The Romancing of Evangeline Ipswich (7 page)

As hard as she tried not to, Evangeline couldn’t keep from smiling. Oh, she knew Hutch was just flattering her—probably because her biscuits and stew tasted like ambrosia to a man who’d eaten nothing but bacon and eggs for weeks on end. Still, it was hard not to feel enchanted by anything he said—especially a flirtatious compliment.

“That is the best stew I’ve ever had in all my life, Miss Evangeline!” Calvin exclaimed as he entered the kitchen. “I hope you made a big potful, because Jennie and I both won’t be getting enough of these fixings anytime soon.”

“I’m glad you’re enjoying it, Calvin,” Evangeline said. “And please call me Evangeline.” She shook her head a moment, scowled, and added, “I find Miss Evangeline is far too formal for my liking.”

“Don’t call her Miss Evangeline, Calvin,” Jennie called from the other room. “You neither, Hutch. She saves that for melancholy old men.”

“What?” Hutch and Calvin asked in unison.

“Isn’t it about time for someone to get some sleep back there?” Evangeline called to Jennie. She began to giggle when she heard Jennie laugh.

“I’m having my seconds on stew and biscuits first,” Jennie called.

“She’s eating like a horse back there, Evangeline,” Calvin chuckled. He placed a biscuit in both his and Jennie’s bowls that were once more filled with stew. Then he turned and smiled at Evangeline. “Thank you for coming. Thank you so very much,” he said.

Evangeline smiled in return, moved by Calvin’s obvious sincerity.

“Thank you for having me, Calvin,” she told him.

Calvin nodded and started back toward the bedroom and his wife. He paused a moment, however, looked back over his shoulder, and said, “Hey, Hutch.”

“Yep?” Hutch acknowledged, looking to his brother-in-law.

“Jennie told me she didn’t have time to show you to the spare room where Evangeline will be staying,” Calvin explained. “Do you think you could set her up in there for me before you leave?” Calvin lowered his voice, adding, “Jennie’s really worn out tonight.”

But Hutch frowned. “Oh,” he rather mumbled, a look of confused concern on his face. “Well, I thought Evangeline would just be bunking in with me while she’s here. My bed’s plenty big enough for two.”

Evangeline gasped with astonished chagrin. But as Hutch smiled and winked at her, indicating he was teasing, she blushed—still a little breathless, nevertheless.

Calvin burst into laughter, however. “Seems to me you’ve forgotten what a tease Hutch is, Evangeline,” he chortled.

“What? Is she blushing?” Jennie called. “Is she embarrassed? Are you embarrassed, Evangeline? Oh, I’m missing
everything
by having to stay in bed!”

“Oh, simmer down, Jennie,” Evangeline heard Calvin say as he entered the bedroom. “I’m sure you’ll have plenty more chances to see Hutch mortify your friend.”

Evangeline shook her head with mingled amusement and sudden fatigue. “It seems I’ll have to have my wits about me when you’re around, Hutch LaMontagne.”

“It seems so,” Hutch agreed, grinning at her.

Just his expression as he smiled at her—just the realization that there was only a tabletop between herself and the most attractive man she had ever known in all her life—caused a thrill to travel over her. Goose bumps prickled her arms and legs, and Evangeline forced her attention away from Hutch and to the bowl of stew on the table before her.

Hutchner LaMontagne
, she thought. It had been several years since Evangeline had finally been able to reconcile herself to never seeing him again. And yet there he was—sitting across the table from her, smiling at her as he enjoyed her chicken stew.

The first week of Evangeline’s visit with Jennie seemed to fly by. Although Jennie needed a lot of rest (and Evangeline saw to it that she napped every few hours throughout the day), there was a lot to do to keep up the household chores and meals for her dear friend. Washing, dusting, dishes to be cleaned—it all kept Evangeline very busy and quite worn out by the end of the day. She hadn’t realized how little housework she’d really needed to do at home. After all, Kizzy kept the house so clean and fresh and looked after Shay. Amoretta and Calliope had their own homes to tend. Somehow Evangeline had slipped into only caring for her own needs or cooking an occasional meal to give Kizzy a rest.

Thus, as Evangeline cared for Jennie and her home, she realized that, when she did return to Meadowlark Lake, she needed to make some serious changes in her life. It was time her father, Kizzy, and Shay (and the new baby) had their own home. Evangeline had decided she would take a room at the boarding house and find a way to earn her own way.

She also made the decision she would not settle into marrying Floyd Longfellow simply because he wanted her and no one else seemed to. No! Evangeline thought that she really would rather live out her days as a spinster, as opposed to marrying a man she did not love—or wasn’t even attracted to in the least!

Admittedly, it was Hutch’s presence that had finally woken her up from the despairing daydream of having to settle for marrying Floyd Longfellow. Hutch made Evangeline feel alive—so wildly alive! She’d forgotten how wonderfully alive he had always made her feel—until the moment she’d seen him at the train station, that is. But after a week of seeing Hutch LaMontagne every night for supper, and on any other occasion throughout the day when he chose to stop in at the McKee residence and see how his sister was faring, Evangeline knew that she wanted to feel alive while living—the sort of excitement in living that Hutch inspired in her. Simply the sparkle in Hutch’s eyes when he spoke to her about his day at the livery each evening or the way he pampered his three-legged dog with treats from his pockets and frequent scratchings behind the ears—everything about him was more exciting than anything Evangeline had experienced in a very long time.

In truth, she could hardly wait for supper each evening—for Hutch to arrive, beg Jennie to let Jones come into the house and curl up on the entryway rug, remove his hat, and smile at her as he entered the kitchen. Furthermore, almost every evening Hutch and Evangeline spent their meal solely in one another’s company, for Calvin preferred to eat his supper with Jennie in the bedroom—and Evangeline was secretly delighted that he did.

And so, after a week in Red Peak, not only had Evangeline made some decisions on how she would change her circumstances once she returned to Meadowlark Lake, but also she’d begun to enjoy the hard work of caring for Jennie and Calvin. She especially enjoyed Jennie’s waking hours, when the two of them would sit together in Jennie’s bed, laughing over memories, talking of their new lives, and just sharing conversation and friendship.

And she’d learned so much about the life Jennie had led since she’d left Boston—since Evangeline had left Boston. Naturally, Evangeline’s favorite stories were of Jennie and Calvin’s meeting—of their falling in love and their move to Red Peak. Evangeline had grown to admire and appreciate Calvin McKee all the more with every detail Jennie revealed about him. Calvin was a hard-working, sincere man, and it was obvious he loved Jennie more than his own life. Calvin was very affectionate with Jennie—very patient and always concerned for her well-being.

Once in a while a despairing fear would try to creep into Evangeline’s mind—a fear that something might happen to Jennie when it was her time to have the baby. When the thought did try to take hold of her courage and begin to cause her to imagine the pain Calvin would know if something did go wrong, Evangeline would simply whisper a silent prayer and send despairing thoughts scampering back to oblivion. Evangeline would not be able to endure watching Calvin lose Jennie. She wondered if she could even endure it—though she had endured losing her mother and knew that if she could endure that, she could endure…

“What’re you so lost in thought about this morning?” Hutch asked, stepping through the front door. “Jones,” he mumbled, pointing to the entryway rug.

Evangeline smiled as Hutch’s three-legged companion curled up on the rug, exhaled a heavy sigh, and closed his eyes.

“Oh, nothing worth mentioning,” Evangeline answered. “What brings you by? Just checking in on Jennie?”

“Yeah. There’s not much going on over at the livery right now,” Hutch explained. “So I thought I’d look in on her. Is she sleeping?”

“Not
now
!” Jennie called from the bedroom. “Not with all the clattering around you make when you come into the house, Hutch.”

Evangeline grinned and said, “I think she’s awake.”

Hutch smiled in return, saying, “Sounds like it.”

“Evie, will you bring in those photographs you showed me the other day?” Jennie called. “I would love for Hutch to see them too, if you don’t mind.”

“Bossy little thing, isn’t she?” Hutch whispered, winking conspiratorially at Evangeline.

“I heard that, Hutchner,” Jennie giggled from the bedroom.

“I’ll get the photographs and be right in, Jen,” Evangeline assured her friend—though her gaze and smile lingered on Hutch.

Hutch nodded to Evangeline and headed into Jennie’s bedroom.

“How are you faring this morning, sweetie?” she heard him ask his sister.

“Well enough,” Jennie answered with a sigh. “Though I’m getting pretty tired of being in bed all the time. It’ll be so nice to be up and around again once the baby comes.”

Evangeline hurried to the spare room where she’d been staying. Quickly she retrieved the small stack of cherished photographs of her family that she’d brought with her from home. Jennie had reveled in delight in studying them for several hours the day Evangeline had shown them to her. She hoped Hutch would enjoy them too.

When she arrived in Jennie’s room, it was to see Jennie happily sitting up in the middle of the bed, with Hutch sitting on the bed next to her on her right.

Patting the empty space on the bed to her left, Jennie said, “Oh, goody! Come sit down, Evie!” She looked to her brother and said, “You’re going to love seeing how the Ipswich family has changed since we last saw them, Hutch. And Judge Ipswich’s wife looks like some beauty out of a storybook!”

Happily, Evangeline sat down next to Jennie.

“Show them to him just the way you first showed them to me, Evie. You know, in order of when they were taken,” Jennie excitedly instructed.

Evangeline giggled, pleased by Jennie’s enthusiasm about the photographs. She was sure Hutch was simply humoring his sister—that he probably could not have cared less about seeing photographs of the Ipswich family. Still, it was making Jennie happy to share them, so she would.

“All right,” Evangeline began. She took a large, mounted photograph from the bottom of the pile. “This is the family photograph we had taken two years before we left Boston,” she explained. She passed the panel card to Jennie. “It’s the first photograph we had taken after Mother passed away.”

“This is how I remember you all looking, Evie,” Jennie said. “I’ve thought of you this way ever since we parted.” She smiled as she handed the panel card to Hutch. “But you’re even more beautiful now—all grown up and a proper lady!”

“A proper lady, hmm?” Evangeline laughed. “I think not.”

“You Ipswich girls always were the talk of the town, you know,” Hutch said as he studied the photograph. “At least, among the boys and young men.”

“I’ve already planned on you for supper tonight, Hutch,” Evangeline playfully told him. “No need to butter me up.”

Hutch chuckled and continued to study the photograph. Evangeline smiled, pleased that his interest in it was sincere.

“And next?” Jennie prodded impatiently.

“And next…well, this one is of Father and Kizzy on their wedding day,” Evangeline said, taking a cabinet card from the pile. She gazed at it a moment, admiring how dashingly handsome her father was, at how Kizzy’s beauty seemed so ethereal. “The handsome groom and his beautiful bride,” she said, handing the mounted photograph to Jennie.

Jennie held the photograph of Lawson Ipswich and his stunning young bride with both hands, smiling and sighing with approval.

“Oh, your father is as handsome as ever, Evie!” she said.

“I remember the day Mama told you that you wouldn’t be able to marry Mr. Ipswich when you grew up,” Hutch teased as his sister handed him the cabinet card photograph. “I think that about broke your little heart.”

Evangeline watched Hutch closely as he studied her father’s wedding photograph. She watched his eyebrows arch in admiration.

“My, my, my,” he said. “Your father looks to be as intimidating a man as ever he was.” He whistled approval and said, “And looks to me like it would take a man the likes of Lawson Ipswich to reel himself in a woman like this.”

“Evangeline’s stepmother is a gypsy!” Jennie offered.

“So I’ve been told once before,” Hutch said. He looked to Evangeline.

“Now show him little Shay,” Jennie prodded.

Drawing the cabinet card photograph of Shay from the pile, Evangeline handed it to Jennie.

“What a little angel,” Jennie sighed. “Those eyes! They just capture a body’s very soul somehow.”

Jennie handed the photograph of Shay to Hutch, and he chuckled. “So this is your little sister then, hmmm? The one that drags her cat around on a leash?”