Page 74 of Wagon Train Redemption
He glanced into the other room. Empty. “Ma, where’s Angela? I need to talk to her?”
“Come. Sit.” She patted his shoulder. “We need to talk first.”
His fingers dug into his palms at her tone. But he sat.
“Angela showed me her letter.” The kitchen chair scraped across the wooden planks as she slid it out. “I expect she explained it to you.”
“She told me about her mother, yes.”
“You know of the way she was treated before she came to us. Isolated, afraid, shunned.”
His leg jittered under the table. “I gathered.”
“Have you added to her pain?”
He jerked around to look her squarely in the face. “Ma, in what way would I do that?”
“Did you show her sympathy? Or rejection? She’s had plenty of the latter.”
“I was upset.”
Ma reached across the table and grasped his hands. “Well, before I tell you where she is, I must know what you plan to say to her.”
“That I still want to marry her, that she’s as pure as a dove in anyone’s eyes, and that I will follow her to the ends of the earth.” The rest of what he planned to say was for her ears only.
“You best hurry. She’s gone to meet the stagecoach. Said she had to settle this business her father left her.”
Carson’s boots crashed to the floor as he bounded for the door, swung to the back of his horse, and raced down the street, Boss galloping behind him.
The coach stood at the depot. He pulled the door open and peered inside. No Angie. His feet clattering on the steps, he went into the depot. There she was.
“Angie, you can’t go.” At the startled look on the men’s faces in the room, he added, “Please. We need to talk.”
With a nod, she moved toward him. He stepped aside to let her go out the door ahead of him, then fell in at her side.
“I’ve so many things to say to you but not here.” He guided her down the street until they reached the river where he began to talk. “I was upset when you told me about how you were judged for something you didn’t do. But know this—I don’t blame you and never will.”
She held up a hand. “I was afraid if you knew you wouldn’t want to marry me.”
He caught her cold hands. “I still want to marry you. More than you know. Angela, I’ve got my fears too. I’ve always wondered if Mabel and others didn’t reject me because of me, not Bertie.”
Her startled look convinced him far better than words that such an idea had never crossed her mind. She opened her mouth, but he didn’t allow her to speak.
“It’s kept me from saying what’s really in my heart. Angela, I love you. With my whole heart and mind.”
She blinked. “Love? I never expected that.” Swallowed hard. “Never thought I’d deserve it.”
He pulled her closer and searched her face, seeing the intermingling of her hopes and fears. “You deserve to be loved with every breath I take and every wish I make and every nail I pound into our dream house.” He longed for assurance of love from her but would not ask for it. To ask was to force a person to say the words.
Warmth and sweetness filled her eyes. “Carson, I love you with my every breath and every wish and every meal I make for us.”
With a heart full of gratitude, he kissed her. Overflowing love made their lipssweet.
On Sunday,with Ruby and Robert’s full approval, Carson and Angela joined the other couple in the little church and spoke their wedding vows before friends and family. They enjoyed a feast Commanding Officer Morgan had prepared in their honor. With the terms of service ended for the men, each couple packed the items required for setting up a home in one of the covered wagons and traveled to their respective homesteads, promising to be in contact in a week to proceed with construction of their homes.
Carson lifted Angie to the ground where he parked the wagon. They would live as they had been for the months of travel, sleeping in a tent in fair weather, in the wagon in foul. He’d build a shelter for a kitchen area, but for now, all that mattered was his new wife.
They snuggled down on a blanket under the sheltering trees.
