Page 35 of A Groom for Heather
“I’m sure I’ll be fine. If you find me in the field, bury me under that big oak.” Dalton pushed away from the table and picked up his hat. Putting it on his head, he headed to the door. “Good night, Heather.”
“Good night, Dalton.” Heather stood and followed Dalton to the porch.
He leaned down and kissed her cheek. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
As Dalton’s boot hit the packed dirt, another scream rang through the yard. This time it was accompanied by a lower growl causing Dalton to jump back on the porch. “Do you have an extra blanket? I’m not walking out there in the dark.”
Heather nodded and walked towards her bedroom.
Dalton latched the door and took off his coat, hanging it on the peg next to his hat.
Heather returned a few minutes later with two quilts over her arm. She handed one to Dalton. “Jackson’s mother made this when we got married. This one,” she said smoothing the quilt on her arm, “is the one I brought from Philadelphia.”
He took the quilt and laid it on the floor, folding it so it made both a bottom and top cover. Heather mimicked his movements and did the same with hers. Shucking off his boots with his heels, he put them next to the door.
“Do you want me to blow out the lamp?” Heather stared at the floor. Dalton turned to see what she was looking at. “Do you want me to move those?” he said pointing to the boots.
“N – no,” she said softly. “That is where Jack kept his boots. It has been too long.” She walked over to the table and blew out the light plunging them in darkness. Dalton could hear her shuffle across the floor and crawl under her quilt.
Dalton laid on the floor and stretched out. The floor wasn’t comfortable at all. He moved his arms and his legs trying to relax.
“Are you alright?” The whisper carried over the children.
“Just trying to get comfortable.” He rolled on his side facing Heather, the two children tucked between them. Arthur was gently snoring. Dalton tried not to laugh. He reached out his arm over the children and used it as a pillow.
Just as he was closing his eyes he felt the touch of Heather’s hand. “My apologies,” she said, yanking it back in the darkness.
“You need to stretch too?”
“I figured it would be easier to put my arm this way.”
“You can stretch out. I don’t mind.”
He felt her hand on the floor next to his.
Hesitating for just a minute he took her hand weaving their fingers together above the children.
“I’m scared.”
“Of what?” he asked.
“I don’t want to fall in love again,” Heather whispered across the children.
“Too late,” Dalton whispered back. He squeezed her hand and closed his eyes, falling into a dream of the family right before him.
Chapter Ten
“You need to move a little to the left.”
Dalton adjusted his rifle aligning the jar to the barrel of the gun. It was hard to concentrate with Heather so close to him. Two weeks had passed, and he felt at home on the farm.
They didn’t speak of that evening in front of the fire, and Heather had yet to answer him about his marriage proposal, but something changed between them. Heather laughed more. Arthur followed Dalton around the farm, pointing out when he did a task incorrectly. In the evenings, Cecily would climb on his lap with Miss Poppet as he read Bible stories before the children went to bed.
Every night he’d kiss Heather on the forehead and head out to sleep in the barn alone. Every morning she would spend an hour with him teaching him how to shoot before she went to see her patients. He wasn’t particularly good at it, but at least his aim was improving.
If his goal was to hit the broadside of the barn.
The mountain lion hadn’t returned and no one in town reported the screams or missing livestock. Dalton knew, however, that it was just a matter of time before the lioness returned. This time with hungry kittens.
