Page 14 of My Heart Will Find You

“And left you in charge of property and your sister.”

“Yes.” He paused. “John Kecklin, Cornelia’s father, owns the land on three sides of what my father left me. Mr. Kecklin wants to own all of Kansas, and he wants me to help him buy it. But most of all, he wants the land my father gave his life to get. The problem is that I refuse to sell to him.”

She thought about what he was saying. “I see. It’s like in the Middle Ages. If you marry his daughter, Mr. Kecklin gets all the land.”

“Alice said you were smart.” He paused for a moment. “She loved writing to you. I would have done some of it myself, but I have trouble with that. Sometimes letters look backward to me. I have less trouble with numbers, but there aren’t as many of them.” His eyes brightened. “But she read all your letters to me. I know about your father, your sister and her husband, and your niece. And I know you’ve had two years of university. Alice loves that. She reads all the time.”

“And she sews. What else does she do?”

It was a simple question, but he took a while to answer. “It looks like she didn’t tell you. Alice is crippled. She doesn’t leave home much. Cornelia made a place for her, and Alice stays there.”

“Made a place for her? What does that mean? No. I think I understand. Like Caroline. Cornelia designed it.”

“Yes. Cornelia drew out a glass room for Alice so she can see the outside, then I built it.”

Etta was putting this information together. If Cornelia knew his sister so well as to design a place for her, there must have been a strong connection. “How serious was it between you two? Just flirting or a ring and wedding plans?”

He ducked his head in a way that told her they were practically up the aisle. “You weren’t, by chance, the one who broke it off, were you?”

“’Fraid so.”

She nodded. “What made you do that?”

“One day I was doing the accounts so that meant I was thinking about something other than her, and she was horrible to me.”

“What a crime! You deserved it.”

He looked at her as though trying to figure out if she was serious, but then realized she was kidding. His laughter was a nice sound. “You know, I think I like you. I didn’t think I would. An old spinster with all that schooling. I never thought you’d have a sense of humor.”

Again with the old, she thought. Maybe this was her payback for telling Henry that her life was already set. “So you married an old woman just to spite Cornelia?” This was a dream, but really! A girl needed to have some pride.

He didn’t seem to realize that he’d said something wrong. “I had to break my tie with her and her father. I couldn’t have stood a life under the rule of John Kecklin.”

“So you decided to get married to someone else.”

“It seemed the best way to solve the problem.” He again looked her up and down in that appraising way. “There were several other choices but I liked that you took care of your sick mother, and Alice wanted someone educated.” He shrugged. “It all fit.”

I’m a mail order bride!she thought. Romantic sounding but not in this case. He’d married her to be a nurse for his sister, and to protect himself from some medieval marriage. It was hard to believe, but she’d given herself a dream of a pity marriage. She had betrayed herself! “You could have hired someone.”

“I tried that, but women are at a premium here. Old, young, dumb, smart, it doesn’t matter. They get married as soon as they get off the train. I’ve hired four of them, and they never lasted longer than a few months. One of them married my head wrangler.” He sounded outraged.

“Maybe my wedding gift should have been a mop and a bucket.”

He seemed to understand that she was saying something bad, but he didn’t get it. “The parasol was Alice’s gift. Mine is this.” He waved his hand to indicate the land around them. “I’ll give you twenty acres of land, including part of the river, and if you stay for a year, I’ll build you a house. Alice says that every woman needs a place that is just hers.” He smiled. “It would be a woman cave for you.”

The anger she’d started to feel left her. There was nothing malicious in what he’d done. He was a man who loved his incapacitated sister so much that he’d do whatever was necessary to help her. It’s what Etta had done when her mother was ill. Those months of treatments and seeing that they weren’t working had been the worst time of her life. After the funeral, she’d thought about returning to school, but Alicia and her father had needed her too much.

“A house of my own,” Etta said. “How about something Italianate? Two stories, wraparound porch? Alice and I can sit on it and drink iced tea.”

For a moment there was such gratitude in his eyes that it hurt her to see it.

“What aboutyou?” she asked. “It seems rather drastic to marry someone just to get a housekeeper and a nursemaid. What about love and companionship? Children? And...?” She shrugged. “And affection.”

“I’d be a terrible husband. I have a bad temper, and I never come home when I should. Alice says only a saint would marry me. But if I ever find a husband for her, she can have children. That’s why I agreed to you.”

“Right. As you and Cornelia said, I’m an old and plain spinster. Too educated for any man to want me. Fit only to be a cook and a cleaner.” She wasn’t angry. It was too much like what had been said to her many times before, but not so blatantly. Lester had introduced her to a few men, and Alicia had insisted she meet three unmarried doctors. But none of them had appealed to her.

“I didn’t mean to upset you. I thought Alice explained things to you.”

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