Mountain Homecoming (42 page)

“Maybe you need to go talk to him. Your mother said he came here today.”

“He did, and I was rude to him. I'm afraid he may not want to see me.”

He put his finger under her chin and tilted her face up. “Where's that girl who wanted to tackle Little River Lumber singlehanded? She wasn't afraid of anything.”

Rani wiped at her eyes. “I don't think I know her anymore.”

Her father laughed. “I hope you can find her because I really liked her. Maybe if you took a short ride in the buggy, you could find her somewhere.”

Rani frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“When David got back to the house from talking with you, he asked if we could take him to Townsend. He didn't want to wait until morning. John was at the house, and he volunteered to drive him there. It gave John an excuse to spend the night at Annie's house. He and David left a few minutes ago for Townsend.”

“So he's gone.”

“Yes, and I thought you might like to take a drive in our buggy. Maybe you need to go check out those bricks you made. Matthew's chimney is something to see. So, I hitched up the buggy for you. It's waiting back of the house.”

She threw her arms around her father and hugged him. “Thank you, Poppa. Don't you want to come with me?”

He shook his head. “In this case I think three would be too many people. Besides, you've been handling that horse and buggy since you were a child.” He chucked her under the chin. “Every Cove girl can handle a horse.”

She grinned and jumped to her feet. “You're right. As I told David, my roots run deep here, and I'm never leaving this place again.”

She ran to the waiting horse and buggy behind the house and jumped in. As she guided the horse onto the road, she turned her face up to the sun and welcomed its warmth on her face. She was on her way to Matthew.

T
here were chores waiting, but Matthew couldn't make himself get outside and do them. All he'd done since he'd returned from seeing Rani was to pace the cabin floor or to sit in his chair and stare into the fireplace. He couldn't shake the image of her from his mind.

He stopped in his latest trip across the floor and grabbed a cup from the shelf on the wall. Some coffee might give him the boost he needed to get on with his work. With his mind still focused on the things Rani had said earlier, he reached into the fireplace for the coffeepot and wrapped his hand around the handle.

Too late he realized what he'd done. The hot metal seared the palm of his hand, and he dropped the pot at his feet. Coffee poured out the spout and the open top across the floor.

He cradled his burned hand in his uninjured one and rushed across the floor to the water bucket. He plunged his hand into the cold water. Berating himself for being so distracted, he reached for a cloth to clean up the mess, but he hesitated. A buggy had rattled to a stop in his front yard.

He wrapped the cloth around his hand and headed to the door. A knock sounded before he could reach it. He opened the door and gasped at the sight of Rani standing on the front porch. He tried to speak, but his throat had suddenly gone dry. He swallowed and tried again. “Rani, what are you doing here?”

“I came to talk to you. May I come in?”

His gaze swept over her, and his heart pounded at the sight of her hair cascading around her shoulders. He nodded and stepped back for her to enter. She moved past him into the cabin, and he struggled to keep from touching her to see if she was real and not a dream. She stopped inside the door and glanced around before she turned back to him and looked at the cloth dangling from his hand. “What happened?”

He frowned and glanced down at his forgotten injury. He shook his head. “I burned it on the coffeepot, but I'll be all right.”

“Let me see.” She stepped closer, took his hand, and unwrapped the cloth.

When she bent her head to study the burn, he raised his other hand to caress her hair, but he let his arm drift back to his side. “It's really nothing,” he said.

She straightened to her full height and smiled at him. “This doesn't look too bad. I'm sure Mama has something to take the pain away.” She let go of his hand and smiled. “You have to be more careful when you're cooking in a fireplace.”

His mind whirled with questions, and he narrowed his eyes. “Rani, what are you doing here?”

“I wasn't very cordial this morning, and I'm sorry. I thought we needed to talk some more.”

He shook his head. “What's left to say? I think you said it all.”

She inched closer to him. “No, there's something else I've never told you. I should have this morning.”

“What's that?”

“It's a promise I made to Scout.”

He arched his eyebrows. “You made a promise to your dog?”

Her dark eyes stared at him. “Last summer when we met, I had been to my friend Josie's cabin to tell her goodbye because she was moving out of the Cove. That afternoon while we were talking she told me for the first time that she had married Ted when she was really in love with someone else. I couldn't imagine how she could do that.”

His heartbeat quickened. “Rani, what…”

She held up her hand to stop him from speaking. “On the way home I told Scout I would never have that problem. I promised him that I would never settle for second best even if it meant I would never get married.” Tears filled her eyes. “I forgot that promise until after you came today. When I remembered it, I knew I could never marry David, not when my heart belonged to the man I met that day at the mountain laurel bush.”

His mouth dropped open, and he stared into her eyes. “Rani, are you saying you love me too?”

“I was so angry with you when I left the Cove that I told myself I didn't love you, but I knew it wasn't true.” She began to cry. “Oh, Matthew, I'm so sorry for the things I said today. I love you so much, and all I want is to be with you.”

“That's all I want too.” He pulled her to him, and she wrapped her arms around him. She raised her lips to meet his, and he thought his heart would explode with happiness. He'd dreamed of kissing her night after night, and he had to almost pinch himself to believe the lips pressed against his were real. He released her mouth and stared down at her. “Don't you ever leave me again.”

“I promise I won't.” Her face lit up with happiness. “I can't believe this is happening. I thought we'd lost our chance.”

He hugged her tightly and pressed his cheek against hers. “This is just the beginning. I want you by my side when I wake up in the mornings, and I want you here every time I walk in this cabin. Marry me, Rani. I need you.”

“Yes, yes,” she whispered. “I'll marry you.”

A sudden thought struck him, and he pulled back from her. “What about David?”

“David's gone. I realized I would hurt him more in the long run if I married him when I didn't love him. Uncle John has taken him to Townsend to catch the train to New York.”

Matthew held her at arm's length and frowned. “But what about your pottery? Are you sure you're willing to give up the opportunity to work with him?”

Her fingers stroked his cheek. “I want to create mountain-made pottery that visitors to the mountains will buy. I've learned a lot working with David, and I think I can create a market for pit-fired pottery right here in the Smokies. I already have a name for my line—Mountain Laurel Pottery.” She grinned. “If it doesn't work out, I can always open a brick factory.”

He laughed, picked her up in his arms, and whirled her around in a circle. “I love you, Rani. We're going to have a great life together.”

She threw back her head and squealed with delight. “Put me down, and let's go tell Mama and Poppa we're about to have a new member of the family.”

He stood her in front of him and cupped her face in his hands. “A member of the Martin family? That's too good to be true. I can't believe how God has blessed me. I have the woman I love, and I'm finally going to have a family.”

She raised her lips to his. “We're going to have a great life, Matthew.”

He leaned forward to kiss her but froze in place at the sound of a shout from outside the cabin. “Jackson, you in there? Come on out. I got somethin' for you.”

Matthew looked down into Rani's startled face and saw fear in her eyes. She recognized the voice too. He stepped back from her, and she grabbed his arm. “No, Matthew,” she cried. “Don't go.”

He took a deep breath and pulled away from her. “I have to.”

He walked to the door and glanced back at her. “You are not to step in front of me. Do you understand?”

Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Yes,” she whispered.

He closed his eyes and said a quick prayer before he opened the door to face Wade Campbell.

Rani grabbed the back of a chair to keep her legs from buckling underneath her. The tone of Wade's voice reminded her of the day last summer when she and Matthew had encountered him in the barn after Bertha's death. That day she thought she'd lost Matthew forever. Now when they had found their way back to each other, Wade showed up again. She couldn't let him take Matthew away from her a second time.

She took a deep breath and followed Matthew onto the porch. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of Wade leaning against the wheel of her buggy with George Ferguson standing next to him. Wade held a rifle in his hands. George's eyes grew wide when he saw her, but Matthew didn't seem to sense her presence.

He clenched his fists at his side and walked to the edge of the porch. “I'm surprised to see you, Wade. I thought you were in North Carolina.”

“I was, but I come back home to take care of somethin'.”

Matthew's fingers twitched, but he didn't move. “Why are you here, Wade?” he asked.

Wade straightened and spit out a wad of tobacco. His legs wobbled, and he staggered against George. “I got myself in a little trouble last night, and I gotta clear out of this part of the country. Thought I'd come see you first, though.”

“What kind of trouble are you in, Wade?”

Wade looked at George and laughed, but George clamped his lips together and looked away. “It don't matter what kind of trouble,” Wade said. He took a deep breath and curled his fingers tighter around the gun. “'Fore I go, I need to take care of some unfinished bus'ness 'tween the two of us.”

Matthew's body tensed. “I don't know of any business between the two of us, Wade. You're drunk. You need to go somewhere and sleep it off.”

Wade's upper lip curled back from his teeth, and he aimed the rifle at Matthew. “I'm not drunk enough to be scared off by the likes of you.” He closed one eye and peered down the sights of the gun. “It's been a-stickin' in my craw ever since I heared you come back to the Cove. I done told you once you shouldn't've come back here. You oughta listened to me, boy.”

Matthew shook his head. “I've never done anything to you. Why would you leave me threatening notes, burn my cornfield, and now show up here to kill me?”

“'Cause I knowed right from the start why you come back. You wanted to get even for your pa's death, but I ain't gonna give you the satisfaction. Ain't nobody gonna say Luke Jackson's boy got the best of me.”

Rani's heart thudded, and she eased up next to Matthew. “Mr. Campbell, please get out of here and leave us alone. All Matthew wants is to be left in peace.”

Matthew jerked his head around and cast a startled look at her. “Rani, I told you…”

“I'm not standing in front of you, Matthew,” she interrupted. “I'm standing beside you, and that's where I always want to be.”

The muscle in his jaw twitched, and he grabbed her arm and pulled her behind him. She peeked around his back so that she could see Wade's face. “You're wrong about me wanting to get even, Wade,” Matthew said. “I never blamed you for killing my father. You were only protecting yourself, and anybody else would have done the same thing in your place.”