“You would look pretty in that,” Jace said, looking in the window of the store next door, Chandler’s largest, most
expensive department store, The Famous.
Nellie never gave much thought to her clothes. She was too busy taking care of the house and cooking, and if she did have time off, she helped Reverend Mr. Thomas with charity work. Now, looking at the lovely clothes in the window, she did wish she had something pretty to wear.
“Like to go inside?” Jace urged.
“No,” she answered, backing away. She couldn’t bear all those slim, smug shopgirls, and the idea of purchasing a dress made her fear jinxing the day. “No, I must go home. Father will—”
Jace pulled out his big, gold pocket watch and looked at it. “Imagine that. We have been gone only ten minutes. Plenty of time yet.”
“Ten…” Nellie began, then laughed. “All right, Mr. Montgomery, it looks as if we have another fifty minutes. Where shall we go?”
He slipped her hand in the crook of his arm. “Anywhere I am with you, I seem to be happy.”
Nellie blushed, but she also felt a warm pleasure spread through her. “Fenton Park isn’t far away,” she lied, knowing it was half a mile. She’d worry about the rib roast and the unmade apple pie later.
They walked slowly, Nellie relaxing more with each step. Jace was very courteous to her, and he didn’t desert Nellie as she feared he would.
At the end of Second Street Nellie halted. Fenton Park was in front of them, but between them and the park was a four-foot-high stone wall and then a deep ditch. “I meant to go down First Street,” Nellie mumbled, feeling stupid. “We’ll have to go back.”
“What’s a little wall? I’ll lift you up, and you can climb over.”
Nellie felt like laughing at him. Did he also think he could lift houses? Draft horses?
“Too undignified?” he asked, looking at her face.
She might as well say it. “Mr. Montgomery, three men couldn’t lift me over that wall.”
One minute she was on the ground, and the next he had his hands about her waist and she was being lifted. Jace was very strong from many years of hauling anchors and lashing down sails, and Nellie wasn’t even especially heavy to him.
Nellie did laugh when she was on top of the wall. What a day, she thought, what an incredible, unbelievable day! No standing over a hot stove or hanging wash; instead she was walking with a divine man who treated her as though she were beautiful.
She stood on top of the wall and began to walk along the rim, her hands out for balance. Her childhood had ended one day when she was twelve years old, on the day her mother had died. For sixteen years there had been no foolishness, no wasted hours in her life.
Jace stood back and watched her walking on the wall. She seemed to grow younger and happier by the minute. He made a leap, and in a moment he was on the wall with her, and when he held out his hand to her she took it. “If we fall, we go together,” he said, liking the idea of tumbling down the ditch together. “This way.”
Nellie, holding his hand, followed him south along the wall toward Midnight Lake. A gust of wind came and she almost fell, but he caught her in his arms and pulled her close to him. Nellie had never been held by a man, and she could feel her heart pounding.
With one swift movement Jace pulled the pins from her hair and threw them away. Nellie’s long, chestnut hair flowed to her shoulders.
“Beautiful,” he whispered, and he put his cheek next to hers.
Nellie thought perhaps her body might stop functioning.
He pulled away, his face inches from hers. “I’d kiss you, but we seem to have an audience.”
Nellie looked across the ditch to the park to see half a dozen young couples playing croquet, only now they had paused to look at Nellie and Jace on top of the wall. “Take me away before I die of embarrassment,” she whispered.
“Your wish is my command.”
For a flash Nellie thought of what her father would say when he heard of this, but she pushed the thought from her mind. Now was all that mattered.
Jace got down first and then lifted his arms to help Nellie down. She had a moment of doubt that he could hold her, but she was beginning to trust him. He took her weight easily, and for a moment he held her to him.
“People are watching,” she said, pushing him away while blushing and laughing.
He took her hand and began to run with her, down one side of the ditch and up the other, then through the trees east of the lake, then further until they were at the edge of the park. Jace stopped, Nellie beside him, her heart pounding from the run, and looked out across the rolling countryside to the mountains. In the distance was a train, and they could hear its faraway whistle.