The Bridal Veil (20 page)

“
Ohhh,” she exhaled. Running
light fingers over the ribs woven into the fabric, she stroked the
texture. She even held it to her face to inhale the scent of the
new material. There was no question that it was an expensive gift,
one that had cost more than her wedding band.

“
It’s okay?” he
asked.

Her throat closed and she found it
difficult to respond. “Yes. I-I’ve never had anything so wonderful,
Luke. But—but why?”

Now Luke really did look
uncomfortable. “Well, I felt responsible for this—“ He gestured at
her black-and-orange costume. “My chickens ruined your dress, and
my mother-in-law let it happen. I wanted to pay you
back.”

That took a little of the luster off
the gesture. He felt obligated to her the way that Chester Manning
had felt obligated to him. The teal grosgrain was a payment to her
rather like the ewe and the lamb were to Luke. “I see. Well, thank
you very much. It wasn’t necessary, but I certainly appreciate it.”
With fussy movements, she began to wrap the paper around the fabric
again. It was a difficult task to accomplish without a work
surface. The paper rustled against the silk, and the string fell on
the floor. The sheep looked on with half-closed eyes.

“
And there’s that church
social coming up. I thought that maybe you’d like to
go.”

Her head came up at this, and suddenly
the atmosphere in the barn changed. He was actually inviting her
out. This wasn’t like the day they’d gone to church. He wanted to
be seen with her at his side. There would be dancing at the social,
and perhaps Luke would even be willing to give her a turn on the
floor before relegating her to the sidelines. Her heart beat
faster.

“
Yes, that would be nice.
I’d like that very much.” She envisioned the new dress she’d create
from the rich, dark, blue-green silk. They would walk into the
social together, she and Luke, and she would be proud to be seen on
her husband’s arm. Then her joy flattened like day-old champagne,
and she sighed. “But I’ll be in mourning for weeks yet, and it
isn’t proper for me to appear at social functions.”

He gave her a casual dismissive
gesture. “No one knows that. People aren’t sitting by their
calendars, waiting for you to slip up.”

She eyed him with horror. He
was suggesting that she cheat on her duties? “But
I’ll
know.” Once again,
she recited the tortuous social customs that governed
mourning.

He took a step closer to
her. Instinctively, she tried to back up but she felt a post
between her shoulder blades. He reached out to tug on her sleeve
with a light pull. “Who made up that rule, anyway? Did God hand
down stone tablets to someone?
Thou shalt
wear black for six new moons
or something
like that?”

He stood so close to her now, she
could barely think straight. “Of course not. It’s just the way
things are done. Without rules, society would be in chaos.” More
than ever, she struggled to clutch her values to her, trying to
remember them and ignore the way he looked, the scent of him, of
fresh air and clean sweat. When it came right down to it, she was
afraid of the feelings he stirred in her.

“
But some rules are made to
be broken, especially if they don’t make sense.”

She lifted her chin. “Are you saying
it doesn’t make sense to honor Alyssa’s memory?”

“
No, but can you do that
only by wearing black in public for six months?”

Something was wrong with his logic,
but at this moment she couldn’t put her finger on just what it was.
She couldn’t think of anything except him. The watery light from
the windows fell on his face, highlighting the planes and hollows.
He stood just inches from her. Only the width of the package
separated them. She looked into his charcoal eyes, transfixed by
the raw flame she saw there.

“
Come on, Emily, say you’ll
go. It would be nice to get away from here for a few hours. Life
shouldn’t be nothing but work.”

“
All right, yes, I’ll go.”
She hadn’t meant to give in. It was as if he’d willed her assent
from her. He lifted his hands and put them on her upper arms again,
just as he had earlier this morning. His touch was warm through the
thin crepe of her sleeves.

“
And you’ll wear your new
dress?”

He seemed almost eager to be with her.
She couldn’t help but give him the answer he wanted.
“Yes.”

He moved one hand to her jaw and
tipped her face up to his. His fingertips were rough on her skin,
raising a rash of gooseflesh that flew over her scalp and down her
back. She smelled Cora’s lye soap on his clothes but somehow, even
that aroma was intoxicating.

“
Emily,” he murmured, and
her lashes fluttered under his warm breath. With the same slow,
gentle movements she’d seen him use to soothe the horses, he
lowered his face to hers and took her lips with his own. Soft and
warm and slick, the kiss was brief but set her heart to pounding
like a hammer on a rock.

He released her mouth and for a sweet
instant, touched his forehead to hers. “Thank you,” he whispered.
Then he pulled away, self-conscious once again. He crossed the
floor and spoke to the ewe and the lamb. “Okay, for Rose and Miss
Emily, I’ll save you from the stew pot.”

Emily grabbed up her catalog and,
clutching her package to her chest, hurried out of the barn with
her face flaming and wearing a secret smile.

~~*~*~*~~

The kiss—God, where
had
that
come
from? Luke wondered irritably as he herded the sheep toward the
pasture. He hadn’t planned to do that. He hadn’t planned much of
anything that had happened today, and it was only now lunch time.
The afternoon had better be more uneventful. He walked down the
muddy path with the sheep in front of him, and it began to rain.
Oh, this was perfect—not much smelled worse than wet
wool.

Emily had just been standing there in
the barn, her arms full of silk and brown paper. He didn’t know if
was the light that had struck her just so, or if loneliness and
temptation had simply gotten the better of him. The next thing he
knew, he was kissing her.

And he’d liked it. A lot more than
he’d expected. She’d frozen under his touch like a frightened
rabbit, but beneath her surprise and hesitance he’d felt a
thrumming warmth, an eager softness that he could barely imagine,
much less explain to himself. He only knew that it had been
there.

He stopped at the gate and unhooked
its rope loop from the fence post, then pushed the sheep through
the opening. He slapped the bleating ewe on the rump as she passed.
“Get in there—this is your lucky day. A nice lady convinced me to
save you for Rose.”

Luke closed the gate again and gazed
out across the land and the heavy sky. Even though the rain poured
down on him in earnest now, the day didn’t seem so bad after all.
Among those unexpected things that had happened, two had given him
the greatest pleasure. As he headed back to the house for lunch, a
chuckle worked its way up from his chest.

Emily was wearing her wedding
band.

Emily, with her fussy ways and
starch-stiff rules of conduct, had kissed him back.

~~*~*~*~~

That night at dinner, Cora considered
both Emily and Luke with a calculating gaze. First she’d caught
Luke coming out of that woman’s bedroom this morning, and now they
looked like cats that had shared a canary. Neither of them seemed
to be able to make eye contact, and they were each acting as though
the other one was company, all anxious and polite.

“
Would you care for more
mashed potatoes, Luke?” Emily extended the bowl to him.

He took it from her hand. “Yes, ma’am.
Thank you.”

Lord, it was just sickening. And
worrisome to Cora.

“
Did you like the present
your father brought home for you, Rose?” Emily asked.

The girl’s face lit up like a kerosene
lamp. “Oh, yes! My very own sheep! Daddy said it was your idea to
give them to me.”

“
Now what on earth is Rose
going to do with sheep, Mrs. Becker?” Cora interjected, slapping a
thick glob of butter on a biscuit. “Serve them tea and
crumpets?”

“
I thought she and her
father could spend some time together taking care of them.” The
tone in Emily’s voice reminded her of a preacher’s wife talking,
snotty and superior.

Cora hooted, “You’ve been here long
enough to know that there isn’t a spare minute on a farm. It’s hard
work from before sunup till after sundown. Luke, for heaven’s sake,
tell her.”

He just shrugged like a simpleton. “It
sounds like a good idea to me.”

“
I thought you wanted her to
learn etiquette. There isn’t much need for that with
animals.”

“
I want her to learn about a
lot of things, Cora.”

Rose piped in, “And Miss Emily is
going to teach me how to sew my own clothes! We even picked out two
patterns she’s going to send away for.”

Cora put down the biscuit on her plate
and stared at the three of them. “Is that so?” She knew what they
were up to, Luke and his new wife. It wasn’t enough that Emily
Cannon had come out here and moved into her daughter’s house. Now
they wanted to take Rose away from her too, her only grandchild.
When Cora had threatened to go back to her own house, Luke as much
as held the door open for her. After three years of cooking,
washing, and cleaning for him! And Emily had been helping the girl
with her hair in the mornings, seeing her off to school like she
had the right, meeting her on the porch when she came home in the
afternoons. She hadn’t even been here a month. “Don’t you like the
dresses I make for you, Rose?”

The girl stared at her plate and
wouldn’t look her in the eye. “Well, um, it’s not that. I—” She
stammered to a halt. God, what nonsense were they putting into her
head? Cora wondered.

“
Well, then, what is
it?”

“
It won’t hurt her to
learn,” Luke reiterated. “She needs to start learning how to do
some things for herself. You can take care of the sheep and do some
chores around the place, can’t you, Rose?”

With short, angry motions, Cora took
up the biscuit again and sopped it in her gravy. “Next you’ll be
telling me that she’s old enough to get married and move
out.”

“
Oh, damn it, Cora, nobody
said—”

“
Let her have her childhood.
She’s just a baby!”

“
No, I’m not,
Grammy!”

Cora pushed half a biscuit
into her mouth and spoke around it. “I guess one of these days
you’ll tell me you don’t need me to do
anything
for you anymore. Who needs
old Grammy? She’s just in the way.”

Rose’s face had turned chalky. “No, I
don’t mean that!”

Cora chewed furiously. “Oh, I know
what you mean, all right. We’ll just throw Grammy out in the road.
We’re done with her.” She snapped her fingers. “Just like
that.”

Rose’s chin began to quiver and her
eyes filled with tears. “No, that’s not so! Daddy, tell her it
isn’t so.”

Emily sat witness to this, appalled at
the histrionics Cora was using to manipulate Rose. She looked at
Luke and saw a muscle tense in his jaw.

He stretched his hand across the table
toward his daughter. “Rose, it’s all right. Cora, can we get
through one damned dinner without a case of indigestion for
everyone?”

Cora wore a look of injured
dignity. “What did
I
do? Absolutely nothing! What would Belinda say about this?”
she demanded. “What would she say if she knew you were trying to
force me out, always finding fault with me, when all I’ve ever
tried to do around here is help?”

Rose swivelled her head between Cora
and Luke. “Daddy—tell her it isn’t so!”

“
It
isn’t
so, Rose.” He spoke to his
daughter but he leveled his gaze on Cora. “And your grandmother
knows it.”

This family was a nightmare,
Emily thought, twisting her napkin in her lap. An utter nightmare.
She had never in her life felt such tension or seen such shameful
behavior at the table. Though she tried to remain neutral,
ultimately she had to lay initial blame squarely on Cora’s
shoulders. What had started out as a pleasant conversation about
Rose and her new pursuits had deteriorated to this—this
scene
.

“
Why, I’ll bet your mama is
spinning in her grave this very minute down at Fairdale Cemetery,
wondering why no one in this house loves her or me any—”

Rose began to wail and Luke brought
his fist down on the oak tabletop, making the dishes clatter.
“Cora! That’s enough!” His words boomed against the walls like
summer thunder rolling across a valley. For several seconds, the
only sound in the kitchen was that of Rose’s sniffling and the
coffeepot perking on the stove.

Cora looked as surprised as if he’d
fired a warning shot from a rifle. Emily stared at him with wide
eyes. It was the first time she’d heard him raise his
voice.