Sarah My Beloved (Little Hickman Creek Series #2) (8 page)

On the front porch, he spotted Sarah through the window
facing the weasel directly. Without thought of what he intended
to say, he entered the house, knowing it to be a public establishment. As soon as the bell above the door chimed, Sarah
and the snobbish fellow both looked up. Sarah's eyes instantly
widened, while the man's were indifferent.

"Hello, Sarah," Rocky said.

"Mr. Callahan," she said stiffly.

The ill-mannered lout made a grunting noise. "You know
this farmer?" he asked, his eyebrows rising until they nearly
disappeared under the hairline on his low-lying forehead.

"We've met, yes," she answered, straightening herself with
dignity. "Rocky Callahan, meet Stephen Alden."

Rocky might have stepped forward to offer a hand, but
instead he waited to see if Alden would make the first move.
When he didn't, neither man moved. They simply nodded
stiffly.

"How are Seth and Rachel?" Sarah hastened. Her eyes
held some unspecified emotion, but the evidence of tears was
more than clear.

"They're fine," he answered flatly, shooting Stephen Alden
a withering glance. "They're with my mother," he added.

"That's nice," she replied, her eyes traveling back to the
sourpuss at her side. She appeared distraught, but Rocky knew
so little about her that it was difficult to determine what was
going on. Suddenly, he had an outrageous idea.

"Of course, Rachel has been her usual obstinate self and
Seth is just plain gloomy most of the time, refuses to make
a single decision without his sister's say-so. Naturally, neither
one of them listens to a word I say."

He gauged her reaction, noting that all-too-familiar look
of ire blossom out on her rose-hued cheeks. Satisfied, he continued, "Seth rarely eats a thing, and his sister seems to think
I should spoil him by making only what he enjoys. Since that's
not about to happen, I think the kid has lost a pound or two."

"What?" Now apprehension accompanied the ire, and he prided himself on his fine tactic. "He can't afford to lose
weight, Mr. Callahan. He's such a small boy as it is."

"I'm not given to spoiling the kid," he answered in a
harsher tone than needed.

By now, Stephen Alden, whose gaze had trailed back and
forth, looked sufficiently perturbed. "Who is this-this brackish boar, Sarah-sweetheart?" Rocky noticed he made a point
to add the endearment, almost as an afterthought.

"Someone who proposed marriage to her last week,"
Rocky supplied for her. "I was coming back to see if she'd had
a change of heart."

Sarah looked as shocked by the declaration as he was himself. In fact, until now, he hadn't planned to say it. After all,
he wasn't dying to marry the obstinate female, but he couldn't
deny his need for a wife, either, and Sarah seemed the most
likely candidate. When this cad had presented himself at the
post office, the notion that someone else might be vying for
her hand had put a regular thorn in his side.

The fellow scoffed and Sarah paled. "Preposterous!" he
declared. "Sarah's marrying me, aren't you, Sarah? In fact, all
that's needed now is to set the date." Alden drew her up beside
him in a possessive clutch, and suddenly Rocky wanted nothing more than to knock the bum on his skinny little biscuit.

"Is that so?" asked Rocky. "Rather sudden, isn't it?"

The fellow gave a hard, cold-eyed smile and hugged her
closer yet. "Sarah and I are old acquaintances, so it comes as no
shock that we would marry." Sarah offered up a pathetic smile.
"Our families traveled together to America from Europe. Of
course, the trip wasn't that memorable for either of us since we
were mere babes."

Sarah shifted, and Rocky could have sworn she tried to
put distance between them, but the shyster's hold on her shoulder kept her cemented in place.

"Strange that she would accept a proposal from you when
she traveled all the way from Massachusetts with the intentions
of marrying someone else entirely," Rocky stated.

"Yes, well, stranger yet would be the notion that you might
consider yourself worthy of marrying her," the fool said, accompanying the remark with a snide laugh.

"Stephen, please..." It was Sarah's first attempt at clearing
the mounting cloud of instant dislike between the men.

"Well, it's true, darling, look at him," Alden said, wrinkling his nose. "Imagine-you marrying a farmer." Rocky had
all he could do to keep from whacking the little man. One
blow would probably do him in, he reasoned.

"When is this wedding, Sarah?" Rocky asked, looking to
her for the answer.

"I-well, actually..."

"No need to fret over the date just yet," Alden hurried to
say. "I'll stop by again later, Sarah-when we can discuss this
matter in private."

Just then, Alden pointed her toward the stairs, giving her
a little nudge in the back, as if she were his child who needed
direction.

"Stephen, unhand me," she ordered, withdrawing from
his clutches, clearly perturbed, if the scowl on her face were
any indication.

Rocky felt a wave of relief course through his veins. Ali, this
was the Sarah he remembered meeting last week, mulish and self-sufficient. "I'm not going to marry you," she announced flatly, folding
her arms across her chest in a defensive gesture. "I'm sorry."

The stubby little snoot put his hands to her shoulders, but
she promptly disengaged herself from them. "But of course
you are, Sarah," he muttered through his tight jaw. "It would
be a great disservice to your mother if you-."

"I'm sure my mother had her reasons for writing that letter,
but I'm also certain that in the end she would have wanted me
to be happy." Her eyes regarded him carefully.

Shoulders dropping a fraction, he shook his head. "Give
me one good reason you should decline my offer."

"Because..." Sarah's gaze drifted from Alden to Rocky,
as she hauled in a monstrous breath. "I'm marrying Mr. Callahan," she announced, pointing one long finger straight at
Rocky.

"What?" Stephen's face bulged red with pent-up air, his
tone just short of a polecat's screech.

Rocky felt his jaw drop as the impact of her words registered. On the one hand, he was relieved; on the other, beside
himself with panic.

A wife? She was going to marry him after all?

Did she know what she was saying, or should he give her
time to reconsider? No, Alden could snatch her up in the
interim. Besides, Alden didn't deserve her. Not that he himself
was much of a catch.

Hm. More than likely, neither one of them deserved her.

e has two children desperate for a mother," Sarah
said in hushed whispers to the harried Stephen
Alden. "I can be that person."

"Sarah," he hissed through his teeth, craning his neck forward so that his head came within an inch of her own. "If it's
children you want, I'll be more than happy to provide them."
Stephen's hands fairly trembled when he squeezed her upper
arms, and some part of her actually ached for the man she
couldn't bring herself to love wholeheartedly. She'd always
appreciated him as a friend, but unfortunately, her feelings
stopped there.

Not that she carried any torch for Rocky Callahan, mind
you. No, it was his niece and nephew who touched her heartstrings.

Stephen ranted while she tried to catch her bearings,
grasping only the tail end of his musings when he said, "I'll
be tied to a fence post before I'll allow you to go through with
this sham, Sarah Woodward. Good grief, you don't even know
this-this gullet' jumping hayseed."

"I'll let that remark pass, Alden," Rocky stated, stepping
forward, "-except for maybe that part about your being tied
to a fence post. Now that I wouldn't mind dwelling on for a
bit."

Sarah's back straightened with the knowledge that she'd
nearly forgotten he was in the room, so bent had she been on explaining her position to her childhood friend. One corner
of Rocky's mouth shifted upward. He'd removed his hat some
time back and now held it in both hands, spinning it slowly.
His gaze traveled from Stephen to her then back to Stephen.
Clearing his throat, he looked Stephen square in the eye.

"I'm not an ogre, Alden, as much as you'd like to think I
am. I'm a farmer, yes, but not destitute. I have need of a wife,
and since Sarah came here with the intentions of marrying,
and her intended married another, I have given her an offer of
marriage. I believe Sarah has stated her wishes. You'd do well
to leave it at that."

Stephen glowered with anger. "Oh, you'd like that. I don't
know what game you're playing, Callahan, but you'll not have
the woman that our parents intended should go to me."

"You make her sound like a piece of property," Rocky
stated coolly, his ice-blue eyes flashing.

A grunt emitted from Stephen's throat. "I traveled a great
distance to locate Sarah, and I don't intend to return to Massachusetts empty-handed. She's coming with me."

Rocky continued his approach, stopping within inches of
Stephen, his face slanting downward since he was considerably
taller and brawnier. "Perhaps you didn't hear the lady. She
doesn't want to marry you," he emphasized, his staunch look
enough to make Sarah rethink her decision.

"Oh, stop it, both of you," she intervened, coming between
them and putting one hand on each of their chests, instinctively noting which of the two had the sturdier one.

Lord, give me a clear head, she prayed.

Her future was vague at best, but something had told her
from the start that coming to Little Hickman would unlock the mystery. Trust was the key, despite the fact she didn't entirely
trust Rocky Callahan. "It is better to trust in the Lord than to
put confidence in man," the Lord reminded.

"My mind is made up," she issued, preparing herself for
Stephen's next outburst. "I know what our parents' wishes were,
Stephen, but I cannot in good conscience marry you."

"You would marry a man you don't even know in favor of
me? How does your conscience allow for that?"

"It is what God is saying I should do," she replied, straightening.

"That's hogwash! God would not have you marry someone
you don't know."

"How can you be so sure? Have you been asking for God's
direction in your life, Stephen, studying His holy Scriptures?"

The question must have rankled, for a huffing sound
spewed from his chest as he suddenly took up his coat, stuffing his hands into the sleeves and then wrapping his woolen
scarf about his neck, his actions jerky and rough. In one final
move, he plunked his bowler hat on his small head. "Studying
the Scriptures is the job of ministers, not the layfolk," was his
curt response.

Avid learner that she was, Sarah could not agree, but this
was not the time to argue. "Where are you going?"

"I'm heading into Lexington. Do you think I would stay in
this godforsaken town?"

"And then?"

"Then I shall go back to Massachusetts. If you are so bent
on marrying this fool, there's not much I can do to stop you,
is there?"

Rocky cleared his throat and something like arrogance skittered across his face, making Sarah want to give him a
swift kick in the kneecap. "But what about the fence post idea,
Alden? I was looking forward to that," he had the gall to jest,
his upturned lip adding fuel to the fire between the two men.

"Now, see here," Stephen started.

"Would you excuse us, Mr. Callahan?" Sarah quickly interrupted, fixing Rocky with a stern look.

At once, he snapped to attention. "Oh, no problem. You
two say your good-byes. Nice meeting you, Alden," he said,
grinning from ear to ear and heading for Emma's front porch,
plopping his wool cap securely in place as he walked across the
room.

Once the door shut behind him, Stephen mumbled, "Dingblasted country boy."

"Will I see you again?" Sarah asked, ignoring the remark.
Although Stephen Alden could be snobbish, he was still a lifelong friend, and she hated ending matters on a sour note.