“I know exactly how he was.” He took a deep breath. “And that is what I wish to discuss with ye both.”
Ruby sat back rigid. His mother trembled waiting for whatever blow she was imagining. And after a life with his father, he couldn’t fathom what that might be.
Reed stood and went to the hated desk. Opening the drawers and searching each one, he found the stack on the bottom right.
“I must say that I am heartily surprised to find my letters.”
“He loved ye, son.”
“We can talk about that another time.” He hefted the stack and sorted out the ones he’d sent the past year. “But ye have not read them.” He addressed his mother.
“Yer father read them to me, and to Ruby.” She placed a hand on her heart. “Sometimes…” her voice trailed off to whisper.
“I have not read them.” Ruby’s voice was forthright. Her strength shouldn’t have surprised him. The relief he felt at his father’s passing must have been at least doubled for her, as she lived never far from his wrath.
“Ye will now.” He handed them to her.
“Something happened to me, and I wish ye both to know. After this meeting ye may read the letters, they will fill in details I will likely miss, but I want ye to know it all.”
Ruby looked down at the stack and when she gazed back at him, her smile radiated across the dim room.
“I don’t understand,” his mother said.
“Things are going to be different around here, Mama.”
Dread shadowed her eyes. “Yer father liked things to be just so…”
“So do I, Mama, but our idea of ‘just so’ is very different.” He sat back down and rubbed his hands along his thighs. “Let us have some tea.”
“Yer father would have preferred wine at this time of day.”
“I will have tea.”
Ruby’s smile showed itself again.
Yes, it was very good to be home indeed, perhaps John was right after all. Maybe they did need him to set things right again. It took him two pots of tea and a plate of sandwiches to explain the mere outlines of all that had happened in the last year since he’d met the Wesley brothers in London.
“Yer father said yer letters were sophomoric drivel.” His mother looked at the carpet rather than challenge him outright.
“He was wrong.”
His mother raised her gaze to engage his own. A strength he’d never seen before came from the gray depths. “’Tis an answer to my prayers for ye, my son. Yer father said it couldn’t be so, but I prayed it was.” She dabbed at the mist in her eyes. “Ye have found yer salvation.” Joy radiated from her person like nothing he’d ever seen in her before. No wonder she’d survived the life she’d shared with his father. She stood and enveloped him in a hug that called to the little boy she cured of every bruise and bang.
Ruby said nothing, but tears freely ran down her cheeks.
“My concern is that no one will believe me.”
“They won’t at first,” Ruby said. “Ye were quite a troublemaker when ye were last here.”
Reed gazed down.
“It will just take time, big brother.” She stood and kissed him on the top of his head. “I have to get ready. I hear carriage wheels.”
“Oh, my dear.” His mother flew to her feet. “Ruby is right. I must prepare. Thank God ye’re home.”
He touched her arm to keep her back as Ruby left the room. “Is she coming?”
“Who?”
“The Wrights?” He corrected, no need to let all the cats out of the bag.
Eyes wide, hand fluttering over her heart. “Of course. What would Christmas be without our dearest friends? Now I really must go…” She flitted away.
Reed shook his head at her assessment. As far as he’d been able to tell, his father had kept them from ever having friends, let alone “dearest friends”. But it didn’t matter at the moment. What mattered was that the one person who would always believe in him was coming.
The entire trip home his thoughts had been of little Annie Wright with sandy-red hair and storms in her gray-blue eyes.
~*~
Had he made it home in time? Nerves tickled the sides of Ann Wright’s belly as the carriage came to a stop in the circle drive of Archer Hall. Her parents hoped that her long-ago friendship with Reed Archer would blossom into a marriage proposal this Christmas, of all things. Ann fingered the familiar steel in her pocket. As long as she had her carving, she could weather anything. Even matchmaking.
She had no intention of marrying Reed Archer. The friendship they shared when they were children had not survived to their teens, when he’d turned into the worst hellion this part of Virginia had ever seen. If there was trouble of any kind, Reed could be found at its core. Nope. She’d no interest in Reed Archer, and she wasn’t afraid to tell him so.
“Ahh, thank ye, Spooner.” Her father stepped out of the carriage to offer his hand to her mother.
Mama sparkled at Papa the way she had when she was so pleased with something. Which between them seemed to happen at least once a day.
“May I ask if Miss Olivia will be joining us as well?”
