Love's Sweet Surrender (9 page)

“I told you, just let it be. They’ll be fine soon enough. This will pass.”

“Seth, I’m afraid it won’t if they aren’t allowed to grieve.”

Running his hands through his hair, he began to pace the floor.
Why
can’t she just let it go?
“Constantly bringing up the fact their mother is dead isn’t helping them either, Lily. They don’t need to be reminded of their mother’s death over and over. It was bad enough the first time.”

Her mouth opened to answer as the back door of the room swung open, and Daniel stepped inside. Seth watched as the other man approached Lily from behind. He’d never liked Daniel, even when they were growing up.

Daniel had always been a bit of a bully and constantly teased and taunted the other children. He’d even tried picking on Seth a few times until Seth socked him square in the nose one afternoon. Daniel left him alone after that, and he’d never picked on the other children again, at least when Seth was around.

“Daniel,” Seth growled low in his throat.

“Seth.” Daniel propped himself on one of the desks nearby.

“I’ll be right with you, Daniel,” Lily said before she returned her attention to him. “We’ll have to discuss this another time, but you need to think of the best thing for the children.”

“I am,” Seth grumbled as Lily walked him to the door.

“I’m not sure you are. You are thinking with the hatred you feel in your heart, and it’s clouding your judgment concerning them.” Her hand came up to rest on his arm, stopping him from leaving her standing alone in the doorway. He looked down before his gaze returned to her face. The warmth Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.

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Love’s Sweet Surrender

57

from her skin penetrated his shirt and spread up his arm to settle in the pit of his stomach.

Fighting the urge to pull her to his chest and kiss the daylights out of her, he changed the subject as he focused on the man sitting nearby. “What’s he doing here?”

She turned and looked at Daniel and then swung back to Seth. “That’s really none of your business.”

“Is he courtin’ you?”

The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. He mentally kicked himself.
It doesn’t matter to me what she does, or does it?

“I’m sorry. That’s none of my business either.”

He quickly turned on his heel and headed down the stairs to his waiting children.

* * * *

As they drove away, Lily shielded her eyes from the sun’s glare and wondered to herself what the heck his statement meant. What difference did it matter to him if Daniel was or wasn’t courting her? Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she turned to go back inside so that she could begin her tutoring.

“What was Seth doing here?” Daniel asked, when she came back in the room.

Lily rolled her eyes.
What is going on with these two? Men! What
difference does it make who was here and what they were doing here?
“He was here picking up his children, and we were discussing a problem that they are having, that’s all.”

She approached her desk to get the materials she had set out to help Daniel with his studies and then turned back to where he sat at one of the desks. “Now, shall we begin?”

For the next hour, Lily worked with him on some of the fundamentals of reading and writing. He was indeed a quick learner as Madge had suggested.

He still knew most of the basics, so she felt she could jump right in and give him some of the harder lessons.

Questions still plagued her about where she'd seen him before. “Are you sure you’ve never been out of Texas? I’m sure I know you from Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.

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58

Sandy Sullivan

somewhere." She tapped her finger on her lip. "Were you on the train last week? Maybe I saw you in one of the cars.”

His face turned white as a sheet, and she frowned. “N-no,” he stammered. “I was right here in Parkville.”

She shrugged. “Oh well, I’m sure I’ll think of it." She packed the books away and asked, "When would you like to get together again?”

“Maybe next week sometime. I’ll come by one day after school, but I’m not sure what day.” He stood quickly and backed toward the door.

“That’s fine. I think things went very well today, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I mean you are a real good teacher, Mrs. Backman. I’ll see you later.” He turned and bolted for the door.

That was really odd.
She packed her things and headed toward the door as weariness settled on her shoulders. The odd behavior of Daniel and the heated conversation with Seth had just sapped all her strength, and she still needed to walk home.
A nice warm bath would do me a world of good.

At home, after she'd fixed herself something to eat and heated the water for her bath, she settled back in the tub to unwind. Her muscles relaxed under the heat of the water and the bubbles as she sighed and closed her eyes. Seconds later, visions of Seth’s heated look swam before her, and her eyes popped open. Water lapped over the side of the tub when she sat bolt upright.

Looking around, she chastised herself for even thinking about the impossible man. She grabbed the soap and began to lather her long hair with so much force her head started to hurt.

"This is ridiculous!"

She doused her hair until it was completely free of soap, then lathered every other part of her body and rinsed clean.
So much for a nice relaxing
bath.
Climbing from the tub, she dried herself off and slipped on her nightgown. She decided to grab a book and read herself to sleep.

Once she reached the living room, memories of Seth standing there telling her about his wife’s death clouded her mind. She could still see him standing near the window and remembered how when she had touched his shoulder, he’d stiffened against her touch. He wasn’t going to allow her to get close enough to help him.
If he would only tell the children what
happened, maybe they could all move on and live their lives. Right now, they
are all being eaten alive with grief
.

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“I know. I’ll take a ride out to his ranch tomorrow so we can talk more.

Maybe if I met him on his own land, he would open up a little. Surely he wouldn’t kick me off his property even if I were intruding,” she murmured aloud. Kathleen had always told her she had such a big heart and that someday she would be hurt if she weren’t careful, but she felt this overwhelming need to help this family to heal.

Midnight blue turned to purple then pink as the morning sun struggled to crest the hillside. The sky had barely lightened before Lily stood at the livery borrowing a horse and buggy. She had plans to visit Seth’s place to talk to him, but she didn’t know what to expect once she got there. Would he send her away? Would he be drunk this morning? Would he even talk to her? Those questions she couldn’t answer, and they left butterflies in her stomach. Her plan had to do with convincing him to tell the children how their mother really died.

“Thank you, Carl, for helping me with the buggy.” He helped her climb aboard the black, single horse buggy and handed her the reins.

“You're welcome, ma'am. I need to apologize again for the other day when you almost got runned down.”

“No harm done, really, but thank you for the apology.”

Carl patted the horse on the nose and said, “I’m just glad Seth was there to keep you from being hurt.”

Her cheeks flushed when she thought about how it had felt being held against Seth's strong chest for just those few seconds. Even with the fear of nearly being trampled by the horse and rider, her whole body had warmed to his touch when he had pulled her into his arms.

“Yes, well, I am too. Thank you again for your help with the buggy. I’ll have it back before nightfall.” Heat crept up her neck, and Lily flicked the reins over the rump of the horse, sending the buggy lurching forward out of the livery yard. Once she had relaxed, she was able to get the feel of the buggy, and the horse settled down under her experienced hand.

She had been taught very early in Boston to handle a rig by Edward, and she sent up a silent "thank you" as the horse clipped along the road headed out to the Bar S Ranch.

It really is beautiful here.
The trees were in full bloom now, and the grass glistened in the morning sun while the dew dried on the tall stocks of field grass and flowers along the roadway. The heat started to climb as she Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.

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rode along at a good clip, and she realized the weather would be warm today.

Seth mentioned the ranch wasn’t that far from town when he’d visited her house, so she didn’t expect the trip would take long.

In no time the ranch house came into view around the bend in front of her, and she was surprised to see the many flowers around the front. She hadn’t thought there would be any feminine touches to the home with his wife gone, but it appeared someone kept up the flowers and such. She could see there were pretty curtains blowing in the breeze at the kitchen window.

When she stopped the buggy, she could hear a soft, womanly voice humming.
Carmen
. She’d almost forgotten about the woman whom Johnny had mentioned helping around the ranch.

Johnny came bounding out of the front door in greeting. “Mrs.

Backman! What are you doing out here today?” He grasped the reins and wrapped them around the railing for her.

“I came to talk to your father, Johnny. Is he up and about yet?” Lily swept her skirts aside and stepped from the buggy.

“Yes, ma’am. He’s been up since early this morning, I think. Let me go find him for you. I think he's in the barn.” Johnny grinned and took off at a full run toward the barn.

Lily took a seat in one of the rockers sitting empty on the front porch. A moment later, the door opened suddenly and a large-busted, sturdy-looking woman appeared wiping her hands on her apron.

“May I help you?”

“Hello,” Lily replied. “I’m Mrs. Backman, the teacher from in town. I came by to see Seth, I mean, Mr. Sanford.”

Carmen approached Lily and held out her hand in greeting. “I’m Carmen. I help around the house and with the children for Mr. Seth. It is nice to meet you, ma'am. Is there a problem with the children?”

Lily took Carmen’s hand in hers, feeling the warm calloused palm.

“Well, in a way, yes, but I need to speak to Mr. Sanford about it even though I know you are very close to them. They speak very highly of you.”

A smile spread across Carmen’s face at the mention of the children, and Lily could see the love she held for them in her heart reflected in her brown eyes. She knew they were in good hands with this loving woman.

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“I will see about something to drink for you then, ma'am. Have you had breakfast?”

“Don’t go to any trouble on my account. I’m just fine, thank you.”

“I need to prepare breakfast for the children anyway, so I’ll just make some extra.” Carmen headed into the house before Lily could tell her not to bother fixing anything for her.

Lily stood, watching Seth and Johnny approach from the barn, so she was not quite at such a disadvantage when he came bounding up the steps.

* * * *

Seth had risen early, anticipating the long work day ahead with stalls to repair and tack to clean. He retreated to the barn, the welcoming quiet a balm to his restless soul after his encounter with Lily yesterday.

Seeing Daniel in the schoolhouse tore at his gut. He didn’t want to think of her with his nemesis in any fashion, much less in the scenes running rampant through his mind this morning. When Johnny came rushing into the barn to tell him Lily was there, Seth's blood rushed in his ears, and those very scenes changed. Now he imagined himself with her, and desire raced through his body, making it a little hard to breathe. He started toward the house with Johnny trying desperately to keep up. “She wants to talk to you, Pop.”

“I’m sure she does,” Seth replied, his eyes fixed on the pretty young woman gracing his front porch.

“Mrs. Backman, to what do we owe the pleasure?”

He let his gaze caress her form, and he noticed she looked quite fresh, even with the ride in the dusty buggy. Her spring frock, with the short sleeves and rounded neckline, was quite appropriate for the climate.

However, it just left that much more to his overly vivid imagination of late.

“Seth, I mean, Mr. Sanford, we need to discuss the children.”

Hearing her words, he pulled his mind back to the sound with an almost audible groan.
Here we go again.

“I didn’t mean to intrude, but since we were not able to finish our conversation at the school the other day, I thought we might be able to today.”

“Ah yes—our conversation that was interrupted by your… company.”

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“Company, yes, I mean no. Mr. Roberts is, I mean, was not my company. He came by to give me a message, that’s all,” she stammered slightly.

She doesn't want to me know about her acquaintance with Daniel.

“Johnny, leave us, please. I’m sure Carmen probably has breakfast ready by now.”

“Yes, Poppa. Is Mrs. Backman joining us?” Johnny asked before he shut the door.

“She can if she likes, son.”

“Thank you. That would be nice.”

Frown lines appeared between her eyebrows, and he wondered at the expression.
Did she think I would deny her food after she came all the way
out here from town?
“Please join us then, Mrs. Backman.”