside to work on. Linette’s thread tangled. “Oh, Maggie, my life’s knotted up just like this. I’m never going to live down the stupid things I did in the past. Katherine and Marcella – since they’re younger, folks held me to blame. Well, not so much the women. But the men. I’ve thought about moving away – ”

“Don’t you dare.” Maggie tugged gently on one of Linette’s curls. “If you worry about your beautiful hair being short now, just you wait until I shave it off. Don’t try me, because I’ll do it if you start packing.”

“Then I’m doomed to spinsterhood – just like everyone predicted.”

“Nonsense. A plan. That’s what we need.”

Tears filled Linette’s eyes. “You’re the only one who thinks a man might want me. Even my own parents talk about me staying with them forever. I could wear a dress spangled with five-dollar gold eagles, but men would run away the minute I show up.”

“If a man wants you for what you own or what you’re wearing, you don’t want him. I know in my heart there’s a feller who’ll want you for all the right reasons. Men are like little boys – they want most what they can’t have.” Maggie almost leapt up. “That’s it! From now on, you’re what they can’t have. You’re going to be unattainable.”

“I am? How?”

Maggie winked. “By turning the tables. Instead of you working to catch them, they’re going to have to notice you.”

“They notice me and run.”

“Whatever you do, Linette, don’t think about a sleek, whitetail doe.” She paused. “Now what are you thinking about?”

“The doe.”

“Aye. Men are hunters at heart, a-chasing after a doe. In the end, it’s nigh unto the same amount of meat as the steer in his pasture, and the addled man’s worked harder. But you’ve heard men boast and brag about the doe they caught. You’re sleek and have big brown eyes – just like a doe. You’re going to be man-wary like one. They’ll spot you, but you’re going to flit right past and ignore that they exist. It won’t take long ere they’ll take it as a challenge.”

“I’m not going to be good at this.” A hopeless sigh filled the silence. “There’s not a man in three counties who would bother.”

“I already set up a practice for you. Whene’er you stay late, John Toomel’s bound to escort you home.” Linette’s lips formed his name – she looked hopeful and horrified all at once.
I thought
so. She’s sweet on him.

Nothing wrong with giving love a nudge.
“Once someone spies him passing time with you, it’s going to be deer season in Gooding. So starting tonight, you gotta stay late. He’s too proud to come to supper every night, but he’ll be here for certain.”

Delighted with their plan and the finished curtains, they went in to check Ma, made lunch, and took it back outside. Maggie waved to Todd to let him know it was time to eat.

“Linette, you are here to help plant the roses, ja?” Todd asked the question before taking a bite of his sandwich.

“I love roses!”

“Gut. Sehr gut.”
He took another bite and nodded as if he’d solved a great philosophical riddle. “Later this week we’ll plant vegetables. Today, you plant roses.”

Maggie couldn’t hide her amazement. “Where?”

“Roses belong closer to a house. They will come first, then the corn, and finally the sorghum.” Todd shoved the last bite in his mouth and strode off.

They finished eating and went out to the garden. Gently patting the earth, then drawing a circle in it around the first rosebush, Maggie whispered, “Welcome to your new home.”

“You haven’t said what color they are.”

“Vivid pink. You’ve never seen such a color, and you never will again. They’re my treasured legacy for my daughters and granddaughters and great-granddaughters. It’s essential I make them thrive.”

“Okay, so show me what to do, and we’ll get this done before that grouchy mother-in-law of yours beckons you. You haven’t said anything, but I can’t ignore the truth. Todd’s mama would test the patience of a saint.”

Resisting the urge to agree, Maggie leaned forward and stabbed into the earth. “Here’s how I do it. Dig a hole . . . this deep. This is my desiccated, ground-up kelp, and here’s bone meal. Molasses, too.”

“I knew it! I just knew it! I helped old Mrs. Whittsley plant roses last year, and she had me pour her secret formula in the hole and a few drops at the base. I said it smelled like molasses cookies, and she told me I’d be one sick and sorry girl if I tasted from her bottle.”

“And well you might. The molasses for cooking has the sulfur removed; agricultural molasses doesn’t. I made that mistake. Once.”

“Look. Todd is bringing out another crate. I thought you said he’d decided on three.”

Maggie’s breath caught. Four! That meant a total of twenty bushes. Since her roses bloomed throughout the year, that would produce enough not only to meet their needs, but for her to make a few gifts. When Todd set the box in the dirt a few paces away, she smiled up at him. “Thank you.”

Linette waited until he left. “I saw the cake. Don’t you dare think he gave you more roses to make up for whatever he did. He’s not that kind of man.”

Pretending not to hear her, Maggie planted another rosebush.

Todd brought out two more crates!

“He’s so romantic, Maggie. I’d die to have a bucktoothed, bowlegged pauper give me a smile, and Todd’s showering you with the thing he knows you hold so dear.”

Still, they came – crate after crate. At first, Maggie wasn’t sure. But Linette opened her eyes. Todd knew how much she treasured her roses. This couldn’t be a mere apology – it was far more!
He
might not love me . . . yet. But he’s trying. Things can still work out. I
need to be patient and persistent.

Finally, Todd brought out the very last one. Maggie’s heart was so full, she almost wept.

Wiping his neck with his red bandana, he came closer to survey the dozen bushes they’d already planted. “It’s practical to have the roses between the corn and the house. It keeps vermin from the house.”

“Aye, ’tis practical.”
Though not nearly as sweet. I was foolish to
let my hopes run wild.

Knotting the bandana around his neck, he added, “With the rose garden close, Ma can sit outside and talk with you.”

Maggie fought the urge to help him tie the bandana much, much tighter.

“Better, too, for me to yield land outside the barn than to leave boxes in the barn.”

Maggie stared at him in disbelief. She’d actually started to believe that he wasn’t just sorry, but even developing deep feelings for her. But he wasn’t penitent in the least. And certainly not passionate. No amount of patience or persistence would soften his hard heart.

Maggie made a snap decision. She wasn’t going to win him; he had to win her.