Year of Jubilee (13 page)

Time seemed to stop. Her rapid breathing
slowed. She grew drowsy. Quiet footfalls sounded on the stairs, the
doorknob turned, and the door opened a fraction. Rafe spoke just
outside the room.

“Are you ready?” His voice rose barely above
a whisper.

Wanting to yell ‘no,’ she instead whispered
back, “Yes.”

A huge shadow entered the room. Only the
moonlight lit the room, but Jubilee’s eyes, accustomed to the
darkness, followed his form across the room. Obviously his eyes
hadn’t adjusted, as he ran his leg into the trunk and gave a sharp
intake of breath. He moved slower, feeling his way to the chaise. A
bubble of laughter formed, and Jubilee pulled the quilt over her
mouth as if he could somehow see her smiling at him.

But the smile swept from her face when he
reached down and removed his shirt.
O…oh.
She yanked the
covers higher over her head. Underneath, she could hear the swish
of clothing as he removed his britches. More rustling, and Jubilee
hoped he’d settled into his comfy bed for the night. When all was
quiet, she pulled the blanket down and, indeed, his large frame was
stretched out across the chaise, covered with a sheet, his head
propped up on the tall back. His feet stuck over the end at least a
foot-and-a-half. He looked terribly uncomfortable.

She barely dared to breathe, let alone
speak. He adjusted himself by pulling up and putting his head on
the back. She watched as he squirmed for several minutes.

Finally she spoke. “Do you need another
pillow?”

“No.”

“I have an extra.”

Silence. Jubilee pulled the extra pillow
from her bed and tossed it across the room, landing it right on his
chest. He stuffed the fluffy wad in the crevice between the high
back and the seat cushion, which seem to help a bit. His fidgeting
ceased.

“Have I told you how sorry I am?” His voice
came as a mere whisper.

“Yes.”

A long quiet moment stretched between them,
and Jubilee thought perhaps he’d fallen asleep. But then he spoke.
“Did you like the dishes?”

“Yes. Very much.”

Again more stillness. Jubilee knew she had
very little chance of getting a whole lot of sleep. Although she
felt relatively safe with him now, this proved to be a
nerve-wracking situation.

“May I ask you a question?” she
ventured.

“Sure. I figure I owe you one.”

“Who’s Rosemary?”

The silence went on so long she concluded he
must be angry with her, but when he answered his voice appeared low
and sad.

“She was my fiancée.”

Jubilee lay there, her eyes searching the
room, and pondered if she ought to ask more. But he continued on
his own.

“You should know the whole story. It’s
probable they’ll be at church tomorrow. No sense in you being the
only one who doesn’t understand what’s going on.”

A few moments lapsed before he spoke, and
Jubilee wondered if he were collecting his thoughts.

“We planned on a Christmas wedding. Well, on
the twenty-seventh, while all the family was still here. That very
day, a note arrived at our front door. It was from Rosemary.
Nothing but a brief note. She didn’t want to marry me and had left
town”—he paused just a moment and his voice sounded strained—“with
my best friend, Dale Harper. She and her parents had gone to St.
Louis to arrange a marriage for them.”

The story ended so abruptly that she threw a
question to him without even thinking. “Did she not give you a
reason?”

He breathed audibly before he spoke.

“Oh, yeah. Dale’s an accountant and would be
better suited for her family and more able to keep her in the type
of lifestyle she enjoyed, or some gibberish like that. Her father’s
a steamship builder, as Rosemary was so kind to inform you, and
he’d never been overly excited about having me as his son-in-law.
Dale, however, had been working for him for a couple of years and
is from a very wealthy family. I am, after all, just a lowly
farmer.”

She closed her eyes for a moment and prayed.
Rafe, no doubt, still harbored some pain. “That’s why you bought
the farm.”

“Yes.”

And why you married me.
A ball of
tears rolled up Jubilee’s throat. He couldn’t have Rosemary, so
anyone would do. No more words were spoken and, after a few
minutes, Jubilee could hear his soft even breathing, indicating
he’d fallen asleep. But it was a long time before Jubilee, her face
wet with silent tears, could drift into an uncomfortable
slumber.

* * *

When she awoke the next morning, Rafe had
already disappeared from the chaise, his blanket and sheet folded
neatly at the end with the pillow on the top of the pile. Jubilee
jumped out of bed, shucked her nightgown and pulled her blue dress
from the peg. Dressed, she stepped to the dry sink, poured a
bowlful of water, and quickly washed. With her hair braided and up,
she was bound for the outhouse in two shakes.

She heard several people in the kitchen, so
she let herself out the front door without a sound, and swung back
around to the backyard to the necessary. Outside, a fresh, dewy new
morning greeted her, and by the chill and the slant of the light
breaking through the branches of the oaks and maples to the east,
it was still very early. She filled her lungs with crisp air.

After taking care of business, she strolled
back toward the house, pausing to admire the soft petals of the
yellow, purple, and white morning glories sparkled with dew. She
looked up as she wandered, enjoying the flickering shafts of
sunlight as they splashed across her face. At the front steps, she
hesitated and decided to sit a spell and listen to the sparrows and
robins in the trees and yard. Even a noisy jay joined in. Finally,
reluctant to break the beauty of the morning, yet knowing church
time quickly approached, she quietly entered the house the same way
she’d left.

She padded up the stairs with nary a sound
and opened the door to her room. There stood Rafe in his dress
trousers, without a stitch of clothing to cover his torso. Jubilee
gave an audible gasp. He’d leaned over to grab a shirt and
continued that motion while Jubilee stared, mouth open.

His slight grin grew into a wide smile when
she couldn’t seem to tear her eyes from the expanse of his wide
shoulders that nipped in nicely at his hips. Dark blond hair was
sprinkled across his upper chest and continued down in a V-shape to
his navel. His biceps flexed full as he pulled the shirt from the
chaise.

“Sorry, I thought I could finish before you
came back in.”

Her eyes left his chest and crept to his
face, where his smile and raised eyebrows met her gaze. Her cheeks
blazed.

“I…I…” But no words came.

In a panic she turned into the hallway and,
in a noisy flutter, stumbled down the stairs and back out the front
door, not bothered that it slammed behind her. She ran past the
house and the morning glories, then stopped. She put her hands to
her thudding heart.

How long had she just stood and…stared? She
groaned
.
Too long, way too long
.
The sight of his
bare, naked chest seemed seared into her brain. Rafe’s sardonic
expression, questioning her intense interest in his state of
undress, haunted her.

She groaned again and clutched her hair. Oh,
she had to get away. She couldn’t face him right now. Where to go?
Her head swiveled, her eyes lighting on the large barn. Quickly,
she ran barefooted to the door and whipped it open. Inside it was
dim, and dust motes drifted through the air. The smell of clover
and dried corn comforted her. She spotted the loft ladder and was
up in no time, settling into a pile of hay.

Oh, dear heavens. She lay back and pressed
her right hand against her forehead while her left twirled her
skirt. She had made a fool of herself. An absolute idiot. Why
hadn’t she spoken? Why hadn’t she closed the door? It was as if
she’d lost the ability to move.

She swallowed and shoved the heels of her
hands into her eye sockets before pulling her knees up to stick her
feet in the hay. Oh, my, but he’d been fine. Tanned and
well-muscled from the work in the fields, and he didn’t seem to be
in a great hurry to cover himself. She couldn’t get the scene out
of her head. Never before had she noticed such a thing about a man.
What was wrong with her?

She continued to berate herself for several
minutes until realizing she
had
to return to the house.
They’d wonder what had become of her. They might even think she’d
been in the necessary the whole time. Good gravy. Which was
worse—everyone knowing she’d stared at Rafe’s chest or everyone
knowing she’d been in the necessary for a half-hour? She hurried to
the ladder, rumbled down the rungs and hastened out into the
sunlight. Her feet slowed as she approached the house.

What to do, what to do? She opened the back
door to the kitchen—empty, to her surprise and delight. But as she
neared the stairs, muffled voices from the back bedroom reached her
ears. Sarah came out with a distraught look on her face. Completely
forgetting the last half an hour, she went straight to Sarah.

“What’s wrong?” Jubilee asked in a hushed
voice.

“Grandma Lou fell in her room about fifteen
minutes ago. Rafe rode into town to get Dr. Dodd, but he isn’t back
yet.”

“Oh, no.” Jubilee covered her mouth with her
hand. “Is she all right?

“We think so. Her ankle is swollen and she’s
shaken, though. I think Mom’s going to stay with her. Grandma Lou
wants the rest of us to attend church.” Sarah started to walk away.
“If we do end up at the church, you better get ready. We’ll have to
leave soon. I’ve gotta find another pillow for Grams.”

* * *

Jubilee wasted no time preparing for church
after Sarah went on her errand. She chose Esther’s peach creation
and quickly slipped it on, even though she knew Rafe had left.
Later, at church, she twirled her skirt hem with her finger as Rafe
sat on her right and Pastor Herbert stood up front, closing the
sermon. Ashamedly, she’d hardly paid attention to one word, her
mind so filled with her silliness this morning and with Grandma
Lou’s fall.

The congregation stood for the benediction.
Pastor Herbert asked the Lord’s blessing on the food, and only then
did she remember the potluck dinner following the service. And they
were the guests of honor
. Please, God, don’t let the day get
worse.

The congregation moved into the aisles after
the prayer and many made their way toward them. Will and Sarah
joined them, but obviously everyone was interested in seeing Rafe
once again and meeting his new wife. Jubilee couldn’t even count
the times she was introduced to a new person.

Rosemary approached, oozing with confidence,
with Dale trailing, a reluctant look on his face. They’d arrived
late and Jubilee had failed to get a bead on her.

“Rafe, I notice you arrived safely off that
filthy steamer. So sorry about not meeting up with you the next
morning, but I was exhausted from that chilling incident. A pure
miracle we hadn’t drowned.” Her voice cooed. She shivered with a
flash of drama.

Jubilee tensed. She’d grown up in a
dormitory full of girls. Cattiness was not unknown or lost on her,
and she detested it. But she’d never seen it displayed at the level
she now encountered before her. Rafe turned to face her, and
Jubilee felt his body grow taut.

“Hello, Rosemary,” he said. Looking beyond
her, he greeted the man behind her with a nod. “Dale.”

Jubilee’s gaze flicked to the handsome man
behind Rosemary. At least he had the grace to appear sheepish as he
stayed a step behind her.

“Hello, Jubilee.” Rosemary’s eyes ran up and
down her in a dismissive fashion. Suddenly the dress Jubilee wore
felt like a rag. Rosemary’s red satin frock drew everyone’s eyes
with its low cleavage, lace and beads. The garment was some
creation, and no doubt the newest style.

“Gracious, Rafe, you must’ve put her to work
next to you in the field as dark as she is. With those
expectations, you should’ve picked a sturdier wife.” A lilting
laugh, high and delicate, trickled across the ceiling.

Rafe lifted his head, his jaw clenching. But
before he replied, Jubilee cut in. “I’ve never worked in the field.
I tend the garden among other things.”

Rosemary blinked and really looked at her,
her eyes narrowing. “Yes.” She drew the word out. “Perhaps that
explains skin dark as an Indian savage.”

Dale attempted to interrupt at this point,
but was smoothly pushed away by his domineering wife.

“No,” Jubilee returned in a voice like silk.
“I’m tanned because I’m outside under a hot sun. And I choose to do
so without a bonnet. Rafe’s too kind and considerate to use me as a
field hand.”

Rosemary sniffed.

The two ladies stared each other down.

“Yes, well, we need to be off. Nice to visit
with both of you.” Dale cleared his throat and towed Rosemary with
him.

Rafe turned to her and dipped his head, his
eyebrows drawn. A ghost of a smile danced around his lips. Her face
flooded with heat.

“What a little bobcat you’re turning out to
be,” he said softly, with a grin.

Jubilee dropped her eyes. Why had she
defended Rafe with such ferocity? Sarah approached, and Jubilee
pulled her mind from the whole scene.

“Was that Rosemary? Wow, she’s nervy. Oops,
sorry.” Sarah grimaced. “She’s such…well, never mind.”

Pastor’s voice rose above the hubbub. “Could
we have Mr. and Mrs. Rafe Tanner outside, please?”

As they made their way to the front door,
Jubilee’s brain churned with myriad emotions. And it certainly
didn’t help calm her when Rafe’s arm came up behind her back. She
took a deep breath. This show was for appearances only, after all.
Unfortunately, Rafe’s torso appearance still remained very much
uppermost in her brain.