Moonlight on the Millpond (14 page)

“Jace, is Woody all right?” Cathy asked the moment she saw him coming into the store. It was the afternoon of the same day, and Jace had been so antsy that Woody had told him to go courting.

Jace had laughed at the idea but also taken him up on it. It was his second wet ride to town that day, but the store was dry and smelled nice. At any rate, a chance to see Maddie was worth any amount of trouble.

“He's all right,” Jace assured her. “What made you ask?”

“Doyle saw you going into Doc MacKay's.”

Jace nodded. “He didn't go back with me. Woody just needed a little bit of extra rest. He was cantankerous when I left, which I assume is a good sign.”

Cathy smiled. “It's that way with Doyle too. Feisty is good; compliant is scary.”

“Did you ask?” Maddie was suddenly at her aunt's side, any embarrassment she might have been feeling from their last encounter forgotten in light of Woody's health.

“Yes, he's fine,” Cathy told her, and Maddie smiled at Jace.

“We were all worried. I'd better go tell Doyle.”

“Why don't I go?” Jace offered, hoping to hang around a bit.

“He would enjoy that,” Cathy said, and Jace went back out the front door.

“Cathy,” Maddie asked as soon as Jace was gone, “how did you get to be so close to Jace?”

“It just happened, I guess. When he got into town off the train, he came here looking for directions to the farm. Doyle gave him a small basket of goods, just some soap and a few other items. He made a point to come back and thank Doyle again a few days later, and I met him then.

“I could see that he was slightly overwhelmed by all that Woody had been presenting him, but when he came to the store, it wasn't because of the mill; it was just a place to visit and maybe buy something. Doyle took to him right off, and I thought he was so adorable that I was always giving him sweets. I probably treated him like a kid, but he didn't seem to mind.”

Cathy's story made Maddie think about Jace for a long time. She hadn't considered how he felt when he'd first come or what a huge position he was attempting to step into. When she'd tried to talk to Doyle about Woody's dying, he didn't want to discuss it, but Maddie thought about such things. She worried and pondered what life would be like in Tucker Mills when Woody was gone. And now that she'd met Jace, he figured into her thinking as well.

A few moments later she realized she still needed to sort the special orders that had been delivered that morning and went back to work, glad for something else to distract her thoughts.

“So he was all right when you went back?” Doyle checked again.

“He certainly was. He was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and looking at the paper.”

“Ya just never know,” Doyle said, shaking his head in wonder. “Well, as long as he's doing fine. That's what matters.”

“I agree with you. He took it pretty easy today, so maybe it won't be much of a setback.”

“How is the planting coming? Are you near done?”

Jace filled him in and noticed that Doyle hung on nearly every word. Jace wondered absently what it would be like to be so closed in, and after watching his uncle and then Doyle, he hoped he would never have to know.

Jace didn't get back down to the store until nearly closing time. Not even looking in Cathy's direction, he went directly to where Maddie was working and pulled out his list.

“A bar of shaving soap,” Jace began when she was ready to help him. “A small jug. Clara wants a bag of sugar,” and the list went on, about eight items in all. Some things Jace needed, and some he wasn't desperate for at all. Clara liked to come in and do her own shopping, but every so often she would surrender one of her items. This week it was sugar.

Maddie fetched all the items, and Jace handed her the money, saying as he did, “You'd better check that money.”

Maddie looked down at the coins in her hand and back at him.

“I might be trying to cheat you.”

Maddie's mouth opened when she realized what he was teasing her about. She wanted to be angry, but it wasn't working. A small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, and she turned away before she could laugh. When she returned with Jace's change, however, he did not let up.

“Is this correct?” He studied the coins. “I don't want you cheating me.”

“Jace Randall!” Maddie could not keep her silence. “I can't believe you're teasing me about that.”

“About what?” His look was as innocent as he could manage. “I've heard that women can lie and cheat too. Not as much as young men, mind you, but women are capable.”

Maddie put a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. Jace gathered his things, his own eyes brimming with a teasing light. When he was ready to leave, he leaned on the counter, bringing his face close and down to her level.

“Madalyn,” he said so softly that she leaned toward him. “Obviously some man has hurt you, but you need to believe that we're not all like that.”

Maddie felt trapped by his eyes. She didn't move, not even when he reached up and brushed her chin with one finger. Maddie's head turned to follow Jace's progress out the door, but not until a man came from the back room with a rake in his hand did she come back to earth.

Leaving Cathy to help the man, she went down on her knees behind the counter. Shifting and arranging shelves that were in perfect order, she stopped after a few minutes and allowed the thought of Jace Randall to settle in her mind. Remembering his dark green eyes sent her pulse racing. She felt flushed all over.

In an instant she realized no one had ever affected her in that way, not even the man who'd broken her heart, and she'd been in love with him.

Wanting to dismiss the feeling once and for all, Maddie pushed to her feet and got ready to close the store. She finished her duties, but they were done without joy or relief. Right now she felt nothing except hopelessness in her situation.

Cathy witnessed some of this and was on the verge of asking whether Maddie was all right but held her tongue. It would have been a foolish question to voice. One look at Maddie's face told Cathy that the younger woman was anything but all right.

Planting was over and the crops were settled for the season. A stretch of beautiful weather the first week in May allowed the men to put in long hours and finish the job. Weeding always waited for attention, but as for the growth and health of the crops, that was in God's hands. Each and every farmer hoped for the right amount of rain and sun in order to harvest in the late summer and fall.

The Randalls were no different. Their crops were in, and they were working on equipment and at the mill. They had done almost nothing else but planting for nine days, even missing services on Sunday, but this week had brought some relief, and Jace was already planning to go into town on Friday night. Instead of going to the Commons Tavern, he would stop and see the Shephards and Maddie, someone he hated not seeing for more than a week. He hoped to gain an invitation to visit for a spell.

“I'm tired,” Woody said over lunch on Friday. “Why don't you go ahead to the mill and work on the millrace. Beavers tend to get in there every year.”

“I'll do it.”

Woody gave some instructions to Jace, truly wishing he felt like going himself but wanting to see it done today. They wouldn't be using the mill for a few more months, but he wanted that done so he could check it tomorrow, telling himself that tomorrow he'd feel up to going.

The store was busy, almost like a Saturday. Cathy and Maddie worked until dinner, and then the afternoon picked up again. Some folks just browsed, and some came in to visit. Maddie was putting a flask of vanilla back on the shelf when she overheard Asa mention Jace's name.

“I was out near the sawmill before coming here and saw Jace Randall fall in the millpond. Tripped up and went in head first, he did.”

Maddie heard nothing else. Her heart felt as though it were going to stop in her chest. It didn't really register with her that there were people in the store and that Cathy needed her help. Jace had fallen into the pond and she had to go.

She slipped out the side door and managed to keep her walk steady until the edge of town. She even waited until a line of trees hid her before breaking into a run, but run she did. She made the mill in record time, her chest heaving, her mind racing.

Jace didn't see her arrive but suddenly looked up to find her in the wide doorway, somewhat disheveled and out of breath.

“What are you doing here?” Jace asked, still dripping on the sawmill floor and thinking Doyle might be sick.

“Asa came in. He said you fell in the millpond.”

“I did fall in.”

“I thought you'd drowned!”

Jace nodded, compassion filling him. “You don't swim, do you, Maddie?”

Maddie could only shake her head no, too upset and out of breath to say more.

“I swim,” he reassured her kindly. “I swim very well.”

“You might have drowned,” she repeated.

“Not unless I'd hit my head on something, and that wasn't the case. I was leaning over working on the millrace and lost my balance. That's all.”

Maddie nodded, unable to look at him. She glanced around the doorframe, aware that he was headed her way.

“Were you worried?” he asked softly when he stopped in front of her.

“Of course not,” Maddie said, eyes still averted.

“I think you were.”

Maddie finally looked at him.

“And I think you have entirely too big an opinion of yourself, Jace Randall.”

Jace smiled slowly.

“So I'm to believe that you ran all the way down here for what reason?”

After casting around for something to say, Maddie tried, “I just thought someone should let Woody know if you had indeed drowned.”

Jace smiled again, his eyes knowing.

“I have to get back to the store,” Maddie said, knowing retreat was her only hope.