Part 5 (2/2)
Chapter Four.
He emerged from the darkness of the side yard. ”You're alone?”
”Yes. They went to dinner at the Millers'. They never come home until after eleven. Where's your horse?”
He climbed the porch stairs. ”I walked.”
Annie had closed the door and the front drapes, shrouding the porch in darkness. If anyone pa.s.sed by, they wouldn't be able to make out their shapes. ”All that way?”
”It's not so far. It's a nice night.”
”You got my note.”
”Yes.” He sat on a wicker chair across from her. ”You took a chance, Annie.”
”But you came.”
Silence hung between them for a long moment. Finally he said softly, ”Yes, I came.”
Luke had looked up from the horse he'd been shoeing when the young woman appeared in the doorway of the livery. She'd called out to him, and he'd wiped his hands and greeted her, thinking she needed to rent a rig.
But she'd simply handed him the piece of paper. ”This is for you.”
She'd been gone by the time he looked up from the unfamiliar handwriting on the outside.
Luke had opened the fancy seal and stood in the doorway so that the sun caught the page, and read the simple words that had leaped from the parchment and into his heart: Dear Luke, I will be alone this evening. Annie.
She wanted to see him.
He hadn't set foot on this property in at least ten years. Looking out across the expansive grounds surrounded by a white fence, he could picture the spot where he had returned Annie after their ride and had promptly been set upon by her brother and his friends.
He didn't fear Burdell Sweet.w.a.ter. He never had. Skin grew back. Noses and ribs healed. He didn't fear the physical harm that could come to him because of his a.s.sociation with Annie. What he feared, and always had, was that her parents would send her away. So he'd kept his distance, knowing that one day she'd be old enough to make her own choices.
And praying that she would.
The fact that she'd wanted him to come to her was almost too good to believe. Why he felt this attachment to Annie, he couldn't explain, but he'd been drawn to her since they'd both been young.
”Luke, I-” she began.
”I've wondered-” he said at the same time.
Both stopped and chuckled nervously.
”Go ahead,” Luke said.
Annie smoothed the ruffles on her skirt. ”I have wanted so many times to tell you how sorry I was for that day.”
”You don't have to apologize.”
”Please let me say this. The words have been in my heart forever.”
His chest contracted, and uncomfortably he kept his silence.
”That was the best day I can ever remember. When I think back on how brief it was-how wonderful...well, I have no words to say what it meant to me.
”When we got back and my father was so angry, I was shocked. And then when Burdy hit you, Luke....” Her voice quavered and her breath escaped tremulously. ”I just wanted to die. I felt so helpless. I was angry. I cried and cried, because you took that punishment so unjustly.”
”Annie, it's okay.”
”It's not okay,” she argued. ”I wanted to go to you.”
”I was all right. It was you I was worried about.” He leaned forward, and the chair creaked beneath his weight. ”I tried to get back to see you. I wanted to see if you were all right.”
”Me? I wasn't the one pounded to a b.l.o.o.d.y pulp!”
”I wasn't a b.l.o.o.d.y pulp.” He laughed at her dramatic description, but then sobered. ”I thought you probably hated me for embarra.s.sin' you at your party.”
”Oh, pooh on my party. My parties were all dull, and they still are. How could you think such a thing? You were the only person who ever let me be myself. I never forgot that.”
”I don't know why anybody'd want to change you.” She was the most delightful person he'd ever met.
”It's like everybody wants to put a rock on my head and keep me in this chair. Why do they do that?”
He shook his head, because he'd wondered the same thing. What did it hurt for her to get up and walk if she wanted? ”Have the doctors said it's bad for you to walk?”
”No.”
”Well, I'm no doctor, but I know if you don't let a horse exercise, he can't build strong muscles and he tires easily. But if you run him regularly, his strength builds. Seems like your legs are the same. I'll bet if you exercised them, they'd get stronger.”
”I think so, too. I've read about some forward-thinking individuals who believe exercise is the key to vitality.” She sounded excited about the possibility. ”But my parents don't allow me to move about, let alone do calisthenics.”
”Annie, is there any way you can contact one of the doctors you've seen and ask if he thinks walking or exercising is harmful for you?”
She seemed to think his question over. ”I do remember one of the kinder doctors. He has even written me on a few occasions.”
”Could we telegraph him?”
”I don't know why not. But how would I get to the telegraph office without my parents knowing?”
”I could take your message and send the telegraph.”
”Splendid idea! Tomorrow? I can write it tonight.”
The excitement in her voice pleased him. ”Why not?”
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