Mail Order Bride: Westward Dance (6 page)

Maddie stood in the doorway of the
study. She was dressed in a simple dress, but her hair was done
attractively. Both of her parents were sad to see how much weight
she had lost, but the fact that she was out of bed and dressed was
a marvelous step forward.

Maureen went to her and gave her a hug.
“You look wonderful,” she said and kissed her daughter’s
cheek.

Maddie gave her a small smile. “I look
awful, but I thank you for saying it anyway.”

Geoffrey joined them and took his
daughter into his embrace. He hated how frail she felt but shared
Maureen’s joy that Maddie had cleaned up and come downstairs. He
kissed her hair and drew back a little. “You’re mother’s right.
You’re beautiful. Come sit down,” he said and led her to the settee
along one wall.

“Thank you, Papa,” Maddie said. It felt
like it had been years since she’d been in her father’s study.
Memories of sitting on Geoffrey’s lap and pretending to be drawing
up important papers and such came to her and she smiled. “I’ve
always loved coming in here and visiting with you when you’re
working.’

Geoffrey smiled at Maddie. “And I’ve
always loved having you. All of you girls are welcome
diversions.”

Maureen said, “I remember so many times
coming in and finding that you had come in to see your father. You
would sit on his lap and draw or you would stand and sing for
him.”

Maddie laughed. “I’d forgotten about
doing that. Yes, I had dreams of becoming a world famous opera
singer.”

“I enjoyed hearing your sweet little
voice. It didn’t matter what you sang, either. It was just joyous
to watch you perform,” Geoffrey said.

Maddie smiled. “You always gave me a
standing ovation.”

“Of course,” Geoffrey said.

Maddie grew quiet for a moment. “I’m
sorry that I’ve worried you so the last few months. I’m going to
work on getting better, but I would like to ask you to continue to
be patient with me.”

Maureen said, “Of course we will.
You’ve been through a horrible experience.”

“That may be, but I’ve been raised to
face my fears and not let anything keep me down. I’m disappointed
in myself so I can just imagine how you must feel,” she
said.

Maureen sat next to her and put an arm
around her. “We’re not disappointed in you. We’ve just been
terribly worried. It’s hard for a parent to not be able to ease
their child’s pain.”

“It’s not your fault. Something inside
me was broken, but maybe it’s starting to heal,” Maddie
replied.

For the first time since Maddie had
entered the study, Geoffrey noticed the paper that Maddie carried.
“What do you have there?”

“Oh! I’d almost forgotten that I had
this,” Maddie said. “This is a drawing that Jack made of Seth and
the little dog that caused Seth’s accident.”

She handed the drawing to Maureen. Her
mother looked at it and began to chuckle. “It’s darling. Look,
Geoff.”

Geoffrey studied it and grinned. “It’s
very expressive. Poor Seth looks in a bad way, but the dog seems
happy enough. Did Tessa send that to you?”

“No, oddly enough,” Maddie replied.
“Seth did.”

Geoffrey raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Why
would he do that?”

Maddie lowered her eyes. She wasn’t
sure how her father would feel about Seth writing to her or that he
knew about what had happened to her. “Tessa told him about my, um,
misfortune and he was commiserating with me. This was his second
letter.”

“Damn it! Why did she do that?” Geoff
said.

Maddie sought to alleviate her father’s
anger. “Papa, don’t be cross with Tessa. She was concerned, which I
already knew and other than Dean, Seth is the only one who
knows.”

Geoffrey was still annoyed, but it was
so good to see Maddie taking an interest in something that he kept
his disapproval in check. “Why is he writing you?”

“He’s bored. There’s not much he’s able
to do since he is basically immobilized. It’s hard for a man like
him to be confined like that,” Maddie said.

Geoffrey nodded. “Yes, I had much the
same reaction when Tessa informed us about his
accident.”

Maddie giggled and Maureen could have
cried upon hearing the sound that had been missing in their lives
for a long time.

“Remember little Sinbad?” Maddie asked.
She was referring to the pug the girls had had ten years
prior.

Maureen laughed. “Oh yes. He was a
bundle of energy and so naughty!”

“I could have throttled Alex when he
showed up with that little black puppy,” Geoff said. “He’d been
over to England and brought him home for ‘his girls’. The three of
you fell in love with it and we didn’t have the heart to say no to
letting you girls keep him.”

“Well, the dog in that picture with
Seth is the one that made his horse fall. He started the whole
thing, anyway. Seth kept the dog and it turns out that he is a
poodle. Seth named him Trouble,” Maddie informed them.

Geoffrey pictured the tough cowboy Seth
sitting around with a dog that was usually owned by ladies and
began to laugh. It started out as a sudden snort, continued into a
chuckle and rolled into a full-on belly laugh. “I wonder if he’ll
teach it to herd cattle,” Geoff sputtered.

Maureen and Maddie joined him in
laughing as they, too, pictured what that would look like.
Eventually their mirth abated enough to continue
speaking.

“So, Seth says that he knows some
tricks, but figures that he could learn more. He’s writing because
it passes the time and I see no harm in it. After all, he is
family, in a sense,” Maddie said. She wasn’t about to tell her
parents that Tessa wanted her to make the trip to Montana. Maddie
wasn’t ready to do anything like that, but decided that writing
back to Seth was harmless.

“Yes, you’re right,” Maureen said. “I
hope Jack sends more drawings.”

Geoff smiled. “Me, too.”

Maddie got up. “I’m feeling a little
hungry. I think I’ll go see what Cook has for a snack.”

Maureen said, “We can ring for one of
the maids, or I could go myself.”

“No, Mama, I’m fine. It’ll be good to
see Cook again,” Maddie assured her mother.

She gave each of her parents a kiss and
left them.

“Well, how do you like that?” Geoff
said. “A letter from Tessa’s brother-in-law did what we could
not.”

“I think it’s a good thing and I don’t
mind that he’s writing her if it helps her to improve,” Maureen
said.

Geoff nodded. “I would have to agree
with you. This change in our daughter is wonderful and I’m not
going to look a gift horse in the mouth.”

Dear Seth,

I have enjoyed your letters
very much and apologize that I haven’t responded until now. Please
let Jack know that I treasure his picture of you and Trouble. I
appreciate your concern and discretion regarding my
situation.

It has been very
distressing, to say the least. The man who attacked me was a close
family friend, or so I thought. His name is Theo and we basically
grew up together. We had many good times with my sisters and our
other friends, too. Perhaps somewhere along the way I gave him the
wrong idea, but that gave him no right to do what he
did.

Mama and Papa wanted to
have him arrested and go to court. Since there were witnesses, it
would have been a good case, but I couldn’t bear the thought of my
pain being paraded in front of the public or written about in the
papers. Since we are a wealthy, prominent family, we would
certainly have been hounded day and night for comments and such. It
would have been too degrading. I still feel the same way. It’s
taken me a long time, but I just want to move forward with my life.
I’m just not sure how.

So that’s that. Now onto
this dog; tell me what tricks and commands he knows. A dog should
know basic “manners” as they’re called. Trouble should be able to
sit, shake, lie down, and stay. Will he do more than
that?

As far as coming to
Montana, I will think about it. I would love to see Tessa and meet
all of you. Tessa say it’s beautiful there and very peaceful. I
need to get back on my feet, so to speak, before I make any
decision about traveling. I look forward to your next
letter.

Sincerely,

Maddie

Seth could have crushed the letter in
his fist when he finished. This Theo deserved to be tied up and
whipped and Seth would have been happy to do it. Instead of wadding
up the letter, Seth folded it and put it back into the envelope.
Trouble nudged his hand.

Seth looked down into his small dark
eyes. Some people wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with the dog
that had begun a chain of events that had led to a debilitating
accident, but Trouble was just a dog and had no idea that what he
was doing was wrong. Seth figured that he’d just been so happy to
see a human that he’d gotten overexcited.

Ever since that day, Trouble had been
with Seth almost all the time, except for eating and going outside
to the bathroom. It was as if he was trying to make up for Seth
getting hurt. Seth petted him and wondered for the hundredth time
how Trouble had gotten involved with the vicious dog pack and not
gotten eaten himself. Maybe it had something to do with the fact
that he was so small compared to the other dogs and didn’t offer
any kind of threat.

Seth was happy that Maddie had written
him back. He’d decided that he was going to just keep writing in
the hopes that sooner or later she’d agree to come west. It pleased
Seth that he had her intrigued. That was the first step with
coaxing a lady into doing what you wanted. The next thing was that
he had to give her a reason to do it.

Unlike Dean, Seth had had many romantic
entanglements with women. He’d never become seriously involved with
anyone because he’d never envisioned wanting to stay in one place
for any length of time. During the winter when it wasn’t safe to
travel, Seth went stir crazy from being trapped at the ranch for
too long. When there was clear patch of weather, it wasn’t unusual
for Seth to ride into Wolfe’s Point to raise a little hell. He was
well known there and always welcomed in the saloons and other
establishments.

As much as Seth complained about
winter, being stuck on a sofa by day and a bed at night was much
worse. Although he was enticing Maddie to come there, his motives
were altruistic. He figured that if he could help Maddie get
unstuck from the quagmire of grief she’d been living in, then maybe
at least she would be able to move forward with her life. Plus, it
didn’t hurt that the woman was lovely. Tessa had shown all of them
pictures of her family and Maddie’s beauty was
mesmerizing.

Jack came through the parlor and Seth
snagged his arm.

“Hey, buddy. Do your Uncle Seth a favor
and go ask your Mama for some paper and a pencil for me?” he
said.

“Sure,” Jack said. “Are you writing
another letter?”

Ten-years-old now, Jack looked even
more like Dean. His baby-faced looks had faded some and he was half
a foot taller than when Tessa had first come there. He was strong
and helped out a lot around the place. Much to Dean’s chagrin, Jack
kept saying that he wanted to drive the cattle like Seth instead of
keeping the ranch going.

“I might be. Why do you act so
surprised?” Seth asked.

Jack said, “Because I’ve known you all
my life and I’ve never seen you write anything. I wasn’t even sure
you knew how.” He yanked his arm from Seth’s grasp and ran laughing
from the room.

“You wait until I can walk again, you
little creep!” Seth shouted after him. He chuckled to himself as he
realized that Jack had picked up the art of banter from the three
older Samuels males.

Jack came back a few minutes later, but
cut a wide path around Seth to make sure his uncle couldn’t reach
him. Seth was a wicked tickler and Jack knew what would happen if
Seth got ahold of him. He threw the pencil to Seth who caught it
easily, but the paper was going to be another matter.

“C’mon, Jack. Give me that paper,” Seth
said. “I promise not to tickle you. Besides, I don’t think my body
can take it.”

Jack decided that Seth was being
genuine and gave him the paper. “I’m sorry you’re hurtin’, Uncle
Seth. I miss doing stuff with you,” he said.

“Yeah, I miss doing stuff with you,
too. I guess we both just gotta be patient, huh?” Seth smiled.
“Trouble is, neither one of us is real good at that.”

“Nope,” Jack agreed. “Well, you get
writing that letter. I’ll draw another picture. This one will be
for Grandpa.”

Seth watched Jack go and smiled. It was
funny how attached Jack had become to Geoffrey while he’d been
there. Seth could well understand that. He, Dean, and Marcus had
all quickly become fond of Tessa’s father. With a pang Seth
realized how much he missed his own father. He and Dean were him
out and out, but Marcus, with his black hair and gray eyes, looked
just like their mother.

His father’s death had been a hard blow
to all three boys, but especially to Seth and his absence was one
of the main reasons that he spent a lot of time on the road. It had
been compounded when his mother had passed. And then there was the
loss of Sarah. Her death had been hard on him, too. She’d been a
good friend to him over the years and he’d grieved sorely when she
died.