unless the man truly loved her and she loved him. When she’d said yes to Michael’s proposal, she believed she was honoring that promise.
Why did she ever let Aimee talk her into answering that stupid ad? If she hadn’t, then neither she nor Michael would be in this mess.
Poor Michael. What he must be going through. “Michael.”
“Yes?”
“I’m really sorry for what my friend did. I had no idea she wrote those things and lied to you. Iffen I’d known, I would never have come.”
“What’s done is done, Selina. We’ll just make the best of it.”
He sure seemed to be taking it a lot easier than she was. Either that or he was mighty good at hiding it.
Silence followed them the rest of the way home. That was fine with Selina. Gave her time to take in the scenery.
Layers of green rolling hills stretched before her, ending at the base of a mountain covered with trees. Well, if a body could call these here mountains. They weren’t nearly as big as the ones back home. In Kentucky, these mountains would be called nothing more than hills.
One thing for certain, this place was nothing like where she’d come from. But then again, nowhere on God’s green earth ever would be to her. Born and raised in the Appalachian Mountains, she loved Kentucky and all its beauty. Before she left, she had fastened every little detail of them and her home into her memory so she’d never forget what they looked like.
The sun bore down on her back, heating her body something awful. She sure could use a drink. She licked her lips.
Michael twisted in the seat and reached for something behind him. He handed a canteen to her.
“How’d you know I was thirsty?”
His only response was a hike of his shoulder.
Wasn’t long before they rounded a bend in the trees.
“Whoa, girls.” Michael pulled the horses to a halt in front of a house five times bigger than the shack she grew up in.
Selina turned to Michael. “Why we stoppin’ here?” She gawked at the large two-story house with rocking chairs, small tables and a big wooden swing on the porch that went clear around the place.
“I live here.”
“This is yours?”
“Yes. It is.”
“Well, I’ll be hanged. You told me you were a pig farmer. Or did Aimee lie about that, too?”
“No. She didn’t. I am a pig farmer. But I said that I also raise cattle.”
“Oh, no,” she groaned. “I can’t believe I up and married myself a rich man.”
Michael turned his head her direction. “You sound like that’s a bad thing.”
“It is. Iffen I’d a known you was rich, I’d never have answered that ad.”
“What do you have against rich people?”
“Lots of things. Folks who have money think they’re better than poor folk. Treatin’ us like we’re lower than dirt. Like we have no feelin’s at all.”
“Hey, now just you wait a minute. You can’t go judging all rich people by the ones where you come from. My family and I do not turn up our noses at poor folks or treat them like dirt, either. Nor are we mean. I resent you clumping us into some category when you don’t even know us.”
“You might resent it, but the truth is you’re just like them rich folks back home. Back at the train station I saw you turn your nose down at me and how I look. My whole life people been judgin’ me by the way I dress. All I can say is, I’m mighty glad the good Lord looks at the heart and not the outside like some folks do.”
His cheeks turned the color of a rusty-pink sunset.
“Aimee was rich, too. And look what she did to us.” Selina spoke under her breath, still in shock at what her friend had done. She didn’t want to think about that right now though. It hurt too much.
She hopped down from the wagon and grabbed her bag. Good thing she’d found a flour sack and put it to rights the best way she could, or she wouldn’t have had anything to put her few belongings in.
Her eyes trailed to the huge house again and she wondered how many people lived here.
Michael was waiting for her at the end of the steps, looking uncomfortable.
Well, he wasn’t the only one who felt that way. C’mon, Selina. You can do this. She met him and followed him up the stairs.
Michael opened the door and waited for her to go in first. One thing about the man, he was a gentleman. She stepped inside and stopped. Never in all of her born days had she seen anything so fancy.
The place was filled with more furniture than she’d ever laid eyes on. Her focus slid to the rich brown kitchen table and the six matching chairs with fancy carved legs and arms. Fresh flowers flowed from a large vase in the center of the table, which was covered with a lacy tablecloth.
And the cook stove, why, it was mighty fine. Unlike the old potbelly stove back home. That thing was harder than the dickens to keep burning and the door barely hung on.
Selina stepped farther inside, taking in the whole room. Two cream-colored rockers with gold squiggly lines running through the fancy curved tops and arms sat on one side of the fireplace, facing a matching sofa with blue, gold and cream-colored pillows on it. Betwixt them was a long table. A large oval blue-and-cream rug had been placed underneath the table. Sure was pretty.
Heavy drapes held back by a braided rope covered six tall living room windows.
On the mantel of the large stone fireplace sat a clock, with three different-sized brass candlestick holders on each side of it.
Selina strode toward the fireplace and crouched down, peering past the metal screen.
Why, the thing went plumb through to the other side into a bedroom with a cherry-colored dresser topped with a long mirror, another dresser that was taller and a four-poster bed, and all of them were done in the same fancy carved wood as the rest of the place. On top of the bed was a white quilt with light and dark blue circles and dark blue pillow covers. Pale blue drapes swagged the windows.
She loved blue. A tear slipped from her eye. She thumbed it away and wouldn’t allow any more to escape. Knowing Aimee had told Michael that Selina loved blue made her wonder if the blue bed quilt and house curtains were done on purpose. Well, even if they had been, who were they done for? Her or Aimee?
Selina turned to see Michael standing in the doorway with his hat in his hands, watching her. Never before had she felt so out of place or uncomfortable. And she didn’t like it. Not one little bit. She pressed her shoulders back, determined to not let it show. “Your home is beautiful, Michael. Whoever took the time of it did a right fine job.”
When he said nothing, she played with
